Iran To Raise Baby Girls As Basij Members

From Iran Focus:

A female commander of the pro-government Basij militia, Zohreh Abbasi, has said that her unit has introduced a special program that allows baby girls to be registered as members of the force and receive training.

Abbasi, who heads the Hossein Haj Mousaee unit, said that in the past six years 23 baby girls had been trained as Basij members through "Koranic, cultural, educational, and military" classes.

"In this regard Basij mothers register their baby girls 40 days after they were born at the Hossein Haj Mousaee unit by presenting documents and IDs," Abbasi was quoted as saying by Iranian news websites.

She said 420 women are currently members of the Hossein Haj Mousaee Basij unit. She added that two babies have recently been born and that work is under way to prepare a dossiers for the new "Basij babies" and enroll them in the special program.

Hossein Aryan and Roozbeh Bolhari of RFE/RL's Radio Farda had previously reported on how "resistance centers" were now being built in elementary schools in order to prepare children for joining Basij units.

The "Basij babies" program suggests that some in the Islamic republic believe that children should be indoctrinated not at elementary schools but even before that -- as soon as they're born, in order to prevent them from turning into potential critics or independent individuals who want to decide about the way they live themselves and not based on the rules set by the Iranian establishment.

Former parliament speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, who is an ally of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, once said that Iranian youth and women were being approached by Iran's "enemies."

"The enemy has plans for them," he said in 2008.

Now it appears that some hard-liners believe that the "enemy" might have plans even for Iran's newborns.

Man Hanged In South-West Iran

From Iran Focus:

A young man, Makki Jaradi, was hanged earlier this week in Ahvaz, in the south-western province of Khuzestan.

He was charged with drug trafficking.

Another man, Karim Sheteyetpour, was informed by Karoon Prison officials in Ahvaz that he will be hanged in the next few days.

He is also charged with drug trafficking.

In the past, United Nations Rapporteurs on Iran have confirmed that Iran routinely executes dissidents on apolitical charges, such as drug smuggling.

Domestic Worker In Saudi Arabia Nailed 24 Times In Feet

From Sri Lanka Guardian:

Mrs. L.T. Ariyawathi (49), a mother of three has returned from Saudi Arabia after less than five months of employment. Within a short time of her return she was hospitalized for an operation to remove 24 nails from her foot and a needle implanted by her employer. Doctors who x-rayed her at Kamburupitiya hospital have identified these items and are preparing to operate in order to remove them.

Mrs. Ariyawathie explained to the doctors about the manner in which husband and the wife of the family she went to serve as a domestic helper punished her after some house hold glass items fell from her hand. While the wife held her tightly the husband implanted the burning hot iron nails in her foot. On a separate occasion the wife implanted a needle in her forehead.

After this inhuman treatment she was able to send messages to her family who intervened with the Sri Lankan authorities who assisted the family to bring her back. Mrs. Ariyawathie went for employment in March this year and returned on August 21, a period of less than five months. Her story has received wide publicity in the newspapers and the media.

There is a large number of women domestic workers employed in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East who have complained of many kinds of harassments. Many of them have sought the help of the Sri Lankan diplomatic services to be returned to their country. Many who have returned speak of harassments they have suffered and the inadequacy of the services offered by the Sri Lankan authorities to assist them. Despite of many such complaints made over many years the Sri Lankan government and the relevant authorities have done very little to provide the necessary services to domestic workers.

The government depends on these domestic workers for much of the foreign exchange needed for the country. The government is also reluctant to raise the issue of security and well being of their workers for the fear of losing opportunities by demonstrating a concern over such incidents. Over the years there had been very little progress in providing security for them.

Mrs. Ariyawathie’s situation raises many questions of law as well as compensation for such severe injuries. As for law, the local employers in these countries are hardly ever prosecuted for their severe criminal acts against domestic workers. The victims are too poor and powerless to pursue such complaints and the Sri Lankan government will not pursue these matters for fearing of losing business opportunities.

Mr. Artiyawathie is entitled to compensation for her physical and psychological injuries. It is duty of the government of Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia to ensure that she receives such compensation. Civil Society organizations in Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries should come to assistance of such victims. Sri Lankan civil society organizations and women's organizations should pursue such cases vigorously to highlight the issue of the welfare of domestic workers.

Indonesia: ‘Playboy’ Chief Editor to be jailed

From Adnkronos:

Jakarta, 26 August(AKI) - Prosecutors were searching on Thursday for the former editor-in-chief of Playboy Indonesia after the Supreme Court sentenced him to two years in prison for publishing pictures of scantily clothed women.

The South Jakarta prosecutor’s office said it would carry out a ruling by Indonesia's Supreme Court’s that found the chief editor of Indonesia's Playboy adult magazine, Erwin Arnada, guilty of indecency and sentenced him to two years in prison.

The court issued a guilty verdict in 2009 but only informed the prosecutors on Wednesday. It was not clear why.

Chief of the prosecutor’s office Muhammad Yusuf said state prosecutors would send Arnarda to jail as soon as they receive a copy of the Supreme Court’s verdict.

“I have ordered the investigators to execute the ruling immediately after they obtain the copy,” Yusuf said.

Following violent protests from hard-line Islamic groups, the magazine’s office was relocated from Jakarta to Denpasar.

