Jihad Watch

Above all, the United States must not look as if it were trying to humiliate Osama bin Laden. He had vowed to destroy our nation and had murdered 3,000 Americans, a fate worse than humiliation as far as many are concerned, but we must not look as if we were out to humiliate him.

And why not? If the Vast Majority of Peaceful Muslims abhor and repudiate bin Laden's supposed hijacking of their allegedly peaceful religion, why would his "humiliation" bother them? And if it would bother them, what does that suggest about the actual nature of their beliefs?

"GREEN: Body of evidence: Americans need proof of dead villain like Libyans were given," by Anneke E. Green for the Washington Times, November 9 (thanks to Inexion):

Five days after being killed, Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was finally buried at dawn in an undisclosed location in the Sahara desert. This would have been five days too late had President Obama been calling the shots. Osama bin Laden’s remains were famously disposed of within hours of his death and “eased into the sea” in conformance with Islamic practice, according to the White House. Families of the victims of bin Laden’s atrocities have to take the government’s word for it that he’s actually dead because the Obama administration continues to refuse to provide proof.

To date, no photos or video of bin Laden’s body have been released despite numerous requests and a lawsuit filed by watchdog group Judicial Watch. The Obama administration made clear in a recent response to the lawsuit that presidential preference is the driving force behind its stonewalling. Oddly for a legal brief, its very first background point of reference quoted a transcript of an interview Mr. Obama gave to “60 Minutes”: “It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence.” The brief additionally fretted, “The mere release of these images of Osama bin Laden could be interpreted as a deliberate attempt by the United States to humiliate the late al Qaeda leader.”...

Muslims in Detroit continue to pretend that Christians praying pose a threat to them, as if they were Christians in Egypt or Pakistan being attacked and brutalized by Muslims storming out of mosques after Friday prayers. In reality, the Muslims in Detroit are in no danger from these Christians, as they well know; to pretend otherwise, however, helps advance the fictions of moral equivalence that they regularly retail in order to try to deflect attention away from how Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism.

More on this story. "Detroit prayer event puts Muslim community on edge," by Jeff Karoub for the Associated Press, November 11 (thanks to all who sent this in):

DETROIT (AP) — An area with one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States is bracing itself for a 24-hour prayer rally by a group that counts Islam among the ills facing the nation.

The gathering in Detroit at Ford Field, the stadium where the Detroit Lions play, starts Friday evening and is designed to tackle issues such as the economy, racial strife, same-sex relationships and abortion. But the decade-old organization known as TheCall has said Detroit is a "microcosm of our national crisis" in all areas, including "the rising tide of the Islamic movement."

Leaders of TheCall believe a satanic spirit is shaping all parts of U.S. society, and it must be challenged through intensive Christian prayer and fasting. Such a demonic spirit has taken hold of specific areas, Detroit among them, organizers say. In the months ahead of their rallies, teams of local organizers often travel their communities performing a ritual called "divorcing Baal," the name of a demon spirit, to drive out the devil from each location.

"Our concern is that we are literally being demonized by the organizers of this group," said Dawud Walid, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations' Michigan chapter, which last week urged local mosques and Islamic schools to increase security. "And given the recent history of other groups that have come into Michigan ... we're concerned about this prayer vigil stoking up the flames of divisiveness in the community."...

Smith told the AP that fears of the event taking on an anti-Muslim tone are overblown. He said attendees won't be "praying against Muslims," but rather "against terrorism that has its roots in Islam."

"We're dealing with extremism," he said. "We're against extremism when it comes to Christians."

Still, in a pre-event sermon he delivered Oct. 9 at a suburban church, Smith called Islam a "false," ''lame" and "perverse" religion. He said it was allowed to take root in Detroit because of the city's strong religious base. That's why TheCall event is "pivotal," he said....

Does this mean Christians attending the event will attack Muslims? Of course not, much as the Islamic supremacists would like to conflate criticism of Islam with incitement to violence.

Raymond Ibrahim "jockeying" around his ancestors' monuments

According to the Associated Press, “Egypt's antiquities authority closed the largest of the Giza pyramids Friday following rumors that groups would try to hold spiritual ceremonies on the site at 11:11 A.M. on Nov. 11, 2011…. The closure follows a string of unconfirmed reports in local media that unidentified groups would try to hold 'Jewish' or 'Masonic' rites on the site to take advantage of mysterious powers coming from the pyramid on the rare date.”

Considering that Jews are at the heart of all conspiracy theories in the Muslim world—including though the use of bewitched animals—this is not surprising: authorities have accused Jews and Israel of using rats, pigeons, vultures, pigs, squirrels, ad infinitum as subversive agents against Muslim nations.

After a string of shark attacks in Egypt last year, for instance, an official suggested Israel might be responsible for “throwing the deadly shark (in the sea) to hit tourism in Egypt.”

Not that it matters much now, since Dr. Muhammad Salim al-Awwa just declared on the air that “Egypt has left the international map of tourist destinations this month,” thanks no doubt to its increasing reputation as a land, not of pyramids and pharaohs, but jihadi violence and religious persecution.

As David Horowitz and I show in our pamphlet Islamophobia: Thoughtcrime of the Totalitarian Future, the term "Islamophobia" is a politically manipulative coinage designed to intimidate critics of Islamic supremacism and jihad into silence.

Claire Berlinski explains how Islamic supremacists from the Muslim Brotherhood devised it for precisely that purpose:

Now here's a point you might deeply consider: The neologism "Islamophobia" did not simply emerge ex nihilo. It was invented, deliberately, by a Muslim Brotherhood front organization, the International Institute for Islamic Thought, which is based in Northern Virginia. If that name dimly rings a bell, it should: I've mentioned it before, and it's particularly important because it was co-founded by Anwar Ibrahim--the hero of Moderate Islam who is now trotting around the globe comparing his plight to that of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a former member of the IIIT who has renounced the group in disgust, was an eyewitness to the creation of the word. "This loathsome term," he writes,

is nothing more than a thought-terminating cliche conceived in the bowels of Muslim think tanks for the purpose of beating down critics.

In another article concerning the many moderate Muslims whose voices have been drowned out by Saudi-financed Muslim Brotherhood front groups, Muhammad describes the strategy behind the word's invention:

In an effort to silence critics of political Islam, advocates needed to come up with terminology that would enable them to portray themselves as victims. Muhammad said he was present when his then-allies, meeting at the offices of the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT) in Northern Virginia years ago, coined the term "Islamophobia."

Muhammad said the Islamists decided to emulate the homosexual activists who used the term "homophobia" to silence critics. He said the group meeting at IIIT saw "Islamophobia" as a way to "beat up their critics."

And Amnesty International is buying: "Panel seeks to end racial, religious prejudice," by Anna Geary for the Daily O'Collegian, November 10:

The Oklahoma State Chapter of Amnesty International is taking strides to combat racial and religious prejudice this Saturday.

"Islamophobia: A Conference on American-Islamic Relations," will feature panelists discussing Muslim-Christian relations, women's rights in Islam, Muslim political concerns and other issues associated with Islam in America. The conference will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Murray Hall 035, with catering from the House of Greek.

In light of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the event addresses national and worldwide changes in the treatment of Muslims. Matthew Alexander, former head of U.S. military interrogations in Iraq, will discuss the effects of Islamophobic practices on national security in a keynote address.

Admission is free and open to the public. Reservations can be made at stopislamophobiaok@gmail.com.

Want to stop "Islamophobia"? Here is an easy way. Muslims can:

1. Focus their indignation on Muslims committing violent acts in the name of Islam, not on non-Muslims reporting on those acts.
2. Renounce definitively, sincerely, honestly, and in deeds, not just in comforting words, not just "terrorism," but any intention to replace the U.S. Constitution (or the constitutions of any non-Muslim state) with Sharia even by peaceful means. In line with this, clarify what is meant by their condemnations of the killing of innocent people by stating unequivocally that American and Israeli civilians are innocent people, teaching accordingly in mosques and Islamic schools, and behaving in accord with these new teachings.
3. Teach, again sincerely and honestly, in transparent and verifiable ways in mosques and Islamic schools, the imperative of Muslims coexisting peacefully as equals with non-Muslims on an indefinite basis, and act accordingly.
4. Begin comprehensive international programs in mosques all over the world to teach sincerely against the ideas of violent jihad and Islamic supremacism.
5. Actively and honestly work with Western law enforcement officials to identify and apprehend jihadists within Western Muslim communities.

If Muslims do those five things, voila! "Islamophobia" will evanesce!

Rick Perry is woefully unfit to be president of the United States, but not because he couldn't remember a key element of his own program during Wednesday night's debate, or because he gave a speech while apparently drunk. Rick Perry is woefully unfit to be president of the United States because he is a tool of Grover Norquist, the man who may be more responsible than anyone else for enabling Muslim Brotherhood access to the highest levels of power in the U.S.

While it is hard for any Republican candidate to avoid Norquist altogether, so all-pervasive is his influence and power, Norquist is clearly much closer to Perry than to other candidates. As I wrote here, "Perry and Grover Norquist held a joint press conference in March 2011. Perry appeared at a fund-raiser for Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform group. Also, Norquist actively campaigned for Perry back in 2009. Their association is longstanding: Perry was investigated by the Texas Ethics Commission in 2004 for allegations that the Governor illegally used campaign money to finance a trip to Bahamas; the point here is not the allegations, but the fact that along on the Bahamas trip at his own expense was Grover Norquist. Perry and Norquist are clearly not just casual acquaintances."

Which other candidates have fundraised for Norquist? Which have vacationed with him?

Then there is the whole business of the Perry/Aga Khan curriculum on Islam for Texas schools, a complete whitewash of Islam and jihad that was initiated and officially sanctioned by Perry himself. The Perry campaign obviously realized how damaging the curriculum could have been to their man's chances, and so deleted it not only from the web but also from the Google cache, while Perry's attack dogs on the web energetically spread misinformation and disinformation about the curriculum, while smearing those who called attention to the problems with it.

The Perry love affair was a comedy of idiocy. Some of the stalwart voices who had initially sounded the alarm about Norquist suddenly discovered that hey, an association with Grover really isn't that bad a thing, and everybody does it, so what's the big deal? Others who profess to be anti-Sharia decided that Perry's sponsoring a whitewashed Islam curriculum was just fine, since his partner in doing so was the Aga Khan, a "moderate." Some conservative bloggers, including erstwhile friends and allies, responded to Perry's candidacy with cult-like devotion, asking me to delink them and denouncing me because I dared question their god. One anti-jihad writer of some reputation for clear thinking about the reality of jihadist teachings and tendencies across the various Islamic sects suddenly discovered an obscure historian from the 1930s whose statements supposedly proved that the misleading and politically correct Perry Islamic curriculum for Texas schools was perfectly fine. Websites with a reputation for intellectual and journalistic rigor uncritically repeated to large audiences the falsehoods that were being spread about the curriculum.

