Obama regrets 'distortion' of Islam to justify violence [as proposed by the Prophet]

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama listen as guide K.K. Muhammed, center left, talks about Humayun's Tomb during their visit there in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010

Muhammad sent Khalid Ibn al-Walid to the tribe of the children of Haritha and told him: "Call them to accept Islam before you fight with them. If they respond, accept that from them, but if they refuse, fight them." Khalid told them: "Accept Islam and spare your life." They entered Islam by force. He brought them to Muhammad. Muhammad said to them: "Had you not accepted Islam I would have cast your heads under your feet"

One of the problems is that violence is an integral part of Islam ~ the ideology ~ this is where the young people could do something about it ~ not by denying it ~ but by acknowledging that it is a part of Islam's past ~ and that today we live in a very different world. Here is where the establisment of rights and freedoms within the Islamic world could pay a big part.

He said the youth of the world can make a huge impact in re-affirming that one can be a strong observer of one’s faith without putting somebody else down or visiting violence on somebody else.

Obama says here that one could practise their religion without putting someone else down ~ also a fundamental aspect of Islam, the dhimmi laws, which put down or subjugate the non-believer. Evidence that the Islamic world is beginning to change and showing a willingness to dump its supremacist ideology as laid down with Muhammad's conquest ~ is when they start making serious efforts to ensure equality of minority religious groups, and apostates from Islam living within their borders. Until then the niceties Obama expresses will not match up with Islam's reality. To be fair I think he is subtly trying to tell Muslims they need to clean up their act, without offending them ~ but with a supremacist mindset will they get it? They will be humbled otherwise ~ all one billion of them!


U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday regretted that the “great religion” of Islam has been distorted by a few extremists to justify violence towards innocent people and called for isolating these elements.

Mr. Obama also said that people will have to fundamentally reject the notion that violence is the way to mediate differences among them.

“I think all of us have to fundamentally reject the notion that violence is the way to mediate our differences,” he added.

The US president expressed these views when a Muslim student A. Ansari lobbed a question asking for his views on ‘jihad” during his interaction with students of St Xavier’s college here.

High on platitudes, twice defeated David Miliband offers encouragement for Obama's Muslim outreach

Twice defeated David Miliband ~ his party and their politics were defeated in the British general election as well he was defeated again by his own brother Ed, for the party leadership ~ offers Obama, the same advice that no doubt contributed to his party's defeat and which has largely failed across Europe.

For starters, we need to understand and explain to our publics the differences within the Muslim world. This is not just a question for theologians debating the differences between Sunni, Shiite and Sufi...

This fine point is what UK Labour and many defeated, mainly Left-wing parties in Europe did not get ~ it is the people who are doing the explaining.

The effort to explain or to get to know Islam better ~ in Europe failed ~ because it went a step further ~ it sought to reshape society ~ around respect for Islam. The one thing that almost all Muslim nations have in common is that they use coercion ~ be it state or fundamentalist driven ~ to make sure everyone shows respect for Islam. In this brave new world vision ~ European leaders were starting to use the same methods. Under Miliband's government they would ruin a business, arrest people, destroy a career ~ if anyone was seen to challenge the stated version of Islam. But in Europe, we live in a democracy ~ of course, given the opportunity the 'public' explained to him why he could no longer hold his position.

When they saw that people were outright rejecting their far reaching efforts to get people to like Islam better ~ it soon become or else. They established a climate of fear.

In building consent for closer cooperation we have a responsibility to eschew the simplistic language of “moderate” and “extremist” that does so little to explain what people believe.

More inflated stuff!!

Miliband's party would not except the idea of a political Islam ~ indeed any criticism of Islam at all ~ and under their watch ~ they allowed fundamentalists to effectively take control of one of London's Boroughs ~ a group with the said aim to use democracy to undermine its institutions to bring about a Shari'a state. So protected where these Islamic groups, Miliband's party partnered with them ~ in the end they defeated Labour ~ they sidestepped them for control of the Borough. A memo was sent round at one stage ~ asking civil servants to refrain from eating during Ramadan. A sign of things to come. Already you can't got to at least one pool in the area unless you are a Muslim.

In Cairo in June 2009, President Obama listed historical forces that had created tension where there should have been cooperation — colonialism, the cold war, the sweeping changes brought by modernity and globalization — and led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.

This whole feeling sorry for people ~ guilt ridden sympathies ~ will get you into trouble ~ instead of dealing with a man as a man. And these men [Muslim] want to overturn the very foundation of western society.

Hostile to the traditions of Islam ~ anyone who is non-Muslim ~ is seen as hostile to Muslim traditions. One look at Islam's history [without the rose colored galsses} would back this up ~ this is not a radical idea, this is in the Koran [9:29]. We are not Muslims. And the psychology can be found in the way they form their societies. Non-Muslims are seen as being below Muslims. They are not equal under the law, and face many social, religious and legal restrictions, where Muslims don't.

It is no accident that up to 60% of Muslim women in some areas, are illiterate ~ they don't teach them anything, on one hand and on the other, they believe that they are incapable of learning. Similarly, Islamic societies are structured such that it is difficult for non-Muslims to prosper ~ in several countries there are restrictions on hight education ~ and elementary schools for some ~ of course, they have come to believe that non-Muslims cannot achieve because they are ignorant [and so not deserving of rights and freedoms]. But the success of the largely non-Muslim west ~ must in some way be viewed as offensive to their beliefs. [Likewise western women's freedoms are offensive to many Muslims]

Our problems with Muslims in the west is largely to do with the overreach of religion into politics and law ~ with the aim of fundamentally altering our way of life. If the stated getting-along-with-Islam means that this reality is ignored ~ then the government and the people are going to be at odds.


In the wake of the “humbling” of President Obama by American voters there is a lot of talk about what needs to be reversed or buried from his first two years. For the Republicans health care tops the list, closely followed by determination to maintain tax cuts for the wealthy. That is a matter for the American political system. But the rest of us also have a huge stake in what is kept and what is junked on the foreign policy front.

In his first year, President Obama made the rebuilding of America’s reputation and partnerships with the Islamic world a central theme of his presidency. His commitment to the development of trusting, respectful cooperation with the Muslim world needs to be rescued, burnished and supported.

Madonna's new toyboy is a French Muslim ~ Whatever happened to Jesus?

She decided to do her shopping in a North African souk!!

Well at least he won't be seeking a passport out of the deal.

The mother of Madonna’s latest toyboy told yesterday of her astonishment when her son told her who he was dating.

Frenchwoman Patricia Vidal said she received a phone call from her 24-year-old son Brahim Zaibat, a dancer working in New York.

‘I’ve got a new girlfriend,’ he said.

The mother of four was unperturbed when he mentioned an age gap of eight years.

‘You’ve always been mature for your age – it will be good to spend some time with a girl who’s a bit older than you,’ she said.

‘No,’ Zaibat replied. ‘She’s eight years older than you, Mum – and her name is Madonna.’

