Archived news and commentary: March 20 - 26, 2006

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

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, March 26, 2006

News and commentary:

"Today Tehran, Tomorrow the World" (Charles Krauthammer, TIME, 2006/03/26)
"We're now at the dawn of an era in which an extreme and fanatical religious ideology, undeterred by the usual calculations of prudence and self-preservation, is wielding state power and will soon be wielding nuclear power.
We have difficulty understanding the mentality of Iran's newest rulers. Then again, we don't understand the mentality of the men who flew into the World Trade Center or the mobs in Damascus and Tehran who chant "Death to America"--and Denmark(!)--and embrace the glory and romance of martyrdom.
This atavistic love of blood and death and, indeed, self-immolation in the name of God may not be new--medieval Europe had an abundance of millennial Christian sects--but until now it has never had the means to carry out its apocalyptic ends.
That is why Iran's arriving at the threshold of nuclear weaponry is such a signal historical moment. ...
If we fail to prevent an Iranian regime run by apocalyptic fanatics from going nuclear, we will have reached a point of no return. It is not just that Iran might be the source of a great conflagration but that we will have demonstrated to the world that for those similarly inclined there is no serious impediment."

"Facing down a culture where they talk like crazies" (Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times, 2006/03/26)
Abdul Rahman II: "Afghanistan is supposed to be "the good war," the one even the French supported, albeit notionally and mostly retrospectively. Karzai is kept alive by a bodyguard of foreigners. The fragile Afghan state is protected by American, British, Canadian, Australian, Italian, German and other troops, hundreds of whom have died. You cannot ask Americans or Britons to expend blood and treasure to build a society in which a man can be executed for his choice of religion. You cannot tell a serving member of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Kandahar that he, as a Christian, must sacrifice his life to create a Muslim state in which his faith is a capital offense. ...
I can understand why the president and the secretary of state would rather deal with this through back-channels, private assurances from their Afghan counterparts, etc. But the public rhetoric is critical, too. At some point we have to face down a culture in which not only the mob in the street but the highest judges and academics talk like crazies.
Rahman embodies the question at the heart of this struggle: If Islam is a religion one can only convert to not from, then in the long run it is a threat to every free person on the planet."

"Afghan Christian Should Be Released Soon" (Daniel Cooney, AP/Yahoo! News, 2006/03/26)
Abdul Rahman I: "KABUL, Afghanistan - A court on Sunday dismissed the case against an Afghan man facing possible execution for converting from Islam to Christianity, officials said, paving the way for his release.
The move eased pressure from the West but raised the dilemma of protecting Abdul Rahman after his release as Islamic clerics have called for him to be killed.
One official said freedom might come as soon as Monday for Rahman, who became a Christian in the 1990s while working for an aid group in neighboring Pakistan.
Muslim extremists, who have demanded death for Rahman as an apostate for rejecting Islam, warned the decision would touch off protests across this religiously conservative country. Some clerics previously vowed to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he was let go.
A Supreme Court spokesman, Abdul Wakil Omeri, said the case had been dismissed because of "problems with the prosecutors' evidence." He said several of Rahman's relatives testified he is mentally unstable and prosecutors have to 'decide if he is mentally fit to stand trial.'"

More on Abdul Rahman:
"Sharia Calling" (Nina Shea, National Review, 2006/03/24)
"Masking terror" (Diana West, The Washington Times, 2006/03/24)
"Clerics insist on execution of convert" (Daniel Cooney, AP/The Washington Times, 2006/03/24)
"Clerics want Christian convert's death" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2006/03/23)
"Afghan supreme court judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada..." (AP, 2006/03/20)
"More Christians Arrested In Wake Of 'Apostasy'" (Compass Direct, 2006/03/22)
"Who Will Save Abdul Rahman?" (Michelle Malkin, Town Hall, 2006/03/22)
"Afghan Christian convert: 'I am not an apostate'" (Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, 2006/03/22)
"To Kill an "Apostate" (or Homosexual)" (Andrew G. Bostom, FrontPageMagazine, 2006/03/22)
"Afghan Man Faces Death for Allegedly Converting to Christianity" (AP/FOX News, 2006/03/19)

"The War Against Swedes" (Fjordman, Gates of Vienna, 2006/03/26)
Fjordman on the article below: "It is interesting to note that these Muslim immigrants state quite openly that they are involved in a “war,” and see participation in crime and harassment of the native population as such. This is perfectly in line with claims I have made before. The number of rape charges in Sweden has quadrupled in just above twenty years. Rape cases involving children under the age of 15 are six times as common today as they were a generation ago. Most other kinds of violent crime have rapidly increased, too. Instability is spreading to most urban and suburban areas. Resident aliens from Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia dominate the group of rape suspects. Lawyer Ann Christine Hjelm found that 85 per cent of the convicted rapists were born on foreign soil or by foreign parents. And it’s not just Sweden. The number of rapes committed by Muslim immigrants in Western nations is so extremely high that it is difficult to view these rapes only as random acts of individuals. It resembles warfare. This happens in most Western European countries, as well as in other infidel countries such as India. European jails are getting filled up with Muslims imprisoned for robberies and all kinds of violent crimes, and Muslims bomb European civilians. You can see the mainstream media are struggling to make sense of all of this. That’s because they can’t, or don’t want to, see the obvious: This is exactly how an invading army would behave: Rape, pillage and bomb. If many of the Muslim immigrants see themselves as conquerors involved in a war, it all makes perfect sense."

"Immigrants wage 'war' against Swedes with robberies" (Ole Rothenborg, Dagens Nyheter, 2006/03/26)
Why do they hate us? Because we are wimpy, scared and stupid. Translated excerpt from an article in Swedish:

"Malmö. The wave of robberies which has hit Malmö the last year is partly “a war against the Swedes”. That is the motive given by eleven young muggers with immigrant backgrounds on why they only attack ethnic Swedish youths.

THE YOUNG ROBBERS have been interviewed by Petra Åkesson for her University-level study in Sociology.

“I had read Brås [the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention] report on young robbers in Stockholm and Malmö and wanted to know why they rob other youths. In most cases, money is obviously not the issue,” she says.

Petra Åkesson had help by curators from three schools and one organisation which works with young criminals in order to come in contact with young robbers. She interviewed them both separately and in groups.

“It was a stroke of luck that I used a tape recorder, because the answers I got were so remarkable that I had to listen several times to really understand what they had said. “When we are robbing people in the city we are waging a war, we are waging war against the Swedes,” was a recurring argument.

“THE BOYS FROM ONE of the schools told me smiling how 'there is a wonderful feeling in the body when you are robbing, you feel satisfied and happy, it feels as if you have succeeded.'”

The interviewed boys are between 15 and 17 years old and one of them explained for Petra Åkesson what power means to him.

“To me it is that the Swedes lay down on the ground and kiss my feet.”

“The young muggers get a kick out of performing deviant and risky actions and they talk a lot about how easy it is to rob Swedes. And the kick gets even stronger when they are aware that the robberies are so easy to accomplish. 'It's so easy to rob Swedes, so easy', said one of the boys.”

THE YOUNG ROBBERS don't plan their crimes.

“No, when we see some Swedes who seem to be wealthy or as if they have expensive cellulars, we rob them.”

