By Aaron Klein TEL AVIV, Israel – The Obama administration's reported pick for a top intelligence post once peddled a book to U.S. public schools that falsely claims Muslims inhabited North America far before European explorers. The book, funded by Saudi Arabia, also contains widely inaccurate anti-Israel Arab propaganda. Charles "Chas" Freeman, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, is slated to head the National Intelligence Council, according to multiple reports. Yesterday, it came to light Freeman has financial ties to the infamous bin Laden family – including dealings he defended after Sept. 11, 2001. Freeman served as president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington-based Saudi backed nonprofit that received tens of thousands of dollars per year from the bin Laden family and other Saudi donors. Read more ...Source: WNDH/T: Weasel ZippersChas Freeman
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia: Police in the violence-plagued Russian republic of Ingushetia say a bowling alley owner was shot to death by suspected Islamic extremists who oppose games and some other forms of entertainment.
Ingushetia, a predominantly Muslim region, sees near-daily attacks or clashes that authorities blame on insurgents inspired by the years of separatist fighting in neighboring Chechnya.
The Ingush Interior Ministry said the Wednesday night killing in the town of Karabulak was believed to be the work of "fanatics" who have also attacked owners of other entertainment facilities in recent months.
Also Thursday, the ministry said police killed three suspected militants who had stored a large arsenal at a sheep farm. Source: AP
 By Chidanand Rajghatta WASHINGTON: The United States is lining up billions of dollars in new economic and military aid to Pakistan despite reports that Islamabad is using American tax-payer money for deals with the Taliban and accounts of US arms ending up in the hands of the extremists. Amid an ongoing review of the so-called Af-Pak policy initiated by the Obama administration, Washington, under pressure from influential Senator John Kerry among other lawmakers and lobbyists, is said to be considering a one-time $5 billion aid to Pakistan over and above the $1.5 billion annual package for ten years currently under review for passage through Congress. Releasing a report by the think-tank Atlantic Council on Wednesday, Kerry, who is also the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is in a position to pilot the aid package, raised the prospect of a total collapse in Pakistan if it was not helped urgently. "If we fail, we face a truly frightening prospect: terrorist sanctuary, economic meltdown, and spiraling radicalism, all in a nation with 170 million inhabitants and a full arsenal of nuclear weapons," he said. "The stakes could not be higher, and [this] report could not be more timely." The 27-page report calls for "a total of $4-5 billion above the (Biden)-Kerry-Lugar proposals and beyond the IMF and other loans from the US. and other sources," for Pakistan. Of this, it recommends, about $3 billion should go to the economic and social sectors directly. About $1 billion of fresh or redirected funds would go to security forces -- both military and law enforcement. Read more ...Source: TNNH/T: Weasel Zippers
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- United Arab Emirates officials blocked a YouTube cartoon from Israel, featuring two Muslim boys who deflect their father's efforts to make them suicide bombers.Officials said the cartoon is anti-Islam and racist toward Arabs, al-Arabiya reported. In one episode, the two boys, Salim and Ahmed make a detour to get ice cream on their way to place an explosive on an Israeli bus. Then they put the bomb on a UAE bus. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said it had gotten complaints about the cartoons, which are subtitled in Hebrew and English. A spokesman for the TRA said the agency has resisted calls to block YouTube completely. Adult content on the site is automatically blocked, he said. Read more ...Source: UPIH/T: Weasel Zippers
MARYAM NAMAZIE'S SPEECH: MINA AHADI'S SPEECH TASLIMA NASREEN'S SPEECH
 February 28
THE federal government will give a further $20 million to help with the recovery and reconstruction of Gaza.
The new funding is an addition to $10 million provided in January for emergency and humanitarian relief through United Nations and international and Australian non-governmental organisations.
A 22-day Israeli offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip ended on January 18 after causing massive devastation and killing more than 1300 Palestinians.
In a statement released by Foreign Minister Stephen Smith's office on Saturday, it was announced the new funding will be committed at an international donors conference on the recovery of Gaza in Egypt on Monday.
Assessments of damage to infrastructure in Gaza are continuing, the statement said.
United Nations agencies report widespread damage to vital infrastructure, resulting in a lack of shelter and energy, deterioration of water and sanitation services and overcrowding.
It is estimated 100,000 people are displaced and living in shelters.
The Australian government has committed $75 million to the Palestinian territories since December 2007. Source: The Australian
If you chose "No," please consider providing your solution to Gaza crisis in the comments.
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By Phyllis Chesler These People Claim That Honor Killings Are The Same As Domestic ViolenceHard on the heels of the Buffalo beheading, the mainstream and feminist media hosted many Islamic clerics, Muslim, Jewish, Christian religious writers, as well as liberal, secular feminists, all of whom insisted that honor killings are no different than domestic violence; that both are crimes; and that honor killings have nothing to do with Islam just as domestic violence has nothing to do with religion. Even so, everyone also said that an anti-Muslim bias (or “Muslim baiting”), controlled the perception of honor killings in general, and saw honor killings even when they did not exist–for example, in the case of the Buffalo beheading. Read more ...Source: Pajamas Media
 Amil Imani | International Analyist Network | 26 Feb 2009 The cult of death, Islam, is marching forward under its battle cry: “ We love death, the infidels love life,” says Hassan Nasrullah, leader of Lebanon Hizbollah. There is no limit to the Shi’a mullahs’ obsession with all matters dealing with death. On one front, the mullahs are working overtime to obtain the ultimate death weapon—the nuclear bomb—the most efficient and economical way of inflicting death on the masses of the infidels. A perfect example is this week’s test firing at the Bushehr nuclear plant. The duplicitous Russians are just too pleased to help them out in exchange for petrodollars. On another front, the ever-conniving mullahs are gradually transforming Iran’s universities, cradles of knowledge about life, to mausoleums. Instead of adorning the landscape with statues of great scientists and scholars to inspire the young to life achievement, the mullahs bring corpses of their victims and bury them there, victims who had been hoodwinked by the fascist Islamists and had lost their lives in the process of horrific schemes and crimes against humanity in the name of Allah The charlatan mullahs sanitize their wicked deeds that have caused the death of their victims by calling them martyrs and affording them an honorable burial place. It is the mullah’s devious way of hopefully attracting new recruits from the ranks of the young. According to a report by Rasmus Christian Elling, the fascination of burying martyrs inside Tehran’s universities has a little history in itself. When the crown “buffoon” of the Islamic Republic, Ahmadinejad, was Tehran’s mayor, he brought up the subject numerous times. However, pro-freedom and courageous Iranian students have strongly protested against any plans to bury decaying remains of ancient human bones next to their classrooms. They look at it as an instrument for the regime’s oppressive policy. Based on this horrific ideology of death, the Muslims have visited death on untold numbers of both Muslims as well as non-Muslims. The Khomeinist regime of the IRI sent tens of thousands of its own children to their death to clear minefields in its holy war with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. Not limiting itself to this horrific act, the Khomeinists massacred tens of thousands of political dissenters without the least due process. Islam wins, either when you kill or you get killed. That’s the motto of the religion of death. In Rasmus Christian Elling’s report, one way to interpret this situation is that this is the regime’s way to impose upon the university milieu and student life a militant ideology, one that praises shahâdat (the martyr death), endless war and military values accompanied with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and eulogizing of the eight-year war with Iraq. It is also an Orwellian tactic for the militia groups (Basijis) to clamp down on student gatherings and demonstrations. It is an invasion of personal privacy, either directly physically or indirectly by surveillance. It is an Islamic way of controlling its citizens' daily life, as in " Big Brother" is watching you. It is the Islamic republic’s strategy to suppress dissident voices within Iran’s lively university environment. The mullahs are skillfully steering the train back on track by changing the ambiance of the universities to Rozeh Khooni—Shiite’s religious revival composed of a mix of passages chanted from the Quran and narration of the suffering of the Imams. Perhaps their ultimate motive is to make universities a mosque-like place, with never-ending weeping and eulogies for Imams who have been dead for over 1400 years. Expecting student protests, the Mullahs and their lackeys planned yesterday’s burial in advance. As recently as a few weeks ago, the members of the Revolutionary Guards started rounding up some of the main associates of the dissident Islamic Students Association (Anjoman-e eslami-ye daneshjuyan) in Amir Kabir Polytechnic University, Tehran. This university is known for is vigorous and diverse pro-democratic activism. In addition, a few days ago, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic regime, Mullah Khamenei, prepared the ground by issuing a public message hailing the martyrs and expressing that “the youth of today is indebted to these anonymous war heroes to be buried in their campus yard.” Hence, the highest political authority blessed yesterday’s intensive action. Amir Kabir University’s Student Newsletter website has reported on the intense situation at the university. They have reported that the atmosphere has been tense for the past couple of days when a barrage of “chest-beating mourners brought the martyr coffins yesterday morning. Before the parade, security forces, Basiji campus police, Revolutionary Guards, plain-clothed intelligence officers, armed vigilantes known as Ansâr-e hezbollâh (a violent Islamist organization under the unofficial sway of the Supreme Leader) and even the fire brigade gathered inside and around the university compounds.” The Supreme Guide of the Islamic Republic, Mullah Khamenei, for instance, has urged the close-minded faithful to hold large protest demonstrations. It appears that the call of the Mullah for demonstrations is an attempt at intimidation, the best he can do since he does not have a rational defensible response and he is not able to send his assassins all the way to Rome to carry out the Islamic unconscionable favorite way of supplying answers. “The security forces and vigilantes used clubs, tear gas sprays, iron knuckles, knives and other weapons in order to wound the protesting students. At least 25 have been arrested and 9 hospitalized with knife wounds and other injuries so far, and the fighting continues as we speak. Another student slogan repeated on the website: Ansâr commits the crime, the Leader supports it,” according to the Persian students’ newsletter. Also reported by the Amir Kabir Newsletter, students carried placards and yelled slogans such as “University is not a graveyard”, “ Death to Dictatorship,” “ Run off, Ansar," “ Incompetent Basijis, get lost,” and so on. “These harsh slogans clearly unveil the hard-deep animosity amongst students against the militant ideology of the regime.” Amir Kabir Newsletter reported yesterday, that the situation in the university is horrible. While protesting students at the university are being beaten up and wounded, the coffins of the so-called nameless martyrs have been placed in a corner, left in a disgusting fashion along the graves while clerics are singing mourning hymns. "By burying the bodies of the martyrs on university campuses, they can destroy every freedom seeking movement under the claim that the blood of the martyrs is being disregarded and trampled upon," says a university student activist. The modern manifestation of the Islamic Caliphate has reincarnated into the "the Islamic Republic" of Iran, which has been holding the majority of Iranians hostage for the past 30 years. The Islamofascists ruling the country hope to realize their expansionist master plan after defeating the people of Iran, and ultimately unleashing their reign of Islamic terror on the rest of the world in succession. Hence, the importance of world support for the Iranian people (not because of an altruistic and unselfish regard for others, but as self-interest) cannot be overemphasized. Surely, the Islamic state and its anti-Iranian forces have once again brought death into universities with the intent of suffocating discontent and strangling freedom of speech and thought. However, the Iranian student movement might come alive again from such brainless actions as that carried out this morning by the Islamic State. One student, identifying him/herself as ‘a Patriot’ wrote: “Right in front of me, they kicked and carried off a couple of the kids in a red van. I swear to God, from now on, I count the minutes until the fall of this regime and I will do anything. Long Live Freedom, Death to Dictatorship.” Almost three decades after the tragic Islamic Revolution of 1979, the suffocating rule of Islam casts its death-bearing pall over Iranians. A proud people with enviable heritage is being systematically purged of its sense of identity and forced to think and behave like the barbaric and intolerant Muslims. Iranians deserve better than being manipulated by a bunch of devilish mullahs who have been riding on the back of the ignorant poor, by deceiving the poor and with empty promises of all the goodies that they are promised in the afterlife. Not a bad scheme for the charlatan mullahs. They have it all in this world while issuing I-owe-yous to their victims, by the authority, they claim vested in them by none other than Muhammad. Given enough time, the death game that the mullahs are playing with their chase after the atom bomb, by the exodus they force on those who can flee their suffocating rule, and by slowly killing the remainder of the helpless Iranian patriots may eventually catch up with them. Yet the best hope for Iran to free itself from the claws of death-based Islam is with its students. They have always been in the vanguard of Iranian progressive struggles. Realizing this major source of threat to their existence, the murdering mullahs are literally changing Iranian universities to graveyards. Source: International Analyst Network
