Archived news and commentary: November 7 - 13, 2005

2005/11/07 - 2005/11/13
2005/10/31 - 2005/11/06
2005/10/24 - 2005/10/30
2005/10/17 - 2005/10/23
2005/10/10 - 2005/10/16
2005/10/03 - 2005/10/09

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, November 13, 2005

News and commentary:

"This image made from television..."
(Jordanian TV/AP, 2005/11/13)
"This image made from television shows Iraqi Sajida Mubarek Atrous al-Rishawi opening her jacket and showing an explosive belt as she confesses on Jordanian state-run television Sunday Nov. 13, 2005 to her failed bid to set off an explosives belt inside one of the three Amman hotels targeted by al-Qaida."

"Iraqi Woman Confesses on Jordan TV" (Shafika Mattar, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/13)
"AMMAN, Jordan - Strapped with a disabled explosives belt, an Iraqi woman arrested Sunday confessed on television to trying to blow herself up with her husband in one of three suicide attacks earlier this week that killed 57 people.
The 35-year-old woman — the sister of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's right-hand man who was killed by U.S. forces in Iraq — appeared on Jordanian state TV hours after she was captured by security forces who were tipped off by an al-Qaida claim that a husband-and-wife team participated in Wednesday's bombings.
Looking nervous and wringing her hands, Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, 35, described how she failed to blow herself up during a wedding reception at the Radisson SAS hotel on Wednesday night after struggling with the cord on her explosives belt.
"My husband wore an (explosives-packed) belt and put one on me. He taught me how to use it," al-Rishawi said, wearing a white head scarf, a black gown and a disabled bomb belt tied around her waist.
"My husband detonated (his bomb) and I tried to explode my belt but it wouldn't," she said. 'People fled running and I left running with them.'"

"British MP George Galloway at Damascus University: US Army Is Defeated in Iraq. US Will Not Dare to Attack Syria. Bashar Al-Assad Is the Last Arab Leader and Tony Blair Is A Slave of Slaves" (MEMRI TV, 2005/11/13)
The video clip can be found here: "Following are excerpts from a speech given by British MP George Galloway in Damascus University, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on November 13, 2005.
Galloway: ... I want to be very clear. I was clear in July, and what I said in July has followed me all over the world by the American and Israeli propaganda machine, so I want to be very clear again. All dignified people in the world, whether Arabs or Muslims or others with dignity, are very proud of the speech made by President Bashar Al-Assad a few days ago here in Damascus. ...
For me he is the last Arab ruler, and Syria is the last Arab country. It is the fortress of the remaining dignity of the Arabs, and that's why I'm proud to be here and addressing you this evening. ...
The reason that Syria is facing this crisis is not because of any bad thing which Syria has done or any weaknesses within its democracy, or within its economy, or within its human rights record - and there are weaknesses in all three of these. The reason why Syria is being threatened is not because of anything bad which she did, but because of the good which she is doing. That's the reason why Syria is being threatened - because she will not betray the Palestinian resistance, because she will not betray the Lebanese resistance, Hizbullah, because she will not sign a shameful surrender-peace with General Sharon, and above all - more than any of these others - because Syria will not allow her country to be used as a military base for America to crush the resistance in Iraq. These are the reasons why Syria is being targeted by these imperial powers."

"Anti-Christian rampage features 2,000 Muslims" (WorldNetDaily, 2005/11/13)
"They came in buses to the small village of Sangla Hill in the Nankana district of Punjab in Pakistan.
Some 2,000 organized Muslims first vandalized three churches, a nuns' convent, two Catholic schools, the houses of a Protestant pastor and a Catholic priest, a girls' hostel and some Christian homes, according to Asia News.
Then they burned them to the ground, while about 450 Christian families fled yesterday. They have not returned.
The Justice and Peace Commission accuses the police of "criminal negligence" because they did not intervene.
Lawrence John Saldanha, archbishop of Lahore Archdiocese and chairman of the National Commission for Justice and Peace, said "the attack seems to have been planned and organized as the attackers were brought to the site in buses and instigated to commit violence and arson. It gave our people a lot of fear and anxiety but we hope the government will do something."
The violence began 10 a.m. Saturday and was apparently motivated by the latest blasphemy case. On Friday, a Christian, Yousaf Masih, allegedly burned some copies of the Quran and disappeared. One of his brothers, Salim Masih was arrested the day before. The Commission of Justice and Peace in Lahore ruled that the blasphemy accusations were false and stemmed from the accusers having a financial dispute with the families they accused." (Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch.)

"All Quiet on the European Front" (Paul Belien, The Brussels Journal, 2005/11/13)
"The state is dead, but we are not allowed to know. Hence the following official statement released this morning by the Belgian Ministry of the Interior: “On Saturday night the Brussels police detained about fifty people. Here and there cars were set alight. Nevertheless, the situation remained quiet.”
On Saturday night the Brussels police clashed with rioting “youths” in the center of the city. The authorities describe the events as “a game of cat and mouse.” In the course of this “game” five cars, two buses and a number of dustbins were set on fire. In Liège, the major city of Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium, nine vehicles were torched, including a truck. The rest of Wallonia was “quiet” too. In Charleroi nine cars went up in flames, in Louvain-la-Neuve three and in Binche one. In Colfontaine a kindergarten was set alight. In Moeskroen, a town bordering France, a truck burned out after being hit by a molotov cocktail. The fire brigade had to protect the surrounding houses, but could not prevent damage to a nearby school and a butcher’s.
France was “quiet” as well. During the 17th consecutive night of rioting, 374 cars were torched and 212 people arrested."

"Violence Persists in Southern France" (Molly Moore, The Washington Post, 2005/11/13)
France IV: "The violence in France's poor, suburban communities persisted in the south Sunday with attackers ramming burning cars into the sides of a retirement home and a school in one southern town. But nationwide the unrest of the past 18 nights continued to subside. ...
A poll published by Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper Sunday indicated that 71 percent of those surveyed do not believe President Jacques Chirac can resolve the social problems that fueled the riots. The survey also showed that 25 percent of the respondents support the policies of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who has capitalized on the violence to promote his National Front party's "zero immigration" platform."

"Muslim apartheid burns bright in France" (Minette Marrin, The Sunday Times, 2005/11/13)
France III: "It is perhaps pointless to look back at the shamefully irresponsible immigration policies that have brought so many European countries to this explosive point. It is pointless to wonder how anyone in authority could have imagined that it would be a good idea to dump enormous numbers of poorly educated Third World immigrants from different societies into unprepared and unwilling, sometimes racist, European host cultures, into hellish high-rise suburbs from Seville to Rotterdam, in numbers so huge that integration became ever more unlikely and ghettos more inevitable. It is done now.
However, we might at least recognise the problem. As usual a great many people are deliberately avoiding it, in particular by editing the word Muslim out of their debates, as if Islam had nothing to do with the dangerous mood sweeping Europe. Poverty and rejection have played a significant part, but there is an unmistakable sense in which the riots are Muslim, consciously so.
Muslims vary and their beliefs vary. But the response of some Muslims to frustration — whether or not the fault of westerners — has been to retreat into more extreme forms of Islam and into the arms of fundamentalists. Yet although we know this, and despite the Salman Rushdie affair, despite the bombs and assassinations that led up to 9/11, despite the recent atrocities, we seem unwilling to recognise that what this can mean is deliberate separatism — apartheid."

"When in Paris..." (Frances Stead Sellers, The Washington Post, 2005/11/13)
France II: "Gone from the immigrant-receiving countries of northern Europe is the tradition of "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." It has been replaced by the ethos of modern multiculturalism, the philosophy of the fruit salad as opposed to the message of the melting pot: "When in Rome, do as you did back home."
Sikhs in Britain have won the right to wear turbans instead of crash helmets on their motorbikes; Muslim students in Germany ask to be excused from coed swimming sessions; Moroccan immigrants to the Netherlands continue to import subservient wives from their homelands, often in arranged marriages. The examples are so commonplace that when France resisted -- and ultimately prohibited -- the wearing of ostentatious religious symbols such as head scarves in schools, the move provoked international debate.
All of which presents particular tensions for the welfare states of northern Europe, whose identity has centered around fostering common ways, common values, common needs. "Sharing and solidarity can conflict with diversity," writes David Goodhart, founding editor of the monthly magazine Prospect, which bills itself as "Britain's intelligent conversation." Many Europeans are left reflecting upon the irony of multiculturalism: It protects and preserves every culture, except one -- the host culture."

