Archived news and commentary: March 6 -12, 2006

2006/03/06 - 2006/03/12
2006/02/27 - 2006/03/05
2006/02/20 - 2006/02/26
2006/02/13 - 2006/02/19
2006/02/06 - 2006/02/12
2006/01/30 - 2006/02/05

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, March 12, 2006

News and commentary:

"Media shockingly ignorant of Muslims among us" (Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times, 2006/03/12)
"This week's Voldemort Award goes to the New York Times for their account of a curious case of road rage in North Carolina:
"The man charged with nine counts of attempted murder for driving a Jeep through a crowd at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last Friday told the police that he deliberately rented a four-wheel-drive vehicle so he could 'run over things and keep going.'"
The driver in question was Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar.
Whoa, don't jump to conclusions. The Times certainly didn't. As the report continued:
"According to statements taken by the police, Mr. Taheri-azar, 22, an Iranian-born graduate of the university, felt that the United States government had been 'killing his people across the sea' and that his actions reflected 'an eye for an eye.'"
"His people"? And who exactly would that be? Taheri-azar is admirably upfront about his actions. As he told police, he wanted to "avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world."
And yet the M-word appears nowhere in the Times report. ...
Meanwhile, a new Washington Post/ABC poll finds that, in the words of the Post, "nearly half of Americans -- 46 percent -- have a negative view of Islam, seven percentage points higher than in the tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, when Muslims were often targeted for violence."
"Often" targeted? Want to put some hard numbers on that? Like to compare the "violence" Americans perpetrated on Muslims after the slaughter of thousands of their fellow citizens in the name of Allah with, say, the death toll perpetrated by Muslims annoyed over some itsy-bitsy cartoons in an obscure Danish newspaper? In September 2001, 99.99999 percent of Americans behaved with remarkable forbearance. If they're less inclined to give the benefit of the doubt these days, perhaps it's because of casual slurs like the Post's or the no-jihad-to-see-here-folks tone of the Times." (See also: "Defendant Offers Details of Jeep Attack at University" (Brenda Goodman, The New York Times, 2006/03/08) and "Negative Perception Of Islam Increasing" (Claudia Deane and Darryl Fears, The Washington Post, 2006/03/09))

"Defenders of the Faith" (Slavoj Zizek, The New York Times, 2006/03/12)
"For centuries, we have been told that without religion we are no more than egotistic animals fighting for our share, our only morality that of a pack of wolves; only religion, it is said, can elevate us to a higher spiritual level. Today, when religion is emerging as the wellspring of murderous violence around the world, assurances that Christian or Muslim or Hindu fundamentalists are only abusing and perverting the noble spiritual messages of their creeds ring increasingly hollow. What about restoring the dignity of atheism, one of Europe's greatest legacies and perhaps our only chance for peace?
More than a century ago, in "The Brothers Karamazov" and other works, Dostoyevsky warned against the dangers of godless moral nihilism, arguing in essence that if God doesn't exist, then everything is permitted. The French philosopher André Glucksmann even applied Dostoyevsky's critique of godless nihilism to 9/11, as the title of his book, "Dostoyevsky in Manhattan," suggests.
This argument couldn't have been more wrong: the lesson of today's terrorism is that if God exists, then everything, including blowing up thousands of innocent bystanders, is permitted — at least to those who claim to act directly on behalf of God, since, clearly, a direct link to God justifies the violation of any merely human constraints and considerations."

"Even as U.S. Invaded, Hussein Saw Iraqi Unrest as Top Threat" (Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor, The New York Times, 2006/03/12)
"Ever vigilant about coups and fearful of revolt, Mr. Hussein was deeply distrustful of his own commanders and soldiers, the documents show.
He made crucial decisions himself, relied on his sons for military counsel and imposed security measures that had the effect of hobbling his forces. He did that in several ways:

• The Iraqi dictator was so secretive and kept information so compartmentalized that his top military leaders were stunned when he told them three months before the war that he had no weapons of mass destruction, and they were demoralized because they had counted on hidden stocks of poison gas or germ weapons for the nation's defense.

• He put a general widely viewed as an incompetent drunkard in charge of the Special Republican Guard, entrusted to protect the capital, primarily because he was considered loyal.

• Mr. Hussein micromanaged the war, not allowing commanders to move troops without permission from Baghdad and blocking communications among military leaders.

• The Fedayeen's operations were not shared with leaders of conventional forces. Republican Guard divisions were not allowed to communicate with sister units. Commanders could not even get precise maps of terrain near the Baghdad airport because that would identify locations of the Iraqi leader's palaces.

Much of this material is included in a secret history prepared by the American military of how Mr. Hussein and his commanders fought their war."

Saturday, March 11, 2006

News and commentary:

"Three Dollar Note"
(The United States of Islam)
"Great Women of the Past: Betsy Ross
The reverse of the Caliphate A note features Betsy Ross, Mother of the American Flag. The American flag represents freedom, and the knowledge that freedom must be fought for. There are many countries in the world living under shari'a and Islamic fundamentalism. Where shari'a exists as law, it is the law of the land, for Muslims and non-Muslims alike." (Hat tip: LGF.)

"Turkey urges European Union to 'examine its legislation'" (B.T./Agora, 2006/03/11)
The Danish cartoon affair I: "The Turkish Foreign Minister to be a broker between the Islamic and the European countries.
Turkey asks the European Union to examine its legislation in order to avoid conflicts between the Moslem and Western world similar to what was seen in connection with the Muhammed-crisis.
So a draft of Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül’s speech to be delivered at a convention of Foreign Ministers of the European Union at Salzburg today says.
The central points of the paper are expected to be delivered during a speech Saturday afternoon.
“I would ask you to begin reviewing your legislation to secure equal treatment for all religions, including Islam,” the paper states.
Gül is at the same time willing to be a partner for dialogue between the two cultures since Turkey has good relations with both parties." (See also: "Turkey suggests EU should strengthen anti-defamation laws" (Mark Beunderman, EUobserver, 2006/03/11): "Mr Gul added "As a matter of fact, there are legal restraints against such defamation. However, these restraints sometimes only apply to the established religions of the concerned countries."
'I would like to call on you here to start a process of re-examination of your legislations to ensure that these restraints apply to all religions equally.'")