 Nizhny Novgorod, February 25, Interfax – Muslim Spiritual Directorate of the Nizhny Novgorod Region urged their believers to boycott goods from Holland in response to the movie coming in the country and insulting, as muftis believe, Prophet Muhammad’s wives. “To respond such an offence, Muslims of the world have decided to boycott goods made in Holland and film authors and an MP will bear responsibility for all consequences of this action,” Deputy Head of the Regional Mufti Council on educational work Abdulbari Muslimov said in his address. The author noted that Holland tulips and roses are very popular in Russia as many people buy them for February 23 and March 8. “However, we have to find a substitute for this pleasant habit as our religion urge us to do good and correct evil,” Muslimov said. According to him, a legal method of “correcting evil” is “a boycott of goods, public criticism and prayer for correction.” The Muftis representative urged Muslims not to buy “even a gram of goods “made in Holland” and lift prayers “to correct madmen who desecrate religious shrines.” However, when an Interfax correspondent asked the author to specify what film he opposes, he was at a loss and repeated it was about the Prophet’s wives. Source: Interfax
Caucasian mufti suggests Muslims-boycotters of Holland flowers should also deport Guus HiddinkMoscow, February 27, Interfax – Head of the Coordinating Center of the Muslims of the North Caucasus Ismail Berdiyev is ironic about the appeal to boycott Holland flowers made by the Nizhny Novgorod muftis. “When I heard that Muslims from the Nizhniy Novgorod Region urged not to buy flowers from Holland, I thought they have started growing tulips themselves,” Mufti Berdiyev told Interfax-Religion. Deputy head of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Muslim Spiritual Directorate on educational work Abdulbari Muslimov urged the believers to boycott flowers and other goods from Holland in response to the movie coming in the country and insulting, as the Mufti believes, Prophet Muhammad’s wives. Muslimov could not specify what film it was. Berdiyev noted that “to declare a boycott, you have to do something yourself.” “Thus, we can come to deport chief coach of Russian national team Guus Hiddink,” the interviewee of the agency said. According to him, if the movie, opposed by Muslims from the Nizhny Novgorod Region, really insults Islam and feelings of the believers “it should be nipped in the bud.” “However, those who grow flowers have nothing to do with it. You should address those who insults,” Berdiyev said. Source: InterfaxAbdulbari Muslimov
Ismail Berdiyev
Latest recipients of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
By Rachel Ehrenfeld "The fight against drugs is actually the fight for Afghanistan," said Afghan President Hamid Karzai when he took office in 2002. Judging by the current situation, Afghanistan is losing. To win, the link between narcotics and terrorism must be severed. That is the necessary condition for a successful strategy to undermine the growing influence of al-Qaida, the Taliban and radical Muslim groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is all about money--more precisely, drug money. The huge revenues from the heroin trade fill the coffers of the terrorists and thwart any attempt to stabilize the region. Though not traded on any stock exchange, heroin is one of the most valuable commodities in the world today. While a ton of crude oil costs less than $290, a ton of heroin costs $67 million in Europe and between $360 million and $900 million in New York, according to estimates based on recent Drug Enforcement Administration figures. Read more ...Source: Forbes
 Sana’a (AsiaNews) - Some Yemeni religious figures have launched a "fatwa" against the law recently approved by Parliament that sets the minimum age for marriage at 17. The statement, signed by the rector of Al-Eman University, Sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, and by representatives of the party Islamic Islah, is aimed at eliminating the minimum age limit. The question of the minimum age for marriage in Yemen was brought to the attention of world public opinion last April, following the case of Nojud Mohammed Ali, an 8-year-old girl who requested and obtained a divorce after being forced to marry a 30-year-old man. News Yemen reports that the 17 signers of the "fatwa" claim that the law has no Islamic foundation and violates Sharia, the Islamic law, which the Constitution of the country affirms as the basis of all of its laws. "The marriage age," says the assistant secretary general of the Islah party, Mohammad Assadi, "is an Islamic rule, and political parties cannot intervene in such affairs." Read more ...Source: Asia NewsH/T: Jihad Watch
In the latest hearing of a Muslim-born Egyptian’s effort to officially convert to Christianity, opposing lawyers advocated he be convicted of “apostasy,” or leaving Islam, and sentenced to death. More than 20 Islamic lawyers attended the hearing on Sunday (Feb. 22) in Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary’s case to obtain identification papers with Christianity designated as his religious affiliation. Two lawyers led the charge, Ahmed Dia El-Din and Abdel Al-Migid El-Anani. “[El-Din] started to talk about the Quran being in a higher position than the Bible,” one of El-Gohary’s lawyers, Said Fayez, told Compass. “[El-Din said] people can move to a higher religion but not down, so people cannot move away from Islam because it is highest in rank.” Read more ...Source: Compass Direct News H/T: Jihad Watch
Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN), whose recent Hajj was paid for by a Muslim Brotherhood front group, is unhappy that Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) sponsored a showing of Geert Wilders's film Fitna at The Capitol yesterday. Yet he does not, of course, explain how anything in the film is inaccurate. And he cannot, because the film is accurate. "Ellison Expresses Concern and Disappointment with Decision to Screen Anti-Islamic Film: Takes Issue with sponsorship of film by Senator Kyl," from Common Dreams, February 26 (thanks to Twostellas): WASHINGTON - February 26 - Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) took issue with the screening of a film by the controversial Dutch Parliamentarian, Geert Wilders, in the United States Capitol. The film being screened, "Fitna", is said to compare Islamic terrorism to Nazism. The screening is sponsored by Senator John Kyl (R-AZ). Read more ... Source: Common Dreams H/T: Jihad Watch
 By Gary Bauer Hollywood rarely shies away from delving into politics, and it routinely rewards films that comport with its political worldview. It couldn’t get enough of Michael Moore’s screeds against guns and “Bush’s war,” and it warmed up nicely to Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth. This year, Hollywood celebrated Che, the sympathetic biopic about the Castro lieutenant, mass murderer and cult hero to leftwing radicals. But Hollywood’s favorite political film this year was Milk, which chronicles the life of slain gay rights advocate Harvey Milk. For his portrayal of Milk, Sean Penn won the Best Actor award at this year’s Academy Awards. Taking the stage to accept his Oscar last weekend, Penn started in on a rant over the passage of Proposition 8, California’s marriage protection amendment. He said, in part: “... I think it’s a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect on their great shame and their shame in their grandchildren’s eyes if they continue that support. We’ve got to have equal rights for everyone.” Putting aside the ridiculousness of Sean Penn, a man who holidays with tyrants like Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro, advising others to “sit and reflect on their great shame,” there is a larger point. Given how often Hollywood sees fit to rail against this or that perceived political or social injustice, there is one area about which Hollywood has remained conspicuously silent: the brutality of radical Islam. Not only has the film industry consciously avoided using Muslim characters in its many films about war and terrorism, Hollywood has also been missing in action when it comes to speaking out against some Muslims’ unacceptable views on gays and women. Read more ...Source: Human Events
 Abdullah IAlthough I tend to side with the Jews on most things, history can show us facts that are either forgotten or deliberately hidden by revisionists that come "after the fact." (Remember my; "History is written by the victors!" and "The factor of ten!") With that in mind I think we need to be reminded about how this whole Palestinian thing got started in 1947. While I don't agree with most of what Arab extremists are doing today, when you get the situation "Back into Perspective" with a factual account direct from 1947, you start to realize that things are not quite as they appear here in the Western Press! The present situation is something "spun" afterwards! This article, while rather on the long side, might help explain how this whole mess started, even if there is no suggestion apparent on how to stop it! Summary February 26, 2009 "Information Clearing House" - - This fascinating essay, written by King Hussein's grandfather King Abdullah, appeared in the United States six months before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In the article, King Abdullah disputes the mistaken view that Arab opposition to Zionism (and later the state of Israel) is because of longstanding religious or ethnic hatred. He notes that Jews and Muslims enjoyed a long history of peaceful coexistence in the Middle East, and that Jews have historically suffered far more at the hands of Christian Europe. Pointing to the tragedy of the holocaust that Jews suffered during World War II, the monarch asks why America and Europe are refusing to accept more than a token handful of Jewish immigrants and refugees. It is unfair, he argues, to make Palestine, which is innocent of anti-Semitism, pay for the crimes of Europe. King Abdullah also asks how Jews can claim a historic right to Palestine, when Arabs have been the overwhelming majority there for nearly 1300 uninterrupted years? The essay ends on an ominous note, warning of dire consequences if a peaceful solution cannot be found to protect the rights of the indigenous Arabs of Palestine. (You could say that this essay is coming to us from the grave!) "As The Arabs See The Jews"
His Majesty King Abdullah
The American Magazine November, 1947
I am especially delighted to address an American audience, for the tragic problem of Palestine will never be solved without American understanding, American sympathy, American support.
So many billions of words have been written about Palestine—perhaps more than on any other subject in history—that I hesitate to add to them. Yet I am compelled to do so, for I am reluctantly convinced that the world in general, and America in particular, knows almost nothing of the true case for the Arabs.
We Arabs follow, perhaps far more than you think, the press of America. We are frankly disturbed to find that for every word printed on the Arab side, a thousand are printed on the Zionist side.
There are many reasons for this. You have many millions of Jewish citizens interested in this question. They are highly vocal and wise in the ways of publicity. There are few Arab citizens in America, and we are as yet unskilled in the technique of modern propaganda.
The results have been alarming for us. In your press we see a horrible caricature and are told it is our true portrait. In all justice, we cannot let this pass by default.
Our case is quite simple: For nearly 2,000 years Palestine has been almost 100 per cent Arab. It is still preponderantly Arab today, in spite of enormous Jewish immigration. But if this immigration continues we shall soon be outnumbered—a minority in our home.
Palestine is a small and very poor country, about the size of your state of Vermont. Its Arab population is only about 1,200,000. Already we have had forced on us, against our will, some 600,000 Zionist Jews. We are threatened with many hundreds of thousands more.
Our position is so simple and natural that we are amazed it should even be questioned. It is exactly the same position you in America take in regard to the unhappy European Jews. You are sorry for them, but you do not want them in your country.
We do not want them in ours, either. Not because they are Jews, but because they are foreigners. We would not want hundreds of thousands of foreigners in our country, be they Englishmen or Norwegians or Brazilians or whatever.
Think for a moment: In the last 25 years we have had one third of our entire population forced upon us. In America that would be the equivalent of 45,000,000 complete strangers admitted to your country, over your violent protest, since 1921. How would you have reacted to that?
Because of our perfectly natural dislike of being overwhelmed in our own homeland, we are called blind nationalists and heartless anti-Semites. This charge would be ludicrous were it not so dangerous.
No people on earth have been less "anti-Semitic" than the Arabs. The persecution of the Jews has been confined almost entirely to the Christian nations of the West. Jews, themselves, will admit that never since the Great Dispersion did Jews develop so freely and reach such importance as in Spain when it was an Arab possession. With very minor exceptions, Jews have lived for many centuries in the Middle East, in complete peace and friendliness with their Arab neighbours.
Damascus, Baghdad, Beirut and other Arab centres have always contained large and prosperous Jewish colonies. Until the Zionist invasion of Palestine began, these Jews received the most generous treatment—far, far better than in Christian Europe. Now, unhappily, for the first time in history, these Jews are beginning to feel the effects of Arab resistance to the Zionist assault. Most of them are as anxious as Arabs to stop it. Most of these Jews who have found happy homes among us resent, as we do, the coming of these strangers.
I was puzzled for a long time about the odd belief which apparently persists in America that Palestine has somehow "always been a Jewish land." Recently an American I talked to cleared up this mystery. He pointed out that the only things most Americans know about Palestine are what they read in the Bible. It was a Jewish land in those days, they reason, and they assume it has always remained so.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is absurd to reach so far back into the mists of history to argue about who should have Palestine today, and I apologise for it. Yet the Jews do this, and I must reply to their "historic claim." I wonder if the world has ever seen a stranger sight than a group of people seriously pretending to claim a land because their ancestors lived there some 2,000 years ago!
If you suggest that I am biased, I invite you to read any sound history of the period and verify the facts.
Such fragmentary records as we have indicate that the Jews were wandering nomads from Iraq who moved to southern Turkey, came south to Palestine, stayed there a short time, and then passed to Egypt, where they remained about 400 years. About 1300 BC (according to your calendar) they left Egypt and gradually conquered most—but not all—of the inhabitants of Palestine.
It is significant that the Philistines—not the Jews—gave their name to the country: "Palestine" is merely the Greek form of "Philistia."
Only once, during the empire of David and Solomon, did the Jews ever control nearly—but not all—the land which is today Palestine. This empire lasted only 70 years, ending in 926 BC. Only 250 years later the Kingdom of Judah had shrunk to a small province around Jerusalem, barely a quarter of modern Palestine.
In 63 BC the Jews were conquered by Roman Pompey, and never again had even the vestige of independence. The Roman Emperor Hadrian finally wiped them out about 135 AD. He utterly destroyed Jerusalem, rebuilt under another name, and for hundreds of years no Jew was permitted to enter it. A handful of Jews remained in Palestine but the vast majority were killed or scattered to other countries, in the Diaspora, or the Great Dispersion. From that time Palestine ceased to be a Jewish country, in any conceivable sense.