"A French City and Its Underclass Drift Apart" (Daniel Williams, The Washington Post, 2005/11/13)
France I: "Municipal police do not patrol Reynerie, even during the day, when markets and stores are open. "It is not their duty to restore order," Lloret explained. "Our police handle traffic and thefts, you know, things like that."
The national gendarmerie and riot police are the only forces of order, and they come only at night. City employees are refusing to work at their offices in the district because of the danger. Bus drivers have begged off routes in Mirail, and the subway closes before sundown. ...
On Wednesday, groups of social workers called for an outdoor meeting to appeal for peace. A couple of young men began to harangue the workers. "Go home. You're white. You don't belong here. You have nice jobs. Go back to France," one said. The young men cheered as a stolen car buzzed by, its passengers on their way to torch the kindergarten.
"This confrontation was a shock," said Silviane Becker, a member of the Mirail Social Education Association. "They insult us because the ones they really want to insult are absent."
Members of leftist opposition parties visiting Reynerie on Thursday got a similarly hostile reception. People in the crowd in Reynerie's central square yelled that the parties only show up when there is trouble.
Abou explained the mood: "We want communication, but not just token. We want apologies, and we want to talk about serious problems." He defended the torching of the kindergarten as a symbolic expulsion of France from Reynerie."

"PLO Calls for UN Probe Into Arafat's Death" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/13)
United Moonbats: "DAMASCUS, Syria - A senior Palestinian official has called for a U.N. investigation into the death of Yasser Arafat, reiterating allegations that the Palestinian leader was poisoned by Israel.
Farouk Kaddoumi, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization's mainstream Fatah faction, said Arafat was poisoned by Israel "because he was a stumbling block to (Israeli) plans." Other Palestinians have made the same charge in the past and Israel has repeatedly denied it.
The PLO will ask the U.N. Security Council "to form an international investigating commission into the assassination of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat." Kaddoumi told reporters on Saturday.
Arafat died in a French hospital on Nov. 11, 2004 at age 75. The exact cause of death remains unknown, fueling persistent rumors that he was either poisoned or died of AIDS.
Kaddoumi was speaking in Damascus after meeting representatives of the Syria-based radical Palestinian factions opposed to the PLO's peace accords with Israel. He said all Palestinian groups are united in holding Israel fully responsible for Arafat's death."

"Woman poet 'slain for her verse'" (Christina Lamb, The Sunday Times, 2005/11/13)
"She risked torture, imprisonment, perhaps even death to study literature and write poetry in secret under the Taliban. Last week, when she should have been celebrating the success of her first book, Nadia Anjuman, was beaten to death in Herat, apparently murdered by her husband.
The 25-year-old Afghan had garnered wide praise in literary circles for the book Gule Dudi — Dark Flower — and was at work on a second volume.
Friends say her family was furious, believing that the publication of poetry by a woman about love and beauty had brought shame on it.
“She was a great poet and intellectual but, like so many Afghan women, she had to follow orders from her husband,” said Nahid Baqi, her best friend at Herat University.
Farid Ahmad Majid Mia, 29, Anjuman’s husband, is in police custody after confessing to having slapped her during a row. But he denies murder and claims that his wife committed suicide. The couple had a six-month-old son.
The death of the young writer has shocked a city which prides itself on its artistic heritage. It has also raised uncomfortable questions about how much the position of women in Afghanistan has improved since the fall of the Taliban to American-led forces four years ago." (See also: "Afghan Poet Nadia Anjuman Beaten to Death" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/08))

"Al-Qaeda calls Queen an 'enemy of Islam'" (Abul Taher, The Sunday Times, 2005/11/13)
"Al-Qaeda has threatened the Queen by naming her as “one of the severest enemies of Islam” in a video message to justify the July bombings in London.
The warning has been passed by MI5 to the Queen’s protection team after it obtained the unexpurgated version of a video issued by Al-Qaeda after the 7/7 attacks. Parts of it were broadcast on Al-Jazeera, the Arabic satellite channel.
In the video, Ayman al- Zawahiri, second-in-command to Osama Bin Laden, targets the Queen as ultimately responsible for Britain’s “crusader laws” and denounces her as an enemy of Muslims. ...
It also contains inflammatory material from Mohammad Sidique Khan, ringleader of the London bombings which killed 52 commuters. He is urging Muslims to take part in jihad and seek martyrdom.
Khan, 30, incites British Muslims to ignore the moderate Islamic leaders who want integration with British society.
“Our so-called scholars of today,” he said, “are content with their Toyotas and semi- detached houses” in their desire for integration. The message is believed to be the first of its kind in which a British suicide bomber calls on fellow UK Muslims to follow his example."

"Al-Qaeda on defensive as bombs begin to backfire" (Ian Mather, Scotland on Sunday, 2005/11/13)
"After years of al-Qaeda terror attacks in which thousands have been killed, many of them Muslims - the people they wish to recruit - voices of dissent are starting to be heard in the Middle East.
As moderate Muslims dare to protest at daily death tolls, even the prospect of one of Osama bin Laden's most feared cohorts, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, being handed over is being discussed.
Faced with the unprecedented outburst of fury among Muslims over its latest atrocity, al-Qaeda's concern about reaction in the Middle East was evident last week when it came the closest yet to an apology. ...
Al-Qaeda's volte-face was caused by an unprecedented emotional outpouring of anger against the terrorist organisation in Jordan. On Thursday thousands of Jordanians protested across the country to denounce the head of the al-Qaeda terrorist group in Iraq, Zarqawi, America's most wanted enemy. They marched through Amman chanting: "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!"
There were even larger demonstrations on Friday after the weekly midday mosque sermons in Amman and at a mass funeral for victims. "We came to support our nation and our unity," said Ibrahim Haniya, 22, who marched with a group of friends. 'These bombers didn't differentiate between Muslims, Christians or Jews. They were against the world.'"

"Relying on Computer, U.S. Seeks to Prove Iran's Nuclear Aims" (William J. Broad and David E. Sanger, The New York Times, 2005/11/13)
"In mid-July, senior American intelligence officials called the leaders of the international atomic inspection agency to the top of a skyscraper overlooking the Danube in Vienna and unveiled the contents of what they said was a stolen Iranian laptop computer.
The Americans flashed on a screen and spread over a conference table selections from more than a thousand pages of Iranian computer simulations and accounts of experiments, saying they showed a long effort to design a nuclear warhead, according to a half-dozen European and American participants in the meeting.
The documents, the Americans acknowledged from the start, do not prove that Iran has an atomic bomb. They presented them as the strongest evidence yet that, despite Iran's insistence that its nuclear program is peaceful, the country is trying to develop a compact warhead to fit atop its Shahab missile, which can reach Israel and other countries in the Middle East. ...
The computer contained studies for crucial features of a nuclear warhead, said European and American officials who had examined the material, including a telltale sphere of detonators to trigger an atomic explosion. The documents specified a blast roughly 2,000 feet above a target - considered a prime altitude for a nuclear detonation."

Saturday, November 12, 2005

News and commentary:

"A Jordanian girl lights candles..."
(Ali Jarekji, Reuters, 2005/11/12)
"A Jordanian girl lights candles outside Radisson SAS hotel in central Amman November 12, 2005, one of three hotels bombed last Wednesday. Jordan confirmed on Saturday that Al Qaeda in Iraq was behind three deadly suicide bombings that ripped through Amman hotels this week and rejected a claim by the group that a woman was among the bombers."

"Unrest Spreads to First Big City in France" (Jocelyn Gecker, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/12)
"Thousands of Parisian police guarded the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysees and train stations on Saturday, as part of emergency measures enacted in response to text messages and Internet postings that called for "violent actions" in the capital.
In Lyon, France's third largest city, police fired tear gas to disperse stone-hurling youths at the historic Place Bellecour. It was the first time in 17 days of unrest that youths clashed with police in a major city.
Hours earlier, authorities had announced a weekend curfew in Lyon, barring youths under 18 from being outside without adult supervision between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
In separate incidents Saturday night in the southern city of Carpentras, rioters crashed cars into a retirement home and a school before setting the vehicles on fire, the national police said. A primary school was also set ablaze in Carpentras. ...
The emergency measures in Paris came a day after cell phone text messages and Internet blog postings called for "violent actions" in Paris on Saturday evening. Authorities banned public gatherings considered risky in an effort to keep the unrest from reaching inside the capital."

