 The Defense Department released its report Friday on the jihad massacre at Fort Hood, and it is hard to imagine a document more full of denial and deception. Above all, the Pentagon seems intent on ignoring and obfuscating the reasons why Nidal Hasan murdered thirteen people at Fort Hood in November. Although there were numerous signs that Nidal Hasan was an Islamic jihadist who believed it part of his religious responsibility as a Muslim to wage war against Infidels, the words “jihad,” “Muslim,” “Islam” and even “Islamist” never appear in the 86-page mélange of droning bureaucratese. Echoing hapless Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s reaction to the Christmas Day attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253, the report claims that, despite the thirteen murders, the system worked well at Fort Hood: “Leaders at Fort Hood had anticipated mass casualty events in their emergency response plans and exercises. Base personnel were prepared and trained to take appropriate and decisive action to secure the situation. The prompt and courageous acts of Soldiers, first responders, local law enforcement personnel, DoD civilians, and health care providers prevented greater losses.” The only negative note in the report is the delicately stated idea that the military could be better prepared for the next jihad attack -- uh, that is, the next “tragedy”: “The tragedy, however, raised questions about the degree to which the entire Department is prepared for similar incidents in the future -- especially multiple, simultaneous incidents.” And how does the report propose to make sure that the military is prepared for “similar incidents in the future”? By acting upon a series of empty, platitudinous recommendations: “identifying and monitoring potential threats;” “providing time-critical information to the right people;” “employing force protection measures;” and “planning for and responding to incidents.” That’s right: the Pentagon is recommending that the military could be more prepared for the next terror attack by “planning for” it. And the irony is thick when the report recommends that the military improve its ability to identify and monitor “potential threats” -- this from a report that steadfastly refuses even to acknowledge the existence of the Islamic jihad doctrine that motivated Nidal Hasan to murder in the first place. Could belief in that doctrine be a “potential threat”? Of course not. At least not in a military which permits the Chief of Staff of the Army -- Gen. George Casey -- to say that as bad as the Fort Hood shootings were, it would be an even greater tragedy if the Army’s diversity were damaged. A glimmer of reality threatens to break through when the report suggests that “DoD standards for denying requests for recognition as an ecclesiastical endorser of chaplains may be inadequate” -- in other words, the Pentagon has no efficient way to screen the groups that endorse chaplains for the military. And that is certainly true: for a considerable period only two Islamic groups, both Saudi-funded, had the authority to train and approve Muslim chaplains for the military: the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences and the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council. Both of these were linked to the Islamic activist Abdurrahman Alamoudi, who is now serving a 23-year prison sentence for financing jihad terrorism. If the Pentagon increased scrutiny of such “moderate” organizations, well and good. But by what criteria will it do so, since it doesn’t seem to have noticed that there is any problem of supremacism or violence in Islam in the first place? Political correctness was responsible for the murders of thirteen people at Fort Hood. If it had not held the political and military establishments in a stranglehold, Nidal Hasan would never have remained in the U.S. military, much less risen to the rank of major. He would have been removed from the ranks long before he had had a chance to murder anyone at Fort Hood. Political correctness was responsible for the fear among his superior officers -- they knew that if they disciplined or removed Hasan, they would have faced charges of “discrimination” and “bigotry.” And such charges can ruin careers these days. But that same political correctness is still very much in place, as the Fort Hood report abundantly indicates. And so for all its bluster about preventing the next attack, it will stand -- after the next jihad attack, and the one after that -- as a monument to the cowardice and myopia that held sway at the highest levels in Washington during the first year of the Obama Administration. 
 By Janet Daley As I predicted last week, Islam4UK has called off its march in Wootton Bassett – needless to say without the government agreeing to its outrageous demand to meet for a “debate” on the war in Afghanistan. This climbdown is as much as anything a noteworthy triumph for moderate Islam many of whose leaders made it clear that they were disgusted and furious with the organisation’s offensive plan. Even the leaders of a publicity-seeking crowd of fanatics must have seen that this was a bridge too far: that they would be held personally responsible for the backlash against innocent members of their own community and for what might have been irreparable damage to race relations in Britain.
The forces of sanity (or, at least self-preservation) have prevailed – for which we must give thanks. The Telegraph
 As a U.S. representative, Keith Ellison's primary responsibility is to represent his constituents in Minnesota's 5th congressional district. The first Muslim elected to Congress, Ellison, a Democrat, also seems to feel an obligation to be the voice of Muslim Americans in Washington.
That alone would not be an issue. But in his two terms, he has established a disturbing record of promoting and defending radical Islamists who hide beneath a veneer of moderation. When those organizations are criticized, Ellison often jumps to their defense. He also travels the country to raise money on their behalf. In 2009, Ellison spoke at three fundraising dinners for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and provided videotaped remarks at others, including the CAIR-Sacramento Valley dinner last weekend. He also appeared with CAIR officials at events on health care reform and celebrating the Muslim Eid holiday. Last month, Ellison took to the House floor to rebuke four colleagues who called for an investigation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and whether it was targeting offices tied to committees on the judiciary, homeland security and intelligence to place interns. According to the book Muslim Mafia, internal CAIR records show the group sought to infiltrate those congressional offices. "These charges smack of an America 60 years ago where lists of 'un-American' agitators were identified," Ellison said in his floor remarks. "The idea that we should investigate Muslim interns as spies is a blow to the very principle of religious freedom that our Founding Fathers cherished so dearly. If anything, we should be encouraging all Americans to take part in the U.S. political process." The four Republican officials never asked that Muslim interns be investigated. Their concern focused solely on CAIR and cited internal CAIR documents published in the book. CAIR deserves special scrutiny because of documented proof that it was founded by members of a U.S.-based Hamas support network created by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is an Egyptian religious/political movement which aims to spread Islamic law throughout the world. The Hamas support by CAIR founders documented in the terror-financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development prompted the FBI to cut off communications with CAIR in 2008. CAIR's access reportedly could be restored if it pledged not to support Hamas. CAIR officials have rejected that pledge. More at IPT
 By JAY AMBROSE
Suppose Maj. Nidal Hassan had called a meeting of agents of the FBI and top officers of Fort Hood, and then said something like this: "Hey, I am a radical Islamic jihadist. I hate America and what it stands for, and especially what it is doing to my fellow Muslims in this so-called war on terror. I am thinking a lot these days about killing people. And in fact, I think killing Americans is justified by the Koran. You get me" Well, they probably would not get him.