"For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats" (John M. Broder, The New York Times, 2006/03/11)
"Three weeks ago, Dr. Wafa Sultan was a largely unknown Syrian-American psychiatrist living outside Los Angeles, nursing a deep anger and despair about her fellow Muslims.
Today, thanks to an unusually blunt and provocative interview on Al Jazeera television on Feb. 21, she is an international sensation, hailed as a fresh voice of reason by some, and by others as a heretic and infidel who deserves to die.
In the interview, which has been viewed on the Internet more than a million times and has reached the e-mail of hundreds of thousands around the world, Dr. Sultan bitterly criticized the Muslim clerics, holy warriors and political leaders who she believes have distorted the teachings of Muhammad and the Koran for 14 centuries.
She said the world's Muslims, whom she compares unfavorably with the Jews, have descended into a vortex of self-pity and violence. ...
In response, clerics throughout the Muslim world have condemned her, and her telephone answering machine has filled with dark threats. But Islamic reformers have praised her for saying out loud, in Arabic and on the most widely seen television network in the Arab world, what few Muslims dare to say even in private. ...
Shortly after the broadcast, clerics in Syria denounced her as an infidel. One said she had done Islam more damage than the Danish cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad, a wire service reported.
Dr. Sultan is "working on a book that — if it is published — it's going to turn the Islamic world upside down."
"I have reached the point that doesn't allow any U-turn. I have no choice. I am questioning every single teaching of our holy book."
The working title is, 'The Escaped Prisoner: When God Is a Monster.'" (See also: "Arab-American Psychologist Wafa Sultan: There Is No Clash of Civilizations but a Clash between the Mentality of the Middle Ages and That of the 21st Century" (MEMRI TV, 2006/02/21))

"Imam Dishes Out Some Holy Baloney" (Niles Lathem and John Mazor, New York Post, 2006/03/11)
"The city's Muslim prison chaplain suspended for making extremist remarks compared himself to Jesus, Moses and Mohammed yesterday in an indignant defense of his actions to worshippers at his mosque.
The sermon came a day after Mayor Bloomberg placed the ex-con preacher on administrative leave from his $76,000-a-year job as chief of ministerial services at the Department of Correction.
Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil struck a defiant and angry tone during prayers at his Masjidus Sabur mosque in Harlem. In his hour-long address, Abdul-Jalil slammed "slander-mongers and hatemongers [who] come looking for controversy."
"I'm willing to bet that if Moses, Jesus and the Prophet Mohammed were living in this time, in this world, they would probably put them in jail, saying they were sowing dissention and creating sedition," Abdul-Jalil said. ...
Before working for the city, Abdul-Jalil served a 15-year sentence in state prison for selling drugs, according to state records. He was behind bars from 1975 to 1989." (See also: "Top Jail Imam In Hate Tirade" (Niles Lathem, New York Post, 2006/03/09))

"US hostage in Iraq killed after torture: police" (Faris al-Mehdawi and Ross Colvin, Reuters/My Way, 2006/03/11)
"American hostage Tom Fox has been killed and his body, showing signs of torture, left at a garbage dump in Baghdad, police said on Saturday.
One of the policemen who found the body said the 54-year-old peace activist, wearing a gray tracksuit, appeared to have beaten with electric cables before his death. He had a single gunshot wound to the head and his hands were tied behind him.
Fox, who had been in Iraq to campaign against the U.S. occupation and to work for the release of Iraqis held by U.S. forces, was taken hostage with three colleagues in November by a group calling itself the "Swords of Truth." ...
A member of the police patrol which found Fox's body told Reuters it had been left beside a railway line on waste ground used as a garbage dump in Baghdad's western Mansour district."

"Sunni insurgents 'have al-Zarqawi running for cover'" (Oliver Poole, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/03/11)
"Insurgent groups in one of Iraq's most violent provinces claim that they have purged the region of three quarters of al-Qa'eda's supporters after forming an alliance to force out the foreign fighters.
If true, it would mark a significant victory in the fight against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qa'eda in Iraq, and could partly explain the considerable drop in suicide bombings in Iraq recently.
"We have killed a number of the Arabs, including Saudis, Egyptians, Syrians, Kuwaitis and Jordanians," said an insurgent representative in the western province of Anbar.
The claims were partly supported by the defence ministry, which said it had evidence that Zarqawi and his followers were fleeing Anbar to cities and mountains near the Iranian border."

Added today:
"Lawyers Demand Capital Penalty for Al-Asadi and Observer Close" (Yemen Observer, 2006/03/08)

Friday, March 10, 2006

News and commentary:

"Muslim clerics demand Danish apology to end boycott" (Per Bech Thomsen, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2006/03/10)
The Danish cartoon affair IV: "COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Only an official apology by the Danish government to all Muslims for offence caused by the Prophet Mohammad cartoons will prompt the lifting of the boycott of Danish goods, Muslim preachers said on Friday.
An official apology "is absolutely necessary ... because your government has not dealt with them (Muslims) respectfully," Islamic scholar Tareq al-Suweidan told a conference hosted by the government in an attempt to ease tension over the drawings. ...
If there is no apology, "The scholars of Islam and myself ... I am running an Islamic satellite TV channel, we will encourage people to continue the boycott," Suweidan said.
Amr Khaled, a preacher whose Cairo-based television shows are widely watched, said an apology alone was not enough. "Dialogue and many practical common projects are more important. We came here to build bridges but it must be two-way bridges," he told the gathering. ...
Suweidan, a Kuwaiti, said the Norwegian government had apologized after a Norwegian newspaper printed the cartoons in January. "If they (the Danish government) had just done that, the problem would not have arrived," he said.
In Norway the editor of the paper Magazinet apologized to Muslims for hurting them by printing the cartoons, while the government defended free speech but regretted the insult.
Both Muslim clerics supported free speech but accused the western world of applying double standards.
"We want the laws in Denmark and the European Union to be changed, either to have free speech for everyone including on the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, or to change the law to respect religious figures like Mohammad," Suweidan said." (Note: For a brilliant description and analysis of the Norwegian apology, see also: "But on February 10, in Oslo..." (Bruce Bawer, brucebawer.com, 2006/02/15): "It was a picture right out of a sharia courtroom: the dhimmi prostrating himself before the Muslim leader, and the leader pardoning him – and, for good measure, declaring Selbekk to be henceforth under his protection, as if it were he, Hamdan, and not the Norwegian police, that held in his hands the security of citizens in Norway.")

"EU-Ministers “considering” Arab demands" (Agora, 2006/03/10)
The Danish cartoon affair III. Agora is indispensible when it comes to Danish news on the continuing Cartoon Jihad:
"Ah fuck! On top of everything else today, now this: ...

Jyllands-Posten, March 10, 2006

EU-Ministers considering Arab demands

It may no longer be enough to just combat discrimination, a presentation document at meeting of EU-ministers says.
As a pendant to the Muhammed-affair, the Foreign Ministers of the EU are considering complying with Arab demands to “fight defamation of religion.”
So far the EU has voted against these kinds of proposals at meetings of the UN General Assembly, but they are now considering reversing that. So a written presentation document aiming at bettering the relations between Europe and the Islamic countries.
- It raises the question of whether, considering recent events, we should reconsider the EU’s approach to these matters at the UN General Assembly, the document says.
The Islamic Conference, the OIC and the Arab League have demanded guarantees that the Muhammed-affair will not be repeated."