‘My mouth fell open when I realised that my son was Madonna’s new boyfriend,’ said 44-year-old Miss Vidal at her ninth-floor flat on a dingy council estate in Lyon. ‘It’s something I’m still trying to come to terms with.

Islamic fundamentalists preventing the construction of a church in Kuwait

Side view of a church in Kuwait, also near the Sheraton Hotel

Muslim nations wouldn't want to reciprocate or anything like that!

Mosque after mosque here ~ churches there ~ a problem.

Something to do with the Islam will conquer thing!

Kuwait City (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A group of Christians has complained that Kuwait City’s Municipal Council is preventing them from getting land to build a church. "The Municipal Council is the big problem preventing us from getting land; not all of the members, just the Islamic fundamentalists," said Archimandrite Boutros Gharib, head of the local Greek Catholic Church.

Recently the municipal council blocked an attempt by the Greek Catholic Church to acquire land in Mahboula, an area in the Ahmadi governorate south of Kuwait City. The request has been pending for several years.

A new church would reduce over-crowdedness in a villa currently used for worshiping, Fr Gharib said.

According to the Greek Catholic clergyman, both the government and the country’s leader, Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, have given their approval and blessing to the Church to have its property built. However, the Council has not followed suit. What is more, “The council did not give us any reason,” he added.

“We found the higher levels of government say yes and the lower levels of government say no,” said Rev Andrew Thompson, the Anglican chaplain to Kuwait, who stressed that religious fundamentalists controlled the municipality.

The church said the government had proposed an area of 7,500 m2 with land for buildings and parking.

Iranian schools to encourage "10,000 Quran schools, dubbed "autobahns for martyrdom and humanity"

Oops wrong picture!!

While Iran prepares for holy war, Blair's lil'sister-in-law hovers around in a headscarf, having converted on a recent trip to Iran's holy city Qom.

The question is how far would she go to support this lot?

She says she'll consider wearing the burqa ~ but there is also casting the first stone ~ and supporting Islam's holy war against the interests of her own nation!!

Teheran (AsiaNews) - The expansion of the culture of martyrdom is the "decision" of General Mohammad-Reza Naghdi, head of the Basij paramilitary group - which operates under the command of the Revolutionary Guard and has distinguished itself in the violent repression of opposition demonstrations - taken together with the Ministry of Education.

The general added that he was pursuing the goal adding “values of divine defence of the Iranian nation” into the classrooms and books. The "Divine defense” (defae moghadas) is a term coined to refer to the 8-year war Iran had with Iraq for most of the 1980s, when tens of thousands of children and young people, used as the first wave of attacks, lost their lives.

Soldiers, civilians honored on Fort Hood anniversary

U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey presented awards of valor at a memorial service recognizing victims and families of those fallen on the one year anniversary of the Ft. Hood attacks in Fort Hood, Texas on November 5, 2010

Until Friday, there only was one outward symbol at Fort Hood of the chaos and carnage that erupted on Nov. 5, 2009. A wreath of flowers hung on the fence that surrounds Building 42003 at the massive Army post in Texas. It was placed there by the widow of one of those who died that day.

Now there is a 6-foot-tall granite memorial, unveiled at a ceremony on the one-year anniversary of the worst massacre ever at a U.S. military installation. Inscribed with the names of the 13 killed when a soldier opened fired on his comrades as they waited to do routine paperwork, the marker has taken its place near the post's other memorials to those who died in war - more than 500 in the past five years.

Sgt. Ericka Escalante, left, prays during an awards ceremony and memorial stone unveiling commemorating the one-year anniversary

"Our home was attacked. . . not in a distant battlefield but right here . . . and American heroes sacrificed their lives," Gen. William Grimsley, Fort Hood's commanding general, told about 1,000 people gathered Friday morning for the ceremony, according to the Associated Press.

He and Army Secretary John McHugh presented awards to more than 50 soldiers and civilians who rushed to aid the wounded. Among them were soldiers who had been shot themselves. Some recently relived the horror, when they testified at a hearing for Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is charged with multiple counts of murder. Some spent much of the past year in Afghanistan and Iraq, returning a few weeks ago.

Obama's security dog named 'Khan': Muslims irked [offended.. outraged.. as usual] Remember Genghis Khan ~ Its a pre-Islamic name!!

That's Genghis Khan by the way ~ not a picture of Muhammad!!

Obama should have made more efforts to reach out to people across the world ~ to focus so narrowly on reaching out to Muslims has been a disaster and a wasted opportunity.

Muslims in Mumbai are up in arms against a United States military sniffer dog allegedly with name tag of 'Khan' that has landed in the city as part of President Barack Obama security arrangements.

On Tuesday, the German Shepherd arrived in the Mumbai airport from a Hercules C130 transport plane. The German Shepherd allegedly had a tag around its neck which read 'MWD Khan.' MWD stands for Military Working Dog. Khan is alleged to be the name of the dog.

Angry Muslims in the city and the state are threatening to protest this 'insult' to the community.

The issue became a rage when a tabloid had reported the incident and quoted veteran actor Raza Murad objecting to the dog being named 'Khan.'

Though noted lyricist Javed Akhtar had been quoted to ignore the issue and focus on welcoming the VIP guest.

Maharashtra Samajwadi Party leader MLA Abu Asim Azmi also threatened to undertake a protest. He said that the US deliberately wants to incite the Muslims through such acts and the party would stage a protest on the issue.

Prominent Muslim religious heads have expressed anger and dismay on the information of a US dog being named 'Khan.' Maulana Syed Athar Ali said that it is a known fact that Muslims detest pigs and dogs.

"To name a dog a Muslim name by US security agencies is to deliberately incite the Muslim community. We would be meeting soon and devise a strategy to protest and seek apology from the US," said Maulana Athar Ali.

Hanging From A Hook: Radical Cleric Wins Passport Court Battle

The cleric came to Britain on a student visa and acquired a passport through marriage.

Abu Hamza has won his appeal against the Government's attempts to strip him of his British passport.

The radical cleric argued such a move would render him "stateless" as he has already been stripped of his Egyptian citizenship.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) agreed with Hamza, who is currently serving a seven-year prison term.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said Prime Minister David Cameron was "disappointed" with the decision.

Attempts to take the 52-year-old's passport away were launched in 2003 by the then home secretary David Blunkett.

The cleric came to Britain on a student visa and acquired a passport through marriage.

In his Siac ruling, Mr Justice Mitting said: "We are satisfied on balance of probabilities that if a deprivation order were to be made, the appellant would be made stateless."

The Government rejected Hamza's claim that he was no longer an Egyptian national.

The Home Office recognised he was denied an Egyptian passport in 1982, but argued a decree issued six years later meant he was allowed one.

But Egyptian law expert Sabah al Mukhtar told the commission it was possible Hamza had been stripped of his nationality when he obtained a British passport.

[The Siac panel heard from experts who] had very good grounds for believing... that a decree had been issued, probably unpublished, which effectively stripped the appellant of his (Egyptian) nationality.

Mr Justice Mitting
Appearing as a witness for Hamza's legal team, Mr Al Mukhtar said his interpretation of the law was if an Egyptian obtained a foreign nationality without permission, they would be stripped of their Egyptian citizenship.