They would probably have just left him alone. For the fact is that Hassan did explicitly, unmistakably, repeatedly announce his terrorist attitudes. He had e-mail exchanges with an al Qaida-friendly cleric. He told a meeting of doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center that Muslim solders such as himself should be let out of the Army and could become suicide bombers if they were not.. He engaged in diatribes against America during sessions of a public health course at a military university. To him, it is reported, the war on terror was actually a war on Islam. None of this was secret, you understand. It was mostly done in public, some of it seems to have been reported to high-ranking officers, and the FBI found out about the e-mails. The FBI called off its investigation and nothing else was done to stop Hasan until he found a crowded spot at Fort Hood, began firing his semi-automatic handgun, shouted "Allahu Akbar" - "God is great" - and killed 13 people. Heroic police officer Kimberly Munley fired back and he is now in a hospital, recovering and waiting for a military trial. It is pretty clear why no one in authority paid as much attention as the situation demanded. I am not the first to fear that officials were inhibited by the politically correct concern that really, truly investigating this man and his attitudes would be understood as racial or religious profiling, as unwarranted discrimination against Muslims. A probe and appropriate, life-saving action - getting him out of the military, pronto - would have been no such thing, of course. We can all understand that there is no reason to be suspicious of someone just because he or she is a Muslim, but that there is if the person is a self-proclaimed loyalist to the terrorist cause. "If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have zero tolerance," U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman is quoted as having said in a TV interview. Of course, as others have noted, no such political correctness extends to Americans who happen to be conservative. Some left-wing commentators fret endlessly over the violence that could come from excessive right-wing rhetoric even as they employ the same kind of rhetoric themselves, and then there's the infamous memo from the Department of Homeland Security.
It warned police that, in times of recession and following the election of a black president, right-wing extremists might find ready recruits for terrorist groups among people worried about gun controls, illegal immigration and the like, and that returning war veterans might also be pulled in. While some right-wing berserkers have in fact committed acts of violence, there was no evidence of the kind of thing the department was talking primarily about. You can see the bigotry evident in this form of thinking if you imagine a memo warning police to be wary in general of American Muslims because they might be drawn to violence.
The need is to be suspicious of people when they trot out solid reasons for that suspicion, and then to do your level best to save others from them, whatever group they might belong to. Jay Ambrose, formerly Washington director of editorial policy for Scripps Howard newspapers and the editor of dailies in El Paso, Texas, and Denver, is a columnist living in Colorado. He can be reached at SpeaktoJay@aol.com. Source: NewsChief
 The shooting rampage at Fort Hood could make life noticeably more difficult for Arabs and Muslims serving in the U.S. military.Soon after the killings, witnesses said that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged gunman, had shouted "Allahu Akbar," the Arabic phrase for "God is great," as he fired.
Meanwhile, a video played repeatedly on cable television of him wearing the white dishdasha and skullcap of an observant Muslim.
The clip was recorded just hours before the attack that killed 13 people and wounded at least 28 others, reports said.
For those who believe Muslims and Arab-Americans -- Hasan's parents were Palestinian -- constitute a dangerous "fifth column," the tragedy provided further evidence.
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade suggested that all Muslim Army officers should face special debriefings. "If I'm going to be deployed in a foxhole, if I'm going to be sticking in an outpost," he said, "I got to know the guy next to me is not going to want to kill me." Allen West, a Republican recruit for a House seat in Florida and a retired Army officer who served at Fort Hood, was more blunt, saying that the attack "is proof the enemy is infiltrating our military."
Similar rhetoric was heard two years ago when the U.S. Military Academy at West Point dedicated its first Muslim prayer room. Investor's Business Daily criticized the Army for "a show of blind tolerance" that increased the chances of "Islamist infiltration."
Some of the suspicions about Muslims in uniform arose after Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar, an African-American convert to Islam, killed two officers and wounded 14 others in a grenade attack in Kuwait a few days before the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Akbar, who was later sentenced to death by a military court, said he was upset that U.S. troops planned to kill his fellow Muslims.
Relatives of Hasan, a psychiatrist about to be deployed to Afghanistan, said he was often harassed for being a Muslim after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and wanted to leave the military.
The Pentagon says there are 3,546 self-identified Muslims in the military. Muslim groups say there as as many as 15,000 because many list no religious preference in their records. Hasan is among nearly 300,000 of 1.4 million active-duty service members who didn't list a religion.
Ray Hanania, a Chicago radio talk show host and co-founder of the Association of Patriotic Arab Americans in Military, condemned Hasan's alleged actions as the work of a troubled individual.
But he said many Arab-American and Muslim service members can tell stories of prejudice in the ranks.
