The American Jingoist

“A threat against him is, in the long term, also a threat against all Swedes,” they said. It’s also a threat against one of the most fundamental human rights, freedom of speech, which we all have such a tremendous stake in protecting. “Swedish papers publish Prophet Muhammad drawing,” from the Associated Press, March 10 (thanks to all who sent this in):

At least three Swedish newspapers on Wednesday published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog after an alleged plot to murder the artist who created it was uncovered in Ireland.

The controversial drawing by Swedish artist Lars Vilks was printed in Stockholm papers Dagens Nyheter and Expressen and the Malmo daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet.

Irish authorities had said Tuesday they detained four men and three women suspected of involvement in an alleged plot to kill Vilks.

Sydsvenska Dagbladet said it printed the drawing as part of its news coverage of the alleged plot. Expressen said it printed it for its news value and to take a stance for the freedom of speech.

‘I’m sure they have plans’

Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial that “Vilks doesn’t stand alone in this conflict. A threat against him is, in the long term, also a threat against all Swedes.”

Vilks has faced several death threats since the drawing was first printed by a Swedish newspaper in 2007, a year after separate cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper sparked furious protests in Muslim nations. Al-Qaeda put a $100,000 bounty on his head.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

Vilks said Wednesday he wasn’t sure whether to take the alleged plot seriously.

“Not until all the cards are on the table. I’m sure they have plans, but the question is how far they can go,” he told The Associated Press by telephone….

The one thing that can and should be done would be to call American Muslim groups to account, and demand that they institute in mosques and Islamic schools comprehensive, honest, inspectable programs teaching against the jihad doctrine and Islamic supremacism. But officials will never do this. They would prefer to pretend that the jihad doctrine and Islamic supremacism do not exist. And so we will see many more Jihad Janes.

“‘Jihad Jane’s’ Arrest Raises Fears About Homegrown Terrorists,” by Huma Khan, Emily Friedman, and Jason Ryan for ABC News, March 10 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

The arrest of a suburban Pennsylvania woman known by the alias Jihad Jane, who allegedly plotted with Islamic radicals abroad to kill a Swedish cartoonist, has raised fears about homegrown terrorists in the United States who may be difficult to spot. Suburban Pennsylvania woman is charged with recruiting extremists online.”This woman might as well have advertised in the Washington Post,” former White House counterterrorism official and ABC News consultant Richard Clarke said on “Good Morning America” today. “It was easy for the FBI to find her, but there are other people who are much more covert.”

“There will likely be more attacks,” Clarke said. “Hopefully, they will be small, and hopefully, we can catch them early.”

Colleen R. LaRose, 46, of Montgomery, Pa., was arrested in October 2009 and charged with trying to recruit Islamic fighters and plotting to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist who made fun of prophet Mohammed, according to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday.

The FBI had kept the case secret while it looked for more suspects in the United States and abroad. The case was made public after seven men were arrested in Ireland this week, suspected of plotting to kill the Swedish cartoonist.

LaRose’s case is rare, Clark [sic] said, but it shows the capability of international dissident groups to reach out to Americans via the Internet.

“This is a very rare case of a disturbed woman,” he said, but it signifies how “the Internet not only allows them to communicate, it allows them to recruit.”

Their persuasive speeches and sermons, which have been effective in recruiting men and women in the Middle East, are “beginning to work for some misfits in the United States,” he said….

But neither Clarke nor anyone else ever asks himself why these speeches and sermons are so persuasive.

“Those who kill humanitarian workers must be reminded that they are not only killing their own country’s residents, but also people seeking to improve the lives of victims of poverty and injustice.” They don’t care about that. As far as they’re concerned, the only thing that would improve the lives of their country’s residents would be more Islam, and thus these aid workers were enemies of what was good.

“Gunmen kill 6 in Western aid agency raid in Pakistan,” by Michael Georgy for Reuters, March 10 (thanks to Twostellas):

OGHI, Pakistan (Reuters) – Suspected Islamist militants stormed an office of a U.S.-based Christian aid agency in Pakistan on Wednesday, killing six members of staff in a hail of bullets and a bomb.Nuclear-armed U.S. ally Pakistan is battling al Qaeda-linked militants who have launched a string of attacks over the past few years, including some on foreign targets.

Gunmen burst into the World Vision office in Oghi village in Mansehra district, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Islamabad, at about 9 a.m. (0400 GMT), police and a witness said.

“About 10 men came, they were all wearing masks. They kicked the doors down, took everyone out of their offices, put them in one place and then started shooting,” said an office administrator, who asked to be identified only as Asif.

“They threw a bomb as they were leaving,” he said….

World Vision said the six dead were Pakistani members of staff and it was suspending all operations in the country.

Seven members of staff were wounded and one was missing, the aid agency said in a statement, adding that its relief and development work in Pakistan was conducted by Pakistanis.

“Those who kill humanitarian workers must be reminded that they are not only killing their own country’s residents, but also people seeking to improve the lives of victims of poverty and injustice,” it said….

But Charles Krauthammer will tell you that Geert Wilders is “extreme, radical, and wrong.”

Eurabia Alert: “Teacher attacked after al-Qaeda comments,” from AFP, March 9 (thanks to Pamela):

Lyon, France – A 15-year-old French schoolboy sprayed a teacher with teargas after she described al-Qaeda as a “terrorist group”, she told reporters on Tuesday as prosecutors began their investigation.”I had just explained that the attacks on September 11, 2001 were carried out by the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda, as is written in the text book,” said the history teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“He stood up and declared that al-Qaeda is not terrorist and that neither is the Taliban,” she said, adding that the boy had then pulled out a spray can and doused her and a teaching assistant with teargas.

Neither victim was seriously hurt….

Oh, well, then, the kid must be a moderate.

Instead, he should be calling on Gaddafi to apologize for the double standard of his call for Muslims to undertake economic jihad against Switzerland for banning minarets when non-Muslim religious practice is restricted far more severely than cosmetic issues all over the Islamic world.

“US apologises over Gaddafi comments,” from the BBC, March 9 (thanks to Pamela):

The US state department has apologised for comments made about Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s call for jihad against Switzerland.Department spokesman PJ Crowley, who made the dismissive comments, said they did not reflect US policy and were not intended to offend.

Col Gaddafi had criticised a Swiss vote against the building of minarets and urged Muslims to boycott the country.

Mr Crowley described it as “lots of words, not necessarily a lot of sense.” [...]

“I regret that my comments have become an obstacle to further progress in our bilateral relationship,” Mr Crowley said.

Last week, Libya’s National Oil Corporation warned US oil firms of possible “repercussions” over Mr Crowley’s reaction.

The Libyan ambassador to the US sought to clarify Col Gaddafi’s remarks saying the Libyan leader meant an economic boycott not “an armed attack”.

“I should have focused solely on our concern about the term jihad, which has since been clarified by the Libyan government,” Mr Crowley added.

As if the clarification, which was that economic jihad should be waged rather than violent jihad, makes Libya’s action acceptable.

“I understand my personal comments were perceived as a personal attack on the president,” he said.”These comments do not reflect US policy and were not intended to offend. I apologise if they were taken that way.”

And who was there to hail them as heroes but my old pal, the artless dissembler Hamid Mir!

An update on this story, and yet another Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: “Upset by U.S. Security, Pakistanis Return as Heroes,” by Jane Perlez for the New York Times, March 9 (thanks to David):

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A tour of the United States arranged by the State Department to improve ties to Pakistani legislators ended in a public relations fiasco when the members of the group refused to submit to extra airport screening in Washington, and they are now being hailed as heroes on their return home.”People should be thankful, you made them so proud,” said Hamid Mir, the host of a popular national talk show, during an interview in his studio on Tuesday with four of the six politicians, who railed against the security precautions at Ronald Reagan National Airport.

Meetings with the Obama administration’s top policy makers on Pakistan, including the president’s special representative, Richard C. Holbrooke, and visits to the Pentagon and the National Security Council, did not allay the anger the politicians said they felt at being asked to submit to a secondary screening on Sunday before boarding a flight to New Orleans. They declined to be screened and did not board the flight.

Pakistan is one of 14 mostly Muslim countries whose citizens must go through increased checks before they fly into the United States, a procedure mandated by the Obama administration in the wake of the failed attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up an airliner flying from the Netherlands to Detroit on Dec. 25.

The inclusion of Pakistan on the list was broadly criticized as an insult to a country that the United States calls an ally….

Yes, and it is such a reliable ally!

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: Aafia Siddiqui is a heroine in Pakistan. One would think that if the vast majority of Muslims there rejected the ideology of Al-Qaeda, as Charles Krauthammer and so many others assume they do, she would not have attained this exalted status. “U.S. Sees a Terror Threat; Pakistanis See a Heroine,” by Salman Masood and Carlotta Gall for the New York Times, March 5 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Relations between the United States and Pakistan often have a through-the-looking-glass quality, where almost nothing appears quite the same from the other side. The latest example is the case of Aafia Siddiqui.In the United States, authorities say Ms. Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist who once studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is suspected of having links to Al Qaeda. She was convicted by a New York court in February of trying to kill American military officers while in custody in 2008 in Afghanistan. She faces life in prison when she is sentenced in May.

In Pakistan, she has become a national symbol of honor and victimization so potent that politicians of all stripes, Islamists, the news media and an increasingly anti-American public have all lined up to champion her claim of innocence.

In a rare display of unity, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who has described Ms. Siddiqui as a “daughter of the nation,” and the opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif, have promised to push for her release. Last week, senators passed a resolution to demand her return to Pakistan.

Her sister, Dr. Fauzia Siddiqui, a neurologist who studied and taught at Johns Hopkins University, has led a countrywide campaign on Aafia Siddiqui’s behalf. In recent weeks, hundreds of people, including professionals and civil rights campaigners, have taken to the streets in support.

The broad outpouring has forced the government, led by the Pakistan Peoples Party, to publicly assure Ms. Siddiqui’s supporters that it will continue its legal assistance, which has amounted to $2 million already. [...]

“The prime minister has suggested to visiting American delegations that releasing Aafia Siddiqui unconditionally would greatly improve the image of the Americans in the public’s eyes,” a close aide to Mr. Gilani said. [...]

She had a long involvement in jihadi causes, even while a student at M.I.T. and, later, at Brandeis University. The F.B.I. has accused her of opening a post office box in 2002 in the name of Majid Khan, who is suspected of being a Qaeda member and is being held in the United States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Divorced from her first husband, Dr. Muhammad Amjad Khan, the father of her three children, she married Ammar al-Baluchi, the nephew of the professed orchestrator of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, in early 2003, according to court documents filed in the United States. [...]

She was arrested in July 2008 in Ghazni, Afghanistan, with her eldest child, Ahmed, then 12, who told Afghan investigators they had arrived by road from Quetta, in southwestern Pakistan, two days before. While in custody, prosecutors said, she grabbed a rifle from a police station floor and fired on Army officers and F.B.I. agents, hitting no one. She was shot in the abdomen. [...]

“The iconization of Aafia Siddiqui as an emblem of Pakistani womanhood represents the kind of female rebel acceptable in a rapidly Islamizing Pakistani society,” said Rafia Zakaria, a columnist for Dawn, the leading English daily newspaper….

Rapidly Islamizing indeed.