This was 1,815 years ago, and yet the Jews solemnly pretend they still own Palestine! If such fantasy were allowed, how the map of the world would dance about!
Italians might claim England, which the Romans held so long. England might claim France, "homeland" of the conquering Normans. And the French Normans might claim Norway, where their ancestors originated. And incidentally, we Arabs might claim Spain, which we held for 700 years.
Many Mexicans might claim Spain, "homeland" of their forefathers. They might even claim Texas, which was Mexican until 100 years ago. And suppose the American Indians claimed the "homeland" of which they were the sole, native, and ancient occupants until only some 450 years ago!
I am not being facetious. All these claims are just as valid—or just as fantastic—as the Jewish "historic connection" with Palestine. Most are more valid.
In any event, the great Moslem expansion about 650 AD finally settled things. It dominated Palestine completely. From that day on, Palestine was solidly Arabic in population, language, and religion. When British armies entered the country during the last war, they found 500,000 Arabs and only 65,000 Jews.
If solid, uninterrupted Arab occupation for nearly 1,300 years does not make a country "Arab", what does?
The Jews say, and rightly, that Palestine is the home of their religion. It is likewise the birthplace of Christianity, but would any Christian nation claim it on that account? In passing, let me say that the Christian Arabs—and there are many hundreds of thousands of them in the Arab World—are in absolute agreement with all other Arabs in opposing the Zionist invasion of Palestine.
May I also point out that Jerusalem is, after Mecca and Medina, the holiest place in Islam. In fact, in the early days of our religion, Moslems prayed toward Jerusalem instead of Mecca.
The Jewish "religious claim" to Palestine is as absurd as the "historic claim." The Holy Places, sacred to three great religions, must be open to all, the monopoly of none. Let us not confuse religion and politics.
We are told that we are inhumane and heartless because do not accept with open arms the perhaps 200,000 Jews in Europe who suffered so frightfully under Nazi cruelty, and who even now—almost three years after war’s end—still languish in cold, depressing camps.
Let me underline several facts. The unimaginable persecution of the Jews was not done by the Arabs: it was done by a Christian nation in the West. The war which ruined Europe and made it almost impossible for these Jews to rehabilitate themselves was fought by the Christian nations of the West. The rich and empty portions of the earth belong, not to the Arabs, but to the Christian nations of the West.
And yet, to ease their consciences, these Christian nations of the West are asking Palestine—a poor and tiny Moslem country of the East—to accept the entire burden. "We have hurt these people terribly," cries the West to the East. "Won’t you please take care of them for us?"
We find neither logic nor justice in this. Are we therefore "cruel and heartless nationalists"?
We are a generous people: we are proud that "Arab hospitality" is a phrase famous throughout the world. We are a humane people: no one was shocked more than we by the Hitlerite terror. No one pities the present plight of the desperate European Jews more than we.
But we say that Palestine has already sheltered 600,000 refugees. We believe that is enough to expect of us—even too much. We believe it is now the turn of the rest of the world to accept some of them.
I will be entirely frank with you. There is one thing the Arab world simply cannot understand. Of all the nations of the earth, America is most insistent that something be done for these suffering Jews of Europe. This feeling does credit to the humanity for which America is famous, and to that glorious inscription on your Statue of Liberty.
And yet this same America—the richest, greatest, most powerful nation the world has ever known—refuses to accept more than a token handful of these same Jews herself!
I hope you will not think I am being bitter about this. I have tried hard to understand that mysterious paradox, and I confess I cannot. Nor can any other Arab.
Perhaps you have been informed that "the Jews in Europe want to go to no other place except Palestine."
This myth is one of the greatest propaganda triumphs of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the organisation which promotes with fanatic zeal the emigration to Palestine. It is a subtle half-truth, thus doubly dangerous.
The astounding truth is that nobody on earth really knows where these unfortunate Jews really want to go!
You would think that in so grave a problem, the American, British, and other authorities responsible for the European Jews would have made a very careful survey, probably by vote, to find out where each Jew actually wants to go. Amazingly enough this has never been done! The Jewish Agency has prevented it.
Some time ago the American Military Governor in Germany was asked at a press conference how he was so certain that all Jews there wanted to go to Palestine. His answer was simple: "My Jewish advisors tell me so." He admitted no poll had ever been made. Preparations were indeed begun for one, but the Jewish Agency stepped in to stop it.
The truth is that the Jews in German camps are now subjected to a Zionist pressure campaign which learned much from the Nazi terror. It is dangerous for a Jew to say that he would rather go to some other country, not Palestine. Such dissenters have been severely beaten, and worse.
Not long ago, in Palestine, nearly 1,000 Austrian Jews informed the international refugee organisation that they would like to go back to Austria, and plans were made to repatriate them.
The Jewish Agency heard of this, and exerted enough political pressure to stop it. It would be bad propaganda for Zionism if Jews began leaving Palestine. The nearly 1,000 Austrian are still there, against their will.
The fact is that most of the European Jews are Western in culture and outlook, entirely urban in experience and habits. They cannot really have their hearts set on becoming pioneers in the barren, arid, cramped land which is Palestine.
One thing, however, is undoubtedly true. As matters stand now, most refugee Jews in Europe would, indeed, vote for Palestine, simply because they know no other country will have them.
If you or I were given a choice between a near-prison camp for the rest of our lives—or Palestine—we would both choose Palestine, too.
But open up any other alternative to them—give them any other choice, and see what happens!
No poll, however, will be worth anything unless the nations of the earth are willing to open their doors—just a little—to the Jews. In other words, if in such a poll a Jew says he wants to go to Sweden, Sweden must be willing to accept him. If he votes for America, you must let him come in.
Any other kind of poll would be a farce. For the desperate Jew, this is no idle testing of opinion: this is a grave matter of life or death. Unless he is absolutely sure that his vote means something, he will always vote for Palestine, so as not to risk his bird in the hand for one in the bush.
In any event, Palestine can accept no more. The 65,000 Jews in Palestine in 1918 have jumped to 600,000 today. We Arabs have increased, too, but not by immigration. The Jews were then a mere 11 per cent of our population. Today they are one third of it.
The rate of increase has been terrifying. In a few more years—unless stopped now—it will overwhelm us, and we shall be an important minority in our own home.
Surely the rest of the wide world is rich enough and generous enough to find a place for 200,000 Jews—about one third the number that tiny, poor Palestine has already sheltered. For the rest of the world, it is hardly a drop in the bucket. For us it means national suicide.
We are sometimes told that since the Jews came to Palestine, the Arab standard of living has improved. This is a most complicated question. But let us even assume, for the argument, that it is true. We would rather be a bit poorer, and masters of our own home. Is this unnatural?
The sorry story of the so-called "Balfour Declaration," which started Zionist immigration into Palestine, is too complicated to repeat here in detail. It is grounded in broken promises to the Arabs—promises made in cold print which admit no denying.
We utterly deny its validity. We utterly deny the right of Great Britain to give away Arab land for a "national home" for an entirely foreign people.
Even the League of Nations sanction does not alter this. At the time, not a single Arab state was a member of the League. We were not allowed to say a word in our own defense.
I must point out, again in friendly frankness, that America was nearly as responsible as Britain for this Balfour Declaration. President Wilson approved it before it was issued, and the American Congress adopted it word for word in a joint resolution on 30th June, 1922.
In the 1920s, Arabs were annoyed and insulted by Zionist immigration, but not alarmed by it. It was steady, but fairly small, as even the Zionist founders thought it would remain. Indeed for some years, more Jews left Palestine than entered it—in 1927 almost twice as many.
But two new factors, entirely unforeseen by Britain or the League or America or the most fervent Zionist, arose in the early thirties to raise the immigration to undreamed heights. One was the World Depression; the second the rise of Hitler.
In 1932, the year before Hitler came to power, only 9,500 Jews came to Palestine. We did not welcome them, but we were not afraid that, at that rate, our solid Arab majority would ever be in danger.
But the next year—the year of Hitler—it jumped to 30,000! In 1934 it was 42,000! In 1935 it reached 61,000!
It was no longer the orderly arrival of idealist Zionists. Rather, all Europe was pouring its frightened Jews upon us. Then, at last, we, too, became frightened. We knew that unless this enormous influx stopped, we were, as Arabs, doomed in our Palestine homeland. And we have not changed our minds.
I have the impression that many Americans believe the trouble in Palestine is very remote from them, that America had little to do with it, and that your only interest now is that of a humane bystander.
I believe that you do not realise how directly you are, as a nation, responsible in general for the whole Zionist move and specifically for the present terrorism. I call this to your attention because I am certain that if you realise your responsibility you will act fairly to admit it and assume it.
Quite aside from official American support for the "National Home" of the Balfour Declaration, the Zionist settlements in Palestine would have been almost impossible, on anything like the current scale, without American money. This was contributed by American Jewry in an idealistic effort to help their fellows.
The motive was worthy: the result were disastrous. The contributions were by private individuals, but they were almost entirely Americans, and, as a nation, only America can answer for it.
The present catastrophe may be laid almost entirely at your door. Your government, almost alone in the world, is insisting on the immediate admission of 100,000 more Jews into Palestine—to be followed by countless additional ones. This will have the most frightful consequences in bloody chaos beyond anything ever hinted at in Palestine before.
It is your press and political leadership, almost alone in the world, who press this demand. It is almost entirely American money which hires or buys the "refugee ships" that steam illegally toward Palestine: American money which pays their crews. The illegal immigration from Europe is arranged by the Jewish Agency, supported almost entirely by American funds. It is American dollars which support the terrorists, which buy the bullets and pistols that kill British soldiers—your allies—and Arab citizens—your friends.
We in the Arab world were stunned to hear that you permit open advertisements in newspapers asking for money to finance these terrorists, to arm them openly and deliberately for murder. We could not believe this could really happen in the modern world. Now we must believe it: we have seen the advertisements with our own eyes.
I point out these things because nothing less than complete frankness will be of use. The crisis is too stark for mere polite vagueness which means nothing.
I have the most complete confidence in the fair-mindedness and generosity of the American public. We Arabs ask no favours. We ask only that you know the full truth, not half of it. We ask only that when you judge the Palestine question, you put yourselves in our place.
What would your answer be if some outside agency told you that you must accept in America many millions of utter strangers in your midst—enough to dominate your country—merely because they insisted on going to America, and because their forefathers had once lived there some 2,000 years ago?
Our answer is the same.
And what would be your action if, in spite of your refusal, this outside agency began forcing them on you?
Ours will be the same. Now, if you stuck it out all the way to here, then this mess sort of takes on a whole different tone.................. doesn't it bunky! Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available as an E-Book H E R E ! and as a paperback H E R E !