Widow Of 7/7 Bomber Wants Benefits

From the Daily Mail (UK):

The widow of a July 7 suicide bomber yesterday launched a High Court bid to be represented at the victims’ inquest - saying she had also suffered the loss of a loved one in the atrocity.

Hasina Patel, whose husband was terrorist mastermind Mohammad Sidique Khan, is seeking legal aid to challenge the coroner’s decision to exclude Khan’s death from the hearing for the 52 victims of the 2005 London bombings.

If the mother of one’s application is granted, October’s long-awaited inquest could be delayed by months of legal wrangling, to the distress of those who have waited more than five years for it to take place.

Lawyers for Miss Patel claim there should be ‘no material distinction’ between her and the families of those killed, because she ‘equally suffered the loss of a relative’.

But the move will anger bereaved families, who do not want the deaths of the terrorists included in the same inquest as the 52 innocents whose lives they took.

Miss Patel hopes to overturn the decision made by Lady Justice Hallett in May to hold a separate hearing into the deaths of the four bombers - Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Hasib Hussain, 18, and Jermaine Lindsay, 19.

The Government has already agreed to give legal aid to the families of the 52 victims. But Miss Patel’s request for equal funding was refused in May this year.

Afterwards, her solicitor Imran Khan said: ‘There appears to be no material distinction between the victims’ families and the position of my clients as family members who, through no fault of their own, have equally suffered the loss of a relative.’

Yesterday Ian Wise QC, representing Miss Patel, told the High Court that she wanted legal aid ‘so that she can be represented to make representations on the resumption of the inquest into the death of her husband and whether it should be joined to the existing inquest’.

He referred to Miss Patel as the wife of the ‘alleged ringleader’, saying she could help the inquest by providing information. But Lord Justice Thomas demanded to know what information Miss Patel had that she had not already told police, warning that any application to include the bombers in the inquest would cause a delay.

Yesterday Ashley Underwood QC, representing the Lord Chancellor, said Miss Patel wanted legal aid only to defend her reputation.

Clifford Tibber of Oury Clark Solicitors, which represents several victims’ families, said: ‘They have waited for more than five years for this and for them to wait any longer would be devastating for them.’

Miss Patel, who was born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, married Khan in 2002 after they met at Dewsbury College, where both were studying to work in the education sector.

She has described her husband as a ‘good person’ who was brainwashed by Islamic militants.

Ahmediyya Muslim Murdered By Pakistani Muslim Extremists

From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

When Habib Peer [pictured] closed his Germantown newsstand last year and moved back to Pakistan, his passport made no note of his religion.

Since 1990 he had been a resident and citizen of the United States, where being an Ahmadiyya Muslim is no offense. But in his homeland, Peer's faith made him a target, his family said.

On Thursday, as he drove with a young nephew through the southern city of Sanghar, two motorbikes approached his car. One of the masked drivers fired a handgun twice through the open window, instantly killing the 60-year-old Peer.

His nephew, 13, survived to describe the assassination. "That's just how [the boy's] father died," recalled Mujeeb Chaudhary, Peer's brother-in-law and a Philadelphia pharmacist.

"It was a targeted killing, only because of his religion."

Four years earlier, Peer's brother, Pasha, a physician who cared for the poor of Sanghar, was shot twice in the head as he left his clinic one evening. His killer ran off and was never found.

Widowed the year his brother died, Peer had moved back to Pakistan to care for Pasha's widow, whom he married, and to help raise his brother's children.

Ahmadis follow the Indian mystic Mirza Gulam Ahmad, who in 1887 announced that he was the messiah, or Mahdi, predicted in early Islamic writings as one who would purify Islam near the end of time.

Nearly all Muslims view Ahmad as a heretic, and his followers as inauthentic Muslims. Although tolerated in some Muslim nations, they are especially disdained in Pakistan, whose constitution and passports identify Ahmadis as non-Muslim.

That nation's four million Ahmadis are forbidden by law to publicly practice their religion, and they can be jailed for blasphemy if they greet Sunni or Shiite Muslims with the traditional "salaam alaykum" or wear Muslim garb.

Mainstream mullahs and imams denounce Ahmadis, with some blaming their presence for the floods ravaging Pakistan. "Some [leaders] even tell their people it is their duty to kill us," said Chaudhary, who came to the United States in 1972 and is president of the 450-member Philadelphia-area Ahmadiyya community.

The failure of the Pakistani government to suppress such virulent talk, he said, is tantamount to "state-sponsored terrorism."

Chaudhary added, "The authorities made very little effort for Pasha, and they will do the same for Habib."

Nadeem Kiani, press attache at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, denied on Tuesday that his government fosters a climate of hostility toward religious minorities, including Ahmadis.

"Yes, they are considered a religious minority," he said, "but they have complete protection and all the constitutional rights."

Kiani said he was not familiar with Peer's murder, but said "if any person is murdered, there are legal ways for the family to prosecute the person accused," although "these can take time."

Nicole Thompson, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said Tuesday that the Obama administration was "in constant engagement with the government of Pakistan on issues of religious freedom."

Teresita Schaffer, former U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka, said Tuesday that the Ahmadiyya community's cause "is far down on [the State Department's] list," though recent violence against Ahmadis is among the worst that nation has seen since its founding in the 1940s.

Schaffer cited the May grenade and assault-weapon attacks by the Pakistani Taliban on two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore that left 78 worshippers dead and dozens severely wounded.

Ahmadis, she said, "are a very controversial part of the community. . . . The people willing to raise their voices in their defense are few."

