 Kenneth Pollack and Michael E. O’Hanlon have an editorial over at The New York Times discussing how the Iraqi government has banned 500 Sunni politicians from running for office. This is a very disappointing move. Reconciliation was going well, Iraq’s democratic foundations were taking hold, and the future seemed bright despite the frustrating deadlocks that define democracy, especially a new one in a bad neighborhood. They are banned because they had ties to the Baath Party, but they have mostly transformed into Sunni representatives that favor nationalism. To ban them is to ban a lot of the Sunni leadership.
Among those banned are Defense Minister al-Obeidi and Saleh al-Mutlaq. The authors note that al-Obeidi used to be a Baathist but was actually imprisoned and tortured by Saddam’s government. They warn that “It is just this kind of seemingly small problem that could unravel the entire political fabric of Iraq.” The Iraqis need to fix this, and fix it fast. World Threats
 Here is an illuminating piece that you would do well to keep around for future reference: "How Taqiyya Alters Islam's Rules of War: Defeating Jihadist Terrorism," by our old Jihad Watch friend, the great scholar Raymond Ibrahim in the Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2010: Islam must seem a paradoxical religion to non-Muslims. On the one hand, it is constantly being portrayed as the religion of peace; on the other, its adherents are responsible for the majority of terror attacks around the world.
Apologists for Islam emphasize that it is a faith built upon high ethical standards; others stress that it is a religion of the law. Islam's dual notions of truth and falsehood further reveal its paradoxical nature: While the Qur'an is against believers deceiving other believers--for "surely God guides not him who is prodigal and a liar"[1]--deception directed at non-Muslims, generally known in Arabic as taqiyya, also has Qur'anic support and falls within the legal category of things that are permissible for Muslims. Muslim deception can be viewed as a slightly less than noble means to the glorious end of Islamic hegemony under Shari'a, which is seen as good for both Muslims and non-Muslims. In this sense, lying in the service of altruism is permissible. In a recent example, Muslim cleric Mahmoud al-Masri publicly recounted a story where a Muslim lied and misled a Jew into converting to Islam, calling it a "beautiful trick." Taqiyya offers two basic uses. The better known revolves around dissembling over one's religious identity when in fear of persecution. Such has been the historical usage of taqiyya among Shi'i communities whenever and wherever their Sunni rivals have outnumbered and thus threatened them.
Conversely, Sunni Muslims, far from suffering persecution have, whenever capability allowed, waged jihad against the realm of unbelief; and it is here that they have deployed taqiyya--not as dissimulation but as active deceit. In fact, deceit, which is doctrinally grounded in Islam, is often depicted as being equal--sometimes superior--to other universal military virtues, such as courage, fortitude, or self-sacrifice. Yet if Muslims are exhorted to be truthful, how can deceit not only be prevalent but have divine sanction? What exactly is taqiyya? How is it justified by scholars and those who make use of it? How does it fit into a broader conception of Islam's code of ethics, especially in relation to the non-Muslim? More to the point, what ramifications does the doctrine of taqiyya have for all interaction between Muslims and non-Muslims? The Doctrine of Taqiyya According to Shari'a--the body of legal rulings that defines how a Muslim should behave in all circumstances--deception is not only permitted in certain situations but may be deemed obligatory in others. Contrary to early Christian tradition, for instance, Muslims who were forced to choose between recanting Islam or suffering persecution were permitted to lie and feign apostasy. Other jurists have decreed that Muslims are obligated to lie in order to preserve themselves,[2] based on Qur'anic verses forbidding Muslims from being instrumental in their own deaths.[3] This is the classic definition of the doctrine of taqiyya. Based on an Arabic word denoting fear, taqiyya has long been understood, especially by Western academics, as something to resort to in times of religious persecution and, for the most part, used in this sense by minority Shi'i groups living among hostile Sunni majorities.[4] Taqiyya allowed the Shi'a to dissemble their religious affiliation in front of the Sunnis on a regular basis, not merely by keeping clandestine about their own beliefs but by actively praying and behaving as if they were Sunnis. Read it all at JihadWatch 
 SHI'ITE rebels battling government forces in north Yemen are ready for talks with Sanaa once the government declares an end to hostilities, a rebel spokesman says. "When the war stops we will be ready for dialogue,'' Mohammed Abelsalam told AFP in Dubai by telephone, adding that he was reacting to an appeal from President Ali Abdullah Saleh. In an article published yesterday to mark the new year, Saleh appealed for reason from the insurgents. He urged the Zaidi rebels to agree to the conditions laid down by the government for a return to peace, saying they should cease hostilities, withdraw from official buildings and respect the law. "If these elements accept this plea for peace, the state will offer the hand of peace,'' he wrote in the government daily Al-Thawra. Abdelsalam said the rebels would announce their acceptance of the government's terms once it "brings a definitive end'' to military operations against them in the north. Last August 11, government forces launched "Operation Scorched Earth,'' an all-out offensive to stamp out the uprising among the Zaidis, a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but the majority group in the northern mountains. The Australian