During the interviews the youths talked about Swedes as wimpy, scared and stupid.

“Swedes don't do anything, they just give us the stuff, they are so wimpy.”

“The youths don't plan or organize their criminal activities and are therefore not approaching it on businesslike terms,” says Petra Åkesson. “Their actions are instead distinguished by their view of the robberies as a lifestyle.”

Why this hatred for Swedes?

“'Because they hate us,' the youths answer as if it was sort of obvious. One of them gave a small example.

“When a Swede shops at Pressbyrån [a Swedish chain of convenience stores], he gets the change in his hand and the woman behind the counter smiles and makes eye-contact. When we are shopping, she puts the change far from herself on the desk and looks sideways.”

Was it difficult to get the youths to talk about their criminality?

'No, not when we actually met. If anything, they bragged about who had robbed the most. Then I probably had a huge benefit because of my appearance. I'm adopted from Sri Lanka, so they probably did not view me as one of “them”, the Swedes.'" (See also the study [in Swedish][PDF]: "'Vi krigar mot svenskarna'" (Petra Åkesson, sociologi.lu.se))

Saturday, March 25, 2006

News and commentary:

"Women go 'missing' by the millions" (Ayaan Hirsi Ali, International Herald Tribune, 2006/03/25)
"One United Nations estimate says from 113 million to 200 million women around the world are demographically "missing." Every year, from 1.5 million to 3 million women and girls lose their lives as a result of gender-based violence or neglect. ...
Cultural and moral relativists sap our sense of moral outrage by claiming that human rights are a Western invention. Men who abuse women rarely fail to use the vocabulary the relativists have provided them. They claim the right to adhere to an alternative set of values - an "Asian," "African" or "Islamic" approach to human rights.
This mind-set needs to be broken. A culture that carves the genitals of young girls, hobbles their minds and justifies their physical oppression is not equal to a culture that believes women have the same rights as men. ...
We need a worldwide campaign to reform cultures that permit this kind of crime. Let's start to name them and shame them.
In the past two centuries, those in the West have gradually changed the way they treat women. As a result, the West enjoys greater peace and progress. It is my hope that the third world will embark on this effort. Just as we put an end to slavery, we must end the gendercide."

"Russians Helped Iraq, Study Says" (Ann Scott Tyson and Josh White, The Washington Post, 2006/03/25)
"Russian officials collected intelligence on U.S. troop movements and attack plans from inside the American military command leading the 2003 invasion of Iraq and passed that information to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, according to a U.S. military study released yesterday.
The intelligence reports, which the study said were provided to Hussein through the Russian ambassador in Baghdad at the height of the U.S. assault, warned accurately that American formations intended to bypass Iraqi cities on their thrust toward Baghdad. The reports provided some specific numbers on U.S. troops, units and locations, according to Iraqi documents dated March and April 2003 and later captured by the United States.
"The information that the Russians have collected from their sources inside the American Central Command in Doha is that the United States is convinced that occupying Iraqi cities are impossible, and that they have changed their tactic," said one captured Iraqi document titled "Letter from Russian Official to Presidential Secretary Concerning American Intentions in Iraq" and dated March 25, 2003.
A Russian official at the United Nations strongly rejected the allegations that Russian officials gave information to Baghdad. "This is absolutely nonsense," said Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian mission to the United Nations. She said the allegations were never presented to the Russian government before being issued to the news media."

Friday, March 24, 2006

News and commentary:

"Abu Laban looking smug at a press conference"
(Agora, 2006/03/24)

"Danish Imam Abu Laban knew about planned Martyr operation" (Agora, 2006/03/24)
The Danish cartoon affair: "Imam Abu Laban of pig-eared fame apparently knew about a planned “Martyr action” on February 21st. Quoting from my transcript of previously unreleased footage from Mohammed Sifaoui, the journalist who broke the news of Imam Ahmed Akkari’s death threats against Naser Khader. Imam Abu Laban is speaking of a man who plans to execute a martyr operation in connection with the Battle of Khartoon:

{He’s doing everything to get contacts.}
{He’s contacted Amr Moussa and he means to wreak absolute havoc.}
{He wants to join the fray and turn it into a Martyr operation right now.} ...

Transcript of DR news programme where Abu Laban talks about his terror ties.

MALE VOICE: Tuesday, February 21st this year. The Muhammed cartoons crisis is raging. Imam Abu Laban is on his way to a friend’s car outside Abu Laban’s mosque in Copenhagen’s North-West quarter. In the car is a French camera-man and Abu Laban knows that the camera-man doesn’t speak arabic. With a hidden camera, the camera-man records the two mens’ conversation.

[camera entering car. people speaking in unknown language, presumable Arabic.]

MALE VOICE: Suddenly Abu Laban starts speaking, with a lowered voice, of a man who has contacted the president of the Arab League, Amr Moussa.

ABU LABAN:
{He’s doing everything to get contacts.}
{He’s contacted Amr Moussa and he means to wreak absolute havoc.}
{He wants to join the fray and turn it into a Martyr operation right now.}

[Picture cuts to Abu Laban’s office. Picture of Mohammed Sifaoui in lower right corner. He’s speaking to DR’s TV-Avisen by phone from Paris]
[Text in yellow box says: “Mohammed Sifaoui
TV-Journalist, Paris]

Mohammed Sifaoui:
{He says, quoting:}
{”He wants to blow everything up. He wants to commit a Martyr assassination.”}
{To be exact: a Martyr-operation. I.e. a suicide operation.}

[Picture changes to Abu Laban preaching in a mosque]"

(See also: "Danish Imam Ahmed Akkari: Kill Naser Khader" (Agora, 2006/03/23))

"Mohammed Taheri-Azar's letter to police" (The Herald Sun, 2006/03/24)
The text of the UNC-Chapel Hill car-attack jihadi’s suicide letter, found in his apartment after the attack, via LGF:

"In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate.

To whom it may concern:

I am writing this letter to inform you of my reasons for premeditating and attempting to murder citizens and residents of the United States of America on Friday, March 3, 2006 in the city of Chapel Hill, North Carolina by running them over with my automobile and stabbing them with a knife if the opportunities are presented to me by Allah.

I did intend to use a handgun to murder the citizens and residents of Chapel Hill, North Carolina but the process of receiving a permit for a handgun in this city is highly restricted and out of my reach at the present, most likely due to my foreign nationality.

I am a servant of Allah. ...

Due to the killing of believing men and women under the direction of the United States government, I have decided to take advantage of my presence on United States soil on Friday, March 3, 2006 to take the lives of as many Americans and American sympathizers as I can in order to punish the United States for their immoral actions around the world.

In the Qur'an, Allah states that the believing men and women have permission to murder anyone responsible for the killing of other believing men and women. I know that the Qur'an is a legitimate and authoritative holy scripture since it is completely validated by modern science and also mathematically encoded with the number 19 beyond human ability.

