Archived news and commentary: July 3 - 9, 2006

2006/07/03 - 2006/07/09
2006/06/26 - 2006/07/02
2006/06/19 - 2006/06/25
2006/06/12 - 2006/06/18
2006/06/05 - 2006/06/11
2006/05/29 - 2006/06/04

› From 2001/09/11 -

Sunday, July 9, 2006

News and commentary:

"Poll: Palestinians back Shalit abduction" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2006/07/09)
[emphasis added]: "An overwhelming majority of Palestinians support the abduction of IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit and the firing of rockets at Israel, according to a public opinion poll published on Sunday by the Jerusalem Media Communications Center.
The poll, which was conducted shortly after the kidnapping, also showed that 70 percent of Palestinians believe that Hamas should not release Shalit until Israel agrees to free Palestinian prisoners.
The poll covered 1,197 people over age 18 and was held on the basis of face-to-face interviews. More than half of those polled were from the Gaza Strip, where Shalit is being held.
A majority of the respondents, 77.2%, expressed support for the Hamas operation that included the abduction of Shalit, while only 21.7% said they opposed it.
Also, a majority of 66.8% supported the continuation of such attacks aimed at kidnapping Israeli soldiers, compared with 30.7% who rejected them, saying they were harmful to Palestinian national interests.
Significantly, this high support for the abduction comes in spite of the fact that the majority of respondents - 46.7% - expect the crisis to end with losses incurred by the Palestinian side. Moreover, over 60.4% voiced support for the launching of rockets at Israel, while only 36% found them harmful to Palestinian interests."

"Terror & Denial" (Daniel Johnson, Commentary, July/August 2006)
A review of "Londonistan" by Melanie Phillips:
"A highly successful columnist and broadcaster, and at one time the news editor of the left-wing Guardian, Phillips reveals a very different Britain from the heroic nation that defied Hitler. In fact, she compares the mood today with that of the 1930’s, the era of appeasement. As she shows, senior officials and their cultural cheerleaders still refuse to accept that they are confronted by a murderous, expansionist Islamic ideology, or that their own capital city has been transformed (in a term coined by the Western intelligence community during the 1990’s) into “Londonistan.” For Phillips, Britain is a nation in denial—about Islam, about terrorism, about Israel, and above all about itself. ...
When the world turns its eyes to London for the 2012 Olympic Games, what it will see right next to the Olympic Stadium is one of the largest mosques in the world, with a capacity of 70,000 worshippers. The funds for this massive project have come from Tablighi Jamaat, an avowedly Islamist global organization that the FBI says is used by al-Qaeda to recruit terrorists.
It is hard to imagine a more potent symbol of the transformation of London into Londonistan. And it is hard to imagine a greater prize for the Islamists than the infiltration of the land that gave birth to liberty. Anyone who cares about Britain, or indeed about the survival of Judeo-Christian civilization, should read Melanie Phillips’s brave and disturbing book."

"This is who the FBI is listening to" (Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, 2006/07/09)
"Meet Deborah Frisch, up until quite recently a psychology professor at the University of Arizona. Hugh Fitzgerald has alerted me to an LGF post about her.
According to the Who Knew? blog, Frish "in 2002 Frisch conducted a workshop to educate FBI officers in how to handle terrorist threats."
Now: who is the FBI listening to? Frish wrote this at her blog a year ago, on July 8, 2005, in the aftermath of the London jihad bombings:

we are all qaeda today ...

I am not happy that more widows, widowers and amputees were created yesterday. I don’t think the people riding the London subway yesterday morning deserved to be blown up because of the war crimes committed by George Bush and condoned by Tony Blair.

But I am glad that someone said phuque you to bush, blair and the other hombres who represent (sic) the G-8 nations.

And then, a few days ago, Frisch became completely unhinged at Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom, posting these comments at his site: ...

[...] as I said elsewhere, if I woke up tomorrow and learned that someone else had shot you and your “tyke” it wouldn’t slow me down one iota. You aren’t “human” to me. ...