"Many in Jordan See Old Enemy in Attack: Israel" (Michael Slackman, The New York Times, 2005/11/12)
"ZARQA, Jordan, Nov. 11 - The Maktoum Mosque was crowded with worshipers for Friday Prayer as the imam sharply criticized the suicide attacks on three hotels in Amman, saying those who committed the crimes were not Muslims, no matter what they called themselves.
Afterward, on the street, people agreed that whoever committed such an act could not be a Muslim. But many meant this literally, that the attack must have been carried out by outsiders, namely Israeli agents.
"Who said it is them?" asked Ahmed al-Zawahrah, referring to claims that members of a radical Islamic group were behind the blasts. "It could be Israel." ...
The suspicion of some here over the hotel killings mirrors the unfounded rumor that thousands of Jews did not show up for work at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, because Israel was behind those attacks.
In Egypt, Israel was also widely blamed for the bombing attacks in Taba and Sharm el Sheik over the last year, and for the recent sectarian violence between Coptic Christians and Muslims in Alexandria. In Syria, officials at the highest levels of the government have blamed Israel for killing Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister. ...
Whatever the cause, the result is the same: "In the first place, people don't even recognize the reality around them," said Muhammad el-Sayed Said, a political analyst at the government-financed Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Egypt."

Note: I've finally found some time to cover the October riots in Alexandria with more than one article. Here are the current articles and photos:

"Egypt's Christian-Muslim divide" (Mona Eltahawy, International Herald Tribune, 2005/11/10)
"Insulting Islam in Egypt" (Robert Spencer, FrontPageMagazine, 2005/10/25)
"Muslim radicals threaten to kill Pope Shenouda III" (The Free Copts, 2005/01/23)
"Some 4,000 Egyptians march on the Saint Girgis church..." (Adel al-Masri, AFP, 2005/10/21)
"15000 Muslims Surround a Coptic Church in Alexandria" (The Free Copts, 2005/10/21)
"An Egyptian Coptic nun lies on the ground..." (AP, 2005/10/19)
"Man stabs nun in Egyptian church" (Reuters, 2005/10/19)

Also added in archive:
"God is Great # 3" (John Latham, Lisson Gallery, 1990)
"British museum pulls religion-themed work" (AP/Charlotte.com, 2005/09/25)
"Iraq: Former PM reveals secret service data on birth of Al-Qaeda in Iraq" (AKI, 2005/05/23)

Friday, November 11, 2005

News and commentary:

"President Commemorates Veterans Day, Discusses War on Terror" (The White House, 2005/11/11)
From President George W. Bush's Veteran Day speech:
"While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs.
They also know that intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with our assessment of Saddam Hussein. They know the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing his development and possession of weapons of mass destruction. And many of these critics supported my opponent during the last election, who explained his position to support the resolution in the Congress this way: "When I vote to give the President of the United States the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein, it is because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a threat, and a grave threat, to our security." That's why more than a hundred Democrats in the House and the Senate -- who had access to the same intelligence -- voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power.
The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges. These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will. As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them. Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. And our troops deserve to know that whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united, and we will settle for nothing less than victory."

"Who Is Lying About Iraq?" (Norman Podhoretz, Commentary, December 2005)
"Among the many distortions, misrepresentations, and outright falsifications that have emerged from the debate over Iraq, one in particular stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral and/or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively exposed.
What makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in getting itself established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by evidence and argument alike. In this it resembles nothing so much as those animated cartoon characters who, after being flattened, blown up, or pushed over a cliff, always spring back to life with their bodies perfectly intact. Perhaps, like those cartoon characters, this allegation simply cannot be killed off, no matter what. ...
Still, even many who believed that Saddam did possess WMD, and was ruthless enough to use them, accused Bush of telling a different sort of lie by characterizing the risk as “imminent.” But this, too, is false: Bush consistently rejected imminence as a justification for war. Thus, in the State of the Union address he delivered only three months after 9/11, Bush declared that he would “not wait on events while dangers gather” and that he would “not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer.” Then, in a speech at West Point six months later, he reiterated the same point: “If we wait for threats to materialize, we will have waited too long.” And as if that were not clear enough, he went out of his way in his State of the Union address in 2003 (that is, three months before the invasion), to bring up the word “imminent” itself precisely in order to repudiate it:

Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option."

"The Home Office suicide note" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2005/11/11)
"Readers may recall that the government’s committees that it set up to advise it on how to deal with Islamist extremism after the London bombings last July were stuffed with, er, Islamist extremists (see earlier post). Now they have reported. Guess what! They have concluded that the main problem is not what is wrong with Islam or the Muslim community -- but with Britain! Thus they say, as the Guardian tells us, that

foreign policy had been ‘a key contributory factor’ in driving extremist groups, and perceptions of injustices inherent in western foreign policy were triggering ‘radical impulses’ among British Muslims ...

the present anti-terror regime is already excessive [my emphasis], and that the measures risk provoking further radicalisation of young British Muslims. It says the proposal to make "inciting, justifying or glorifying terrorism" a criminal offence ‘could lead to a significant chill factor in the Muslim community in expressing legitimate support for self-determination struggles around the world’.

Instead, the Guardian goes on, they want

A rapid rebuttal unit to combat Islamophobia, a better reflection of Islam in the national curriculum, and the training of imams in ‘modern’ skills.

But hey — let’s not be unfair. They do also say that they want to convey to young British Muslims a ‘counter-narrative to terrorist readings of the Qur'an’. Promising. So who might they get to promulgate such a counter-narrative? Why, none other than our old friend Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who supports human bomb terrorism in Iraq and Israel. But not in the UK, apparently — so that makes him a role model for Muslim moderation!
As they say in my trade, you couldn’t make it up. Read it and weep for Britain. And let’s remind ourselves – this has been published by the British government Home Office. It might as well have published a national suicide note." (See also the report [PDF]: "Countering Terrorism: Power, Violence and Democracy Post 9/11" (cofe.anglican.org, September 2005). Also: "Terror bill chilling for Muslims, Blair warned" (Alan Travis and Patrick Wintour, The Guardian, 2005/11/11))

"Group: Four Iraqis Carried Out Bombings" (Paul Garwood, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/11)
"Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Friday that four Iraqis, including a husband and wife, carried out the suicide bombings against three Amman hotels, and police arrested 120 Jordanians and Iraqis in the hunt for anyone who might have aided them.
Thousands of Jordanians protested in Amman for a second straight day, condemning the attacks that killed 57 people, excluding the bombers, and denouncing al-Qaida in Iraq's leader, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. ...
The al-Qaida statement said all the bombers "are Iraqis from the land between the two rivers," alluding to Iraq's ancient name, Mesopotamia.
"They vowed to die and they chose the shortest route to receive the blessings of God," it said. ...
The statement, signed by group spokesman Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, said the four included a woman "who chose to accompany her husband to his martyrdom."
It also threatened Israel, Jordan's western neighbor. The statement noted that Jordan, which it described as Israel's "buffer zone," was now "within range" and "it will not be long before raids by the mujahedeen come" to the Jewish state itself."

Nalin Pekgul
(Dagens Nyheter, 2005/02/22)

"Pekgul leaves suburb because of violence" (Olof Sjölander, Sveriges Radio, 2005/11/10)
Nalin Pekgul is one of the most well-known Social Democrats in Sweden. She was a member of parliament between 1994 - 2002 and is currently the chairman for The National Federation of Social Democratic Women. And the Social Democrats, of course, has been the governing party in Sweden the last 75 years, except for two periods.
Tensta is a suburb in northern Stockholm which is notorious for its large concrete apartment buildings and has a high concentration of immigrants.
This is translated excerpts from an article in Swedish:
"Nalin Pekgul, well-known social democratic advocate of suburbs with a high concentration of immigrants, is leaving her own suburb Tensta because she thinks it has become to insecure. Tensta has become too dangerous for the children, she says. ...
She says to P1 Studio Ett that the reasons why she wants to move is the increasing violence and the religious fundamentalism in Tensta.
The triggering factor was an incident in connection with the Tensta Market earlier this autumn, when a man was hurt by gunshots close to the family's apartment.
"I was on my way home with my son. There was blood everywhere. It's not funny for an eight-year old to have to see something like that," says Nalin Pekgul.
According to rumours, the man survived because he wore a bulletproof vest. A circumstance which also worried Nalin Pekgul.
"I understood then that many are wearing bulletproof vests here. What has happened here, I wondered. Is this Tensta? I must have missed what has happened here the last years."
Nalin Pekgul says that she avoids to arrive home late in the evening nowadays.
"Someone always has to meet me at the subway station if I arrive home late," she says. ...
Nalin Pekgul, who is a Muslim herself, has also noted that fundamentalistic variants of Islam are growing stronger in Tensta. Her children come home and wonder why their mother don't wear a hijab or why their family don't go to the mosque. They also have heard that Muslims are better than Christians.
"I don't like it when my son comes home and says that 'Mom, we Muslims don't lie, but Christians do, because they don't have God.' He hasn't got that from us. We had not reckoned on this religious fundamentalism," she says.
Nalin Pekgul and her family are now looking for an apartment in a more mixed area, with both immigrants and ethnic Swedes."