In 2002, the House of Representatives issued a bipartisan resolution calling on Pakistan to repeal the second amendment of its constitution, declaring Ahmadis non-Muslim, and its blasphemy laws.

Since then, the Pakistani government has only toughened its blasphemy laws, Chaudhary said.

On Friday, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan released a statement expressing dismay over Peer's murder and that of another Ahmadi in Karachi earlier in the week.

The commission wrote that it also was concerned by reports of denial of shelter to Ahmadis displaced by massive floods in south Punjab.

Although some Muslims are upset by the resistance to a proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero, Chaudhary said he welcomed such debate as "proof of America's freedom of speech and freedom to practice religion."

In March, he said, the Philadelphia-area Ahmadi community plans to break ground for a new mosque, with dome and minaret, on West Glenwood Avenue near Temple University. The plan, he said, has encountered no hostility from the neighborhood.

Chaudhary said he was delighted when an employee in the city zoning office asked him, "When will you have your jumma prayers?" - Friday services.

"Here it is easy to take for granted," he said, "but this is the greatness of America."

Arab Residents Kidnap Gay Man, Torture Him

From Y-Net:

Four residents of the northern Israeli Arab town of Tamra are suspected of kidnapping their homosexual relative and taking him on a 12-hour nightmare, all because of his sexual tendencies. They were arrested when they tried to "hide" their victim in one of the houses in the village.

The four were expected to face the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Wednesday afternoon.

The young man, 19, had left his family and moved to Tel Aviv, where he thought it would be safer to lead his life, but was persecuted by his relatives.

Several days before he was kidnapped he filed a complaint with the police, saying he was being threatened by his relatives who demanded that he return to the village and "act like a normal person".

On Monday night, the relatives decided to act on their threats. They arrived at the man's house in Tel Aviv's Florentine neighborhood, armed with pepper spray, and waited for him. As they spotted him walking on the street with a friend, they assaulted the two, sprayed them, snatched their relatives and escaped.

The man's friend rushed to call the police and report the incident. Investigators from a Tel Aviv police unit sought the help of the Shafaram Police, and discovered that the car was making its way to Tamra.

The four suspects allegedly beat the young man on their way to the north and threatened him. They held him for 12 hours before being caught by the police a moment before arriving at their hiding place in Tamra.

"This is a serious incident of kidnapping a person over his lifestyle," said Chief Superintendent Miri Peled. "The family found it difficult to accept the man's lifestyle and wanted to push him away by threatening and beating him."

The young man has returned to Tel Aviv with the hopes of being able to lead a quiet life.

Mauritania: Jihadist Dies In Botched Terror Attack

From ANSAmed:

(ANSAmed) - NOUAKCHOTT, AUGUST 25 - A suicide bomber was killed over the night by Mauritanian police while he was preparing to blow himself up in a vehicle loaded with explosives near barracks in Nema, in the eastern part of the country not far from the border with Mail.

Shortly after midnight local times, the man arrived on a 4x4 near the barracks and refused to stop despite warning shots fired by soldiers. The latter then opened fire on the vehicle, causing an ''extremely powerful explosion'', according to military sources, who attribute the terrorist attack to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI). The explosion caused large-scale damage near the barracks but no casualties. Eyewitnesses said that three people had been slightly injured.

'Anti-Muslim' Attacker Works For Pro Cordoba Mosque Group

From American Thinker:

You cannot make this stuff up.

Politico reports today that the man who attacks a Muslim cab driver in NYC apparently as an anti-Muslim act, works for a group supporting the building of the mosque at ground zero.

The apparent anti-Muslim assault on a New York city cabbie by a man shouting "Assalamu Alaikum. Consider this a checkpoint" produced an immediate round of recriminations over its connection to opposition to a New York Islamic Center and an apparent rising tide of Islamophobia.

But as often at the intersection of politics and violent crime, the story doesn't appear to fit any easy stereotype: The alleged assailant, Michael Enright, is - according to his Facebook profile and the website of the left-leaning media organization Intersections International - a student at the School of Visual Arts and a volunteer for Intersections, which recently produced a statement of support for the Park51 project, and is funded by the mainstream, liberal Collegiate Church of New York.

Make sure you cite this when the inevitable blame the opponents charges fall from the pens of the media.

Hezbollah Wants Nuclear Power

Pay close attention to the second half of the article which notes Hezbollah's call to arms and war despite the fact that it is Ramadan.

From ANSAmed:

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, AUGUST 25 - Lebanon should provide itself with a nuclear power plant for civilian purposes as Iran has, said Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, commenting on the latest protests in different cities across the country against continual problems in electricity supplies.

''I call on the government to look into and discuss plans to build a new nuclear power plant,'' Nasrallah said last night in a speech held in Beirut during the Iftar, the evening meal when Muslim break their fast during Ramadan, which was shown on a maxi-screen. The local press quoted Nasrallah as saying that in this way Lebanon could have electric energy for itself and also sell some of the energy to Syria, Cyprus, Jordan and the other countries in the region. The Hezbollah leader also urged Arab countries to provide weapons to the Lebanese army. ''All Arab countries,'' he said, ''have said that they care about Lebanon and other friendly countries, which is why I suggest that the government decide the type of the arms we need to equip the army with and submit the requests to Arab countries''. He also added that ''through its friendly relations with Iran, Hezbollah will work to equip the national army''.