I reiterate: If some nutcase kidnapped your child tomorrow and did to her what was done to your fellow Coloradan, Jon-Benet Ramsey, I wouldn’t give a damn. ...

And there are many more.
Frisch has resigned from her university post, although she claims her resignation has nothing to do with these remarks to Goldstein, and now apologizes to him.
I am glad this psychopath is no longer teaching at the University of Arizona, but I am more concerned about the FBI connection. Is the FBI so lost in PC Wonderland that it gets instruction from 9/11 conspiracy theorists who openly sympathize with Al-Qaeda?" (See also: "More from the tolerant left" (Jeff Goldstein, Protein Wisdom, 2006/07/06) and "When Wacademics Attack" (Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, 2006/07/08))

"No offence, imam, but we must call it Islamic terror" (Michael Portillo, The Sunday Times, 2006/07/09)
"Muslim complaints about being victimised are perversely directed. Muslims are victims of the bombers, not of the state or the police. It is the terrorists who make Muslims potential objects of suspicion and fear because the bombers murder in the name of Islam. Muslims have every right to be outraged, but their fury should focus on the men of violence. The police action in Forest Gate was cack-handed and the shooting of one of the “suspects” was indefensible. But given the profile of the terrorists, Muslims are bound to be more affected. By analogy, when police are looking for a rapist they interview males without anyone believing them to be institutional men haters.
There are those who in the interests of community relations denounce linking the word Islamic to “violence” or “extremism”. They object that we did not call the IRA “Catholic terrorists”, nor do we speak of “Christian extremism” or link Christian fundamentalism to violence.
There are good reasons for that. Although the IRA is rooted in the Catholic community, its aims are political and secular. Although there certainly are Christian extremists today, just now they are not murdering people in the name of purifying the world. By contrast, across the globe human beings are being slaughtered in large numbers by Muslims quoting from the Koran and vowing death to infidels, including other Muslim sects. Their objectives are political and religious.
So to try to condemn the expression “Islamic violence” is a dangerous attempt at censorship that would hamper our understanding of the threat we face. The term is certainly offensive to Muslims, but the offence is caused by the bombers, not by those who describe the process."

"Joking Muslim cleric mocks victims of London blasts" (The Sunday Times, 2006/07/09)
"A SPEECH by an extremist Muslim cleric praising the London bombers and mocking victims of suicide attacks has been broadcast on the internet to coincide with the anniversary of the July 7 attacks.
The audience laughs as Omar Brooks, a British Muslim convert who also uses the name Abu Izzadeen, makes fun of non-Muslims as “animals” and “cowards”.
Brooks — who has previously described the London bombers as “completely praiseworthy” — identifies with the views of Mohammad Sidique Khan, the ringleader of the London attacks.
He contrasts the supposed bravery of Khan’s suicide to the “kuffar” (non-Muslims) who are characterised as debauched binge-drinkers who vomit and urinate in the street.
The speech is peppered with jokes that bring laughter from his audience at the Small Heath youth and community centre in Birmingham, where it was filmed last Sunday.
At one point he announces dramatically that the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center “changed many people’s lives”. After a pause, he brings the house down by adding: 'Especially those inside.'"

"July 7 ringleader linked to Tel Aviv suicide bombers" (Jonathan Calvert and Claudio Franco, The Sunday Times, 2006/07/09)
"MOHAMMAD Sidique Khan, leader of the July 7 bombings, collaborated with two other British suicide bombers to recruit young Muslims for training camps in Afghanistan four years before he carried out his terror attacks in London.
Fresh evidence has been uncovered linking Khan to Omar Sharif and Hanif Asif, who killed three people and injured 50 in 2003 with a suicide attack on a bar in Tel Aviv.
According to a witness who has not yet spoken to the police, the men wanted to indoctrinate young Muslims and take them abroad for further training.
Kursheed Fiaz, a businessman who runs an information technology company in Manchester, had four or five meetings with Khan who was initially accompanied by Sharif and later by Asif.
The close link between the two groups of suicide bombers suggests Britain’s Islamic terror network may be more tightly knit than previously thought.
It also raises questions as to whether Khan may have been involved in the Tel Aviv bombing. Israeli police have confirmed that Khan visited Israel on February 19, 2003, two months before the attack."