Big surprise here. Islamic Tolerance Alert: “Pakistan: Christians, not Muslims, arrested following attack on Christians,” from CatholicCulture.org, March 9 (thanks to Twostellas):

In the weeks following a February attack on Christian churches and homes in Pakistan’s largest city, police have questioned 40 Christians and arrested five, according to a report published by the Fides news agency. “It is an ironic accusation,” a source said, since “on that occasion, it was the Christian quarter of Pahar Ganj in Karachi that was attacked by a mob of Muslims who wrought havoc in the streets and burned shops.”…

Watch out for those in the West who, terminally confused, go off on a Spiritual Search. They try this, they try that. Then the bus stops at Islam, and if they get off, and some do, it’s very hard for them to get back on that bus.

For if you are confused and overwhelmed by life, the totalitarian temptation is extraordinarily strong – that is, the temptation to join a collective, which tells you what to do and what to think, and gives you a nice list of What Is Commanded and What Is Prohibited. And if you’ve forgotten or not yet learned a particular rule, you have only to Ask Mr. Fatwa on a thousand websites, and you will be told what to do.

And how it clears everything up, to have rules for everything. For those lost souls wandering in the universe, you get a complete guide and grid, you no longer have to think — why, you are positively encouraged not to think. What could be better? Yours, thank god, you think, is not to reason why.

There are people who love this sort of thing.

And in the case of Colleen Renee LaRose, she gets to fabricate a special Arab name, and even wear a hijab. She’s got a Cause. She’s got a Reason For Being. She’s someone special, and yet at the same time, she doesn’t have to be anyone at all, but can subsume herself in the collective and take the orders set down more than a millennium ago.

What could be better for the colleen-renee-laroses of this world? Look at how excited Adam Gadahn is to have become Azzam Al-Amriki, and to be the special someone he is today. And to have no doubts, and no need to think for oneself. What else, in this confusing world, do you need?

Once you become a Muslim, you have laid out for you the list of what is Prohibited and what is Commanded, of whom you will love and whom you will hate. You will love fellow Muslims, you will hate all non-Muslims. Simple, and clear, and don’t be confused if often those non-Muslims appear to be quite nice and generous towards you; remember, they remain non-Muslims. And if some Muslims behave in what might once have seemed to be a cruel and murderous fashion, remember they are Muslims, and acting according to the dictates of Islam, so they are not merely blameless, but admirable.

The New York Times has some piquant details, including the fact that no sooner did Colleen Renee LaRose become a Muslim — by simply reciting a line of verse (no tests and no waiting, just like getting married in South Carolina in the pre-war days) — than all of a sudden she had very firm views on Middle Eastern conflicts. All of a sudden, she who probably could not locate Israel on a map had become a fervent supporter of the Jihad against Israel: The “MySpace profile for a woman who refers to herself as JihadJane displays pictures of bloodshed and violence in the Middle East scrawled with messages like ‘Palestine We Are With You’ and ‘Sympathize With Gaza.’”

Become a Muslim, and all of a sudden you have a Very Strong Opinion about things you never knew, and still do not know, a thing about. It was perhaps obvious for Jihad Jane to start with an ostentatious taking of the side of “Palestine” (i.e., supporting — janishly — the Jihad against Israel), but if asked what she thought of this or that conflict involving Muslims, she would now have an answer too, which would be to always and everywhere take the Muslim side. If asked what she now thought about Kashmir, you can bet that she would insist that Kashmir belonged to Pakistan, and for that matter, India belonged to its rightful owners, the Muslims (whom those “colonialist” British had removed from power), that Abu Sayyaf terrorists in the Philippines should be backed to the hilt, that the Buddhists should get out of southern Thailand and leave it to the Muslims, that Khaddafy was right to declare Jihad against Switzerland for the minaret ban, that the Christians who were hacked to death in Nigeria had it coming to them, that the black Africans in the Sudan deserved, by the millions, to die because the Sudan belongs to Islam and to the Arabs, and so on and so bloody forth.

Join today. It’s the last important decision you’ll ever have to make. Tomorrow Belongs To You.

“Erdogan earned the King Faisal International Prize for having ‘rendered outstanding service to Islam by defending the causes of the Islamic nation, particularly the Palestinian cause and the just rights of the Palestinian people.’” Not to mention slowly but steadily dismantling Turkish secularism.

“Saudi awards Turkey’s Erdogan for ’service to Islam,’” from Middle East Online, March 10 (thanks to Twostellas):

RIYADH – Saudi King Abdullah presented Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan with one of the country’s most prestigious prizes on Tuesday for his ’service to Islam’.Erdogan earned the King Faisal International Prize for having “rendered outstanding service to Islam by defending the causes of the Islamic nation, particularly the Palestinian cause and the just rights of the Palestinian people,” said Abd Allah al-Uthaimin of the prize-awarding group.

“At the international level, he was a leading Muslim founder of the call for rapport between civilisations and a passionate advocate of constructive dialogue, openness, and principles of international understanding and cooperation.”…

Geert Wilders, said Charles Krauthammer, is “extreme, radical, and wrong.” In reality, Charles Krauthammer is ignorant, naive, and wrong.

From “Krauthammer’s Take” at National Review, March 9:

…What he says is extreme, radical, and wrong. He basically is arguing that Islam is the same as Islamism. Islamism is an ideology of a small minority which holds that the essence of Islam is jihad, conquest, forcing people into accepting a certain very narrow interpretation [of Islam].

This is an artificial distinction imposed by non-Muslims like Charles Krauthammer onto the Islamic world; it is not a distinction that is generally made by Muslims themselves, at least outside the U.S. and Western Europe — or if it is, it is made in a different way. Muslims who object to Al-Qaeda and other groups like it generally speak of them as neo-Kharijites, referring to an early rigorist group in Islam that rejected both Sunni and Shi’ite authorities if they deviated from Muhammad’s example, or as takfiri, referring to the jihadists’ promiscuous use of the practice of takfir, that is, declaring other Muslims to be unbelievers. When Muslims have protested against contemporary jihadist activity, it has been when the jihadists murder large numbers of fellow Muslims; the murders of non-Muslims have not generally stirred similar outrage.

Those are essentially the differences between the Al-Qaeda types and other Muslims: the others object to the jihadists’ rigorism and tendency to condemn other Muslims, and to the jihadists’ killing of other Muslims (which violates the command in Qur’an 4:92 never to kill a fellow Muslim intentionally). That’s it. There is no widespread debate among Muslims, outside of a few professors and self-proclaimed reformers with tiny followings, about whether the umma should wage war against unbelievers and strive in various ways to impose Sharia upon the world.

But Krauthammer seems to assume that there is a sharp division between Muslims who are political and supremacist and those who are not — for that is the essence of his saying that the “Islamists” believe that “the essence of Islam is jihad, conquest, forcing people into accepting a certain very narrow interpretation [of Islam].” Jihad — however variously interpreted — is a key element of the Islamic faith according to every single Islamic authority on the planet. Krauthammer, of course, is referring to violent jihad, and assuming that Muslims who are not engaging in it are not rejecting it as a matter of practicality or strategy, or an indifference to their faith, or a failure of courage, but because they actually do not believe it legitimate as a matter of Islamic theology for Muslims to wage war against unbelievers. He would be hard-pressed to find any honest Islamic authorities who would back him up on that — as evidenced by what Islamic authorities say and write to their fellow Muslims, not by what they say and write to easily and eagerly fooled non-Muslim Westerners.

The untruth of that is obvious. If you look at the United States, the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the U.S. are not Islamists. So, it’s simply incorrect. Now, in Europe, there is probably a slightly larger minority but, nonetheless, the overwhelming majority are not.

So Krauthammer is taking the fact that most U.S. Muslims are not engaging in jihad violence to mean that they reject it in principle. This would be a naive assumption in any context. There may be any number of reasons why someone is not doing something, and it would be silly to assume that anyone who is not doing some particular thing is refraining because he believes that to do it would be wrong.

He never considers, of course, the fact that all the mainstream sects and schools of Islamic jurisprudence teach as a matter of faith that Islam is intrinsically political and that Muslims must wage war against unbelievers and subjugate them under the rule of Islamic law. But that is a matter of verifiable fact, and it is the cornerstone of Wilders’ argument. There is nothing extreme, or radical, or wrong about noting that fact, and Charles Krauthammer should have the intellectual fortitude to look into this matter; if he did, he would realize that Wilders is correct.

Jihad Jane wanted to help the “suffering Muslim people,” and apparently she thought the best way to do that was to murder a few Infidels, perhaps including Swedish Motoonist Lars Vilks. More on this story. “Muslim convert Colleen LaRose, aka Jihad Jane, faces terror charges,” by Sam Jones for The Guardian, March 10 (thanks to all who sent this in):

An American woman who called herself Jihad Jane has been charged over an alleged plot to murder a Swedish man.Colleen Renee LaRose, 46, from Phildadelphia, is also accused of conspiracy to provide support to terrorists, making false statements and attempted identity theft.

Irish police yesterday arrested seven people over an apparent plot to kill Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist who had a bounty put on his head after depicting the prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog – though Vilks has not been named as LaRose’s alleged target.

Garda sources said the four men and three women were in their mid-20s to late-40s. Some of them arrested hold Irish citizenship and some are from the Middle East. Converts to Islam were among them, the Irish police said.

Vilks’s cartoon, drawn in 2007, prompted al-Qaida to place a $100,000 (£67,000) bounty on his head and offer a 50% bonus to anyone who slit his throat to ensure he was “slaughtered like a lamb”.

At least three Swedish newspapers – Dagens Nyheter, Expressen and Sydsvenska Dagbladet – published the cartoon today.

The US justice department declined to comment on whether the two cases were connected.

David Kris, the head of the department’s national security division, said: “The indictment, which alleges that a woman from suburban America agreed to carry out murder overseas and to provide material support to terrorists, underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face.”

LaRose, who also called herself Fatima LaRose online, allegedly posted a comment on YouTube in June 2008 saying she wanted to help “the suffering Muslim people”….

In Human Events this morning I discuss the latest hit video from the traitor Adam Gadahn:

Al-Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn in a new videotape released Sunday declared: “I am calling on every honest and vigilant Muslim in the countries of the Zionist-Crusader alliance in general and America, Britain and Israel in particular to prepare to play his due role in responding to and repelling the aggression of the enemies of Islam.” He called upon Muslims to be imaginative in their choice of jihad targets: “You shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that military bases are the only high-value targets in America and the West. On the contrary, there are countless other strategic places, institutions and installations which, by striking, the Muslim can do major damage.”Gadahn, who is known in jihadist circles as “Azzam the American,” is the first U.S. citizen to be indicted for treason since World War II. His new video shows that the charge is entirely justified.

In it, he held up 9/11 as a model for jihad attacks: “As the blessed operations of September 11th showed, a little imagination and planning and a limited budget can turn almost anything into a deadly, effective and convenient weapon.” He exhorted Muslims to sow mayhem in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West “by killing or capturing people in government, industry and the media.”

As surprising as it may be to hear an American fantasizing about mass murders in his native land, it is no surprise coming from Gadahn, who in a September 11, 2006 message called America “enemy soil.” And in his new communiqué, the pudgy Al-Qaeda operative even praised Nidal Hasan, the Islamic jihadist who murdered thirteen people at Fort Hood in November 2009, as “the ideal role-model for every repentant Muslim in the armies of the unbelievers and apostate regimes,” and as a “pioneer, a trailblazer and a role-model who has opened a door, lit a path and shown the way forward for every Muslim who finds himself among the unbelievers.”