HS Test 'Slams' Christianity, Lauds Islam

From the New York Post:

State testmakers played favorites when quizzing high-schoolers on world religions -- giving Islam and Buddhism the kid-gloves treatment while socking it to Christianity, critics say.

Teachers complain that the reading selections from the Regents exam in global history and geography given last week featured glowing passages pertaining to Muslim society but much more critical essay excerpts on the subject of Christianity.

"There should have been a little balance in there," said one Brooklyn teacher who administered the exam but did not want to be identified.
"To me, this was offensive because it's just so inappropriate and the timing of it was piss-poor," he added, referring to the debate over the plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero.

The most troubling passage came from Daniel Roselle's "A World History: A Cultural Approach," observers said.

The passage reads: "Wherever they went, the Moslems [sic] brought with them their love of art, beauty and learning. From about the eighth to the eleventh century, their culture was superior in many ways to that of western Christendom."

Meanwhile, an excerpt listing the common procedures used by Christian friars to introduce the religion in Latin America stated that "idols, temples and other material evidences of paganism [were] destroyed," and "Christian buildings [were] often constructed on sites of destroyed native temples" -- and built with free Indian labor, to boot.

"I can see why some people might see these questions as skewed," said Mark MacWilliams, a religious-studies professor at St. Lawrence University in upstate Canton. "Why does the exam seem to have only documents that portray Islam as a religion of peace, civilization and refinement, while it includes documents about Christianity that show it was anything but peaceful in the Spanish conquest of the Americas?"

At the same time, MacWilliams criticized the presentation of Hernando Cortes' conquest of Mexico -- which he said portrayed him as a "choirboy" rather than a "conquistador."

"It's quite a whitewash," he said.

Some other religious-studies experts contacted by The Post said they didn't see what the fuss was all about.

"[The] selections seem about equal in terms of being historically/culturally focused, all relatively positive about the contributions made by each religion as it was introduced into various societies," wrote Barbara Sproul, an associate professor of religion at Hunter College in Manhattan.

Yet Michael Dobkowski, chair of Religious Studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate Geneva, asserted that it was only Christianity for which both positive and negative aspects were highlighted.

"Some [essays] suggest a kind of Christian triumphalism and the desire to convert the other that is not present in the treatment of Islam," he said. "My impression is that there is certainly a divergence of approaches and impressions that should not appear in a Regents exam of this caliber."

State education officials said that every effort had been made to present accurate historical information through the excerpts.

They said the questions had been developed over a four-year period and require students to use their own knowledge of social studies to produce answers.

They added that they weren't aware of any complaints about the exam.

The Muslim reading:

* “Wherever they went, the Moslems [sic] brought with them their love of art, beauty and learning. From about the eighth to the eleventh century, their culture was superior in many ways to that of western Christendom.

* “Some of the finest centers of Moslem life were established in Spain. In Cordova, the streets were solidly paved, while at the same time in Paris people waded ankle-deep in mud after a rain. Cordovan public lamps lighted roads for as far as ten miles; yet seven hundred years later there was still not a single public lamp in London!”

Source: Daniel Roselle, A World History: A Cultural Approach

The Christian reading:
Common Procedures used by Friars in Converting Areas in Spanish America:

* “Idols, temples and other material evidences of paganism destroyed.”

* “Christian buildings often constructed on sites of destroyed native temples in order to symbolize and emphasize the substitution of one religion by the other.”

* “Indians supplied construction labor without receiving payment.”

* “In a converted community, services and fiestas were regularly held in the church building.”

Source: Based on information from Charles Gibson, Spain in America

Additional reporting by Chuck Bennett

Another "Moderate" Imam And Supporter Of Ground Zero Mosque Won't Condemn Hamas

From Jihad Watch:

Big surprise. "Another 'Moderate' GZ Mosque Supporter Can't Bring Himself to Call Hamas a Terrorist Organization," by the peerless Andrew C. McCarthy at National Review, August 25:

Last night, I was on David Asman's Fox Business Channel show, Scoreboard, debating Imam Dawoud Kringle of the New York State prison system, a GZ mosque supporter. Imam Kringle, who seems like a nice enough fellow, reeled off the usual talking points about how Islam forbids terrorism and, therefore, if someone commits an act of terrorism that act is, by definition, un-Islamic.

Then came the moment of truth: the very simple question, "Is Hamas a terrorist organization?" Have a look at the YouTube clip below. Like his friend Imam Feisal Rauf, Imam Kringle won't answer the question. I pressed him, pointing out that it is a very simple question. And it is: Quite apart from the fact that Hamas is formally designated as a terrorist organization under U.S. law, Hamas's own charter makes abundantly clear -- indeed, wears like a badge of honor -- that Hamas exists solely for the purpose of driving Israel out of Palestine by violent jihad. Yet the imam cannot bring himself to say Hamas is a terrorist organization....

Read it all.

Christopher Hitchens Discovers That The Ground Zero Mosque Imam Is Not As Moderate As He Is Cracked Up To Be

From Jihad Watch:

Not too long ago Christopher Hitchens wrote that opposition to the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero was just bigotry and racism -- the whole tired laundry list of Leftist cliches. But now he is deeply confused, for he has discovered that the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is not as "moderate" as the cappuccino bomb-throwers he hangs around with led him to believe. "A Test of Tolerance: The 'Ground Zero mosque' debate is about tolerance--and a whole lot more," by Christopher Hitchens at Slate, August 23 (thanks to Benedict):

Two weeks ago, I wrote that the arguments against the construction of the Cordoba Initiative center in lower Manhattan were so stupid and demagogic as to be beneath notice. [...]