Sincerely yours,
Mohammed Reza Taheri-Azar"

(See also: "Sudden Jihad Syndrome" (Daniel Pipes, Human Events Online, 2006/03/14))

"The Jewish threat" (Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/03/24)
"Last week the London Review of Books published a long article under the heading "The Israel Lobby." The article was authored by two prominent American international relations and political science professors: Stephen Walt, the academic dean at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and John Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago. ...
The article begins with a general accusation that since the 1967 Six Day War, US Middle East policy has been driven not by US national interests, but by Israel's national interests. ...
Israel itself is described by Mearsheimer and Walt as a colonialist, criminal state that has conducted a "long campaign to kill or marginalize a generation of Palestinian leaders," and Palestinian children, and to methodically and criminally abuse the political, legal and human rights of the Palestinians. Their Israel was born in the sin of "ethnic cleansing," a sin that has forced the Palestinians to turn to terror in order to protect themselves. Israel's nuclear arsenal forced Iran to seek nuclear weapons and "the Lobby" is now insisting that the US take military action against Iran in order to protect Israel. Although they acknowledge that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," they deny that Israel is in any danger from Iran. By supporting Israel, the racist state that kills and oppresses Arab Israelis and Palestinians and inflames the Arab and Islamic worlds in general, the US has become "complicit in [Israel's] crimes." ...
David Duke, the former head of the Ku Klux Klan, called the report "excellent," and said, 'It is quite satisfying to see a body in a premier American university essentially come out and validate every major point I have been making since even before the war even started.'"

More on "The Israel Lobby":
The article: "The Israel Lobby" (John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, The London Review of Books, 2006/03/23)
The study [PDF]: "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" (Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, Harvard University, March 2006)

"The graves of academe" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2006/03/21)
"Stephen Walt's War with Israel" (Richard Baehr and Ed Lasky, The American Thinker, 2006/03/20)
"David Duke Claims to Be Vindicated By a Harvard Dean" (Eli Lake, New York Sun, 2006/03/20)

"Sharia Calling" (Nina Shea, National Review, 2006/03/24)
Abdul Rahman III: "Burns’s response was very familiar to those of us who had been pressing for an unambiguous assertion of individual freedoms and rights over the past three years during the drafting of Afghanistan’s and Iraq’s constitution. It was this same exclusive focus on process over values — the same impatient shrug of the shoulders-that was given by key officials in the administration whenever the drafts were criticized for containing provisions that ushered in sharia or otherwise negated or clouded individual rights. (For example, the so-called “repugnancy clause,” found in both the Afghanistan and Iraq constitutions, which asserts that no law can contradict Islam.) At that time, our criticism found no echo. In fact, it was drowned out with near universal acclaim from law professors involved in the drafting and from the media. The New York Times editorial page on January 6, 2004, called the new Afghanistan constitution “one of the most enlightened constitutions in the Islamic world” and applauded it on the basis that it “balances the goal of an Islamic state with the promise to abide by the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” ...
[Chuck] Colson bluntly expressed what many of the president’s religious base was thinking:

I have supported the Bush administration’s foreign policy because I came to believe that the best way to stop Islamo-fascism was by promoting democracy. But if we can’t guarantee fundamental religious freedoms in the countries where we establish democratic reforms, then the whole credibility of our foreign policy is thrown into serious question. I hope the president and the administration can recognize what a devastating setback Rahman’s execution would be to the cause of democracy and freedom. ...

But this is about more than Mr. Rahman. This will be a persistent, recurring problem under Afghanistan’s sharia apostasy and blasphemy laws."

"Masking terror" (Diana West, The Washington Times, 2006/03/24)
Abdul Rahman II: "Q: What's worse than Afghanistan's barbaric prosecution of Abdul Rahman for the Islamic crime of converting to Christianity? A: The muffled US.. reaction.
The president is "troubled, deeply troubled," a response that doesn't exactly ring the red phone, and the State Department really isn't troubled, that is, deeply or otherwise. On the contrary, responding to this Afghan assault on freedom of conscience (indirectly enabled by the best intentions of the U.S. military), Foggy Bottom actually tried to look on the bright side: "Previously, under the Taliban, anybody considered an apostate was subject to torture and death," spokesman Sean McCormack said. "Right now," he continued, "you have a legal proceeding that's underway in Afghanistan." Which means, I guess, thanks to Uncle Sam, nobody has to submit to "torture and death" anymore without first getting his day in court. ...
Similar provisions entrenching Shariah are included in both the Iraqi and the Palestinian Authority constitutions, two other U.S.-assisted exercises in nation-building-or, rather, Islamic-nation-building. Maybe now, thanks to Abdul Rahman, more Americans will see that the seeds of Islamic theocracy are planted when a nation's founding document is rooted in sharia, thus outlawing what we think of as "universal" human rights. ...
Sugar-coating Shariah and underplaying liberty doesn't win any wars. It just wins more Shariah and less liberty."

"Clerics insist on execution of convert" (Daniel Cooney, AP/The Washington Times, 2006/03/24)
Abdul Rahman I: "KABUL, Afghanistan -- Senior Muslim clerics demanded yesterday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity be executed, warning that if the government caves in to Western pressure and frees him, they will incite people to "pull him into pieces." ...
"Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die," said cleric Abdul Raoulf, who is considered a moderate and was jailed three times for opposing the Taliban before the hard-line regime was ousted in 2001. ...
"Cut off his head," he exclaimed, sitting in a courtyard outside Herati Mosque. "We will call on the people to pull him into pieces so there's nothing left." ...
He said the only way for Mr. Rahman to survive would be for him to go into exile.
But Said Mirhossain Nasri, the top cleric at Hossainia Mosque, one of the largest Shi'ite places of worship in Kabul, said Mr. Rahman must not be allowed to leave the country.
"If he is allowed to live in the West, then others will claim to be Christian so they can too," he said. 'We must set an example. ... He must be hanged.'"

Added today:
"More Christians Arrested In Wake Of 'Apostasy'" (Compass Direct, 2006/03/22)
"The graves of academe" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2006/03/21)
"Stephen Walt's War with Israel" (Richard Baehr and Ed Lasky, The American Thinker, 2006/03/20)

Thursday, March 23, 2006

News and commentary:

"Did Russian Ambassador Give Saddam the U.S. War Plan?" (ABC News, 2006/03/23)
"Following are the ABC News Investigative Unit's summaries of five documents from Saddam Hussein's government, which the U.S. government has released.":
"A newly released prewar Iraqi document indicates that an official representative of Saddam Hussein's government met with Osama bin Laden in Sudan on February 19, 1995, after receiving approval from Saddam Hussein. Bin Laden asked that Iraq broadcast the lectures of Suleiman al Ouda, a radical Saudi preacher, and suggested "carrying out joint operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia. According to the document, Saddam's presidency was informed of the details of the meeting on March 4, 1995, and Saddam agreed to dedicate a program for them on the radio. The document states that further "development of the relationship and cooperation between the two parties to be left according to what's open [in the future] based on dialogue and agreement on other ways of cooperation." The Sudanese were informed about the agreement to dedicate the program on the radio.
The report then states that "Saudi opposition figure" bin Laden had to leave Sudan in July 1996 after it was accused of harboring terrorists. It says information indicated he was in Afghanistan. "The relationship with him is still through the Sudanese. We're currently working on activating this relationship through a new channel in light of his current location," it states."