"For Public Figures in Netherlands, Terror Becomes a Personal Concern" (Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post, 2005/11/11)
"LEIDEN, Netherlands -- As Prof. Afshin Ellian arrived at Leiden University law school one day recently, two bodyguards hustled him through the entrance and past the electronically locked doors leading to his office. For the rest of the day, the men stood sentry outside those doors, scanning the hallways for any sign of the people who want him dead.
Ellian is one of a soaring number of Dutch academics, lawmakers and other public figures who have been forced to accept 24-hour protection or go into hiding after receiving death threats from Islamic extremists. In a country with a tradition of robust public debate and an anything-goes culture, the fear of assassination has rattled society and forced people such as Ellian to reassess whether it's worth it to express opinions that could endanger their lives. ...
Now, many prominent people don't go out in public alone. In Amsterdam, Mayor Job Cohen, who is Jewish, and a Dutch Moroccan alderman, Ahmed Aboutaleb, have bodyguards after receiving death threats from Islamic extremists. In The Hague, the national seat of government, security has been stepped up.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somalian-born member of parliament who was a friend and colleague of van Gogh, fled the country and sought refuge on a U.S. military base after van Gogh's killer wrote that she was next on the hit list. Another legislator, Geert Wilders, has been taken into protective custody since radicals vowed to behead him as 'an enemy of Islam.'" (Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch.)

Thursday, November 10, 2005

News and commentary:

"Jordanians shout anti-al Qaeda slogans..."
(Majed Jaber, Reuters, 2005/11/10)
"Jordanians shout anti-al Qaeda slogans during a rally in support of Jordan's King Abdullah outside the Grand Hyatt hotel in central Amman November 10, 2005."

"Jordan Attacks Claim 17 From One Family" (Mohammed Ballas, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/10)
Jordan II: "SILET AL-THAHER, West Bank - In this Palestinian village, the Akhras clan mourned 17 relatives killed by a suicide bomber in Jordan — the first time Palestinians have been a target in a suicide attack.
"Oh my God, oh my God. Is it possible that Arabs are killing Arabs, Muslims killing Muslims?" asked a weeping Najah Akhras, 35, who lost two nieces.
Similar thoughts were heard over and over in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Thursday, as Palestinians expressed outrage over suicide attacks aimed at civilians. ...
For more than five years, Palestinian militants have carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel, killing hundreds of people, often with wide support from a public that believed the attacks were a justified response to Israeli military rule.
But the mood has changed in recent months following a cease-fire with Israel, and the attacks in Amman could further sway public opinion against suicide bombings.
"Palestinians have tasted the blind violence that does not differentiate between people — children, women, wedding parties, ordinary people," said Palestinian newspaper commentator Hani al-Masri.
"I expect now a significant change in the Palestinian political culture," he said. 'For sure, this attack will push Palestinians to reconsider this way of suicide bombings, and I think it would reduce support for attacks that kill people without any differentiation.'"

"Jordanians Rally to Denounce Al-Zarqawi" (Jamal Halaby, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/10)
Jordan I: "AMMAN, Jordan - Hundreds of angry Jordanians rallied Thursday outside one of three U.S.-based hotels attacked by suicide bombers, shouting, "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!" after the terrorist's group claimed responsibility for the blasts that killed at least 56 people.
In an Internet statement, al-Qaida in Iraq linked the blasts at the Grand Hyatt, the Radisson SAS and the Days Inn hotels to the war in Iraq and called Amman the "backyard garden" for U.S. operations. ...
Protesters — including women and children — gathered outside a bombed hotels, shouting, "Death to al-Zarqawi, the villain and the traitor!" Drivers honked the horns of vehicles decorated with Jordanian flags and posters of the king. A helicopter hovered overhead. ...
The al-Qaida claim said Jordan became a target because it was "a backyard garden for the enemies of the religion, Jews and crusaders ... a filthy place for the traitors ... and a center for prostitution." The authenticity of the posting could not be independently verified, but it appeared on an Islamic Web site that is a clearing house for statements by militant groups.
The claim, signed in the name of the terrorist group's spokesman, said the attacks put the United States on notice that the 'backyard camp for the crusader army is now in the range of fire of the holy warriors.'"

"Suicide bomb kills 35 in Baghdad" (Salem al-Ureibi, Reuters, 2005/11/10)
"A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up in a crowded Baghdad restaurant frequented by the security forces during breakfast on Thursday, killing 35 people and wounding at least 25 more, police said.
"Body parts are all over the place, we are still collecting them," a police officer at the scene said.
It was one of the biggest attacks in the capital in recent months and came the day after at least six people were killed and 25 wounded by two car bombs in a mainly Shi'ite area of Baghdad.
The police officer said at least four Iraqi police patrols were having their breakfast at the restaurant when the bomber struck. A police explosives expert on the scene said that the bomber was also carrying a bag full of explosives.
"A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest went into a restaurant," another police official said shortly after the loud blast which could be heard from several kilometers away, rocking the city shortly after 9:30 am (0630 GMT)."

"It’s the demography, stupid" (Mark Steyn, The Spectator, 2005/11/12)
"My colleague Rod Liddle writes elsewhere in these pages about the media’s strange reluctance to use the M-word vis-à-vis the rioting ‘youths’. I’m sure he’s received, as I have, plenty of emails arguing that there’s no Islamist component, they’re not the madrasa crowd, they may be Muslim but they’re secular and Westernised and into drugs. It’s the lack of jobs; these riots derive from conditions peculiar to France, etc. As one correspondent wrote, ‘You right-wing shit-for-brains think everything’s about jihad.’
Well, it’s true there are Muslims and there are Muslims: some blow up Tube trains and some rampage through French streets and some claim Mossad’s put something in the chewing gum to make Arab men susceptible to the seduction techniques of Jewesses. Some kill Dutch film-makers and some complain about Piglet coffee mugs on co-workers’ desks, and millions of Muslims don’t do any of the above but apparently don’t feel strongly enough about them to say a word in protest. And it’s also true that it’s better to have your Peugeot torched than to be blown apart on the Piccadilly Line. But what all these techniques — and those of lobby groups who offer themselves as interlocutors between bewildered European elites and ‘moderate’ Muslims — have in common is that they advance the Islamification of Europe. ...
Now go back to that bland statistic you hear a lot these days: ‘about 10 per cent of France’s population is Muslim’. Give or take a million here, a million there, that’s broadly correct, as far as it goes. ...
Nonetheless, by 2010, more elderly white Catholic ethnic frogs will have croaked and more fit healthy Muslim youths will be hitting the streets. One day they’ll even be on the beach at St Trop, and if you and your infidel whore happen to be lying there wearing nothing but two coats of Ambre Solaire when they show up, you better hope that the BBC and CNN are right about there being no religio-ethno-cultural component to their 'grievances.'"

"Will London burn too?" (Patrick Sookhdeo, The Spectator, 2005/11/12)
"Most alarming of all is the prospect of Muslim secessionist violence in the UK as in Kosovo, the Philippines, Thailand and elsewhere (Huntington’s much-reviled ‘bloody borders of Islam’). Now this is happening — apparently — in France. A radical Muslim preaching at Hyde Park Corner on 6 November called for what had happened in France to be repeated here. He urged all Muslims to move into Muslim areas, after which any Churches would be expelled. He told his audience that Europe had once been Muslim and called on them to make it Muslim again.
Many British cities already have concentrated Muslim communities. Conservative estimates based on census returns indicate that Bradford had a Muslim population of just under 49,000 in 1991, rising to over 75,000 in 2005. But Sher Azam, president of the Bradford Council of Mosques, claims that 100,000 Muslims in Bradford attend mosque each week, suggesting a total Muslim population in Bradford far in excess of this. Whatever the true figures, it is clear that within a few years Bradford and many other British cities will have Muslim majorities. It is also clear that the often quoted figure of 1.6 million for the total British Muslim population must be a gross underestimate. ...
Unless the multiculturalist policy — which has been indirectly facilitating the separatist agenda of radical Islamists — is reversed immediately, we shall wake up and find we have sleepwalked into a situation of apartheid and segregation. If we sleep long enough, we may even wake up to find that, like Paris, London is burning. Or that we are living in an Islamic state."