From the beginning, though, I pointed out that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was no great bargain and that his Cordoba Initiative was full of euphemisms about Islamic jihad and Islamic theocracy. I mentioned his sinister belief that the United States was partially responsible for the assault on the World Trade Center and his refusal to take a position on the racist Hamas dictatorship in Gaza. The more one reads through his statements, the more alarming it gets. For example, here is Rauf's editorial on the upheaval that followed the brutal hijacking of the Iranian elections in 2009. Regarding President Obama, he advised that:

He should say his administration respects many of the guiding principles of the 1979 revolution--to establish a government that expresses the will of the people; a just government, based on the idea of Vilayet-i-faquih, that establishes the rule of law.

Coyly untranslated here (perhaps for "outreach" purposes), Vilayet-i-faquih is the special term promulgated by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to describe the idea that all of Iranian society is under the permanent stewardship (sometimes rendered as guardianship) of the mullahs. Under this dispensation, "the will of the people" is a meaningless expression, because "the people" are the wards and children of the clergy. It is the justification for a clerical supreme leader, whose rule is impervious to elections and who can pick and choose the candidates and, if it comes to that, the results. It is extremely controversial within Shiite Islam. (Grand Ayatollah Sistani in Iraq, for example, does not endorse it.) As for those numerous Iranians who are not Shiites, it reminds them yet again that they are not considered to be real citizens of the Islamic Republic.

I do not find myself reassured by the fact that Imam Rauf publicly endorses the most extreme and repressive version of Muslim theocracy. The letterhead of the statement, incidentally, describes him as the Cordoba Initiative's "Founder and Visionary." Why does that not delight me, either?

Emboldened by the crass nature of the opposition to the center, its defenders have started to talk as if it represented no problem at all and as if the question were solely one of religious tolerance. It would be nice if this were true. But tolerance is one of the first and most awkward questions raised by any examination of Islamism. We are wrong to talk as if the only subject was that of terrorism. As Western Europe has already found to its cost, local Muslim leaders have a habit, once they feel strong enough, of making demands of the most intolerant kind. Sometimes it will be calls for censorship of anything "offensive" to Islam. Sometimes it will be demands for sexual segregation in schools and swimming pools. The script is becoming a very familiar one. And those who make such demands are of course usually quite careful to avoid any association with violence. They merely hint that, if their demands are not taken seriously, there just might be a teeny smidgeon of violence from some other unnamed quarter ...

As for the gorgeous mosaic of religious pluralism, it's easy enough to find mosque Web sites and DVDs that peddle the most disgusting attacks on Jews, Hindus, Christians, unbelievers, and other Muslims--to say nothing of insane diatribes about women and homosexuals. This is why the fake term Islamophobia is so dangerous: It insinuates that any reservations about Islam must ipso facto be "phobic." A phobia is an irrational fear or dislike. Islamic preaching very often manifests precisely this feature, which is why suspicion of it is by no means irrational.

From my window, I can see the beautiful minaret of the Washington, D.C., mosque on Massachusetts Avenue. It is situated at the heart of the capital city's diplomatic quarter, and it is where President Bush went immediately after 9/11 to make his gesture toward the "religion of peace." A short while ago, the wife of a new ambassador told me that she had been taking her dog for a walk when a bearded man accosted her and brusquely warned her not to take the animal so close to the sacred precincts. Muslim cabdrivers in other American cities have already refused to take passengers with "unclean" canines....

And much, much more of that kind of intolerance is to come, courtesy the idea of "tolerance" that prevails among the addled multiculturalist elite.

Defiant Banggarma Shows Her Hindu Faith

From Free Malaysia Today:

S Banggarma, who was declared “a Muslim” by the Penang High Court on Aug 4, defied the Islamic authorities and demonstrated her Hindu belief by carrying “paal kudam” (pot of milk) at a temple festival here last Friday.

The mother of two offered her penance to Hindu goddess Mariamman at Sri Muthu Mariamman Kovil fire-walking festival in Dennis Town Estate in the morning together with hundreds of Hindu devotees.

She carried the paal kudam for a kilometre from nearby Sri Muneeswarar Kovil to Sri Muthu Mariamman Kovil seeking the divine’s blessing and intervention to help her overcome her battle with the Islamic authorities.

“I want to show to the world that I am a Hindu... no one has the right to change it. I will live and die a Hindu,” she told FMT later.

Judicial Commissioner Yaakob Sam declared in his 40-minute oral judgment that the 28-year-old mother of two was a Muslim and therefore would have to resolve her “unwitting conversion” dispute with the Syariah Court.

Banggarma, whose Muslim name is Siti Hasnah Vangarama Abdullah, instantly brushed aside the verdict as “unfair and unrealistic”.

Her lawyer Gooi Hsiao Leung has prepared documents to file an appeal soon against Yaacob’s decision at the Court of Appeal.

Banggarma is married to fisherman S Sockalingam in Tanjung Piandang, Perak, in 2000 and has two children -- Kanagaraj, nine, and Hisyanthini, three.

