A Little Bit.ly Sharia? Tech Business Builds on Libya Domain

By creeping

In other words, as Gawker titled their story: Muammar Qaddafi More or Less Owns Your Links. Astute reporting below from a blog entitled Workbench:

Bit.ly Builds Business on Libya Domain

The URL shortening service Bit.ly just secured $2 million in financing from investors including O’Reilly’s AlphaTech Ventures. Though URL shorteners have been around for years, Bit.ly believes there’s money in offering Twitter-friendly short links along with web analytics to track how the links are used. The company reports that its links were clicked 20 million times last month.

So far, the news coverage I’ve read about Bit.ly has neglected an unusual aspect of the startup: It’s one of the only prominent online ventures using a domain name in the .LY namespace, which is controlled by Libya.

There are two issues that arise from this relationship.

First, of course, is the appearance of an American company doing business with Libya, a country that the U.S. considered a state sponsor of terror from 1979 through 2006. On Dec. 21, 1988, Libyan intelligence agents planted a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103 that blew up 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people onboard.

Bit.ly’s only doing a trivial amount of business with Libya — the domains sell for $75 per year from the registrar Libyan Spider Network — but its use of .LY domain is helping to popularize and legitimize the top-level domain for general use on the Internet. It’s only a matter of time before a reporter decides to ask the families of Lockerbie victims what they think of the arrangement. I can’t imagine that story going well for the company.

Even without that PR hit, there’s another potential concern for Bit.ly and any other venture that builds its business on an .LY domain. These domains are governed by Libyan law, as it states on the Libyan Spider Network site:

Any .LY domain names may be registered, except domains containing obscene and indecent names/phrases, including words of a sexual nature; furthermore domain names may not contain words/phrases or abbreviations insulting religion or politics, or be related to gambling and lottery industry or be contrary to Libyan law or Islamic morality.

So the names must conform to Islamic morality, and it’s possible that the use of the domains could fall under the same rules. What are the odds that some of those 20 million clicks on a Bit.ly-shortened URL end up at sites that would be considered blasphemous or otherwise offensive in an Islamic nation? Bit.ly conveniently provides search pages for such topics as Islam, sharia, gambling and sex, any of which contain links that could spark another controversy.

Bit.ly’s building a business atop a domain that could be taken away at any time, and the company’s only recourse would be to seek redress in the Libyan court system. Take a look at Section 11 of the regulations for .LY owners:

The Arabic language is the language of interpretation, correspondence and the construction of the Regulation or anything related to it. … In case of conflict between the Arabic and the English versions the Arabic version shall prevail.

I hope Bit.ly’s attorneys are brushing up on their Arabic. ~end

More from Domain Name Wire:

Is it wise to run a web service using a questionable country code domain?

I’ve warned about the dangers of country code top level domains. Rogers Cadenhead made some interesting observations about Bit.ly, a URL shortening service that just scored $2M in funding.

You see, .ly is the country code for Libya, which has a not-so-great history with the United States. He also points out some of the rules attached to country code domains. I’ve written before about .AE for United Arab Emirates that restricts uses within Muslim law. There’s no poker.ae, for example. The same thing goes for .ly. This presents a problem since the Bit.ly service let’s you forward to just about any web site with any topic. Technically the content isn’t hosted on a .ly domain, but the danger is there that Libya would lay the hammer on this.

No serious business should use a country code domain name other than a major, unrestricted domain without special content rules.

Update: Twitter’s selection of bit.ly is demise of popular URL shortening service tr.im:

tr.im is now in the process of discontinuing service, effective immediately.

Statistics can no longer be considered reliable, or reliably available going forward. However, all tr.im links will continue to redirect, and will do so until at least December 31, 2009.

Your tweets with tr.im URLs in them will not be affected.

We regret that it came to this, but all of our efforts to avoid it failed. No business we approached wanted to purchase tr.im for even a minor amount.

There is no way for us to monetize URL shortening — users won’t pay for it — and we just can’t justify further development since Twitter has all but annointed bit.ly the market winner. There is simply no point for us to continue operating tr.im, and pay for its upkeep.

We apologize for the disruption and inconvenience this may cause you.

(there’s money in tr.im somewhere – how about an auction?)

Another update: Feedback from tr.im users convinced them to continue the service.

With thanks to Creeping Sharia

(Note also Tinyurl as another option)

Generation Abdulmutallab

The foiled attempt by young Nigerian extremist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day has baffled many Africans and sent them scrambling for an explanation.