How's your boy doing now, fellows?

Anyway, it all worked out in the end. Rick Perry will probably never be president. And if his campaign does revive and he surges again in the polls, I hope that his followers will behave with more integrity. But I won't be holding my breath.

Because the jihad against us is based on Islamic texts and teachings, and consequently -- contrary to popular belief and the prevailing line in Washington -- not capable of being ended by a change in our policies, it is without end. It is a problem that cannot be solved. But it can be managed, and the jihadists and Islamic supremacists can be contained, if we can summon the will to speak about the problem honestly and enforce existing laws, so as to protect our Constitutional liberties and values.

In the U.S. today, Constitutional law, including the non-establishment of religion and the freedom of religion, is being assailed today by increasingly assertive global forces, both non-violent and violent. The mainstream media, government, and law enforcement remain deathly afraid of spurious charges of "bigotry" and "Islamophobia," and so continue to lie about and obfuscate the motive of every new jihad attack and plot.

As long as this continues, the jihad will advance, and our freedoms will be increasingly imperiled.

But as long as free people still draw air, there is hope.

Today, then, we should remember and be grateful to those who gave their lives to secure and protect these freedoms for us -- as if our gratitude could ever be sufficient or adequate. We should ponder the fact that they had to give their lives in order to secure these freedoms. We should remember that if we are not willing to give our own lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor to protect the unalienable rights enumerated at the founding of this Republic, we will most assuredly lose both them and the Republic itself -- lose them for ourselves and for our children.

Let us never shrink from the task before us: the great struggle to defend human rights, human dignity, and freedom from oppression and injustice -- particularly the oppression and injustice, and assaults to human dignity that are enshrined in the Islamic law (Sharia) that is coming, step-by-step, steadily and apparently inexorably, to a still largely ignorant and indifferent West.

Happy Veterans' Day.

Local officials blamed the Taliban, but "neighbours did not help or inform the authorities on time." This report follows the revelation that half of the women in Afghan jails are there for "moral crimes," and below, it would appear that local clerics have launched a paranoid witchhunt against "adultery."

"Afghanistan mother and daughter stoned and shot dead," from BBC News, November 11 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The officials blamed the Taliban, who they said had accused the women of "moral deviation and adultery".

The police said two men had been arrested in connection with the murder.

The attack was only 300m from the governor's office in Ghazni city, which is on a list of places to be transferred to Afghan security control.

Taliban grip

The incident happened on Thursday in the Khawaja Hakim area of Ghazni city, where the family lived.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says it is close to the governor's office, the police chief's office and a Western-backed Provincial Reconstruction Team.

Security officials said armed men entered the house where the young widow lived with her daughter and took them out to the yard, where they were initially stoned and then shot dead.

"Neighbours did not help or inform the authorities on time," an official said.

Officials said a number of religious leaders in the city had been issuing fatwas (Islamic religious edicts) asking people to report any one who was "involved in adultery".

In October last year, a woman accused of murdering her mother-in-law was killed by the Taliban in Ghazni.

Ghazni has seen an upsurge in violence in recent years.

Strategically located on the route between Kabul and Kandahar, the province was once a centre of trade.

Ghazni city is on the list for the second tranche of areas to be transferred from Nato to Afghan control but critics say the government is struggling to secure it.

Does Barack Obama know the name of Asia Bibi? He should, and aid to Pakistan should be made contingent upon her release and fundamental improvements to the treatment of religious minorities.

Her trial was a sham in the first place, and the court, still rendered impotent by fear of Islamic supremacist violence, just can't seem to find the time to hear her appeal. They know any moderation of her sentence will set off self-righteous hysteria in Pakistani society and likely endanger the presiding judge. That has already happened to the judge who handed down a death sentence to Mumtaz Qadri, assassin of Punjab governor and blasphemy law critic Salman Taseer.

Pakistan is playing a waiting game, hoping people will forget, so they can get on with business as usual. "Asia Bibi “frail” yet “strong a year since she was sentenced to death for blasphemy," from Asia News, November 8:

Islamabad (AsiaNews) – A year after she was sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy, Asia Bibi remains “frail” but is “strong in spirit”. She is waiting with hope for the start of her appeal trial even though the Lahore High Court has not yet set a date for the first hearing, this according to relatives who have regularly visited the 45-year-old Christian mother of five, each Tuesday, in Sheikhupura Prison, Punjab, where she is held in isolation in a high security cell under a 24-hour watch.

Since then, a bounty of several thousands of dollars offered by an Islamic fundamentalist leader was put on her head. And some of those who tried to plead her case, like Federal Minority Minister Shahbaz Bhatti and Punjab Provincial Governor Salman Taseer, have been assassinated by extremists.

Mgr Rufin Anthony, bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, slams the legal system for its slow going. “They have not yet chosen a date for the appeal,” he said. By contrast, the appeal launched by Mumtaz Qadri, Salman Taseer’s assassin, was quickly added to the court’s timetable, and “more than 2,000 lawyers and a former chief justice have indicated their support for the self-confessed murderer. The Lahore High Court instead has not yet found time to hear the plea of an innocent woman.”

The bishop of Islamabad wants Pakistan’s highest authorities, including the Justice minister, to intervene. However, so far, warnings by Western governments and Pope Benedict XVI’s appeal and words of solidarity for the Christian mother have fallen on deaf years.

Asia Bibi was sentenced to death on 8 November 2011 by a court in Punjab. She had been arrested on blasphemy charges in June of 2009 stemming from a discussion she had had with Muslim women. At the time, she tried to defend her Christian faith and Jesus, who died on the cross for humanity’s sins, asking her co-workers what Muhammad had done for them. After verbally assaulting her, they accused her of “contaminating” a well by drawing water from it.

The women had come to pick fruit on a Sunday, and Asia Bibi had joined them to earn some extra money for her poor but dignified family.

Local Muslims retaliated against her once the charges of blasphemy were made. They surrounded her home and tried to lynch her.

After receiving a beating, she was “saved” only by the intervention of the police, which filed a First Information Report on the basis of Article 295-C of the Pakistan Criminal Code.

At the trial, Asia Bibi’s defence attorney called the charges against his client a staged fantasy by majority Muslims against minority Christians. Yet, the presiding judge convicted her and imposed an exemplary sentence: Death.

Since then, a Peshawar imam offered a US$ 6,000 reward on 15 December 2010 for her death, issuing threats against anyone who tried to defend her.

On 4 January 2011, bodyguard Malik Mumtaz Qadri shot at Punjab Governor Salman Taseer 26 times, killing him. The governor had called for a pardon for Asia Bibi and changes to the ‘black law’.

On 2 March 2011, Minority Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic, was gunned down by Muslim extremists for pleading Asia Bibi’s case.

At present, the 45-year-old mother of five is held in the women’s section of Sheikhupura Prison in Punjab. Even though she is behind bars, she is still the object of threats by Muslim fundamentalists.

Her family and supporters say that in this tragic phase of her life she is sustained by an unshakable faith and finds comfort in the appeal Benedict XVI made for her release during the Angelus in Saint Peter’s Square. (JK)

One of the hallmarks of "moderate" Muslim nations here of late is legislation that allows for the enforcement of Sharia in practice without the liability of spelling it out and risking bad publicity, the loss of aid, and so forth. Examples include the "wealth tax" on non-Muslims in Turkey, laws on the building of churches in Indonesia, Algeria, and Egypt's current proposed law.

Indeed, little seems to have changed on Egypt's proposed law since Coptic, Anglican, and Catholic leaders denounced it in June. The law would only decentralize the bureaucracy and make accountability more difficult, while relying on an Indonesia-style "permit" system that leaves Christians at the mercy of the Muslim majority for permission. In practice, it is but a repackaging of Sharia's traditional prohibition on the building or repair of non-Muslim houses of worship under Islamic rule.

"Common law for Copts and Muslims on construction of religious buildings," from AsiaNews, November 9:

Cairo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A proposal for a common law for Christians and Muslims on the construction of religious buildings to counter the nebulous regulations imposed by the Military Supreme Council has been presented following a recent encounter between representatives of Coptic Orthodox Church and the 'Islamic University Al - Azhar. According to sources in the Egyptian daily AlMasry-Alyoum, the bill will allow the Copts to regularize all those buildings being used as places of prayer, built without government permission.

Sources from the National Justice Committee confirm that Ahmaed Tayyeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University, has given instructions to insert the amendments in the controversial law on places of worship presented by the army in June. To date, the draft bill is pending approval, but is widely regarded as inadequate and ambiguous. In fact, it gives local governments the power to approve or deny the construction of places of worship, which must be at least 1000 square meters and more than 500 meters apart from each other. However, local authorities, especially in Upper Egypt, penalize the Christian communities, and the average size of churches already made do not exceed 200 square meters. In October, the Egyptian Council for Human Rights (National Council for Human Rights - NCHR), made a counter proposal to eliminate these limitations. Another problem encountered by many experts is the absolute arbitrariness in granting land for the construction of mosques or churches, which could cause conflicts in many villages.

Despite criticism, the new regulations for places of worship has been touted as the first fruit of the jasmine revolution and the new post-Mubarak Egypt. Proposed June 2 last year it was created with the intent to eliminate the absurd bureaucratic rules, which for decades have prevented Christians from building new churches, obliging them to seek authorization from the President of the Republic or the Prime Minister. To date, the sites are often blocked by the Muslim communities, despite the authorization of the highest offices of state. The latest case occurred on October 1 in the province of Aswan (Upper Egypt) where hundreds of Muslims, incited by the local governor, set fire to a church. The episode was the basis of protests organized by the Coptic community that took place in Cairo on October 9, leaving 27 dead and over 200 injured.

A snapshot of the 7th ecumenical council, in the Aghia Sophia of Nicaea

The Seventh Ecumenical Council, the Second Council of Nicaea, held in the Aghia Sophia of Nicaea in 787, declared the orthodoxy of icons and images. It was the last meeting of all the world's bishops that included representatives of both the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople, the leaders of Western and Eastern Christianity, respectively. The church was turned into a mosque when Islamic jihadists conquered Nicaea in the fourteenth century; then, like its more famous namesake in Constantinople, it was made into a museum by the secular Turkish regime. Now that Turkey is rapidly re-Islamizing, it is a mosque again. "Erdogan's religious acrobatics: Nicaea council church back to being a mosque," by NAT da Polis for Asia News, November 11 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Istanbul (AsiaNews) - The specter of Aghia Sophia continues to plague the Islamic world of Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey. Not the most famous symbol of the church of Constantinople, but another church, Aghia Sophia in Nicaea (now Izmit), which predates the Constantinople church, having been built in the fourth century. It passed into history in 787 AD, when it was the last church to host a united Christendom drawn to discuss the iconoclastic question, in a truly ecumenical synod, before the fatal schism of 1024 [actually 1054 -- ed.].