'Unwittingly converted'

Banggarma claimed that she was unwittingly converted by the state Islamic religious authorities at the age of seven while she was staying in a welfare home in Kepala Batas, Penang.

Banggarma’s birth certificate revealed that she was born a Hindu on Aug 13, 1982, in Keratong, Pahang, to plantation workers B Subramaniam and Latchumy Ramadu.

She fled the home with a few inmates when she was 16....

Muslim Employee Rejects All Of Disney's Alternatives

This is an update on this story.

As expected, the Muslim employee refuses to reach a compromise. Instead she expects Disney to change their protocol and even rebuffed other job positions that were offered to her in order to fix the situation. Despite being told what the uniform was and taking the job, the employee is now making demands and we can probably expect some sort of legal settlement to take place. With so many Americans out of work, this story is nothing short of outrageous.

From KansasCity.com:

A Muslim employee is refusing to wear a hat and bonnet that Disney provided in place of a head scarf, which she wants to leave on at work for religious reasons.

Imane Boudlal, a restaurant hostess at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel, last week in a press conference accused Disney of religious discrimination for refusing to let her wear a hijab, a head scarf, in public view.

On Monday, Disney offered Boudlal a bonnet with a hat to wear at work in public.

Boudlal rejected the new headwear and went home for a seventh time, according to the hotel workers' union, Unite Here Local 11. Disney has offered to let her work behind the scenes with the head scarf, but Boudlal has refused.

"The hat makes a joke of me and my religion, and draws even more attention to me," Boudlal said in a prepared statement. "It's unacceptable."

Suzi Brown, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman, said managers are still trying to meet Boudlal's request after providing options, including alternative costumes. The company also offered her four different jobs that would allow her to wear her own head scarf.

"We provided Ms. Boudlal with several options, including a modified costume that includes a blouse with a higher neckline and a newly designed head covering that meets our costuming guidelines and which we believe provides a reasonable accommodation of Ms. Boudal's religious beliefs," Brown said in a prepared statement.

Boudlal could not immediately be reached for further comment. Her attorney also could not be reached.

Some Muslim women opt to wear head scarves over their hair and necks as a form of modesty.

Boudlal first reported to work with a hijab last week. Disney assigned Boudlal to work in a back room so she could wear the head scarf while the company worked on a solution. Boudlal decided to go home instead without pay.

She said she filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A copy of the complaint has yet to be released and the commission declined to confirm the receipt of a complaint.

"They don't want me to look Muslim," Boudlal said in the prepared statement. "They just don't want the head covering to look like a hijab."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is supporting Boudlal's actions.

"Disney's treating the hijab as a mere piece of clothing that must be downplayed or hidden from guests' view is unreasonable and discriminatory," said Affad Shaikh, the council's civil rights manager, in a prepared statement. "Disney should be able to accommodate Ms. Boudlal's request to wear a hijab (even if it's a substitute hijab that Disney insists she wear) in a manner that preserves her Muslim identity as well as her human dignity. The onus is on Disney to say that her wearing a scarf in her current position would be burdensome for them."

Federal law requires employers to give "reasonable accommodations" to workers so they can practice their religion, as long as it doesn't create an "undue hardship," such as safety problems.

Disney is known for its strict dress code, called the Disney Look. In other cases for religious reasons, Disney has offered accommodations, such as longer skirt hems, skirts instead of pants, and hats as substitutes for religious head wear.

"Disney is an entertainment company," Brown said in a prepared statement. "Our theme parks and resorts are the stage and our costumed cast members (employees) are an important part of the show. When cast members are hired, regardless of their diverse beliefs, the expectation to comply with our appearance guidelines is made abundantly clear."

In 2004, Disney World in Florida was sued by a female Muslim employee who wanted to wear a head scarf to work. The case was settled out of court and the terms were confidential.

More Than 30 Killed in Mogadishu Hotel Attack

From VOA News

:Somalia's al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab group has taken responsibility for a suicide attack on a hotel in Mogadishu that has killed more than 30 people, including seven parliament members.

Al-Shabab spokesman, Ali Mohamud Rage, says members of the group's "special forces" targeted Somali parliament members residing in Muna Hotel in Mogadishu's government-controlled Hamarweyne district.

Rage says al-Shabab fighters were able to easily enter the hotel compound, located near the presidential palace. He claims almost all of the parliament members in the hotel were killed.

It is not known how many lawmakers were inside. But Somalia's Transitional Federal Government says six lawmakers and two government officials were killed during the attack. Reports say another lawmaker subsequently died of wounds in the hospital.
Witnesses tell VOA that three gunmen, dressed as government security forces, entered the hotel by car after killing two security guards. The gunmen then went door-to-door, shooting indiscriminately.

Government security forces and African Union peacekeeping troops, known as AMISOM, surrounded the building and engaged in an hour-long battle with the militants. Witnesses say when the gunmen ran out of ammunition, two of the men detonated explosives-laden suicide vests.

The Somali government initially said that its security forces had captured one of the three gunmen. But later, it issued a statement saying that only two men had stormed the hotel. The government says both men died in the suicide bombing.

In addition to the lawmakers and government officials, more than two dozen others, including civilians and several government troops, were killed. The director of a local community radio station reportedly died after being struck by a stray bullet as he watched the battle from a nearby rooftop.

Tuesday's attack follows al-Shabab's warning that it is planning a "massive war" against African Union troops in Mogadishu. About 6,000 soldiers from Uganda and Burundi make up the peacekeeping force, which arrived in 2007 with a mandate to protect the U.N.-backed government and key installations.