By Clare M. Lopez A complex network of individuals and organizations with ties to the clerical regime in Tehran is pressing forward in seeming synchrony to influence the new U.S. administration’s policy towards the Islamic Republic of Iran. Spearheaded by a de facto partnership between the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other organizations serving as mouthpieces for the mullahs’ party line, the network includes well-known American diplomats, congressional representatives, figures from academia and the think tank world. This report-- documenting the rise of what can accurately be described as the “Iran Lobby” in Washington, D.C.--is derived entirely from unclassified open sources and describes in detail the activities, linkages, and objectives of this alarming alliance between NIAC, CAIR and others that is aimed at co-opting America’s foreign policy in the Middle East and specifically with Iran. Read more ...Source: Center for Security Policy
Inter-cultural/religious Discussion, aired on February 22, 2009, BBC [England] Shortly: there is the need for Islam to be reformed, the way Judaism and Christianity already did. Political Islam Mouvement corresponds to Hitler's Arianism [willing to create the 'true race' through the promotion of 'true Islamic people' -perfect followers of Shari'as Law-]. Source: maryamnamazie.blogspot.com/
 By Dave Gaubatz I believe Americans are extremely frustrated about a number of things, including the sad state of our national security and the declining economic situation. They are rightly concerned about their children’s future. They are losing interest in socialism taking over the news media. Many I have talked with no longer want to listen, read, or watch people ranting about how our country is secure. They are annoyed with the news headlines that focus on ladies who have eight babies and the multi-year “Aruba case.” Americans have little patience and want people who “allegedly” know the situation our country is currently in to come to the point and fix the problem, not respond to incidents after they have happened. A good example of this is the manhunt for the former student of a high school in Georgia who allegedly has a gun. This is a legitimate concern, but the threat is 100 times higher within just a few miles of many schools throughout America. (A hint to law enforcement: Go to any inner city school in the U.S. and within a mile in any direction, there are gang members with guns.) Instead of locking down the school, it would be safer for the children to immediately be removed and allow their parents to protect them. The last tactic that should be tried is to have hundreds of students in a school surrounded by hundreds of armed law enforcement officers and possibly a student with a gun. There is more chance of students being harmed in crossfire by staying than if they left the school. Read more ...Source: Family Security Matters
 By Joe Kaufman Following the recent beheading of Aasiya Zubair Hassan, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) issued what it called “an open letter to the leaders of American Muslim communities.” The letter was a call against domestic violence, which apparently Hassan had been a long time victim of. However, while ISNA was condemning domestic violence and while Hassan was suffering from it, the group was perpetuating the same crime on its website and via the works of its leadership. On Thursday, February 12th, Syed Muzzammil Hassan a.k.a. Mo Steve Hassan arrived at a police station in Orchard Park, New York, where he resided, to report the death of his wife. Aasiya Hassan’s body was found decapitated at Bridges TV, the television network Muzzammil had established at the behest of her in December 2004. Shortly after his contact with the police, Hassan was arrested and charged with his wife’s murder. According to various sources, Aasiya Hassan had endured violent abuse at the hands of her husband for an extended period of time, as had two previous wives of Hassan. The abuse was said to be widely known throughout the Muslim community. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
 By Peggy Shapiro According to Shariah law, it is a crime to engage in speech or writings that 'defame' Islam or otherwise offend its followers. It is a crime, not only in Muslim states, but in Western democracies, and may soon be coming to a city near you unless we stand up to the worldwide attacks against free speech. It appears that some brave souls, including a U.S. Senator, are pushing back against the global effort to stifle our freedom of expression. In Amsterdam, the capital of freedom and tolerance, a Dutch Muslim nearly decapitated filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who had made a movie that criticized the mistreatment of women in Islam. Dutch cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot's depiction of Mohammed set mobs of Muslims in a rampage not only in Holland, but all over the world. Dutch Member of Parliament Geert Wilders produced a 17-minute film Fitna, which juxtaposes quotations from the Koran and documentary footage of Islamic leaders inciting violence (jihad) based on those quotations. Wilder is on 24-hour police protection since al-Qaeda issued a fatwa calling for Wilder's murder. Read more ...Source: American Thinker
 A study of public opinion in predominantly Muslim countries reveals that very large majorities continue to renounce the use of attacks on civilians as a means of pursuing political goals. At the same time large majorities agree with al Qaeda's goal of pushing the United States to remove its military forces from all Muslim countries and substantial numbers, in some cases majorities, approve of attacks on US troops in Muslim countries. People in majority-Muslim countries express mixed feelings about al Qaeda and other Islamist groups that use violence, perhaps due to this combination of support for al Qaeda's goals and disapproval of its terrorist methods. However large majorities support allowing Islamist groups to organize parties and participate in democratic elections. In some majority-Muslim countries, Islamist groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, are forbidden from participating in elections. Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org, comments, "The US faces a conundrum. US efforts to fight terrorism with an expanded military presence in Muslim countries appear to have elicited a backlash and to have bred some sympathy for al Qaeda, even as most reject its terrorist methods." Read more ...Source: World Public Opinion
 For two years, Tom Burnett Sr. has been speaking out against the crescent-shaped memorial to Flight 93. This week Beverly Burnett (mother of Flight 93 hero Tom Burnett Jr.) stepped into the public eye to support her husband, and to make her own appeal for a full investigation: Today, I am adding my voice for a full and transparent review of the National Park Service and Flight 93 design selection process that produced Crescent of Embrace. Does it have Islamic symbols or doesn’t it? Let's settle this once and for all.
Why do you think Tom Sr. opposed this design? It is pretty simple; Tom Sr. saw the Islamic symbols and knew those symbols did not belong at the crash site of Flight 93.
Tom Burnett Sr. traveled to Pennsylvania last August to attend the Task Force Meeting to voice his opposition to the memorial design. A Family Board member as well as a commissioner accused Tom Sr. being “just like the Islamic terrorists” that killed our son.
Why didn’t someone speak up and defend Tom Sr.’s right to voice his opinion? Thanks to The Somerset Daily American for publishing Mrs. Burnett’s complete statement, which she also entered into the record of the most recent Memorial Project meeting. Read the whole thing. Two other mentions of the memorial controversy in the local PA press this weekIn a letter to the editor, a local woman echoed Mrs. Burnett’s sentiment in favor of preserving the site as it is, instead of demolishing the highly regarded Temporary Memorial and radically transforming the landscape, as the Memorial Project intends. At present the Temporary Memorial looks down over the “field of honor.” Because this temporary memorial is located roughly in the center of the planned half-mile wide crescent, it will be eliminated. Visitors who stand at the location of the Temporary Memorial will no longer look out over the original landscape, but will instead see the crash-site framed between the pincer tips of the giant Islamic-shaped crescent. They call the crescent a broken circle now, but the unbroken part of the circle, what symbolically remains standing in the wake of 9/11 (originally called the Crescent of Embrace) remains completely unchanged. Nice words from a local columnist, but no fact-checkingIn the area’s second local paper, The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, columnist Ralph Couey offers a very nice tribute to the heroes of Flight 93 in which he mentions Mr. Burnett’s opposition to the planned memorial. Unfortunately, Mr. Couey goes on to describes Mr. Burnett’s opposition as “hopeless intransigence,” and expresses his optimism that it can be gotten past. Given that newspapers are supposed to get to the truth, one would hope that those who gain the privilege of this public platform would bother to check the facts. If Mr. Burnett is correct in his warnings about Islamic symbolism, then finding a way to get past these objections is like finding a way to sneak a hijacker past gate security. It is a bad thing, not a good thing. The petition that Mr. Burnett sponsored along with our blogburst group lists four damning facts about the approved design that can all be verified in a matter of minutes. Can Mr. Couey check just one: that a person standing between the tips of the giant crescent and facing into the center of the crescent will be facing within 2° of Mecca?  The Muslim prayer direction in this animation (qibla) is from the Mecca-direction calculator at Islam.com. (If you have trouble getting their calculator to work--your Java has to be configured correctly--there is another Mecca direction calculator at QiblaLocator.com.) This Mecca-orientation makes the giant crescent a mihrab, the Mecca-direction indicator around which every mosque is built. Does Mr. Couey really want to see the world’s largest mosque planted on the Flight 93 crash site? It is fine to speak highly of the heroes of Flight 93, but it would be a lot more meaningful if he would honor the Burnett’s urgent appeal for fact-checking by stepping over to a globe and checking this one simple factual claim. Mr. Couey is not the only one who wants the crescent controversy to go away without caring to know the truth. Sorry, but that is insufficient. Planting a giant Mecca-oriented crescent on the crash-site will dishonor the heroes of Flight 93, and it fails to follow their example. They didn’t just have good intentions. They got the job done, and we have to get the job done too. We can’t be asleep at the wheel while an al Qaeda sympathizing architect hijacks our memorial. What? Is it just too outlandish to think that the enemy might try to hijack one of our memorials? The same way that it is just too outlandish to think that the enemy might dare to hijack our commercial airliners? Do these people even know what they are memorializing? But they CAN wake up. All they have to do is actually check the facts. Then they will know. So please Mr. Couey, take the time to check a few facts, then write a second column, reporting your findings. Somebody out there in Somerset needs to start telling the truth. It might as well be you. 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 By Phyllis Chesler On February 17, 2009, a reporter quoted the Buffalo DA as saying that Muzzamil Hassan, in custody for the Buffalo beheading of his wife, is “a pretty vicious and remorseless bastard.” On February 18, 2009, the Buffalo DA kept the media away from Muzzamil Hassan’s hearing. Wise move. Once upon a time, a Muslim woman, bright with hope, lived in the heartland of America. She wanted to lead her own life. She refused to marry her first cousin. She chose to attend college and she planned to become an elementary school teacher. She dared to drive her own car. Two of her cousins stalked her, warned her, threatened her, accused her of “turning her back on her own culture.” Which culture? The culture of an American Ohio or the culture of the Muslim Middle East? Nine years ago, on January 8, 1999, in Cleveland, Ohio, after attending mosque services with her parents, Methel Dayem was murdered in what prosecutors termed an “honor killing.” Methel and her family were Palestinians, allegedly from the West Bank. Read more ...Source: Pajamas Media
 Atiq MalikPoliticians in Brent are calling for the resignation of a councillor after he advocated the introduction of Sharia law for British Muslims on a website, including the death penalty for women who commit adultery. The remarks were a response to The Archbishop of Canterbury's comments made earlier this month in which he said the adoption of Sharia law in the UK seemed unavoidable. Councillor Atiq Malik, (Democratic Conservative Group), wrote two blogs, one on the UK Polling Report website and one on the Conservative Home website. Both read: "If Muslims living in the UK are happy that disputes be decided by Sharia courts then what? "The reason why male gets more share than women is that male members of the family have the responsibility to provide living expenses to female members of the family. "If an unmarried woman has an affair she is lashed 100 times. If a married woman has an affair she is stoned to death. What is wrong in it?" Read more ...Source: Harrow ObserverAtiq Malik
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
By Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens
The Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC) can reveal that SOAS, which is part of the University of London, is planning to pay Islamist extremists to teach a course on political Islam between 23 and 27 March 2009. The CSC has been informed by SOAS that the course is aimed at educating Government officials and the Police. Source: The Centre for Social CohesionFull Press: The Centre for Social Cohesion [.pdf]
By Ross Kaniuk THOUSANDS of British-born Muslims have joined the Taliban in Afghanistan. UK troops say they are facing a mini civil war as more Brits head out to fight for the enemy. Senior officers said British-born Muslims from the West Midlands and Yorkshire have travelled to Helmand province and other parts of southern Afghanistan. Interception of Taliban communications has revealed the sound of jihadists speaking with West Midlands accents. One senior military source said: “It is the Punjabi and Kashmiri Urdu speakers who fall back into English in, for example, Brummie accents. “You get the impression they have been told not to talk in English but sometimes can’t help it.” Brigadier Ed Butler, the former commander of the British forces in Afghan-istan, said: “There are British passport holders who live in the UK who are being found in places such as Kandahar.” Robert Emerson, a security analyst, added: “There is ample evidence British Muslims trained in camps in Pakistan. Read more ...Source: Daily Star
 Amanda Hodge, South Asia correspondent February 27
PAKISTAN plunged into a fresh political crisis amid nationwide demonstrations yesterday at a Supreme Court decision barring popular opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his brother from holding elected office.
President and political rival Asif Ali Zardari suspended the provincial parliament and imposed executive rule in the Sharif brothers' home state of Punjab -- Pakistan's most populous state and its traditional power centre -- in an attempt to contain anticipated large-scale protests by the country's legal fraternity.
But the move failed to suppress widespread anger at the court decision, which was criticised in many quarters as politically motivated.
e an already vulnerable civilian Government struggling to maintain control of the country in the face of a rising militant insurgency within its borders and a near-bankrupt economy.
Pakistan's share market fell 5 per cent at the close of trade and showed no sign of recovery.
The unrest will trigger concern in Washington, which needs stable government in Pakistan to help combat al-Qa'ida and Taliban militants using its territory as a base from which to launch attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan.
Many analysts and foreign diplomats are warning that the country faces a calamitous slide into the sort of political infighting and instability that led to a military takeover by former general Pervez Musharraf in 1999.
"The Sharifs have been thrown out of politics, and they are going to react," prominent political commentator Shafqat Mahmood said.
"In the next three to six months, the political order will become very shaky."
The long-awaited Supreme Court decision was the result of an appeal against a ruling barring two-time prime minister Mr Sharif from contesting elections over his conviction on charges of hijacking Mr Musharraf's aircraft to try and forestall the coup.
It was also considering allegations of irregularities in his brother's election to provincial parliament.
Punjab is controlled by Mr Sharif's PML (N) party, and until yesterday Shahbaz Sharif was Punjab's chief minister.
Analysts said the Government's actions against the Sharifs were aimed at weakening their hold on Punjab -- a theory bolstered by recent talks aimed at an alliance between Mr Zadari's ruling Pakistan People's Party and another Punjab-based opposition party, PML (Q).
Mr Sharif reacted angrily to the decision, calling for Pakistanis to "rise against this unconstitutional decision and this nefarious act of Zardari". He said he opposed violence but added: "If the people want to show their anger, who can stop them?"
While the Government urged PML (N) to "control its supporters for the sake of democracy", thousands of protestors yesterday answered the Sharifs' call, staging fiery demonstrations.
Mr Sharif also called for people to join a massive lawyers' march planned for early next month to demand the reinstatement of more than 70 judges sacked by Mr Musharraf in 2007 for alleged misconduct.
The move sparked widespread protests that led to Mr Musharraf imposing a state of emergency in late 2007 and, eventually, to his downfall in August last year.