This Christian church, the Aghia Sophia in Nicaea (Izmit), was transformed into a mosque in 1331 by Orhan Gazi who led the Ottomans and which was later made a museum in 1920, has returned once again to being a mosque.

All that was needed was a directive from the Directorate General for Religious Affairs led by Mehmet Gormez, appointed by Erdogan instead of Ali Bardakoglu, the man behind the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey, since retired. The move has elicited several considerations in Turkey and abroad in a period in which much importance and emphasis is placed on religious freedom. It is also noted that this decision by the Directorate for Religious Affairs, made in accordance with the Directorate General of Religious Foundations, to which the church of Aghia Sophia in Izmit belongs, is in complete contrast with the decisions of the Ministry of Culture in Ankara, which granted permission for religious celebrations in Christian monuments that have since been transformed into museums....

The much-ballyhooed new TV show is just another exercise in whitewashing and obfuscation. "Network TV show portraying this as 'all-American' ...: 'Danger is in the deception and obfuscation of the truth,'": by Michael Carl for WorldNetDaily, November 10:

According to The Learning Channel, its coming new "All-American Muslim" program is a "powerful series" taking viewers "inside the rarely seen world of American Muslims." And it uncovers a "unique community struggling to balance faith and nationality."...

The program launches on Sunday on the TLC Cable Channel.

The producers went to Dearborn, Mich., the U.S. city that has the highest concentration of Muslims in the United States, and a producer who declined to be named told WND the stories focus on people.

"Ultimately, our shows are about telling the stories of the families featured in them. So, to some extent, the history of American Muslims settling in Dearborn may be touched upon, but ultimately, this is about the families' stories and what's going on in their lives today, not the past, per se," the producer said....

"Like many of our programs, it offers viewers a glimpse into a world they may not otherwise experience, introducing them to real-life families who are going through everyday experiences that really resonate with our audience – from getting married, to having a baby to rooting for your favorite football team," the producer said.

"We're excited about that because we think this group of families really will give our audience a taste of what life is like in Dearborn, Mich., for a variety of American Muslims – some quite traditional, and some not."

But Islam analyst Pamela Geller says that perspective on the show is also its danger.

"Clearly this program is designed to counter the fictional threat of 'Islamophobia' by showing Muslims who aren't terrorist monsters, but ordinary people living ordinary lives, balancing tradition and modern life, dealing with their families, their jobs, and a host of other issues," Geller said.

"It is an attempt to manipulate Americans into ignoring the threat of jihad and to bully them into thinking that being concerned about the jihad threat would somehow victimize these nice people in this show. The problem is not people; it's ideology. The show doesn't address that," Geller said.

The producer of the program says that for the most part, program makers purposefully avoided getting too deeply into some of the deeper issues surrounding Islam.

"This show is not about politics. Viewers will gain insight into Islam, definitely, but more from the perspective of cultural traditions, how modern American Muslims in Dearborn live, family matters and so on," the producer said.

"But we think there are interesting insights that will be offered by the show, so we hope people will tune in, just knowing that this is not an academic-type documentary about Islam, it's really about day-to-day life in Dearborn, as seen through the eyes of the families featured in the show, who are pretty diverse," the producer said.

He said the program tried to avoid the issue that some Islamic clerics want to bring Islamic law – Shariah – into America.

"As I say, viewers will get an insight into Islam and Muslim traditions as practiced by the families featured in the show who have varying practices when it comes to their faith. The show focuses on how each of these families balances their beliefs and traditions in their day-to-day lives," the producer said.

Jerry Newcombe, Truth in Action Ministries' senior producer and analyst, says the major problem with the program is that it's not going to show the reality of "pure Islam."

"It's a free country. Muslims are free to practice their religion here (thanks to Christianity, ultimately). What is sad, though, is that the truth about the goals of radical Islam are hidden from many Americans through programs like the one on TLC. Islam wants to take over the world. If they have to use force, they'll do that. But otherwise, they'll do it by what Robert Spencer calls 'stealth jihad,'" Newcombe said.

A line from one of the first two episodes illustrates what both Geller and Newcombe are describing, when one of Muslim women says in a panel discussion, "We live our lives just like anyone else."

That perception is one of the reasons why Jihad Watch publisher and Executive Director Robert Spencer shares the concerns expressed by Geller and Newcombe....

"The show apparently is trying to show that Muslims go to clubs, like to have fun, etc. But this doesn't really establish anything," Spencer said.

"The problem people have with Islam is its teachings of violence against and the subjugation of unbelievers. The problem is not with every Muslim person. It is with the supremacist ideology and the fervent believers in those noxious doctrines of warfare and subjugation," Spencer also said.

Geller agrees.

"It is trying to show nominal Muslims as the norm, as if their existence takes away the threat from devout Muslims," Geller said.

"It is mentioned once but never explained: the man has to convert to Islam because a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man. This is a supremacist measure designed to make the Muslim community always expand at the expense of the non-Muslim one. But there is no hint of that in this show," Geller said.

Geller is making reference to the major issue in the program's first episode.

One of the program's main subjects former Roman Catholic Jeff McDermott. McDermott converts to Islam so that he can marry Shadia Amen, the daughter of one of the five families featured in the program.

While the program honestly portrays one of the Muslim men saying that anyone who marries a Muslim must be a Muslim, the subtle nature of the prevailing attitude can be missed by the average viewer.

In an interview sequence, Jeff sits with Shadia in front of the camera and says, "They (referring to her family) made me feel comfortable."

Shadia replies, "We (including herself with her family) wanted you to feel comfortable."

Spencer believes the result might have been different if the couple had chosen the other possible path, which was for her to become a Catholic.

"What if he and his bride to be decide to get married in the Roman Catholic Church, or leave Islam at some later date? In that case he may find her Muslim relatives somewhat less solicitous of their desire to put their happiness above all other things," Spencer said.

When asked if the program is actually showing a more subtle version of strict Islam by subtly forcing the young Catholic man to convert to Islam to marry the young woman, Spencer said, "Precisely."...

Spencer adds that the program also gives subtle clues to the realities of Islam's beliefs.

"Another way the program is carefully presenting strict Islam is the 'traditional' Muslim man says that women should not be opening up clubs. There are lots of small clues here and there," Spencer said.

Spencer was referring to a scene in episode two in which one of the young women wants to open a night club and her father objects saying, "Muslim women don't do that."

Spencer and Geller agree that the focus of the program plays down the major emphases of Islam.

Geller adds that the ultimate danger posed by a program presenting the "normal" side of life for American Muslims is that it isn't accurate.

"The danger is, it's misleading. The Muslims portrayed in the show are free to choose their path. That is the beauty of living in a free society. But so many aren't, not only in Muslim countries, but here in America," Geller said.

Geller points to two instances that reveal the consequences of Islam growing in any country where it gains the upper hand.

"Who speaks for Jessica Mokdad who lived not far from where this show is taping? Mokdad was honor murdered by her stepfather, Rahim Alfetlawi, for 'not following Islam'. That happened in the same city that refuses to run my freedom bus ads. The ads were designed to help girls like Jessica. Despite our free speech victories in the Detroit court, Mokdad was honor murdered the week my ads were supposed to run," Geller said.

"The danger is in the deception and obfuscation of the truth which results in the intellectual disarming of the American people," Geller also said....

In "The Middle East Studies Establishment vs. Walid Phares" in The American Thinker today, Cinnamon Stillwell exposes the rogue's gallery of Islamic supremacist hacks and academic establishment poseurs who have taken aim at Walid Phares after Mitt Romney brought him into his campaign as an adviser. Anyone and everyone who dares to challenge the accepted lies about the Religion of Peace and Tolerance will be targeted in the same way that Phares is being targeted now, in a relentless campaign of personal abuse, defamation, libel, and more. Anyone. And some people today are getting it far worse than is Phares.

Yet some anti-jihadists nonetheless seem to think that if they mouth the prevailing politically correct pieties about "Islamism" and "moderate Muslims" and the "hijacking of Islam," and throw their more honest colleagues under the bus, consenting to their being silenced, that they will be spared the same savaging. They will not be spared.

Phares's moral clarity on Islamism and jihadism do not sit well with those who would rather engage in apologetics and obstructionism.  This explains why his fiercest opponents have included some of the worst from the field of Middle East studies.

California State University, Stanislaus political science professor and "Angry Arab" blogger As'ad AbuKhalil, writing for Salon.com, blamed Phares's appointment on "the Israel lobby and its affiliates," claimed that his "writings are only relevant to Zionist discourse and polemics," and concluded that "when the appointment of Israeli experts on terrorism is not possible, a man like Phares is the second best choice."

AbuKhalil's hostility towards Israel -- and hence, towards anyone who isn't an anti-Zionist fanatic --  is well-established.  He accused President Obama, of all people, of giving "free reign to the Zionist lobby" in a 2010 Al Jazeera television interview.  Speaking in April 2011, he ranted:

[N]ever will we recognize the Zionist State of Israel! ... The Arab World will never prosper until the Zionist regime is removed! ... We celebrate the demise of Israel; yes, Israel, your days are truly numbered!

I tangled with AbuKhalil many years ago on a radio show out of San Diego. He was rude, arrogant, hostile, and defamatory, after the same old tired pattern of all Islamic supremacists. But when I challenged him to find something actually false in my then-new book, Islam Unveiled, he of course could not do so and fell back on more haughty bluster.

AbuKhalil paints Phares's early years in Lebanon as those of a right-wing, Christian militant -- charges that have been repeated by many of Phares's opponents, despite being debunked on numerous occasions.  Yet it turns out that AbuKhalil may have questionable allegiances of his own.  According to John Hajjar at Family Security Matters, AbuKhalil "is known in the Lebanese and Middle Eastern American communities as the mouthpiece of [Hezbollah secretary general] Hassan Nasrallah in the world of petrodollar-funded Middle East studies." [...]

Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill who was quoted in the same Daily Beast article, declared the Phares appointment a "pathetic reflection on Governor Romney to have surrounded himself with such a person for advice on the Middle East and Islam" and likened it "to turning to [former KKK leader] David Duke to get advice on race relations."