This is not the stereotypical poor and desperate young man usually associated with violence on the continent. For one, Abdulmutallab is the son of a wealthy Nigerian banker and former government minister. His father even tipped off the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria to his son's growing radicalism.

Second, neither Islam nor Christianity is indigenous to Africa, and the idea of dying on behalf of a foreign religion is absurd to most Africans. Third, the United States was never a colonial power in Africa and, therefore, it seems an odd target. In fact, it's a popular destination for many young Nigerians looking to emigrate.

And yet, Africa only has to look within to find the causes for radicalization. About 60 percent of Africa's nearly 1 billion people are less than 30 years old. In the past few decades, these young people have become increasingly disaffected, lost, and restless, and who can blame them? Poorly educated and jobless, they have few role models with moral stature. The value system has collapsed.

Hard work and entrepreneurship no longer assure success and wealth. Political connections matter. The richest men in Africa are often heads of state and ministers. Of the 209 African heads of state since 1960, fewer than 15 can be classified as good, clean leaders. The rest -- an assortment of military brutes, briefcase bandits, and crackpot democrats -- are decidedly uninspiring.

How can Africa claim to be fighting terrorism when the chairman of the African Union itself is Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, an admitted sponsor of terrorism?

At the United Nations' May 2002 Children's Summit in New York, youngsters from Africa stunned the audience by ripping into their leaders. "You get loans that will be paid in 20 to 30 years ... and we have nothing to pay them with because when you get the money, you embezzle it, you eat it," said 12-year-old Joseph Tamale from Uganda. Adam Maiga from Mali weighed in: "We must put an end to this demagoguery. You have parliaments, but they are used as democratic decoration."

Disenchanted by their own societies, African youth have become increasingly susceptible to radical ideas and religious extremists -- not just the Islamist fanatics in northern Nigeria and Somalia, but also the Christian variety (the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda) and the traditionalist (the Mungiki sect in Kenya).

Some seek escape in rickety boats to Europe. Others turn to crime (drug trafficking, Internet scams), prostitution, and extremist groups that seek violent change. It is sclerotic leadership and catastrophic government failure -- not poverty -- that breed this hopelessness and despair in Africa's young people, luring them to extremism.

In many African countries, government has ceased to exist or function. In its place is a vampire state -- a government hijacked by unrepentant bandits who use the machinery of the state to enrich themselves, crush their enemies, and perpetuate themselves in office. In Chad, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Sudan, and Zimbabwe, governments that scarcely provide basic social services are even at war with their own people. And their people have responded with violence.

Just last week, a separatist group, Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), opened fire on a bus carrying the Togolese soccer team to the Africa Cup, killing the driver and two team officials. FLEC seeks independence from Angola, whose government is one of the worst of these dysfunctional bodies. What motivated these young men was likely not that different from what compelled Abdulmutallab to board that plane.

More at Foreign Policy

Gaddafi: Swiss minaret ban invites al-Qaeda attacks

Therein lies the assumption that all acts of jihadist terrorism must be a response to some kind of provocation (real or imagined) from non-Muslims: after all, the apologists keep telling us "defensive" jihad is quite alright, caliph or no caliph.

The Fraggle-haired dictator also quips "I don't think anyone in the Muslim world will from now on authorise the construction of a church."

This is ironic, of course, since 1.) it's not like the Muslim world has welcomed churches or freedom of worship with open arms up to now, and 2.) restrictions on building non-Muslim houses of worship are enshrined in the Pact of Umar, which has provided a far-reaching precedent for oppressing non-Muslims in a variety of ways. For that matter, the minaret ban does not restrict worship or the construction of mosques.

"Swiss inviting Qaeda hits," from Agence France-Presse, December 6:

TRIPOLI - LIBYAN leader Moamer Kadhafi said the Swiss referendum banning the building of new minarets was an invitation for Al-Qaeda to launch attacks in Europe, the official news agency JANA reported on Sunday.

'They pretend they are 'fighting Al-Qaeda and terrorism' whereas in fact they have just rendered it the greatest service,' he said, referring to Switzerland with disdain as 'the mafia of the world.'

'On November 29, more than 57 per cent of Swiss voters approved a rightwing motion to ban minarets on mosques, a decision that has sparked an international backlash and charges of intolerance.

''Al-Qaeda militants are now saying: 'We warned you that they were our enemies... Look at what they are doing in Europe. Come and join us for a jihad (holy war) against Europe,'' Kadhafi said.