"The crescent of fear" (Rod Liddle, The Spectator, 2005/11/12)
"Muslims now account for 10 per cent of the French population (compared with about 3 or 5 per cent in Britain, depending upon whom you ask) and some commentators have asserted that they will outnumber the indigenous Christians within a century.
I’m always a little dubious of these demographic extrapolations; what should be a genuine worry, however, is the extremely high Muslim populations transnationally in northwestern Europe and their demands for separation. There are a string of towns and cities, from Rennes in the south, through Lille, Brussels, Antwerp, Zeebrugge, Rotterdam, Bremen to Aarhus in Denmark in the far north, where the Muslim population approaches or exceeds 20 per cent (and in some cases constitutes a majority). Drawn on a map, these gritty and largely depressed urban conurbations fittingly describe an almost perfect crescent across the North Sea seaboard of Europe, a crescent of growing Islamic influence.
There have been some excited proclamations from within the Muslim communities that these places might one day — and not too far in the future — form an Islamic caliphate; what the scaremongering Yankees refer to as Eurabia. ...
For the intellectually lazy, lefty British journalists covering this inflammation: this is not Brixton 1981. It is, in the true sense of the word, more fundamental than that."

"Ziauddin Sardar explains the long history of violence behind Hizb ut-Tahrir" (Ziauddin Sardar, The New Statesman, 2005/11/14)
"The bearded and elegantly attired supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), the fundamentalist Muslim group, like to emphasise the non-violent nature of their party. As a recent press release put it, they "have never resorted to armed struggle or violence". This is correct as far as it goes. While HT has openly engaged in the politics of hatred, particularly towards the Jews, it has not, strictly speaking, advocated violence.
But this does not mean that it is not a violent organisation. ...
Inevitably, HT's adherence to the idea of one caliphate with one sharia leads it to put a particular spin on the idea of jihad: it must be an all-out offensive war. A "concept" document from the group makes this clear: "Jihad is a war against anyone who stands against the call to Islam, whether he is an aggressor or not."
So, while HT may not directly engage in violence, it certainly preaches engagement with violence.
What HT peddles, in fact, is an escapist romantic fascism of a sort that appeals to members who simply want to be told what to do. Not for them the awesome responsibility of making their own choices. They are not responsible for the British society in which they live and neither will they be responsible for the Islamic society of which they dream - because there, too, they will merely be told what to do."

"Egypt's Christian-Muslim divide" (Mona Eltahawy, International Herald Tribune, 2005/11/10)
"CAIRO - Of the many things one should not mention in polite company in Egypt, friction between Muslims and Christians is near the top of the list. Try mentioning that Christians in Egypt are discriminated against and you might as well stand atop the Giza pyramids waving white flags festooned with "Invade Now" at the imaginary American tanks at the border.
But we're way beyond polite conversation.When an Egyptian nun coming out of a prayer service at St. George's Church in Alexandria is stabbed by a Muslim man in his 20s shouting the requisite "God is great," we need to talk.
When thousands of Muslims attack seven churches in two Alexandria neighborhoods after someone distributes a DVD of a play deemed offensive to Islam (a play that was staged two years ago), and when three Muslims die and dozens are injured after riot police fire tear gas and use batons to dispel 5,000 protestors outside St. George's, we need to talk.
When Christians in Alexandria, once a cosmopolitan home to Muslims, Christians and Jews alike, are afraid to leave their homes and when women remove crucifixes out of fear of violence and insult, we need to talk.
I could go on, but you get my drift. ...
To appreciate the geopolitical dimensions of this issue, consider a Christian's phone call to a recent Egyptian talk show on sectarian relations. The man said he would rather be killed by Muslim extremists than have America come to save him. Muslim guests on the show jumped to assure him they'd defend him tooth and nail against extremists. Just a few weeks later, the riots broke out in front of the church in Alexandria, and I have yet to hear that Muslims, other than the police, offered to keep vigil." (See also: "Insulting Islam in Egypt" (Robert Spencer, FrontPage Magazine, 2005/10/25))

"The Tragedy of the UK Terror Bill" (Carol Gould, FrontPage Magazine, 2005/11/10)
"It is vitally important for those outside the United Kingdom to understand both the implications and the complexities of the defeat by Tony Blair’s government of the gravely important Anti-Terror Bill in Parliament today. What is crucial for the world to know is that 72 percent of the British public in various polls this week said they wanted the 90 day rule passed. ...
Even more significantly, those outside Britain will not know how the BBC handled today's tragic vote. The barely-disguised glee amongst television anchors and commentators was breathtaking even by West-bashing BBC standards. After the vote, the BBC wheeled in an endless stream of Muslim leaders, mosque activists, human rights activists and ultra-Left-wing MPs (in the UK, ultra-Left means to the Left of Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky), but not one ordinary Briton was interviewed. Not one MP who voted for the Bill was interviewed. ...
During the debate today in the Commons, a member of the Loyal Opposition shouted at the Prime Minister, "Are we to live in a police state?" Blair was nonplussed and visibly shaken. His anger could barely be controlled. There we were: a member of the House repeating the refrain of every media outlet in Britain that – despite July 7th – Britain risks becoming a ‘police state’ or a ‘fascist state like the USA’ if we crack down on home-grown terrorists." (See also: "Blair Loses Key Vote on Anti-Terror Bill" (Ed Johnson, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/09))

"Sympathy for the mob" (Larry Derfner, The Jerusalem Post, 2005/11/10)
Paris III: "There are two kinds of liberalism - one that's reasonable and open-minded, another that's mindless, knee-jerk and politically correct.
The first says society bears a healthy measure of responsibility for those who aren't making it, the second says - automatically, regardless of the particulars - that those who aren't making it bear no responsibility for their predicament whatsoever, and only a heartless society is to blame.
I'm sorry to say that the liberal reaction to the French riots, as seen in the news coverage by the major Western media like The New York Times, Washington Post and CNN - not to mention the leading French media like Le Monde - is of the second type of liberalism, the mindless, knee-jerk, PC kind. I'm afraid this "enlightened" reaction to the French riots is giving enlightenment a bad name.
From following the news, you would think Paris 2005 is like Birmingham, Alabama, 1931 - a racist city of white ignoramuses where nobody of a different color, religion or nationality better show his face.
Remember Paris? One of the most diverse, cosmopolitan cities on earth, whose current mayor is a Tunisian-born homosexual, where blacks, whites, browns and yellows are friends and lovers and have babies together and nobody thinks anything of it? Remember France? One of the most generous welfare states in the world, and the most pro-Arab, pro-African country in the West? Yet, to believe the media, it's all mean old French society's fault that thousands of Arab and African teenagers in Nikes and tracksuits, communicating by cellphone, e-mail and Internet blog, are burning down their heavily rent-subsidized suburbs." (Note: For just one example of literally hundreds, see also: "This is not only a French crisis - all of Europe must heed the flames" (Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian, 2005/11/10): "'You know,' a young man called Bilal told a reporter at Housing Project 112 in Aubervilliers, "when you brandish a Molotov cocktail, you are saying 'help!' One doesn't have the words to say what one resents; one only knows how to talk by setting fire." So they know what they are doing. They speak through fire.")

"Violence part of life for girls in French suburbs" (Kerstin Gehmlich, Reuters, 2005/11/10)
Paris II: "SAINT DENIS, France, Nov 10 (Reuters) - With nightly scenes of rioting beamed around the globe, the world has learned that France's bleak suburbs are enclaves of gang wars and macho rules. The girls living there have known this for years.
Even before the riots, Ophelia, 16, used to run home from school every day because she was afraid of being attacked in the maze of high-rise buildings in her suburb northeast of Paris.
A series of gang rapes in these bleak housing estates shocked France a few years ago. In 2002, a 17-year-old girl was set alight by an 18-year-old boy as his friends stood by.
Walking near a burned-out garbage bin, Ophelia's twin sister Sandra says the riots came as no surprise. Violence against and pressure on women is part of daily life in the suburbs, where boys can dictate how girls should dress.
"You have to behave like a guy and look like a guy. If you wear a skirt, you get into immediate trouble. You're a slut," says Sandra, wearing a baggy sweatshirt and jeans. ...
Apart from poverty, feminists say the dominance of traditional cultures among families of Arab and black African origin, combined with the growing role of Islam in the suburbs, have contributed to the harsh treatment girls get there.
Pressure is mounting for Muslim women to wear veils. Forced marriages that snatch them from college and career -- where they do much better than their male schoolmates -- are on the rise.
The support group "Ni Putes, Ni Soumises" ("Neither Whores nor Submissives") says the number of forced marriages has risen in recent years, with roughly 70,000 girls pressured into unwanted relationships each year in France."