"Nine Convicted in Dutch Terrorism Case" (Toby Sterling, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/03/10)
"AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Dutch judges convicted nine men Friday of belonging to a terrorist group, a landmark verdict that concludes promoting a violent version of Islam can itself be an act of terrorism.
The case opens a new way for prosecutors to stop potential terrorists and for the Netherlands to tackle the broader problem of the spread of radicalism among Muslim youth.
Lawyers for the men said they will appeal.
Two men received 15- and 13-year prison terms for attempted murder after a clash with police during their arrest. One received a five-year term for possessing a loaded machine gun.
The rest were sentenced to up to two years in prison. All were found to have spread hateful propaganda among their friends and on the Internet, encouraging Muslims to join a holy war against the West.
Though most sentences were short, the judgment was sweeping.
"Anyone who preaches hate and violence lays the basis for committing crimes directed at instilling fear among the people and destroying Dutch democracy," said Judge Rene Elkerbout, reading the three-judge panel's ruling.
"This is what the suspects contributed to. The court weighs that heavily against them." ...
The convicted men, known as the Hofstad Group, included Mohammed Bouyeri, who already is serving a life sentence for the 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh."

"Verbal Sidearm" (Agora, 2006/03/10)
The Danish cartoon affair II: "This is a letter to the editor from yesterday. Beautifully written.

Politiken, March 9, 2006

Letter to the editor

Verbal Sidearm

By Katrine Winkel Holm, Cand.Theol.

ISLAMOPHOBIA. A new, often used word. An effective verbal sidearm: That’s Islamophobia, they say, and the attacker is checkmate, for a while at least. Maybe it’s time to turn that weapon against those who use it. That is what this article intends to do.
But first: What does it really mean? Literally, it simply means fear of Islam. In my opinion there may be good reasons for such a fear. Just ask Salman Rushdie or Ayaan Hirsi Ali. But in the context in which the self-proclaimed euro-islamist Tariq Ramadan uses it, it means a clinical fear of Islam. A delusion, in other words, because the implicit contention of Mr. Ramadan is that it is not reasonable to fear Islam. Islam can easily be reconciled with Democracy and Freedom of Speech. Islam is a religion of peace, not a religion of violence. If we assume that that is true, the mystery seems to be why lately there have been so many who advocate limiting the Freedom of Speech on account of Moslems’ feelings. Why do members of PEN want to make a law to protect religious minorities - Moslems - “against defamation due to their religion.”

WHY does EU-Commissioner Franco Frattini want to introduce a self-regulating set of rules to European media to hinder Freedom of Speech from being abused?
Why does Javier Solana state that he will do his utmost to prevent publication of further cartoons of Muhammed?
Why do grey-haired law professors suddenly become advocates of strengthening the moldering blasphemy law? Why do leftist intellectuals take special care not to offend Islam, when they have so far not shown such consideration to Christianity?
My guess is this: because they are afraid. Because the embassy burnings, the boycott, and the frothing curses which have hailed down upon our country have filled them with fear. Fear of Islam. They have met a steely determination - and yielded. They are the true Islamophobes."

"Sorry Everbody, I’m So Sorry, Really Sorry, I Sincerely Apologize" (Paul Belien, The Brussels Journal, 2006/03/10)
The Danish cartoon affair I: "The City of Antwerp, governed by a coalition of Socialists, Liberals, Green and Christian-Democrats, has requested that the Belgian courts prosecute a member of the city council for the Vlaams Belang, the largest party in town and the only opposition. The Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CEOOR), a tax-funded government inquisition office that under Belgian law has the competence to prosecute for discrimination and incitement to hatred, has also started a prosecution.
The councillor’s crime? He forwarded an e-mail that has been circulating widely on the internet for weeks. The councillor wrote:

A Danish website offers apologies to all “offended” Muslims. Here is what it says:
We’re sorry we gave you shelter when war drove you from your home country…
We’re sorry we took you in when others rejected you…
We’re sorry we gave you the opportunity to get a good education…
We’re sorry we gave you food and a home when you had none…
We’re sorry we let you re-unite with your family when your homeland was no longer safe…
We’re sorry we never forced you to work while WE paid all your bills…
We’re sorry we gave you almost FREE rent, phone, internet, car and school for your 10 kids…
We’re sorry we build you Mosques so you could worship your religion in our Christian land…
We’re sorry we never forced you to learn our language after staying 30 years…
We’re sorry for everything else…
And we’re sorry for having to say sorry…! ...

According to the Belgian authorities the Danish text is racist. Do not pass it on to Belgians. You will be sorry if you do.
If the councillor is found guilty he can be sentenced to jail and will lose the right to vote and stand for elections."

"The Great Stampede" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2006/03/10)
"In recent weeks prominent conservatives — William F. Buckley, Niall Ferguson, Francis Fukuyama, George Will, to a name only a very few — have, in various ways, suggested that the war in Iraq was either a mistake or unwinnable, or both. The blowing up of the shrine at Samarra, together with subsequent sectarian killings in Baghdad and the failure so far to form an executive branch, were the most recent catalysts that apparently pushed a great number of wearied observers over the edge.
But the latest criticism is more troubling, since it often comes from the “my perfect war, your lousy peace” school that, for some reason, never critiques the three-week removal of Saddam Hussein. Instead, it defends its evolving opposition to the war by advancing particular pet theories of reconstruction that were never followed. Rarely do we hear that most postbellum efforts are long, messy, and necessary, much less that the essence of war is lapse and tragedy, with victory going only to those who in the end err the least and endure. Anyone back in the United States can post facto write up a list of what ought to have been done in Iraq amid the heat and fire; but they at least need to factor in the conditions at the time that led the supposedly less bright on the ground not to anticipate their own inspired wisdom from afar.
Especially troubling are those who even before 9/11 demanded that President Clinton or Bush remove Saddam Hussein, but now consider such a move an abject blunder of the first order. Their advocacy helped us get in when there were dubious reasons to go, and their vehement criticism may well get us out when there are now better reasons to stay until Iraq is secure.
So here we are — close to victory abroad, closer to concession at home."