Safi is accustomed to making these sorts of inflammatory accusations.  In a 2005 Belief.net article, Safi labeled the isolated prisoner abuse at Abu Graib prison in Iraq "a continuation of twenty years of American foreign policy centered on dehumanizing Muslims."  In April 2010, he falsely claimed that Islam scholar Robert Spencer "threatened me and my family with death" in a Facebook message.  The recipient's Facebook account was later disabled with no explanation, and although Spencer called Safi out for defamation, Safi never retracted the claim, nor did the university take action.

It does amaze me that a lying creep and pseudo-academic like Omid Safi could keep his job at a major university, but that is just another indication of the wholesale intellectual collapse of the American university system, and its utter abandonment of genuine academic standards. The Middle East Studies Association controls Middle East Studies departments all over the country, and ensures that propagandists and ideologues like Safi and his wali Carl Ernst get hired rather than real scholars.

"Amnesty International says it is important to "lift the lid on one of Afghanistan's most shameful judicial practices." That shameful practice is part of Sharia, under which four witnesses must support allegations of a sex crime. Thus, a woman making accusations of rape opens the door to charges of adultery if she has not obtained the necessary witnesses, in accordance with Qur'an 24:13.

Such a rule may not be officially on the books yet, but Sharia is enshrined as the highest law of the land in Afghanistan, and the constitution says nothing can go against it. It is already being enforced in practice, and any prospective reforms will come up against protests in the name of protecting the integrity of Islamic law.

"A decade after the Taliban were overthrown, Afghan women are still waiting for justice," because of fantasy-based policy-making that proceeded on the assumption that a moderate state would more or less fall into place once the Taliban were moved out of the way. Moreover, there certainly appears to have been the assumption that "real" Sharia would be a vast improvement over "Taliban" Sharia. That is also the fruit of politically correct, fantasy-based policy.

"EU censors own film on Afghan women prisoners," by Orla Guerin for BBC News, November 10:

The European Union has blocked the release of a documentary on Afghan women who are in jail for so-called "moral crimes".

The EU says it decided to withdraw the film - which it commissioned and paid for - because of "very real concerns for the safety of the women portrayed".

However, human rights workers say the injustice in the Afghan judicial system should be exposed.

Half of Afghanistan's women prisoners are inmates for "zina" or moral crimes.

A statement from the EU's Kabul delegation said the welfare of the women was the paramount consideration in its decision.

No official from the delegation was prepared to be interviewed about the film.

No new dawn

Some of the women convicted of "zina" are guilty of nothing more than running away from forced marriages or violent husbands.

Human rights activists say hundreds of those behind bars are victims of domestic violence.

Amnesty International says it is important to "lift the lid on one of Afghanistan's most shameful judicial practices".

The documentary told the story of a 19-year-old prisoner called Gulnaz.

After she was raped, she was charged with adultery. Her baby girl, born following the rape, is serving her sentence with her.

"At first my sentence was two years," Gulnaz said, as her baby coughed in her arms. "When I appealed it became 12 years. I didn't do anything. Why should I be sentenced for so long?"

Stories like hers are tragically typical, according to Heather Barr, of Human Rights Watch, who is carrying out research among Afghan female prisoners.

"It would be reassuring to think that the stories told in this film represent aberrations or extreme case," she said. "Unfortunately that couldn't be further from the truth."

She has interviewed many women behind bars, who were victims twice over - abused by their husbands, or relatives, and then by those who were supposed to protect them.

"You hear the story again and again of women going to the police and asking for help and ending up in prison instead," Ms Barr said.

A decade after the Taliban were overthrown, Afghan women are still waiting for justice, campaigners say.

Ms Barr said: "It's very important that people understand that there are these horrific stories that are happening now - 10 years after the fall of the Taliban government, 10 years after what was supposed to be a new dawn for Afghan women."

For many that new dawn has not come, but for Gulnaz there is now the hope of freedom.

Her name is on a list of women to be pardoned, according to a prison official, but as she has no lawyer, the paperwork has yet to be processed.

Gulnaz's pardon may be in the works because she has agreed - after 18 months of resisting - to marry her rapist.

"I need my daughter to have a father," she said.

Will the attacker be found? How much time will he serve? Or will the victim, if he survives, be charged for having had a machete for cutting wood? There is already a precedent for it, from the last high-profile wave of anti-Ahmadi violence.

Many provinces in Modern, Moderate Indonesia have essentially blamed the victims for existing, and have moved to make Ahmadis invisible non-persons. Other Ahmadis in the shelter described in this story cannot return to their homes or register as residents, and the government has cut off assistance to them because -- you guessed it -- they are officially non-residents.

"Sickening Attack Leaves Disabled Ahmadi Severely Injured." from the Jakarta Globe, November 10 (thanks to Twostellas):

A disabled member of the Indonesian’s minority Ahmadiyah religious sect survived a brutal attack by an unknown assailant but had both his ears partially severed with a machete, it was reported on Thursday.

The victim was identified as Sadarudin, a resident of the run-down Transito shelter in Mataram, Lombok, that has been home to almost 150 persecuted Ahmadi for the last six years.

Metro TV reported that the victim, who is deaf and mute, was collecting wood near the shelter on Wednesday when he was attacked.

Local police said that according to witnesses, the attacker attempted to behead the victim but was scared off when other Ahmadi heard the commotion, according to the report.

Qur'an 47:4: "strike at their necks."

The victim, who would not have been able to call for help, suffered serious head injuries and is fighting for his life in the Mataram General Hospital.

It is understood the assailant had approached his intended victim and asked to borrow his machete before using it in the attack.

The Transito (transit) shelter is home to 138 members of the beleaguered sect who struggle to survive.

The electricity to the shelter was cut off more than three years ago, food aid from the government — which has perpetuated their limbo by refusing them the right to return home or register as residents — was halted last year, and sanitation facilities are non-existent.

A stipend from the state was stopped in 2007.

Not being registered residents, they have been denied the free gas stoves distributed by the government to all citizens, and they now resort to gathering scrap to burn as fuel.

“Walk in our shoes for a little bit to see what we go through.” Heavens to betsy! What do these poor Muslim students at Cal State San Bernardino go through? Is the campus patrolled by roving bands of greasy Islamophobes, spitting on poor pious hijabis and cackling demonically as they pull off their hijabs? Are they denied a seat at the lunch counter by a clerk who points wordlessly to a sign: "NO MUSLIMS SERVED"? Are they kidnapped, raped, forced to convert to Christianity, as Christian girls in Egypt are with alarming regularity kidnapped, raped, and forced to convert to Islam?

Not quite. Has the young woman who claimed it would be good for non-Muslims to see what Muslims go through actually ever experienced hatred or discrimination? “Personally, myself, no, thank God."

Probably these faux hijabis found that people on the hyper-PC campus became extra solicitous toward them.

Victimhood Manipulation Update: "Students Challenged To Wear Muslim Head Scarves On Campus," by Greg Mills for CBS Los Angeles, November 9:

SAN BERNARDINO (CBS) — Students at California State University San Bernardino were challenged to wear traditional Muslim head scarves this week in a campaign that many people hoped would change attitudes.

Corinna Ordonez, a Catholic, was one of the students who took on the challenge, dressing in a traditional Muslim head scarf called a Hijab.

“I’m looking at them and I wonder how other people look at them and if they judge them. Things like that, so I wanted to try it,” she said.

That was exactly the idea behind the Muslim Student Association’s “Take the Hijab Challenge,” which they issued to students at CSUSB.

“Walk in our shoes for a little bit to see what we go through,” said Naheed Sahak, who believes there are common misconceptions in the U.S. regarding people, who are Muslim.

She said that many women in our country, who wear a Hijab, get negative and in some cases hostile reactions....

The few people I spoke with also said that they honestly have never experienced any negative reactions to wearing the scarves, which cover much of the head.

“Personally, myself, no, thank God,” Sahak said.

Ordonez said that she spent about an hour working on her hair in the morning, but did not mind covering it up to take the challenge. She was joined by more than 200 women over a two-day period

Ordonez wore it around campus and expected to get a lot of dirty looks.

“Most of the reaction that I got was people trying not to look at me. If they looked at me kind of by accident, they [would] look down,” she said.

Thursday the [Muslim Brotherhood-linked] Muslim Student Association planned to show videos of those who took the challenge and recorded reactions, followed by a question and answer session.

Sunnis and Shias are normally enemies -- except, of course, when the real infidels get involved. A "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" moment: "Head of Al Azhar Fatwa Committee: Whoever helps America or Israel against Iran sins," Al Quds, November 10:

Sheikh Abd al-Hamid al-Atrash, former Chairman of the Fatwa Committee of Al Azhar, has issued a fatwa stating that any Arab and Muslim nation that cooperates with the U.S. against Iran sins. According to this fatwa, published by the Egyptian newspaper Al Gumhuriyya, such nations would be “committing a crime against Islam, by helping the enemy who does not believe in Allah, or his Messenger [Muhammad], against a Muslim nation, contradicting the words of Allah: 'Believers are brothers' [Quran 49:10]"...

Peace might be a bit farther off than the learned analysts expect. Qur'an 47:4: "Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks..." Even if they're members of a peace committee, apparently, and are not precisely unbelievers except insofar as their attempts to end the jihad rendered them apostates in their attackers' eyes.

"Militants kill 4 members of peace committee, behead one in Khyber Agency," by Iftikhar Firdous for The Express Tribune, November 10 (thanks to Wimpy):

PESHAWAR: Four members of a local peace committee were killed in a shootout with militants from the banned outfit Lashkar-i-Islam in the Akakhel Darra area of Bara sub-division in Khyber Agency on Thursday.

The clash started earlier in the morning when the militants attacked members of the peace committee.

“The militants beheaded one the peace committee’s members and took away the head,” told a resident on condition of anonymity....

Of course it was willful negligence: many people knew that Hasan was a jihadi, but political correctness and fear kept them from doing anything about him. "Victims, Family Seek $750M For Fort Hood Tragedy," from The Associated Press, November 10 (thanks to Kenneth):

More than 80 victims and family members in the worst-ever mass shooting at a U.S. military installation are seeking $750 million in compensation from the Army, alleging that willful negligence enabled psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan to carry out a terrorist attack at Fort Hood, Texas.

The administrative claims filed last week say the government had clear warnings that Hasan, who is scheduled to go on trial in March, posed a grave danger to the lives of soldiers and civilians.

The victims and family members allege that the government bowed to political correctness and not only ignored the threat Hasan presented but actually promoted him to the rank of major five months before the massacre two years ago that left 13 dead and more than two dozen wounded.

This would certainly explain a lot. "ElBaradei didn't just mess us up, he messed up the entire sane world." Indeed.