Wife of German Islamic convert on trial for supporting terrorism; man arrested

Filiz Gelowicz, wife of German terrorist Fritz Gelowicz who was sentenced to 12 years in prison, waits behind security glass for the start of a trial against her on the suspicion of supporting foreign Islamic terrorist groups at a court in Berlin, Friday, Nov. 5, 2010

She's a Turk but her husband is a German. I think what happens is that these guys convert to Islam, and find that the Muslim world isn't all that Muslims said it would be. But to maintain that utopian image, they join the Islamic fighters. To fight for a reality that doesn't currently exist.

Berlin - The wife of a jailed German Islamist remained silent in a Berlin court on Friday, as she went on trial for allegedly supporting a militant group affiliated with al-Qaeda.

The 29-year-old woman is married to Fritz Gelowicz, a German convert to Islam who was sentenced in March to 12 years in prison, for leading an Islamist conspiracy to attack discos, airports and US army bases in Germany.

The four members of the so-called Sauerland Group, headed by Gelowicz, were arrested in 2007, after their plot to manufacture and plant explosives was monitored for months by intelligence agents.

A man was also arrested Friday in the western German town of Neunkirchen in relation to videos posted on the internet, threatening terrorist attacks if a jailed Sauerland Group member was not released.

Around 12 officers wrestled the man to the ground early Friday, after weeks of surveillance.

OIC warns about rising Islamophobia‎ :: End the dhimmi laws and give non-Muslims the same rights as Muslims

Upholds dhimmi laws which put Muslims above all others.

Particularly spiteful little comment from the OIC ~ it compares the efforts to maintain civil laws and democratic freedoms, against a rising tide of Islam ~ to the conditions of the Jews in pre-WWII Europe. Couple of points, the Jews never attacked anyone, there was no jihad holy war against Europe concept in the Jewish mindset and there were no grand efforts to bring Europe under the Jewish Torah law.

The leader of the OIC stems from Turkey, where they wouldn't even admit they massacred around 2 million Christians at the turn of the 20th century.


It is very difficult for Muslims, the majority of whom come from countries where the religion is also the law of the land. In Europe and increasingly in the rest of the free world, we are saying religion is a private matter.

It likely does seem 'hateful' to Muslims to have their core identity rejected. The integration process is in getting Muslims to accept their new freedoms. Because, to have their religious laws, we could not guarantee the individual rights of others. Something of course, Muslim nations reject.



The leader of the world's largest Islamic organization has likened the rise of Islamophobia in Europe and the US as "the rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s."

Pakistan: Dozens killed in mosque suicide attack

An injured man is taken to hospital

Islamabad, 5 Nov. (AKI) - At least 60 people were killed and 100 injured by a suicide bomb attack on a mosque in during Friday prayers near north-west Pakistan's tribal region.

The Pakistan branch of the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Darra Adam Khel, a town located between Kohat and Peshawar with a single street where family-owned weapons manufacturing businesses is the base of the local economy.

A tribal elder who has asked locals to take a stand against the Taliban may have been the target of the attack, according to reports. It was not immediately known if he was killed or wounded.

The bomber waited until the end of prayers to explode his device that was loaded with more than ten kilos of explosives.

Pakistan: Kashmir students trained to wage jihad on India

Perhaps it is not Pakistan, the Muslims there think they should have had, but the whole of India!


Having already trained or supported these Taliban types ~ you would think they would have learned their lesson ~ once trained, the problem is controlling them.

In Islam, it would no doubt be acceptable to use jihad for political purposes.

Islamabad, 4 Nov.(AKI) - Hundreds of university students are being trained in militant camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to wage jihad, or holy war, against India, according a report by the BBC's Urdu-language service.

A 25-year old engineering student from Lahore told the BBC that training is taking place in the Kashmir capitol of Muzaffarabad.

"A large number of young Pakistani and foreign university students are receiving training Pakistan occupied Kashmir, under supervision of a group that conducts jihad against India," the student said, underlining that most of the students in the camps come from Punjab while 20 percent come from Kashmir, with the remaining ten percent foreigners.

The student's statements contradict recent statements by Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik who denied reports about the existence of such camps.

Pakistan-administered Kashmir is claimed by India. The countries in 1947 fought a war over the area, which is referred to as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir by India.

CAIR sues Oklahoma for banning Islamic Shari'a law - Hmm...

It is clear they want to take over the USA!!

Another dictatorial Islamic nation to call their own!!

The Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced today it will file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a state ballot measure that bars judges from considering Islamic law in any ruling.

On Tuesday, with about a dozen other states watching, Oklahoma became the first state to put before voters the proposition that Islamic courts, Islamic law – known as Shariah – and Shariah-based court decisions should be banned.

State Question 755, a constitutional amendment, was approved by 70 of Oklahoma voters. But at a news conference today, CAIR-OK Executive Director Muneer Awad called the measure unnecessary and offensive.

But it has already passed. Why would they undo it??

It was a smashing psychological defeat ~ for those who hoped one day Shari'a law's would be imposed on the American way of life!!

The local leaders charged Oklahoma politicians used fear-mongering and misinformation to scare citizens into supporting the measure, the Oklahoma paper reported.

Might he think that if these citizens had the guidance of say ~ a grand mufti ~ they wouldn't be so frightened.

They got slapped, and they are just going to have to conquer somewhere else!!

Awad asserted the measure conflicts with the U.S. Constitution while Thornton warned it could discourage international investment in Oklahoma.

International trade in the newly concocted Shari'a finance ~ do these finance guys really care if we are all made second class citizens, except if we convert to Islam.

Chasing some Arab dollar$$, from wells with dwindling supplies. It is a grasping at straws, a fight to the bottom, a dragnet of delusions.

Thornton called the measure an "ugly piece of legislation that was used to inflame passions against the Islamic community."

Passions are what brought about the vote.

Passions rise when we hear about a rape victim being whipped, a hand severed, a woman stoned to death, gays hung, women owned by men.... We can't be any nicer when we tell you flat blank we don't want this. No thanks!!

The chief sponsor of the measure, state Rep. Rex Duncan, has argued that while the threat of Shariah in Oklahoma is not "imminent," there's "a storm on the horizon."

As a bill in Oklahoma legislature, the Shariah ban, called "Save Our State," received the support of 82 of 92 members in the state House and 41 of 43 members in the Senate. [...]

The average Muslim idea of living anywhere - is to live under these horrible Shari'a laws.

Return the Kaaba laws to the Kaaba and may the world be free of its tyranny, forever!

WND

Arson Attacks On Russian Churches Condemned

CHERKESSK, Russia -- Clerics, politicians, and public figures in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia have condemned arson attacks on three churches, RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service reports.

During the night of October 31-November 1, unknown attackers set fire to two Orthodox churches in the town of Karachayevsk and one Baptist church in the town of Ordzhonikidzevskaya.

A spokeswoman for Karachayevo-Cherkessia President Boris Ebzeyev told RFE/RL that the fires were swiftly extinguished and no casualties were reported.