"The media and Islam" (Diana West, The Washington Times, 2006/03/10)
West on the "three-part series in the New York Times about an imam named Reda Shata who presides over the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, N.Y.":
"Both the New York Post and the New York Sun have already pounced on the most egregious flaw of omission: not a mention, in 11,000-plus words, of the day in March 1994 when a man walked out of that same Bay Ridge mosque and, inspired by the anti-Jewish sermon of the day (delivered by a different, unidentified imam), armed himself and opened fire on a van carrying Hasidic Jewish children. Ari Halberstam, 16, was killed. The Times series, as it happened, concluded on the 12th anniversary of his death.
Such journalistic jaw-droppers abound: gaping holes, like the one above, but also dead ends that leave countless questions that the female reporter, it seems, never thought to ask. For example, she notes, over six months of interviews, the Egyptian-born imam refused to shake her hand. "He offers women only a nod," she writes. Why is shaking hands with a woman "improper"? What does the imam think about sexual equality? She doesn't tell us. ...
"What I may see as terrorism, you may not see that way," Mr. Shata says. What does he mean by that? The reporter doesn't tell us. Hamas is a powerful symbol of resistance, he says; the assassinated Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin was the "martyred" "lion of Palestine," he sermonizes; and yet the imam says he condemns all violence. How does he square that? She doesn't tell us." (See also: "Tending to Muslim Hearts and Islam's Future" (Andrea Elliott, The New York Times, 2006/03/07), which has links to the earlier articles.)

Note: Alasdair Palmer's interview with Patrick Sookhdeo has been removed from the website: "'The day is coming when British Muslims form a state within a state'" (Alasdair Palmer, The Sunday Telegraph, 2006/02/19).
¡No Pasarán! has a snapshot of the page: "This story has been removed for legal reasons."
LGF links to a Yahoo search cache of the original article, which can also be found here.
Laban Tall has more, including an apparent reason for the removal:
"The Sunday Telegraph acknowledges that Dr Sookhdeo's remarks did not refer to The Noble Qur'an, A Rendering of its Meaning in English, but to a completely different translation. The Sunday Telegraph apologises for this mistake and for any offence caused by it.".
It's a must-read article and its removal is an apparent example of the current self-censorship in Western media.
It's also notable that The Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator have stopped publishing Mark Steyn, who of course is known for his brilliant and uncompromising columns on Islam.

"'The day is coming when British Muslims form a state within a state'" (Alasdair Palmer, The Sunday Telegraph, 2006/02/19)

Added today:
"Cyprus: Portrait of a Christianity Obliterated" (Sandro Magister, www.chiesa, 2006/03/09)

Thursday, March 9, 2006

News and commentary:

"Mona Sahlin visited a mosque yesterday..."
(Lasse Allard, Aftonbladet, 2001/09/14)
"Mona Sahlin visited a mosque yesterday [2001/09/13]."

"Vice-prime minister Lena Hjelm-Wallén..."
(Thomas Poetsch, Kyrkans Tidning, 2001/09/20)
"Vice-prime minister Lena Hjelm-Wallén and minister of integration Mona Sahlin visited Stockholms mosque last week [2001/09/13], here chatting with Mahmoud Aldebe, vice-chairman of Sveriges muslimska råd [Swedish Muslim council]"

"Swedish Muslims to be 'ambassadors'" (TT/The Local, 2006/03/09)
The Danish cartoon affair II. So much for bending over backwards over the years. Take for example the visit of the then vice-prime minister Lena Hjelm-Wallén and minister of integration Mona Sahlin to the Stockholm mosque, in solidarity with Swedish Muslims, two days after 9/11. They wore veils and chatted with Mahmoud Aldebe, then vice-chairman of the Swedish Muslim council.
Aldebe is known for advocating sharia law for Swedish Muslims and condemning marriages between Swedish men and Muslim women.
Another more current example is of course when the foreign ministry moved to shut down a website over the publication of one completely innocuous depiction of Muhammed.
But, alas, there still seems to be an image of Sweden as anti-Islamic fostered in the Arab world:
"Sweden's government is to send three young Swedish Muslims to Egypt and Jordan, with the aim of counteracting the image of Sweden as anti-Islamic.
The government says negative images of Sweden have been fostered in the Arab world following the publication in Denmark of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.
The trio will talk about how Muslims live in Sweden, foreign minister Laila Freivalds told newspaper Sydsvenskan. They will travel round for nine days, talking to students, politicians and opinion formers about their own lives. The trip will start next week.
"There is a need to exchange experiences," said Freivalds during a visit to Malmö on Wednesday.
All the young 'ambassadors' come from Skåne. They are Othman al-Tawalbeh, 33, an imam who works in the information department of Helsinborg council, Hanin Shakrah, 24, who works on a youth project in Malmö, and Nadja Jebril, 23, a journalist from Malmö."

"French Muslims take cartoons row to Euro court" (AFP/Expatica, 2006/03/09)
The Danish cartoon affair I: "STRASBOURG, March 9, 2006 (AFP) - The European Court of Human Rights said Thursday that it had received a request by a French Muslim body to condemn the publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in French newspapers.
The Regional Council for the Muslim Religion (CRCM) in the Champagne Ardenne region said in a statement that the publication of the controversial cartoons in French newspapers constituted a discrimination between Muslims and non-Muslims contrary to the European Convention of Human Rights.
"Muslims from Champagne Ardenne are touched like the rest of Muslims in the world, injured in their faith and their dignity," said the CRCM, that filed the complaint on February 13. ...
The European Court of Human Rights has now to decide whether it will accept the case." (Hat tip: LGF.)

"Cyprus: Portrait of a Christianity Obliterated" (Sandro Magister, www.chiesa, 2006/03/09)
"The island of Cyprus was the first destination of the “special mission” that the Holy Spirit entrusted to Paul and Barnabas, according to what is written in the Acts of the Apostles, in chapter 13.
On the island they found a Roman governor, Sergius Paulus, “an intelligent man who wanted to hear the word of God and believed, deeply shaken by the teaching of the Lord.”
But if Paul and Barnabas were to return to Cyprus today, to the northern part of the island, they would find not the Romans as governors, but the Turks.
And instead of a Christianity being born, they would find a dying Christianity, with the churches and monasteries in ruin, or else transformed into stables, hotels, and mosques.
This is documented in a startling report from Luigi Geninazzi, who was sent to Cyprus by “Avvenire,” the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference.
Cyprus became part of the European Union on May 1, 2004. But this was true only for the southern part of the island, which is Greek and Christian.
The northern part was occupied by Turkey in 1974, with 40,000 soldiers. The Turkish occupation caused death, destruction, and a forced relocation of populations. About 200,000 Greek Cypriots of the Christian Orthodox faith who lived in the north of the island fled to the south. And likewise, the Turkish Cypriots of the south, Muslims, moved to the north.
In 1983 Turkey consolidated the occupation by creating a Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is internationally recognized only by the government of Ankara: 180,000 persons live there, 100,000 of whom are colonists originally from Anatolia." (Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch.)