'The Libyan leader, speaking at an academic ceremony on Saturday in Zliten, 160 kilometres (100 miles) east of Tripoli, said Muslim countries now had an argument not to allow the building of new churches. 'I don't think anyone in the Muslim world will from now on authorise the construction of a church,' Kadhafi said.

'He warned Switzerland of an economic fallout of a rift with the Muslim world. 'You must think of your interests. You need gas, ports, the sea, solar energy, investments,' Kadhafi said.

Investments: After all, things are going so swimmingly in Dubai.

With thanks to JihadWatch

Stop the Minarets!

The fifty million Muslims of Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades…Europe is in a predicament, and so is America. They should agree to become Islamic in the course of time, or else declare war on the Muslims.—Muammar Quadhafi

From Amy Goodman’s Marxist slanted Democracy Now! program, comes a report out of Switzerland which describes how voters in that country have overwhelmingly approved a referendum banning the construction of minarets on Muslim places of worship. Goodman, describing the referendum as being an effort sponsored by “two right-wing parties,” gives Democracy Now!’s version of what transpired:

Swiss voters have overwhelmingly approved a referendum banning the construction of minarets on Muslim places of worship. The referendum was sponsored by two right-wing parties. Switzerland is home to some 400,000 Muslims and has just four minarets. A campaign poster in support of the ban depicted a woman in a burqa in front of a row of minarets shaped like missiles. Oxford University professor Tariq Ramadan, who is a Swiss citizen, said “The Swiss majority are sending a clear message to their Muslim fellow citizens: we do not trust you and the best Muslim for us is the Muslim we cannot see.” Amnesty International said the vote to ban minarets violated freedom of religion and would probably be overturned by the Swiss Supreme Court or the European Court of Human Rights.

There is so much to take issue with in Goodman’s report that a weighty tome could be written in response to that one paragraph. One could, for example, question the decision to solicit the opinion of Tariq Ramadan on the issue.

Ramadan, you may recall, was the same individual who characterized the 9/11 attacks, the October 2002 Bali nightclub attack, and the March 2004 Madrid train bombings as “interventions,” rather than acts of terrorism. He has a deep-seated hatred of the West and Israel, is the founder of a Swiss Islamo-fascist organization called the “Movement of Swiss Muslims,” and has exhorted Muslim youth “to Islamize modernity rather than modernize Islam.”

One could also question Goodman’s use of the specious argument put forth by Amnesty International, which characterizes the Swiss vote banning minarets as a “violation of religious freedom.” A curious argument coming from an organization that remains strangely silent on the issue of religious freedom in the Islamic world, where it is forbidden to build a church of any kind in countries such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia (where Christians may not even set foot in many areas for fear of being executed).

We will leave those questions for another time. It will prove much more interesting to have a look at two key points which Goodman completely fails to mention in her report:

1) The Swiss vote was democratic; and

2) The largest group of voters turning out to vote against the minarets was not “right-wing” xenophobes, but leftist, feminist women!

In considering point number one, it is surprising that an organization that took pains to name itself “Democracy Now!” would leave that out of its report. The Swiss vote, however, was democratic. The fact that it produced a result different from that deemed politically correct is irrelevant.

The second point is even more interesting:

Post-election polls revealed that the Swiss would have rejected the ban were it not for feminist involvement: 39% of women were in favor of the ban, as opposed to 31% of men.

Why is that?

Radical feminists argued that the tower-like structures are “male power symbols” and reminders of Islam’s oppression of women. Socialist politicians were also fearful at the prospect of the minarets being built; one exclaiming that she felt that their construction would be “a signal of the state’s acceptance of the oppression of women.”

But the issue seems to have struck a nerve in a broad specturm of Swiss women, and not just Socialists and radical feminists. Julia Werner, a housewife, put it this way:

If we give them a minaret, they’ll have us all wearing burqas. Before you know it, we’ll have Sharia law and women being stoned to death in our streets. We won’t be Swiss any more.

Predictably, the Muslim world is enraged over the vote, and if the furor over the Danish newspaper cartoons portraying Mohammed three years ago is anything to go by, the Swiss are in for a rough time.

NewsReal Blog

Qaddafi to Italian Women: Convert

Libyan Leader Muammar al-Qaddafi gave a lecture on Islam to more than 100 young Italian women on Sunday night, encouraging them to convert and telling them it was false that Islam discriminated against women.

Qaddafi, in Rome for the United Nations World Summit on Food Security, told the women that Christ came for the Jews, but that Mohammed came for everyone, according to Italian press reports.