"Ahmed Akkari, a Danish member of the European Committee for Honouring of the Prophet..."
(Hasan Jamali, AP, 2006/03/22)
"Ahmed Akkari, a Danish member of the European Committee for Honouring of the Prophet, center, looks on during the International Conference for Supporting the Prophet being held in Manama, Bahrain, on Wednesday, March 22, 2006. The gathering of Muslim scholars from the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East discussed Western attitudes toward Islam and a Danish cartoon that provoked violent protests worldwide. Akkari is the spokesman for a Muslim committee from Denmark that took up the cartoon case."

"Danish Imam Ahmed Akkari: Kill Naser Khader" (Agora, 2006/03/23)
The Danish cartoon affair IV. Even more updates: "Naser Khader is considering resigning his mandate in the Danish parliament Folketinget. JP has published a report by Ritzau’s bureau quoting a statement made to TV2’s news programme by Naser Khader saying that he is considering leaving Danish politics following the death threat made by Ahmed Akkari. It says that the last few months have put him under intense pressure and he has had to accept protection by the Police Intelligence Service. According to TV2, Naser Khader has experienced very unpleasant episodes, i.a. confrontations with the Moslem extremist of Hizb-ut-Tahrir and other radical organisations. He has also received death threats by mail.
Therefore he has chosen to take a political time-out before announcing his decision."

"Danish Imam Ahmed Akkari: Kill Naser Khader" (Agora, 2006/03/23)
The Danish cartoon affair III. More updates on Agora: "This interview came up. From Denmark’s Radio. Link.

Interviewer: Akkari, I would like to begin this with reading to you a quote: “If he becomes the Minister of Foreigners or Integration, why don’t we send out two guys to blow up him and his ministry?” who spoke those words?
Akkari: I don’t recall saying anything either in jest or in earnest. If it happened, it is regrettable and a very crude jest, which I immediately and at once want to express my regrets for and distance myself from.
Interviewer: What is it you find jesting about those words?
Akkari: Perhaps there isn’t anything funny about them. It’s more sarcastic and out of proportions in a light-hearted context… And it’s very unfortunate that something like that is taken seriously because there’s no intent there, at all."

"'...to blow up him and his ministry?"
(France 2/Agora, 2006/03/23)
Screenshot from the documentary: "In a central part of the documentary, Imam Ahmed Akkari indirectly threatens the leader of the Democratic Moslems, Naser Khader, who he suggest they murder if he becomes a minister. 'If he becomes the Minister of Foreigners or Integration, why don’t we send out two guys to blow up him and his ministry?'"

"Imams Busted by Hidden Camera" (Jyllands-Posten/Agora, 2006/03/23)
The Danish cartoon affair II. Translation of a Danish article, with lots of updates in the original post:

"French TV tonight reveals the truth about the Danish Imams. According to France 2, Imam Ahmed Akkari mentions the possibility of blowing up Naser Khader of the Social Liberals, while Sheikh Raed Hlayhel want to create an atmosphere of hate against Jyllands-Posten. Major protests from Danish politicians.

/Paris/

The aggressive defense by the Danish Imams in the row surrounding Jyllands-Posten is accompanied by an aggressive campaign against the Democratic Moslems organisation and against critics in the press, especially Jyllands-Posten.

That will be revealed tonight in a documentary from Denmark on the French TV-Station France 2, whose journalists have used hidden cameras to get a look at the Imams’ real doings.

Threat with a smile
In a central part of the documentary, Imam Ahmed Akkari indirectly threatens the leader of the Democratic Moslems, Naser Khader, who he suggest they murder if he becomes a minister.

“If he becomes the Minister of Foreigners or Integration, why don’t we send out two guys to blow up him and his ministry?” says the spokesman for the delegation of Moslems who travelled the Middle East.

The remark was delivered with a smile in Arabic, while the Arab journalist behind the programme, Mohamed Sifaoui, was sitting next to him in the car’s back seat. But Akkari didn’t know he was being recorded. Sifaoui didn’t make clear whether the statement should be considered as being ironic or a provocation."

(See also: '"A Prize Sandnigger" (Orla Borg, Jyllands-Posten/Agora, 2006/02/25) and "Danish Muslims Rebel Against Imams" (Hjörtur Gudmundsson, The Brussels Journal, 2006/02/05))

"Säpo reveals Swedish embassy threats" (The Local, 2006/03/23)
The Danish cartoon affair I: "Sweden's security police, Säpo, has revealed that serious threats were directed at Swedish embassies abroad after the far right group Sweden Democrats published one of the pictures of the prophet Muhammad on its web site.
According to a letter from Säpo, signed by the organisation's boss Klas Bergenstrand, sent to the Chancellor of Justice, a competition run on the Sweden Democrats' site to draw another Muhammad picture was widely reported in the mainstream Middle East media.
The first response to the drawing came in January via the embassy of a Muslim country. On January 31st Sweden's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a meeting with ambassadors from Muslim countries, and just a few days later the Sweden Democrats published the drawing on its web site, reported Göteborgs-Posten.
The reaction was such that Säpo considered there to be a risk that Swedish embassies, agency representatives and other institutions could be exposed to serious criminal attacks. In its letter to the Chancellor of Justice, the security police also stated that Swedes abroad could be in danger.
A Sweden Democrats board member, Adam Marttinen, was in contact with Säpo in February, as was Levonline, the company which hosted the Sweden Democrats' web site.
According to Säpo, the threat against Sweden also included Levonline. In his letter to the Chancellor of Justice, Klas Bergenstrand emphasised that Säpo simply informed the hosting company of its views of the situation. How Levonline responded was up to them.
The company closed the web site, and the Chancellor of Justice is now investigating the legality of that decision." (See also: "Freivalds quits" (The Local, 2006/03/21) and "Sweden shuts website over cartoon" (BBC News, 2006/02/10))

"Clerics want Christian convert's death" (AP/The Jerusalem Post, 2006/03/23)
[emphasis added]: "Senior Muslim clerics said Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity should be killed regardless of whether a court decides to free him. ...
Diplomats say the Afghan government is searching for a way to drop the case, and on Wednesday authorities said Rahman is suspected of being mentally ill and would undergo psychological examinations to see whether he is fit to stand trial.
But four senior clerics interviewed by The Associated Press in their mosques in Kabul said Rahman deserved to be killed for his conversion.
"He is not crazy. He went in front of the media and confessed to being a Christian," said Hamidullah, chief cleric at Haji Yacob Mosque.
"The government is scared of the international community. But the people will kill him if he is freed."
"He is not mad. The government is playing games. The people will not be fooled," said Abdul Raoulf, cleric at Herati Mosque. "This is humiliating for Islam. ... Cut off his head."
Raoulf is considered a moderate cleric in Afghanistan. He was jailed three times for criticizing the Taliban's policies before the hard-line regime was ousted by US-led forces in 2001."

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

News and commentary:

"Afghan supreme court judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada..."
(AP, 2006/03/20)
"Afghan supreme court judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada holds a Bible in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday March 20, 2006 that he says belongs to Abdul Rahman, an Afghan man who converted from Islam to Christianity. Rahman is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death after being charged with converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime under this country's Islamic laws."