"CAIR: Islamists Fooling the Establishment" (Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha, The Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2006)
A comprehensive overview of The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). "That the U.S. government, the mainstream media, educational institutions, and others have given CAIR a free pass amounts to a dereliction of duty. Yet, there appear to be no signs of change. How long will it be until the establishment finally recognizes CAIR for what it is and denies it mainstream legitimacy?":
"Perhaps the most obvious problem with CAIR is the fact that at least five of its employees and board members have been arrested, convicted, deported, or otherwise linked to terrorism-related charges and activities.
Randall ("Ismail") Royer, an American convert to Islam, served as CAIR's communications specialist and civil rights coordinator; today he sits in jail on terrorism-related charges. In June 2003, Royer and ten other young men, ages 23 to 35, known as the "Virginia jihad group," were indicted on forty-one counts of "conspiracy to train for and participate in a violent jihad overseas." ...
Ghassan Elashi, the founder of CAIR's Texas chapter, has a long history of funding terrorism. First, he was convicted in July 2004, with his four brothers, of having illegally shipped computers from their Dallas-area business, InfoCom Corporation, to two designated state-sponsors of terrorism, Libya and Syria.[29] Second, he and two brothers were convicted in April 2005 of knowingly doing business with Mousa Abu Marzook, a senior Hamas leader, whom the U.S. State Department had in 1995 declared a "specially designated terrorist." ...
This roster of employees and board members connected to terrorism makes one wonder how CAIR remains an acceptable guest at U.S. government events — and even more so, how U.S. law enforcement agencies continue to associate with it."

"Top Jail Imam In Hate Tirade" (Niles Lathem, New York Post, 2006/03/09)
"The head of Islamic chaplains in the New York City Department of Correction said in a recent speech that the "greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House," Jews control the media, and Muslims are being tortured in Manhattan jails.
The outlandish remarks were made by one of the city's most prominent Islamic leaders, Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil, the executive director of ministerial services for the city Department of Correction. He spoke at a conference of Islamic leaders in Tucson, Ariz., and was secretly recorded by the counterterrorism organization The Investigative Project.
The recordings capture Abdul-Jalil - speaking at two separate symposiums on Islam in America held by the Muslim Students Association on April 15 and 16 last year - making incendiary charges and espousing extremist views.
Abdul-Jalil, 56, who is also imam of the Masjid Sabur mosque in Harlem, initially denied making the comments - but later admitted to The Post that the tape was most likely accurate and said his words are being "taken out of context." ...
Abdul-Jalil also accused the Bush administration of being terrorists, according to the tape.
"We have terrorists defining who a terrorist is, but because they have the weight of legitimacy, they get away with it . . . We know that the greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House, without a doubt," he said.
At another session, Abdul-Jalil urged American Muslims to stop allowing "the Zionists of the media to dictate what Islam is to us" and said Muslims must be "compassionate with each other" and 'hard against the kufr [unbeliever].'"

Added today:
"New Fallaci" (TigerHawk, 2006/03/08)

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

News and commentary:

"The Cave: The water park at the public bath in Husby, Stockholm"
(aventyrsbada.nu)

"16-year-old girl raped — at the public bath" (Anders Heraldsson, Aftonbladet, 2006/03/06)
Husby is a suburb north of the Swedish capital Stockholm with a large amount of immigrants. It's included in the parish of Kista, where 63,7% of the population are first or second generation immigrants [according to statistics from 2004/12/31. PDF here.]. Here's a round-up of news from the last year, giving a glimpse of the situation in this multicultural paradise [emphasis added]:

The 16-year-old girl was assaulted in the waterslide at the public bath in Husby.
She was held and raped.
Last year a 17-year-old girl was subjected to a similar assault in the same bathhouse.
The rape took place in one of the pipes adjacent to the waterslide at Husby water park yesterday afternoon.
Several other bathers were close-by — but no one interfered.

This is from an article on last year's rape at the same facility:

Raped in front of 30 bathers

17-year-old girl forced into a cave by teenagers

Thirty bathers watched as the 17-year-old girl was raped in the water park cave.
No one interfered. ...
As his friend held her, the 16-year-old boy teared off her bikini and carried out a rape.
Around thirty other persons were in the cave at the same time. But they didn't do anything to prevent the rape.
"They didn't react, instead they just looked at me," said the 17-year-old girl during the trial at Stockholms tingsrätt. ...
The girl is currently admitted to a treatment facility for psychiatric care after having tried to commit suicide several times.
She has trouble sleeping, has nightmares and suffers from panic attacks and anxiety.

The 16-year-old raper got three months institutional care at a reformatory for youths. His accomplice was not sentenced at all. That will certainly teach him a lesson.
Last April, Stockholm City reported on an attack against a visiting school class outside the public bath:

Gang of youths attacked school class

HUSBY. A gang with approximately 30 youths attacked a school class from the Matteus school, which had visited Husby bathhouse. Three students and one teacher were injured by blows and kicks against the heads. ...
According to the police in Västerort, the teacher tried to intervene in order to avert the row. Then he was attacked himself with kicks and blows against the body and the head. Three of the students were also injured and were bleeding from wounds in their heads.

And it was not an isolated case either:

Gangs of youths harass bathers

HUSBY. Gangs of youths in Husby have made a system of harassing youths from other parts of town visiting the public bath in the area. ...
Several parents and teachers have contacted City after yesterday's article, relating how they have been attacked and mugged by gangs of youths after visiting Husby bathhouse.
A mother says that her daughter's class was chased away with blows and kicks last week.
A teacher at the Södermalms school was there with his class to bath in February this year. On their way to the subway afterwards a gang of young teens advanced toward them, screaming: "Let's take them!" and "Damn Swedes*, you don't belong here!" An older man who got in the way was brutally pushed down a snowdrift.
"They were only there to fight. We will never go there again. ...," says the teacher who wants to remain anonymous out of fear." [*the term was "Damn Svennar", a derogatory term for ethnic Swedes.]

Let's conclude this round-up of the situation in Husby with an article from May last year:

Gang of youths attacked students - no one dares to give witness

HJULSTA. Armed with chains and iron bars the gang of youths went berserk on the Hjulsta school. Several student were injured. The police don't know much about the assailants — no one dares to say anything.
Personnel on the school called the police about the attack around one o'clock yesterday afternoon. A gang of youths from an adjacent school had stormed into the Hjulsta school, armed with chains and iron bars.
"They have more or less demolished the school. They have also attacked a couple of students, but no one was so injured that they had to use an ambulance", says Diana Sundin, informant at the Västerorts police.
The assailants left the location soon after the call to the police. A large band of police were searching for the gang of youths afterwards — but without any results.
"No one dares to tell who they are. It is assumed that they know, but not even the teachers dare to tell anything, ..." says Diane Sundin."