Libyan officials used an agency that provides hostesses for conferences to advertise for Italian women between the ages of 18 and 35 to attend the talk, held at the Libyan embassy in Italy. The women were told to dress modestly, with no miniskirts and no plunging necklines.

At the end of the lecture Qaddafi gave each woman a copy of the Koran, and took their names, telling them they would be invited for a vacation in Libya.

Foxnews

Britain offered Gaddafi cash to end IRA aid

BRITAIN secretly offered to pay £14 million to Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi as part of a deal to end his country's support for Irish paramilitary group the IRA, according to a report.

The offer, worth £500 million today, was made during negotiations in the 1970s the government of then prime minister Harold Wilson held with Libya aimed at halting the supply of weapons to the now-defunct Irish Republican Army, documents seen by The Independent show.

The deal on the IRA was part of a package of compensation measures to appease the Libyan leader and help open up British trade with the north African state in the 1970s, the newspaper said.

It quoted a “personal message” from Wilson to Gaddafi in which it said the prime minister made clear the government was prepared to pay Libya in return for ending material support for the IRA.

“I do not want to anticipate the results of the forthcoming talks, which we shall enter into in a truly constructive spirit, but it might be helpful nevertheless to mention two questions of particular importance to us.”

“The first of these concerns Northern Ireland,” Wilson wrote in 1975.

The letter is among documents released to Britain's National Archives.

The paper said by the end of the 1970s it was clear negotiations had failed, with Gaddafi holding out for a payment of £51 million, or the equivalent of £1.5 billion today.

Britain's Foreign Office said it was unaware of any offer to Gaddafi, who admits having supported the IRA. Much of the material in its arsenal dumps came from Libya.

Libya has said it will resist demands for compensation over attacks by the IRA, who killed more than 1000 people during their armed campaign to rid Northern Ireland of British sovereignty through violence.

Britain's dealings with oil-rich Libya have come under intense scrutiny following the release in August of the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, a move that sparked anger in the United States.

Former Libyan intelligence agent Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi was freed on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government because he has terminal prostate cancer.

The 1988 bombing of a Pan Am plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, Britain's worst-ever terror attack, killed 270 people.

Source: The Australian

Al Qaeda Leader Praises Dead Militant in New Video

CAIRO — Al Qaeda's deputy leader in a video released Sunday paid tribute to a senior militant who was held in U.S. secret prisons and once gave information about links between the terror group and Iraq that was later deemed false.

In his 10-minute video, Ayman al-Zawahri eulogized Ali Mohammed Abdel-Aziz al-Fakheri, a Libyan militant with the nom de guerre of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi.

The militant reportedly hanged himself with bedsheets in his prison cell in Libya in May, according to a newspaper with ties to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's son.

Al-Libi, which means Libyan in Arabic, was captured in Pakistan in 2001 and later sent to Egypt under the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, where he was reportedly tortured and then handed over to Libya.

In the video, Al-Zawahri, dressed in a white traditional Arab robe and white turban, accused President Barack Obama of killing al-Libi and demanded the U.S. "apologize and pay financial and moral compensation" for those who have been detained in secret prisons.

"This is the least to be accepted from you and from your government," al-Zawarhi said, addressing Obama.

Al Qaeda 's no. 2 leader said the U.S. and Arab governments working with Washington tortured al-Libi before eventually handing him over to Libya "to carry on the torture."

Al-Libi was then killed, al-Zawahri said, "on behalf of the American criminal monster, who fools us as the smiling Obama who seeks peace and the defender of human rights."

Many experts believe that Al Qaeda is struggling in the face of Obama's popularity in the Muslim world — especially compared to his predecessor, George W. Bush — and the terror network has frequently sought to portray Obama's policies as a mere extension of Bush's.

Read more here,,,,

Source: FoxNews

Pas de traitement pour cette maladie arabo-musulmane, par Salim Mansur

Tout musulman doté de pensée et d’une once de dignité a dû se recroqueviller de dégoût devant les exhibitions grotesques du Libyen Muammar Kadhafi et de l’Iranien Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, qui s’exprimaient récemment à l’ONU.

À la tribune de l’assemblée générale, ces deux présidents ont fait étalage de la maladie qui a transformé le monde arabo-musulman en désert culturel et prison politique.

Adonis est un dieu de la mythologie grecque mais c’est aussi le pseudonyme du poète vivant le plus révéré du monde arabe, Ali Ahmad Sa'id (né en 1930), originaire de Syrie et vivant en France depuis trente ans. Lire la suite...