While the Sharifs command popular support in Punjab, the degree of instability in coming weeks will depend on how much support they can muster in Pakistan's three other states. Source: The Australian
There is no problem with this as long as non-Muslim students are accorded the same privileges. However, the involvement of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas funding case and an organization that has had several of its officials convicted of terrorism-related offenses, is a red flag, and suggests that this effort is part of the larger effort by Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups to assert a more visible presence for Islam in American public life, and pushing for accommodation of Islamic law wherever Islamic law and American law conflict. Read more ...Source: NorthJersey.comH/T: Jihad Watch
 SYDNEY, Australia
A Jewish Australian lawmaker slammed a United Nations agency that administers aid for Palestinian refugees as "notoriously corrupt."
Michael Danby, a longstanding pro-Israel Labor legislator, in a blistering speech Wednesday in federal parliament in Canberra, said Australia's $30 million in funding for Palestinians since 2007, largely through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, was being "diverted to arms purchases, terrorist operations and anti-Israel incitement, as well as into the pockets of the Palestinian Authority leadership."
"It is a betrayal of that generosity [by Australians] for this money to be wasted, stolen or misspent on rockets, guns, terrorism or incitement to hatred," Danby said.
Stressing that he was not opposed to humanitarian assistance for the Palestinians, "who have suffered over the past decade from the chronic corruption and mismanagement of the P.A.," Danby said UNRWA had "been maintained by the anti-Israel majority at the U.N. for purely political reasons."
"Most Western donor countries have been reluctant, for obvious political reasons, to call the P.A. or the U.N. to account for the theft and waste of their taxpayers' money in the morass of corruption and political extremism that is Palestinian politics," Danby said.
"The British government, however, has recently indicated that it is unwilling to tolerate this any longer. Other governments should take a similar stand." Source: JTA H/T: Gig
By Robert Spencer Muzzammil Hassan allegedly beheaded his wife Aasiya on February 12 in the offices of Bridges TV, the Muslim-oriented cable channel that he founded in 2004 to combat the negative perceptions of Muslims that he claimed were dominating mainstream media coverage. He said at the time the station was founded that Aasiya was his inspiration for founding Bridges TV: “Some derogatory comments were being made about Muslims that offended her. She was seven months pregnant, and she thought she didn’t want her kids growing up in this environment.” The environment that they will grow up in instead cannot be imagined. But many people are doing their best to make sure that, whatever the other features of that environment may be, a critical appraisal of the roots of honor killing in Islamic culture, and a determination to put an end to this phenomenon, will not be among them. Read more ...Source: Human Events
 HOME secretary Jacqui Smith is facing a double standards row after it was revealed that an Islamic extremist exposed by the Sunday Mercury is set to travel to the UK. In November 2008 the Sunday Mercury revealed that Ibrahim Moussawi, a journalist linked to terrorist group Hezbollah, had been awarded a PhD from Birmingham University and was still allowed in to Britain. The Home Secretary is under pressure to refuse an entry visa to Moussawi, who has been invited to speak at a London University, after she stopped right wing Dutch MP Geert Wilders from coming into the UK to protect ‘community harmony’. Moussawi, 43, who lives in the Lebanon, is judged so dangerous that he was denied a visa to enter Ireland in 2007 and Tory leader David Cameron has called for him to be banned from Britain. But he was allowed to travel to the UK in February 2008 and proceeded to address rallies in London, Birmingham and Bristol. Tory Peer Baroness Neville-Jones wrote to Ms Smith warning her that Moussawi should not be allowed into the UK. Read more ...Source: Sunday MercuryH/T: WNDJacqui Smith
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
 By Mark Tooley Early last year, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams suggested that Great Britain accept aspects of Islamic law, or Sharia. Despite the ensuing controversy, he is now claiming some vindication, declaring that Sharia’s partial codification into British law “seems inevitable. Indeed, “a number of fairly senior people” in Britain share his view, Williams insisted, probably correctly. Meanwhile, the Archbishop engaged in interfaith outreach by visiting a Muslim group in Libya that Muammar Kaddafi founded. Williams heads the Church of England and is the spiritual leader of nearly 80 million Anglicans globally, many of whom, especially in Nigeria, are suffering under the oppressions of Islamic law. The archbishop made his comments at a recent global gathering of Anglican bishops in Egypt, where the Christian minority, although under ostensibly under a moderate Muslim regime, still suffers under Sharia inspired restrictions. Although not completely clueless about the threat that theocratic Islam poses to Christians and others, the purportedly very intellectual Archbishop blithely insisted that a partial Sharia in Britain is acceptable. Read more ...Source: FrontPage MagazineRowan Williams
Latest recipient of the Demented Priest Award
 By Jamie Glazov Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dave Gaubatz, the first U.S. civilian (1811) Federal Agent deployed to Iraq in 2003. He is currently the Director of the Mapping Sharia Project and the Owner of DG Counter-terrorism Publishing ( dgaubatz.blogspot.com). FP: Dave Gaubatz, welcome back to Frontpage Interview. I would like to talk to you today about our law enforcement officers (LEOs) and their ability and freedom of action to protect our country from Islamic Jihadist groups. Where are we on this issue? Gaubatz: I would like nothing better than to say our LEOs are capable of defending our country against Jihadist activity, but in reality they are not. This includes local, state, and federal LEOs. Our country has the best LEOs in the world, but Americans are fooling themselves if we believe they are prepared and/or trained to be the first line defenders. There are going to be readers (including LEOs) who will say this is not or can’t be true. Because of the research I am constantly engaged in, I speak to many LEOs. They have the best of intentions, but 99.9% do not understand the basics of counter-terrorism (CT) in regards to Islamic Jihadists. They are trained to respond (reactive) to incidents and not be proactive. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
By Fred Gedrich In public pronouncements, President Barack Obama signaled to Muslim governments that the U.S. will pursue a new means of dialogue based upon “mutual interest and mutual respect.” But instead of extending the olive branch to the authoritarians, dictators, and tyrants that rule most of these countries, shouldn’t he have spoken directly to Muslims desiring a better life who suffer from oppression, discrimination against women, poverty, illiteracy, genocide, and locally-bred terrorism? The world’s estimated 1.5 billion Muslims mostly reside in Middle Eastern, North African, Central Asian, and Southeast Asian countries. Muslim governments formed the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) about 40 years ago, among other things, to “ensure the progress and well-being” of their citizens. While the stature and influence of the OIC has dramatically grown during ensuing years, particularly in the United Nations, most Muslim leaders have not loosened their rigid grip on power or made lives of citizens much better. Radical Islamic extremists, whose activists and sympathizers represent up to 20 percent of the total Muslim population by some accounts, offer fellow Muslims little more than a trip back to the seventh century under Shari'a law. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
"Fahd Bouichou (from Morocco) has been gotten by the Police while escaping. He beheaded his (Italian) wife and their little daughter (2 years old). The priest is worried: 'was he maybe upset since the daughter got baptised?' .... [The man got a Visa to stay in Italy, based on the fact that 'he was the father of the child']"
 By Jacob Laksin NEW YORK – It’s been a tough few weeks for Geert Wilders. First, an Amsterdam appeals court announced in late January that it was going to bring the blunt-speaking Dutch parliamentarian to trial for offending Muslims with his anti-Islam film, Fitna. Just a few weeks later, Wilders was controversially denied entry into Britain after the British Home Office declared that his views on Islam "would threaten community harmony and therefore public security in the United Kingdom." Set against the near-daily threats on his life, the 24-hour security detail, and the restrictions on travel that have been Wilders’ lot since he first emerged as an outspoken critic of extremist Islam in 2004, these latest setbacks might have tested even the most determined public crusader. But Wilders seems to draw strength from intimidation, whether from aggrieved Muslims or zealous multiculturalists. So it was not entirely surprising that during a visit this week to New York, where he spoke at the invitation of the Hudson New York Briefing Council, the embattled Wilders was as upbeat and unyielding as ever. Read more ...Source: FrontPage MagazineGeert Wilders
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
 Barack Obama has posed as a champion of human rights, a foe of tyrants and a staunch defender of Israel. But much that Obama says is not matched so far by what he actually does. And so it is here, with his not-denied slating of Charles "Chas" Freeman (right), the former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, as his gatekeeper to US intelligence. Freeman seems certain to be made chairman of the National Intelligence Council, which is responsible for compiling intelligence from 16 US agencies into National Intelligence Estimates for the president. Gabriel Schoenveld explains why this would be a terrible mistake: Either way, if those complaining loudest about politicized intelligence have indeed placed a China-coddling Israel basher in charge of drafting the most important analyses prepared by the U.S. government, it is quite a spectacle. The problem is not that Mr. Freeman will shade National Intelligence Estimates to suit the administration's political views. The far more serious danger is that he will steer them to reflect his own outlandish perspectives and prejudices. Judge for yourself from the man's own words. Freeman on Tianamen Square: I find the dominant view in China about this very plausible, i.e. that the truly unforgivable mistake of the Chinese authorities was the failure to intervene on a timely basis to nip the demonstrations in the bud, rather than - as would have been both wise and efficacious - to intervene with force when all other measures had failed to restore domestic tranquility to Beijing and other major urban centers in China. In this optic, the Politburo’s response to the mob scene at "Tian'anmen" stands as a monument to overly cautious behavior on the part of the leadership, not as an example of rash action. Read more ... Source: Andrew BoltH/T: Gramfan
 "The Satanic Verses" has had a major non-literary legacyAyatollah Khomeini's edict struck down against British novelist Salman Rushdie and his novel The Satanic Verses twenty days ago today. It was a shot from the blue, completely unexpected, unprecedented, and outrageous, a shock that caused two full weeks of furor among literary, political, and religious lions.
To many, the event was quirky and unique, the product of an old man's extremist mentality; few imagined the edict would permanently alter Rushdie's life, much less that it would alter Muslim-Western relations more generally.
In retrospect, however, one can see the deep importance of the edict. It strengthened the hand of radical Islam, encouraged Muslims to impose their will on the West, and inspired Muslim in the West to assert themselves. The Rushdie affair was, in short, one of the influential events of the age. Source: Daniel Pipes Blog
 Will she have died in vain?It is time for imams, leaders, and spokespeople to take the offensive rather than merely the defensive, to go beyond the soundbytes to eradicate the sources of abuse.By Asma T. Uddin For as long as I can remember, when faced with sensationalistic media coverage of terrorism that immediately blames Islam for the acts of Muslims, I have responded confidently that such connections are simplistic and untrue. With the 9/11 attacks, my religious identity became inextricably linked with my spokesperson self, and in recent years, I have found it increasingly difficult to distinguish between the spiritual and the controversial – to find the faith among social commentary. I am sure the same can be said of many of us who are concerned about how Islam is handled by the media and perceived by the American public. In rushing to defend Islam, we often find our connection with Islam somehow reduced to soundbytes; Islam's principles are simplified to convenient factual tidbits. Islam is a religion of peace, jihad is largely about the struggle for inner purification, Islam gave women their rights well before any other civilization did, and so on. Read more ... Source: Alt MuslimMuzzammil Hassan is being charged with 2nd degree murder for beheading of his wife. This is beyond travesty of justice! If honorcide were officially a hate crime, he could have been charged with 1st degree murder.