"Israeli officials: ElBaradei an Iranian agent," by Itamar Eichner for Ynet News, November 9 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Senior Israeli officials said Tuesday night that the International Atomic Energy Agency report stating that Iran has been working on developing a nuclear weapon design proves that the former UN nuclear watchdog chairman "was an Iranian agent".

On Wednesday, ElBaradei rejected Israel's accusations and called them "false." His response was published on the website of the Egyptian daily al-Youm al-Saba'a.

The former IAEA chairman, Mohamed ElBaradei, is an Egyptian diplomat who even won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

For years he defended the Iranian nuclear program, claiming that it was peaceful, thus allowing the Iranians to continue their activity with the nuclear watchdog's seal of approval.

According to one of the state officials, the new report published Tuesday proves "just how much he was working for the Iranians.

"He simply rescued Iran and was constantly busy covering up for them, causing serious damage by allowing the Iranians to fool the entire world and play for time. History may judge him as the person who helped Iran obtain a nuclear weapon.

"The things exposed now are not new. These are old things which were hidden and not published," the official added. "Now it turns out that ElBaradei led an active policy of concealment and disregard. This is very serious. He is a despicable person."

"ElBaradei didn't just mess us up, he messed up the entire sane world," added Uzi Eilam, former head of Israel's Atomic Energy Agency. "He was dishonest his entire term. He is the one who stopped the Security Council from imposing serious sanctions, providing the Iranians with precious time."

Especially from "America and its stooges and the Zionist regime." But all these threats and all this chest-thumping betrays a certain anxiety.

Saber-rattling from the Islamic Republic: "Iran warns of 'full force' response to threats," by Mohammad Davari for AFP, November 10 (thanks to Ima):

Iran will hit back against any attack or even threat of military action, the country's supreme leader said Thursday after Israel warned the world must act to prevent Tehran getting nuclear weapons.

Iran "will respond with full force to any aggression or even threats in a way that will demolish the aggressors from within," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told students at a Tehran military college, according to his official website.

Khamenei said the message was directed at Iran's enemies, "especially America and its stooges and the Zionist regime (Israel)."

The supreme leader's forceful language followed threats last week from Israel that air strikes could be in the offing against Iran's nuclear facilities.

President Shimon Peres said on Saturday that such action was becoming "more and more likely."...

Defence Minister Ahmad Vahid was quoted by state media as saying "the armed forces of the Islamic republic will powerfully respond to any aggression and threat... Any (action) by the usurper regime (of Israel) will spell its demise."

A day earlier, armed forces deputy chief Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri also predicted Israel's "destruction" if it attacks and warned: "Our response would not be limited to the Middle East."

"Iran is not a nation to sit still and just observe threats from fragile materialist powers which are being eaten by worms from inside," Khamenei was quoted as telling the military cadets on Thursday.

"Anyone who harbours any thought of invading the Islamic Republic of Iran -- or even if the thought crosses their mind -- should be prepared to receive strong blows and the steel fists of the military, the (Revolutionary) Guards, and the Basij (militia), or in other words the Iranian nation," he said.

"Or even if the thought crosses their mind"! Thoughtcrime!

Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani reinforced the message, warning Western governments they "risk breaking their neck if they play certain games," the state television website reported....

"Say (O Muhammad): O ye who are Jews! If ye claim that ye are favoured of Allah apart from (all) mankind, then long for death if ye are truthful." -- Qur'an 62:6

"The Americans love Pepsi-Cola, we love death." -- Afghan jihadist Maulana Inyadullah

"We love death more than you love life!" -- New York jihadist Adis Medunjanin

"Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other [Qur'anic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim." -- Ayatollah Khomeini

"Pope Meets With Holy Land Rabbi, Imam, Druse," by Nicole Winfield for the Associated Press, November 10:

A delegation of Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Druse religious leaders in Israel met Thursday with Pope Benedict XVI in a high-profile display of their efforts to promote interfaith peace initiatives in the region....

Sheik Kiwan Mohamad, who heads an association of some 500 imams in Israel, said the fact that the council exists was proof that people of different faiths can live together peacefully, even amid the political unrest in the Middle East.

"Islam is a religion of peace that loves life and condemns any act in the name of religion against the very principles of the religion," he said. "The people who act in this way are selfish; they do so for themselves and out of personal motives and interests."...

The above picture, taken at a recent protest in Egypt, has been making the rounds on various Arabic websites. Note the rope around the women, herding them like camels; note the man to the right holding the leash, walking them. I am told this is a common “precautionary measure” to keep women from mixing with men during protests.

Considering that certain Islamic texts describe females as “she-camels in heat,” or that it is traditional for some men to divorce their wives by saying “you are given free rein and unloosed like that camel,” or that Muslims are thought to have a mind-frame rooted in sand, camels, and ropes—this measure must surely seem natural.

At any rate, to those who think that history must always progress, take note: fifty years ago, the overwhelming majority of women in Egypt wore dresses, hair uncovered, and would never have condescended to being walked on a leash.

Such is “progress”—“Arab Spring” style.

The Indian constitution guarantees religious freedom, but Islamic rage trumps that. As Muhammad said, "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57), and authorities in India and the West believe that it is all-important to give the followers of that man exactly what they want -- or else. "Police Detain, Beat Converts from Islam in India," from the Compass Direct News, November 10:

NEW DELHI, November 10 (CDN) — Police in India’s Kashmir Valley detained and beat converts from Islam and were expected to arrest Christian workers after Muslim leaders alleged that Muslim youth were being “lured” to Christianity.

Police in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley picked up seven converts who were recently baptized in All Saints Church in Srinagar, a local Christian who spoke to the converts after their release on Nov. 2 told Compass. Srinagar is the summer capital of the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir and the main city of the Kashmir Valley.

The source, who requested anonymity, said police beat the converts and asked if Christians had given them money for their conversion. Most of the converts were from Budgam district, about 18 miles from Srinagar, and pastors there fearful of being arrested were in hiding, he added.

Senior Superintendent of Police of Srinagar Ashiq Bukhari was not available for comment.

Police got the names of the converts and pastors from a video recording of the baptism provided by Kashmir’s grand mufti (the highest official of religious law), Bashir-ud-din Ahmad. The video was later posted on YouTube.

The Rev. Chander Mani Khanna, pastor of All Saints Church, told Compass that he had been summoned by the mufti, who is also the head of the sharia (Islamic law) court. He said he would meet Ahmad on Nov. 17.

The court had issued the summons for Saturday (Nov. 12), but Pastor Khanna had a prior engagement.

India, home to the world’s third-largest Muslim population, has a few sharia courts pertaining only to civil matters.

Ahmad alleged that Pastor Khanna, whose church is affiliated with the Church of North India (CNI) denomination, was converting young Muslim men and women by offering money, and that therefore he must be arrested. The mufti told media that the video was definitive evidence that Muslims were being “lured” to Christianity, although it only shows the baptism ceremony.

Pastor Khanna said the young men converted of their own will and without his persuasion.

The Indian constitution provides for religious freedom, including the right to propagate and the right to change one’s religion....

Oddly enough, the "anti-Shiite militants" were Sunni jihadists. The ever-dreaded Islamophobic "backlash" remains elusive. "Six Anti-Shia Militants Arrested With 25000 kg of Explosives in Pakistan," from the Ahlul Bayt News Agency, November 10 (thanks to Twostellas):

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Pakistan Police has arrested six anti-Shiite militants, and seized 25000 kilogramme explosives from a poultry farm in Mandi Bahauddin in Punjab province.

The militants were preparing an explosive device for launching terror attacks in the holy month of Muharram (Imam Hussain Martyrdom) in Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad.

Two of them are expert in preparing suicide cars. These militants were being watched for the last six months.

The militants belonged to Swat, Swabi, Mardan, Bhakhar, Dera Ismail Khan and Quetta in Pakistan.

The Mourning of Muharram is an important period of mourning in Shia Islam, taking place in Muharram which is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is also called the Remembrance of Muharram. Many of the events associated with the remembrance take place in Hussainia, Mosques and other religious places.

Those who speak about "Islamists" and "Islamism," and who insist that Islam is a peaceful religion that has been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists -- like Holder -- are imposing Western categories upon Muslims, not taking Muslims and Islam as they actually are. That's ethnocentric stereotyping. "Eric Holder’s stereotyping of Muslims irresponsible, say critics," by Neil Munro for The Daily Caller, November 10:

Attorney General Eric Holder is stereotyping Muslims in America, and his willful ignorance about the religious roots of Islamic terrorism endangers Americans and marginalizes Muslim reformers, say experts on Islamist terror groups.

That assessment was prompted by Holder’s announcement during a Tuesday congressional hearing that American Muslims “have the same desires that we all have.”

His declaration came during an answer about the training manuals used by some FBI trainers, which have drawn furious criticism from Islamist lobby groups. Those manuals, Holder said, contain training lessons that “can really undermine, really undermine, the really substantial outreach efforts that we have made and really have a negative impact on our ability to communicate effectively, as we have in the past, with this community.”

“I almost hesitate to say ‘this community,’ because the reality is that we’re talking about Americans, Americans citizens, who have the same desires that we all have, who want their kids to be safe, who want the opportunities that this great country has to offer them,” Holder added.

Holder’s blanket statement about Muslims’ desires “is ethnocentric in the sense that he is imposing his own values upon people who may have, and often demonstrably do have, vastly different perspectives,” Robert Spencer, the author of several books on Islam, told The Daily Caller.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Holder criticized arguments that Islam’s tenets spur violence, and that adherence to Islamic rituals and dress are a marker of “possible extremism.” [...]

Those claims are “flat wrong,” Holder said.

Islamist advocates in the United States, and their allies in the U.S. progressive movement, have fiercely attacked Spencer because he cites Islamic texts that repeatedly urge attacks on people who are not Muslims. Spencer has offered to debate Holder or his advisers in public. [...]

In the ten years since the 9/11 terror attacks, 40 Islamic plots to attack people and targets in the United States have been foiled, according to a count by the Heritage Foundation.

In contrast, only two German-Americans citizens participated in a planned sabotage plot during World War II, along with six Germans who had worked in the United States, even though roughly 20 percent of the country had German ancestry. There were almost no examples of cooperation by Japanese-Americans with Imperial Japan’s forces....

One of the staples of attack pieces on me by Leftist and Islamic supremacist hate groups is something I wrote in 2005: "‘there is no distinction in the American Muslim community between peaceful Muslims and jihadists. While Americans prefer to imagine that the vast majority of American Muslims are civic-minded patriots who accept wholeheartedly the parameters of American pluralism, this proposition has actually never been proven." More is made of this quote than is actually there, since all I meant was actually that there is no institutional distinction, so jihadis move freely in Muslim circles among those who oppose them and claim to do so. In other words, there are no "Islamic supremacist" mosques and "moderate" mosques. There are just mosques, and there are peaceful Muslims and jihadis in them.