Earlier videotapes show that mass murders on American military bases, such as the one eventually committed by Hasan, were long the stuff of Gadahn’s dreams. In July 2006, while engaging in an extended exercise in grievance theatre over alleged murders of children by American troops in Iraq, he said: “It’s hard to imagine that any compassionate person could see pictures, just pictures, of what the Crusaders did to those children, and not want to go on a shooting spree at the Marines’ housing facilities at Camp Pendleton.” He was anxious to demonstrate his own bloodlust, declaring: “We love nothing better than the heat of battle, the echo of explosions, and slitting the throats of the infidels.”

And therein lies the core of the problem. Gadahn has become a traitor who plots violence against Americans because of his allegiance to Islam, and his concomitant belief that he has a responsibility before the supreme deity to kill Infidels whom he believes to be at war with Islam. Yet aside from vague and loophole-laden condemnations of terrorism, Muslim groups in America have done nothing to counter the appeal of jihad recruiters to young men like Gadahn. We know from the recent flow of Somali immigrants in Minneapolis back to their homeland to wage jihad that jihad recruitment is continuing on American soil; and the people who converted Adam Gadahn to Islam and convinced him that God was pleased when he murdered people are still active, still spreading Islam among unsuspecting and alienated young Americans.

Reports Sunday that Gadahn had been captured just as his videotape was released turned out to be false. In fact, another American convert to Islam who is active in Al-Qaeda was the one who was captured – which shows anew that officials have ignored the conversion of rootless young Americans and their recruitment for the jihad to our great detriment. Gadahn himself, in any case, is still at large — and while American forces should continue to hunt for him in Pakistan and Afghanistan, law enforcement officials stateside should be on the lookout for an even greater threat emanating from those Muslims in this country who have taken his words, and the words of those who inspired and influenced him, to heart.

Does Petraeus read Jihad Watch? It was I who many years ago dubbed Ahmadinejad the “Thug-In-Chief.”

But of course he doesn’t, or he wouldn’t be pursuing the policies that he is pursuing.

“Iran officials lash out at ‘thug’ Petraeus,” from AFP, March 9:

TEHRAN — Top Iranian officials lashed out on Tuesday at US General David Petraeus for his comments asserting the Islamic republic is becoming a “thugocracy”, saying such terms are only used by “thugs.”"The murderous government of the United States is a government of thugs which has killed thousands of Iraqis, Afghans and Palestinians,” parliament speaker Ali Larijani said in the assembly.

“This exhausted general has insulted the Iranian government by calling it a government of thugocracy. It is understandable why you (Petraeus) utter such comments because the people of the region hate you,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Larijani as saying.

Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, said on Sunday that Iran is becoming a “thugocracy” given its attempts to suppress popular anger over last year’s contested presidential vote results.

“I think you’ve heard it said by pundits that Iran has gone from being a theocracy to a thugocracy,” Petraeus, whose command stretches from Egypt to Pakistan and includes Iran, said on CNN….

Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast too hit out at Petraeus.

“Such language is used by thugs… this attitude is of thugs,” Mehmanparast said at his weekly press conference.

“We feel officials in the United States are furious. We don’t know why they are furious… maybe due to their failure in launching a soft war (against Iran) or that the role of their intelligence services has been revealed in the case of (Abdolmalek) Rigi,” he said.

Iran captured top Sunni militant Rigi last month and accused US, Britain and Israel of supporting him in carrying out attacks against the Islamic republic.

Will the West ever stand up for the freedom of speech? Or will it just roll over and play dead? “Seven held over ‘cartoonist plot,’” from the UKPA, March 9 (thanks to Twostellas):

Seven Muslims have been arrested over an alleged plot to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog, police said.Al Qaida put a $100,000 bounty on the head of cartoonist Lars Vilks after a newspaper published his cartoon….

Typical projection, displacement of responsibility and Tu Quoque. “Nigeria: Don’t Tag All Muslims As Terrorists – Sultan,” from the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, March 10 (thanks to Twostellas):

Lagos — The Sultan of Sokoto and President, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) Alhaji Saad Abubakar has said it is not right to generalise the entire Muslims as terrorists whenever an individual among them does something wrong.Sultan Abubakar, who spoke in Lagos at a fund raiser for the Najah Joint Muslim Organizations (NAJOMO) mosque at the weekend, said rather than accuse all Muslims of terrorism, the acts of the United States and its agents should as well be examined.

He alleged that violent acts being perpetrated all over the world were being carried out by non-Muslims, including American citizens and agents of the American government. According to him, many Christians and Jews perpetrate terror acts on a daily basis but they are not tagged terrorists by the US and the media.

“Our dear brother, the Baba Addini of Egba Land (Adegbite) was correct when he said Muslims are not terrorists and that Islam is a religion of peace. Let me add here that some people somewhere are known for their lies against Islam and Muslims. Violent acts are perpetrated all over the world by adherents of different faiths and not only Muslims commit them.

Let me say here that it is unfair to Muslims and Islam for the US government to rush, as it used to do, to tag Muslims as terrorists whenever they commit any violent act. It is sad that if an adherent of any other religion commit any terror act the US and the media would not call such a person a terrorist, the US and the media must change this.

“I make bold to say that if we should put all violent acts being perpetrated all over the world by Americans and the ones Muslims commit on a scale, we would surely see that those being committed by the US citizens outweigh those they claim Muslims committed. But as Muslims we should try to change this negative attitude they have towards us. We can change this by showing them the beauty of our religion”, he said.

Hey, might as well start now!

Most Western analysts would regard this as good news: Muslims eschewing terrorism assimilating into a Western country, and even participating in the established political process! What could be the downside? Well, there are several. First, the fact that the new political party is specifically Muslim is a sign that those who formed it are not assimilating and adopting various views along the Western political spectrum, but are merely furthering the cause of Islam as a political entity in Spain. For what could a Muslim political party possibly stand for except for Sharia values? Second, although the focus in officialdom in the U.S. and Europe is wholly and solely on “terrorism,” actually the real threat is the attempt to impose Sharia in the West, whether by violent or peaceful means. The establishment of this political party is just an exercise in the peaceful, rather than violent, spread of Sharia norms in the West.

“New Muslim political party launched in Spain,” from Typically Spanish, March 6 (thanks to Twostellas):

The first national political party to have a Muslim character has been launched in Granada. The Partido Renacimeinto y Unión España or PRUNE party of Spain, says it is open to all the world.Based on Islam, and founded by the writer, poet and journalist, Mostafa Bakkach El Aamrani, it says it intends to contest the municipal elections next year in Málaga, Madrid, Barcelona, Murcia, Valencia, Oviedo and Toledo on a manifesto of ‘justice, equality and solidarity’….

Democracy? Yes, because then the Tiny Minority of Extremists in Pakistan, who actually form the overwhelming majority, will vote in a full Sharia government. “‘Democracy, jihad, nukes vital,’” by Rana Latif, Jawad R. Awan, Jam Sajjad Hussain, and Khalid Malik in The Nation (Pakistan), March 8 (thanks to Twostellas):

LAHORE – Speakers at a special ceremony held in memory of late Hameed Nizami at Alhamra on Sunday were of the opinion that an independent, Islamic, democratic and welfare state was the cherished goal of the people of Pakistan and this objective was supreme in the eyes of the founders of Pakistan which needed to be emulated by us. Any deviation from this path and the Pakistan ideology would leave the country in chaos.”However, to achieve these objectives, we have to break the shackles of the US domination and replace the colonial system of education with a uniform education system of our own. Also it is imperative to uphold democracy, spirit of jihad and nuclear capability to maintain political and economic freedom for the well-being of the people,” they observed….

Qazi Hussain Ahmad said the worst democracy was better than the good dictatorship and this slogan was carried on the title of Nawa-i-Waqt edited by Hameed Nizami and now by Majid Nizami. This means to propound that the government should function according to the wishes of the people and that wishes were to make Quran and Sunnah supreme and ensure its enforcement in the country. A worst democracy cannot easily ignore the sentiments of the people, he added….

“The majority of Copts believe the reason for the acquittal of Muslims is that although Egypt claims to be a secular state, in reality it applies the Sharia law which dictates that a Muslim who kills a non-Muslim must not be killed, because it is not reasonable to equate a Muslim with a ‘polytheist’ (a Christian).”

Indeed. “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 of the indemnity paid for a Muslim. The indemnity paid of a Zoroastrian is one-fifteenth of that a Muslim.” — ‘Umdat al-Salik, o4.9

“Egyptian Court Acquits Muslims Who Beheaded a Christian,” by Dan Wooding for ASSIST News Service, March 8 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ASSUIT, EGYPT (ANS) — An Egyptian court in the southern city of Assuit has acquitted four Muslims accused of killing 61-year-old Farouk Attallah on October 19, 2009.This has been reported by Mary Abdelmassih in a story for the Assyrian International News Agency who said, “In broad daylight and in full view of witnesses, the killers fired 31 bullets to his head before beheading him, in the busy village market place of Attaleen, near Dairout, 313 kilometers south of Cairo,” said, The dead body was then dragged in the street, accompanied by shouts of victory.

“The judge presiding over the court on February 22, said that he was not satisfied that the testimony of the witnesses established that the imprisoned men were the killers. After the acquittal of Mohamad, Ashraf, Osama and Ahmad Hassouna, there was jubilation in the court room, with shouts of ‘Allah is Great’ and congratulations from all Muslims, including members of the state security forces who were present.”

She said that Christians were enraged over the acquittal, since similar cases would result in life imprisonment or execution for a Copt if the victim was a Muslim and came as another wake-up call to many Copts in Egypt.

According to Peter Sarwar, the plaintiff’s attorney who told Mariam Ragy of Katiba Tibia Coptic site, “It sends a clear message that Coptic blood is extremely cheap. This acquittal will make permanent the present culture of impunity enjoyed by Muslim aggressors against Copts.”

Sarwat said the ruling was inadequate, as it acquitted the accused but did not say who the perpetrators are. “If these men did not kill, so who killed? The ruling should have referred the case to the general prosecution to present the perpetrators.”

Abdelmassih said that the Court based its ruling on quasi non existent proof, as well as the absence of “positive evidence” testimony versus the presence of “negative evidence” testimony.

“The judge refused to take into consideration the testimonies of the dead man’s daughter who said she only saw one killer and not four, as well as the testimony of the Muslim man who was wounded in the shootings,” said Sarwat.

According to media reports, most people who witnessed the shootings in the market place refused to come forward for fear of vengeance from the assailants’ family. There were false witnesses who confirmed that the killers were present at work.

“It is not enough to get a conviction based only on police reports which are full of legal loopholes and weak prosecution investigations,” said Sarwat. Legal observers have always claimed that the police purposely deliver to prosecution reports full of inadequacies and loopholes, thereby getting from the courts acquittals for Muslims.

What prompted the killing of Farouk Attallah was an alleged illicit sexual relationship between his son Romany and a local Muslim girl, Hagger Hassouna. A rumor that intimate photos of Hagger together with her lover Romany were circulating on cell phones in Dairout lead four members of the Hassona family to kill Romany’s father, after failing to locate his son, who had fled.

Abdelmassih stated that besides the killing of Farouk Attallah, the arrest of the Hassouna perpetrators sparked on October 24, 2009, Muslim riots and collective punishment against all Copts in Dairout. Christian-owned shops, pharmacies, and homes were looted and burned.

“Although several hundreds Muslims participated in those riots, the police only detained 19, and these were acquitted on December 13, 2009 because of the lack of eyewitnesses and conflicting statements between the accused and the victims,” she said.