 By Aaron Klein TEL AVIV – Intelligence officials from Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the U.S. held a meeting last week to discuss specific responses to Iranian retaliatory attacks during a potential war with Tehran, WND has learned. A senior Egyptian intelligence official told WND the main talks, which took place in Amman, revolved around the possibility of Iranian-directed Palestinian and Islamic attacks against Israel, Egypt and Jordan during a possible future war with Iran. The official said scenarios discussed revolved only around Iranian retaliatory attacks and did not take into account how any future war with Iran would be initiated or the timing of such a war. The official said the concern was that Iran would use proxies such as Hamas in the Gaza Strip to attack both Egypt and Israel, while Hezbollah in Lebanon would launch missiles at Israeli population centers, including Tel Aviv. Also, there is fear militants inside Jordan allied with the Muslim Brotherhood could attack Jordanian interests. Hamas in Gaza is said to have rockets capable of reaching just outside Tel Aviv, while Hezbollah possesses Iranian-supplied missiles and rockets that can reach most Israeli population centers. Egypt granted Israel permission several months ago to conduct naval exercises off Egyptian coastal waters. The military drills clearly were aimed at Iran. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, are influenced by Sunni Islam. The Arab countries are threatened by the growing influence of Iran, dominated by Shiite Islam. In September, Saudi Arabia denied it offered the Israel Air Force permission to fly over its territory to attack Iranian nuclear facilities. The Arab country was responding to a report in London's Sunday Express claiming the Saudis had agreed to turn a blind eye and not interfere should Israel and the U.S. attack Iranian nuclear facilities through Saudi air space. The Saudi government called the Express report baseless. Just before the Express report, WND quoted an Egyptian intelligence official stating Saudi Arabia is cooperating with Israel on the Iranian nuclear issue. The official said Saudi Arabia is passing intelligence information to Israel related to Iran. He affirmed a report from the Arab media, strongly denied by the Israeli government, that Saudi Arabia has granted Israel overflight permission during any attack against Iran's nuclear facilities. The official previously told WND that Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, has been involved in an intense, behind-the-scenes lobbying effort urging the U.S. and other Western countries to do everything necessary to ensure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons. Such weapons would threaten Saudi Arabia's position of influence in the Middle East. The Egyptian official said his country believes it is not likely Obama will grant Israel permission to attack Iran. He previously spoke about the efforts of other Arab countries to oppose an Iranian nuclear umbrella but did not comment on Egypt's own position on the matter. WND
 Mehmet Goren, the father of 15-year-old Muslim schoolgirl Tulay Goren, has been convicted of her murder in a family "honour killing" in London.Tulay, who had come to Britain from the Kurdish region of Turkey, was drugged, tortured and then killed by her father Mehmet Goren, over her relationship with an older man of whom Mehment Goren and his relations did not approve. Although Tulay's body has never been found, her father Mehmet Goren, 49, was found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey after a 10-week trial.He was cleared of conspiracy to murder Halil Unal, Tulay's former boyfriend who survived being attacked with an axe by Mehmet, two weeks after the schoolgirl vanished. Mehmen Goren's older brother Ali and younger brother Cuma were each cleared of charges of murder and conspiracy to murder. The trial heard how Tulay, who came to Britain at the age of 12, was assaulted by her father, a Shia Muslim, who was angered by her relationship with Mr Unal, who was twice her age and a Sunni Muslim. In the weeks before her disappearance, Tulay ran away from home twice and personally reported two attacks on her by her father. Her boyfriend also reported an assault. However, despite Tulay's refusal to go home, she was lured back three weeks later, in January 1999, and disappeared the next day.
( more) Source: Telegraph
 Although we Americans have the right to attend whatever Church, Synagogue, or Mosque we choose to, it isn’t so peachy in lots of other places. The photo that accompanies this piece is of an Iranian woman who was flogged for having the temerity to worship as a Christian, for example. The American Spectator’s December 11th analysis of the State Department’s 2009 Report On International Religious Freedom illustrates how really bad it is not only in Iran, but in at least 30 different countries. Author Doug Bandow divides the offenders into two basic camps: “The first are Muslim nations that seek to reinforce the Muslim faith — often the particular branch, Shia or Sunni, that controls the state. The second are authoritarian states that either are still communist or have only recently escaped communism. Their authoritarian impulses typically cover civil and political liberties as well as religious freedom.” The old saw about Muslims demanding full rights to worship (minarets, anyone?) while simultaneously denying it to others (including incompatible strains of their own religion) rings particularly true here. And the Communists just keep humming along. Whether it’s Burma, Eritrea, or even India, those with power often seek to force others to adhere to their narrow conception of the Godhead – and if the “others” fail to feel the magic, they are often tortured and killed. Although it is tempting to want to ban religions that preach the destruction of all competitors, so far we in the U.S. have stayed above the fray. Perhaps the adherents of those religions can learn something from our approach. Of course that isn’t guaranteed. NewsReal Blog
 With today’s horrific bombing in Iraq, the BBC has posted a piece asking if al Qaeda is bouncing back in Iraq. The reason it’s a question is because no, it’s not. After every large bombing now, there are articles claiming that Iraq is descending into hell. Fortunately it appears that there are many factors which prevent this. - Iraq is more economically stable than perhaps any time in the last twenty years. Its currency is stable and appreciating while oil flows increase government coffers.