Three years of fighting between peacekeepers and Islamist insurgents have caused thousands of civilian deaths and prompted hundreds of thousands of others to flee Mogadishu.

Despite repeated demands by al-Shabab to withdraw the peacekeeping force, Uganda is believed to have sent hundreds of reinforcements to the Somali capital in recent days.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for dual suicide attacks on July 11 in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, which the militants said were in retaliation for the country's military involvement in Somalia. The extremist group has also threatened to attack Burundi.

Two People Assaulted In France For Eating During Ramadan, One Not Even Muslim

From Vlad Tepes:

This is a machine translation from the French article here. I will try and get a better translation done later. Still, you get the jist.

A man who was lunching on the terrace of a restaurant in central Lyon was assaulted for not respecting Ramadan

He breakfasted on the terrace of a restaurant in central Lyon, the weekend of Aug. 15, when three youths pounced on him because he does not respect the fasting month of Ramadan. The father of Senegalese origin, living Venissieux, was struck in the head with a glass bottle, then hit with a chair.

Transported to the hospital with a fractured skull at the back, the victim has been trépanée. The attack was filmed by a CCTV camera, but the bad images do not identify the attackers. The Lyon prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation. According to our information, the manager of Kebab, fearing reprisals, would testify under X.

Three days later, a young Jewish woman who wore a complaint after being assaulted in a large area of Toulouse. . The victim claimed to have been taken to task by two teenagers who accused him of buying food during fasting.

The young woman would then argued that she was Jewish, which would only intensify the anger of his attackers, who, after having called a “dirty Jew”, allegedly hit on the head, by the heavy fall.

A vigil attended the scene without intervening. When questioned by investigators about the reasons for its passivity, the man explained that he respected Ramadan and so was anxious to leave in order to eat, from the sunset.

Picture of the Week: Ramadan Hits Baghdad

From the Religion of Peace:

The holiest month of Islam was off to a slow start before a devout Sunni managed to detonate himself in a crowd of young police hopefuls, killing 59 "Shiite apostates."

Masters Break Backbone Of 12-Year-Old Maid

From the Daily Times (Pakistan):

ISLAMABAD: Driven by extreme poverty in their hometowns, thousands of poor housemaids moving from one city to another in order to support their families consequently fall victims to abuse and violence.

A 12-year old Tehmina Qasim from Rahim Yar Khan is one such victim of violence. Presently admitted to the Surgical Ward III of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) with a broken backbone, she was thrashed by her masters due to which, she fell off second floor of the house.

Tehmina, a skinny girl, who has been working for Najeebul Islam and his wife Rakhshinda at Bahria Town phase IV, for the last eight months. She has been counseled bed rest for six months. Doctors seem uncertain whether she would be able to walk again. “However, the treatment is on,” they added.

The investigation carried out by Daily Times revealed that Tehmina and Samina, two sisters from Mohalla Basti Gumband Khan, Tehsil Khanpur, District Rahim Yar Khan, working as maids, were cruelly treated by their masters, who even denied them their salaries for a considerable period of time.

As Ramazan started, both sisters talked to their masters about the salaries that had not been paid to them for the last three months. They said their parents were anxiously waiting for the money back in Rahim Yar Khan.

Upon this, first Rakhshinda thrashed Tehmina and later Islam beat her up and threw her out of the window down onto the floor. She was taken to the PIMS with a fractured backbone.

Talking to Daily Times, Samina Qasim, sister of Tehmina Qasim said that both Najeeb and Rakhshinda forced us to work whole day and refused to give salaries whenever we demanded. “We were forced to work without sufficient meals. Whenever we wanted to talk to our parents in Rahim Yar Khan, they would not permit us,” Samina told.

She said last month without informing our masters, we phoned our parents and informed them about the atrocious behaviour of both husband and wife. “Najeeb watched us doing that and beat both of us with a stick, a viper and fists. So much so that Tehmina went into a state of unconsciousness,” she added. “Both of them thought that Tehmina was dead so they decided to threw her out of the window from the second floor and labeled it as a suicide,” Samina revealed.

“We were first were taken by Rakhshinda and Najeeb to a private hospital and then to PIMS. “While in PIMS emergency ward, everyday a person would come to us and tell us not to leak anything about the incident. Your masters are influential persons. If you share anything about this you will have to face dire consequences,” Samina explained.

Ghulam Qasim, father of Tehmina, told Daily Times that he reached Islamabad when contacted by Samina who asked him to rush to Islamabad. “Both my daughters worked diligently at Najeeb’s house. They were refused to go on leave in Ramazan and also denied salaries for the last three months,” he added.

Qasim said it was tragic that FIR had been lodged in Koral police station, but the culprits had not been arrested so far. “I have heard that both husband and wife either fled or are hiding in the house,” he added.

He demanded immediate arrest of culprits and also requested the authorities to give him and his family protection, as they were up against influential persons.

Tunisia Show Creates Uproar Over Kissing Scenes

A reader, Dan, on Al Arabiya put it perfectly: "I've seen plenty of You Tube video, including Tunisian, showing [explicit] assassinations and dismemberment, without a peep from the Arab world. Sick priorities."

From Al Arabiya:

An unprecedented Tunisian series, Casting, has caused uproar among many Tunisian families for its flagrant and explicit airing of kissing scenes in Tunis’ public TV.