The attacks came ahead of an important event in the republic's calendar -- the November 2 anniversary of the 1943 deportation of the Karachai nation to Central Asia by Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

Ismail-Hadji Berdiyev, who heads the Coordinating Center of Muslims of the North Caucasus, says the attacks are a very well-planned provocation.

"[It was] a pure provocation. [The perpetrators] want to provoke people. Today [Tuesday] we commemorated the day of the deportation of the Karachai people. And on the eve of that day, the arson attacks took place," Berdiyev explains.

Berdiyev says he has no idea who planned the attacks and is relying on local law enforcement to catch "the bandits."

Archbishop of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz Father Theofan condemned the attacks, saying that those who committed such barbarous acts cannot be called believers.

Michael Coran interviews Mark Steyn - Video

4 Parts

Stackelbeck: Malmo - Jihad Central + Elisabeths Hatespeech Trial. - Video

KitmanTV

Mark Steyn speaks on Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff - Video

Mark Steyn spoke at a dinner tribute to Ezra Levant in Ottawa Oct. 30 2010. James Cohen, formerly of the International Free Press Society, spoke with Mr. Steyn about Ms. Wolff's situation in Austria.

Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff - Wonderful speech! On trial in Austria for quoting the Koran - 30 10 10 Amsterdam - Video

Bravo!!

Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff attending the rally in Amsterdam about Freedom of Speech and against the spreading of Sharia Law in Europe.

Iranian FM: Final decision not made yet about woman sentenced to death by stoning

"Everyone has to be punished for murder," says Iran FM.

Shifting blame ~ is it customary to stone people for murder in Islam?

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - Iran's foreign minister says no final decision has been made about a woman who could be stoned to death for adultery, amid reports that her execution was imminent.

Manouchehr Mottaki's statement follows an international outcry over the stoning sentence against the 43-year-old woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.

"Everyone has to be punished for murder," Mottaki said at a news conference in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. "The person has killed her husband and I think this fact will be considered as a crime in every country ... But in this case the final decision has not been made yet."

Earlier Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Mottaki had told him that a final verdict in Ashtiani's case has not been issued yet and that reports "about her eventual execution don't correspond to reality."

Saudi fatwa against women cashiers sparks outrage and 'confusion' ~ if it is not clear by now!

Women as underdog, viewed by many Muslim women as actually being free!!

"The progressive women are all outraged," said Fawzia al-Bakr, a professor at Riyadh's King Saud University.

"It is not just about a woman working as a cashier... There are more than 60,000 women university graduates looking for jobs, so this is a big thing."

The Prophet said some pretty derogatory things about women ~ but somehow Muslim women see through this to conclude ~ that what he really meant was that they were awarded more rights. This is the problem in the Muslim world where the laws are based on Islam - the men always win.

A woman can study law in Saudi Arabia ~ but cannot represent anyone in court. What's the sense of that!!


RIYADH (AFP)— Saudi women activists expressed outrage and confusion on Tuesday at a new fatwa challenging a government initiative to allow women to work as cashiers in supermarkets and department stores.

The fatwa, or Islamic religious ruling, issued on Sunday by the kingdom's governing body of clerics, said the cashier jobs were not permissible because they resulted in the women mixing with unrelated men, which is prohibited under Saudi Arabia's ultra-strict form of Islam.

Signed by the country's grand mufti and six other top clerics, it contradicted a push by the government to create new jobs for women, who face high unemployment in the kingdom.

According to figures reported in April, unemployment among Saudi women was 28.4 percent in 2009, up from 26.9 percent in 2008.

"The progressive women are all outraged," said Fawzia al-Bakr, a professor at Riyadh's King Saud University.

"It is not just about a woman working as a cashier... There are more than 60,000 women university graduates looking for jobs, so this is a big thing."

Reem Asaad, a Jeddah economics professor, called the fatwa an attack on efforts like her campaign to create more jobs for women.

"Its an organised war to stop what we are trying to do," she told AFP, adding that "we don't know what will happen now."

Objections also poured in from men and women on the internet.

"Another day, another misogynist fatwa," Eman al-Nafjan wrote on her popular website "Saudiwoman's Weblog."

The fatwa was issued by the Committee on Scholarly Work and Ifta, the official issuer of fatwas, under the Council of Senior Scholars, the top Islamic authority, and signed by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh and the six other members of the fatwa committee.

"It is not permissible for a woman to work in a place where they mix with men," it said.

"It is necessary to keep away from places where men congregate. Women should look for decent work that does not make it possible for them to attract men or be attracted by men."

It was the committee's first politically significant ruling since King Abdullah issued a decree giving the council sole authority to issue fatwas in August.

The fatwa came months after several supermarkets and clothing stores began hiring women cashiers under the authorisation of the labour ministry.

It appeared to be a challenge to an important government policy, in a country where the Islamic religious establishment carries huge political weight.

"There is some sort of a clash now between the political society and the religious society, a clash over an important issue," said Khalid al-Dakhil, who teaches political sociology at King Saud University.

"The government is now in a very difficult position," he said.

Some questioned the fatwa, which did not cite Koranic literature for support as such rulings usually do.

Like many, it was written in response to a question, published with the ruling, asking specifically if women should work as cashiers in markets.

But uncommonly there was no source of the question given, Asaad said.

Moreover, she said, "the answer to that question has been converted into a fatwa in record speed."

"It's a planned thing... to hinder the progress of women."

Dakhil said he expected the government would try to ignore the ruling.

"This kind of fatwa is not binding to the government... It may slow the process but it will not stop it."

The clerics "don't take into consideration the social and economic reality of society," he said.
A fatwa is not the same as a law passed and promulgated by the government, he added.

Nevertheless, it can be used as law in Saudi Arabia, which holds Islamic sharia law as its legal code. All judges in the country are Islamic clerics schooled in sharia.

Al Qaeda Leader Killed in Gaza

A senior Al Qaeda leader was killed Wednesday in Gaza. A car bomb killed the terrorist and seriously injured his partner in an explosion outside the main police headquarters in Gaza City.

Local Arabs said the man killed was a senior field commander in the "Army of Islam," associated with Al Qaeda. Hamas claimed that the car was bombed is an Israeli air attack. INN

Congress: Allen West claims victory over incumbent Ron Klein

Allen West - video

BOCA RATON — Wednesday morning, it became clear that the predicted wave of GOP victories in the mid-term elections was a fact, as West laid claim to the District 22 seat.

"I'm not going to Washington, D.C. to be a ruling class elitist or to be a career politician," West told the wildly cheering crowd. "I'm going there to fix the problems, and then I'm coming home."

As of 8:20 a.m., with 97 percent of precincts reporting, West was ahead with 54.3 percent of the votes. Klein trailed with 45.7 percent.

Palm Beach Post

Muslims in Bangladesh Beat, Deprive Christians of Work, For Refusing Islam

College of Christian Theology Bangladesh library - Bangladesh

“They tried to force me and my son to admit that we had eaten pork and trampled on the Quran to become Christian,” Haque said. “They tried to force us to be apologetic for our blunder of accepting Christianity and also tried to compel us to go back to Islam. I told them, ‘While there is breath left in our bodies, we will not reject Christianity.’