 by Lt. Col. Ralph Peters As President Obama belatedly appears at Fort Hood today, will he dare to speak the word "terror?" He won't use the word "Islamist." If he mentions Islam at all, it'll be to sing its praises yet again. We've already learned that Islamist terrorist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan attended the Northern Virginia mosque of Imam Anwar al-Aulaqi, a fiery al Qaeda supporter who later fled the United States. We know that Hasan's peers, subordinates and patients repeatedly raised red flags that his superiors suppressed. We know he was a player on Islamist-extremist Web sites. The FBI's uncovering one extremist link after another. But to call this an act of terrorism, the White House would need an autographed photo of Osama bin Laden helping Hasan buy weapons in downtown Killeen, Texas. Even that might not suffice. Islamist terrorists don't all have al Qaeda union cards in their wallets. Terrorism's increasingly the domain of entrepreneurs and independent contractors. Under Muslim jurisprudence, jihad's an individual responsibility. Hasan was a self-appointed jihadi. Yet we're told he was just having a bad day. Our politically correct Army plays along. Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey won't utter the word "terrorism." The Forces Command Public Affairs Office guidance for officers never mentions "Islam" or "terror," leaving you unsure whether there was a traffic accident down at Fort Hood, or maybe an outbreak of swine flu. Meanwhile, the media try to turn Hasan into a victim. A sickening (and amateurish) Washington Post article portrayed him as a poor, impoverished minority living in a $320-a-month rathole apartment and driving a down-market car -- as if the squalor made him a terrorist. Squalor he chose to live in, by the way: As a major drawing added professional pay for his medical credentials, plus his benefits, Hasan made a six-figure income. And he was single, without college loans or medical bills. Has anybody asked where the money went? I'll bet a chunk of it disappeared in cash donations to hard-core Islamist causes. Will a single journalist track the missing bucks? It gets worse: On Sunday evening, a ranking officer in Hasan's medical chain of command raced to cover her butt. Asked why the killer was promoted to major after receiving career-killer performance reviews at Walter Reed, the officer claimed that Hasan faced the same promotion board requirements as everyone else. Liar, liar, uniform on fire: A dirty big secret in our Army has been that officers' promotion boards have quotas for minorities. We don't call them quotas, of course. But if a board doesn't hit the floor numbers, its results are held up until the list has been corrected. It's almost impossible for the Army's politically correct promotion system to pass over a Muslim physician. Sen. Joe Lieberman, one of the few lawmakers willing to whisper the word "terrorism," needs to call the officers who sat on Hasan's promotion board before the Senate, put them under oath, then ask if Hasan made major because of minority-quota requirements. This corrupt (and now deadly) affirmative-action system does a severe disservice to the bulk of minority officers, who make the grade on quality and professionalism. It leaves other officers wondering if the new guy who just showed up in the unit is a "real" officer or an affirmative-action baby. Ditto for our government's unwillingness to take on Muslim extremists on US soil. Blathering about freedom of religion, we foster hate speech. By protecting the fanatics, we betray the peaceful majority of our Muslim citizens, leaving them afraid to speak out, since the feds shield the fanatics in charge of their mosques and communities. Let's be clear: Maj. Hasan's terrorism should not result in a witch hunt against Muslim service members. But soldiers who happen to be Muslims must be subject to the same level of scrutiny and discipline as those of other faiths. Just as we'd expect the Army to get rid of a disruptive white supremacist, we need to cashier anyone who espouses violent Islamist extremism -- as Maj. Hasan did, again and again. We won't. Because Islamist terrorism doesn't exist. Just ignore the dead and ask our president. Ralph Peters' latest book is "The War After Armageddon." Source: NYPost
 When an American-born radical Islamist cleric chose to praise last week's Fort Hood shooting spree by Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, part of the rationale was that no Muslim could faithfully serve the U.S. armed forces. To Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, that's because "The US is leading the war against terrorism which in reality is a war against Islam." A 2005 Canadian study of radicalism concluded that this theme is a potent tool in recruiting Muslims and turning them into violent extremists. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) report was on youth radicalism and Hasan is a 39-year old with advanced college degrees. Associates are stepping forward with accounts showing that Hasan was frustrated by what he saw as an American war against his faith. The Washington Post obtained a copy of Hasan's June 2007 presentation at as part of his residency program at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Among the statements that disturbed his colleagues, Hasan declared that "It's getting harder and harder for Muslims in the service to morally justify being in a military that seems constantly engaged against fellow Muslims." A student who took an environmental health class with Hasan at Uniformed Services of the Health Sciences in Bethesda describes him as someone who believed the United States was waging war against Islam. At the end of the class, all of the students had to give a presentation. Many wrote about course-related topics such as dry-cleaning chemicals and mold in homes, Lt. Col. Val Finnell said. But Hasan (who told classmates he was "a Muslim first and an American second,") chose instead to write about the wrongness of the war on terror. A former classmate told the New York Times that Hasan gave a PowerPoint presentation approximately one year ago entitled "Why the War on Terror is a War on Islam." Hasan has not been charged in the shootings which left 13 people dead. Sources have indicated he will face a military court martial for murder charges that could bring the death penalty. According to the CSIS report, "the perception that Islam is under attack from the West" is the most important factor in persuading would-be jihadists that they must preemptively and violently defend Islam from these perceived enemies. According to a summary of the report's findings: "A few will act on these events and support or carry out terrorism in an attempt to change Western foreign or military policy. These individuals take the violent defense of Islam as a personal goal and religious obligation." The idea that the United States is fighting a war against Islam has been advanced by Osama bin Laden, who has cited Western efforts to isolate Hamas and support for a peacekeeping force as evidence of a "Zionist-crusaders war on Islam." Awlaki, a former spiritual leader at Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, works to encourage jihadist activity with online lectures from his home base in Yemen. Awlaki, may have crossed paths with Hasan, who attended Dar al-Hijrah in 2001. U.S. officials knew Hasan sent 10 to 20 messages to Awlaki last year and this year, but counterterrorism officials said these were consistent with a research project Hasan was conducting on post-traumatic stress disorder. Read more here,,,, Source: IPT
 A “hardcore” Islamist has been given a key Home Office job to tackle terrorism and divert fellow Muslims from the path of violence. The appointment of Asim Hafeez as head of intervention at the Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism has caused serious concern among more moderate Muslim advisers across Whitehall. It is seen as a sign of a shift in the government’s policy on radical Islam away from engagement with more moderate groups. There is a sharp divide of opinion within government about whether ministers should engage with Muslims at risk of radicalisation or concentrate on forging links with moderates. Mr Hafeez was described by one fellow adviser as “hardcore Salafi”. Salafism is a strictly puritanical branch of Islam, often associated with Saudi Arabia. It does not promote violence, but does urge the creation of an Islamic state. The new Home Office adviser is reported to have raised eyebrows at his new department during the Muslim festival of Ramadan, when he lectured guests at a reception about the benefits of fasting. Before his appointment at the Home Office, Mr Hafeez worked as an adviser to the Welsh Assembly, government where he had a reputation for his strict views on Islam. He also regularly lectured on Islamic issues at Welsh universities. The Home Office appointment coincides with a change of regime at the Department of Communities and Local Government, where John Denham has replaced Hazel Blears as Secretary of State. Sources at the department have told the JC that Mr Denham’s deputy, Shahid Malik, has announced his belief that ministers have been “talking to the wrong people”. The Home Office last night confirmed that Mr Hafeez had been given the job, but said that all appointments followed government procedures. Source: JC