(See also: "Gross sexual assault was filmed" (Maria Carlqvist, Svenska Dagbladet, 2006/02/10) and "Immigrant Rape Wave in Sweden" (Fjordman, fjordman.blogspot.com, 2005/12/12). Also Fjordman's general overview of the situation in Sweden: "Is Swedish Democracy Collapsing?" (Fjordman, fjordman.blogspot.com, 2005/05/04))

"Media Won't Report Radical Islamic Events" (Tony Blankley, RealClearPolitics, 2006/03/08)
"I have been in contact with British politicians who tell me that there is increasing radical Muslim street violence in Britain that is explicitly motivated by radical Islam but is not reported or characterized as such. Even in its cleansed versions, I am told, these incidents are being extremely underreported.
In Antwerp last month, according to the reporter Paul Belien, rioting Moroccan "youths" went on a rampage destroying cars and beating up reporters, but the police were instructed not even to stop them or arrest them. According to an anonymous policeman, "An ambulance was told to switch off its siren because that might provoke the Moroccans." This event, too, was under reported, or not reported at all in American media.
And of course, last October in Paris and other French cities, hundreds of buildings were torched and tens of thousands of cars burned by Muslim "youths" through weeks of rioting, while both the French government and most of the "responsible" experts denied there was any radical Muslim component to the greatest urban violence to hit France since World War. It was all to do with poverty and teenage angst and alienation. ...
The public has the right and vital need to have the events of our time fully and fairly described and reported. But a witch's brew of psychological denial and political correctness is suppressing the institutional voices of government, police, schools, universities and the media when it comes to radical Islam."

"New Fallaci" (TigerHawk, 2006/03/08)
Excerpts from the first chapter of Oriana Fallaci's new book, "The Force of Reason":
"I don't like to say that Troy is burning. That Europe is by now a province of Islam or rather a colony of Islam and Italy an outpost of that province, a stronghold of that colony. Saying this amounts to admitting that the Cassandras really do talk to the wind, that in spite of their screams of pain the blind remain blind, the deaf remain deaf, consciences reawoken soon relapse into sleep, and the Mastros Cecco die for nothing. But the truth is just this. From the Strait of Gibraltar to the fjords of Soroy, from the cliffs of Dover to the beaches of Lampedusa, from the steppes of Volgograd to the valleys of the Loire and the hills of Tuscany, the fire is spreading. In each one of our cities there is a second city. A city superimposed and equal to the one that in the Seventies thousands and thousands of Palestinians set up in Beirut installing a State within a State. A government within the government. A Muslim city, a city ruled by the Koran. An Islamic expansion's stage. The expansionism that no-one has ever managed to overcome. No-one. Not even the armies of Napoleon. Because it is the only art in which the sons of Allah have always excelled, the art of invading and conquering and subjugating. Their most coveted prey has always been Europe, the Christian world, and shall we run a rapid eye over the History that Mr. Doudou would like to control or rather cancel?"

"Lawyers Demand Capital Penalty for Al-Asadi and Observer Close" (Yemen Observer, 2006/03/08)
The Danish cartoon affair II: "SANA’A – Up to 21 prosecution lawyers called for the death penalty for Mohammed Al-Asadi, the Editor-in-Chief of the Yemen Observer, and the permanent closure of the newspaper, during Al-Asadi’s trial on Wednesday.
The lawyers, commissioned by Sheik Abdul-Majid Zindani, the Chairman of Islah Shura Council and led by Mohammed Al-Shawish, also called for the confiscation of all the newspaper’s property and assets, and for financial compensation to be paid to be the Muslim’s ‘Finance House’, which last existed during the time of the Caliphs, 1200 years ago.
They recounted a story in which a lady was killed during the Prophet’s lifetime after she insulted him, and that the Prophet then praised the killer. They said that they wanted the same punishment to be applied on “those who abuse the Prophet” (PBUH).
The trial of Al-Asadi, which took place in the General South-West Court in Sana’a, was adjourned for two weeks, until March 22.
Al-Asadi, who denies all charges, is accused in connection with allegations of republishing insulting cartoons first printed in Denmark of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). The newspaper published thumbnail images of the cartoons in the February 4 edition, which were obscured with a thick black cross." (Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan. See also: "'Of Course I’m Afraid'" (Rod Nordland, Newsweek, 2006/02/17))

"Islam’s Coming Crusade" (Martin Kramer, Jerusalem Report/The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2006/03/20)
The Danish cartoon affair I: "The secular West had flattered itself, believing it had pulled the Muslim world into modernity. Yes, Islam has sent forth suicide bombers and terrorist insurgents. But they and their sympathizers were in the minority -- so the pollsters and analysts told us: "Don't judge Islam by the acts of a misguided few." This faith in the pragmatic Muslim majority has underpinned every Western policy, from the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process" to the Bush administration's democracy promotion. The Muslim masses, the assumption goes, will choose peace and freedom, if given the chance. But they haven't. 9/11 could be attributed to a fanatic minority. Not so the Danish cartoon protests: Millions have taken part. ...
The experts resort to political and socioeconomic explanations: Syria incites proxies to punish Europe for its support of the U.S. over Lebanon. Iran stirs things up to escape possible sanctions over its nuclear program. Muslim minorities in Europe are protesting against racism and exclusion. Palestinians voted not for Islam, but against corruption.
There are plenty of inequalities in the world that cut against Muslims -- enough to explain any outburst. This is the default analysis, reassuring us that there isn't a "clash of civilizations," only a clash of interests. These analyses have their place, but they're not sufficient. The clash goes beyond differing interests. Hundreds of millions of Muslims who live alongside us and among us inhabit another mental world. ...
The present Muslim campaign has its share of opportunists. But it is also driven by a religious fervor. At some point, a Muslim equivalent of Pope Urban II could appear. This time, the crusade would be a Muslim one. Its advance scouts are already at work in Europe."

"Muslim Vote Tips the Balance in Netherlands" (Paul Belien, The Brussels Journal, 2006/03/08)
[emphasis added]: "Yesterday’s municipal elections in the Netherlands were won by the Left. The Labour Party (PvdA) gained more than 500 town hall seats, an increase of 50 per cent compared with 2002, while the far-left Socialist Party (SP) doubled its number of seats. ...
According to the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies of the University of Amsterdam 80% of the non-indigenous electorate voted for Labour. This explains why cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Breda and Arnhem succumbed to the Left. 84% of the Turks voted for the PvdA; 81% of the Antillians/Surinamese did likewise. Of the Moroccans 78% voted Labour and 12% voted Green Left.
The center-right VVD, the party of famous Dutch policians such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Frits Bolkestein, received only 1% of the immigrant vote. The CDA got 3%, the SP 5% and Green Left 7%.
According to De Telegraaf, the largest paper in the country, immigrant voters have become a power block.
The effects of the immigrant vote will soon be visible. The Amsterdam borough of De Baarsjes has already decided to remove a white cross which serves as a memorial to the Second World War. The cross is situated not far from the place where a mosque is being built. According to the authorities “Muslims and Jews” take offense at the cross as a war memorial. “We told them that it is a Dutch tradition to refer to the dead with a cross. However, the cross is seen as a reference to Christianity. I can understand this,” the local (Christian-Democrat) councillor, Jan Voetberg, said."