“The majority of Copts believe the reason for the acquittal of Muslims is that although Egypt claims to be a secular state, in reality it applies the Sharia law which dictates that a Muslim who kills a non-Muslim must not be killed, because it is not reasonable to equate a Muslim with a ‘polytheist’ (a Christian).”

Commenting on the acquittal, Dr. Naguib Gobraeel, President of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights, asked: “What is the solution? The same happened with regards to Al-Kosheh Massacre [21 Copts were slaughtered in 2000 and not one Muslim was indicted], the attack on the Copts in Alexandria were blamed on a mentally unstable person; even the assailant who beheaded Abdo Goerge Younan in Menoufiah is now in a mental hospital. Heavenly Justice is our last resourt.” He stated that he will appeal this week’s verdict.

The victim’s family was greatly shocked and saddened by the acquittal. “In spite of the blood of their slain family head filling the street, the Muslim killers got away literally with murder,” Sarwat said “It just shows how cheap Coptic blood can be.”…

But of course, we all have to recognize the existence of the impenetrable firewall between “moderates” and “radicals,” on pain of being charged with “Islamophobia.”

“Blackburn terror suspect was to teach in mosque,” by Neil Docking for the Lancashire Telegraph, March 6 (thanks to Twostellas):

THE leader of a Muslim community has told how he invited a suspected terrorist from Blackburn to his country to teach at his new mosque.Businessman Altaf Rajah told Manchester Crown Court that he asked Abbas Iqbal, 24, of Percival Street, Blackburn, to join his 200-strong organisation in Northern Europe.

Iqbal was arrested at Manchester Airport last summer when he and another alleged extremist were found carrying ‘terrorism-related material’.

Mr Rajah, who owns a petrol station and restaurant and imports oil from England, said he needed the duo to help at his Islamic centre.

He told the court through an interpreter that he was looking for somebody who spoke Urdu and Punjabi….

Yeah, sure, and there was absolutely no other Muslim around who could do that.

As the caliph Umar is supposed to have said when ordering the library of Alexandria to be burned: “If the books agree with the Qur’an, they are superfluous. If they disagree with it, they are heretical.”

Sharia Alert from the Horn of Africa: “Somali Islamist rebels ban English, science lessons,” by Sahra Abdi for Reuters, March 5 (thanks to Twostellas):

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Somalia’s hardline Islamists have banned English and science studies in schools in the southern Afmadow town after the education centers there ignored the rebels’ call for fighters, residents and teachers say.World

Residents of the town near the border with Kenya said three schools had been given one month to comply with the order by al Shabaab rebels and switch the curriculum to accommodate Arabic and Islamic studies.

“They asked us to contribute students to their militia so that they can fight for them, but we rejected their proposal,” said one teacher who wanted to remain anonymous.

Al Shabaab, which Washington says is al Qaeda’s proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state, wants to topple Somalia’s U.N.-backed government and impose its own strict version of sharia, Islamic law.

The heavily armed group controls much of the south and parts of the capital Mogadishu, and courts run by its clerics have ordered executions, floggings and amputations.

It has also banned movies, dancing at wedding ceremonies and playing or watching soccer in the areas under its control.

Elders said the al Shabaab militia shut down Waamo, Dhoobaale and Osman Mohamud schools briefly Sunday, before slapping the ban on English, which they called a “spy language.”

“The Islamic administration closed education centers and ordered them to stop teaching English which they said is a western language,” Ali Mowlid Mohamud, clan elder in Afmadow, told Reuters by phone.

“They told schools, ‘We know everyone who is going to be a spy for western governments learns this language.’”…

Actually it was a jihad/martyrdom attack perpetrated by Sunnis. Will the Islamophobia never end? “Shia Muslims targeted in Pakistan’s suicide attack: police,” from Xinhua, March 5 (thanks to Twostellas):

A suicide bomber on foot killed at least five people, including three women, in Pakistan’s northwest, a senior police officer said Friday.The bomber exploded his bomb near a convoy of buses, carrying Shia Muslims, in Hangu district, destroying three vehicles, police officer Islam-ud-Din said.

Commissioner Khalid Khan earlier said that ten people were killed in the attack….

Police described the attack as sectarian as Shia Muslims were targeted. Hangu district has seen a series of sectarian attacks in the past but the area had been calm in recent months….

Jews…controlling my…thoughts…must…resist…

“Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews…” (Qur’an 5:82). And in their wicked enmity they even constructed those gas chambers and ovens, just to victimize the Islamic world. Those crafty Zionists!

Conspiracy Paranoia Alert: “Jordanian newspaper: ‘The Holocaust is a Jewish Myth, Legend, and Lie,’” from Translating Jihad, March 9:

The Holocaust in Our Curriculum
Dr. Salah al-Khalidi
as-Sabeel, 26 Feb 2010
The Jews are experts at exercising power over others by invading their thought, culture, and education, and controlling their views and thoughts. Thus the Jews convert others into their supporters by subjecting them to their lies. They succeed greatly in this Satanic mission because of the ignorance of the Gentiles and the ability of the Jews to plant their agents of thought, culture, media, politics, government, finance, and art, and convert them into soldiers. These soldiers then undertake to “normalize” every Gentile and make them slaves, followers of the Jews. Everyone who takes an honest look at the conditions of the modern world and the Jews’ dealings in it realizes this truth. Among the clearest examples of this is the Holocaust.

The Jews succeeded in converted the The Holocaust, a malignant term, into dogma. Every man throughout all the world must have faith in and profess this creed, for woe unto he who denies or doubts it.

The meaning of this Jewish creed is thus: the Jews were slaughtered in Nazi prisons in the days of the second world war, in which they claimed that Hitler and his regime executed and burned more than 5 million Jews in gas ovens in Germany and elsewhere!! The Jews blackmailed Germany, calling for her to pay financially for the crimes of the Nazis and recompense the Jews for the sacrifices of the Holocaust. They took billions upon billions from Germany and the rest of Europe, and still continue to blackmail and milk the Europeans!!

If any Western thinkers attempt to doubt the numbers of Jews killed in the Holocaust, they are branded anti-semites who must be tried, convicted, and punished, as happened with Jarudi.

The Jewish devils direct UNESCO, the international cultural organization under the umbrella of the United Nations, exploiting the stupid Gentiles and using them to issue international resolutions which require every nation in the world, including those in our Arab and Islamic world, to consider the Holocaust a worldwide tragedy….

Read it all.

These men were not arrested or cited. They were questioned. I also have been questioned about my activities and allegiances after people have seen me in airports working on a website that prominently mentions “jihad.” When CAIR and these Muslim men try to make a big deal of this, the underlying agenda is clear: they are trying to inhibit law enforcement personnel. They’re trying to make sure that police and other investigators will be too intimidated and hamstrung by PC sensibilities to question young Muslim men about their actions, no matter where, no matter how suspicious.

Remember also that CAIR was involved in the attempt by six imams who were taken off an airplane after other passengers complained about their behavior to sue those passengers. If they had succeeded, people would have been afraid to report suspicious behavior by Muslims, for fear of getting sued. This is of a piece with that.

“Muslim Men Claim Henderson Police Detained Them for Praying,” from LasVegasNow, March 5 (thanks to herr Oyal):

LAS VEGAS – Henderson Police are investigating some of their own officers regarding a complaint filed by a group of Muslim men who stopped to pray in a parking lot.The incident happened in December. The Muslim men were passing through Las Vegas on a road trip. They stopped at a convenience store parking lot in Henderson to perform their sunset prayer. According to documents obtained by 8 News NOW, a concerned citizen called the police, saying seven Middle Eastern males were acting suspiciously by a gray minivan with California license plates. The caller reported several of the men were kissing the ground.

Read the Incident Report

Minutes later, Henderson Police officers arrived on the scene. One of the Muslim men recorded the incident with his cell phone.

Watch Cell Phone Video from the Incident

“We don’t (have) you at gunpoint,” one of the officers said. “We’re not going to throw you down on the ground or handcuff you right now. We just want to make sure that you guys are good people.”

“We are praying,” one of the men replied. “You know, this is a Muslim prayer. Is that enough for you to say that this is suspicious activity?”

“Well, that’s why I’m checking it out,” the officer replied.

“Do you think it is,” the Muslim man asked.

“I think there’s somebody out there that called us and said, ‘Hey check this out,’” the officer said. “Did I see you guys praying? No. Do I know what you were saying? I don’t know if you guys repeat the same thing, or if you’re actually over there saying, ‘I hope that I kill a police officer today.’ I don’t know that you’re not saying that.”

After almost 45 minutes, the Muslim men were on their way. They were not arrested or cited. They are now vowing to fight what they consider an unlawful stop.

Cue the obligatory mainstream media CAIR reference with no hint that CAIR is an unsavory Hamas-linked group that has opposed every anti-jihad effort ever devised by man:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, has filed a formal complaint with the Henderson Police Department.Read the Letter from CAIR to Henderson Police

“What the men really want to see is change within the police department and (a change in) law enforcement attitude toward people engaged in religious activity,” CAIR Los Angeles Chapter staff attorney Ameena Qazi said. The Muslim travelers also want compensation for damages and emotional distress….

But of course, to oppose the global jihad and Islamic supremacism is racism. “Attack on Nigerian town kills more than 200,” from CNN, March 8 (thanks to Bill):

Lagos, Nigeria (CNN) — The death toll from weekend violence in central Nigeria climbed to more than 200 Monday after members of a machete-wielding Muslim group attacked mostly Christian villages, officials said.More than 200 were dead and 32 injured, according to Choji Gyang, a religious affairs adviser to the head of Plateau state, who said bodies were still being recovered. Sani Shehu, president of the non-governmental agency Civil Rights Congress, put the number of dead at about 485 people.

Twenty-six arrests had been made in connection with the violence, Gyang said.

Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan put security on high alert Sunday and began operations to capture the “roving bands of killers” who attacked the town of Dogo Nahauwa, just south of Jos.

The townsfolk are predominantly Berom, an ethnic group that mostly practices Christianity, said Manase Pampe, Red Cross spokesman for its Plateau state office. Reports of the attack described the assailants as members of the Muslim Hausa-Fulani ethnic group, Pampe and government spokesman Gregory Yenlong said.

The attackers stormed the town at 3 a.m. Sunday (9 p.m. Saturday ET) and remained there for 2.5 hours, Pampe said. Buildings were set afire and people were attacked with machetes, Yenlong said….

In FrontPage today I write about a couple of things Adam taught us:

The first American to be charged with treason since World War II was back in the news Sunday, both for a new videotape he released and for reports of his capture that turned out to be false. In the videotape, al-Qaeda operative Adam Gadahn, an American convert to Islam, praised the Fort Hood jihad murderer and called upon Muslims to carry out jihad attacks in the United States. The reports that Gadahn had been captured caused widespread excitement until the arrestee turned out to be a different American convert to Islam, Abu Yahya Mujahdeen Al-Adam, who like Gadahn is an al-Qaeda leader. The videotape and the arrest of the other American-born Muslim demonstrate yet again the cognitive dissonance that prevails at the highest levels regarding the nature of the jihad threat.In the videotape, Gadahn called Nidal Hasan, who murdered thirteen people in the name of jihad and Islam at Fort Hood in November 2009, “Brother Nidal” and held him up as “the ideal role-model for every repentant Muslim in the armies of the unbelievers and apostate regimes.” And not just military personnel: Gadahn added that “Nidal Hasan is a pioneer, a trailblazer and a role-model who has opened a door, lit a path and shown the way forward for every Muslim who finds himself among the unbelievers.”