"Rioters are Muslims, but don't say it" (David R. Sands and Sharon Behn, The Washington Times, 2005/11/10)
Paris I: "Alexis Debat, a former French government counterterrorism analyst, says the ringleaders are "hard-core delinquents" from impoverished Muslim neighborhoods that surround many French cities. They have criminal records that include petty theft, vandalism and drug dealing, but investigators say they see few obvious links to fundamentalist Islamic movements that have declared war on the West. ...
But Mr. Debat says the ringleaders have been joined in the streets by a much larger group of second-generation North African and Arab immigrants who are turning to Islam because they feel alien both in France and their ancestral homes.
"The only possible identification left for many of them is Islam," he said. "They feel betrayed by France, and I don't blame them."
Reporters for the French newspaper Le Monde spent a night on the streets with a group of rioters near the city of Aubervilliers. "It's like driving a dog into a corner," one of the rioters told them. "We are not dogs, but we are reacting just as any animal would do."
They complain of rough intimidation by the French police, condemning as "blasphemy" the tear-gas bomb fired at a mosque in Clichy-sous-Bois, the Parisian suburb where some of the first riots took place, for which a government official has apologized. Rioters, for their part, have torched synagogues and churches to cries of "Allahu akbar" -- the Arabic slogan, 'God is great.'"

Wednesday, November 9, 2005

News and commentary:

"Ashraf Mohamed al-Akhras and his bride Nadia al-Alami..."
(AFP, 2005/11/09)
"Ashraf Mohamed al-Akhras and his bride Nadia al-Alami arrive at Radisson SAS hotel's Philadelphia hall at the start of their wedding party before an explosion hit the hotel in the heart of Amman. The bride and the groom both lost their fathers to the deadly blast that ripped through their wedding reception at the luxury hotel. The couple were also wounded in the explosion. 'I lost my father and my father-in-law and I saw many other dead. This is a horrible crime. The world has to know this has nothing to do with Islam,' Khaled told state television from his hospital bed."

"Suicide Bombers Kill 53 at Jordan Hotels" (Jamal Halaby, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/09)
"AMMAN, Jordan - Suicide bombers attacked three hotels frequented by Westerners in the Jordanian capital Wednesday night, and at least 53 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in the near-simultaneous explosions, a top government official said.
Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher gave the casualty estimate during an interview with CNN, in which he also said a car packed with explosives approached one of the hotels attacked in the heart of the capital. He said there was no claim of responsibility, but Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaida in
Iraq terrorist group, was a "prime suspect."
Police Maj. Bashir al-Da'aja said officials believe the blasts at three U.S.-based hotels were carried out by suicide bombers. The explosions indicated the involvement of al-Qaida, which has launched coordinated attacks on high-profile, Western targets in the past, a police official said.
One explosion occurred in a wedding hall where 300 Jordanians were celebrating. Muasher said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in the wedding party. Black smoke rose into the night and wounded stumbled out of the hotels."

"Far-Right Leader: Riots Only the Start" (John Leicester, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/09)
Paris IV. Predictably, the Eurabian mess plays right into the hands of the xenophobic far-right:
"French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen claimed Wednesday his National Front party has been "submerged" with prospective members and supportive e-mail since rioting erupted in heavily immigrant communities near Paris.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Le Pen described the recent violence as "just the start" of conflicts caused by "massive immigration from countries of the Third World that is threatening not just France but the whole continent."
Le Pen said people with immigrant backgrounds who commit crimes should be stripped of their French nationality and sent "back to their country of origin."
Reminded that the vast majority of youths taking part in the arson and rioting are French, born in France to immigrant parents, he said: "What does that mean? Are they French because they have a French identity card?" ...
French voters "are saying to themselves 'Le Pen was right. We were told that Le Pen is an extremist because he said that immigration problems would lead to disorder. The facts have shown that he was right,'" he said.
"We are receiving thousands of new members, tens of thousands of e-mails. All of our offices are submerged, we don't know how to respond because we don't have the staff to reply to the wave of people who, 95 percent of them, salute and approve our positions," he added."

"Blair Loses Key Vote on Anti-Terror Bill" (Ed Johnson, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/09)
"British Prime Minister Tony Blair lost a crucial parliamentary vote Wednesday on sweeping new legislation allowing police to detain terrorism suspects for 90 days without charge — the first major defeat of his premiership and a serious blow to his authority.
Lawmakers blocked the measure by 322 votes to 291, a majority of 31 against the government. Blair, who had put his authority in the line, appeared tense and shook his head as the result was read out.
Rebels in Blair's Labour Party and opposition lawmakers instead voted for a maximum detention period of 28 days — by 323 votes to 290.
The Terrorism Bill was drafted in the wake of the July attacks on London's transit system. Designed to tackle Muslim extremism, it also aims to outlaw training in terrorist camps, encouraging acts of violence and glorifying terrorism."

"Bali Bomb Terror Suspect 'Blown Up'" (Sky News/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/09)
"One of southeast Asia's most wanted terrorists has reportedly been killed in Asia.Indonesian media said Azahari bin Husin - a graduate of a British university - was killed in a shootout with anti-terror police in East Java.He may have blown himself up to evade capture, it was reported.
Seven Islamic militants were also captured.
The militants shot and hurled explosives at anti-terrorism police after they surrounded a villa in the town of Batu.
Azahari's death would be a major coup for the West's 'war on terror' and the Indonesian government's fight against Islamic extremists.
He is believed to be a senior member of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network that has been blamed for a series of bomb attacks in Indonesia.
Indonesian police say Azahari is an electronics expert who designed and supervised the making of the car bomb used in the October 2002 Bali attacks which killed 202 people."

"Books can be badges — and beacons, too" (Michael Gove, The Times, 2005/11/09)
Gove on Salman Rushdie, Christopher Hitchens and Ian McEwan:
"If Iran’s fatwa [against Rushdie] was an indication of where Islamism was heading, the attack on the twin towers was a realisation of what Islamism hoped to achieve. An ideology that began burning selected books progressed to incinerating innocents. And yet even as the fundamentalism of the 21st century proved itself the lineal heir of the totalitarianisms of the 20th, so it also found its own apologists or excusers. America had it coming. A bully with a bloody nose was still a bully.
Just as ancestral voices on the Left had excused, or relativised, Communist horrors, so contemporary radicals wanted to put Islamist terror “in context” as the lashing-out of the sorely provoked. But that was not how Rushdie, McEwan or Hitchens saw it. Rushdie’s own experience of living under an Islamist sentence of death gave him a clarity of vision when he saw fundamentalist threats realised on a grand scale.
Hitchens perceived, with the same clear-sightedness as his hero George Orwell, that the Left forfeited its claims to moral authority when it found itself making excuses for totalitarians. And McEwan has spoken, with controlled authority, to rebuke those who cannot appreciate where liberalism’s real enemies lie. His latest novel, Saturday, is a magnificent, and nuanced, exploration of the morality of interventions, all the more effective for resisting the embrace of easy polemical positions.
Lest anyone misunderstand where McEwan stands, he made his own views clear in a recent interview with Der Spiegel newspaper in Germany, in which he stated: 'I never thought in the run-up to the (Iraq) war we were discussing the difference between war and peace. We were discussing the difference between war and continued torture and genocide and abuse of human rights by a fascist state.'" (See also: "'We're Witnessing a Civil War in Islam'" (Der Spiegel, 2005/07/19))

"The Revolt of Ennui" (Antoine Audouard, The New York Times, 2005/11/09)
Paris III: "A friend called me a night ago from Paris. Paris? Not quite. My friend is of Indian origin and comes from a rundown "cité" in a suburb called Choisy-le-Roi, a housing project plopped down in an 18th-century royal park. The park retains a Louis XV elegance and grace. But as you walk by the project's windows, my friend says, on a good day only a trash bag will land on your head; on a bad day, it could be a washing machine.
On Friday, as his mother was having a bite in a restaurant at the local mall, a gang of 20 or so angry youths from the neighborhood stormed into the restaurant, terrorizing customers, poaching food and drinks and ransacking the place. His mother, who is severely disabled and survives on a modest state pension, was frightened. And my friend was frightened for her, but angry as well. ...
As I was telling my friend how appalled and angered I was by everything I had seen, he started suggesting extreme measures - like sending in the army or financially penalizing those parents unable to control their teenagers. "They talk about the almost 3,000 cars that have been burnt in the past few days," he said. 'But no one talks about the 28,000 cars that have been burnt since the beginning of the year.'"