 He also told colleagues at America's top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July. Colleagues had expected a discussion on a medical issue but were instead given an extremist interpretation of the Koran, which Hasan appeared to believe. It was the latest in a series of "red flags" about his state of mind that have emerged since the massacre at Fort Hood, America's largest military installation, on Thursday. Hasan, armed with two handguns including a semi-automatic pistol, walked into a processing centre for soldiers deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he killed 13 and injured more than 30. Fellow doctors have recounted how they were repeatedly harangued by Hasan about religion and that he openly claimed to be a "Muslim first and American second." One Army doctor who knew him said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim soldier had stopped fellow officers from filing formal complaints. Another, Dr Val Finnell, who took a course with him in 2007 at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Maryland, did complain about Hasan's "anti-American rants." He said: "The system is not doing what it's supposed to do. He at least should have been confronted about these beliefs, told to cease and desist, and to shape up or ship out. I really questioned his loyalty." Selena Coppa, an activist for Iraq Veterans Against the War, said: "This man was a psychiatrist and was working with other psychiatrists every day and they failed to notice how deeply disturbed someone right in their midst was." One of Hasan's neighbours described how on the day of the massacre, about 9am, he gave her a Koran and told her: "I'm going to do good work for God" before leaving for the base. A civilian police officer who shot him, bringing the rampage to an end, said Hasan appeared "calm" during the massacre, hiding behind a telephone pole and shooting fellow soldiers in the back as they tried to get away. "He was firing at people as they were trying to run and hide, said Sgt Mark Todd. "Then he turned and fired a couple of rounds at me. I didn't hear him say a word, he just turned and fired." Hasan flinched after he was shot and slid down against the pole still clutching his gun, which had a laser sight on it. The officer kicked away the weapon and handcuffed him. He said: "The guy was breathing, his eyes were blinking. I could tell that he was fading out and he didn't say anything. He was just kind of blinking." Senator Joe Lieberman, who chairs the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security, said there had been "strong warning signs" that Hasan was an "Islamist extremist". The committee would ask "whether the Army missed warning signs that should have led them to essentially discharge him, he said. He added: "The US Army has to have zero tolerance. He should have been gone." But General George Casey, the Army's Chief of Staff, said it was "speculation" that military authorities failed to pick up on warning signs. "I don't want to say that we missed it," he said. Asked if military authorities had missed warning signs Gen Casey, the Army's Chief of Staff, added: "We have to go back and look at ourselves ,and ask ourselves the hard questions. Are we doing the right things? We will learn from this. "It's too early to draw conclusions but we will ask ourselves the hard questions about what we are doing and the changes we should make as a result of this." Source: Telegraph
 by Denis MacEoinMany motives are cited for suicide bombings, from religious sanctification to revenge for Western foreign policy to hatred of Israel, but one thing ties them together: the boast that Muslims love death, whereas their enemies love life.
From killing the infidel enemy through suicide attacks, to allowing the subordinate female to participate in suicide attacks, a pattern emerges. And just as honor killings are a perversion of the most basic of human ties, so love for martyrdom takes societies into a direct relationship with the darkest side of human nature. In trying to explain this, it may be feasible to identify routes to a possible solution. Origins
Since the 1980s, killing oneself deliberately has become the most popular method of attacking and killing one's enemies in countries including Iraq and Afghanistan, in territories such as Chechnya or the West Bank and Gaza, and even in Western countries such as the United States and Great Britain.
It was a real-life Shi'i fanatic, a thirteen-year-old boy called Hossein Fahmideh, who set things moving in 1981 when he died with a grenade in his hand, throwing himself under a tank during the Iran-Iraq war.
He was followed by thousands of young Iranians carrying "keys to paradise," who walked and ran across minefields, ripping their bodies apart for God and the Islamic regime.[1]
Two years later, the first suicide attack occurred against a Western target when a bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives into the lobby of the American embassy in Beirut. Apart from himself, he killed 63 people: 32 Lebanese, 17 Americans, and 14 visitors. Iran denied all involvement in the attack, but its protégé, Hezbollah, soon claimed responsibility, and it was subsequently established that the killings had been approved and financed by senior Iranian officials.
The Iranian role in many subsequent suicide bombings has been crucial, given the existence of a clerical elite that inherited a deeply-embedded Shi'i cult of martyrdom, whose traditions of flagellation, public weeping, passion plays, martyrdom sermons, and hagiographies of martyrs were pushed into overdrive after the revolution of 1979. An Islamic Paradox By 2008, 1,121 suicide bombers had carried out attacks in Iraq, killing on a massive scale.
With the exception of Sri Lanka, where the Tamil Tigers used the tactic, suicide bombing has become an almost exclusively Islamic phenomenon.
Whether religiously observant or driven by other motives, the bombers have been Muslims, regardless of their country of origin. Even Muslims raised and educated in non-Muslim countries (like Britain's 7/7 bombers) and exposed to cultures without overt jihadi propaganda have put on explosive belts and gone to their deaths in order to kill nonbelievers. Apart from their Islamic roots, these terrorists display a wide range of characteristics. Many have been young men, some of whom were mentally disabled, while others were very bright, some uneducated, others university graduates; a growing number are women, mostly young, some old, some virgins, others pregnant or mothers. Many have belonged to terrorist groups such as Hamas and have been indoctrinated in Islamist thought, anti-Semitism, or general hatred of the West. Others have been volunteers seeking to expiate sins or retrieve the honor of their families. Yet suicide bombing involves a paradox within Islam. On the one hand, laws relating to jihad unambiguously state that fighters must not take the lives of noncombatants, such as women, children, the sick, or the elderly.
At the same time, anyone who dies while fighting non-Muslims is considered a martyr and guaranteed the highest rank in paradise. How do Islamists get round this problem? Some may shut their eyes and get on with it, but others come face to face with the paradox by dividing the problem into bite-size pieces. Clerics sanctify the bombers in their sermons, organizations including Hamas and Islamic Jihad identify and celebrate them as fighters in the jihad, and foreign donors provide aid that is siphoned off to the families of the martyrs.[2] Whatever the private motivation of the suicide bomber, his or her action is rooted in much broader national, communal or, above all, religious demands, pressures, and desires.
These range from religious convictions and edicts to concepts of holy war and martyrdom to conflicts over issues of shame and honor to social constructs of sexuality.