- Iraq’s security forces are still growing, now numbering over 600,000. Compare this to when it was under 100k in 2004.
- Iraq’s largest detractors, the Sunni Arabs, have largely accepted the new government and will be voting in the upcoming elections.
 With the release of Wafa Sultan's book, A God Who Hates, the various Saudi front organizations have sprung into action doing their best to smear her reputation.It is of course completely unsurprising that the agents of a kingdom that despises women and treats them like cattle would be furious at criticism of Islam coming from... a woman.Ever since Wafa Sultan first came to the public's attention by defiantly challenging a male cleric and demanding her right to speak, she has been the target of repeated death threats and slander. So it is also completely unsurprising that those same Saudi front groups would then use transparent lies and smears to attack her now. But their smear campaign reveals more about them than it does about Wafa Sultan. First up is the claim that Wafa Sultan lied about ever being a Muslim, because she was an Alawi Muslim. This is a bizarre claim that only fanatical Sunni Wahhabi groups could make with a straight face. To argue that Sultan did not grow up as a Muslim because she grew up as an Alawi Muslim, is akin to a Catholic arguing that a Protestant is not a Christian and vice versa. The other half of this claim is the argument that since she does not currently believe in Islam and the Koran, she is somehow unqualified to talk about what is wrong with Islam. A position that would disqualify every Scientology critic on the planet and every dissident who escapes from an oppressive regime. Wafa Sultan's qualifications to talk about what is wrong with Islam come from growing and living as a Muslim under Islam. As well as her study of what is wrong with Islam from a cultural, religious and psychological standpoint. A corollary to this is the claim that Syria was secular and therefore Wafa Sultan did not grow up living in an Islamic society. While Syria under Assad was more secular than say Saudi Arabia, it was still a Muslim country, in the same way that the similarly Baathist Iraq was Muslim. Aside from small minorities, virtually every Syrian is Muslim and mosque attendance is normative. The state funds mosques and Islamic education is part of the regular curriculum. Islamic norms are thoroughly integrated within the national culture. For a snapshot of that, here's an excerpt from an academic paper on Syria's educational system Islamic education in Syrian schools is traditional, rigid, and Sunni. The Ministry of Education makes no attempt to inculcate notions of tolerance or respect for religious traditions other than Sunni Islam. Christianity is the one exception to this rule. Indeed, all religious groups other than Christians are seen to be enemies of Islam, who must be converted or fought against. The Syrian government teaches school children that over half of the world’s six billion inhabitants will go to hell and must be actively fought by Muslims...
The government is to be an Islamic State without separation of church and state. The student is constantly reminded that the Islamic state is a divine order whose wisdom, justice, and laws are imposed by God. The chapter of the twelfth grade text entitled, “The System of Government in Islam,” concludes with the following sentences:
There's your "secular" Syria right there. That's the "secular" Syria that Wafa Sultan grew up in.
Secondly, there's the claim that Wafa Sultan is a "turncoat" who has deliberately sought fame in order to get rich. As In Focus, a CAIR front magazine writes;
"As for the Sultans’ financial troubles, Halabi told InFocus that ever since Dr. Sultan gained notoriety those troubles are a thing of the past. "She bought a house for herself and bought another for her son," ... When asked about the source of her material well-being, Halabi was unsure.
As to the reasons that may have pushed Sultan to be so outspoken and vocal against Islam in a post-9/11 world, Halabi sympathetically remarked, "Poverty. It drives people to sell their soul."
The "mysterious source" of their material well-being is that Wafa Sultan was able to become a practicing doctor in the United States. Doctors in the United States tend to have not particularly mysterious sources of material well-being. And whatever money she has made from her speaking fees is hardly anything compared to the security costs of regularly dealing with death threats from Muslim.
Thirdly, let's discuss the In Focus magazine hit piece, Wafa Sultan Reformist or opportunist? that is the source of many of the smears aimed at Wafa Sultan.