Source: Toronto Sun (Traduction par Poste de veille)

White House Mum on Gadhafi Grants

By John Rossomando

The White House declined to comment on a letter that an Illinois Republican send to President Obama demanding that he cancel funding for two $200,000 State Department grants to groups belonging to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's children.

Rep. Mark Kirk wrote the letter after the State Department notified the House Appropriations Committee on Sept. 15 of its intent to provide the foundation belonging to the Libyan dictator’s son, Saif, with a $200,000 and an additional $200,000 to Wa’ettasmeno UNDP Foundation run by his daughter, Aisha.

“Last month, when Scotland freed Abel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, Gadhafi greeted him with a hero’s welcome,” Kirk wrote in his Sept. 23 letter to President Obama. “As you know, Megrahi was accompanied back to Libya by Gadhafi's son, Saif, who was involved with negotiations for Megrahi’s release. Just weeks after the Gadhafi family celebrated the return of a terrorist for the murders of 189 Americans, the U.S. taxpayer should not be asked to reward them with $400,000. For the sake of the victims’ families who have endured so much pain these last few weeks, I ask you to withdraw your Administration’s request.” Read more ...

Source: NewsMax

Hon. Mark Kirk
Latest recipient of The MASH Award

Walid Phares: UN Must Defend Democracies, Not Dictators

As President Barack Obama was addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations, just before Libya's dictator Moammar Gadhafi called for the demise of the Security Council and followed later by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's challenge of international law as we know it, my conclusion has become clear: Indeed the United Nations must reform, and significantly, and here is why:

Gadhafi, whom many Arab leaders called the fata alk majnun (the crazy man), ranted for an hour and a half in front of the General Assembly, accusing the organization of being unfair and intervening against some aggressors and not all perpetrators of human rights abuse. The dictator is right in this particular diagnosis but not in the menu he offered.

The man whose regime invaded and occupied northern Chad for years, looting that poor country's resources; who sent terrorists into Tunisia and Egypt; who kidnapped and assassinated Lebanese Shiite leaders, who ordered the blowing up of PanAm 103 over Lockerbie; and has been funding violence from the Philippines to Suriname is not exactly the head of state who should be lecturing the world community in Manhattan, but answering a court investigation in the Hague.

Ahmadinejad, another lecturer on fundamental rights at the U.N. does not stand on higher moral grounds either. His Pasdaran are behind terror in Iraq, train and funds Hezbollah in Lebanon, and were indicted by Argentina for bloody massacres across the globe. Ahmadinejad's own population is savagely oppressed, as evidenced by this summer’s repression of protests.

This surreal Picasso-like roster of dictators turned "U.N.-preachers," democracies leaders, and particularly the U.S. president should have responded with clarity and boldness, not just in style but in substance and demanded even more serious reforms.

The world changed in 2001. Al-Qaida gave evil a face. But al-Qaida is just the tip of the iceberg.

It presents us with the ideology of jihadism, an ideology that divides the world. Speeches by Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and other leaders of this jihadist movement convey clearly that either you are in Dar El Islam (as portrayed by al-Qaida, more akin to Dar El Taliban than Dar El Islam), or you are in Dar El Kuffar, the infidels.

There is a new worldwide organization threatening to divide humanity and calling for the opposing side to be persecuted and oppressed. For them 9/11 was legitimate. It is an ideology that accepts the principle of genocide.

It is permissible to kill children, women, the elderly, and non-combatants. In Algeria 145,000 Arab Muslim Sunnis were massacred by the Salafists, the allies of al-Qaida, throughout the 1990s.

But instead of the U.N. mobilizing to prevent this new jihad and neo-Nazi ideology from taking hold, the U.N. secretary-general said in Davos on Jan. 23 that the United Nations is neutral, equidistant from the war on terror and terrorists.

This is a United Nations that has completely abandoned its original principles.

Read more here,,,,

Source: NewsMax

Gaddafi urges 'one state solution'

Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York earlier this week.

His 96-minute speech, which broke the alloted 15-minute protocol, marked the first time he addressed the international body since leading a coup in September 1969 which ended rule by monarchy in Libya and brought him to power.

In an interview with Al Jazeera's Ghida Fakhry on Thursday, Gaddafi repeated his belief that a two-state solution is not a feasible approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and bringing peace in the Middle East.

"Everyone is calling for a two-state solution [but] they don't understand the demographics of the region. Israel would be reduced to 14km and Israel will not accept this," Gaddafi said.