Most importantly, the bombings have nothing to do with suicide. Nor are they described as such by those who send the bombers out and those who immolate themselves. To make it easier to understand what modern Islamist suicide bombing is about, we need to examine its historical background, its religious/nationalist role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and its psychological and cultural roots in the Arab and Islamic interpretation of women, sexuality, shame, and honor. Read more here,,,, Source: Middle East Forum
 Cairo - An Egyptian Islamist MP called on Sunday for the storming of Israeli embassies around the world if Israelis entered Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound. Subhi Saleh, an MP affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest but banned opposition group, said Israeli embassies "in every country" should be stormed if Israelis enter the site. "Embassies have diplomatic immunity but our holy places have divine immunity, so if they enter Al-Aqsa let us enter their embassies," he said during a heated meeting of his parliamentary bloc. Tensions over the compound turned violent on September 27 when Palestinians hurled rocks at a group of visitors whom they suspected of being rightwing Jewish extremists. Home to the Western Wall of the Second Temple, it is Judaism's holiest site and Islam's third most sacred. Amid the tensions, Israel a week ago denied access to the site to non-Muslim visitors and to Muslim males under the age of 50. But it re-opened the compound on Sunday. In September 2000, the second Palestinian uprising, or intifada, erupted after Ariel Sharon, a rightwing politician who went on to become Israel's prime minister, visited the site. Source: News24
 The Islamic administration officials in Bardere town in Gedo region have Thursday ordered the women there in south Somalia to take a veil or else will be taken legal step by the Islamist fighters in the town. The Islamist administration had ordered all the women in the town to take coverings once again since their announcement which was 15 days ago saying that they will take a right step the women who refuse to take the order of the administration adding that they will also be sentenced with the Sharia law. Mo'allin Mohumed Osma'il, head of the advice and education for the Islamic administration in Bardere town told Shabelle radio that Thursday was the last day of their ultimatum order with in the 15 days which stated all the women in the town to have veils through the town. The official lastly said that the Islamist forces will conduct operations against the women who have not the coverings through in the town adding that they were completely ordered to arrest the women in the jails of Bardere town in Gedo region in southern Somalia. Source: AllAfrica
The arch-terrorist's real reason for waging jihad has nothing to do with Israel or U.S. foreign policy.Raymond Ibrahim Ever since 9/11, when Osama bin Laden was thrust into the spotlight, he has made it a point to occasionally submit questions to Americans — questions which he apparently thinks are unanswerable. In his last message “commemorating” 9/11, for instance, after rehashing the storyline that the jihad on America wholly revolves around U.S. support for Israel — former grievances cited throughout the years include America’s “exploitation” of women and failure to sign the environmental Kyoto Protocol — bin Laden concluded with the following musing: “You should ask yourselves whether your security, your blood, your sons, your money, your jobs, your homes, your economy, and your reputation are more dear to you than the security and economy of the Israelis.” Read more ... Source: PJM
 By: Salah Uddin Shoaib ChoudhuryNotorious Islamist militancy group, Hizbut Towhid [HT] has started open spread of hate speech through its own website www.tawheedprocation.com and established its distribution center of hatred materials at 31/32 P. K. Roy Road, Pustak Bhaban, bangla Bazar, Dhaka. The mentioned website, though claimed to be owned by the publication house of this notorious group, in reality, it is the official website of HT. At the beginning of the page, an article is published in English titled ‘The true call of Eslam’, where Bayeezid Khan Panni alias Selim Panni, the kingpin of this terror outfit wrote, “to people, who are aware to even a minimum degree of what is happening around them in this world, it does not come as any surprise what pitiable situation the population of about 1600 million or 160 crores people who claim themselves to be Moslems are in. They are being subjected to untold horror by all other peoples of this world, defeated in every aspect, insulted, humiliated and killed. Their places of worship, their mosques, are being razed to the ground or turned into offices or clubs. Their women are being violated and killed. Yet, this is the people who go by the same name of those who were once the masters of this world. All others looked upon them in awe and respect, they ruled over half of the total land mass of the then world. They were the people who established the way of life [Deen] given by Allah over all the areas they conquered; they ruled unrivaled as none was there to challenge them in any aspect for they held the highest position in terms of military might, advances in science, civilization, in areas of new discoveries, inventions, technology and economic strength. Yet, all this could do little to prevent the wrath of Allah when the time came- and centuries have passed since they collectively lost in military confrontation to European Christian nations and accepted their subjugation in their lives. During the process of these defeats, lakhs and lakhs of these Moslems were killed, under tanks, burnt and buried alive-and shot dead, their dwellings were burned down. Their females faced the worst fates, being sold to brothels across Europe and Africa. Yet, the wrath of Allah has not ceased to this date. Christian forces in different parts of Europe namely Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, Czechoslovakia, Chechnya, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea-in Asia and Africa-in the Philippines, Buddhists in the Arakan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Sing Kiang [China] - Jews in the Lebanon and Palestine, Hindus in the whole of India, especially Kashmir, are carrying on with the persecution and massacre on the Moslem peoples with relentless pursuit. There has not been a single instance, where any Moslem minority has expressed their will to live as Moslems and they have not been persecuted. They are taken into custody, subjected to inhumane torture, hung or simply left to die. All because they want to live independently as Moslems. In the history of mankind, no other nation has endured the level of humiliation and insult that has been heaped on this people. The incidents in Bosnia are such that, they are no comparison in human history; where