 Debka has two updates on the situation in Yemen and the Houthi Rebellion. First, Debka is reporting here that the Iranians are planning to deploy midget submarines to the area. This is apparently in response to the assignment of the USS Chosin to lead Task Force 151 patrolling the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Yemeni conflict is fast evolving from a Houthi insurgency against the Abdullah Salah regime in Sanaa to a broad regional conflagration drawing in Saudi Arabia and Egypt as major players and increasingly the United States, whose involvement is building up into a direct confrontation with the rebels’ sponsor, Iran. The belief is that the Iranians are bringing the midget submarines to assist in the supplying of arms and equipment ot the Houthi rebels. On the same note, Debka is also reporting here that Jordan has sent its 2000 strong Special Forces to assist the Saudis in dealing with the Houthi Rebellion. This dispatch was at the request of the Saudis. At the same time the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is reporting in translation here that Iran is attempting to create chaos during the Hajj. A few days before the Hajj (November 25-30, 2009), Iranian officials deliberately intensified statements calling on Shi’ites, and all Hajj pilgrims to Mecca, to conduct baraa - a kind of political protest against the infidels and apostates instituted by the founder of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - against the U.S. and the Saudi Wahhabis, whom Iran currently claims are slaughtering Shi’ites in Yemen. [1] During the baraa ceremony, pilgrims demonstrate in denunciation of apostates and the enemies of Islam, chanting political slogans such as “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” In addition, Iranian senior officials, as well as the country’s leading newspapers, hinted and warned that the unrest in Yemen would not be bound by that country’s borders, and could spill over into Saudi Arabia, threatening the stability of the regime there. It would appear that Iran is attempting to arouse unrest in Saudi Arabia, against the backdrop of increased demands in recent days by the U.S. and Russia that Iran accept the conditions for its nuclear program proposed by the 5+1 in Vienna, and also against the backdrop of the ongoing fighting in Yemen between the Shi’ite Houthis, who are aided by Iran, and the Yemen government troops, aided by Saudi Arabia, in which the latter side is prevailing. Please read the entire article which is too long to print here. Analysis.I believe that there can be little doubt that the theocracy of Iran is attempting to destabilize the region. Unlike the MEMRI analysis in the third paragraph above, I believe that the pressure on Iran to stop enriching uranium is only part of the impetus behind the Iranian efforts.
The major goal of the Iranians is to make Shia Islam the primary sect of Islam.
Shiites believe that the leadership of Islam should follow the lineage of the family of Mohammad. The Sunni believe that there is no supreme leader but that leadership in Islam is by a caliph selected as the most pious among them. Secondarily I believe that the theocracy is attempting to create the chaos necessary to cause the Hidden Imam to return. This particular confluence of events is most demonstrative of the goals. The Iranians have already established their Northwestern Front with Syria and Lebanon. Yemen is the Southwestern Front. Mecca is only about 350 miles from the Saudi/Yemeni border.
While I doubt that the Houthi could reach Mecca en masse, it is quite possible that small groups of saboteurs could reach Mecca and possibly cause a mess as happened in 1987. This would be another embarrassment to the Saudis. The question right now is how far the Iranians will go. Will they use their midget submarines to try and break the blockade of the Yemeni ports to get arms and supplies to the Houthis and take the chance of engaging American warships?
Will they cause the Syrians or Hezbollah to threaten Jordan to force the recall of the Jordanian Special Forces? Will they try to disrupt the Hajj? All the above? None of the above? Something in the Persian Gulf? At this point all we can do is react. That is not a good mode to be in but short of direct military action against Iran there is little that can be done at the moment. It is clear that diplomatic efforts are having no effect on Iran’s goals or actions.
I would expect that Debka will reveal additional meetings between the Intelligence chiefs of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel. Nor would I be surprised that the Iraqi Intelligence Chief had joined the group since the shrine that is built over the well that the Hidden Imam will use to return is in Iraq. World Threats
 by Stephen Brown While the fighting in Afghanistan continues to dominate news coverage, one Middle Eastern country has emerged as a leading flashpoint of Islamic terrorism. Yemen, most recently in the headlines as the home of Anwar al Awlaki, the exiled imam who fled to the country after inspiring Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hasan, has become a haven for al-Qaeda even as its internal turmoil has drawn in regional rivals like Iran and Saudi Arabia. Yemen is the poorest and most unstable of all Middle Eastern countries. Located in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, it occupies a strategic position that makes the country difficult to ignore.