Saturday, July 8, 2006

News and commentary:

"This is a photo released by the Hammoud family..."
(AP, 2006/07/07)
"This is a photo released by the Hammoud family of Lebanese suspect Assem Hammoud seen in this undated picture, center, with his friends in Canada. Assem Hammoud, the detained al-Qaida operative, has confessed to plotting to attack New York City tunnels later this year and says he was acting on Osama bin Laden's orders, Lebanese officials say."

"Playboy's life: Girls & booze" (James Gordon Meek, Daily News, 2006/07/08)
"The alleged ringleader of the tunnel terror plot lived the life of an international playboy - on orders from Al Qaeda.
Assem Hammoud, 31, even fooled his mother, if Lebanese police and U.S. anti-terror officials are correct.
His mother, Nabila Qotob, said Hammoud drinks alcohol, had girlfriends, traveled widely and showed no similarities to Islamic militants.
She also said Hammoud taught economics at a local university.
To prove her son was no jihadi, Qotob showed off photos yesterday of Hammoud with his father and lounging shirtless on a speeding motorboat in Germany.
There were also very un-Islamic pictures of Hammoud with three smiling women - none of them wearing veils - on his arm during an undated stay in Canada.
"His morale is high because he is confident he is innocent," said Qotob, who said she had recently visited her son in jail.
But Lebanese police, who arrested Hammoud on April 27, said in a statement that the suspect claimed he had been ordered to maintain a fun-loving, secular lifestyle to hide his Islamic militancy.
"He did just that with perfection," the police statement said."

"Iran's Ahmadinejad attacks Israel at Iraq conference" (Farhad Pouladi, AFP/Yahoo! News, 2006/07/08)
"TEHRAN (AFP) - A regional conference on security in Iraq opened in
Iran with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling on Islamic countries to mobilize against Israel and "remove" the "Zionist regime." ...
"The basic problem in the Islamic world is the existence of the Zionist regime, and the Islamic world and the region must mobilize to remove this problem," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of the two-day conference. ...
"The biggest threat today for the region is the existence of the fake Zionist regime," he added, before going on to attack Israel's supporters. ...
"Nations in the region will be more furious every day, and it will not be long before this intense fury will lead to a huge explosion," he said.
"The waves of fury of Muslim nations will not be confined within the boundaries of the region, and the people who close their ears to the cries of the Palestinians and blindly support this regime will be responsible for the consequences," Ahmadinejad warned."

"Landmark al Qaeda trial collapses" (CNN.com, 2006/07/08)
"SAN'A, Yemen (AP) -- The trial of 19 alleged al Qaeda members had been designed to showcase how serious Yemen was in the fight against terror. But the Islamic militants, accused of plotting to assassinate Westerners and blow up a hotel frequented by Americans, were all acquitted for lack of proof, the presiding judge ruled Saturday.
Prosecutors had failed to provide "adequate evidence that the defendants were plotting attacks against foreigners or planning to assassinate Americans in Yemen," the verdict said.
Critics say the decision points to the Yemeni president's bid to win the radical Islamic vote ahead of elections in September.
Several of the defendants did confess to having been in Iraq to fight U.S. troops there and had Iraqi stamps on their passport, the court heard. "But this does not violate [Yemeni] law," the judge said.
"Islamic Sharia law permits jihad against occupiers," he said.
Mohammed al-Maqaleh, an expert in Islamist affairs who frequently appears in Yemeni media, described the verdict as a "shock."
"The judiciary is collaborating with the Islamist extremists and this verdict is politicized," al-Maqaleh said on the telephone."

Friday, July 7, 2006

News and commentary:

"Walking wounded..."
(Edmond Terakopian, AP, 2005/07/07)
From the archive: "Walking wounded leaving Edgware Road tube station, after the explosion, to be treated at the London Hilton Metropole on Edgware Road Thursday July 7, 2005."