thousands of Moslem were killed and dumped in mass graves, more than two hundred thousand Moslem women were systematically raped, impregnated and held in concentration camps to prevent them from aborting their unwanted offspring. Eventually, they gave birth to children of their Christian violators.” In the book and DVD named ‘Dajjal’, Hizbut Towhid kingpin Bayeezid Khan Panni terms Jews and Christians as enemies of Islam. He advocates ‘Jihad’ against Jews and Christians and their allies as ‘sacred task’ of Muslims. According to Dhaka’s leading English language daily newspaper The Daily Star, on April 17, 2009 Police arrested 31 Hizbut Towhid activists, including its Kushtia regional chief, and seized books and leaflets on Jihad from Kushtia town [in the Southern part of Bangladesh]. They also recovered two kilogram of a white powder, which was not identified immediately. Police claimed that of the arrestees, six were top-level leaders of the outfit including two alleged militant trainers who are also policy-makers of the organisation. Acting on a tip off, a police team, led by Officer-in-charge of Kushtia Police Station Babul Sardar, raided the organisation's Pather Disha office at Bara Bazar in the town in the morning and made the arrests while they were holding a secret meeting. The arrestees admitted that they have long been members of Hizb-ut Towhid. Daily Star quoted locals saying, they would often see a group of people gathered at Pather Disha office, owned by Mahbub Rahman. People aged between 15 and 25 used to assemble at the office from different parts of the country. They held daylong meetings and left at night, locals claimed. According to Bangladeshi police a large number of trained Hizb-ut Towhid men are active in Kushtia, Meherpur, Chuadanga and Jhenidah of Khulna division. Different sources say that at least 1,200 trained members of the outfit are active in the region. Most of them are Madrassa students belonging to poor families and Imams of mosques. On September 9, 2003, 45 people including Hizb-ut Towhid men were injured when they clashed with locals at Poradah Bazar in Mirpur upazila in Kushtia. Police later arrested 43 Hizb-ut Towhid activists. In Meherpur, 14 Hizb-ut Towhid men including its Meherpur unit chief Anisur Rahman were arrested in separate raids by Rapid Action Battalion [RAB] and police at Gangni on April 13, 2007. Police recovered firearms, bomb-making materials, books on jihad and leaflets from their possession. In Jhenidah, 34 Hizb-ut Towhid men were arrested on July 13, 2004. Police also seized books and leaflets and other materials from them. According to a press report published a few months ago, the law-enforcement agencies have listed 29 Islamic organisations for suspected involvement in militancy and Hizb-ut Towhid is one of them. Allahr Dal, Islami Samaj, al Harat al Islamia, Jama'atul Faliya, Towhidi Janata, Biswa Islami Front, Juma'atul al Sadat, Shahadat-e-Nobuat, Jama'at-e Yahia al Turat, Joyshe Mostafa Bangladesh, al Jihad Bangladesh, Woarat Islamic Front, Jamaat-as-Sadat, al Khidmat, Harkat-e-Islam al Jihad, Hijbullah Islami Samaj, Muslim Millat Shahria Council, World Islamic Front for Jihad, Joysh-e Mohammad, Hijbul Mahadi, Kalemar Dawat, Islami Dawati Kafela, al Islam Martyrs Brigade, Dawat-e Islam, Tanjim, Hizb e Abu Omar, and Jadid al-Qaeda Bangladesh are in that list. For the last few years Hizb-ut Towhid has been carrying out secret operations in the name of "dawat" in different parts of the country, especially in the southern region. In some cases police arrested some activists of different Islamic organisations during their suspicious activities. For instance, law enforcers arrested a few Hizb-ut Towhid activists in Bhola in early September 2008 for their suspicious movement. Superintendent of Police of Bhola GM Azizur Rahman had told The Daily Star the outfit seems suspicious as Hizb-ut Towhid's activities have similarity with the activities and groundwork of banned militant organisations. The organisations' activities surfaced early in 2008 when some of its operatives were seen distributing books and leaflets propagating Islamist militancy among students of the school. Hizb-ut Towhid in its different publications being distributed among youths is trying to teach them that jihad or military program or armed struggle is a must to establish the rule of Islam. According to The Daily Star, the organisation campaigns for armed struggle using the verses of the holy Quran. "… [if anyone] leaves jihad or armed struggle, they shall not be accepted to Allah as a momen [devout]," reads a publication of Hizb-ut Towhid titled "Islamer Prokrito Salah" [Real Salah of Islam]. In the book Hizb-ut Towhid says the Muslims as a whole are a military nation. The whole nation is a military force, each and every Muslim [man and woman] is a soldier, a Mujaheed and a warrior. "The training of this military force is called Salah," the book reads. Hizbut Towhid’s headquarters is situated at Dhaka’s Uttara residential area at House No. 4, road no. 18, sector no. 7. Uttara is one of the residential areas in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, which houses mostly upper-middle class and middle class people. Bayeejid Khan Panni, claiming him to be ‘Imam-Uz-Zaman’ by placing himself just behind prophets is continuing to operate this notorious group with financial assistance from various dubious sources. This extremist outfit was established in 1994 at Korotian village under Tabgain district in Bangladesh. Bayezid Ponni although operates HuT from his Uttara residence, there are now a number of branches of this notorious militancy group in a number of places in the Capital as well as other parts of the country. At Dhaka's New Eskaton Road area, Selim Clinic, which is located at the ground floor of a 4-storied building is used as the 'outlets' of Hizb Ut Towhid in collecting members and fund. Meanwhile, this group has extended its activities within Barisal, Feni, Kushtia, Madaripur, Tangail, Gazipur, Meherpur, Jhenidah, Noakhali, Khulna, Chittagong and Narshingdi districts under the patronization of its active members and donors. Funds of this group is collected in the name of 'Zakat' [Islamic donation]. The HuT chief, who left Bangladesh after the independence and returned in the '80s, published a book titled "This Islam is not at all Islam" in March 1996, which the government banned on May 10, 1998. He also wrote another book named 'Dazzal', where he said that Jews and Christians are the evils who should be eliminated by the Muslims. Besides, there are several leaflets and booklets on the HuT ideologies and objective. Followers of HT do not believe in democracy and traditional government system. HT activists use iron hammer and tobacco dust when they attack. They used a hammer to kill one Abdul Malek in Pagla Bazar in Fatulla, Narayangaj on September 26, 2003 when local devotees protested the HuT activities. Followers of this extremist