Meanwhile, non-Muslim authorities continue to assume that every Muslim who is not an active member of a terrorist group is a moderate who rejects the premises of jihad terror. Here is yet another story that illustrates how unwise that is.

"Norwegian ‘His Majesty the King's Guard’ Dies as terrorist," from Norway News, November 10 (thanks to Benedict):

Norwegian friends found the ‘Norwegian-Somali’ man to be a model soldier. This ‘model soldier’ ended up traveling to Somalia to fight for Allah. 

Without notifying friends or family, the Norwegian-Somali man traveled to Somalia and joined terrorist organization, “al-Shabaab.”

This startling information appears in an unpublished report prepared by the Defense Research Establishment (FFI) and accessed by VG. The report is authored by Stig Jarle Hansen, a world leader in Somalian matters.



PST (Police Security Service) confirmed to VG that the former soldier in His Majesty the King's Guard was killed in combat in March of this year.



PST knew the soldier was killed earlier this year while fighting in Somalia. “There is reason to wonder why a seemingly well-integrated Norwegian citizen would travel to Somalia to join a terrorist organization,” says communications director, Trond Hugubakken of Police Security Service’s (PST).




The 27-year-old is the first known Norwegian citizen who has been killed fighting for a terrorist organization. He died in March this year, allegedly in a battle with Somali government forces. 



In 2005 and 2006, he served with the military service of His Majesty the King's Guard. 



“We have informed the media that a named civilian has been killed in Somalia. We are also aware that he - like many others - has completed their military services training in the Armed Forces a few years back,” said Lt. Col. Bent-Ivan Myhre, spokesman of the Armed Forces.

Transformation

VG Nett has been in contact with family members and acquaintances of the Norwegian-Somali shoulder. They tell of a sudden change that began after he came in contact with the so-called Tablighi community while traveling. They are extremely conservative Muslims.

“He was a real GodGunsAndGlory. He played football, was well liked by everyone. He had many Norwegian friends, said a school friend.”

Family shocked

The father of the late Norwegian-Somali replied to VG that it came as a shock to him and others in the family that his son traveled to Somalia to join al-Shabaab.

“He traveled to Ethiopia last year to visit his mother. From there he went to Somalia, but he told me little about it. It is terrible to think that he is dead, I cannot get it out of my head, said the father. He has five children behind in Norway.”

-Was he contacted by PST after he died?

“Yes, I have talked a lot with the police. What we talked about is a matter between me and them, but you can imagine it yourself.”

- I guess they were interested in knowing why your son chose to join a terrorist organization.

The father nodded, pulled another drag on his cigarette and his eye went blank.

Overgrown beard

In 2009 that the young man suddenly changed. He began to walk in long ankle-length robes and let his beard grow.

Then, the young man went to Africa. He had not been to Africa since he first set foot on Norwegian soil in 1994.

He landed in Ethiopia and stayed there for a while. Then he must have crossed the border into Somalia. From the war-torn country, he called home from terrorist-controlled Beled weyne.

In Somalia, he was responsible for training and passing on the knowledge of His Majesty the King's Guard to young terrorist recruits.



The family did not hear from him, again. Not until an unknown woman called in March 2011. 



“Hey, I'm his wife. He has been killed,” was all she had to say.




Now the family wants to know who fooled the young happy boy into believing he would go to paradise if he martyred his life to the Somali bloodshed. 



“Why? I want to know,” say a family member. He explains that the young man was a role model for his brothers, sisters, nephews and cousins, before suddenly enlisting into to the radical Islamist movement.

Who could have fooled the young happy boy into believing such a thing? Could it have been...Allah, who guarantees Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for him (Qur'an 9:111)?

Warning 

Somalia expert, Stig Jarle Hansen, wrote the report in which the unique story unfolds. He warns it isn’t only young misfits and frustrated men who are attracted to participate in the terror war. 

“This shows that it is important to have a deep and broad dialogue with the Somali community.

It is important not to be blinded by the danger of lies. This man was apparently well-integrated, played football and had Norwegian friends,” says Hansen.

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." -- Qur'an 9:29

Under heavy pressure from the European powers, the Ottoman Empire abolished the payment of the jizya, which is the cornerstone of the system of dhimmitude, in the 1850s. But even the secular Turkish state found a way to reestablish it under another name. As the Islamization of Turkey continues to advance, eventually this pretense will no longer be needed.

Meanwhile, how many of the learned analysts who invoke Turkey as a prime example of Islamic moderation (even though Kemalist Turkey was established by means of active and conscious restriction of political Islam) know that in secular Turkey non-Muslims pay a special tax from which Muslims are exempt, just as is directed in the Qur'an?

"Non-Muslim minorities protest wealth tax, expect apology," by Ilyas Koç for Today's Zaman, November 10 (thanks to Twostellas):

Victims of the discriminatory wealth tax, who are all non-Muslim minorities, demand an apology from the state 69 years after legislation was passed by Parliament on Nov. 11, 1942, requiring non-Muslims to pay a much higher rate of tax to the state.

Many well-known families in Turkey are among the victims. One such victim is the prominent Turkish Jewish businessman Hayim Alaton, the father of Alarko Holding’s executive board chairman İshak Alaton. Hayim Alaton was sent to Aşkale in the province of Erzurum to perform manual labor because he had failed to pay two separate taxes imposed on him.

Within the scope of wealth tax payment requirements, 1,229 non-Muslims were sent to Aşkale via the Haydarpaşa railroad station in İstanbul to perform the jobs assigned to them.

İshak Alaton and a group of his friends have stated that they will visit the Haydarpaşa railroad station on Nov. 11 in order to keep the memories of this tragic incident alive. He will be accompanied by lawyer Cem Murat Sofuoğlu, Professor Serap Yazıcı, Professor Ergun Özbudun and others.

As I have said many times in the context of many similar incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is no reliable way to distinguish a peaceful Muslim from a jihadist. This is yet more fruit of the unwillingness to make even a cursory attempt to take that fact into account.

And every few weeks (the last time was October 29), I find the paragraph above in the archives and post it again.

"Rogue Afghan soldier shoots three Australians, two Afghans," by Dylan Welch for the Sydney Morning Herald, November 9 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

A rogue Afghan soldier who opened fire on Australian and Afghan troops with a grenade launcher and automatic rifle, wounding five - including three Diggers - is on the run after fleeing after the attack.

Defence Force chief General David Hurley announced an Australian operation involving unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) had been launched to hunt down the soldier, who escaped in a vehicle after the shooting.

The attack is the second by an Afghan soldier on Australians in less than two weeks, and the third this year.

But Prime Minister Julia Gillard said this morning that Australians would continue to train Afghan National Army soldiers, despite the damage to relations.

"These attacks corrode trust," she said in Melbourne. "I'm very conscious that this attack, coming so soon after the dreadful attacks of October 29, will work to cause Australians to question our mission in Afghanistan and the trust we have in Afghan National Army soldiers."...

Let's hope so!

The executive director for the Australia Defence Association, Neil James, cautioned against drawing larger strategic trends from the latest incident - particularly suggestions that Australia should now withdraw from Afghanistan.

"I'm not sure this shows that we should withdraw - this is actually part of our withdrawal plan," he told this website.

"I think what a lot of people aren't grasping [is that] at the end of the day this is an Afghan civil war, the Afghans have to take over from the international forces.

"The only way that can occur is if they're brought up to a certain standard, and the only way they can do that is if they're trained and mentored.

"Everyone's looking for the magic bullet here and there isn't one. You can mitigate against this risk, but you can't completely eliminate it. You have to do this task."

He also said this incident should not lead to an outpouring of anger against the Afghan forces, who were doing a good job under difficult conditions.

"The majority of the Afghans that we're training are just as angry and embarrassed about this as the Australians are," he said.

"As one Afghan veteran said to me recently, people should take comfort from how infrequently these things happen."...

Yeah, that is so comforting!

It is no accident or coincidence that Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. A manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2). In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law.

Syria in 2009 scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences for honor killings, but "the new law says a man can still benefit from extenuating circumstances in crimes of passion or honour 'provided he serves a prison term of no less than two years in the case of killing.'" And in 2003 the Jordanian Parliament voted down on Islamic grounds a provision designed to stiffen penalties for honor killings. Al-Jazeera reported that "Islamists and conservatives said the laws violated religious traditions and would destroy families and values."

Nonetheless, the media drumbeat is constant: honor killings have nothing to do with Islam. And as long as that continues, we will see more and more murders like this one.

"‘Honour’ killing: Man and his friends axe his wife," from The Express Tribune, November 10 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

RAHIM YAR KHAN: A man axed his wife with the help of his friends after declaring her to be a ‘kari’ on Wednesday.

Police officials have arrested the accused.

According to police officials, Sube Da city resident Allah Dewaya recently filed a written complaint detailing that his daughter Hajil Mai was murdered by her husband Mukhtar Ahmed. Dewaya told police officials that Mukhtar Ahmed, 22, used to torture and beat his daughter Hajil Mai. “He kept accusing her of having had an affair even though he usually kept her locked up in the house for the duration of their marriage,” he said.

On Tuesday, Ahmed allegedly announced to their neighbourhood that his wife was a ‘kari’ and had an affair with their neighbour, Waleed. Waleed is said to have fled after the accusation.

Ahmed and seven of his friends slaughtered his wife in the courtyard of their house with sickles, knives and an axe.

Police officials said that there were several eyewitnesses. “He announced what he was going to do and because he is a landlord, we were too scared to interfere. Someone called the police though,” said a local resident Ashraf....

I'm not the candidate, I just own her

The "Arab Spring" is, as I predicted all along, ushering in an Islamic winter. The imposition of Sharia will impose upon women, as well as upon non-Muslims, a subjugated second-class status. Women Have Equal Rights In Islam Update: "Female Salafist candidate is using her husband’s photo on campaign posters," from Al Arabiya, November 10 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A female candidate in Egypt from the conservative Salafist party al-Nour is campaigning in an interesting manner: instead of putting her face on her campaign posters, she is using the likeness of her husband.

Marwa Ibrahim al-Qamash, who is running in the ad-Adaqahliyah province, initially used a flower as her campaign photo, but after sarcastic remarks about the campaign appeared on Twitter the flower picture was removed from her posters and her husband’s photos appeared.