At its south-western tip, Yemen straddles one side of the strategic, 20-mile wide Mandab Strait that connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea, a vital international shipping lane leading to the Suez Canal. Equally important for world commerce, Saudi Arabia’s oil fields lie just across Yemen’s northern border. It is Yemen’s northern area, particularly the Saada region, which is beginning to attract international attention. A bitter civil war there is threatening to turn into a regional conflict pitting Iran against Saudi Arabia. A rebellion among Saada’s Shiite tribes, called the Houthis (the name of the clan leading the revolt), against Yemen’s central government has seen the two rival Muslim states stake out sides in the conflict. Iran, which champions the Shiite cause throughout the Islamic world, has reportedly sent combatants from its own Revolutionary Guards as well as from Hezbollah, its proxy Shiite fighting force in Lebanon, to help the Houthis. Last month, Yemen’s navy exposed the extent of Iran’s involvement in the conflict when it seized a ship off its coast carrying Iranian arms for the Shiite rebels. Saudi Arabia, the leader of Islam’s majority Sunni branch and home of the intolerant and anti-Shiite Wahhabi doctrine, has been backing Yemen’s government with money and weapons of its own.
But a Houthi incursion across the porous and mountainous Saudi-Yemeni border earlier this month, in which three Saudi villages were seized and a border guard killed changed that.
The Saudi government reacted immediately to this escalation, sending warplanes to bomb Houthi positions in Yemen’s mountainous northern region and an army column across the border to confront the rebels directly. More at FrontPage Magazine
 This month, hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims from around the globe are converging upon the Saudi Arabian holy cities of Mecca and Medina to perform the hajj, the pilgrimage that believers are supposed to make at least once in their lives as long as they have the health and the means to manage it. The hajj takes place this year from Nov. 25 to 29, but many of the faithful are already thronging the airport and docks of Jeddah, the main entry point for pilgrims. It's an event of huge religious significance. Some three million Muslims from all around the world -- Indians and Pakistanis, Nigerians and Bosnians, Arabs and non-Arabs, rich and poor, Sunni and Shia -- will commune, worship, and celebrate the global unity of Islam.
They'll be performing the same set of ritual acts, dressed in exactly the same clothes, all equal in the sight of God. For those who've completed the hajj, it's a lifetime landmark, a transformative religious experience. In reality, though, there's another reason why the hajj is important -- even if most Muslims would rather it weren't the case.
Today's hajj -- given the widening sectarian rifts within Islam -- is also very much about politics. To some extent, of course, it's always been that way. The royals in Riyadh have always taken their guardianship of the Two Holy Places in Mecca and Medina as a key to the spiritual and political guidance of the global community of believers. (It should be said, by the way, that though the Saudis invariably evoke the "nonpolitical" character of the hajj, they've also been known to shower pilgrims with literature espousing the benefits of the sere Wahhabi version of Islam that holds inside the kingdom.) Given this potentially explosive mix of politics and religion, the recent war of words between the governments of Iran and the hajj's Saudi Arabian hosts deserves to be taken seriously.
On Oct. 26, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, met with officials from the Iranian hajj organizing committee and seized the occasion to rail against alleged past mistreatment of his compatriots during the pilgrimage. "Such acts are against the unity of Muslims and contribute to the goals and wishes of the U.S. and foreign intelligence services," he said. "The Saudi government should fulfill its duty in confronting these acts." More at Foreign Policy
 BAGHDAD — A top aide to Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader on Friday urged the country's fractious political blocs to solve a crisis over a key election law that threatens to delay national polls planned for January. Sheik Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalaie, the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the holy city of Karbala, told worshippers during his regular Friday sermon that failure to break the deadlock could lead to a "constitutional vacuum" that would create "great dangers for Iraq." "I call upon all brothers in the political blocs to reach a reasonable solution so that elections can take place on time and avoid these consequences and dangers," al Karbalaie said. Parliament is to vote Saturday on how to resolve the crisis triggered by Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi's veto of the legislation earlier this week. Al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, wants more seats allocated for Iraqis living abroad, many of whom are Sunni. Lawmakers spent weeks wrangling over the long-delayed bill before finally passing it on Nov. 8, much to the relief of Iraqi leaders and the United States. But the veto threw into question whether the vote can be held by the end of January, as mandated in Iraq's constitution. While al-Sistani's words carry great weight with his fellow Shiites — most of whom support the election law — they hold no power over those who have objected to the election legislation — al-Hashemi and other Sunni Arab politicians, as well as Iraq's Kurds. Earlier this week, Kurdish leaders threatened to boycott the elections unless the three provinces they control in northern Iraq are guaranteed more seats in the next parliament, which will expand from the current 275 seats to 323. Lawmakers plan to vote on two options: sending the same election law back to the three-member presidency council, where it is likely to be vetoed again, or amending the law to address al-Hashemi's concerns. If the legislation is vetoed a second time, parliament can override it with a three-fifths majority. Washington has tied the pace of a major troop drawdown to the elections. So far, U.S. military commanders say their timetable for withdrawing all combat troops by the end of August 2010 are still on track. FoxNews
 Debka is reporting that IAEA inspectors turned up evidence that Iran has a plutonium program in addition to its uranium program fro making nuclear weapons. The IAEA experts discovered 30 metric tons-IS of heavy water hidden in 600 tanks, each holding 13 gallons, according to the report they handed in last week to agency headquarters in Vienna. From the shape of the tanks and other indications, the experts concluded that this stock had not come from the heavy water plant at Arak but was imported. Metric tons-IS measure the amount of energy a given quantity can release. The force and types of nuclear bombs are gauged in kilotons or megatons.