 A man who is accused of waging a urine and faeces-spraying campaign at two supermarkets, a pub and a bookshop caused £700,000 damage, a court heard yesterday. Sahnoun Daifallah, 42, is alleged to have squirted a brown, foul-smelling substance from a spray container at four businesses in Gloucestershire on May 14 and 16 last year. The court heard the man from White City, Gloucester, visited the Air Balloon pub at around 12.45pm on May 14 where police were called after he asked a barmaid Susan Lawson-Bagent how much it would cost to rape her. When officers arrived Daifallah had gone but he had left a trail of stench behind him which the prosecution say was his calling card. Stephen Dent, prosecuting, told the jury: “He mixed up an evil potion of various biological ingredients including his own faeces and urine. “It was not until after he had left that staff started to notice a bad smell of excrement. “We say that this was his little calling card because he did not like the way he had been treated.” Read more ...Source: This Is GloucestershireH/T: AtlasSahnoun Daifallah
Latest recipients of the Evil Dumbass Award
 Click on a picture to launch the image galleryBy Walter Mayr Radical Muslim imams and nationalist politicians from all camps are threatening Sarajevo's multicultural legacy. With the help of Arab benefactors, the deeply devout are acquiring new recruits. In the "Jerusalem of the Balkans," Islamists are on the rise.The obliteration of Israel is heralded in a torrent of words. "Zionist terrorists," the imam thunders from the glass-enclosed pulpit at the end of the mosque. "Animals in human form" have transformed the Gaza Strip into a "concentration camp," and this marks "the beginning of the end" for the Jewish pseudo-state. Over 4,000 faithful are listening to the religious service in the King Fahd Mosque, named after the late Saudi Arabian monarch King Fahd Bin Abd al-Asis Al Saud. The women sit separately, screened off in the left wing of the building. It is the day of the Khutbah, the great Friday sermon, and the city where the imam has predicted Israel's demise lies some 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) northwest of Gaza. It is a city in the heart of Europe: Sarajevo. Read more ...Source: Spiegel
 By Evre Kaynak ISTANBUL -- In the past two decades, a movement of some 30 Turkish non-governmental women's rights organizations has spearheaded legal, political and social change to promote equality and eliminate violence against women. Change, however, is not coming easily as these NGOs try to battle ingrained traditional views toward women amidst much turmoil. Today in Turkey, people's lives are severely disrupted by the continued militarization in the Middle East and rising conservatism globally. As a result of the armed conflict between the Turkish military and Kurdish rebels in east and southeast Turkey, and recent bombings in Istanbul and Izmir, issues such as women's demands for equality, the elimination of gender-based violence and the rule of law have fallen behind in the public agenda. With rising security measures in the country, including security forces on the streets and identification checks by police, particularly in Kurdish cities such as Diyarbakir and Van, many people venture out only for basic needs, and many families do not allow women to leave the house at all, due to fear for their safety. Read more ...Source: Middle East Times
 Jon Prashar and his guide dog AmberTWO cabbies who refused to carry a blind man and his guide dog have been stripped of their licences. Talib Hussain, 51, and Mohammed Idress, 37, left Jon Prashar and his dog Amber stranded outside Rochdale railway station. But thanks to a colleague of Mr Prashar's, who took down their registration numbers, the pair were tracked down and fined. After a further investigation, they have now had their Hackney Cab licences revoked for two weeks. Mr Prashar, who has been blind since birth, believes both drivers would not take him because of a religious misunderstanding over his dog. Despite the cabbies' concerns, the Muslim Council of Britain has issued guidance saying Islamic law does allow guide dogs to be carried in taxis. They have even been allowed into mosques in the past. Read more ...Source: Asia News
 Three United States Senators have written to FBI Director Robert Mueller praising a decision last year to cut off contacts with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and inquiring about other groups linked to a Hamas-support network in the U.S. Republicans Jon Kyl of Arizona, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and New York Democrat Charles Schumer signed the letter dated Tuesday, which asked Mueller for additional information about the decision. The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) broke the news last month that concerns over CAIR's roots in a Hamas-support network prompted FBI leadership to cut off contact with the advocacy group last summer. In a letter obtained by the IPT, the head of the Oklahoma City field office cancelled a meeting with a group of local Muslim community outreach groups due to CAIR's involvement. "[I]f CAIR wishes to pursue an outreach relationship with the FBI, certain issues must be addressed to the satisfaction of the FBI. Unfortunately, these issues cannot be addressed at the local level and must be addressed by the CAIR National Office in Washington, D.C.," the Oct. 8 letter from Special Agent in Charge James E. Finch said. "We certainly support that action," the senators wrote, "and it would be helpful to us to understand the situation more fully." They asked whether the policy applies to FBI field offices as well as headquarters and whether there are exceptions. In addition, they asked whether the FBI has contacts with other organizations listed as un-indicted co-conspirators in the HLF case and whether other federal agencies knew about the Bureau's policy. Read more ...Source: IPT NewsCAIR
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 As a network of radical Muslim compounds is exposed in the U.S., CBS News attempts to lull us back to sleep.By Ryan Mauro On Wednesday, February 11, 2009, the Christian Action Network premiered Homegrown Jihad: Terrorist Camps Around the U.S. at Washington, D.C.’s Landmark Theater. The crowd of 160-175 people left the theater with their jaws dropped, only moving their mouths to thank the members of CAN for their hard work. The robust Q&A session brought only positive remarks and constructive questions about the networks of an organization known as Jamaat ul-Fuqra, a group led by a Pakistan-based cleric named Sheikh Mubarak Gilani with at least 35 radical Islamic compounds here in the United States under the name “Muslims of America.” A key feature of the documentary, which is available at ChristianAction.org, is the “Soldiers of Allah” videotape, on which Gilani is seen instructing his followers on how to hijack cars, set off explosives, murder guards, and use various other terrorism tactics as part of what he admits is “one of the most advanced courses in Islamic military warfare.” This is followed by an open invitation for interested Muslims to contact any of his Muslims of America compounds in the United States to receive such training. He even warns the viewers of the tape to not allow it to fall into non-Muslim hands and not to make illegal copies. Read more ... Source: Pajamas MediaCBS News
Latest recipient of the Yellow Rag Award
 Fawzi BarhoumBy Aaron Klein TEL AVIV, Israel – Hamas is "very happy" with a pledge this week from the Obama administration to provide $900 million in aid for rebuilding the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, a spokesman from the Islamist organization told WND. "We are very happy with this decision," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, speaking by cell phone from Gaza. "In the first place, this money will go toward reconstructing efforts." Barhoum said he expects the money to be tightly controlled. He said the funds are likely to be delineated to the Palestinian Authority and to the United Nations Relief and Work Agency, or UNWRA, which administers aid to millions of Palestinian "refugees" in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Hamas has a close relationship with UNWRA; the agency openly employs a large number of Hamas members, including some of the group's most senior terrorists. The U.S. aid has not yet been officially approved by Congress. The package is expected to be formally announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she attends an international Gaza donors conference in Egypt next week. A U.S. official reported the money will not reach Hamas but will go instead to nongovernmental organizations, most notably UNWRA. Still, the terrorist organization controls the Gaza Strip. Any reconstruction efforts in the territory are likely to bolster Hamas. Read more ...Source: WND
 Dennis RossBy Jeffrey Imm The appointment of Dennis B. Ross as a U.S. State Department advisor is yet another reason why the American public must demand that its government leaders wake up to the ideological threat of Islamic supremacism to equality and liberty around the world. On Monday night, February 23rd, the State Department quietly issued a press release that Dennis Ross would begin serving as "Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for The Gulf and Southwest Asia," addressing "political-military challenges that flow from the area and have an impact outside of the Gulf and Southwest Asia." The New York Times reports that Mr. Ross will report directly to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and various media reports have speculated that Mr. Ross' primary role will be to focus on U.S. foreign policy issues regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mr. Ross was a foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama's campaign on middle east issues. The Jerusalem Post reported that, during the campaign, Mr. Ross called for "Rallying the international community to tighten sanctions and then offering incentives to have the Islamic Republic stand down from its suspected nuclear weapons program." Regardless of such geopolitical tactical news, the larger issue is Mr. Ross' positions regarding Islamic supremacism and its adherents. Read more ...Source: Family Security Matters
 Marcia Pappas (podium)By Phyllis Chesler Within hours of the news of Aasiya Z. Hassan's February 12th beheading, allegedly by her husband, Muzzamil Hassan, in Buffalo, American-Muslim organizations and individuals began a dirge bemoaning the existence of domestic violence. But thanks be to Allah, they affirmed, such violence exists among all faiths and ethnicities. Such family violence, they insisted, had nothing to do with Islam. Muslim leaders emphasized that honor killings were "anti-Islamic" or "un-Islamic," a holdover from "pre-Islamic times." They vowed to preach against it in the mosque. All well and good. That Mr. Hassan beheaded his wife--well, that simply wasn't dwelled upon. Muslim religious feminist, Asra Nomani, and Irshad Manjie, both referred to the Buffalo beheading as an "honor killing" and despaired of the silence which still surrounded this form of domestic violence against Muslim girls and women. As Muslim women, they were not as squeamish about condemning violence against Muslim women by Muslim men and by Islamic culture. Zarqa Abid, a soulful-sounding religious Muslim woman claimed that her cousin was once married to this same Hassan, and she denounced Hassan as a "monster." Abid also criticized the Islamic community for having refused to listen to her when she attempted to alert them to Hassan's criminal nature and deeds. Instead, they shunned her and continued to shower him with their money and to honor him. Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur, a Muslim author and activist, said that "there is so much negativity about Muslims (this beheading) sort of perpetuates it. The right wing is going to run with it and misuse it. But we've got to shine a light on this issue so that we can transform it." Imam Mohamed Hagmagid Ali, of Sterling, Virginia, vice-president of the Islamic Society of North America, said that "violence against women is real and cannot be ignored." Nevertheless, Muslim organizations are relatively silent about this atrocity, given how vocal they usually are when Islam or Muslims are involved. A Google search of CAIR and beheadings only revealed that CAIR had given the alleged murderer an award." Alright, some Muslims are calling it an honor killing, most are insisting that it is not an honor killing and that it has nothing to do with Islam; some Muslims are admitting that, like other groups, Muslims also have a serious problem with violence against women. Progress, of sorts. What did American feminists have to say? Well, I’m certainly one, and I have been on record a long, long time opposing Islamic gender and religious apartheid, both in Muslim lands and in the West. I write about this subject weekly, often daily. Nonie Darwish, a Muslim-born Palestinian-American feminist, has condemned Sharia law as dangerous to women and other living beings. Now, for the first time, an American non-Muslim feminist has joined us. On February 13, 2009, Marcia Pappas, the President of NOW-New York State, hit the ground running. She was quoted world-wide, even as far away as India. Pappas bravely asserted that the Buffalo beheading was a domestic violence murder that smacked of terrorism and jihad. The February 16, 2009 NOW-New York State press release quoted her as saying: And why is this horrendous story not all over the news? Is a Muslim woman's life not worth a five-minute report? This was, apparently, a terroristic version of "honor killing," a murder rooted in cultural notions about women's subordination to men. Are we now so respectful of the Muslim's religion that we soft-peddle atrocities committed in its name?...What is this deafening silence?
And exactly what do orders of protection do? Was Aasiya desperately waving the order of protection in Muzzamil's face when he slashed at her throat? Was it still clutched in her hand when her head hit the floor? You of the press, please shine a light on this most dreadful of murders. In a bizarre twist of fate it comes out that Muzzamil Hassan is founder of a television network called Bridges TV, whose purpose it was to portray Muslims in a positive light. This is a huge story. Please tell it! Alas, other than Pappas, and the feminists who supported her privately, most feminist leaders either attacked Pappas or remained silent. Read more ...Source: FrontPage MagazineMarcia Pappas
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
Muzzammil Hassan is being charged with 2nd degree murder for beheading of his wife. This is beyond travesty of justice! If honorcide were officially a hate crime, he could have been charged with 1st degree murder.
 23 February
Germany should take anti-Semitic tendencies among its Muslim population seriously, Turkish-German Green party leader Cem Özdemir warned in an interview with daily Frankfurter Rundschau on Monday.
“We must unfortunately acknowledge that there are anti-Semitic mindsets not only in the right-wing or among the so-called left-wing anti-imperialists, but also in the Muslim community – particularly among male Arabic, Turkish and Kurdish youths,” Özdemir, the country’s first leader of a major political party with Turkish roots, told the paper.
These young men feel “marginalised” in German society and are identifying with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he told the paper.
“Not just in Turkey, but also here there are many immigrants who try to superimpose the Middle East conflict one-to-one onto Germany and regard themselves as members of the Palestinian side,” he said.
Muslim-German leaders must draw clear lines and emphasise that anyone who displays anti-Semitic sentiments will not be allowed to represent the community, Özdemir said, adding that educators should also openly address the problem.
A 2007 study by the Interior Ministry found that Muslim students were far more anti-Semitic than other students, the paper reported. Of 500 Muslim students who were raised in Germany, almost 16 percent agreed with the statement: “People of Jewish faith are arrogant and greedy for money.” This rate was double that of students with immigration background and three times as high as German students, the paper reported.
In November 2008, the environmentalist Greens elected Özdemir as the country’s first Turkish-German party leader, which prompted members to adopt the tongue-in-cheek slogan "Yes We Cem" based on US President Barack Obama's campaign motto. In 1994 Özdemir became the first politician of Turkish origin to be elected to the German parliament, just two years after taking German citizenship. Source: The Local Online (Germany)
 Amanda Hodge, South Asia correspondent | February 25, 2009
THE sole surviving terrorist involved in last year's deadly Mumbai attacks was charged today with waging war against India - the most serious offence under the country's legal code - and could face the death penalty if found guilty.
Pakistani national Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman - known as Kasab - also faces 11 additional charges ranging from murder and terrorism, to immigration and cyber crimes, illegal weapons smuggling and even unlawfully entering a railway station without a ticket in a charge sheet that is believed to run to more than 5000 pages.
“Kasab has been booked under various acts including the Arms Act, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Explosives Act, Customs Act, waging war against the country and various other sections of the Railway Act,” joint police commissioner Rakesh Maria said.
“Entering the railway premises without a proper ticket is also one among the various offences registered against him.”
Indian police lodged the massive document with Mumbai’s Metropolitan Magistrates Court yesterday, three months after ten gunmen believed to be linked to Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba, attacked a string of targets in the financial capital including several luxury hotels, a crowded railway station, a cafe and a Jewish centre.
More than 170 people lost their lives and some 308 were injured during the November 26, 2008, attacks which brought the Indian financial capital to a standstill for more than 72 hours.
Nine of the ten attackers were also killed, leaving Kasab, 21, alone to face the Indian justice system.