group term Azan as “bark of dog” and do not say prayers in mosques. They consider Islamic greetings or Salaam as “bad practice”. Mahbub Ali, Kushtia district HT ameer, has been working along with 40/50 activists. Sohrab Hossain Khan of Sakukuthi village in Gouranadi upazila of Barisal, an absconding accused of a murder case, has also been leading HT activities from hideouts. With the fund received from the unknown donors, Hizbut Towhid is gradually gaining military strength by recruiting and training their own 'suicide squad' to 'fight against evils' and 'liberate the world from the grips of devils named democracy' and establish Islamic rule under the directives of Bayejid Ponni. Mohammad Bayezid Khan Ponni alias Selim Ponni terms working women as and women in politics as 'prostitutes' and gives his own 'Islamic Code' for men to marry any number of wives. His interpretation is, “women are created only for sexual pleasure of men and this is their only task”. He projects Jews and Christians as true evils and preaches killing them or raping female members of Jewish and Christian societies as “divine task”. He also teaches his followers to wage any type of offensives on the West. Bayejid Panni considers secularist forces as enemies of Islam and encourages his followers in killing seculars for “buying heaven”. In his interpretation, Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh [JMB] and other Islamist militancy groups are “sacred forces of Allah” and he terms Shaikh Abdur Rahman as the “Hero of Allah”. Although Bangladeshi intelligence agencies are continuing to gather information on this extremist outfit, there is visibly no sign from the government putting any ban on its activities for reason unknown. Moreover, it is reported that, a large number of Hizbut Towhid men are already going to a number of Western nations including United States, UK etc and they are actively working there in collecting members as well as getting prepared for “revolution against Jews and Christians”. For the last few years Hizb Ut Towhid has been carrying out secret operations in the name of 'dawat' in different parts of the country, especially in the southern region. In some cases Bangladeshi law enforcing agencies also arrested some activists of different Islamic organizations during their suspicious activities. For instance, law enforcers arrested a few Hizb Ut Towhid activists in Bhola in September 2008 for their suspicious movement. The organizations' activities surfaced early 2008 when some of its operatives were seen distributing books and leaflets propagating Islamist militancy among students of the school. Hizb Ut Towhid in its different publications being distributed among its targets is trying to teach them that jihad or military program or armed struggle is a must to establish the rule of Islam. The organization campaigns for armed struggle using the verses of the holy Qur'an. "… [if anyone] leaves jihad or armed struggle, they shall not be accepted to Allah as a momen [devout]," reads a publication of Hizbut Towhid titled "Islamer Prokrito Salah" [Real Salah of Islam]. In the book Hizb Ut Towhid says the Muslims as a whole are a military nation. The whole nation is a military force; each and every Muslim [man and woman] is a soldier, a Mujahid and a warrior. "The training of this military force is called Salah," the book reads. Few months back, Hizbut Towhid activists were arrested in different parts of Bangladesh, while they were distributing leaflets against Kindergarten schools and English medium education system in Bangladesh. It is learnt from various reliable sources that, Bayeejid Khan Panni has successfully recrited some West educated people in his group, who are working in preparing various publications for this notorious terror outfit. In recent months, the group has started agressively spreading its hate message amongst people with the intention of creating Jihadist mentality in the minds of commoners. For the sake of peace and stability of Bangladesh as well combating rise of militant Islam, present rulers in Dhaka should immediately take the case of Hizbut Towhid into consideration.
 Ali Waked Senior Islamist group legislator slams PM's speech before UN Security Council as 'attempt to impose twisted logic on entire world' Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri told Ynet Thursday, following the Israeli prime minister's address before the UN General Assembly.
Benjamin Netanyahu , he added, "Was seeking the UN's support for his Zionist-terrorist agenda against the Palestinian people, in an attempt to cover up the massacre he has perpetrated." Al-Masri said that Israel and its prime minister "couldn't care less about international reports, including the one Israel failed to cooperate with… It was an Israeli attempt to evade the truth; of course Israel wants the world to follow it." The Hamas legislator was referring to the Goldstone Report probing January's Israeli offensive in Gaza. The report accused both Israel and Hamas of violating international law and possibly committing war crimes. Harshly criticized as biased by both Israel and the US, Hamas too rejected the report's findings, calling them "imbalanced." The Palestinians, al-Masri continued, do not expect the UN Security Council to censure Israel in wake of the report: "As long as there is an America there can be no condemnation of Israel, which only proves how two-faced the UN and the international community are.
"The US has vetoed over 50 resolutions meant to condemn Israel for harming the Palestinians… this only bolsters Israel, which mocks not only the Goldstone Committee but all UN resolutions. "This proves that Israel aspires to be above international law in order to cement its illegal presence on our land," he added. "Israel's conduct is a moral challenge the UN has to deal with." Netanyahu's claim that Operation Cast Lead was meant to counter Hamas' incessant rocket fire on its southern cities is nothing but a "pathetic excuse," said al-Masri. "You cannot compare the Israeli killing machine that was implemented in Gaza, killing 1,500 Palestinians within days, to the humble means used by the resistance in its self-defense efforts," he said.
"History is no stranger to incidents when the American and Europeans defended themselves against occupation. What aren’t the Palestinians allowed to do the same?"
 By Sid Shahid At the core of the post-9/11 "war of ideas" is the battle over terminology. It would seem that Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser struck a nerve with the powers that be at CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) when he took the Obama administration to task for its abandonment of the phrase "war on terror" and its myopic focus on al-Qaeda, rather than the broader ideology behind it. In that criticism Dr. Jasser states: Acts of terror are rooted in the aspirations of Islamists to create an Islamic state and impose their version of Shariah law. ...