"Islamist threat in France" (Tony Blankley, The Washington Times, 2005/11/09)
Paris II: "Soon, the violence of the last two weeks will be seen as the opening of an event of world-historic significance.
Even when the current violence subsides — even when the French government attempts to placate its radical Muslim population by offering more welfare benefits and programs — it will not be the end of the story. A new benchmark of the possible will have been established. The flaccid and timorous response of the French government will only increase the radicalizing Muslim elements' contempt for Western cultural weakness.
As Paul Belien, writing from Brussels this weekend, observed: "It is not anger that is driving the insurgents to take it out on the secularized welfare states of Old Europe. It is hatred. Hatred caused not by injustice suffered, but stemming from a sense of superiority. The 'youths' do not blame the French, they despise them." ...
Or consider the statement of a German radical Islamist that I recounted in my book (based on a National Public Radio news-story broadcast): "Germany is an Islamic country. Islam is in the home, in schools. Germans will be outnumbered. We [Muslims] will say what we want. We'll live how we want. It's outrageous that Germans demand we speak their language. Our children will have our language, our laws, our culture" (The West's Last Chance, page 75).
This is not about Muslim poverty (the Islamist terrorists who hit London all had good jobs. Mohammed Atta, who struck us in New York, was well-born and came from a prosperous family.) It is about radical Islamist self-confidence and contempt for the West. And, it is about Western weakness." (See also: "Show Them Who Is the Boss in France" (Paul Belien, The Brussels Journal, 2005/11/06) and "'An Islamist threat like the Nazis'" (Tony Blankley, The Washington Times, 2005/09/12))

"'We hate France and France hates us'" (Jon Henley, The Guardian, 2005/11/09)
Paris I: "They are gathered, as every night, on the edge of the car park at the foot of the block. Far enough into the shadows not to be easily seen; close enough to the stairwell to leg it inside if the police come near.
Sylla, Sossa, Karim, Rachid, Mounir and Samir are the names they give. The oldest is 21, the youngest 15. One is an apprentice plumber; another is on work experience as a cook at a cafe in nearby Aulnay-sous-Bois; one is claiming benefit; two are (sort of) at school. Three are "known to the police". ...
Ali's friend was an Arsenal fan: "Thierry Henry, man! But he never scores for France." Does he feel French? "We hate France and France hates us," he spat, refusing to give even his first name. "I don't know what I am. Here's not home; my gran's in Algeria. But in any case France is just fucking with us. We're like mad dogs, you know? We bite everything we see. Go back to Paris, man."
Sylla summed it up. "We burn because it's the only way to make ourselves heard, because it's solidarity with the rest of the non-citizens in this country, with this whole underclass. Because it feels good to do something with your rage," he said.
'The guys whose cars get torched, they understand. OK, sometimes they do. We have to do this. Our parents, they should understand. They did nothing, they suffered in silence. We don't have a choice. We're sinking in shit, and France is standing on our heads. One way or another we're heading for prison. It might as well be for actually doing something.'"

Added in archive:
"Next up was this photograph..." (zombietime, 2005/11/06)

Tuesday, November 8, 2005

News and commentary:

"Youths hurl stones toward police forces..."
(Remy Gabalda, AP, 2005/11/08)
"Youths hurl stones toward police forces (unseen) after they torched vehicles in the La Reynerie housing complex in the Mirail district of Toulouse, southwestern France, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2005. France's Cabinet, in an extraordinary measure to halt the country's worst civil unrest in decades, has authorized curfews under a state-of-emergency law."

"State of Emergency Declared in France" (Jamey Keaten, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/08)
Paris VII: "President Jacques Chirac declared a state of emergency Tuesday, paving the way for curfews to be imposed on riot-hit cities and towns in an extraordinary measure to halt France's worst civil unrest in decades after 12 nights of violence.
Police, meanwhile, said overnight unrest Monday-Tuesday, while still widespread and destructive, was not as violent as previous nights. ...
The state-of-emergency decree — invoked under a 50-year-old law — allows curfews where needed and will become effective at midnight Tuesday, with an initial 12-day limit. Police — massively reinforced as the violence has fanned out from its initial flash point in the northeastern suburbs of Paris — were expected to enforce the curfews. The army has not been called in.
Nationwide, vandals burned 1,173 cars, compared to 1,408 vehicles Sunday-Monday, police said. A total of 330 people were arrested, down from 395 the night before
Local officials "will be able to impose curfews on the areas where this decision applies," Chirac said at a Cabinet meeting. "It is necessary to accelerate the return to calm."
The recourse to a 1955 state-of-emergency law that dates back to France's war in Algeria was a measure both of the gravity of mayhem that has spread to hundreds of French towns and cities and of the determination of Chirac's sorely tested government to quash it."

In Memoriam: Nadia Anjuman
(BBC News, 2005/11/06)

"Afghan Poet Nadia Anjuman Beaten to Death" (AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/08)
"KABUL, Afghanistan - Poet Nadia Anjuman was beaten to death, and her husband and mother have been arrested. The United Nations condemned the killing Tuesday as symptom of continuing violence against Afghan women four years after the fall of the Taliban.
Nadia Anjuman — who was widely praised for her first book of poems, titled "Gule Dudi," or "Dark Flower" — died Friday in a hospital in the western city of Herat after being beaten, said Nisar Ahmad Paikar, chief of the city's police crime unit. She was 25.
Her husband has confessed to slapping her after an argument, Paikar said. The woman's mother was at home at the time and was suspected of having had a role in the death. Both were arrested, but no charges were immediately filed. ...
Thousands of people attended Anjuman's burial in Herat on Sunday.
"Students everywhere are so upset over this. She was such a prominent poet in Afghanistan," said Homayan Ludin, a student at Kabul University."

"Intifada a la francaise" (Nidra Poller, National Post, 2005/11/08)
Paris VI: "For five years, resentful French Muslims have been fed a steady diet of romanticized violence -- jihad-intifada in Israel, jihad-insurgency in Iraq, jihad-insurgency in Afghanistan. When they started firebombing synagogues and beating up Jews in the fall of 2000, the media dutifully reported that these thugs were products of the "frustration" felt in regard to the treatments of Muslims in the Middle East and Central Asia. France's own government was full of hectoring words for the Americans, after all. The protesters were very much on message.
In elite French society, the enemy was clearly identified: not Islamism or Islamofascism, not the stewing mobs in the Paris suburbs, not Saddam Hussein, not al-Qaeda, but the British and U.S. troops in Iraq. The burned-out cars and buildings that litter French streets are the domestic residue of the jihadi cult that these French Muslims have been drugged on through al-Jazeera, and which has been legitimized by a French intellectual class that has always romanticized resistance in all its forms.
Perhaps some of the journalists, political scientists, intellectuals and public officials who've been peddling this merchandise meant it to remain an abstract ideological diversion. France is a long way from Iraq, after all. But now that the militancy is being turned on the French state itself, they are suddenly shocked at what they've sown."

"Reflections on the Revolution in France" (Daniel Pipes, New York Sun/danielpipes.org, 2005/11/08)
Paris V: "The rioting by Muslim youth that began Oct. 27 in France to calls of “Allahu Akbar” may be a turning point in European history.
What started in Clichy-sous-Bois, on the outskirts of Paris, by its eleventh night had spread to 300 French cities and towns, as well as to Belgium and Germany. The violence, which has already been called some evocative names – intifada, jihad, guerilla war, insurrection, rebellion, and civil war – prompts several reflections:
End of an era: The time of cultural innocence and political naïveté, when the French could blunder without seeing or feeling the consequences, is closing. As in other European countries (notably Denmark and Spain), a bundle of related issues, all touching on the Muslim presence, has now moved to the top of the policy agenda in France, where it will likely remain for decades.
These issues include a decline of Christian faith and the attendant demographic collapse; a cradle-to-grave welfare system that lures immigrants even as it saps long-term economic viability; an alienation from historic customs in favor of lifestyle experimentation and vapid multiculturalism; an inability to control borders or assimilate immigrants; a pattern of criminality that finds European cities far more violent than American ones; and a surge in Islam and radical Islam."