The American nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in World War II was equal to 20 kilotons of TNT. By this standard, the amount of heavy water discovered at Isfahan would be enough to make at least one plutonium bomb when the plutonium reactor under construction near the Arak heavy water facility is finished. Other than its civilian uses, heavy water may be used to produce tritium, which intensifies the explosive force of nuclear warheads.
The discovery of quantities of heavy water at Isfahan confirms the suspicions surrounding Iran’s nuclear program in three respects. Please read the entire article. Analysis. It’s about bloody time that people started talking about plutonium and Iran in the same sentence. There is little reason for the Iranians to have a heavy water reactor at Arak other than to make plutonium. So where did this plutonium come from? North Korea anyone?! We must always remember that the Iranian and North Korean WMD programs are two parts of the same program. Also, take a serious look at Ryan’s post on the current bloodletting in Yemen. The closer the Iranians get to creating another outpost on the western side of the Arabian peninsula, the closer we get to major war in the Middle East. I have little doubt that the Iranians are attempting to threaten the Saudi regime for religious reasons.
The Sunni-Shiite split that occurred at the death of Mohammad is rearing its ugly head again. World Threats
 MUSLIMS are increasingly rejecting Darwin's theory of evolution, under the influence of conservative elements in Islam, a science conference was told yesterday. Nidhal Guessoum, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, told the conference, being held in Egypt by the British Council, that in too many places students and academics believed they had to make a "binary choice" between evolution and creationism, rather than understanding that one could believe both in God and in Darwin's theory.
Dr Guessoum, who is a Sunni Muslim, said that in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia, only 15 per cent of those surveyed believed Darwin's theory to be "true" or "probably true". This stand was equally prevalent among students and teachers, from high school to university. Most alarmingly, he claimed, science teachers were misrepresenting the facts and theories of evolution by mixing it with religious ideologies.
 Fighting in northern Yemen has moved into Saudi Arabia, forcing school closures and sending thousands fleeing, according to the United Nations. "Fighting has now spilled into Saudi Arabia, reportedly causing 240 villages to be evacuated and more than 50 schools to be closed, " Sigrid Kaag of UNICEF said in a statement this week. "The total number of people displaced by the conflict since 2004 has gone up to more than 175,000, from an estimated 150,000 only a few weeks ago." Battles between Yemeni forces and Shiite Houthi rebels have raged intermittently for five years. A government offensive launched this summer has caused more bloodshed. The conflict is considered to be both separatist -- over who will assert authority in the area -- and sectarian -- whether Shiite Islam will dominate in majority Sunni Yemen. The rebels are supporters of slain Shiite cleric Hussein al-Houthi. As the fighting escalates, the situation is worsening for children, Kaag said. "During the past three months, children affected by the conflict in the north have seen all their basic rights violated. Lack of safe water, nutrition and hygiene is exerting a heavy toll on their health and well-being, and threatening their very survival," Kaag said. Kaag said some camps for displaced people are filled and thousands are living just outside the camp. Yemen's official news agency SABA reported Friday that it was working with the U.N. to create a new refugee camp in Amran. CNN
 Anyone who counts Ayatollah Abdolhossein Moezi as a spiritual leader is unlikely to have joined the British military in the first place. He is the religious envoy of the same regime that calls Britain “the little Satan”. Ayatollah Moezi is the director of the Islamic Centre of England, the London outpost of Iran’s neoconservative regime — a role to which he was personally appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
His leadership — as political as it is religious — is anathema to most British-Iranians, the majority of whom came to the country to escape the Islamic Revolution. Shia Muslims, who traditionally take their spiritual guidance from imams such as Ayatollah Khamenei, are outnumbered in Britain by Sunni Muslims, mostly from Pakistan and Bangladesh, who do not all recognise any special priestly authority. The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini united Shias and Sunnis in overthrowing the Shah of Iran in the Islamic Revolution. It inspired a new wave of political Islam in both sects, and Sunnis and Shias alike responded with equal vigour to his fatwa on Salman Rushdie. The crisis that followed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election in June has undermined both his political and religious leadership further. He is now openly questioned by politicians and clerics alike. Iran’s increasingly hegemonic behaviour, and nuclear ambitions, has spooked both Arab states and populations across the Middle East. When Ayatollah Khamenei or his acolytes speak, it is no longer taken as the word of God but the word of the regime alone. If a British Muslim, Shia or Sunni, has taken the decision to serve his country at war it will take more than Tehran’s mouthpiece to dissuade them. Times Online