Al-Qaeda had nothing to do with the string of radical Islamists arrested across the country — from North Carolina to New York, Oregon, and New Jersey (to name but a few) — in the last year alone. The only thing these radicals have in common is their belief in a militant version of political Islam. …
It certainly is not the role of any administration to determine who are "good" and "bad" jihadists. Not calling them exactly what they call themselves makes the White House the arbiter of who is and who is not a Muslim. This avoidance behavior allows American Islamists, like the Muslim Brotherhood's front groups in Washington, to continue to deny their responsibility to lead the Islamic reform effort against Islamism and its role in radicalization — the real existential threat to the West. Islamist Watch Source: Islamist WatchH/T: Gramfan
 The well-known Islamist Tariq Ramadan has been fired from his faculty job at the Erasmus University in Holland, just days after the City of Rotterdam dismissed him from his post as advisor for integration. University and Rotterdam city officials issued a joint statement stating that Ramadan's hosting a weekly talk show "Islam and Life" on the Iranian government-funded TV channel, Press TV is "irreconcilable" with his posts. Press TV toes the Iranian regime's line. In June, it issued a report disputing eyewitness stories that militiamen had shot Neda Agha-Soltan during the election protests in Tehran. At about the same time a prominent British presenter quit the channel citing its biased election coverage. Ramadan said he plans to sue the Rotterdam City Council and the university. Ramadan has also been involved with litigation with the United States government, appealing the 2004 revocation of a visa to teach at the University of Notre Dame. In July 2009, an appellate court ordered Ramadan be granted a chance to prove he didn't know that a charity to which he donated was tied to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. U.S. officials cited that donation as a reason to reject Ramadan's visa. Controversy emerged in the Netherlands over Ramadan's statements over homosexuals ("God has established norms and the norm is that a man is meant for a woman and a woman is meant for a man.") and women ("When walking in the streets austerity requires that you always cast you eyes down to the pavement."). Read more ...Source: IPT Blog
 By David J. Rusin Election 2008 proved historic on a number of levels, but one milestone passed without the recognition it deserves. When the Electoral College convened on December 15 to ratify the citizens’ choice of Barack Obama as the next president, Jafar “Jeff” Siddiqui of Lynnwood, Washington, became the first known Islamist to cast an electoral vote. Siddiqui — a real estate agent, former chairman of the Islamic School of Seattle, and founding member of the American Muslims of Puget Sound activist group — was named a Democratic elector after his impromptu speech at the state party convention, in which he pledged to fight “the hate and bigotry that are being promoted in this country.” The Post-Intelligencer gushed, “His mission is to counteract the image of Muslims as fanatical terrorists and extremists that, he believes, is propagated in the media, popular culture, and even the government.” Yet Siddiqui has a long record of airing his own extreme views in local papers and the American Muslim magazine, a truth that was noted by an alert blog but predictably ignored by the mainstream press at the time of his appointment. As detailed below, Siddiqui is a textbook “lawful” Islamist who dreams of imposing at least one element of Sharia on the West: curbing speech that is critical of Islam. In keeping with the Islamist modus operandi, he also paints opponents of radical Islam as Nazis, portrays America as oppressive, denies the religious rationale of Muslim terrorists, and insists that Muslims are victims even when they take part in violent aggression. These factors should have more than disqualified him for the privilege and responsibility of serving on the Electoral College, a key safety valve in the selection of the commander-in-chief. Read more ...Source: PJM
By Ali A. Allawi I was born into a mildly observant Muslim family in Iraq. At that time, the 1950s, secularism was ascendant among the political, cultural, and intellectual elites of the Middle East. It appeared to be only a matter of time before Islam would lose whatever hold it still had on the Muslim world. Even that term — "Muslim world" — was unusual, as Muslims were more likely to identify themselves by their national, ethnic, or ideological affinities than by their religion. To an impressionable child, it was clear that society was decoupling from Islam. Though religion was a mandatory course in school, nobody taught us the rules of prayer or expected us to fast during Ramadan. We memorized the shorter verses of the Koran, but the holy book itself was kept on the shelf or in drawers, mostly unread.
The elderly still made the pilgrimage to Mecca to atone for their transgressions in preparation for death — more an insurance policy than an act of piety. I don't recall ever coming across the word "jihad" in a contemporary context.
The political rhetoric of the day focused on Arab destiny and anti-imperialism. A bit of religious fervor surfaced during the Suez crisis of 1956, when the radio broadcasts out of Cairo blared out martial songs calling for divine support against the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion, but that was an anomaly. Women, not only in my own family but also throughout the urban middle class, wore only Western-style clothes. They had long ceased to wear the hijab, or head scarf. My only connection to a premodern past was my grandfather, who continued to dress in the dignified robes and turbans of an old-line merchant. Apart from religious holidays, there were few public observances of Islamic rituals. The rites of Muharram, a Shia Muslim practice to commemorate the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein, during which participants often indulged in self-flagellation, was celebrated, sometimes wildly, but I was advised to stay far away; such ceremonies were considered unbecoming of genteel folk, who preferred to hold semiliterary soirees to remember the passion of the martyr. Modernity was flooding in everywhere. Cinemas and snack bars; cabarets and country clubs, freely flowing alcohol and mixed-sex parties; Baghdad was turning into Babylon, its hedonistic predecessor of yore. Things were not much different, as memoirs of the era testify, in Cairo, Casablanca, Damascus, Istanbul, Jakarta, Karachi, and Tehran. When I first left Iraq, in 1958, whatever lingering interest I had in religion was ground down further by my exposure to the stifling atmosphere of an Anglican boarding school in England. Enforced attendance at chapel and endless formulaic sermons helped nurture an abiding distaste for organized religion. But in hindsight, I can see that the seeds of my rekindled interest in Islam may well have been planted during this time. I instinctively reacted to the slights against Islam that ran throughout the curriculum — the depiction of the Crusaders as brave knights defending against marauding Saracens, for example, or the casual dismissal of the leaders of the so-called Indian Mutiny against 19th-century British rule as bloodthirsty barbarians. There were other Muslims in the school, mostly from Britain's shrinking empire. They were no different from me; we all came from the same type of secularized background. Despite our resentment at the depiction of Islam, our presence in England seemed proof that modern civilization was anchored firmly in the West. Our Islamic past may have been glorious, but it was just that — the past. The future was in the West — the more Western, the better. I spent most of my last year at school dreaming of America. In 1964, when I began my studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it was impossible not to be swept up in the cultural and political convulsions of the era, even if you were an outsider. I enthusiastically participated in sit-ins and teach-ins, civil-rights and antiwar protests. I was fascinated by the struggle for black empowerment in America, which demonstrated that a spiritually charged movement could effect great change. Martin Luther King Jr. was a far cry from the establishment churchmen I had encountered in England. And Malcolm X was a practicing Muslim. I began to think about Islam as a force for social transformation. Later, like many young people during the 1970s, I was preoccupied with the search for a meaningful ethic to fill the spiritual and moral void of the times, to find an inner balance against the excesses of the counterculture. Those thoughts crystallized in the unlikely setting of 1976 London, amid a disintegrating British economy beset by labor strife and the first whiffs of hyperinflation. Between April and June, London was host to the World of Islam Festival, an event designed to convey to the West the richness and diversity of Islam's culture and civilization. More important, it showed the unity of Islamic civilization across its component nations, languages, and cultures. Read more here...... Source: Chronicle Review Ali A. Allawi is a senior visiting fellow at Princeton University. He has just been named one of the first two Gebran G. Tueni human-rights fellows at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His latest book, The Crisis of Islamic Civilization, was published in March by Yale University Press.
 |
|
|
Copyright Muslims Against Sharia 2008. All rights reserved.
E-mail: info AT ReformIslam.org
|
|
|
The Defense Department released its report Friday on the jihad massacre at Fort Hood, and it is hard to imagine a document more full of denial and deception. 
Posts