"Iran Threatens U.S. With 'Harm and Pain'" (George Jahn, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/03/08)
"Iran threatened the United States with "harm and pain" Wednesday for its role in hauling Tehran before the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program. But the United States and its European allies said Iran's nuclear intransigence left the world no choice but to seek Security Council action. ...
"The United States has the power to cause harm and pain," said an statement delivered by the Iranian delegation and later repeated to reporters by top nuclear negotiator Javad Vaidi.
"But the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if that is the path that the U.S. wishes to choose, let the ball roll."
The statement did not elaborate on what Iran meant by "harm and pain," and Iranian officials were not immediately available to comment.
But diplomats accredited to the meeting and in contact with the Iranians said the statement could be a veiled threat to use oil as an economic weapon. ...
Iran also attacked "warmongers in Washington" for what it said was an unjust accusation that Tehran's nuclear intentions were mainly for military use. It also suggested America was vulnerable, despite its strength.
"Surely we are not naive about the United States' ... intention to flex muscles," the statement said. 'But we also see the bone fractures underneath.'"

"'Terrorist' Bombings in India Kill 20" (Matthew Rosenberg. AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/03/08)
"A series of "terrorist" bombings rocked a packed railway station and crowded Hindu temple Tuesday in the holy city of Varanasi, officials said, killing at least 20 people and injuring dozens in an attack that raised fears of communal violence. ...
At least 10 people died in what appeared to be two bombings at Varanasi's train station, and five were killed in another blast at the temple on the banks of the holy Ganges River, said Sinha. Five additional people died overnight of their injuries, Superintendent of Police Paresh Pandey told The Associated Press.
Another senior official, Kamlesh Pathak, said two unexploded bombs — one hidden in a pressure cooker and the other in a backpack — were found at Varanasi's Godowalia Market and defused by police.
The Press Trust of India news agency, meanwhile, reported that security officials found four unexploded bombs at a bathing platform on the banks of the Ganges, a few miles away.
The blast at the Sankat Mochan temple went off near dusk, when the shrine was crowded with Hindus making special Tuesday offerings to the monkey-god Hanuman, said police inspector Madan Mohan Pande."

Added today:
"Muslims ask French to cancel 1741 play by Voltaire" (Andrew Higgins, The Wall Street Journal/post-gazette.com, 2006/03/06)

Tuesday, March 7, 2006

News and commentary:

Camel
(exzooberance.com)

"Saudi Cleric: 'To Defend the Honor of a Female Camel'" (Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, 2006/03/07)
The Danish cartoon affair II: "Jaw, say hello to floor.
An interview with Saudi cleric Sheik Muhsen Al-’Awaji, aired on Ein TV on February 26, 2006, courtesy of MEMRI TV.

Sheik Muhsen Al-’Awaji: Before Islam, the Arabs fought for 40 years to defend the honor of a female camel. This was in the Busous War. A female camel was humiliated, and a 40-year war ensued to defend its honor. So what about the honor of the Prophet?
Interviewer: Are you proud of this?!
Sheik Muhsen Al-’Awaji: I am proud that honor and nobility always characterized the Arabs, and then came Islam to reinforce these traits. ...
Sheik Muhsen Al-’Awaji: When all this began, the people of Denmark insisted, in a premeditated and unprecedented way, on humiliating our Prophet. ...
Imagine that someone is beheaded, and then he is told: “Put it back on, while the blood is still flowing.” But he behaves arrogantly and stubbornly, until the head decomposes - and only then does he want to put it back on. Similarly, an apology today - if it is even offered - is unacceptable, because the whole issue has begun to rot."

"The Satanic Precedent of the Muhammed Cartoons" (Helle Merete Brix, Sappho/Agora, 2006/03/07)
The Danish cartoon affair I. "To the last detail, the events of the Muhammed cartoons issue seem to follow the same script as the events sorrounding Salman Rushdie’s'The Satanic Verses'":
"At the end of October 1988, a Moslem umbrella organisation in Great Britain moved to have the book banned under the English blasphemy law. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had to turn down the Moslems: “There are no grounds on which Government could consider banning the book.”
At this time, death threats started happening to Rushdie as a matter of daily routine. ...
In Bolton, near Manchester, Moslem groups had grown frustrated that government support was lacking in getting the book banned. To make matters worse, The Satanic Verses was awarded the Whitbread award for best work of fiction in November. A ritual book burning of The Satanic Verses was staged at the beginning of December. About 7000 Moslems participated, but the press paid scant attention to the event.
On January 14, 1989, the next book burning occured. It took place in Bradford, which even at that time had a large Moslem community. Only 1000 Moslems participated but this time the Moslems received support from non-Moslems, including local politicians and the Bishop of Bradford. This support helped getting the media’s attention. TV showed the book burning on the end of a stick.
The debate now became hot in the media and on January 29, 1989, 8000 Moslems marched in London protesting Salman Rushdie and his book. At this point, the seriousness of the matter must have dawned on Salman Rushdie since he realeased a statement to the press in which he assured that he was a good Moslem and that he saw Muhammed as one of the great geniuses of world history. He also made clear that his book was not anti-religious. But to no avail. The monstrosities had only just commenced."

"Guantanamo - Torture Revealed" (Scott Burgess, The Daily Ablution, 2006/03/07)
Burgess wades through the Guantanamo hearing transcripts: "During his time in Guantanamo, Mr. Abbasi (writing in the third person) alleges that he was:

• subject to [unspecified] "mental stress and pressure"
• "willfully misdirected ... to pray north"
• deprived of "comfort items"
• subjected to an [apparently failed] "attempt to withdraw Qur'an"
• able to hear two guards having sex, while they "assumed he was asleep"
• distracted from his prayer by the "sharp intake of breath" of a female MP who'd been "sexually fondled".
• offered a plate of pork
• the object of a conspiracy "to keep detainee ignorant of detainee's allotted Tuesday recreation"
• subjected to a "partially successful" attempt to administer injections "under the guise of immunisation", designed to "unhinge detainee's mental and emotional stability"

While all of these acts are undeniably horrifying, being on a par with the worst excesses of Torquemada, even their totality pales in comparison with the most extreme of the tortures to which Mr. Abbasi was subjected.
Of course, countless abuses have been committed against war prisoners throughout the ages - no one denies that. But, while not downplaying their suffering, it must be admitted that even the most unfortunate of these victims can only breathe a sigh of relief that he was not subject to what Mr. Abbasi was forced to endure when he:

• had his peanut butter eaten by a guard "right in front of him".