"The Subtexts of War" (Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 2006/07/07)
"Finally, there are a number of influential Americans — let us be frank — who want us to forfeit this effort in Iraq. For some prominent Democrats, like a Sen. Kennedy or Sen. Durbin, who compares our wartime military on occasion to Saddam’s Baathists or Nazis, it is an issue of simple partisanship. If Iraq blows up in the face of the United States, and we can still avoid another September 11, then they wager that Bush and his cohorts, in the manner of a wrecked Johnson or Nixon administration, might alone suffer the political consequences. For them, collateral damage to America is worth the risk incurred by their own sleazy rhetoric. ...
Because this generation of the opposition, in a foolish and short-sighted manner, has turned an American struggle into George Bush’s futile war, it will either have to abandon the democracy in Iraq or recant and assure the rest of us that its past hateful and extremist rhetoric was just politics, and they are now going to unite us and lead us on to victory over the primevalists after all.
Good luck."

"Emergency Over, Saith the Court" (Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, 2006/07/07)
"All rise: The Supreme Court has decreed a return to normality. A lovely idea, except that al-Qaeda has other ideas. The war does go on. One can sympathize with the court's desire for a Harding-like restoration to normalcy. But the robed eminences are premature. And even if they weren't, they really didn't have to issue a ruling this bad. ...
The unfixable part of the Hamdan ruling, however, is the court's reading of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions, which were designed to protect civilian populations and those combatants who respect them, were never intended to apply to unlawful combatants, terrorists of the al-Qaeda kind. The court tortures the reading of Common Article 3 to confer upon Hamdan -- and by extension the man for whom he rode shotgun, bin Laden -- the kind of elaborate legal protections that one expects from "civilized peoples."
This infinitely elastic concept will allow courts to usurp from Congress and the president the authority to fashion the procedures for military tribunals -- an arrogation that mocks the court's previously expressed solicitousness for congressional authority.
But no matter. Logic has little place here. The court has decreed: There is no war -- or we will pretend so -- and henceforth it shall be conducted by the court. God save the United States. (This honorable court can fend for itself.)"

"Bomb tunnel, flood city" (Allison Gendar and James Gordon Meek, Daily News, 2006/07/07)
"The FBI has uncovered what officials consider a serious plot by jihadists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in hopes of causing a torrent of water to deluge lower Manhattan, the Daily News has learned.
The terrorists sought to drown the Financial District as New Orleans was by Hurricane Katrina, sources said. They also wanted to attack subways and other tunnels.
Counterterrorism officials are alarmed by the "lone wolf" terror plot because they allegedly got a pledge of financial and tactical support from Jordanian associates of top terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before he was killed in Iraq, a counterterrorism source told The News.
It's not clear, however, if any cash or assistance was delivered. ...
The plotters wanted to detonate a massive amount of explosives inside the Holland Tunnel to blast a hole that would destroy the tunnel, everyone in it, and send a devastating flood shooting through the streets of lower Manhattan."

Added today:
"The Gaza crisis and its monstrous response" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2006/07/06)

Thursday, July 6, 2006

News and commentary:

"Video of 7 July bomber released" (BBC News, 2006/07/06)
Brendan O'Neill, New Statesman, June 12: "What Phillips presents as the handiwork of "clerical fascism" looks increasingly like Britain's Columbine, a murderous stunt executed by four bored and overgrown adolescents who had nothing better to do."
Sean O'Neill, The Times, July 6: "The release of Shehzad Tanweer's martyrdom video is the clearest indication yet that the July 7 suicide bombers were tied into the global Islamist terrorist movement.":
"A video showing London tube bomber Shehzad Tanweer has been aired on al-Jazeera television.
Tanweer, from Leeds, killed seven people on a train at Aldgate during the attacks on 7 July 2005.
He says on the video: "What you have witnessed now is only the beginning of a string of attacks that will continue and become stronger."
Police said the release of the video on the eve of the bombings' anniversary was designed to cause "maximum hurt".
Tanweer says in a Yorkshire accent on the film that attacks will continue "until you pull your forces out of Afghanistan and Iraq".
The video, the release of which was announced on an Islamist website, includes a statement from Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda's second in command, and American Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki.
Gadahn is believed by US authorities to be running al-Qaeda's propaganda operation.
In the video, Tanweer refers to the non-Muslims of Britain.
Because they voted for a government which "continues to oppress our mothers, children, brothers and sisters in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya", they deserve to be attacked, he says. ...
If the video were confirmed as genuine, it would lead weight to the theory that al-Qaeda was behind the London bombings, our correspondent said." (See also: "Exclusive Details on London Suicide Bombers" (ABC News, 2006/07/06): "Pakistani government sources tell ABC News two key operatives in last year's London bombings, Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Saddique Khan, personally met with Ayman al-Zawahiri in the tribal areas sometime in January 2005.
Both appeared in the same video with Ayman al-Zawahiri, which was broadcast in two parts: the first part featuring Khan, posted in the Internet on Sept. 1, 2005, the second part with Tanweer, posted today.
The same sources say that both Khan and Tanweer were led to South Waziristan via Quetta several weeks after their arrival in Karachi in November 2004 and spent at least three full days with Zawahiri in the tribal areas.
Khan's and Tanweer's confessions were taped during that stay, along with Ayman al-Zawahiri's speech.")

"The Gaza crisis and its monstrous response" (Melanie Phillips, melaniephillips.com, 2006/07/06)
"Even by the standards of the British chattering classes, the reaction to the crisis in Gaza defies belief. Malevolent lies have mutated into a pathological departure from reality.":
"[Jonathan] Steele draws upon a truly disgusting piece in Ha’aretz by Gideon Levy who wrote:

It is not legitimate to cut off 750,000 people from electricity. It is not legitimate to call on 20,000 people to run from their homes and turn their towns into ghost towns. It is not legitimate to penetrate Syria’s airspace. It is not legitimate to kidnap half a government and a quarter of a parliament. A state that takes such steps is no longer distinguishable from a terror organization.

What Levy was effectively saying was that it was not legitimate for Israel to defend itself. To do so is apparently ‘terrorism’. He and Ha’aretz have thus (and not for the first time) handed a potent weapon to those who would wish to see Levy’s homeland destroyed. A similarly despicable role is being played by certain British Jews on the left. In the Times today, hundreds of British Jews signed a stomach-turning full-page advertisement in which — also drawing on Gideon Levy’s article — they said:

We watch with horror the collective punishment of the people of Gaza’. ...

So the human bomb attacks, the rocket bombardment, the declarations of war and genocidal intentions by which Israel is terrorised by the Palestinians are ignored. Israel, the supreme victim of systematic exterminatory terror, is thus depicted as terrorising its tormentors — simply because it seeks to defend itself."

"Somali Muslims warned of death" (news24.com, 2006/07/06)
"Mogadishu - Somali Muslims who fail to perform daily prayers will be killed in accordance with Qur'anic law under a new edict issued by a leading cleric in the Islamic courts union that controlled the capital.
The requirement for Muslims to observe the five-times daily ritual under penalty of death was announced late on Wednesday and appeared to confirm the hardline nature of the increasingly powerful Sharia courts in Mogadishu.
Sheikh Abdalla Ali, a founder and high-ranking official in the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia, said: "He who does not perform prayers will be considered as infidel and Sharia law orders that that person be killed."
Ali said: "Sharia law orders the killing of any Muslim person when he fails to perform prayers."
Ali added that it was the duty of every Somali to implement the provisions of Sharia law, which after fully accepted would allow 'everybody to enjoy life based on peace and prosperity.'" (Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch. See also: "Somali Islamists kill 2 at World Cup broadcast" (CNN.com, 2006/07/05))

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

News and commentary:

"Somali Islamists kill 2 at World Cup broadcast" (CNN.com, 2006/07/05)
"MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Radical Islamic militia fighters in central Somalia shot and killed two people at the screening of a banned World Cup soccer broadcast while dispersing the crowd of teenagers watching it, an independent radio station reported Wednesday.
The Islamic fighters, who have banned such entertainment, opened fire after the teenagers defied their orders to leave the cinema that was screening the Germany-Italy match, Shabelle Radio reported. It said the dead were a girl and the cinema owner.
Islamic fighters who wrested control of the Somali capital from warlords in June forbade movies and television entertainment in line with their strict interpretation of Islam. The Supreme Islamic Courts Council, originally called the Islamic Courts Union, has expanded its control to other parts of southern Somalia." (See also: "Two die as hardline Islamists ban World Cup" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 2006/06/11))

"About our 'dictator'" (Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe, 2006/07/05)
Anti-Bush II: "IN MANY QUARTERS it has long been taken for granted that George W. Bush is an aspiring dictator, ravenous for power and all too willing to shred the constitutional checks and balances that restrain presidential authority. Of course this kind of paranoia is routine in the ideological fever swamps . But you can hear such things said about Bush even in respectable precincts far from the fringe.
For example: When it was reported in May that the National Security Agency has been analyzing a vast database of domestic telephone records for possible counterterrorism leads, CNN's Jack Cafferty went ballistic. Thank goodness Senator Arlen Specter was asking questions, Cafferty fumed. "He might be all that's standing between us and a full-blown dictatorship in this country." ...
"We're seeing clearly now that Bush thought 9/11 gave him license to act like a dictator," wrote Jonathan Alter in Newsweek last December. Just the other day, The American Prospect's Robert Kuttner warned that the Bush administration has been "a slow-rolling coup d'etat" but that 'people are afraid to say so.'"

"Sworn on the fourth of July" (Maureen Coleman, The Belfast Telegraph, 2006/07/05)
Anti-Bush I: "BBC Northern Ireland last night apologised after leading Radio Ulster presenter Gerry Anderson told his listeners he wanted George Bush "to rot in hell".
The Radio Ulster host was presenting his morning show yesterday - July 4, US Independence Day - when he said it was also the American President's birthday.
After telling his listeners Mr Bush had just turned 60, he added: "May I say I hope you rot in hell".
Ironically, the popular presenter and Belfast Telegraph columnist got the birth date wrong - the current President celebrates his birthday tomorrow, July 6.
The US consulate described Mr Anderson's remarks as "regrettable" but spokesman Peter McKittrick diplomatically added: "Freedom of speech was one of the many values that all Americans were celebrating yesterday."
Mr Anderson was yesterday unavailable for comment but a BBC spokesman said: "We apologise for any offence caused."
One Radio Ulster listener, who contacted the Belfast Telegraph, said: 'I couldn't believe what I was hearing, especially on Independence Day.'"

Tuesday, July 4, 2006

News and commentary:

"N Korea tests long-range missile" (BBC News, 2006/07/03)
"North Korea has test-fired at least six missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, despite repeated warnings from the international community.
US officials said the Taepodong missile - thought capable of reaching Alaska - failed shortly after take-off, while the others fell into the Sea of Japan.
The US called the tests "provocative" and Japan has announced sanctions.
The UN Security Council is due to hold an emergency meeting later on Wednesday to discuss the developments. ...
According to US officials, the North fired at least six missiles over a four-hour period, beginning at 0332 Japan Time (1832 GMT).
South Korea has confirmed that five of the missiles were medium-range versions of the old Soviet Scud missile. The sixth was the long-range Taepodong-2, fired from the Musudan-ri missile base.
The Taepodong-2 crashed 42 seconds after it was launched, according to US sources."

"Israel eyes wider Gaza sweep after Hamas rocket hits" (Jeffrey Heller, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2006/07/03)
"JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel was poised on Wednesday to broaden a Gaza offensive after Hamas militants fired a rocket into a main Israeli city for the first time, an attack that deepened a 10-day-old crisis over an abducted soldier.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert planned to consult with his security cabinet later in the day to discuss stronger military action after militants carried out their deepest rocket strike yet against Israel, government officials said.
An upgraded Qassam rocket, powered by two engines instead of the usual single motor, and flying 12 km (7 miles), slammed into a school yard in the coastal city of Ashkelon, the army said.
The attack in the center of Ashkelon, a city of about 115,000 and the site of one of Israel's main power plants, caused no injuries."