Gadahn advised his fellow jihad warriors: “You shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that military bases are the only high-value targets in America and the West. On the contrary, there are countless other strategic places, institutions and installations which, by striking, the Muslim can do major damage.” He implored jihadis to think out of the box: “As the blessed operations of September 11th showed, a little imagination and planning and a limited budget can turn almost anything into a deadly, effective and convenient weapon.”…

Read it all.

Zachariah Matthews argues that “‘Sharia law could function as a parallel system in the same way that some traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander law was recognised in the Northern Territory.” But there’s a crucial difference: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander laws are not part of a totalitarian, supremacist system that doesn’t lend itself to compartmentalization, revision, and reform. As such, the introduction of any Sharia starts down a slippery slope leading to more Sharia.

Given Sharia’s inherent flaws regarding human rights, gender equality, and equality before the law, implementing it in any form would defeat the purpose of equal protection under one body of laws for all Australians. It would also open the door to coercion to “opt out” of the Australian system in favor of Sharia, stacking the deck against women and children who may be attempting to flee from abuse.

“Muslim leader wants elements of sharia in Australia,” by Paul Bibby for the Sydney Morning Herald, March 8 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Elements of Islamic law – the sharia – should be legally recognised in Australia so that Muslims can live according their faith, a prominent Muslim leader says.

Addressing an open day at Lakemba Mosque on Saturday, the president of the Australian Islamic Mission, Zachariah Matthews, said parts of sharia could be recognised as a secondary legal system so that Muslims were not forced to act contrary to their beliefs. ”Sharia law could function as a parallel system in the same way that some traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander law was recognised in the Northern Territory,” Dr Matthews told the Herald after the session.

”I don’t think we are so unsophisticated that we cannot consider a multilayered legal system as long as it doesn’t conflict with the existing civil system.”

The comments shocked some attending the open day. They felt Dr Matthews was advocating the introduction of the penal system under which women have been stoned to death for adultery, and corporal punishment is meted out for some offences.

”It came as quite a shock to some non-Muslims in the crowd when sharia law and the idea of a parallel legal system was mentioned,” one audience member, Jasmine Donnelly, said.

”One group of people just left straight after that.”

But Dr Matthews said he was referring only to certain elements of family law and inheritance law and was not advocating the sharia penal system.

”I wasn’t talking about sharia law in its entirety – we are not calling for the introduction of the penal system which calls for cutting off hands,” he said.

At least he acknowledges that much. Nevertheless, “just a little peril,” in the words of Michael Palin’s Sir Galahad, should not be an option. Indeed, even his own example is problematic:

Dr Matthews said a clash occurred in some custody matters. ”Under sharia law, if a couple divorce and the mother remarries, her former husband has the right to decide whether the children will live with the new husband or not,” Dr Matthews said.

”There is still a preference for the child to go with the mother, but the father has the ultimate decision.

”This does not exist in Australian law but I do not believe it clashes fundamentally with Australian values or the Australian legal system.”

Sure it does. The divorced father is not an impartial arbiter. For that matter, custody decisions in the West consider the best interests of the children, not the self-interest of the father.

Revolting geek of mass proportions

Speak of the devil: just as he releases a new video calling on Muslims to wage jihad warfare against the U.S., the self-described “revolting geek of mass proportions” (no, not Allahpundit) appears to be caught. I look forward to his treason trial, and hope to get a chance to meet him face-to-face (especially since Adam is a faithful Jihad Watch reader who once described me in an Al-Qaeda videotape as a “Zionist Crusader, missionary of hate, counter-Islam consultant”).

One must wonder if the arrest, if true, will shake this convert’s faith. After all, in the Qur’an the schema is very simple: if you obey Allah, you will have earthly success. If you disobey Allah, you will not. So how could a pious mujahid like Adam suffer such a reversal?

“Sources: U.S.-born Al-Qaida spokesman caught,” from MSNBC, March 7 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Adam Yahiye Gadahn, a California-born spokesman for al-Qaida, has been captured in Pakistan, government sources said Sunday.The word came from sources cited by The Associated Press and Pakistani news Web sites.

An intelligence source confirmed the reports to NBC News, and photographs supplied to NBC of the detained suspect corroborated the accounts.

Gadahn was detained in Sohrab Goth, a suburb of Karachi, and was later moved to the capital Islamabad, the source added.

Gadahn, 31, grew up on a goat farm in Riverside County, Calif., and converted to Islam at a mosque in nearby Orange County.

Gadahn has been wanted by the FBI since 2004 and two years later was charged with treason. There is a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction….

Bravo and thanks to all involved in this arrest.

Adam Gadahn, the convert to and Misunderstander of Islam who has risen high in Al-Qaeda and is the first American to be charged with treason since World War II, and who called me in an earlier videotape a “Zionist Crusader, missionary of hate, counter-Islam consultant” (yes, I’ve got to get cards printed), now calls on Muslims to attack the U.S. and praises the Fort Hood jihadist.

Here again we have the same old cognitive dissonance. American Muslim and non-Muslim spokesmen insist that the jihadis have nothing to do with Islam and misuse it. The jihadis, on the other hand, constantly invoke Islam to explain and justify what they do, and claim the mantle of true and pure Islam. One of them is wrong, one of them is lying. One would think that the U.S. government would be interested in this question, since it has important policy implications. But it isn’t. Official Washington has made a dogmatic decision, and clings to it with all the fervor that Gadahn himself brings to his commitment to Islam.

“Al-Qaida calls on US Muslims to attack America,” by Patrick Quinn for Associated Press, March 7 (thanks to all who sent this in):

CAIRO – Al-Qaida’s American-born spokesman on Sunday called on Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces to emulate the Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood.In a 25-minute video posted on militant Web sites, Adam Gadahn described Maj. Nidal Hasan as a pioneer who should serve as a role model for other Muslims, especially those serving Western militaries.

“Brother Nidal is the ideal role-model for every repentant Muslim in the armies of the unbelievers and apostate regimes,” he said.

Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, was dressed in white robes and wearing a white turban as he called for attacks on what he described as “high-value targets.”

“You shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that military bases are the only high-value targets in America and the West. On the contrary, there are countless other strategic places, institutions and installations which, by striking, the Muslim can do major damage,” he said, an assault rifle leaning up against a wall next to him.

Hasan has been charged in the Nov. 5 shooting that killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas. The 39-year-old Army psychiatrist remains paralyzed from the chest down after being shot by two civilian members of Fort Hood’s police force.

“Nidal Hasan is a pioneer, a trailblazer and a role-model who has opened a door, lit a path and shown the way forward for every Muslim who finds himself among the unbelievers,” Gadahn said….

In the latest video, Gadahn said those planning attacks did not need to use only firearms like Hasan, but could use other weapons. “As the blessed operations of September 11th showed, a little imagination and planning and a limited budget can turn almost anything into a deadly, effective and convenient weapon.”

Gadahn said fighters should target mass transportation systems in the West and also wreak havoc “by killing or capturing people in government, industry and the media.”

He recommended finding ways to shake “consumer confidence and stifle spending” and noted that even unsuccessful attacks, such as the failed attempt to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas day, can bring major cities to a halt.

“I am calling on every honest and vigilant Muslim in the countries of the Zionist-Crusader alliance in general and America, Britain and Israel in particular to prepare to play his due role in responding to and repelling the aggression of the enemies of Islam,” Gadahn said.

Another incident in an ongoing effort to obtain an exemption for Muslims from the body scans that Muslims made necessary. “Pakistani lawmakers refuse body scan, cut short US visit,” from DPA, March 7 (thanks to Slothy):

Islamabad, March 7 (DPA) A delegation of Pakistani lawmakers refused to subject themselves to a controversial full-body X-ray scan at a Washington airport, a media report said Sunday.The six-member group of the parliament members from Pakistan’s restive tribal region cut short their official US visit immediately to return home, the Pakistani Express News channel said.

It was the first official delegation that refused to go through the body scanners since they were installed at 19 US airports last month.

Abbas Afridi, the head of Pakistani delegation, said the US State Department had invited them to Washington to discuss security and development projects in the tribal region, with a promise that they would not be subjected to body scanning.

‘We were not scanned when we arrived on March 28 in Washington from Pakistan, but on Saturday when we wanted to travel to another city the authorities told us that we would be scanned,’ Afridi told Express News.

‘We refused the scanning and now we are returning home,’ he said….

And a convert to and Misunderstander of Islam, who characterized a barrel of explosives as “a small present for our apostates and infidels,” was apparently killed in a Russian raid last week. “Islamic militants blamed in deadly November attack on Russian train,” by Philip P. Pan for the Washington Post, March 6 (thanks to Davida):

MOSCOW — Russian authorities on Saturday blamed a group of Islamic militants killed and captured in an offensive last week for the November bombing of a luxury train to St. Petersburg, the deadliest terrorist attack on Russian soil outside the volatile North Caucasus in years.Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Federal Security Service, said explosive components recovered in the raid in the troubled Ingushetia province, located west of Chechnya, and DNA taken from the alleged rebels matched those found after the attack on the Nevsky Express train, which left 28 people dead and more than 90 others injured….

Speaking in a televised meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev, Bortnikov said the group is also suspected in 15 other attacks, including bombings and the slaying of security officers.

Among those killed in the raid, he said, was Alexander Tikhomirov, a young preacher who had emerged as a major figure in the violent radical Muslim insurgency that has evolved from the Chechen separatist movement and spread across the mountains of Russia’s southwest frontier.

Tikhomirov’s death could represent an important victory for Russian forces in the North Caucasus, because he was considered an effective propagandist and seemed to play a key role in rallying the insurgency’s ethnic and local factions around the goal of establishing a fundamentalist Caucasus Emirate.

A convert to Islam from Siberia who studied in Egypt and was thought to be in his late 20s, he had appeared in Internet videos taking credit for suicide attacks on the Ingush governor’s motorcade and on a police station in Ingushetia’s largest city, Nazran. The latter showed him sitting with what appeared to be a barrel of explosives, which he described as “a small present for our apostates and infidels.”…

“In January 2007, Akram Musa Abdallah knowingly made material false statements when he was being interviewed by FBI agents in connection with the federal investigation and prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief & Development (HLF) and its officers. At the time of the interviews, Abdallah knew the HLF was a Specially Designated Terrorist organization.” CAIR and ISNA and others are unindicted co-conspirators in the HLF case. “Mesa Man Sentenced to Prison for Lying to the FBI During a Terrorism Investigation,” an FBI press release, March 4 (thanks to Sr. Soph):

PHOENIX–Today, Akram Musa Abdallah, a.k.a. Abu Saiaf, 55, of Mesa, Arizona, was sentenced to 18 months in prison as a result of his guilty plea to false statements to a government agency, in federal district court in Phoenix. In sentencing Abdallah, U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake applied an enhancement because the offense related to international terrorism. This is the first time in the District of Arizona that the terrorism enhancement has been applied for this offense.Dennis K. Burke, United States Attorney for the District of Arizona, stated, “This sentence should serve as a strong warning to anyone who knowingly lies during a terrorism investigation. It is important that the public cooperate in investigations involving national security for the safety and security of all people in the United States, and that in those investigations members of the public are truthful and complete in their statements to law enforcement.”