"More Christians Arrested In Wake Of 'Apostasy'" (Compass Direct, 2006/03/22)
Abdul Rahman IV: "An avalanche of media coverage of an Afghan man facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity has apparently sparked the arrest and deepening harassment of other Afghan Christians in the ultra-conservative Muslim country.
Authorities arrested Abdul Rahman, 41, last month for apostasy, a capital offense under strict Islamic laws still in place in Afghanistan, which four years ago was wrested from the Taliban regime’s hard-line Islamist control.
During the past few days, Compass has confirmed the arrest of two other Afghan Christians elsewhere in the country. Because of the sensitive situation, local sources requested that the location of the jailed converts be withheld.
This past weekend, one young Afghan convert to Christianity was beaten severely outside his home by a group of six men, who finally knocked him unconscious with a hard blow to his temple. He woke up in the hospital two hours later but was discharged before morning.
“Our brother remains steadfast, despite the ostracism and beatings,” one of his friends said.
Several other Afghan Christians have been subjected to police raids on their homes and places of work in the past month, as well as to telephone threats." (Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch.)

"Who Will Save Abdul Rahman?" (Michelle Malkin, Town Hall, 2006/03/22)
Abdul Rahman III: "Despite the defeat of the totalitarian Taliban and the existence of a U.S.-backed "moderate" democratic government, it is a capital crime for Afghanis to openly embrace any religion other than Islam. Sharia law, embedded in the Afghan constitution, overrides its human rights provisions.
Rahman's family has denounced him as mentally ill. Afghan officials are thirsting for his blood. "We will cut him into little pieces," jail employee Hosnia Wafayosofi told the Chicago Tribune, as she "made a cutting motion with her hands."
The Tribune reported that prosecutor Abdul Wasi demanded Rahman's repentance and called him a traitor: "He is known as a microbe in society, and he should be cut off and removed from the rest of Muslim society and should be killed." ...
This is a watershed moment in the post-Sept. 11 world. The Taliban are out of power. And yet today, an innocent man sits in the jail of a "moderate" Muslim nation praying for his life because he owned a Bible and refuses to renounce his Christian faith. ...
Perhaps Yale University, proud sponsor of former Taliban official Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, can offer Rahman a scholarship. Where's the Catholic Church, so quick to offer sanctuary to every last illegal alien streaming across the borders? And how about Hollywood, so quick to take up the cause of every last Death Row inmate?
Hello, anyone, hello?"

"Afghan Christian convert: 'I am not an apostate'" (Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, 2006/03/22)
Abdul Rahman II: "Watch a video of Abdul Rahman at the Afghan Times (thanks to Andrew Bostom).

He was questioned, "Do you confess that you have apostacized from Islam?"
He responded, "No, I am not an apostate, I believe in God."
Question: "Do you believe in the Koran?"
Response: "I believe in the Injil (New Testament) [Gospel, actually, although this word is also used by Arabic-speaking Christians for the whole New Testament -- RS] and love Jesus Christ."

Of course, this makes him an apostate by the lights of the Afghan judges. But I applaud his courageous stand and unwillingness to kowtow even in the face of death. If only we had some Western leaders with that much starch."

"To Kill an "Apostate" (or Homosexual)" (Andrew G. Bostom, FrontPageMagazine, 2006/03/22)
Abdul Rahman I: "This past week has provided two glaring examples of the pitfalls of allowing that “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam,” as per the new constitutions of the vox populi elected governments in Afghanistan and Iraq. With major input from the U.S. State Department, both constitutions installed Islam as the official state religion and made ancient Islamic religious law, Shari’a, a primary guiding source for these legal systems. ...
With grim predictability, an Afghan Muslim convert from Islam to Christianity, Abdul Rahman, was arrested, charged with “apostasizing” from Islam, and according to the March 19, 2006 statement of the presiding judge, Ansarullah Mawlavezada, faces the death penalty. ...
According to a March 16, 2006 report from a London-based gay rights group, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the supreme religious authority for Shi'ite Muslims in Iraq and an icon for Shi’a worldwide, has apparently decreed that gays and lesbians should be put to death “in the worst manner possible”. ...
Al-Sistani has been lionized as a moderate healing force in Iraq, worthy of consideration for a Nobel Peace Prize (such informal “nominations” coming from across the political spectrum, i.e., both the New York Times’ Tom Friedman, and National Review’s Richard Lowry). His frank “ruling” which sanctions the brutal murder of homosexuals, in conjunction with the good Ayatollah’s earlier pronouncements on the debasing uncleanliness of non-Muslims (i.e., his adherence to the orthodox Shi’ite doctrine of najis) might dampen his Nobel prospects — although one can’t be too sure in our moribund contemporary world." (See also: "Afghan Man Faces Death for Allegedly Converting to Christianity" (AP/FOX News, 2006/03/19) and "Iraq: Ayatollah Sistani says death to gays" (petertatchell.net, 2006/03/15))

"'Terrorists had what they needed to bomb Britain'" (Nicola Woolcock, The Times, 2006/03/22)
"Seven Islamic terrorists plotted to blow up a significant British target causing maximum loss of life with remotely detonated explosives, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.
Six trained at terrorist camps in Pakistan, two were said to have worked for al-Qaeda’s third-in-command and one said that Britain “needed to be hit because of its support for the US”. Their alleged plan to attack a nightclub, train or pub was averted at the last minute — after they had acquired all the bomb ingredients but before they could decide which site to hit. The men, mostly British-born, are standing trial after being held at Belmarsh prison for up to two years.
The defendants, the court was told, obtained ammonium nitrate fertiliser, aluminium powder and detonators to set off the device remotely. The plot, which involved accomplices in Canada, the US and Pakistan, was foiled after months of surveillance by MI5, anti-terrorism and Special Branch officers.
Relatives and friends of the men packed into court for the start of a trial scheduled to last at least six months. It took three days to choose a panel that could sit that long, from more than 120 potential jurors.
Salahuddin Amin, 31, of Luton; Shujah Mahmood, 18, and his brother, Omar Khyam, 24, Jawad Akbar, 22, and Waheed Mahmoud, 34, all of Crawley; West Sussex; Anthony Garcia, 27, of Ilford, East London; and Nabeel Hussain, 20, from Horley, Surrey, all deny conspiring to cause an explosion likely to endanger life, between October 2003 and March 2004."

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

News and commentary:

"London Mayor Ken Livingstone..."
(Max Nash, AFP, 2006/03/21)
"London Mayor Ken Livingstone leaves a disciplinary hearing in December 2005."

"London's Tourette attraction" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2006/03/21)
Livingstone II: "At a press conference on the Stratford city redevelopment project in London’s East End, which has been having a few problems, he said of a pair of Jewish property developers involved in the project, David and Simon Reuben:

If they’re not happy here perhaps they could go back to Iran and try it under the Ayatollahs

a remark which he repeated – with slight variations in the wording between the two comments -- when asked to explain himself. As it happens, the Reuben brothers were born in Bombay to Iraqi parents of Jewish descent and have lived in the UK for almost four decades. Had they actually been Iranian, the remark would have been the equivalent to saying to a pair of black property developers: ‘Go back where you came from’ – the defining verbal tic of a racist. Since they are not Iranian, the remark is the equivalent of saying to a pair of Jamaican property developers: ‘Go back to Africa’ – a possibly even more offensive variant on this tic. In any event, suggesting that two Jews should either shut up or push off to a regime which regards them as targets for genocide is simply an expression of a quite visceral prejudice."