"Muslim Britain split over 'martyrs' of 7/7" (Alexandra Frean and Rajeev Syal, The Times, 2006/07/04)
"A SIGNIFICANT minority of British Muslims believe they are at war with the rest of society, the largest poll of Muslims in this country suggests.
The Populus survey for The Times and ITV News has found that more than one in ten thinks that the men who carried out the London bombings of 7/7 should be regarded as “martyrs”. Sixteen per cent of British Muslims, equivalent to more than 150,000 adults, believe that while the attacks were wrong, the cause was right.
But the poll also revealed a stark gulf between this group and the majority of British Muslims, who want the Government to take tougher measures against extremists within their community. ...
13% of British Muslims think that the four men who carried out the London Tube and bus bombings of July 7, 2005, should be regarded as “martyrs”
7% agree that suicide attacks on civilians in the UK can be justified in some circumstances, rising to 16 per cent for a military target
16% of British Muslims say that while the attacks may have been wrong, the cause was right
2% would be proud if a family member decided to join al-Qaeda. Sixteen per cent would be “indifferent”."

Added in archive:
"Will George be slayed as England's patron saint?" (Steve Doughty, Daily Mail, 2006/07/02)
"Focus: Undercover on planet Beeston" (Ali Hussain, The Sunday Times, 2006/07/02)
"Whites being lured into Islamic terror" (Sean Rayment, The Sunday Telegraph, 2006/07/02)

Monday, July 3, 2006

News and commentary:

"Militants issue ultimatum as Israel moves on Gaza" (Mehdi Lebouachera, AFP/Yahoo! News, 2006/07/03)
"GAZA CITY (AFP) - Palestinian militants holding an Israeli soldier captive have issued an ultimatum for Israel to free prisoners or face the consequences as the army kept up its military assault on the Gaza Strip.
The 0300 GMT Tuesday deadline was immediately rejected by Israel, which sent troops and tanks into northern Gaza after a sixth straight night of air attacks launched in a bid to pressure the Palestinians into giving up the serviceman.
"Faced with the Zionist enemy's persistence in taking military measures and aggressions, we give it a delay expiring Tuesday, July 4 at 6:00 am (0300 GMT)," said a statement from three groups that seized the teenage conscript in an attack on an army post eight days ago.
"If the enemy does not meet the demands we laid out in our previous statement... we will consider the matter closed and the enemy will be responsible for all results," said the statement from the Popular Resistance Committees, the armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement and the Army of Islam.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which has massed a force of 5,000 troops on the Gaza border, has so far rejected demands by militants for the release of Palestinian prisoners in its jails."

"Al-Qaeda 'bid to infiltrate MI5'" (BBC News, 2006/07/03)
"Al-Qaeda sympathisers have been trying to infiltrate the British security service MI5, the BBC has learned.
Whitehall officials confirmed what some had long suspected, says BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner.
But those with al-Qaeda sympathies were weeded out during a six to eight-month vetting process, officials added.
Meanwhile anti-terrorism police probing the 7 July London bombings say people who knew the attacks were being planned would face prosecution.
Officers at a Scotland Yard briefing said they continued to be very concerned by the intelligence picture, with 70 investigations continuing and some of the information received described as "very sinister".
The head of the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorist branch, Peter Clarke, said 60 people were awaiting trial in the UK for terrorist-related offences.
But he warned: "This is unprecedented, and the flow of new cases shows no sign of abating - if anything it is accelerating."
MI5 believes, from polls, that around 400,000 people in the UK are "sympathetic to violent jihad around the world", said Frank Gardner."

 

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

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November 2006
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August 2006
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› Ajami, Fouad - Johnson, Paul
› Kagan, Robert - Ye'or, Bat



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