In Bangladesh's outlying areas Buddhists are taking a beating as well. Along with Christians they make up less than 1% of the population.


LOS ANGELES (Compass Direct News) – Muslim villagers last month beat a 63-year-old Christian convert and his youngest son because they refused to return to Islam, the father told Compass.

The next day, another Christian in a nearby village was beaten and robbed in related violence in southwestern Bangladesh.

Aynal Haque, 63, a volunteer for Christian organization Way of Life Trust, told Compass that his brothers and relatives along with Muslim villagers beat him and his son, 22-year-old Lal Miah, on Oct. 9 when they refused to recant Christianity. The family lives at Sadhu Hati Panta Para village in Jhenaidah district, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of the capital city, Dhaka. It is in the jurisdiction of Sadar police station.

Haque’s relatives and villagers said that he had become Christian by eating pork and by disrespecting the Quran, he said.

“I embraced Christianity by my own will and understanding, but I have due respect for other religions,” Haque said. “How can I be a righteous man by disrespecting other religions? Whatever rumors the villagers are spreading are false.”

At a meeting to which Haque was summoned on Oct. 9, about 500 men and women from several villages gathered, including local and Maoist party leaders.

“They tried to force me and my son to admit that we had eaten pork and trampled on the Quran to become Christian,” Haque said. “They tried to force us to be apologetic for our blunder of accepting Christianity and also tried to compel us to go back to Islam. I told them, ‘While there is breath left in our bodies, we will not reject Christianity.’

“When we denied their allegation and demand, they beat us severely. They ordered us not to mix with other Muslim villagers. They confined us in our house for five days.”

Oklahoma Voters Ban Judges From Using Islamic Law

Oklahoma voters have approved a measure that would forbid judges from considering international law or Islamic law when deciding cases.

Republican Rex Duncan, the sponsor of the measure, called it a "pre-emptive strike" designed to close the door on activist judges "legislating from the bench or using international law or Sharia law."

Members of the Muslim community called the question an attack on Islam and some of them said they are prepared to file a lawsuit challenging the measure.

Fox News

Dog owners 'rebel' against fatwa in Iran

Guard dogs and sheep dogs are considered acceptable under Islamic law but Iranians who carry dogs in their cars or take them to public parks can be stopped by police and fined... or whipped:

A 70-year-old man has been sentenced by an Iranian judge to four months in jail and 30 lashes for going out on the street with his dog. The incident took place in Shahr Rey, a suburb of Tehran when the owner of the dog was caught by a police who quickly handcuffed the man. He was later charged by an Islamic judge for "disturbing the public order".

The sentence, seems to want to panic the owners of dogs that despite repeated warnings by the police, continue to defy the authorities by taking their dogs outside their homes. [+]

There are no dogs in Islam!

That's the problem, Islam is in a constant battle with human nature.

Dog owners and enthusiasts in Iran now have access to luxury facilities for their dogs, a ‘rebellion’ of sorts against a fatwa issued in June, declaring dogs as ‘unclean’ and saying they should not be kept as pets.

A growing number of dog spas and beauty parlours in a legal industry give dog owners an opportunity to groom their pets or leave them in five star conditions when they go away on vacation themselves.

The fatwa was earlier issued by Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, and was aimed at discouraging dog owners from living a ‘western’ lifestyle.

‘Friendship with dogs is a blind imitation of the West,’ he was quoted as saying in Javan daily. ‘There are lots of people in the West who love their dogs more than their wives and children.’

The Quran does not explicitly prohibit contact with dogs, Shirazi said, but Islamic tradition showed it to be so. ‘We have lots of narrations in Islam that say dogs are unclean.’

Guard dogs and sheep dogs are considered acceptable under Islamic law but Iranians who carry dogs in their cars or take them to public parks can be stopped by police and fined.

Many Iranians believe ownership and grooming of dogs is an act of rebellion against the clerics who seem to want to take away a much loved part of their lives.

Iraq: Death toll rises in series of Baghdad blasts,12 carbombs, 3 IEDs, main Shi'a targets

Baghdad, 2 Nov. (AKI) - The number of people killed in a series of explosions in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad on Tuesday rose to at least 30. At least 12 carbombs and three IEDs went off in various areas of the city in what was suspected to have been a coordinated attack, according to local officials.

Dozens of people were also wounded in the blasts, which appeared to mainly target Shia areas.

The first carbomb targeted the Abu Dashir district and the second a police station in the sprawling Sadr City suburb. The third bomb was in the Our district in eastern Baghdad, and this was followed by blasts in eight other districts.

The three IEDs went off in the modern part of Baghdad while sources were quoted by media as saying three Hawn rockets were launched against Shia mosques in the city.

Officials said some of the bombs had been placed near cafes and restaurants. The number of casualties is expected to rise.

Tuesday's assault followed Sunday's deadly siege of a Catholic church in Baghdad during which at least 52 people including 42 civilians were killed. That attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda linked militants.

Cat Stevens school promoted “complete submission to Allah on the level of the individual, the community and humanity at large”

Perhaps Cat Stevens forgot the meaning of rockin' in the 'free world!'

We’ve been discussing whether Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam has mellowed with old age, and may now no longer support the creation of an Islamic State, the extradition of apostates to that state for execution, and the stoning of women. As far as we can tell, he has not publicly retracted these views.

However, people are entitled to believe whatever unpleasant nonsense they want, as long as they do not act upon it.

What I’m more concerned about is the mission statement of the Islamia Schools, whose Chair of Governors and founder is Cat Stevens. The school received state funding, from 1998 onwards.

This was its mission statement up until at least 2006:

The aim of the School is to produce total Muslim personalities through the training of the child’s spirit, intellect, feelings and bodily senses. Education at Islamia caters for the growth of students in all their spiritual, intellectual, imaginative, physical, scientific and linguistic aspects, both individually and collectively, motivating all these aspects towards goodness. The ultimate aim of Islamic education is the realization of complete submission to Allah on the level of the individual, the community and humanity at large.

So much for multiculturalism! Did someone say 'multi' as in more than one God! If the society is called anything other than an Islamic one ~ these guys are going to want to take it over.

(copy here)

I have to confess, I’m slightly taken aback by this. The purpose of education should be to turn out happy and balanced children, with skills which enable them to play a full part in our diverse society. Not the “complete submission to Allah” of “humanity at large”.

This statement is now not on the Islamia School’s website or in their admissions policy. Inquiry ought really to be made to discover whether the Islamia School has dropped this purpose completely from its constitutional documents, and whether its staff continue to believe that they are engaged in such an enterprise.

Harry's Place

Iran to carry out death sentence for mother-of-two Wednesday, 11 Nov.

An activist with red lipstick on her face to depict blood participates in a demonstration against a stoning sentence in Iran for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two, pictured in the background, outside the Italian Parliament, in Rome,Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010.