However, replacing the flower photo with her husband’s picture did not stop Egyptians from deriding and ridiculing the woman and her campaign, again, on twitter. The woman is said to have a bachelor’s degree in Islamic studies.

A salafi is a follower of the puritanical Islamic movement Salafiyyah, which follows the examples of the Salaf, or predecessors, who lived during the early period of Islam, allegedly imitating the Prophet and his companions.

Meanwhile, other political parties in Egypt accuse the Salafists of receiving support from abroad, a claim that the Salafists reject, saying that they are a popular choice among mainstream Egyptians.

There are now 14 Islamist parties in Egypt, a marked difference from less than a year ago; the parties were banned under Hosni Mubarak’s rule.

Most Salafi women in Egypt cover their faces in public.

Don't let the door hit ya where Allah subhanahu wa-ta'ala split ya.

They finally crossed the line in their most recent incident involving a member of Parliament, Mike Freer, whom they told in a MAC press release that "you have been targeted" in a planned constituency meeting at a mosque. They went on to allude to the stabbing of another MP, Stephen Timms, by a Muslim woman, Roshonara Choudhry, in a meeting last year, saying it should serve as a "piercing reminder."

MAC proved itself a clear and present danger: the meeting was invaded, Freer was insulted as a "Jewish homosexual pig" (probably not the exact words) and reportedly had to be moved to another room to ensure his safety.

The group scrubbed that press release from their site and replaced it with one with a softer tone, but the damage had indeed been done. If this behavior, invoking the attempted murder of MP Timms, were rewarded by being allowed to continue, the final result could well be a dead member of Parliament.

The ban is also effective in time to possibly thwart MAC's planned disruption of Armistice Day observances. But don't worry about poor "Andy" Chaudary. As far as we know, he's still raking in £25,000 in benefits. He's reconstituted a banned group under a new name before: MAC was formed after Islam4UK, a re-branding of al-Muhajiroun, was banned, and other prior names appear below.

What will they call themselves next? "Muslims against Crusades banned," from the Express, November 10 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The organisation Muslims Against Crusades will be banned from operating in the UK from midnight, the Home Secretary has said.

Theresa May said she was satisfied the group was "simply another name for an organisation already proscribed under a number of names" including Al Ghurabaa, The Saved Sect, Al Muhajiroun and Islam4UK.

"The organisation was proscribed in 2006 for glorifying terrorism and we are clear it should not be able to continue these activities by simply changing its name," she said.

Mrs May said on Thursday: "I have today laid an order which will proscribe Muslims Against Crusades from midnight tonight.

"This means being a member of, or supporting the organisation, will be a criminal offence."

Anjem Choudary, who describes himself as a press spokesman for the extremist group, said the decision was a "bid by the Government to cover up the truth".

He said he did not know if a "Hell for Heroes" demonstration against Remembrance commemorations would now go ahead.

Jihad by bad puns has suffered a setback.

Responding to the Government's announcement, he said: "I think it is an abject failure of democracy and it is a victory for Sharia Muslims. The truth is something the Government would rather silence."

The demonstration was due to take place outside the Royal Albert Hall, the same location where a poppy was burned last year.

No Muslims Against Crusades members were arrested in the build-up to the announcement from Mrs May.

Thank you, Sheikh Obvious: we and a few million other people figured as much. Al-Qaeda was in an ideal position to be a major beneficiary of the Great Libyan Jihadist Garage Sale.

"Al-Qaeda's North Africa branch says got Libya weapons," from Agence France-Presse, November 9:

Al-Qaeda's North Africa franchise acknowledged it had acquired part of slain Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi's arsenal, in comments by one of its leaders quoted Wednesday.

Mokhtar Belmokhtar, believed to be one of the leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), made the remarks to Mauritanian news agency ANI, which has carried interviews and statements from the group in the past.

"We have been one of the main beneficiaries of the revolutions in the Arab world," said Belmokhtar, an Algerian national.

Early on, some officials were puzzled why al-Qaeda was cheering on the various revolutions breaking out in Africa and the Mideast.

"As for our acquisition of Libyan armament, that is an absolutely natural thing," he said, without elaborating on the nature of the weapons purportedly acquired.

Officials and experts have expressed concern that part of Kadhafi's considerable stock of weapons could end up in the hands of AQIM, which has bases in the Sahel and currently holds several foreign hostages.

According to several experts, AQIM has acquired surface-to-air missiles which could pose a threat to flights over the region.

Belmokhtar also claimed a level of ideological convergence existed between his movement and the Islamist rebels who eventually toppled Kadhafi last month and became Libya's new rulers.

"We did not fight , alongside them in the field against the Kadhafi forces," he said. "But young Islamists, jihadis... were the ones spearheading the revolution in Libya."

The National Transitional Council now in charge of Libya owes its victory over Kadhafi's 42-year rule partly to Western military backing and claims to seek the establishment of a moderate Islamic administration.

In the current legal climate in Indonesia, Abu Bakar Bashir is all too likely to be acquitted, or at least to score another major reduction in his sentence. Earlier, we wrote "how much Bashir actually serves of a 15-year prison term in Indonesia will be anyone's guess."

There is still ample time to guess. "Indonesian radical cleric Bashir appeals for acquittal," from Radio Netherlands Worldwide, November 8 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Radical Indonesian Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, convicted of funding terrorism, lodged an appeal for acquittal Tuesday after his jail term was slashed last month, his lawyer said.

The 73-year-old Bashir, who is regarded as a spiritual leader of militant Islam in Indonesia and is an outspoken supporter of Al-Qaeda-style jihad, had his jail sentence slashed last month from 15 years to nine.

"We lodged an appeal at the cassation (supreme) court," lawyer Achmad Michdan told reporters after registering the appeal.

A lower court in June sentenced Bashir to 15 years in prison for deliberately inciting terrorism and funding a new terror cell in Aceh province, allegedly planning deadly attacks on Westerners and politicians.

"We are convinced that the cleric was never involved in the Aceh" affair, Michdan said.

The Jakarta High Court ruled last month that Bashir had been involved in a less serious offence, and because of his advanced age his sentence should be reduced.

Michdan said that in the appeal, the team of lawyers questioned testimony given by several key witnesses via Internet videophone.

"They prepared it secretly without our knowledge. That was a violation of judicial procedures," he said.

The bespectacled cleric served almost 26 months behind bars for conspiracy over the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 mainly Western tourists, including 88 Australians.

But that conviction was overturned in the Supreme Court after his release in 2006 and other allegations of terrorism -- including suspected roles in deadly bombings in 2000 and 2003 -- have never been upheld in court.

He was jailed again in June.

Indonesia has been rocked by a series of attacks staged by the regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in recent years.

"I hope that with this appeal, our cleric will be freed," Michdan said."

The explanation was that the sanctions "will be seen in the international community as an instrument for regime change in Iran." Kicking the can down the road, with another round of time-buying sanctions that would be generally ineffectual in halting the Iranian nuclear program, would be a funny way of going about regime change. "Russia rules out new Iran sanctions over nuclear report," from BBC News, November 9:

Russia has ruled out supporting fresh sanctions against Iran, despite a UN report that says Tehran may be trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Britain, France and the US all said they would pursue new sanctions against Iran in the wake of the IAEA report.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said the report showed the need for the world to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons.

The US and its allies suspect Iran of trying to develop a nuclear bomb, which Tehran denies.

The Iranian government insists that its nuclear programme is for peaceful means.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told Interfax news agency that extra sanctions "will be seen in the international community as an instrument for regime change in Iran".

"That approach is unacceptable to us, and the Russian side does not intend to consider such proposals."

The Russian foreign ministry later issued another statement saying that the report "does not contain fundamentally new information".

However, Mr Netanyahu accused Iran of endangering world peace.

"The significance of the report is that the international community must bring about the cessation of Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons which endanger the peace of the world and of the Middle East," he said in a statement.

"The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] report corroborates the position of the international community, and of Israel that Iran is developing nuclear weapons," Mr Netanyahu added.

The IAEA said it had information indicating Iran had carried out tests "relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device".

The report - published on the Institute for Science and International Security website - says the research includes computer models that could only be used to develop a nuclear bomb trigger.

It documents alleged Iranian work on the kind of implosion device that would be needed to detonate a nuclear weapon....

It certainly is a popular defense to pursue or explore in jihadist cases.

An update on Khaled Aldawsari, who once wrote: "In the name of Allah The Beneficient, The Merciful. Nitro [urea] explosive is more powerful than T.N.T." He also stated that he came to the United States with the intention of staging an attack.

"Attorney for Saudi man charged in alleged terror plot files notice to pursue insanity defense," from the Associated Press, November 9 (thanks to Kenneth):

LUBBOCK, Texas — The attorney for a Saudi man accused of trying to make a weapon of mass destruction will use an insanity defense in the case.

Rod Hobson, the attorney for Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, filed notice of his plan Wednesday at a federal courthouse in Lubbock, Texas.

Prosecutors allege Aldawsari bought chemicals and equipment to build a weapon of mass destruction. The 21-year-old U.S. college student from Saudi Arabia has pleaded not guilty.

Earlier this week, Hobson filed to a motion seeking psychiatric and psychological exams for Aldawsari.

Aldawsari was arrested Feb. 23. Court documents allege he planned to attack various U.S. targets, including sites in New York City and former President George W. Bush’s home in Dallas.

And Dallas nightclubs.

A trial is set for Jan. 9.

Islamic supremacist enemies of the freedom of speech have undertaken a concerted effort to drive anti-jihadists from the public square. They have stigmatized and demonized freedom fighters with defamation, guilt-by-association, and outright lies to the extent that many are afraid to touch these issues for fear of being similarly targeted. They have recently succeeded in threatening and intimidating the Hyatt Place hotel in Sugar Land, Texas into dropping a talk by Pamela Geller, and the Hutton Hotel in Nashville into canceling the Preserving Freedom Conference.

But jihad sympathizers, co-conspirators and outright Islamic supremacists have no trouble getting hotel bookings. And so Siraj Wahhaj and Khalid Yasin are coming to the Kansas City Intercontinental Hotel.

Please contact the Intercontinental and politely and courteously inform them of what they are hosting.

Kansas City Intercontinental Hotel
401 Ward Parkway, | Kansas City, MO 64112
Phone: 816-756-1500 • Fax: 816-756-1635
Toll Free: 866-856-9717

Siraj Wahhaj is a big star on the American Muslim speaker circuit. In 1991, he was the first Islamic cleric to give an invocation to the U.S. Congress. However, he has also warned that the United States will fall unless it “accepts the Islamic agenda.” He has lamented that “if only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.” In the early 1990s he sponsored talks by Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman in mosques in New York City and New Jersey; Rahman was later convicted for conspiring to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993, and Wahhaj was designated a “potential unindicted co-conspirator.” He called Rahman, who is in prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a "respected scholar" and "strong preacher of Islam."