In January 2007, Akram Musa Abdallah knowingly made material false statements when he was being interviewed by FBI agents in connection with the federal investigation and prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief & Development (HLF) and its officers. At the time of the interviews, Abdallah knew the HLF was a Specially Designated Terrorist organization. Abdallah also knew that the HLF and its officers were pending trial in the Northern District of Texas for crimes which included providing material support to Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization.

During interviews with the FBI, Abdallah denied that he was involved in fund raising activities for the HLF. In fact, between approximately 1994 and 1997, Abdallah was involved in numerous fund raising activities, including collecting donations and organizing, facilitating and coordinating fund raising events on behalf of the HLF in the Phoenix metropolitan area….

Al-Mutarajjam at Translating Jihad notes: “Quite often we will hear Muslims claim to be anti-Zionist but not anti-Jewish. However, in this essay the author shows that Islam is intrinsically anti-semitic, regardless of what ‘the Zionists’ do.”

“Jordanian newspaper: ‘How Can (the Jews), Being Unclean, Claim Possession of His Mosque, to Defile It with Their Stench and Their Filthy Deeds?!,” from Translating Jihad, March 6:

The Jews and Moral Impudence
Dr. ‘Ali al-’Atoum
As-Sabeel, 2 Mar 2010[...] But the Jews are not from the true religion, nor linked to Abraham and his children in anything. Allah in his noble book called them kuffar (infidels), saying: “Cursed are those who disbelieved from the children of Israel on the tongue of David and ‘Isa (Jesus) son of Mary.” He said regarding their relationship to Abraham: “Abraham was not a Jew nor a Christian, but he was an upright Muslim, and joined not gods with Allah” [Qur'an 3.67]. The text of the book of Allah has decreed that the closest to Abraham and his heritage are the Muslims and their prophet, for thus it says: “The closest in kin to Abraham are those who follow him, as are also this Prophet, and those who believe, and Allah is the protector of those who have faith” [Qur'an 3.68].

For these holy places in the city of Khalil al-Rahman and the surrounding area are purely an Islamic inheritance, set apart by the Prophet more than 1,400 years ago for the owner of Galilee Abu Raqiya Tamim ibn Ausa al-Dari and his companions, and for those that come after them until the day of resurrection, as an exclusive gift.

Now concerning the Bilal ibn Rabah Mosque in Bethlehem, may Allah be pleased with it, which they [the Jews] call the Tomb of Rachel (the wife of Jacob)–what an evil claim (they make). Bilal, who who was from the Levant, was the muezzin (i.e. the one who makes the call to prayer) of the Prophet. His name, body, voice, and faith increased, as did his purity and cleanliness. How can they, being unclean, claim possession of his mosque, to defile it with their stench and their filthy deeds?! While they are attacking our holy sites and insulting our places of worship, where are the Muslims, who follow the commandments of their prophet and his successors and followers, and who respect the religions and minarets of others, even during war?!…

Read it all.

Of course. Who else would it be but the ones the Qur’an designates as the worst enemies of the Muslims (Qur’an 5:82)?

More on this story. “‘Jewish lobby behind U.S. Armenia genocide vote,’” from Haaretz, March 6 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Jewish lobbyists contrived a U.S. congressional vote that labeled the World War One-era massacre of Armenians by Turkish forces as genocide, a London-based Arabic-language newspaper claimed on Saturday.Pro-Israel lobbyists had previously backed Turkey on the issue ? [sic] but changed tack in retaliation for Turkish condemnation of Israel’s policies in the Gaza Strip, the Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily said in an editorial, according to Israel Radio reports….

In his leading article, Al-Quds Al-Arabi editor Abd al-Bari Atwan curged [sic] Erdogan not to give in to the Jewish lobby’s “extortion” tactics.

Erdogan on Thursday recalled Turkey’s ambassador to Washington after the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee voted 23-22 to approve the non-binding resolution, clearing it for consideration by the full House.

“The decision of the Foreign Affairs Committee will not hurt Turkey, but it will greatly harm bilateral relations, interests and vision. Turkey will not be the one who loses,” said Erdogan, speaking at a summit of Turkish businessmen….

Threat noted.

Turkey regards such accusations as an affront to its national honor.

And that’s what it is all about so often.

The free people of Europe begin to strike back against their corrupt, compromised governing elites. An excerpt from the SIOE statement:

Denmark is at war. The government tells us that we are in war against terror which actually is only a tactic. We cannot be in war against an tactic, we have to be in war against those who use the tactic. That is what SIOE intends to do.Quote: Lieutenant Colonel Allen West:-

“Winston Churchill did not lead a war against blitzkrieg, he led a war against the Nazis.”

SIOE recognises that islam has declared war on the West and therefore we take the necessary precautions to protect our own population. No other Danish politicians have done that previously. Therefore, SIOE will respond to the declaration of war onthe West. Every time islam is discussed, all parties in the Danish parliament pull the wool over the eyes of the voters. If we really are in war with islam why do we make all these special arrangements for islam?

We have had civil war-like situations both in Copenhagen and in the biggest towns in Denmark and no politicians have dared to act upon it. SIOE has the answer: Every immigrant who has committed any kind of criminality is to be sent home.

Denmark is in a financial crisis and we have to take care of our own citizens first of all. Therefore all immigrants who are not self-supporting will be sent home.

All government subsidised integration initiatives must be stopped and sensible economic policies must be carried out.

Bureaucracy must be cut to a minimum and free initiative must be encouraged instead of being stopped.

The business and manufacturing sectors in Denmark must have far better conditions. We cannot live just by serving one another.

We would never have been caught in this present unhappy situation if the population had been asked whether or not Denmark should be an immigrant country where islam demands special treatment from its host, the Danish population. Therefore SIOE’s wish is to implement more democracy. There shall be referendums held about many more things concerning the population.

Many more of those in authority should be elected, not just politicians, as they are in America.

In brief, SIOE is a party where the population is of greater concern than the people from outside.

There is much more. Read it all.

The truth hurts, and provokes fury — a reaction we have seen from Islamic supremacists many times when their full agenda is exposed here. “President Abdullah Gul has warned that ‘Turkey will not be responsible for the negative ramifications’ of the vote.” Yes, that’s a threat.

An update on this story. “Turkey urges US to block ‘genocide’ bill or risk ties,” by Sibel Utku Bila for AFP, March 5 (thanks to Block Ness):

ANKARA (AFP) – A furious Turkey warned of damage to its ties with the US and protesters descended on the American embassy on Friday after a Congressional panel labelled the Ottoman-era massacre of Armenians as genocide.Having recalled its ambassador immediately after the panel’s resolution was adopted, Ankara warned Washington risked a showdown with a key Muslim ally if the motion advanced to a full vote at the House of Representatives.

Turkey is “seriously disturbed” that President Barack Obama’s administration “did not put enough weight” behind efforts to prevent the resolution from being passed by the Foreign Affairs Committee, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

“We expect the US administration to make more efficient efforts from now on,” he said.

“We hope Turkish-US ties will not be put to a new test … otherwise, the prospect that we will face will not be a positive one,” he added, calling the issue a “matter of national honour”.

NATO member Turkey is a prominent Muslim partner in US efforts to stabilise Afghanistan and Iraq, and lies on a key route taking oil and natural gas to Western markets….

President Abdullah Gul has warned that “Turkey will not be responsible for the negative ramifications” of the vote.

As Turkish anger swelled, a crowd of around 100 demonstrated outside the US embassy in Ankara, laying a black wreath that read “We did not commit genocide, we defended the motherland.”

Protesters chanted anti-US slogans at a similar demonstration in Istanbul….

The non-binding resolution calls on Obama to ensure that US foreign policy reflects an understanding of the “genocide” and to label the mass killings as such in his annual statement on the issue….

Washington has traditionally condemned the killings, but refrained from calling them a “genocide”, anxious not to strain relations with Turkey.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged the committee not to hold the vote for fear it might harm Armenia-Turkey reconciliation.

During a visit to Turkey in April, Obama said he retained his view that the killings amounted to genocide but stressed that reconciliation between the two neighbours was more important.

And he’s so good at reconciliation.

Geert Wilders
Speech House of Lords, London
Friday the 5th of March 2010

Thank you. It is great to be back in London. And it is great that this time, I got to see more of this wonderful city than just the detention centre at Heathrow Airport.

Today I stand before you, in this extraordinary place. Indeed, this is a sacred place. This is, as Malcolm always says, the mother of all Parliaments, I am deeply humbled to have the opportunity to speak before you.

Thank you Lord Pearson and Lady Cox for your invitation and showing my film ‘Fitna’. Thank you my friends for inviting me.

I first have great news. Last Wednesday city council elections were held in the Netherlands. And for the first time my party, the Freedom Party, took part in these local elections. We participated in two cities. In Almere, one of the largest Dutch cities. And in The Hague, the third largest city; home of the government, the parliament and the queen. And, we did great! In one fell swoop my party became the largest party in Almere and the second largest party in The Hague. Great news for the Freedom Party and even better news for the people of these two beautiful cities.

And I have more good news. Two weeks ago the Dutch government collapsed. In June we will have parliamentary elections. And the future for the Freedom Party looks great. According to some polls we will become the largest party in the Netherlands. I want to be modest, but who knows, I might even be Prime Minister in a few months time!

Ladies and gentlemen, not far from here stands a statue of the greatest Prime Minister your country ever had. And I would like to quote him here today: “Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. No stronger retrograde force exists in the World. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step (…) the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.” These words are from none other than Winston Churchill wrote this in his book ‘The River War’ from 1899.

Churchill was right.

Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t have a problem and my party does not have a problem with Muslims as such. There are many moderate Muslims. The majority of Muslims are law-abiding citizens and want to live a peaceful life as you and I do. I know that. That is why I always make a clear distinction between the people, the Muslims, and the ideology, between Islam and Muslims. There are many moderate Muslims, but there is no such thing as a moderate Islam.

Islam strives for world domination. The Quran commands Muslims to exercise jihad. The Quran commands Muslims to establish shariah law. The Quran commands Muslims to impose Islam on the entire world.

As former Turkish Prime Minister Erbakan said: “The whole of Europe will become Islamic. We will conquer Rome”. End of quote.

Libyan dictator Gaddafi said: “There are tens of millions of Muslims in the European continent today and their number is on the increase. This is the clear indication that the European continent will be converted into Islam. Europe will one day soon be a Muslim continent”. End of quote. Indeed, for once in his life, Gaddafi was telling the truth. Because, remember: mass immigration and demographics is destiny!

Islam is merely not a religion, it is mainly a totalitarian ideology. Islam wants to dominate all aspects of life, from the cradle to the grave. Shariah law is a law that controls every detail of life in a Islamic society. From civic- and family law to criminal law. It determines how one should eat, dress and even use the toilet. Oppression of women is good, drinking alcohol is bad.

I believe that Islam is not compatible with our Western way of life. Islam is a threat to Western values. The equality of men and women, the equality of homosexuals and heterosexuals, the separation of church and state, freedom of speech, they are all under pressure because of islamization. Ladies and gentlemen: Islam and freedom, Islam and democracy are not compatible. It are opposite values.

No wonder that Winston Churchill called Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ “the new Quran of faith and war, turgid, verbose, shapeless, bur pregnant with its message”. As you know, Churchill made this comparison, between the Koran and Mein Kampf, in his book ‘The Second World War’, a master piece, for which, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Churchill’s comparison of the Quran and ‘Mein Kampf’ is absolutely spot on. The core of the Quran is the call to jihad. Jihad means a lot of things and is Arabic for battle. Kampf is German for battle. Jihad and kampf mean exactly the same.