Tehran, 2 Nov. (AKI) - An Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning after being found guilty of adultery and helping kill her husband, will be executed on Wednesday, according to a statement by a group that opposes stoning in Iran.

"The Islamic regime of Iran plans to execute Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani immediately," said a statement on the International Committee Against Stoning (ICAS).

The group didn't give details on the method that will use to execute Ashtiani, but following an international campaign , Iran in July said a stoning sentence had been suspended.

Ashtiani was convicted of adultery in 2006 and according to human rights activists forced to confess after being subjected to 99 lashes. She later recanted that confession and has denied wrongdoing.

Ashtiani's son and lawyer have been arrested and tortured by Iranian authorities, ICAS has said.

Iraqi Church Raid Attackers Disguised Guards

Residents carry the coffin of a victim killed in an attack on the Our Lady of Salvation Church, during a funeral at St. Joseph Chaldean Church in Baghdad November 2, 2010

Iraq launched an investigation on Tuesday into a church raid in which 52 hostages and police were killed, trying to find out how al Qaeda-linked gunmen managed to storm the building despite checkpoints, an official said.

Sunday's attack was the bloodiest against Iraq's Christian minority since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and drove fear deep into the hearts of many Iraqi Christians who had so far resisted the urge to flee their war-torn country.

Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said the assailants were disguised as guards working for a private security firm and carried fake ids.

"We have formed an investigation to uncover details of the attack and if we discover anyone has been negligent or complicit, he will be held strictly accountable," Moussawi said.

"We have many question marks about how such a large number of terrorists managed to reach the church in the heart of Baghdad," he said.

Defense Minister Abdel Qader Jassim said the authorities ordered the detention of the police commander in charge of the district where the church attack took place for questioning, a standard procedure after high-profile attacks.

Gunmen tied to an Iraqi al Qaeda offshoot seized hostages at the Our Lady of Salvation Church, a Syrian Catholic cathedral, during Sunday mass, demanding the release of women they said had converted to Islam but were being detained by the Coptic church in Egypt. Early reports said they also sought the release of al Qaeda prisoners in Iraq and Egypt.

The attack, which lasted several hours, ended when security forces raided the church to free more than 100 Iraqi Catholics.

'Abducted Canadian journalist and Muslim convert dead'

If this is the same woman, she ran a website where she sought to justify, the Koranic mentions of calls to commit terror. She had become radical leaning in her outlook. And obviously thought she would be in good company in Pakistan's troubled areas.

Here is something from the Jawa Report, on dear Bev.:

We've been following the story of Beverly Giesbrecht (aka, Khadija Abdul Qahar) fairly closely for years now. As the owner and operator of the "Jihad Unspun" website, she wrote countless stories about how US and Canadian troops were the "real terrorists" and how the Taliban were simply anti-imperialist freedom fighters -- the "resistance" as she liked to call them.

I actually knew Beverly was on her way to Pakistan as she and I crossed paths at some Islamist forums. She was at the forums looking for video and trying to hook up with "resistance fighters" who could help her and Phil Rees -- who she claimed to be working with --- on their "documentary" about "Islamic resistance". A "documentary" she claimed would show the "resistance" point of view.

Peshawar: A woman journalist from Canada, who was abducted by militants in November 2008, has died following prolonged illness in the custody of the Taliban somewhere in northwest Pakistan or Afghanistan, sources said Tuesday.

Khadija Abdul Qahar, 55, who was known as Beverly Giesbrecht before she converted to Islam, was abducted along with her translator Salman Khan and cook-cum-driver Zar Muhammad while travelling to Miranshah in the restive North Waziristan tribal region.

The three were abducted in the Bannu region of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on November 11, 2008. Salman Khan and Zar Muhammad were released after eight months of captivity due to efforts made by the head of a religious party.

Khan disclosed after his release that Qahar was suffering from hepatitis and was mentally prepared for death. She was not very optimistic about her release, he had then said.

The sources said Qahar was not subjected to any "physical punishment" by her abductors. News about her death is being kept secret and pro-Taliban circles too expressed ignorance about the development.

Iraqi bishops againt hanging Tareq Aziz

Born in 1936 in Mosul into a Chaldean family, Tareq Aziz has always downplayed his religious background, presenting himself first and foremost as an Iraqi Arab and a member of the Baa‘th Party. In fact, he changed his original and very Christian name, Mikhail Yuhanna, for one that was less obvious about his origins.

With Saddam Hussein - no God came before himself - may have trusted Tareq Aziz more than those from various different Muslim factions. Saddam's party offered a power structure, with religious tones, and Aziz climbed up ~ while keeping a calculated distance from all things Christian ~ it is ironic that Christians have come to his support.


Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Iraqi bishops and ordinary Iraqis have joined the European Union and the Vatican in criticising the death sentence imposed on Tareq Aziz, former right hand man of Saddam Hussein. Most Iraqi media have done the same. According to the ruling by Iraq’s Supreme Court issued on Tuesday, the former foreign minister is guilty of taking part in the elimination campaign of a number of Shia political groups, like Dawa, to which current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki belongs.

The European Union, through its foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, has called the sentence as “unacceptable”, demanding its suspension. One of Aziz’s lawyers, Badia al-Aref, said he plans to plead with the Vatican to do something to stop the execution. In the meantime, he will launch an appeal.

Al Qaeda-linked terrorist claim responsibility for Baghdad attacks, also threaten Copts

A demonstrator holds a picture of Kamilia Shehata as other demonstrators shout in front of el-Nour mosque in Cairo August 28, 2010.

These terrorists 'other brothers' have called on the Copts in Egypt to hand over two Christian women they claim had converted to Islam, but were now being held against their will in a monastery. I am familiar with the story of one of these women, a priest's wife, she was kidnapped ~ by an Islamic man. The significance of the act of kidnapping and conversion to Islam, is well understood in Egypt [and in Pakistan] that if a Christian girl/woman is kidnapped, that person will be thereafter forced into marriage, i.e. forcible conversion to Islam. In these cases the Egyptian state protects the kidnapper. The act of kidnapping brings people to Islam ~ and of course no one can ever legally leave it.

Half of Egypt is pissed off that these women got away ~ in at least one case the Copts used the high profile nature of the case, to force the police to act and retrieve the woman [after a government sit it ~ they did]. She has appeared in a video, without a headscarf saying she would never leave her religion.

Clearly altered image of kidnapped Christian woman in Islamic dress - and possibly her kidnapper whose actions would be protected under Egyptian law.

The trouble is that before this, an extremist leaning newspaper in Egypt photoshopped a picture of the missing preacher's wife wearing a black hijab-headscarf - with the announcement that she had converted to Islam. Even though the paper admitted making up the picture, there have been protests in the streets [even a Facebook page] ~ for the woman's return to Islam ~ and now the violent 'other brothers' have stepped up, having attacked a Catholic church in Iraq, now want to go after the Copts, if their demands are not met.

Video shot ~ once kidnapped priest wife says she will never leave Christianity. Now in secret location. The terrorists have asked she be 'returned to Islam' or they will attack Copts as they have Catholics in Baghdad.

Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - An Iraqi group linked to Al Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) claimed responsibility for the attack yesterday in an Eastern-rite Catholic church in Baghdad (where the faithful killed were 37, seven policemen and five terrorists) and also gave an ultimatum of 48 hours to the Coptic Church of Egypt, to free two wives of priests who (according to the terrorists) are "imprisoned in monasteries" because, they converted to Islam.

This according to reports from the American centre for monitoring Islamist websites SITE. "A group of angered Mujahideen among the faithful Allah - according to a statement from the terrorist group - has carried out a raid on one of the shelters of obscene idolatry, which had always been used by Christians of Iraq as a headquarters for the fight against the religion of Islam and which supports those who fight this religion. " The Islamic State of Iraq said the attack on the church, was "to help our poor Muslim sisters prisoners in the Muslim country of Egypt." The ISI has given the Egyptian Coptic Church 48 hours to free these women "imprisoned in infidel monasteries of in idolatrous churches in Egypt."

According to SITE, the Iraqi terrorists in their threat to Egyptian Copts refer to two Coptic priests' wives, who are reportedly segregated in religious structures because one has apparently converted to Islam and the other would have expressed her intention to follow suit. The ISI posted an internet message attributed to the head of the suicide commandos in Baghdad that threatens Egyptian Christians and identifies the women as Camellia Shehata and Wafa Constantine.

Muslim Life Worth More In Cash: 'Islam and its peoples must be above the infidels, and never permit non-Muslims to acquire lordship over them'

In Pakistan after the Gorja massacre, where several Christians were burnt alive, the family of one Muslim man who was mistakenly killed, were paid 4 or 5 times [significantly more] compensation from government, than the Christian families received.

There is no equality in Islam!!

Jihad Watch: With all the talk of Sharia in the news lately -- the measure to outlaw it in Oklahoma, the ongoing attempts by Islamic apologists to whitewash it -- it is useful to recall some of its more notable aspects. One of these is qisas, or retaliation, which allows for blood money to be paid by the perpetrator to the relatives of the deceased in cases of accidental death or even murder.

In such cases, the compensation is higher if the victim was a Muslim than if he was a non-Muslim. Only the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence allows for the possibility of capital punishment in the case of a Muslim who has murdered an unbeliever. The Maliki and Hanbali schools set a Muslim's life as worth twice that of a non-Muslim -- hence this Saudi Hanbali ruling below. The Shafi'i school sets a Muslim's life as worth two-thirds that of a Jew or Christian. Polytheists, as here, are valued less. The Shafi'i Sharia manual 'Umdat al-Salik dictaes: "The indemnity for the death or injury of a woman is one-half the indemnity paid for a man. The indemnity paid for a Jew or Christian is one-third the indemnity paid for a Muslim. The indemnity paid for a Zoroastrian is one-fifteenth that of a Muslim." (o4.9)

From the website of the Consulate General of India, Jeddah, Arabia, who is recording these matters because they come up in connection with his people who are working in Saudi Arabia:

4. Mode of Pavment [sic] :
All Death Compensation cases (except industrial accidents) in Saudi Arabia are settled through concerned Shariat Courts in accordance with the Shariat Law.

5. Maximum Amount admissible :

The maximum amount of Death Compensation (Diyya) generally admissible in Saudi Arabia, in respect of road/traffic/fire accident, murder, etc. is as under:

Death Compensation in respect of a male person:

i. Muslim - SR. 100,000/-

ii. Christian/Jew - SR.50,000/-

iii. Other religions : such as Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, etc. - SR 6666.66

In the case of death of a female, death compensation allowed is equal to half the amount as admissible to males professing the same religion. Further the amount of compensation admissible, is based on the percentage of responsibility fixed on the causer e.g. if the causer is held 50% responsible for the accident resulting in the death of a Muslim, the amount of Death Compensation admissible will be SR 50,000 only.

100,000 Saudi riyals = $26,665.25
50,000 Saudi riyals = $13,332.62
6,666.66 Saudi riyals = $1,777.69

The Iranian Shi'ite Sufi Sheikh Sultanhussein Tabandeh explains: "Thus if [a] Muslim commits adultery his punishment is 100 lashes, the shaving of his head, and one year of banishment. But if the man is not a Muslim and commits adultery with a Muslim woman his penalty is execution...Similarly if a Muslim deliberately murders another Muslim he falls under the law of retaliation and must by law be put to death by the next of kin. But if a non-Muslim who dies at the hand of a Muslim has by lifelong habit been a non-Muslim, the penalty of death is not valid. Instead the Muslim murderer must pay a fine and be punished with the lash....Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim...then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain...Again, the penalties of a non-Muslim guilty of fornication with a Muslim woman are augmented because, in addition to the crime against morality, social duty and religion, he has committed sacrilege, in that he has disgraced a Muslim and thereby cast scorn upon the Muslims in general, and so must be executed....Islam and its peoples must be above the infidels, and never permit non-Muslims to acquire lordship over them." -- Sultanhussein Tabandeh, A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Jihad Watch

Saudi clerics issue fatwa ruling that women cannot work as supermarket cashiers ~ apparently men congregate there!

One could see how there might be a problem of getting to the cashier job!

The ruling was signed by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, the head of the Senior Scholars Council, and six other members of the fatwa committee...

...as it was an extremely urgent matter and it would be unthinkable to have women involved in the decision making.

Meanwhile - in other news ~ Brazil elects first woman president.

The Council of Senior Scholars, the official fatwa issuing body, said that "it is not permissible for a woman to work in a place where they mix with men," the news website Sabq.org said.

"It is necessary to keep away from places where men congregate. Women should look for decent work that does not make it possible for them to attract men or be attracted by men," it said.

The fatwa was in response to a question – published with the ruling – asking specifically if women should work as cashiers in supermarkets, Sabq reported.

The ruling was signed by Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, the head of the Senior Scholars Council, and six other members of the fatwa committee.

The fatwa came some four months after the labour ministry quietly authorised stores in the western city of Jeddah to employ women as cashiers, in an attempt to open up opportunities for women who are forcibly segregated from men under the strict Saudi version of Sunni Islam.

The first to test the policy was the Saudi-owned Panda chain, which started by putting 16 Saudi women to work at one store in the Red Sea city to test the concept.

At least two other popular chains, Marhaba supermarkets and Centrepoint, a general department store chain, also moved to employ women cashiers.

The decision comes after a conservative preacher was reprimanded in August for violating a government-mandated restriction on fatwas by calling for a boycott of supermarkets employing female cashiers. Saudi King Abdullah has been trying to clamp down on ultraconservative ideology as part of his bid to modernize the kingdom. But his efforts appear to be challenged by the influential religious scholars, who play a key role in the monarch's legitimacy. [TC]

Telegraph

A killer performance from the former Cat Stevens

As you can see from my prior post, I was at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear over the weekend.

As it happened, I was outside interviewing people during that appearance by the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens. So I didn't see Yusuf Islam's duel with Ozzy Osbourne.