Indian media reported yesterday that the charge sheet would name 19 others believed to have been involved in the attacks, including the suspected mastermind Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi - a founding member of the LeT.
A separate Pakistan government investigation this month admitted for the first time that the 26/11 attacks were partly planned and coordinated on its soil and identified an additional eight Pakistani nationals suspected of involvement.
While the Pakistan government maintains six of the eight have already been arrested, it has consistently refused India’s requests to extradite them to face trial in Mumbai saying instead that they will be tried in a closed Pakistani court.
Relations between India and Pakistan have significantly deteriorated since the November attacks, with India accusing Pakistani “state actors”, notably its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, of involvement.
The massive chargesheet is understood to detail evidence collected by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation into the attacks - including lengthy transcripts of conversations between the ten gunmen and their handlers, as well as security camera footage of the terrorists attacking Mumbai’s central railway station, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, where scores of people died.
Indian law requires that a charge sheet be filed in court against a suspect within 90 days of detention. Kasab was arrested on November 28. Special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam said yesterday the chargesheet would be forwarded from the Magistrates Court to the Special Court in coming days.
He said two other suspected LeT members, currently being held in custody in Mumbai on accusations of scouting for the group, would also be charged. Source: The Australian
The British government has funded research into public opinion in the tribal areas, the poorest area of Pakistan where the average local income is half the national average and average per capita development expenditure under a third of that elsewhere. Locals, who express a strong desire for more jobs, hold mixed views on the cause of local "Talibanisation", blaming it on the Afghan conflict, corrupt and inefficient local government, poverty and illiteracy. Though there is strong support for better female access to health and education, there was profound reluctance among the largely male survey respondents to empower women more generally, with 67% supporting "honour killings". Over 50% of those polled believed Islamic law brought peace to the region and only 3.6% considered the Taliban to be terrorists. Read more ...Source: The GuardianH/T: Weasel Zippers
 Ministers decided not to force through plans to cut benefits to hundreds of polygamous families in the UK after officials advised that the move would be too politically sensitive.Internal documents obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal that ministers from four departments ordered an “urgent review” of the position of up to 1,000 men with “multiple wives”, amid complaints that they were claiming millions in benefits. However, the Government decided against altering the status of polygamous families after it was warned that it could contravene human rights legislation – and officials assured that the benefits system was geared to ensure there was “no financial advantage to claiming for those in polygamous marriages”. Details of the response to the complaints came after the Tory frontbencher Baroness Warsi accused politicians of failing to deal with the issue because of “cultural sensitivity”. The Muslim peer urged the Government to consider the mandatory registration of all religious marriages to stop men in Britain from marrying more than one woman. Britain recognises polygamous marriages from countries where such unions are legal, although a man is prevented from bringing another wife into this country if a woman is already living as his wife in the UK Read more ... Source: The IndependentH/T: Weasel Zippers
 Those outside the Bay Area may not know the backstory: Early on January 1, a young adult African-American named Oscar Grant was fatally shot at a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) stop by a BART police officer. The incident was captured on a few cellphones as it happened. The officer has been arrested for murder and there have been several riots in downtown Oakland. How is this connected to the recent action in Gaza, or to the Israel-Palestinian conflict in general? Nothing published about Grant suggested that he was politically involved in this issue. However, this incident has been cynically manipulated by the local anti-Israel groups to recruit support in the African-American community for their own jihadist agenda. So, to nobody's surprise, recent anti-Israel rallies in San Francisco featured posters attempting to link Grant's death to the Gaza situation, to recruit those angry over the shooting to the side of those for whom Grad and Qassam rockets are "legitimate resistance". Read more ...H/T: Weasel Zippers
 By Dr. Hamad Al-Majid The new Obama administration is pushing forward at the helm of American politics, especially with regards to Islamists of various orientations. The features of Obama's presidency have started to become clear before the end of his first 100 days in office, upon which traditionally the performance of the new US President is assessed. The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, and with Obama's blessing, is courting the Taliban leadership, promising them that those that chose peace with his government will be involved in power. While in Somalia, Sheik Sharif Ahmed of the Union of Islamic Courts [UIC] has become the new President of Somalia, the UIC was viewed as a terrorist organization by the Bush administration, but is viewed as moderate by the new US Obama administration. And so as I noted in my previous article [The Somalization of Hamas] Obama gave his blessing to Sheik Sharif Ahmed's appointment as President, while the following article expands upon a number of issues raised in that one. Read more ...Source: Asharq Al-AswatH/T: Weasel ZippersObama Administration
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
Saad Khan | February 25
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pro-Taliban militants on Tuesday declared an indefinite ceasefire and vowed to release prisoners in Pakistan's Swat valley, where they have fought for nearly two years to enforce sharia law.
The announcement came eight days after the government signed a controversial deal to accept Islamic law as the only system of justice in Swat, a former tourist resort and barely a morning's drive from the capital Islamabad.
The deal provoked alarm in the United States, Europe, Afghanistan and India, where governments are worried it will embolden militants in the North West Frontier Province, which is rife with Taliban and al-Qaeda extremists.
Militant leader Maulana Fazlullah convened a consultative council on Tuesday and agreed to extend a 10-day ceasefire, which had been scheduled to expire on Wednesday, and release prisoners, his spokesman Muslim Khan told AFP.
"Today the shoora met under Maulana Fazlullah and decided to hold a ceasefire for an indefinite period," Khan said.
His supporters observed a temporary truce since last Monday, when the government signed a controversial deal with pro-Taliban cleric Soofi Mohammad to enforce sharia law in Swat in an effort to end Fazlullah's insurgency.
No date has been announced for when sharia law would take effect. It is also not clear how the system, which supporters say will be faster than the penal courts, will be implemented or who will be responsible for justice.
"We are releasing all prisoners unconditionally. Today we released four paramilitary soldiers and we will release all security personnel in our custody as a goodwill gesture," Khan vowed.
"The meeting expressed satisfaction over the efforts being made by Maulana Soofi Mohammad for the enforcement of sharia," he said.
Fazlullah will "announce important decisions" on his illegal FM radio station late Tuesday, his spokesman added.
The militant leader said over the weekend that the ceasefire would be made permanent provided his militants were convinced of government assurances.
Thousands of Fazlullah's supporters have spent nearly two years waging a terrifying campaign to enforce sharia law in Swat, beheading opponents, bombing girls' schools, outlawing entertainment and fighting government forces.
Past peace deals between the government and militants have collapsed.
The brief kidnapping on Sunday of an official and six bodyguards in Swat, which before Fazlullah began his bloody uprising was Pakistan's only ski resort frequented by Westerners, raised concerns about the radicals' intentions.
Muslim, who initially denied any kidnapping, later said district coordination officer (DCO) Khushhal Khan and six guards had been taken to send a message to the government that it should not violate the agreement.
All boys' and some girls' schools reopened in Swat on Monday, a week earlier than the usual end of the winter holidays, but attendance was extremely low - at least partly due to ongoing security fears.
Militants have destroyed 191 schools in the valley, including 122 girls' schools, according to local education official Sher Azfal. Source: Brisbane Times
 Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem February 25
ALLEGATIONS that 42 Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli shells near a UN school in the Gaza Strip during last month's fighting have been challenged by Israeli investigators who say that fatalities in the incident totalled 12, only three of them non-combatants.
The allegations had served as the centrepiece of charges by Palestinians and international agencies that Israel used indiscriminate and excessive force against civilians during the three-week operation.
In the initial version of the incident, based on Palestinian sources, the casualties were said to have been inside a UN school in the Jabalya refugee camp north of Gaza City. This proved to be wrong when UN officials acknowledged that no shell had hit the school. However, Israel was still accused of having caused the deaths of civilians.
"I know that no one was killed in the school," a senior UN official was quoted as saying.
"But 41 innocent people were killed in the street outside the school. The state of Israel has to answer for that.
"What did they know and what care did they take?"
An answer to that question has been furnished by Colonel Moshe Levi, head of the Israel Defence Forces' Gaza Co-ordination and Liaison Administration (CLA), which normally deals with the transfer of aid to the Gaza Strip through Israeli crossing points.
With the onset of the war, Colonel Levi and his staff began compiling a list of casualties in Gaza, as reported by Palestinian health officials, and comparing the names with those on its own list of Gaza residents and its registry of militants.
In a 200-page report recently issued, the CLA identifies more than 1200 Palestinian fatalities by name and gives their Palestinian identity numbers, the circumstances in which they were killed and the militant group, if any, with which they were affiliated.
The report concludes that about one-third of the total fatalities were civilian, and not two-thirds, as Palestinian sources claimed. The CLA declines to reveal all its sources.
Focusing on the fatalities killed near the UN school in Jabalya, the CLA concluded that 12 people were killed, not 42 or 43 as variously reported, when Israeli mortars fired three shells at Hamas mortarmen who had fired at Israeli forces.
Israel has released the names of nine of those killed -- two females and seven males. In all, nine of those killed in the incident were identified by the Israeli army as Hamas operatives and three as non-combatants.
Israel maintains that the international community was duped by Hamas claims that most of the fatalities were innocent civilians.
The UN is compiling its own report on casualties suffered during the war. Source: The Australian
 Chas W. FreemanFebruary 23, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Since it was revealed over the last few days that Chas Freeman is apparently slated to head the Obama administration's National Intelligence Council, much evidence has been presented linking him to pro-Islamist, anti-Israel sentiments. Now the Middle East Forum is reporting that Freeman received $1 million from the Saudis for public relations services, "Chas Freeman, reportedly nominated to head the National Intelligence Council preparing finished National Intelligence Estimates for President Obama, acknowledged in 2006 that the $1 million donation to his Middle East Policy Council that he received from "the generosity of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia" was for public relations in the United States." [source, http://www.meforum.org/blog/obama-mideast-monitor/2009/02/freeman-says-he-took-1-million-for-saudi-public-relations.html] Going back to Obama's "community" work in Chicago it has been long apparent that he is no supporter of Israel, his close friendship with former PLO official Rashid Khalidi being symptomatic. Read more ...Source: PipeLine News
The Yemen Observatory for Human Rights organization recently exposed a case of the sale of a slave, carried out with the permission of a court in the country.
The organization said that the institution of slavery still exists in Yemen, even though the country's constitution is bound by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Source: yohr.org H/T: MEMRI
 Imams are accused of being out of touch and
pushing young Muslims towards extremismYoung Muslims are being pushed towards extremism because their mosques are run by elderly and out-of-touch cliques, a report by an Islamic think-tank said yesterday. The Quilliam Foundation, an anti-extremist Islamic organisation, accused imams of failing to teach and preach in English and of shutting women out of their mosques. Only about 3 per cent of Muslim clerics were born in this country and most do not have full command of English, the study said. The report said that mosque leaderships did not promote British values and allowed young people to drift towards jihadists who speak their own language. The group called on the Government for stricter limits on visas for Islamic clerics coming to Britain and for an end to state grants for mosques that do not have at least one imam who preaches in English and supports the principles of democracy. The Quilliam Foundation - which has been backed with almost £1million of taxpayers' money and attacked by some Islamic groups as being a mouthpiece for the Government - also said madrassas, mosques' equivalent of Christian Sunday schools, should be fully inspected by local children's services officials. The survey was based on responses to five questions given by 512 mosques last autumn. It found 97 per cent of imams were born overseas and 92 per cent were trained abroad, while more than half of the Muslims in Britain were born here. 'The religious leadership in the vast majority of Britain's mosques are not in full command of the English language, and are likely to be ill-equipped to address the real concerns and everyday experiences of young British Muslims,' the report found. Read more ...Source: Daily Mail
 John Kerry's trip to Gaza last week was intended to give him a close-up look at life in the Hamas-run territory after Israel's three-week incursion in response to incessant Hamas rocket fire. And it was intended to show that American foreign policy has taken a new direction. Kerry (D-MA) is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His visit was the first by an American government official since Hamas seized power in 2007 and he became the first U.S. Senator to visit Gaza in at least eight years. Kerry met with local Palestinian business leaders, telling one that Hamas bears the blame for Israel's military incursion into Gaza: "Your political leadership needs to understand that any nation that has rockets hitting it for many years threatening its residents is going to respond." The trip included no contact with Hamas officials since Hamas is a terrorist group. However, it appears Hamas officials took advantage of the visit to create a faux goodwill gesture for global consumption. Details about the gesture, in the form of a letter to President Obama, remain unclear days later. What is clear is that the letter was conveyed to Kerry by United Nations workers and that, somehow, Hamas was able to learn of Kerry's visit in advance despite the fact it was not a part of the itinerary. Read more ...Source: IPT News
Three cheers for John Kyl! WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. Jon Kyl is hosting a film screening at the Capitol building on Thursday for a far-right Dutch lawmaker who claims that Islam inspires terrorism. Yes, Geert Wilders originated that idea! Osama bin Laden never thought of it! Kyl is sponsoring the event for Geert Wilders, who was denied entry to London earlier this month because British authorities said he posed a threat to public order.