One needn't be a bleeding heart to shudder at the inhumanity thus displayed." (See also: "Reprocessed Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) and Administrative Review Board (ARB) Documents" (defenselink.mil, 2006/03/03))

Monday, March 6, 2006

News and commentary:

"Muslims ask French to cancel 1741 play by Voltaire" (Andrew Higgins, The Wall Street Journal/post-gazette.com, 2006/03/06)
"SAINT-GENIS-POUILLY, France -- Late last year, as an international crisis was brewing over Danish cartoons of Muhammad, Muslims raised a furor in this little alpine town over a much older provocateur: Voltaire, the French champion of the 18th-century Enlightenment.
A municipal cultural center here on France's border with Switzerland organized a reading of a 265-year-old play by Voltaire, whose writings helped lay the foundations of modern Europe's commitment to secularism. The play, "Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet," uses the founder of Islam to lampoon all forms of religious frenzy and intolerance.
The production quickly stirred up passions that echoed the cartoon uproar. "This play ... constitutes an insult to the entire Muslim community," said a letter to the mayor of Saint-Genis-Pouilly, signed by Said Akhrouf, a French-born cafe owner of Moroccan descent and three other Islamic activists representing Muslim associations. They demanded the performance be cancelled.
Instead, Mayor Hubert Bertrand called in police reinforcements to protect the theater. On the night of the December reading, a small riot broke out involving several dozen people and youths who set fire to a car and garbage cans. It was "the most excitement we've ever had down here," says the socialist mayor. ...
When Voltaire wrote the play in 1741, Roman Catholic clergymen denounced it as a thinly veiled anti-Christian tract. Their protests forced the cancellation of a staging in Paris after three performances -- and hardened Voltaire's distaste for religion." (Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch.)

"Slide Rules" (Larry Diamond, The New Republic, 2006/03/06)
"Iraq is in the midst of a civil war. Indeed, by one common social science definition -- at least 1,000 dead (with at least 100 on each side) from internal hostilities in which one side tries violently to change the state or its policies -- Iraq's civil war began in the first year of the "postwar" era and has been particularly bloody. The Brookings Institution estimates that somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 Iraqis have been killed by violence since "major combat operations" ended on April 30, 2003. ...
Iraq's conflict is not about ideology or class, and it is not just about nationalist resistance to the U.S. presence. At root, it is a battle of identities, a struggle not just for power and resources but for dignity and legitimacy. When old hierarchies are disrupted or groups feel threatened or violated, the quest for group security and respect easily mutates into a drive for domination, separation, vengeance, or -- at its horrific worst -- annihilation. ...
This is not a time for the United States to throw in the towel in Iraq. The consequences of all-out civil war -- which would now surely follow a precipitous U.S. withdrawal -- would be too disastrous for everyone except the extremists. It is still possible to find or reconstruct some political common ground. It is still conceivable that the Shia politicians who are now set (in one combination or another) to rule Iraq for the indefinite future can be persuaded to make concessions on the big issues, by the logic that less is more in circumstances when seeking to win everything means civil war. There is still time for far-reaching mediation to avert the slide. But the hour is growing late."

"World must stand up to religious censors" (Marci A. Hamilton, USA Today/Yahoo! News, 2006/03/06)
The Danish cartoon affair III: "It should scare those who believe in democracy that the European Union, in light of protests over the Danish cartoons of Mohammed, might ask the European media to adopt a voluntary "code" that would forbid insults to religion that are similarly offensive.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference, an intergovernmental group of 57 states dedicated to protecting Muslim interests, is pushing hard for the idea. The OIC and the Arab League also have approached the United Nations to obtain a resolution that would protect religious entities from materials offensive to them by threatening sanctions on publishers. ...
Islamists are using the publication of sophomoric cartoons in Denmark to justify widespread violence and demands for special treatment in the future. It is a brash grab for power that should be stunning. But too much of the free world is acting as though publishing the cartoons is worse than the violence because the rioting is being carried out by religious entities who have been offended. ...
If the free world's response is that it will promise never to offend Islamists in the future, it is failing to hold them accountable for their actions. That is the road to anarchy, and it is dumbfounding in the context of a war that is being instigated by a sect of Islamists. This latter statement is a fact, by the way, not a slander. ...
The free world must choose. It can hold groups - including religious ones - accountable for their actions regardless of cause. Or it can protect them from discomfort caused by a lively and sometimes unruly public debate, and thereby excuse their crimes. With all due respect, the answer is obvious."

"10 Charged with Threats against Jyllands-Posten" (Agora, 2006/03/06)
The Danish cartoon affair II: "So far 10 have been charged with threatening Jyllands-Posten and 150 threats have been reported so far. From dr.dk:

10 Charged with Threats against Jyllands-Posten

10 persons have been charged with making threats against Jylland-Posten or employees thereof, since the newspaper published a series of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammed September 30 last year.
So say Inspector Bjarne Lauridsen of the Århus Police Department.
[…]
"The grand total is about 150 threats against the newspaper," says Bjarne Lauridsen."

"Manifesto: Together facing the new totalitarianism" (Petition Spot, 2006/03/01)
The Danish cartoon affair I. The Manifesto, calling for "resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all", can now be supported online:
"After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.
We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.
The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats. ...
We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.
We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism." (Hat tip: Agora. See also: "Manifesto: Together facing the new totalitarianism" (Jyllands-Posten, 2006/02/28))

Added in archive:
"Massive Muslim Protest in Bahrain Against Terrorism" (Gateway Pundit, 2006/03/05)
"Iranian Bombshell?" (Elaine Shannon, TIME, 2006/03/05)
"What are we to do about Islam?" (Douglas Murray, The Social Affairs Unite, 2006/03/03)
"The new threat: The radical politics of Islamic fundamentalism" (Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, The New Republic, 2006/03/02)
"Parisians Stare at the Evil Within" (Sebastian Rotella and Achrene Sicakyuz, Los Angeles Times, 2006/02/26)
"Mohammed cartoons derail talks on rights body" (swissinfo/NZZ Online, 2006/02/15)

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

 

Copyright © Watch 2001-2006.
Copyrights of quoted materials belong to their respective owners.

"When people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent. The term is not a slur; it is a technical label."

Jacques Barzun

Articles of the week

"Losing the Enlightenment" (Victor Davis Hanson, OpinionJournal, 2006/11/29)

"Allah’s England?" (Daniel Johnson, Commentary. November 2006)

"'Sex in the Park': The latest doings of the Danish imams" (Henrik Bering, The Weekly Standard, 2006/11/18)

"Narcissism on Stilts" (Harold Evans, New York Sun, 2006/11/16)

"Terrorists are recruiting in our schools, says MI5 boss" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/11/10)

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From the archives

Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.

"The Rage, the Pride and the Doubt" (Oriana Fallaci, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/03/13)

"How the West Was Won and How It Will Be Lost" (Oriana Fallaci, The American Enterprise, from the January/February 2003 issue)

"On Jew-hatred in Europe" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2002/04/13)

"Anger and Pride" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2001/12/19)

Weekly archive

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2006/11/27 - 2006/12/03
2006/11/20 - 2006/11/26
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2006/10/30 - 2006/11/05

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