And I didn't get to hear Jon Stewart tell the crowd that "his melodies have inspired millions of us to become better people."

If I had, though, I would have recalled the time his words were intended to inspire people to bump off a fellow Londoner who wrote a book he didn't like, as you will see below.

It turns out from the clip above that this was a funny routine.

But when it comes to restoring sanity, I would have been a lot more impressed if Colbert had brought author Salman Rushdie up there on stage with Islam.

Why didn't they?

Perhaps because they might have ended up restoring fear - at least in Rushdie.

Here's a column I wrote in 2002 headlined "Peace Train Has Lost a Passenger:"

In the aftermath of 9/11, many prominent spokesmen for the Muslim world have been in the news. Many seemed to view the events of that day as a human tragedy. Unfortunately, many others seemed to view those events as a public relations tragedy.

Perhaps the best example of the latter sort is the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens. He now calls himself Yusuf Islam.

I never liked him by any name. When it comes to pop singers with pretensions to Mideastern culture, I prefer the vastly superior Sam the Sham, a Mexican-American who in 1965 slapped on a turban and recorded the classic "Wooly Bully" with his backup group, the Pharaohs.

Never mind that Egyptians don't wear turbans. They don't speak Spanish either, but that didn't stop Sam from beginning his greatest hit with perhaps the most memorable intro of the era ("Uno, dos, a-one, two-tres-quatro!") followed by a blaring sax and cheesy organ riff.

Now, that's rock 'n 'roll. The '60s ended, however, and in the '70s we got whiny singer-songwriters. The whiniest of them all was Stevens. What could be more cutesy than the image of little Cat, with his perfect shag hairdo, leaping and hopping on a moon shadow?

Cat's yowling was soon replaced by disco, but he didn't go quietly. Pop stars have a habit of finding religion as their careers wind down, and the type of religion they find says much about them.

George Harrison of the Beatles found the religion of India. He chanted "Hare Krishna."
Pete Townshend of the Who found the religion of Meher Baba. He chanted "Don't Worry, Be Happy."
As for Stevens, he found militant Islam. He chanted, "He's got to be killed! He has to be executed!"

That is a quote from an August 1991 Washington Post interview with Mr. Peace Train himself. The writer had asked Stevens about what was the appropriate punishment for Salman Rushdie, the British author who wrote an unreadable 547-page book titled "The Satanic Verses" in which he allegedly blasphemed the prophet Mohammed.

Those remarks are particularly interesting in the wake of Sept. 11. Stevens, who was in America to promote a boxed set of his greatest hits, was quoted as saying that his remarks about Rushdie were distorted by the media. "You know, I mean, I couldn't believe the audacity of the press," he recently told National Public Radio.

Good point. You'd have to be pretty audacious to conclude that the words "He's got to be killed" imply that someone should be killed. In his defense, the singer said he was alluding not to Rushdie but to blasphemers in general.

However, just a month before the interview, one such blasphemer, the Japanese translator of Rushdie's book, had been stabbed to death. The translator of the Italian version was also knifed.
This was an instance of international terrorism of the same type, if not the same extent, as the Sept. 11 attacks. In that light, it is important to examine the rather weaselly words of the singer formerly known as Cat about the Sept. 11 tragedy.

The week after the attacks, he issued the usual denunciation of terrorism "without reservation." But then, like many other fundamentalists, he proceeded to list a reservation: "Yet we should remember that such violence is almost an everyday occurrence in some Muslim lands."

No, we shouldn't. To do so implies that the one balances out the other. This "Yes, but" structure was evident in the sentiments of many Mideasterners after Sept. 11. Most prominent was that Saudi sheik whose $10 million contribution to the WTC relief fund was turned down by Mayor Rudy Giuliani after the sheik linked the donation to a call for change in U.S. policy toward Israel.

Similar sentiments are voiced daily by the most prominent Islamic advocacy group in the United States, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. Ever since Sept. 11, CAIR has been sending out a daily stream of press releases that bemoan the tragedy and then call for the United States to change its policies in the Mideast in its aftermath.

None of these spokesmen would ever be so crass as to defend those 19 terrorists. Yet when it comes to the terrorism employed in the Rushdie case, they remain ambivalent at best. I have spoken to a number of spokesmen from CAIR and other Islamic advocacy groups without encountering anyone who will defend Rushdie's right to write whatever he pleases without fear of retribution. If there is such a spokesman, I have yet to hear of him.

Unfortunately, we in the West are doing a miserable job of explaining to Mideasterners the nature of freedom - of speech, of religion and in general. Instead of defending freedom, many well-meaning Westerners speak of the need to avoid offending cultural sensibilities.

There is no such need. Every person on Earth has to put up with the idea that someone, somewhere might say something disagreeable about his religion or culture. No culture is above criticism, least of all our own. We Americans have plenty in our history to be ashamed of.
In the 1970s, for example, we bought millions of Cat Stevens albums.

NJ - Paul Mulshine/The Star Ledger

NY: Local Jews Feel Terrorized After Latest Terror Plot - Video

NEW YORK (CBS 2/1010 WINS) – New York area synagogues were on heightened alert Monday, and some New York City apartment buildings were taking the extra precaution of not accepting package deliveries at all. This was all in response to Friday’s discovery of an international terror plot from Yemen targeting synagogues in Chicago, CBS 2HD’s Derricke Dennis reports.

“When something like this happens, it’s an awakening call to all of us saying the threat of radical Islam is not over, and will not be over, and we’ve got to be on alert all the time,” said State Assemblyman Dov Hikind.

Hikind, a prominent member of Brooklyn’s Jewish community, said it’s no longer a question of if synagogues would be struck by terrorists, but when.

The Secure Community Alert Network, or SCAN put New York synagogues on alert Monday, sending out a communique saying they are “advised to immediately be on the lookout for the delivery of any large packages if opened, that may contain printers, printer cartridges, cell phones or timers.”
The same packaging was involved in Friday’s terror.

Iran: 17th International Festival and Fair of Press and News Agencies: There is no free press in Islam!!

Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad smiles as he attends the 17th International Festival and Fair of Press and News Agencies closing ceremony in Tehran November 1, 2010.

Don't suspect many western media were in attendance ~ probably get arrested ~ for some spying charge or other. But here is what someone who did attend had to say ~ claims media harrassment:


UK 'Muslim Weekly' journalist: Western propaganda should be countered by Muslim media, dialogue

(ABNA) - Talking to Iran News Agency on the sidelines of the 17th International Festival and Fair of the Press and News Agencies, Editor-in-Chief of the UK-based weekly, `The Muslim Weekly’, Ahmed A Malik, said western media are controlled by the Jewish people and their news are biased targeting Muslims.

“…They attack Muslims; they label us terrorists and they harass us in many ways,” said the journalist.

He hailed the idea of holding such an exhibition and said the event will help Iran introduce its true image as westerners have tried to tarnish it.

He said Iran has been capable of bringing the world together and discuss issues relating to Muslim world.

By the way, he said, the participants in the current expo can share views and experience.