"There is no way to have these two states so close, because they are already integrated. Two million Palestinians live in Israel, Gaza is isolated … torn apart and isolated. Israel should get rid of their nuclear weapons - the Muslim countries will not recognise Israel as long as they have nuclear weapons - and these problems would be done," he added.

"I don't believe that Barack Obama [the US president] really understands the problem," he said.

"He was a senator; he used to worry about the state that he represents and the American people. So he doesn't understand it deeply enough. Maybe in the future he might."

The Libyan leader also said the current Arab approach to resolving the 60-year Arab-Israeli conflict and creating a Palestinian state would not yield positive results.

"There is no way to have two states in that piece of territory."

Read more here,,,,

Source: Al Jazeera (English)

A UN State of Mind: Where Tyrants Are Literally Never Stopped.

We live at a moment in history when tyrants hold forth with none to stop them. Ahmadinejad-the-Monster held forth in all his western-suited glory at the UN and so did the terrorist, Gaddafi.

No one at the UN stopped the Libyan madman from speaking well beyond his allotted 15 minutes. If the UN can’t even do this, can you imagine them actually stopping a genocide or a terrorist plot in process?

If they can’t or won’t, why are we funding them? Why do they exist?

The American President has decided to “engage” with the UN and with the world of tyrants. Perhaps he can, perhaps he thinks like them. Me - I have an increasingly hard time dealing with their righteous arrogance and post-colonial resentments, not to mention their demonization of Israel. For example, let me share two recent conversations with you.

In retrospect, both conversations were a little like talking to Red Guard Maoist youth leaders in 1949 in China.

The first conversation took place in Rome at the international conference I attended. In my speech I referred to “third world” countries. Immediately afterwards, a young woman in a business suit (pants and a jacket) started following me around. She was from South Africa and was pleasant enough but strangely persistent. She said: “We do not say ‘third world.’ That suggests that one world is ‘first’ and the others, last, or lesser. We would like you to say ‘developing world’ instead. Isn’t that more hopeful?”

Said I: “You make an interesting point and I actually agree with you. Going forward, I might do as you suggest.”

But she was programmed to go on, to wear down, force concessions, so that everyone will think exactly as she does. She was not used to easy victories and did not seem to hear or believe me. She continued explaining why ‘third world’ was a derogatory phrase and not a good post-colonial way of thinking.

I repeated that I agreed with her. When she continued to press on, I backed away. Afterwards, I thought that she had shown very little respect for one of the keynote speakers (myself) whose presentation had just excited a good deal of interest. Ah–she was psychologically programmed to go after those in positions of authority.

The second conversation took place in New York City. I was interviewing a college graduate for a potential position. One young woman identified herself as a feminist—but then quickly told me she was a Muslim and that some of her female relatives wear hijab and that their decision was a private one that no government should abrogate.

I said that given my work and given how strongly I’d bonded with a stellar group of Muslim feminists at the conference in Rome, I would welcome a Muslim feminist on the job. And, I agreed with her about the importance of separating religion from state–but then said that the matter was still exceedingly tricky.

Said I: “One does not want the government mixing in matters of religion or telling women what to wear but as long as Muslim girls and women can be killed for refusing to wear hijab, how can we as feminists fully support it?”

Throwing all caution to the winds, I referred her to my website and recommended some books including Nonie Darwish’s Cruel and Usual Punishment, and a new and rather elegant little book by Marnia Lazreg titled Questioning the Veil. Open Letters to Muslim Women.

I should have kept my mouth shut. Read more here ...

Source: Chesler Chronicles

United Nations
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award

Gaddafi defends Afghanistan's Taliban

Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi launched a spirited defense of Afghanistan's hardline Taliban in a rambling address to the UN General Assembly.

'Why are we against the Taliban? Why are we against Afghanistan?' he asked leaders of more than 120 nations attending the annual General Assembly debate.

'If the Taliban wants to make a religious state, okay, like the Vatican. Does the Vatican constitute a danger against us? No,' said the Libyan leader, addressing the 192-member body for the first time in his 40 years in power.

'If the Taliban wants to create an Islamic emirate, who said they are the enemy?' he added.

The Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan is now at its deadliest since a 2001 US-led invasion ousted their extremist regime. Winning the war in Afghanistan is one of the priorities of the new US administration.

Gaddafi went on to attack the United Nations Security Council in his first appearance at the world body criticising it for failing to prevent 65 wars around the world since it was founded in 1945.

Gaddafi's called for reform of the Security Council either by abolishing the veto power of the five permanent members or by expanding with extra member states to make it more representative.