Wilders’ 15-minute film juxtaposes verses from the Quran with images of violence by Muslims. Wilders has called the Quran a "fascist book" and said it should be banned.
Kyl agreed to facilitate the event because "all too often, people who have the courage to point out the dangers of militant Islamists find themselves vilified and endangered," said spokesman Ryan Patmintra.
Thursday’s event was being sponsored by the International Free Press Society, headed by Danish activist Lars Hedegaard, and the Center for Security Policy, a think tank in Washington led by Republican Frank Gaffney. Read more ... Source: APH/T: Jihad WatchHon. Jon Kyl
Latest recipient of The MASH Award
 KARACHI: A man surrendered himself after killing his elderly sister on the pretext of honour killing. Elahi Bux, 45, surrendered himself after axing to death his 60-year-old sister, Shehla Bibi, at his house located in Sector 15, Mehran Town, within the jurisdiction of Korangi Industrial Area Police Station. Confessing to the crime, the accused alleged that his sister had illicit relations with a landlord of Larkana. According to SHO Ismail Lashari, Bux only dealt one swift blow to the victim’s head and when her screams attracted the neighbours, rather than fleeing, Bux waited for the police to arrive. The police have registered a case on behalf of the victim’s son. However, according to family sources, Bux was in financial debt of the landlord and as he could not repay the money, he had married his daughter to the landlord. However, now the landlord wanted to marry Shehla Bibi, therefore, Bux thought it best to kill her rather than stain the family’s honour. The deceased was a widowed mother of five children. Read more ...Source: Daily Times
Why? Muslims in Malaysia are subject to sharia law. None of those secular shenanigans apply. It is an instructive case for Western countries pondering or already embarking down the slippery slope of granting legal legitimacy to sharia rulings within their borders: Are constitutional liberties really preserved when an "alternative" system does not guarantee freedom of conscience and other freedoms unequivocally? The question is valid even when sharia is not as officially compulsory as it is in Malaysia: Social and familial pressures are just as likely to make the idea of the "choice" of systems a farce and work against the people most in need of the legal protections of the non-sharia system. Read more ...Source: Jihad Watch
By Patrick Poole Notwithstanding the embarrassing denial of entry of Dutch parliamentarian and anti-jihad activist Geert Wilders to the country earlier this month, a new report by the director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at King’s College London and a new British government policy tackling the growing problem of Islamic extremism in the UK give evidence of major changes in understanding and addressing the roots of terrorist recruitment. These positive developments, along with new UK government policies to combat extremism — again, apart from the hypocritical banning of Wilders after admitting a long string of Islamic radicals - are important for U.S. researchers to understand terrorist network trends and what measures could be taken here. Read more ...Source: Pajamas Media
Source: Four CornersH/T: Gramfan
The Sixth Annual U.S.-Islamic World Forum, which concluded last week, included many leaders of the global Muslim Brotherhood as well as important current and former members of the U.S. Government. Sponsored by the Qatari foreign ministry and the Brookings Institution's Saban Centre for Middle East Policy, the annual gathering is described on its website as: The U.S.-Islamic World Forum is designed to bring together key leaders in the fields of politics, business, media, academia, and civil society from across the Muslim world and the United States. It seeks to address the critical issues dividing the United States and the Muslim world by providing a unique platform for frank dialogue, learning, and the development of positive partnerships between key leaders and opinion shapers from both sides. Now in its fifth year, the Forum has become the foremost meeting for positive cross-cultural engagement among leaders from the United States and the Muslim world. Read more ... Source: The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily ReportBrookings Institution's Saban Centre for Middle East Policy
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
By Daniel Pipes On the occasion of its launch in 2004 from near Buffalo, New York, the Muslim television channel "Bridges TV" won the enthusiastic support of Secretary of State Colin Powell's media assistant, Stuart Holliday: "I laud your expression of interest in promoting understanding and tolerance." And so it went; Bridges TV also met with euphoric media coverage, uncritical academic reaction, and blessings from sports giants like Muhammad Ali and Hakeem Olajuwan. From the start, however, Bridges TV amounted to a lie. On the political level, its raison d'être was based on the canard that Muslims in the United States suffer from bias and are victimized. That an idea took formal expression in 2000, when the Senate passed a resolution inveighing against the "discrimination" and "backlash" suffered by the American Muslim community, an insulting falsehood then and now. Read more ...Source: FrontPage Magazine
Speech for INTERNATIONAL Women's Day 2008
Afghan women burn in the inferno of fundamentalists and invaders
Today on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the International Women’s Day, women in the developed countries celebrate it with joy, but we still have to voice the miseries, problems and cruelties that our people and particularly women are going through in Afghanistan.
Women's Rights Catastrophe in Afghanistan
After the US and allies invaded Afghanistan around seven years ago, they misleadingly claimed of bringing peace and democracy and liberating Afghan women from the bleeding fetters of the Taliban. But in reality Afghan women are still burning voraciously in the inferno of fundamentalism. Women are exchanged with dogs, girls are gang-raped, men in the Jehadi-dominated society kill their wives viciously and violently, burn them by throwing hot water, cut off their nose and toes, innocent women are stoned to death and other heinous crimes are being committed. But the mafia government of Mr. Karzai is tirelessly trying to conciliate with the criminals and award medals to those who should be prosecuted for their crimes and lootings.
Unaware of the realities, some people considered the presence of tens of women in the parliament as a symbol of democracy, development, freedom and women’s rights. But it is clear now that these women are related to intelligence agencies or fundamentalist bands, are like dolls in the hands of Jehadi warlords who are calmly watching the adversity of our misfortunate women and instead of revealing and protesting against the horrible condition of women, are busy in corruption and collaboration with the sworn enemies of women’s rights and keeping their position in the parliament. If these women were truly representatives of Afghan women, they should have stood firmly beside Malalai Joya to fulfill their obligation towards our people and country with honesty and sincerity.
Saddam’s execution shook the Afghan Saddams to death as they tried hard to prevent their own similar destiny. By passing the dirty National Reconciliation bill in the parliament and formation of National Front, the fundamentalist leaders joined hands with their common-trait Khalqi and Parchami brothers to protect themselves from being brought to justice by Afghan people. Besides National Front, with the help of their so-called intellectual flunkeys they have formed a Cultural United Front against our people. These intellectuals are trying hard to whitewash and sugar-coat the criminals and through their strong propaganda machine in the media so as to portray them as democrat, progressive and freedom-loving.
If on one hand the Information Minister, Karim Khuram of Gulbuddin terrorist party, indulged in a criminal and chauvinistic act against some journalists, on the other hand the criminal “cultural” figures started a war on a few words whether to name the university in Pashto or Persian language in order to please their Iranian bosses. But both sides never speak a word about the current burning issues like insecurity, poverty, unemployment, lack of shelter, kidnappings, killing of innocent men and women by Jehadis and Taliban, death of people due to bitter cold and thousands other miseries of our people. While they are engaged in such priceless debates, they never dare to expose those responsible for the disastrous conditions of our people.
The true nature of the US “war on terror” drama has been exposed today and we witness that they are killing thousands of our innocent people under the name of “fighting terrorists” while on the other hand they are busy in dealing with the barbaric fascist Taliban trying to gloss some of them as “moderates” in order to share power with them. These treacherous acts of demagogy have revealed it once again to our people and to the world that the US government and its allies were just pursuing their strategic, economic and political gains in Afghanistan and pushing our people to increasing destitution and disasters. Installing the “Northern Alliance” brutal warlords on power and changing Afghanistan into the center of the world drug mafia, have been the first and foremost objectives of their wrong policies.
RAWA from the very first days stated that no country will grant freedom and democracy to another country and today this reality is evident to all. The US disguised the dead rats of yesterday with suits and ties thus released them like wild wolves on our people and are doing nothing about the current crimes, violation of human rights, looting of millions dollars of aid by warlords and corrupt NGOs. If the billions of dollars of aid directed in the name of reconstruction were not poured in the pockets of criminals in the parliament and cabinet, natural hazards like freezing winter would have not taken so many lives today. Even if a small portion of that money was spent for the relief of people, the life conditions of our miserable people, particularly women would have not been so tragic.
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) once again proclaims that all gloomy days and miseries of our country have roots in the existence of fundamentalist forces be it Jehadi or Taliban styles and as long as this filthy virus is not removed from the body of our country, our nation and country will never see the light of happiness and development.
We again state that although Mr. Karzai has declared that he is not in a position to bring the criminals around him to justice, but we are determined that despite many limitations and being besieged by warlords and their foreign masters, with the support of Afghan people and democratic-minded individuals and groups, we will drag the warlords and criminals of last three decades to law courts and punish them regardless of their religion and ethnic backgrounds.
Considering the above points, the celebration of the International Women’s Day has a different meaning for our women till the auspicious day of emancipation of Afghan women.
For us, the 8th March means the day to express horrifying miseries and the burning pains our women are passing through and the exposure of the criminals responsible for this catastrophe.
For us, the 8th March means the day to covenant upon the blood of the martyred women who lost their lives for the cause of freedom, women’s rights and human dignity.
8th March means the day of solidarity and standing up against fundamentalism of any kind either Jehadi or Taliban.
Finally 8th March is the day to renew our pact for establishment of freedom; democracy and justice in an Afghanistan free of fundamentalists and their foreign guardians.
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
March 8, 2008 - Kabul
Source: http://www.rawa.org/events/mar8-2008_e.htm
Documentary 50' - Living under Islamic Law "In 1945 there were up to one million Jews living in the Middle East and North Africa outside the Palestine Mandate - many living in communities dating back more than three millennia. Today, there are several thousand. Who are these Jews? What precipitated their mass-exodus in the 20th century? Where did they go? And why don't we know their stories?" Video, in English: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-693217217048940768Source: http://www.arabsforisrael.com/
 Monday, February 23
A library service was stocking books which encouraged jihad and the murder of non-Muslims, a Government-backed report has revealed.
A cost-cutting measure has been blamed for the blunder, which happened five years ago.
Leicester City Council had changed its book supplier so it could buy more foreign-language books for its customers.
However, council bosses say they were poorly advised by the new provider and, as a result, brought some inflammatory material into stock.
After "several months", they realised the dangerous nature of the material and removed it from the shelves, and returned it to the supplier.
Details of the error were in a report from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), which gives guidance on the handling of controversial material in public libraries, and is sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
A city council spokesman said: "We bought some stock from independent book sellers who, as it turned out, did not advise us very well. One of our staff identified that about two or three titles had a jihadist theme, and the books were removed from the shelves.
"We then reverted back to our agency which, in the meantime, had extended its service, and have continued to buy this way ever since.
"Leicester provides an excellent library service for an ever-changing diverse community, and we were happy to share what we learned with the MLA so other authorities benefit."
The report also revealed the council had problems with people attempting to donate inflammatory books.
In one incident, an attempt was made by someone to donate a copy of "Ghetto Kingz – life as we know it" by murderer Chevern Obinna Anozie.
The book is the story of Anozie, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of 25-year-old Wilfred Walbrook, who was shot dead outside a Leicester city centre nightclub, where he was a doorman, in 1994.
The book has been condemned by the victim's mother.
The MLA also says libraries have problems in areas where they serve mixed religion areas.
On a number of occasions customers had brought in Islamic newspapers and magazines which were inflammatory and had to be disposed of.
Suleman Nagdi, spokesman for the Federation of Muslim Organisations, Leicestershire, said: "I had not heard of these problems.
"I am not surprised that people have tried to do this.
"We live in a liberal democracy which allows freedom of speech, which must be protected.
"But we also must balance this with the rights of our citizens to be protected, whether that be from extremist religion or from far right political parties.
"If books or other material incites hatred, then it should not be in public places." Source: This is Leicestershire H/T: Gig
 Actually that's an exaggeration. It's only a little more than $900 million: The United States plans to pledge more than $900 million to help rebuild Gaza after Israel's offensive against Hamas and strengthen the Palestinian Authority, a U.S. official said on Monday. The money will be channeled through UN and other bodies and will not be distributed via the militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to make the announcement next week at a Gaza donors conference in Egypt. The March 2 donors conference in Sharm el-Sheikh resort aims to raise humanitarian and rebuilding funds for Gaza after Israel's offensive against Hamas at the end of last year. About 1,300 Palestinians were killed during the campaign, according to Gaza officials, as were 13 Israelis. Old Reuters boilerplate: "About 1,300 Palestinians were killed during the campaign, about two-thirds of which were civilians..." New Reuters boilerplate: "About 1,300 Palestinians were killed during the campaign, according to Gaza officials..." Read more ...Source: HaaretzH/T: Mere Rhetoric
If you chose "No," please consider providing your solution to Gaza crisis in the comments.
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