Islam means submission, there cannot be any mistake about its goal. That’s a given. The question is whether we in Europe and you in Britain, with your glorious past, will submit or stand firm for your heritage.

We see Islam taking off in the West at an incredible pace. Europe is Islamizing rapidly. A lot of European cities have enormous Islamic concentrations. Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Berlin are just a few examples. In some parts of these cities, Islamic regulations are already being enforced. Women’s rights are being destroyed. Burqa’s, headscarves, polygamy, female genital mutilation, honour-killings. Women have to go to separate swimming-classes, don’t get a handshake. In many European cities there is already apartheid. Jews, in an increasing number, are leaving Europe.

As you undoubtedly all know, better then I do, also in your country the mass immigration and islamization has rapidly increased. This has put an enormous pressure on your British society. Look what is happening in for example Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford and here in London. British politicians who have forgotten about Winston Churchill have now taken the path of least resistance. They have given up. They have given in.

Last year, my party has requested the Dutch government to make a cost-benefit analysis of the mass immigration. But the government refused to give us an answer. Why? Because it is afraid of the truth. The signs are not good. A Dutch weekly magazine – Elsevier – calculated costs to exceed 200 billion Euros. Last year alone, they came with an amount of 13 billion Euros. More calculations have been made in Europe: According to the Danish national bank, every Danish immigrant from an Islamic country is costing the Danish state more than 300 thousand Euros. You see the same in Norway and France. The conclusion that can be drawn from this: Europe is getting more impoverished by the day. More impoverished thanks to mass immigration. More impoverished thanks to demographics. And the leftists are thrilled.

I don’t know whether it is true, but in several British newspapers I read that Labour opened the door to mass immigration in a deliberate policy to change the social structures of the UK. Andrew Neather, a former government advisor and speech writer for Tony Blair and Jack Straw, said the aim of Labour’s immigration strategy was, and I quote, to “rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date”. If this is true, this is symptomatic of the Left.

Ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake: The left is facilitating islamization. Leftists, liberals, are cheering for every new shariah bank being created, for every new shariah mortgage, for every new islamic school, for every new shariah court. Leftists consider Islam as being equal to our own culture. Shariah law or democracy? Islam or freedom? It doesn’t really matter to them. But it does matter to us. The entire leftist elite is guilty of practising cultural relativism. Universities, churches, trade unions, the media, politicians. They are all betraying our hard-won liberties.

Why I ask myself, why have the Leftists and liberals stopped to fight for them? Once the Leftists stood on the barricades for women’s rights. But where are they today? Where are they in 2010? They are looking the other way. Because they are addicted to cultural relativism and dependent on the Muslim vote. They are dependent on mass-immigration.

Thank heavens Jacqui Smith isn’t in office anymore. It was a victory for free speech that a UK judge brushed aside her decision to refuse me entry to your country last year. I hope that the judges in my home country are at least as wise and will acquit me of all charges, later this year in the Netherlands.

Unfortunately, so far they have not done so well. For they do not want to hear the truth about Islam, nor are they interested to hear the opinion of top class legal experts in the field of freedom of expression. Last month in a preliminary session the Court refused fifteen of the eighteen expert-witnesses I had requested to be summoned.

Only three expert witnesses are allowed to be heard. Fortunately, my dear friend and heroic American psychiatrist dr. Wafa Sultan is one of them. But their testimony will be heard behind closed doors. Apparently the truth about Islam must not be told in public, the truth about Islam must remain secret.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m being prosecuted for my political beliefs. We know political prosecution to exist in countries in the Middle East, like Iran and Saudi-Arabia, but never in Europe, never in the Netherlands.

I’m being prosecuted for comparing the Quran to ‘Mein Kampf’. Ridiculous. I wonder if Britain will ever put the beliefs of Winston Churchill on trial… Ladies and gentlemen, the political trial that is held against me has to stop.

But it is not all about me, not about Geert Wilders. Free speech is under attack. Let me give you a few other examples. As you perhaps know, one of my heroes, the Italian author Oriana Fallaci had to live in fear of extradition to Switzerland because of her anti-Islam book ‘The Rage and the Pride’. The Dutch cartoonist Nekschot was arrested in his home in Amsterdam by 10 police men because of his anti-Islam drawings. Here in Britain, the American author Rachel Ehrenfeld was sued by a Saudi businessman for defamation. In the Netherlands Ayaan Hirsi Ali and in Australia two Christian pastors were sued. I could go on and on. Ladies and gentlemen, all throughout the West freedom loving people are facing this ongoing ‘legal jihad’. This is Islamic ‘lawfare’. And, ladies and gentlemen, not long ago the Danish cartoonist Westergaard was almost assassinated for his cartoons.

Ladies and gentlemen, we should defend the right to freedom of speech. With all our strength. With all our might. Free speech is the most important of our many liberties. Free speech is the cornerstone of our modern societies. Freedom of speech is the breath of our democracy, without freedom of speech our way of life our freedom will be gone.

I believe it is our obligation to preserve the inheritance of the brave young soldiers that stormed the beaches of Normandy. That liberated Europe from tyranny. These heroes cannot have died for nothing. It is our obligation to defend freedom of speech. As George Orwell said: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”.

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe in another policy, it is time for change. We must make haste. We can’t wait any longer. Time is running out. If I may quote one of my favourite American presidents: Ronald Reagan once said: “We need to act today, to preserve tomorrow”. That is why I propose the following measures, I only mention a few, in order to preserve our freedom:

First, we will have to defend freedom of speech. It is the most important of our liberties. In Europe and certainly in the Netherlands, we need something like the American First Amendment.

Second, we will have to end and get rid of cultural relativism. To the cultural relativists, the shariah socialists, I proudly say: Our Western culture is far superior to the Islamic culture. Don’t be affraid to say it. You are not a racist when you say that our own culture is better.

Third, we will have to stop mass immigration from Islamic countries. Because more Islam means less freedom.

Fourth, we will have to expel criminal immigrants and, following denaturalisation, we will have to expel criminals with a dual nationality. And there are many of them in my country.

Fifth, we will have to forbid the construction of new mosques. There is enough Islam in Europe. Especially since Christians in Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia are mistreated, there should be a mosque building-stop in the West.

And last but not least, we will have to get rid of all those so-called leaders. I said it before: Fewer Chamberlains, more Churchills. Let’s elect real leaders.

Ladies and gentlemen. To the previous generation, that of my parents, the word ‘London’ is synonymous with hope and freedom. When my country was occupied by the national-socialists the BBC offered a daily glimpse of hope in my country, in the darkness of Nazi tyranny. Millions of my fellow country men listened to it, underground. The words ‘This is London’ were a symbol for a better world coming soon.

What will be broadcasted forty years from now? Will it still be “This is London”? Or will it be “This is Londonistan”? Will it bring us hope? Or will it signal the values of Mecca and Medina? Will Britain offer submission or perseverance? Freedom or slavery? The choice is yours. And in the Netherlands the choice is ours.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will never apologize for being free. We will and should never give in. And, indeed, as one of your former leaders said: We will never surrender.

Freedom must prevail, and freedom will prevail.

Thank you very much.

What? You mean sitting down and negotiating with Barack Obama won’t do the trick?

Here again Khamenei highlights the inherently Islamic character of the Palestinian war against Israel — the single most important element for understanding what approaches will work and won’t work, and also the single element most often ignored or discounted by Western analysts.

“Leader calls for unity against cancerous Israeli regime,” from PressTV, March 4:

The Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, speaking on the merry anniversary of the birth of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), underscored the importance of the Palestinian issue for the Muslim world and called on Muslims to unite around the teachings of the holy prophet.Ayatollah Khamenei described the “forged, Zionist regime of Israel” as a “dangerous cancer tumor” and insisted that “the only way (for Muslims) to defend against this severe cancer and its supporters is to return to Islam” and unite around the teachings of the glorious Prophet of Islam.

Addressing a group of Iranian officials and foreign guests and dignitaries in Tehran on Thursday, the Leader expounded on the reasons for numerous problems and shortcomings in the Muslim world in defending their rights and cited “tireless efforts by the US, the British, and other enemies of Islam in sowing discord” among Muslim masses.

The leader of the Islamic Revolution then emphasized that such bullying and domineering countries are well-aware that “discord and duplicity” can divert the focus of the Muslims from the very important issue of Palestine. “This is the reason that they resort to any possible means to flare the flame of ethnic, religious and geographic conflict among the hearts and minds of the Shia and Sunni, as well as the followers of other Islamic sects.”

Ayatollah Khamenei further spoke of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, describing the occupation of Palestine as a wound on the body of the Islamic Nation.”

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution also declared that “unity of Muslims and defending the Palestinian issue are among the aspirations and priorities of the Islamic Republic (of Iran).”

Recalling the words and priorities of the late founder of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini regarding Muslim unity and the Palestinian issue, the Leader added, “The Islamic establishment, all of the country’s officials and the great nation of Iran view such principlist [sic] issues as religiously obligatory and their words (on these issues) have been and remain the same.”

Ayatollah Khamenei also expressed hope that Islamic governments, in tune with their people, would follow the eminent Prophet of Islam in efforts to bring unity among Muslims and to defend their rights, “especially in countering the cancerous, oppressive Israeli tumor and its supporters.”

Judge Ottmar Breidling becomes yet another in a long line of non-Muslim judges to take it upon themselves to lecture jihadis about the true nature of Islam and jihad. The arrogance and presumption is astounding, and one wonders also whether Breidling has ever wondered where this “strange, hate-filled notion of jihad” came from, and why so many Muslims seem to adhere to it. “German court jails Islamists for foiled U.S. attacks,” by Matthias Inverardi for Reuters, March 4:

DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) – Four Islamist militants who admitted planning “a monstrous bloodbath” with foiled car bomb attacks on U.S. targets in Germany were convicted on Thursday of conspiracy to murder.A court in the city of Duesseldorf also convicted the men of belonging to a foreign terrorist organization, and sentenced them to between five and 12 years in jail for the plot in September 2007.

The three Germans and one Turk were in at an advanced stage of planning to use three car bombs with 250 kg of explosives each to attack U.S. targets in Germany to kill hundreds of people. They were known as the “Sauerland group” after the area of western Germany where they were caught….

“You were planning a monstrous bloodbath that would have killed an unfathomable number of people,” said Judge Ottmar Breidling at the conclusion of the 10-month trial. Their goal was to kill at least 150 American soldiers stationed in Germany, he added.

“Never before had there been a terror attack of that dimension in Germany,” Breidling said. “You were blinded by a strange, hate-filled notion of jihad and you turned yourselves into angels of death in the name of Islam.”

The four wanted to time their car bomb attacks to coincide with a vote in parliament on whether Germany should extend its military presence in Afghanistan. They wanted to influence public opinion in Germany against the Afghan mission. Breidling sentenced the group’s ringleader Fritz Gelowicz to 12 years in jail. He also handed Daniel Schneider a 12-year sentence because he fired at a police officer during an escape attempt. Both were converts to Islam.

And Misunderstanders of their new, peaceful faith!

The court also sentenced Adem Yilmaz, a Turkish citizen, to 11 years and Atilla Selek, a German citizen of Turkish origin, to five years. Prosecutors sought terms of 5-1/2 to 13 years.All four, who were members of the radical Islamic Jihad Union, reacted without any visible emotion to the verdict.