"London mayor outrages Jewish leaders" (George Conger, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/03/21)
Livingstone I: "London Mayor Ken Livingstone's charge that two Jewish property developers should go back to where they came from has prompted cries of anti-Semitism from members of the London Assembly and outrage from Jewish leaders.
Currently fighting a four-week suspension handed down by a Civil Service panel for likening a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard, Livingstone's latest comments came during a press conference Tuesday discussing the 4 billion "Olympic City" building project in London's East End.
He blamed developers David and Simon Reuben for having created a "poisonous state of relations" within the syndicate building the project, and stated that if the Reubens were "not happy here, perhaps they could go back to Iran and try it under the ayatollahs."
Asked by reporters to clarify his remark, he affirmed his sentiments, saying the Reuben brothers, who were born in Bombay to Iraqi Jewish parents and have been British residents for the past 40 years, should "try their luck with the ayatollahs." ...
"The mayor is anti-Semitic and we know that in London," Brian Coleman, assembly member for Barnet and Camden (Conservative), told The Jerusalem Post.
"This is the most extreme remark he has made," Coleman said, adding that the mayor's remarks "add fuel to the fire" and may land him before the Civil Service panel again."

Doudou Diene
(Koji Sasahara, AP, 2005/07/11)
"Doudou Diene, an independent investigator for the United Nations Commsion on Human Rights, speaks at a press conference in Tokyo Monday, July 11, 2005."

"UN Special Rapporteur Doudou Diéne calls Danes Racists, Xenophobes" (Agora, 2006/03/21)
The Danish cartoon affair II. Excerpts from and reactions on the scandalous report by UN's Human Rights Council. It's apparent that Doudou Diéne simply doesn't understand the concept of free speech.

“Their [the Danish government's] uncompromising defense of a Freedom of Speech without limits or restrictions is not in accordance with the international rules...”

This is disingenuous. The Danish government has of course never defended a Freedom of Speech “without limits or restrictions.” In fact, I can't think of anyone who has done so regarding the Muhammed cartoons [emphasis added]: "Saturday, March 18th Jyllands-Posten broke the story about an attack by UN special rapporteur Doudou Diéne on Denmark. The report has yet to be released to the public in full, but it was leaked by the UN to press sources in Denmark. ...
Politiken’s excerpts:

“Finally, the Danish government’s first reaction - rejecting to take an official position on the nature and publication of the cartoons while referring to Freedom of Speech as well as rejecting to meet with the ambassadors from the Moslem countries - is symptomatic not only for the political trivialisation of Islamophobia but also, due to its consequences, to the central role those politically responsible have for the national extent and the international consequences in the shape of demonstrations and expressions of Islamophobia. ...

The editor-in-chief of the newspaper on Monday, January 30th submitted his “apology” not for the publication of the caricatures, which he still considered “sober”, but for having “offended” the Moslems. But the publication that followed by several European newspapers, in spite of the strength of the feelings these cartoons have aroused in the Arab world, exceeds the legitimate defense of Freedom of Speech and seems to confirm Samuel Huntington’s thesis of a clash of civilisations.” ...

Jyllands-Posten’s Excerpts (not available online):

“Their uncompromising defense of a Freedom of Speech without limits or restrictions is not in accordance with the international rules which are based on a necessary balance between Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion, especially to combat calls for racial and religious hatred, and which all the member countries of UN have decided are the basic rules for Human Rights. This attitude shows an alarming lack of sensitivity and understanding of the religious conviction and deep emotions of the groups of society in question. Thus the newspapers strengthen the connection between Islam and Terrorism which arose after September 11th and which is the most important reason for Islamophobia being on the rise in the world at large and in their own countries.”

(UPDATE 2006/03/22: See also translated excerpts of the report: "Translation of Doudou Diéne’s report" (Agora, 2006/03/21). Also: "UN: Denmark should have played the dhimmi and thrown free speech overboard" (Robert Spencer, Dhimmi Watch, 2006/03/20))

"Sweden's Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds..."
(Claudio Bresciani, AP, 2006/03/21)
"Sweden's Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds, left, attends a news conference with the Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson, right, in Stockholm, Tuesday, March 21, 2006. Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds resigned Tuesday after she was accused of lying to the media about the shutting down of a far-right Web site that solicited cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad."

"Freivalds quits" (The Local, 2006/03/21)
The Danish cartoon affair I. It seems my initial suspicion that Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds was personally involved in the scandalous affair was not far from the mark: "Personally, I think Foreign Minister Leila Freivalds sort of panicked after the news of the cartoon had been topping Al-Manar's news, reaching millions of viewers. ... So basically it seems that the government pressured the shutdown of a website over a lawabiding depiction of Muhammed in the face of external threats.":
"Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds has resigned, said Prime Minister Göran Persson at a press conference at Rosenbad on Tuesday morning.
Vice prime minister Bosse Ringholm has replaced her as temporary foreign minister, said Persson.
"I have today received Laila Freivalds' letter of resignation and I have accepted it," said Göran Persson.
In recent days her position became untenable as it emerged that that she knew that a foreign ministry official contacted the internet hosting company which later closed the web site of the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraternas).
Speaking to journalists at the time, Freivalds had denied prior knowledge of this. However, on Monday it became clear that she had been consulted on the matter.
Opposition leaders called for her resignation, saying that she had lost the confidence of the people. They were joined by the government's ally, the Green Party.
Laila Freivalds was at the press conference and explained her decision:
"I feel that the current situation has become impossible for me. It is damaging to the government, to the party and to the foreign ministry, and therefore I have chosen to resign," she said." (See also: "Freivalds slammed for web site 'lie'" (The Local, 2006/03/20) and "Sweden shuts website over cartoon" (BBC News, 2006/02/10))

"The graves of academe" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2006/03/21)
"The US has its own problems with the deadly virus of Jew-hatred, particularly on campus. A particularly ripe example of the ‘global Zionist conspiracy’ libel has now surfaced in a 83-page screed by two professors -- Stephen Walt, the academic dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, no less, and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago -- and published across 14 pages in the London Review of Books (of course). ...
You have to laugh, though, when the authors try to wrap themselves in the mantle of heroic fighters against the attempt by the ‘Israel lobby’ to stifle them:

Anyone who criticizes Israeli actions or says that pro-Israel groups have significant influence over U.S. Middle East policy...stands a good chance of getting labeled an antisemite.