He says it shouldn't be called the Security Council but would be better named the 'terror council'.

Source: SkyNews

Ahmadinejad and Gadhafi Meet Resistance in NY New York to Terrorists: Get Lost ...

By Michelle Oddis

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was forced to shuffle his accommodation plans prior to his arrival in New York City for the United Nations (UN) General Assembly gathering when -- as early as July -- group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) sent letters and emails to all New York area hotels and venues requesting business owners refuse to host Ahmadinejad.

Originally, Ahmadinejad had a speech and banquet planned at a Helmsley hotel. But then came UANI.

"By doing business with the Iranian government the Helmsley is accepting blood money from a regime that brutally suppresses its own people and that is a danger to global security. Moreover, by providing a forum for President Ahmadinejad’s speech, the Helmsley is serving as a bullhorn for the propaganda of the illegitimate leader of a brutal theocratic dictatorship," wrote UANI to the Helmsley Hotel after they learned Ahmadinejad would be speaking at their venue. Read more ...

Source: Human Events

UANI
Latest recipient of The MASH Award

His Own Worst Enemy

BY DAVID SCHENKER

Libya’s Muammar al-Qaddafi, once a terrorism-sponsoring pariah, is on the brink of rehabilitation. Can he hold his tongue long enough to pull it off?

Today, Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi arrives in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. Although he hasn't touched down yet, the colonel is already fraying nerves.

In the spring, with the Obama administration in the White House, the old tensions between Washington and Tripoli had started to ease. At the July summit of the G-8 in Italy, President Barack Obama and Qaddafi had one of those handshakes often described as "historic."

But, last month, Libya affronted many by giving the Lockerbie bomber a hero's welcome. (A Scottish court had convicted Abdelbaset al-Megrahi of killing 270, including 189 Americans, by blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.

In August, a judge granted the bomber compassionate release as he is terminally ill.) More recently, the State Department has had to scramble to find appropriate accommodations for Libya's quixotic leader after New York City and New Jersey said they wouldn't allow him to pitch his tent. Most of all, workers in Foggy Bottom are wringing their hands because Qaddafi has a long history of making humiliating statements when he has an international stage.

Thus, as he arrives for a week in the Big Apple, one question looms large: Will Qaddafi restrain himself, helping foster the quiet U.S.-Libya diplomatic rapprochement, or will he let loose, shoot from the hip, and foment outrage?

European leaders have been the most recent victims of the Qaddafi treatment.

In the past two years alone, the Libyan leader has managed to embarrass French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and, most recently, Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz.

In the last case, Qaddafi upbraided Merz after Swiss authorities arrested his son, Hannibal Qaddafi, for assaulting two maids at a Geneva hotel. The Libyan colonel managed to shame Merz into traveling to Tripoli to issue a public apology -- after, allegedly, threatening to cut Libya's bank deposits and oil exports to Switzerland. With the Swiss public far from amused, Merz's humiliating actions might cost him his job.

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Source: Foreign Policy

President feels Gadhafi heat

Stewart Stogel

NEW YORK – Feeling the heat of growing U.S. resentment over Libyan strongman Col. Muammar Gadhafi's visit to the United Nations, President Barack Obama is moving quickly to keep his distance from the mercurial leader.

There will be numerous opportunities for the two to meet this week, such as a lunch and dinner hosted by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for visiting VIPs, including Gadhafi and Obama.

U.N. sources admit the two will be kept at some distance, making it as difficult as possible for them to cross paths at the receptions.

That didn't work at last summer's G-20 Summit in Italy, where Gadhafi sought out Obama for a brief photo op.

Obama is also hosting his own lunch for African heads of state on Tuesday and a gala dinner at the Metropolitan Opera House for U.N. VIP's Wednesday.

A White House spokesman, Ben Chang, however, told WND that Gadhafi is definitely "not on the invite list" for either function.

Chang refused to elaborate.

That would put the Libyan out in the cold with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, however, two long-time U.S. foes, may get a pass this time.

Obama also holds the presidency of the U.N. Security Council for September, and Libya is a non-permanent Council member.

Chang admitted the two "could meet" during a special meeting called for Thursday morning by the White House to discuss nuclear non-proliferation.

It was less than four years ago that Libya admitted to operating a secret nuclear arms program for more than a decade.

Many feel the nation only came clean after the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

"[Gadhafi] felt he could be next," explained former US/UN Ambassador John Bolton.