The four had identified discos and airports, even the U.S. Ramstein air base, as possible targets. They had faced a maximum of 15 years in jail. Confessions and their cooperation with prosecutors reduced their prison sentences, the judge said….

Hope for the Netherlands, for Europe, and for all free people. “Dutch far-right leader Wilders in poll breakthrough,” by Mariette Le Roux for AFP, March 4 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Dutch anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders celebrated a symbolic breakthrough on Thursday as his party won control of its first municipality in a show of strength ahead of June’s general election.”What is possible in The Hague and Almere is possible all over the country,” Wilders said after his Party for Freedom (PVV) came first and second in the only two out of 394 municipalities it contested in local polls Wednesday.

“It’s a springboard for our victory. We will become the biggest party in the Netherlands on June 9.”…

The persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt is practically a daily news topic here at Jihad Watch, and so this example of Islamic supremacist obfuscation, claiming of victim status, and displacement of responsibility is particularly egregious.

“Egyptian Sheikh: ‘Muslims Have Fewer Rights than Christians,’” from Translating Jihad, March 2:

Khalid al-Jundi: “Whoever Does Not Consider the Baha’is Infidels Must Himself Be an Infidel”
Loay ‘Ali, 9 February 2010, al-YoumSheikh Khalid al-Jundi, member of the High Council of Islamic Affairs and general director of the television station al-Azhari, launched a sharp attack against Shi’ites, confirming that he will not permit the presence of Shi’ites in Egypt. This is because of their arrogance towards the family and companions of the Prophet of Allah, indicating that Shi’ism is a form of hypocrisy.

Regarding his opinion of Baha’is, the Sheikh clarified that the Baha’is are a form of corruption, for they are a people which has denied the prayers and the fasting of the Qur’an. He also added that whoever does not consider the Baha’is infidels must himself be an infidel.

Regarding the normalization of relations with Israel, he confirmed during a religious forum at a press syndicate last night that he rejects every form of normalization with the Zionist entity and especially Israel, adding that it is unacceptable and forbidden under shari’ah law to export natural gas to Israel.

He reiterated that he is opposed to the export of natural gas to Israel in form and in type, for Israel is a hostile and Zionist state. Cooperation with Jews and not Zionists is permissible but for the marriage between them. For they (Jews) are closer to Muslims in some things than they are to Christians. The Jews have a civilization and a culture which at one time played a major role in the development of the Egyptian economy.

* * *

Al-Jundi also called for equality between Muslims and Christians, arguing that Muslims have fewer rights than Christians, and even do not have the right to worship like Christians. He called for the building of more mosques, for those which have been built are not enough. Due to the narrowness of the mosques, many Muslims have had to sprawl out in the streets in order to pray. He pointed out that “we don’t see any Copts praying outside of their churches.”…

Uh, that’s because if they did, they’d risk being brutalized by Muslim mobs.

This is good. The body scans are odious, and they should be scrapped, as they ultimately will prove ineffective to stop the ever-innovative jihad terrorists. Jihadis are blazing new trails in the illustrious history of Islamic inventions by always devising new ways to elude airport security procedures and murder flying Infidels. But as long as the scanners are in place, no single group should be able to bypass them and then fly — and that is what Muslim groups have been angling for, an exemption from the scanners for Muslims specifically, which demonstrates breathtaking chutzpah in light of the fact that it is Islamic jihadists who have made them necessary in the first place, and a breathtaking audacity in the openness of its attempt to smooth the path for jihad terrorists in airports.

“Muslim woman barred from flight after refusing body scan,” from the Telegraph, March 3 (thanks to all who sent this in):

A Muslim woman is thought to have become the first passenger to be stopped from boarding a flight after refusing to go through a full body scanner for religious reasons.The passenger was at Manchester Airport for a flight to Islamabad when she was selected at random to pass through the security screen.

She was warned she would not be allowed to board the Pakistan International Airlines flight if she did not comply with the request but she decided to forfeit her ticket.

Her female travelling companion also left the airport after she cited ”medical reasons” for not wanting to go through the scanner.

More than 15,000 people have already passed through the £80,000 Rapiscan machine at the airport’s Terminal 2. The Government introduced the scanner at Heathrow and Manchester airports last month.

Security staff use the X-ray machine to check for any concealed weapons or explosives but it has attracted criticism for also showing clear outlines of passengers’ genitals. Civil liberties campaigners have criticised the scanners as an invasion of privacy.

Sources at Manchester Airport said the flight to Pakistan about two weeks ago was busy and that no other passengers objected when chosen to go through the full body scanner after check-in….

This photo, via Asia News, is particularly poignant in light of the renewed controversy over Taslima Nasrin’s article on the burqa.

Vitamin D, anyone?

What could possibly go wrong? Poorly focused largesse only encourages unfocused spending. We may yet end up simply building a better jihadist “bus station.” A really, really expensive one. “Schanzer: $150 million for Yemeni ‘encouragement’,” by Jonathan Schanzer for the Washington Times, March 2:

”Yemen’s willingness… to confront the serious threat al Qaeda poses to the nation’s stability has been inconsistent in the past, but our recent intensive engagement appears to have had positive results.”

That was the State Department’s assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, Jeffrey D. Feltman, at congressional hearings on Yemen earlier this month. He repeatedly assured the House Foreign Affairs Committee that he was “encouraged” by Yemen’s new attitude.

This encouragement convinced international donors in late January to pledge $5.2 billion in aid to Yemen. It also prompted Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates this week to more than double U.S. military aid to Yemen. Taxpayers will now fork over $150 million, up from last year’s $67 million.

This is a mistake. Mr. Gates and his advisers ignore Yemen’s terrible track record. If our aid was based on Yemeni performance, Yemen wouldn’t get a dime.

Think back to the bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Aden in October 2000. Despite clear evidence of al Qaeda involvement, Yemeni security cooperation was begrudging. Some U.S. officials were stymied to the point that they openly wondered whether Yemeni security was penetrated by al Qaeda.

Tensions between Washington and San’a continued through 2001. The State Department reported that Yemen was a safe haven for several of al Qaeda’s affiliate groups, as well as members of al Qaeda’s core. Meanwhile, Yemen suffered a series of local attacks. None of them prompted Yemeni cooperation.

The game-changer was the Oct. 6, 2002, al Qaeda attack on the Limburg, a French tanker. That attack led to a sharp decline in companies wishing to do business in Yemen’s ports, along with skyrocketing shipping insurance rates. After initially denying its terrorism problem, Yemen faced up to its harsh financial realities.

San’a soon upped its cooperation with U.S. Special Forces, the CIA and the FBI. In Nov. 2002, the CIA and Yemeni intelligence tracked al Qaeda operatives driving in the desert region of Marib. The CIA launched a Hellfire missile on them from a Predator drone, killing six people, including a high-level al Qaeda operative. The Hellfire also killed Kamal Derwish, the leader of the “Lackawanna Six,” a Yemeni al Qaeda cell discovered in upstate New York in 2002. U.S.-Yemeni cooperation also yielded a number of high-profile arrests.

However, San’a’s efforts were short-lived. In April 2003, 10 USS Cole suspects somehow escaped from a Yemeni jail. The incident again raised questions of whether elements in the security services had switched sides. Then, in autumn 2003, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced he would release dozens of al Qaeda militants if they “pledged to respect the rights of non-Muslim foreigners living in Yemen or visiting it.” Officials insisted the prisoners would not be released entirely on their own recognizance; their families would sign for them. However, they also admitted that Yemen never had plans (or the resources) to track those they released.

While Yemen was quiet for a while, Yemeni jihadis soon arrived in Iraq in disproportionate numbers as the insurgency began to gain momentum in 2004. According to one report, up to 17 percent of the foreign insurgents hailed from Yemen.

Still, Yemen itself was quiet. Then, in 2006, more than 20 accused terrorists escaped from a San’a jail. Analysts again wondered whether the government looked the other way. Nasir Wahishi, a former close associate of bin Laden, was one of the escapees. He went on to lead the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula. [...]

There are, of course, those who argue that Washington has little choice in aiding Yemen. We cannot afford to allow the country to become a terrorist haven. This is undoubtedly true. Yemen is a critical front in the global confrontation against jihadist forces.

However, the Yemenis must earn our $150 million. U.S. aid should not come cheap. We must set milestones for the Yemenis. If they fail to meet them, we should withhold aid. Indeed, Yemen must now demonstrate though both word and deed that it is serious about combating terrorism again.

So-called “defensive jihad” in search of an excuse. “Israeli Police Clash With Stone Throwers,” by Ethan Bronner for the New York Times, February 28:

JERUSALEM — Israeli police officers in Jerusalem entered the plaza containing Al Aksa Mosque on Sunday after Palestinian youths barricaded inside threw stones at visitors they believed to be radical Jewish settlers.

Dozens of young Palestinians had spent the night in the compound, holy to Muslims and Jews, because of rumors that militant Jews planned to take it over during the Purim holiday, which began Sunday. The resulting clashes ended with more than a dozen youths injured, seven men detained and four police officers slightly injured. The site was calm but tense by late afternoon.

The confrontation followed similar disturbances at the Cave of the Patriarchs in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in recent days involving stone-throwing youths and Israeli security forces. Those troubles began after the Israeli government decided to include the Hebron site along with Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem on a list of national heritage sites scheduled for renovation and upkeep by the state.

All three shrines — the Hebron cave, the Bethlehem tomb and the plaza in Jerusalem known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount — came under Israeli control in the 1967 Middle East war and have been the sites of frequent tension ever since.

Just below the Jerusalem plaza is the Western Wall, a Jewish prayer site that was part of the perimeter of the Jewish temple destroyed by the Romans 2,000 years ago. By mutual agreement between the Israeli government and Palestinian religious authorities, Jews do not pray atop the plaza itself to avoid friction. But some Jews have sought to challenge that ban.

After the police raid, Palestinian leaders in the West Bank accused Israel of increasing tensions and undermining American efforts to restart peace negotiations. But an Israeli police spokesman said that the forces had gone in because the stone throwing was threatening tourists and worshipers.

And he wonders why no one likes Iran’s nuclear program. “Iran says can cut energy to Europe, hit enemies,” from Reuters, February 28:

Iran is locked in dispute with the United States and its allies over its nuclear energy programme which Western countries fear is aimed at allowing Iran the chance to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran says it is only interested in electricity.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) governing board meets in Vienna next week to discuss Iran while world powers are deliberating new sanctions on Iran at the level of the U.N. Security Council.

Iran is one of the world’s biggest oil and gas exporters but its economy is suffering amid the global financial crisis and international ostracism over the nuclear dispute.

“Iran is standing on 50 percent of the world’s energy and should it so decide Europe will have to spend the winter in cold,” Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, said in a meeting with war veterans and volunteers in Kerman, according to Fars news agency.

Out standing in his field:

“Our missiles are now able to target any spot in which the conspirators are in, and the country is making advances in all fields,” he said.

Iran has tested a number of missiles in recent years that could be used in any war with its arch enemy Israel. Analysts say Israel could try a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Some European countries have faced difficulties from reliance on gas supplies from Russia, but Iran has struggled to find the cash and technology to develop its energy sector as sanctions and political pressure have kept foreign firms away.

Israel lobbied Washington last week for sanctions against Iran, which imports 40 percent of its gasoline from foreign refineries.