Actually, they stand instead an excellent chance of being published in the London Review of Books, one of the most prestigious publications of the British and English-speaking intelligentsia. Anyone who offers the alternative view doesn’t have a cat in hell’s chance of writing for it at all -- and not a much brighter prospect of getting it published anywhere else, either. But open the Guardian or Independent any day of the week, and these 'stifled' claims of the Israel /Jewish/neocon global conspiracy/world evil pour from their pages in an unstoppable torrent of bile. ...
It is but the latest example of a poisonous pathology which has gripped the intelligentsia of the west, centred around a visceral loathing of America, Israel, the neocons and the Jews. Indeed, neo-conservatism seems to have induced a kind of madness, a total eclipse of reason among its political opponents; it is not surprising, therefore, that those within the intelligentsia who have developed such an obsessive loathing of the neo-cons have ended up in bed with white supremacists and clerical fascists." (See also: "The Israel Lobby" (John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, The London Review of Books, 2006/03/23). Also "Stephen Walt's War with Israel" (Richard Baehr and Ed Lasky, The American Thinker, 2006/03/20) and "David Duke Claims to Be Vindicated By a Harvard Dean" (Eli Lake, New York Sun, 2006/03/20))

"Defiant Hamas packs Cabinet with hardliners" (Stephen Farrell, The Times, 2006/03/21)
"Hamas, the militant Palestinian group, has named a government dominated by its own leadership, defying international pressure and confounding hopes that it would moderate its extremist stance.
After other Palestinian factions refused to join a coalition, the victorious Islamist group nominated a Cabinet whose senior members have all been jailed, deported and escaped Israeli assassination. Chief among Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniya’s 24 ministers are Dr Mahmoud al-Zahar, a hardliner, as Foreign Minister, and Said Siyam as Interior Minister. Most others are Hamas, with some pro-Islamist independents and technocrats, one woman and one Christian.
President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to approve them but may try to delay the decision until after the Israeli general election on March 28. However, Shaul Mofaz, Israel’s Defence Minister, said that if President Abbas accepted the line-up he would 'officially turn the Palestinian Authority into a terror entity.'"

Monday, March 20, 2006

News and commentary:

"Stephen Walt's War with Israel" (Richard Baehr and Ed Lasky, The American Thinker, 2006/03/20)
"Harvard Professor Stephen Walt and University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer have just published a lengthy diatribe against what they call the “Israel lobby.” Their article appeared in the London Review of Books, and a longer version has been released as a Harvard Kennedy School working paper. The two professors are employed by prestigious universities. But their new paper, a collection of innuendo, half truths, and outright misrepresentations, fails the test of academic integrity and honest research.
It is a work without a trace of balance, in essence no more than an angry polemic disguised as academic research. “The Israel Lobby” is a long, bitter, op-ed piece given a patina of respectability because of where the authors are employed. ...
Their anger with Israel and the pro-Israel lobby lead them to indulge in some of the kinds of malicious attacks and charges that are routinely found on neo-Nazi websites where the “all-powerful Jews” are blamed for everything that is wrong with the world. They avoid telltale phrases, but the underlying arguments betray the same logic. For instance, the authors succumb to claiming that “AIPAC, a de facto agent for a foreign government, has a stranglehold on Congress.” The Congress, in other words, is Israeli-controlled territory. The neo-Nazis have coined a slogan for this charge: they call Congress part of the Zionist Occupation Government, or ZOG. Evidence of the authors’ political bedfellows is the ringing endorsement of the Walt/Mearsheimer document by Ku Klux Klansman David Duke who called it “vindication.” Harvard and University of Chicago professors are now swimming, or at least sticking their toes, in that fetid swampland." (See also the article: "The Israel Lobby" (John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, The London Review of Books, 2006/03/23). Also: "David Duke Claims to Be Vindicated By a Harvard Dean" (Eli Lake, New York Sun, 2006/03/20))

"Freivalds slammed for web site 'lie'" (The Local, 2006/03/20)
The Danish cartoon affair II: "[Swedish] Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds should resign for misleading journalists, say opposition parties. They say she did misled the public over how much she knew about her department's contact with an internet hosting company that closed a website belonging to the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna).
"We cannot have a foreign minister that does not tell the truth," said Christian Democrat leader Göran Hägglund.
The forced closure of the Sweden Democrats' site on February 9th, after pictures of the prophet Muhammad had been published on it, was strongly criticised at the time. A foreign ministry official contacted the hosting company, Levonline, as did Sweden's security police, Säpo.
Amid allegations of state censorship, prime minister Göran Persson publicly slammed the civil servant behind the move.
"However strong his personal reasons may be, with a political position as adviser in the foreign ministry he should refrain from this sort of activity," said Persson to TT.
Freivalds defended the foreign ministry's contact with Levonline and said that it had simply been to inform the company of the consequences of publishing the pictures.
At the same time, Freivalds denied that she had known of the contact in advance.
That claim has now been contradicted in a statement sent by Carl Henrik Ehrenkrona, the head of the foreign ministry's legal department, to the Chancellor of Justice, who is investigating whether the official was guilty of misconduct.
"On February 8th an official in the department, after consultation with the foreign minister, contacted the company which hosted the web site," wrote Ehrenkrona, according to the publication Riksdag & Departement." (See also: "Sweden shuts website over cartoon" (BBC News, 2006/02/10))

"The third anniversary...sacrifice, fear and hope" (Mohammed, Iraq the Model, 2006/03/20)
"It has been three years since 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' began and for three years we debated whether the decision was right or wrong and until this moment we have different feelings and opinions about where this operation brought us and where its aftermaths are going to lead us.":
"Before the liberation we were suffering and we had no hope, now we are also suffering but we have hope and I see this hope even in the words of those that are cynical about the outcome of the political process; who say they hope things will be better in four years or eight years…
When Saddam was here we didn't have any hope and we could expect nothing good from a dead regime that cared only about its absolute existence.
Yes. We are facing enormous and dangerous challenges and this is not unexpected because the old will not easily step down and accept the loss; the old will fight back fiercely and the old here is not only Saddam and the Ba'ath, the old can be found among many of our current leaders and the mentality they carry that belong to the same generation that bred Saddam but I believe they will melt away as well because no one can go against the direction of time and the clock cannot be forced backwards.
The green bud looks weak and is buried in the dirt and surrounded by a tough shell but it will break through this covering, pierce the dirt and stand on its feet to announce a new era.
We will not be defeated and orphans of the dark past will get what they deserve and our sacrifices and the sacrifices of those who stand with us shall not go in vain, our sacrifices will pave an easier road for those want to follow us when they decide it's time for them to change.
And yes…Iraq will be the model."

"Very good dhimmi! Publisher travels from London to Dubai to apologize for textbook offensive to Muslims" (Robert Spencer, Dhimmi Watch, 2006/03/20)
"What did the book contain that was so offensive? According to an earlier Khaleej Times article, nothing but the truth:

It has been accused that chapter 25 of the book running from page 599 to 614 contains a deluge of derogatory remarks against Islam and the Muslim world, for example, dubbing Middle East as one of the most dangerously explosive areas in the world and the Muslim conquest of India as the most bloodiest in the world history, to mention a few.

The sub chapters clubbed under the title 'North Africa and the Middle East' also elaborate on the religion and life-style of Israel with pictures. "Israel is one of a few democracies in North Africa and the Middle East today. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Morocco are all kingdoms; the country of Syria has sponsored terrorism by giving aid to radicals in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, known as the PLO," read excerpts from page 610 of the book, copies of which Khaleej Times possess.

"Publisher of ‘offensive’ textbook apologises," from the Khaleej Times, with thanks to all who sent this in:

DUBAI — Juma Al Salami, Assistant Under-Secretary of the Private Education Department affiliated to the Ministry of Education (MoE), met yesterday the regional manager of Pearson Education Company who came from the publisher's main office in London to deliver a written apology for offence caused to Arabs, Muslims and Islam by material included in a book called ‘The cultures of the world’."