"Jihad in Europe?" (Robert Spencer, FrontPage Magazine, 2005/11/08)
Paris IV: "Has an intifada begun in France — an all-out jihad? Are the French facing what is by now, as the riots are well into their second week and have engulfed virtually the entire country, a full-scale insurrection from immigrant youth who simply resent being marginalized and shunted to the fringes of French society? Or does the unrest have something to do with the agenda of jihadists worldwide? ...
• The rioters have been shouting the jihad battle cry, “Allahu akbar.” As Muhammad Atta wrote in his final exhortation to himself, “When the confrontation begins, strike like champions who do not want to go back to this world. Shout, ‘Allahu Akbar,’ because this strikes fear in the hearts of the non-believers.” While the mainstream media continues to identify the rioters as “French-born youths of Arab or African origin, many of them Muslim,” in fact the Islamic identity of the rioters is quite clear: rioters have avoided Muslim-owned businesses, preferring obviously non-Muslim targets.
• The rioters have thrown Molotov cocktails at two French synagogues, making it likely that they subscribe to the deeply rooted hatred of Jews that so many jihadists share. They have also set two churches on fire, further reinforcing the impression that they view their struggle as fundamentally religious, and consider the terrorizing of Jews and Christians to be part of their religious responsibility, in accord with Qur’an 9:29, which directs Muslims to wage war even against “the People of the Book”: the Qur’an’s term for — primarily — Jews and Christians.
• Mouloud Dahmani is a Muslim leader in France who is trying to prevail upon the French to allow for a group of Muslim Brotherhood sheikhs to negotiate an end to the riots. The Muslim Brotherhood, of course, is the first modern Islamic jihad organization and the direct forefather of Hamas and Al-Qaeda. Dahmani has declared: “All we demand is to be left alone.” This is a strange statement coming from the leader of a community that resents being marginalized and longs to enter the mainstream of French society. Left alone? Quite literally. Journalist Amir Taheri says that the Muslims in France are not actually interested in assimilation at all; rather, they want autonomy: 'Some are even calling for the areas where Muslims form a majority of the population to be reorganized on the basis of the ‘millet’ system of the Ottoman Empire: Each religious community (millet) would enjoy the right to organize its social, cultural and educational life in accordance with its religious beliefs.'"

"Early skirmish in the Eurabian civil war" (Mark Steyn, The Daily Telegraph, 2005/11/08)
Paris III: "Some of us believe this is an early skirmish in the Eurabian civil war. If the insurgents emerge emboldened, what next? In five years' time, there will be even more of them, and even less resolve on the part of the French state. That, in turn, is likely to accelerate the demographic decline. Europe could face a continent-wide version of the "white flight" phenomenon seen in crime-ridden American cities during the 1970s, as Danes and Dutch scram to America, Australia or anywhere else that will have them.
As to where Britain falls in this grim scenario, I noticed a few months ago that Telegraph readers had started closing their gloomier missives to me with the words, "Fortunately I won't live to see it" - a sign-off now so routine in my mailbag I assumed it was the British version of "Have a nice day". But that's a false consolation. As France this past fortnight reminds us, the changes in Europe are happening far faster than most people thought. That's the problem: unless you're planning on croaking imminently, you will live to see it."

"Go home in the name of Allah, order imams with megaphones" (Charles Bremner, The Times, 2005/11/08)
Paris II: "Bearded Muslim activists have been wading into the night-time mayhem of the housing estates, megaphone in hand, and addressing the rioters “in the name of Allah”.
Far from inciting the violence, they have been urging the rioting teenagers to stop destroying property and go home. For the Government, the Muslim mediators have been playing a useful role calming youngsters from the mainly Arab estates who respect their authority far more than that of the police and local officials.
However, the Muslim mentors, who style themselves “big brothers”, are also causing unease in France because they symbolise what many see as a root of the unrest: the isolation of the ethnic Arab and black minorities into ghettos where Muslim law and outlook prevails. There is also a widespread belief — denied by the authorities — that the unrest is being fostered by the Islamists. ...
A street version of radical Islam permeates the youth culture of the estates, where Osama bin Laden is a hero, George Bush and Israel are evil and President Chirac’s State wants to stifle their religion and identity by banning Muslim headscarves in schools.
The young wreckers refer to one another as brothers and they cite the “disrespect” of the State for their religion as part of the origin of their revolt."

"France Beefs Up Response to Riots" (Molly Moore, The Washington Post, 2005/11/08)
Paris I: "Confronted by the most dramatic social uprising since 1968, the government of France remains largely helpless against gangs of angry youths. The response is being crafted by a lame-duck president and an interior minister and a prime minister who are slugging it out to replace him.
While many French leaders depict the rioters as simple criminals, political and social analysts and many French citizens see the fires that are burning across the country as reflecting a growing identity crisis in a nation where social policies have not kept up with rapidly changing profiles in religion, race and ethnicity. ...
Most of the rioters are the French-born children of immigrants from Arab and African countries. A large percentage are Muslim. Their parents' generation was invited to France as laborers who were expected to return home but didn't. The new generation is coming of age in the midst of France's worst economic slump in years and during a time when many in the country, which is culturally Christian but officially secular, are increasingly fearful of the growth of Islam inside its borders.
At present, the country has an estimated 6 million Muslims, most of African descent. The fear of losing France's traditional white European identity fueled French voters' rejection of the proposed European Union constitution last summer and has heightened French opposition to admitting Muslim Turkey into the E.U.
"The government hasn't really realized we're facing a major political crisis," said Patrick Lozes, a political activist and president of the Circle for the Promotion of Diversity in France. 'The French social model is exploding.'"

"Police defend mosque shooting" (David Crawshaw, NEWS.com.au, 2005/11/08)
Australia III: "A terror suspect being followed in Sydney opened fire on police officers today, wounding one, before being felled by a police gunshot to the neck, it has been alleged.
As the critically-injured suspect was rushed to hospital, a bomb squad robot found a second gun in the man's backpack, police said.
The suspect, in his 20s, underwent surgery and was in a stable condition tonight under police guard in Liverpool Hospital.
Police said the man, whose injury was not life threatening, would be charged.
The dramatic clash in a suburban street followed a series of raids in Sydney and Melbourne in which 16 other suspects were charged, and which police say foiled a major terrorist attack.
Witnesses said they saw the man, carrying a backpack, draw a handgun and fire at least two shots at uniformed police officers who had confronted him in Wilson Rd, Green Valley, about 9am (AEDT).
Officers had been tracking the man near a mosque in Wilson Rd, where he was spotted leaving a vehicle, police said. ...
The man fired twice, with one bullet grazing an officer's hand before a colleague fired back, it was alleged.
"One of the police officers returned fire and the person of interest to police was wounded in the neck," Mr Morgan said."

"Australia police say Muslim cleric led attack plot" (Reuters, 2005/11/08)
Australia II: "An Australian Muslim cleric who said Osama bin Laden was a "great man" has been named by police as the spiritual leader of a group of 16 men charged on Tuesday with planning a terrorist attack in Australia.
Abdul Nacer Benbrika, also known as Abu Bakr, has long been monitored by Australian authorities and grabbed headlines in August after he praised bin Laden, blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
He is a self-styled leader of a fundamentalist Islamic group of young followers in the suburbs of Australia's second-biggest city, Melbourne. Some of these followers, local radio reported, attended militant training camps in Asia.
"Osama Bin Laden, he is a great man," Benbrika, 45, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) radio in August. ...
Benbrika said he opposed anyone trying to harm his religion. He also said it was a "big problem" for Muslims reconciling their religion with life in Australia.
"There are two laws. There is Australian law. There is Islamic law," he said, adding the only law that needed to be spread was Islam.
"Jihad is part of my religion, and what you have to understand that anyone who fights for the sake of Allah ... (with) the first drop of blood that comes from him out, all his sin will be forgiven," he said."

"17 Terror Suspects Arrested in Australia" (Mike Corder, AP/Yahoo! News, 2005/11/08)
Australia I: "SYDNEY, Australia - Australian authorities arrested 17 terror suspects on Tuesday — including a prominent radical Muslim cleric sympathetic to Osama bin Laden — and said they had foiled a major terror attack on the country by men committed to "violent jihad."
The Australian Federal Police said the men were arrested in Sydney and Melbourne in coordinated raids that also netted evidence including weapons and apparent bomb-making materials. A prosecutor said the cleric, Abdul Nacer Benbrika — also known as Abu Bakr — was the ringleader.
"I was satisfied that this state was under an imminent threat of potentially a catastrophic terrorist act," said New South Wales Police Minister Carl Scully. ...
Abu Bakr — an Algerian-Australian who has said he would be violating his faith if he warned his students not to join the jihad, or holy war, in Iraq — was among nine men who appeared Tuesday morning in Melbourne Magistrates Court charged with being members of a terror group.
Prosecutor Richard Maidment told the court the suspects had formed a terrorist group to kill "innocent men and women in Australia."
"The members of the Sydney group have been gathering chemicals of a kind that were used in the London Underground bombings," Maidment said. He said Abu Bakr was the leader of the group."

Monday, November 7, 2005

News and commentary:

"Rioters threw rocks at firefighters..."
(Thierry Bordas, EPA, 2005/11/07)
"Rioters threw rocks at firefighters and police officers during clashes Monday in Toulouse in southwestern France."

"Rioting in France: What's Wrong with Europe?" (Rüdiger Falksohn et al., Der Spiegel, 2005/11/07)
Paris VIII: "Of course, part of the problem lies in the sheer numbers of immigrants -- and the fact that they tend to all live in the same place. Metropolitan Birmingham, Britain's second-largest city, has a