 Saudi Arabia has imposed a naval blockade along the Red Sea coast of northern Yemen in an attempt to cut off supplies to Houthi rebels along its border with Yemen. The kingdom's warships were ordered on Tuesday to search any ship suspected of carrying weapons or fighters near the Yemeni coast, a government adviser said, as Riyadh vowed to continue its offensive against the rebels until they pull back from the border area. Despite a warning by Iran to keep out of Yemen's affairs, Prince Khaled bin Sultan, the Saudi deputy defence minister, pledged to keep up the military offensive against the Houthi rebels on Tuesday, as he visited Saudi troops in the kingdom's southwest Jizan province. "We are not going to stop the bombing until the Houthis retreat tens of kilometres inside their border," he said. His comments came as the rebels announced they had taken control of more territory on the border with Saudi Arabia, heightening concerns about growing instability in the region. The fighters released a statement on Tuesday, saying: "Full control was taken last night over Qatabar directorate and control of all supplies and ammunition as well as buildings and other military sites." Yemeni officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Qatabar lies in the mountainous northern province of Saada, which borders Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil exporter. The northern province has also been the scene of most of the fighting that has taken place in recent months between Yemeni government forces and the rebels. Saudi forces have launched a series of military strikes in recent days against the Houthis after the fighters killed a Saudi soldier in a cross-border raid last week. Riyadh has become increasingly anxious about instability in Yemen, which is facing opposition from the Shia population in the north, separatist sentiment in the south and a growing threat from resurgent al-Qaeda fighters. The 1,500km border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia is a security worry for the kingdom, which is building a high-tech border fence to prevent infiltration. Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, said: "We are amid a campaign and a propaganda war with both sides saying they have made huge advances. "Saudi Arabia is a key player in Yemen, it has loyalty of tribal leaders, politicians and religious leaders here. "Saudi Arabia prides itself by saying they are the protectors of Sunni Islam and while 80 per cent of Yemen's population is Sunni, they say it is their moral obligation to protect Sunnis everywhere in the world." Saudi Arabia also has concerns that the Houthis are being used by Iran to fight a proxy war against it. Read more here,,,, Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 DUBAI: The UAE will appoint what are likely to be the world’s first state-sanctioned female muftis next year, after the Grand Mufti announced details yesterday of plans to recruit and train them.
Six Emirati women are being considered for the training programme, said Dr Ahmed al Haddad, who is also the head of the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department.
Once accepted they will begin the course, which will last several months, early next year. The move follows a fatwa issued by Dr al Haddad in February that sanctioned women’s role as muftis. In May, he called on qualified Emirati women to apply for the programme, which includes instruction in Sharia law and legal thinking. “We continue to accept new applicants until we begin the training,” said Dr al Haddad. “It is already part of the 2010 budget.”
The status of female muftis has caused controversy within the religious establishment elsewhere in the Muslim world, with Egypt’s Al Azhar University, a powerful centre of Sunni scholarship, rejecting the possibility of women becoming grand muftis. However, Dr al Haddad said that debate did not affect whether women should serve in other roles.
“The controversy over female muftis is not necessarily over this point, but about whether or not a woman should be appointed as the grand mufti of a state,” he said. “And that is not what we’re trying to do at this point.”
The move is part of a broader push to recruit and train Emiratis to the department, especially in the role of advising and issuing decrees on religious matters. They will be instructed according to the Maliki school of jurisprudence, one of four in the Sunni tradition and the one followed in the UAE. Instructors are typically from academic and religious institutions, including practising muftis. Although women currently serve as religious advisers at the Abu Dhabi fatwa centre, their role is limited to advising women on “women’s issues”. The Dubai move would mark the first time women have acted as muftis on a par with their male counterparts. In February 2008, the Egyptian family court appointed Amal Soliman as the first female Islamic notary with the ability to perform marriages and divorces. Her duties were not equal to those of a mufti. Dr al Haddad, who has five daughters, one of whom is a student of Sharia, said his fatwa earlier this year was based on Islamic tradition, which he said was “rich in examples of highly learned women acting as muftis and issuing decrees on all matters”. “A woman who is learned and trained in issuing fatwas is not limited in her role to issuing fatwas that relate to women only, but rather she is qualified to issue on matters of worship, jurisprudence, morality and behaviour,” he said. He referred to a Quranic verse to support his decree that Islamic tradition has always sanctioned women to act as muftis on all matters that concern society.