"UN: Denmark should have played the dhimmi and thrown free speech overboard" (Robert Spencer, Dhimmi Watch, 2006/03/20)
The Danish cartoon affair I: "'UN: Denmark Acted Irresponsibly in Cartoon Crisis,' from Zaman.com, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, which prepared a report about the cartoon crisis, breaking out after the publication of insulting images of Prophet Muhammad, accused the Danish government of acting irresponsibly during the crisis period.
UN Higher Commissioner Louis [sic] Arbour’s special reporter Doudou Diene made harsh criticisms in his report about the Danish government and intellectuals along with the Danish daily Jyllands Posten, which published the blasphemous images first. The report stressed that “beliefs should not be humiliated under the veil of freedom of expression” as it dwelled on the importance of fighting against Islamophobia.

Why has the UN never issued the shadow of a hint of a peep about the many, many insults to Christianity that are published routinely in the West? The answer, of course, is because Christians don't murder innocent people over such things.

Diene remarked that xenophobia and taking sides before Islam reached an “alarming” level in Denmark with the publication of the insulting images admitting that, “When political leaders do not fulfill their responsibility about xenophobia and insult to religion, Europe has entered a path, which will confirm the thesis of “clash of civilizations”. The reporter emphasized that Jyllands Posten daily attacked Muslim believers by “showing Islam equal to terrorism”, which is an old prejudice and it acted under the veil of auto-censorship and freedom of expression. “The cartoons are absolutely insulting” said the reporter as he directed his criticisms towards the Anders Fogh Rasmussen government, which did not fulfill its responsibility. ...

The reporter addresses UN at the end of his report and called it to struggle against Islamaphobia and insulting religions. It also demanded repercussion for people who see Islam equal to terrorism.

"Repercussion for people who see Islam equal to terrorism"? So in the face of worldwide violence by Muslims, including not only murder but the burning of embassies and other destruction, the UN wishes to punish those who see in Islam something that incites to violence? "Say Islam is peaceful, or we'll kill you" -- it's an increasingly popular sentiment." (See also: "UN: Denmark Acted Irresponsibly in Cartoon Crisis" (Hasan Cucuk, zaman.com, 2006/03/20))

"Sistani and the Democracy Project" (Andrew McCarthy, National Review, 2006/03/20)
McCarthy on Sistani's fatwa for the killing of homosexuals: "From the skeptical side of the house, these pearls of Sistani’s wisdom, including this latest raving about the appropriate Islamic response to gay sex, cannot be blithely disregarded as, to borrow [Rich Lowry's] phrase, “beliefs that seem bizarre to a Westerner” — as if the problem here is our alien ear rather than Sistani’s seventh-century mind. Sistani is not merely saying homosexuality is condemnable, a view shared by many a religious tradition. He holds, authoritatively within his tradition, that those who engage in it should be brutally murdered. ...
It matters little that Sistani, in the fashion of lip service, is, as Rich observes, “consistent in condemning terrorism.” He is a central influence in the Islamic world. That is the world which is, undeniably, the font of virtually all modern terrorism. ...
What is dangerously naïve is to conflate two very different, and at times contradictory, goals of American foreign policy: opposition to terrorism and democratic reform in Muslim countries. Let’s say one is inclined to suspend disbelief and regard as an “ally” in the struggle against Islamist terrorism someone whose profoundly influential views actually bolster core conceits of the jihadists. That would still not make Sistani an ally in the related but distinct project to build a democracy recognizable as such. ...
To believe Sistani is an ally in that project is to hallucinate." (See also: "Iraq: Ayatollah Sistani says death to gays" (petertatchell.net, 2006/03/15))

"David Duke Claims to Be Vindicated By a Harvard Dean" (Eli Lake, New York Sun, 2006/03/20)
Glenn Reynolds: "Yale has its Taliban, Harvard had David Duke.":
"A paper recently co-authored by the academic dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government about the allegedly far-reaching influence of an "Israel lobby" is winning praise from white supremacist David Duke.
The Palestine Liberation Organization mission to Washington is distributing the paper, which also is being hailed by a senior member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization.
But the paper, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," by the Kennedy School's Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, is meeting with a more critical reception from many of those it names as part of the lobby. The 83-page "working paper" claims a network of journalists, think tanks, lobbyists, and largely Jewish officials have seized the foreign policy debate and manipulated America to invade Iraq. Included in this network, the authors say, are the editors of the New York Times, the scholars at the Brookings Institution, students at Columbia, "pro-Israel" senior officials in the executive branch, and "neoconservative gentiles" including columnist George Will.
Duke, a former Louisiana state legislator and one-time Ku Klux Klan leader, called the paper "a great step forward," but he said he was "surprised" that the Kennedy School would publish the report.
"I have read about the report and read one summary already, and I am surprised how excellent it is," he said in an e-mail." (See also the study [PDF]: "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" (Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, Harvard University, March 2006). Also: "Study Decrying “Israel Lobby” Marred by Numerous Errors" (Alex Safian, CAMERA, 2006/03/20): "In fact, even a cursory examination of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy reveals that it is riddled with errors of fact, logic and omission, has inaccurate citations, displays extremely poor judgement regarding sources, and, contrary to basic scholarly standards, ignores previous serious work on the subject. The bottom line: virtually every word and argument is, or ought to be, in 'serious dispute.'")

"Sayed and de Man at Yale" (John Fund, OpinionJournal, 2006/03/20)
"Three weeks after the New York Times revealed that former Taliban official Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi is attending classes at Yale, many at the university still have little to say about the controversy. Meredith Startz, president of the Yale Political Union, told me 'there's more discussion of military recruiting among people at Yale than about the Taliban student.'":
"In light of this history, and given Mr. Rahmatullah's service to one of the most brutal regimes since the Nazis, why should anyone -- especially at Yale -- give him the benefit of the doubt, especially when he has not publicly renounced the Taliban? Late last year he wrote an essay in which he said that the regime "honestly practiced what they had learned in their religious schools. They did what they had been taught to do. Whether what they had been taught was good or bad is another subject." When a Times of London reporter asked Mr. Rahmatullah this month about the Taliban's public executions in a Kabul soccer stadium, he quipped, "There were also executions happening in Texas."
Yale refuses to defend its position, but others are talking. Afghan exiles are appalled that Mr. Rahmatuallah was given a coveted place that could have gone to an Afghan man or woman who had been oppressed by the Taliban. Author Sebastian Junger reports from Afghanistan in the current Vanity Fair on the atrocities the Taliban are committing today. They include skinning a man alive and leaving him to die in the sun. Another man was forced to watch as his wife was gang-raped. Then his eyes were put out, so that the horrific crime would be the last image he would ever see. The relatives of U.S. soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan are likewise appalled. "It's not like the Taliban ever signed a peace treaty," Natalie Healy, the mother of a Navy SEAL killed by a Taliban rocket last year, told me. 'They're still killing Americans.'" (See also: "Jihadi Turns Bulldog" (John Fund, OpinionJournal, 2006/02/27))

See the archive for earlier news and commentary.

 

 

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"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)

› AOTW Archive



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

2006/12/04 - 2006/12/10
2006/11/27 - 2006/12/03
2006/11/20 - 2006/11/26
2006/11/13 - 2006/11/19
2006/11/06 - 2006/11/12
2006/10/30 - 2006/11/05

› From 2001/09/11 -



Monthly index

December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006

› From September 2001 -



Author index

› Ajami, Fouad - Johnson, Paul
› Kagan, Robert - Ye'or, Bat



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