While Obama attempts to give Col. Gadhafi the cold shoulder, New York City officials have also been keen to jump into the fray.

Intentionally leaking various attempts by the Gadhafi entourage to find a place to set up his infamous traveling tent, city officials succeeded in forcing Gadhafi to set up shop inside the Libyan U.N. mission on East 48th Street.

Not missing a beat, The New York Daily News today highlighted a photo showing a neighbor's dog relieving herself on the red carpet being rolled out in front of the Libyan high-rise.

"She has great taste," said a smiling passer by.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was not available for comment.

Source: WND

A Cartoon is Worth a Thousand Words

Source: Times Online

Colonel Gaddafi’s controversial Muslim clerics head for Midlands

A GROUP of controversial Muslim clerics funded by Colonel Gaddafi are set to make appearances at three Midland Mosques.

Eleven preachers sponsored by the World Islamic Call Society (Wics), which was founded, led and paid for by the Libyan leader, will be holding events in Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham during Ramadan.

The speeches come just a month after the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasset Ali Al Megrahi caused a storm between Britain and the US when he returned to a hero’s welcome in Tripoli.

And in a recent speech, Colonel Gaddafi said that the aim of Wics was to convert the whole of Europe to Islam.

He said: “This religion shall overcome all other religions before it. Their time has gone. It is his promise, Allah shall prevail this religion over the rest.

“There are tens of millions of Muslims in the European continent and the number is on the increase. The number of indigenous Europeans is falling drastically.

“This is the clear indication that the European continent will be converted to Islam. Europe will one day be a Muslim continent.”

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Source: Sunday Mercury

Now Colonel Gaddafi wants to 'abolish' Switzerland: Dictator files bizarre motion with the U.N.

By Ian Sparks

Bizarre request: Gaddafi, has filed a motion with the U.N. saying Switzerland should be wiped off the map and split among France, Italy and Germany

Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi is set to ask the United Nations to 'abolish' Switzerland and share the land among its neighbouring countries.

The eccentric dictator has filed a motion with the U.N. saying the Alpine state should be wiped off the map and split among France, Italy and Germany.

Gaddafi is set to present his bizarre plan when Libya takes over the year-long presidency of the U.N. general Assembly on September 15.

He first mentioned his idea at the G8 summit in Italy in July.

'Switzerland is a world mafia and not a state,' he said.

'It is formed of an Italian community that should return to Italy, another German community that should return to Germany, and a third French community that should return to France.'

The Swiss Foreign Ministry described it as a single-minded campaign against Swiss interests.

Swiss MP Christa Markwalder, told the Swiss TV news programme 10 vor 10 this week: 'We are concerned that Libya will attempt to use its year-long presidency of the U.N. General Assembly to damage Switzerland's reputation.'

Relations between Switzerland and Libya crumbled after Gaddafi's son Hannibal, 33, and his pregnant wife were arrested in Geneva a year ago accused of assaulting a hotel chamber maid.

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Source: Mail Online

Libyan extravaganza to show off bomber Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi's release

Martin Fletcher, Tripoli | September 02

LIBYA was set to flaunt the Lockerbie bomber's release at the climax of last night's celebrations marking Muammar Gaddafi's 40 years in power.

The Times gained access to the dress rehearsal of a spectacular two-hour show which extols Colonel Gaddafi for reviving his country and restoring Arab pride. As the finale approaches, the screen at the back of the giant stage in Tripoli's Green Square shows Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi stepping off the plane that brought him home from his Scottish prison two weeks ago.

His arms are raised aloft by Colonel Gaddafi's son, Saif, as he acknowledges the joyful reception from the crowd below.

Unless it is cut out at the last minute, the clip's inclusion seems almost calculated to provoke the West. Britain and the US had urged Libya to keep Megrahi's homecoming low-key.

US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown both expressed disgust when he was given what appeared to be a rapturous welcome at Tripoli airport. It flew in the face of repeated assurances by Libyan officials, including Saif Gaddafi, that the reception was muted and not intended as a display of gloating. Megrahi himself is now in hospital, seriously ill with prostate cancer.

Anxious to dampen down the controversy caused by Megrahi's release, Britain is expected to send only a junior representative to the ceremonies. The British embassy in Tripoli said that the ambassador Vincent Fean was in Malta, suggesting the job would be left to a more junior diplomat. "We are still considering the level of representation," a spokesman said.

Other European states are sending ministers, ambassadors or official delegations, but the President of Malta is thought to be the only European head of state attending. However, the audience will include a large number of African leaders and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.

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Source: The Australian