A fatwa, or religious decree, is in effect a legal opinion derived from the Quran, hadith or precedents in the Islamic tradition. “Evidence points to the fact that women too can order acts of virtue and ban acts of vice just like a man can,” he said, referring to the basic tenement of a mufti’s role. “And of course she can do that only with acquired scholarship and training, which is what female contemporaries of the Prophet have done as well as the women who came after them.” Source: The National
 In Hollywood terms, it was the greatest story almost never told - until now. With Middle Eastern money becoming an increasingly powerful cog in the global entertainment industry, it was perhaps inevitable that, sooner or later, someone would embark on a mega-budget epic about the life of the Prophet Mohammed. That moment has arrived thanks to a wealthy Qatari media company which has put together a team featuring a crack Hollywood producer and a Muslim cleric who is banned from visiting Britain to bring the project to life. Plans for the $150million English-language biopic were announced at the close of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar on Sunday. The narrative will run from the years before the Prophet’s birth through to his death but there will be one conspicuous break from conventional biopic methods: in accordance with Islamic tradition the film will not represent the Prophet himself or direct members of his family. A source close to the project said that Mel Gibson’s hugely successful (and gruesome) crucifiction film The Passion of the Christ had proved that there was a demand for religious-themed entertainment. Barrie Osborne, a producer on the Lord of the Rings films and The Matrix optimistically envisages the film as a device that can help “bridging cultures”. However, the press conference held to unveil the project demonstrated the risks inherent in any attempt to package the “true story” of the Prophet’s life for a global audience today. Alnoor Holdings, a media company that has created a $200million film production fund to invest in Hollywood and international projects, has hired the cleric Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi as their lead theological consultant for the film. Sheikh al-Qaradawi is one of the Sunni Islam’s most high-profile theologians thanks to his popular slot hosting a television show on al-Jazeera. He is admired by many moderate Muslims and was recently described by the government’s senior counter-terrorism official as “one of the most articulate critics of al-Qaeda in the Islamic world”. He is also a highly controversial figure who was refused entry to Britain last year because of his views. He has reportedly condoned the Holocaust, supported the stoning of homosexuals and praised suicide bombers in Iraq, not to mention telling an interviewer that he considered Shia Islam a heretical branch of the faith. According to the Gulf Times newspaper he told journalists in Doha that the film was a response to “the crusader-styled distortion of Islam [that] continues to influence [the] world population today.” “I will say we Muslims have not exerted sufficient efforts to correct the fake tales as Christians have used [in] the media. The life of the Prophet Muhammad is richly documented from the cattle he raised to the weapons he used to his private life.” The Qatari Tribune, which was also present, said that he described the world in milder language as a small village where people must know each other better and learn about other religions. “We think that our religion is universal. Unfortunately, many people do not know about Islam and have misconceptions about it.” Read more here,,,, Source: Times Online
 By JONATHAN SPYER One of the most notable political processes currently taking place in Hamas-ruled Gaza is the growing prominence of "Salafi jihad" organizations. These are groupings committed to the rigorous, apocalyptic version of Sunni Islamism associated with the al-Qaida network. The attempt in August by the Hamas authorities to suppress the Jund Ansar Allah group in southern Gaza momentarily cast the spotlight on the growth of the Salafis. They have not gone away. Following Hamas's mini-crackdown, the Salafi groupings have continued to grow. No clear line exists between them and the more "moderate" Islamists of Hamas. Rather, Salafi sentiments and loyalties proliferate among rank and file Hamas militants, in particularly in the movement's armed wing - the Kassam Brigades. A complex myriad of Salafi groups exists in Gaza. A key question is whether they will succeed in unifying, in order to pose a more serious challenge to the Hamas authorities. Among the most significant are the Jund Ansar Allah, the Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam), and the Jaish al-Umma (Army of the Nation.) The Jaish al-Islam is built around the powerful Doghmush clan of Gaza. The Jaish al-Umma, meanwhile, is headed by Sheikh Abu Hafez al-Maqdisi, a well known Salafi cleric from southern Gaza. But it is the Jund Ansar Allah which is considered by many analysts to have the best chance of acting as a unifying force for the plethora of small sects which make up the Salafi subculture in Gaza. Hamas's crackdown on Jund Ansar Allah came after the group attempted in August to proclaim an Islamic emirate in the Gaza Strip. The Salafi movement's leader, Abdul Latif Abu Moussa (Abu al-Nur al-Maqdesi) was killed in the August fighting. His movement, however, has survived and is now attempting to bring other, smaller groups under its banner. Among the most noteworthy of these groupings is the Suyuf al Haq al-Islamiyyah.Also of note is the Fatah al-Islam group, consisting of 120 survivors of the Lebanese group of the same name, which was bloodily suppressed by the Lebanese Armed Forces in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp. Read more here,,,, Source: JPost
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Kenneth Pollack and Michael E. O’Hanlon have an editorial over at The New York Times discussing how the Iraqi government has banned 500 Sunni politicians from running for office. 
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