"Kansas City’s Intercontinental Hotel to host terror-linked imam Nov 20," from Creeping Sharia, November 9 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

Kansas City’s Intercontinental Hotel to host terror-linked imam Nov 20

The Intercontinental Hotel In Kansas City, Missouri is hosting the unindicted co-conspirator to the first World Trade Center bombing – Siraj Wahhaj – who has called Muslims to wage jihad and stated, “[T]ake my word, if 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.” H/t Causing Fitna

A group in California protested a Hilton Hotel that also hosted jihad-preaching Siraj Wahhaj and Hamas-linked CAIR, Hilton Hotel faces protest for hosting Muslim ‘terror co-conspirator’:

DefendAmerica.org points out that the featured speaker for CAIR-LA’s event Saturday night is Siraj Wahhaj, who was named by the Justice Department as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center that killed six Americans. CAIR itself was named by the Justice Department as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Holy Land Foundation probe in Texas, the largest terrorism-finance case in U.S. history.

Wahhaj also urges the violent overthrow of the “filthy” U.S. government and the establishment of Islamic law.

The imam testified as a character witness for convicted WTC terrorist mastermind Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the “blind sheik.”

Another speaker at the KC event is Sheik Khalid Yasin. Some background from Discover the Networks: Faisal Hammouda

Based in Atlanta, Sheikh Khalid Yasin is a U.S.-born Muslim convert (he was raised as a Christian) and a Malcolm X disciple who has been a popular guest speaker at Muslim Students Association (MSA) events on college campuses across the United States…he has lectured with Omar Bakri Mohammed (the founder of Hizb ut-Tahrir and Al-Muhajiroun), a pro-al Qaeda cleric who in 2006 was banned from the United Kingdom because of his religious extremism.

Yasin’s public pronouncements — at speaking engagements and on DVDs he has produced – include the following:

• “[I]f you don’t have a people that is governed by Sharia [Islamic Law], then you have a lawless people.”
• A secular Islamic state absolutely “cannot work.”
• Sharia should become the law of the land in all nations because Allah “is the best lawgiver.”
• “There’s no such thing as a Muslim having a non-Muslim friend.”
• Homosexuals should be killed because the Koran mandates it — “We don’t make any excuses about that; it’s not our law, it’s the Koran.”
• The 2002 and 2005 terrorist bombings in Bali were justifiable responses to years of Western oppression.
• “This whole delusion about the equality of women is a bunch of foolishness, there’s no such thing.”
• The Koran permits wife-beating.
• “We don’t need to go to the Christians, or the Jews, debating with them about the filth which they believe … We Muslims have been ordered to do ‘brainwashing’ because the kuffaar [unbelievers] … they are doing ‘brain-defiling.’”

On September 11, 2001, Yasin was in Saudi Arabia soliciting the support of an al Qaeda front known as the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation — which eventually would be designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government — to help finance the creation of his proposed “Islamic Broadcasting Company” (IBC)

Another participant states Muslims had nothing to do with 9/11. Watch.

Read it all. And Pamela Geller has more here.

It is so refreshing to see a mainstream media story that actually tells the truth about Islamic apostasy law and about how non-Muslims are victimized in Muslim countries. An update on the Youcef Nadarkhani case: "Pastor convicted for leaving Islam because 'everyone is a Muslim,'” by Jack Minor in the Greeley Gazette, November 9:

An Iranian pastor has been convicted and could face the death penalty for leaving the Islamic faith because, according to mainstream Islamic teaching, “everyone is born a Muslim.”

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has caught the attention of the world after being convicted for leaving the Islamic faith, even though he says he has never been a Muslim. Nardarkhani, who is facing a possible death sentence has been caught in a catch 22 regarding Muslim teaching.

While Nadarkhani tells the world that he was never a Muslim that statement is contrary to Muslim teaching. According to Islam, everyone is born a Muslim. Thus, Nadarkhani or for that matter, any person who becomes a Christian or follows any other religion has “left Islam.”

On page 28, in the introduction of a copy of the Qur’an, printed by Ansariyan Publications in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the translator, M.H. Shakir in the section “Islam and Muslims” states, “In fact, every child that is born is a Muslim. It is the parents who make him a Jew, Christian or Hindu.”

Based on this teaching, even if Nadarkhani had never visited a mosque a day in his life he is still considered a Muslim. Therefore, when he accepted Christ as his savior and became a Christian he left the Muslim faith whether he knew it or not.

The Gazette asked the Council on Arab Islamic Relations if Muslim teaching does in fact teach that everyone is born a Muslim. CAIR did not respond to our inquiries.

Pamela Geller, founder of Atlas Shrugs, and Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, have both confirmed that it is mainstream and standard Muslim theology that everyone is born a Muslim.

Iranian Pastor Hormoz Shariet with Iran Alive Ministries, says many people in the West do not understand how dire the plight of Christians in Iran is. “Islamic law states that it is criminal for a Muslim to convert to Christianity and it is in fact punishable by death,” Shariet continued, saying it is common for revolutionary Guards to arrest a Christian and not notify the family. “They can’t have a lawyer, not even a formal charge. Sometimes they even get killed without a formal charge.”

Nadarkhani is still awaiting sentencing for his “crime.” The Iranian government has been under intense pressure from international groups and governments to free Nadarkhani....

Read it all.

This was not your average radio hour. Give it a listen.

From FrontPage:

Listen to the Jamie Glazov Show which aired Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011 at 8-9 pm Pacific (11-12 pm EST) on Blog Talk Radio. Jamie was joined by Pamela Geller​ and Robert Spencer to discuss the jihadist bombing of a French magazine’s headquarters, the Arab Spring, more revelations on Grover Norquist’s Muslim Brotherhood connections, TLC’s propaganda series “All-American Muslim,” the Left’s witch-hunt of Herman Cain​ and much much more.

Listen to the program by clicking here. Or go to:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/radio-jihad/2011/11/09/the-jamie-glazov-show

"Allah, freeze the blood in their veins—until they pray for death!"

On PJ Media (via RaymondIbrahim.com) I highlight various prayers of hate -- like wishing cancer on others -- by Muslim leaders, including a formal prayer at Mecca, Islam's holiest city. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, YouTube recently removed the video (the snapshot above of Sheikh Nihari imploring Allah to visit infidels with pain and disease was taken before the video was removed and is posted for visual aid).

Someone recently sent me an Arabic video [since removed] that juxtaposes snippets of sermons delivered by Christian and Muslim leaders in the Middle East. The Christian preachers offer up universal supplications that include phrases like "O lord, lover of all mankind and savior of all the world"; they quote biblical passages such as "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matt 5: 44); they pray that God may "heal all people around the world of their diseases."

While such prayers are familiar, taken for granted even, the supplications of the Muslim preachers may surprise some. Popular Egyptian preacher, Sheikh Muhammad al-Zoghbi, was taped invoking his god thusly:

May Allah cut your tongue out! May he freeze the blood in your veins! May he inflict you with cancer and allow you no reprieve… Allah, strike them with all sorts of disease, afflictions and pain! Allah, strike them with cancer! Allah, let your prophet overpower them! Allah destroy them! Allah destroy them! Allah destroy them! Allah destroy the criminals who challenge the noble prophet! [Then, very serenely addressing his Muslim viewers:] And peace upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings.

Likewise, Sheikh Abdullah Nihari supplicated Allah with outstretched arms accordingly:

Lord, Lord, we condemn them before you!! Freeze the blood in their veins!! Strike them with evil, or at the very least freeze the blood in their veins—until they pray for death, but do not receive it!! O lord! O lord! O lord!...

Offensive, ain't it? But freedom of speech is hollow without the possibility of offending. "Offense" is in the eye of the beholder: one day, it's a cartoon of Muhammad. The next day, it might be denying Muhammad's standing as a prophet as a matter of Christian, Hindu, Jewish, or atheist belief.

Attempting to eradicate "offensive" material because it could hurt people's feelings results in an increasingly sensitized and fearful society, where being "offended" is suddenly a much bigger deal. It ultimately serves to shield those who are calling for the censorship from criticism -- after all, they've been the victims of something "offensive." That is the idea, under the pretext of achieving a "nicer" society (if only "for me, but not for thee"), though the ironic side effect is that ever more severe consequences accompany the possibility of causing offense. That's not very nice. (See also: Richard Landes' essay on "politeness" versus civility, posted here in August.)

Those who sought to silence Charlie Hebdo have committed a major "own goal." The magazine's staff has nothing to lose but its principles, and backing down would hand the thugs a victory, and invite more firebombings to intimidate members of the media into self-censorship.

"Charlie Hebdo front cover depicts Muslim man kissing cartoonist," by Kim Willsher for the Guardian, November 8:

Its offices have been firebombed, its website hacked, its Facebook page suspended for 24 hours and its staff targeted with death threats, so you might have thought the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo would have tried – just for a while – to avoid upsetting anyone.

Mais non! After provoking all the above with last week's special edition "guest edited" by the prophet Muhammad, entitled Charia Hebdo, which took pot-shots at radical Islam, the publication is set to raise a few more hackles with this week's edition, published on Wednesday.

On the front page of the latest edition is a drawing of a male Charlie Hebdo cartoonist passionately kissing a bearded Muslim man, under the headline: L'Amour plus fort que la haine (love is stronger than hate).

In the background of the cartoon, signed Luz, are the ashes of the magazine's offices, completely destroyed in the Molotov cocktail attack last week.

Unlike the previous edition, which featured a front page carton of the prophet and a speech bubble reading "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter", there is no suggestion that the character on the magazine cover is Muhammad.

After the firebombing, French Muslim groups who had been highly critical of Charlie Hebdo, condemned the destruction of its offices. Dalil Boubakeur head of the Paris Mosque, told journalists: "I am extremely attached to the freedom of the press, even if the press is not always tender with Muslims, Islam or the Paris Mosque".

The editor of Charlie Hebdo, Stéphane Charbonnier, said at the time: "We thought the lines had moved and maybe there would be more respect for our satirical work, our right to mock. Freedom to have a good laugh is as important as freedom of speech."

Since then, the magazine's staff have been given a temporary home in the offices of France's leading leftwing daily newspaper Libération, which has also been subject to threats from the Turkish hackers who are said to have pirated Charlie Hebdo's site.

Luz, the cartoonist, refused to condemn extremists for the attack.

"Let's be cautious. There's every reason to believe it's the work of fundamentalists, but it could just as well be the work of two drunks," he wrote afterwards.

Agence France-Presse photo.