Some angry viewers formed groups on the social networking site Facebook campaigning to ban the series that they claim have ‘assaulted’ Tunisian traditions of family-values and crossed all red lines with repeated kissing and bedroom scenes in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

In Ramadan, families in the Arab World are entertained by the many TV series produced by competing countries mainly Egypt and Syria.

Other Arab series also deal with subjects generally considered taboo in the Arab world, most notably the famous Egyptian series is “Zuhra and her five husbands”, but Casting has this Ramadan been in the forefront of provoking reactions.
Top

Touched a nerve

A scene from the tenth episode of the show has touched a nerve of many viewers who that uphold family-values and tradition.

The episode shows a teenage girl spending the night with a man in his thirties who later asks the young girl if he was the first person to ‘sleep’ with her.

In the past two years a new culture has emerged in Tunisian series which includes previously prohibited subjects such as sex, drugs and rape, a far cry from previous themes Tunisians were used to watching, including rural life and patriotism.

Some viewers have also expressed concern that the series will tarnish the image of young Tunisian women

The series have also focused on the aesthetics as it has chosen models as caste members to attract viewers.

(Translated from Arabic by Dina al-Shibeeb)

'Rise In Female Genital Mutilation' In London

While not a necessity under Islam, the Prophet Muhammad discusses female genital mutilation and it is advocated by many Muslim clerics today.

From BBC:

The number of cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) reported in London has risen and some procedures are taking place in the city, a doctor has said.

Dr Comfort Momah [pictured], who runs a clinic in Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, said she sees 350 women and children a year.

The Met said it was aware that FGM was taking place in London and had intervened in 122 cases since 2008, including 25 times this year.

But it said that as it was a "taboo" subject there had been no prosecutions.

FGM is illegal in the UK and anybody convicted for it can be jailed for up to 14 years. The law protects British citizens even if they undergo the procedure abroad.

Dr Momah, who runs one of the 11 African Well Women Clinics in London, said a majority of the cases she saw were from African countries, including Somalia, Eritrea, Gambia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
'Need to prosecute'

She said: "In London FGM is widely spread and in my clinic we see about 350 women and children with FGM related problems every year and do reversal in about 100 cases every year.

"We do have people calling me or calling other clinics saying I know a circumciser in Leytonstone, I know a doctor who is performing it within the community, but they won't give you the information."

She added that more cases are being reported since 2005.

"I see a lot of teenagers now, self-referring to the clinic and getting information from the internet," the doctor said.

We need to prosecute somebody if obviously a child is at risk."

The procedure can cause urinary infections, kidney failure, infertility and death.

Salimata Knight, who underwent the procedure in Senegal, said: "I was forced on the floor and I felt something being cut in me and even at that time I did not know what (it) was because at four-and-half years you are not really aware of what it is.

"It makes people suffer, and suffering has no identity, no race and no culture."

The Met said the number of interventions had risen from 38 in 2008 to 59 in 2009.

Its Project Azure, which engages with the community, said London clinics see about 600 women a year.

Det Con Jason Morgan, from Project Azure, said: "It affects girls, often as young as seven-days-old, so the girl might be too young to remember exactly what happened, where it happened and who did it to them."

Go here for BBC video.

In Kenya's Capital, Somali Immigrant Neighborhood Is Incubator For Jihad

From the Washington Post:

NAIROBI -- Behind the blue gates of his Islamic school in Nairobi's Eastleigh neighborhood, Ahmed Awil cannot escape his country's civil war.

Schools and mosques where extremist views are taught are reshaping this Somali immigrant community that for years has lived peacefully in the capital of this predominantly Christian country. Moderate imams now compete with hard-line preachers pushing a strict interpretation of Islam. Bookstores sell anti-Western literature. Residents speak fearfully of militant spies, and children like Ahmed are taught to praise al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked militia, for waging jihad in Somalia against the U.S.-backed government.

"My teachers tell us al-Shabab is fighting for our religion and for our country," said Ahmed, a skinny 11-year-old who fled Somalia after al-Shabab fighters slaughtered his neighbor and tried to recruit him. "Sometimes they ask us if we would like to go there and fight."

Eastleigh, a run-down enclave where tens of thousands of Somalis live, has become an incubator for Islamic extremism, Kenyan officials and community leaders say. It has also emerged as a micro-battlefield in the war on terrorism, attracting American funds.

"What most worries me is that this extremist ideology will continue to grow," said Dualle Abdi Malik, the director of Fathu Rahman, a moderate Islamic school. "We have to confront it before it is too late."

Somali immigrant communities across the Horn of Africa and Yemen have come under greater scrutiny since twin bombings last month targeted World Cup soccer fans in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. Al-Shabab asserted responsibility for the attacks, its first major international operation since it rose to power several years ago in Somalia.

Members of al-Shabab, which in Arabic means "The Youth," and other Somali militants freely travel to Nairobi to raise funds, recruit and treat wounded fighters, according to U.N. and Kenyan security officials. Somali-American jihadists have met contacts in Eastleigh before heading to Somalia to fight with al-Shabab.

"Eastleigh is a copy of Mogadishu," said Mohamed Omar Dalha, Somalia's social affairs minister, referring to the Somali capital. "Everything that happens in Mogadishu happens in Eastleigh, except the fighting."

Fertile ground for radicals

At the al-Huda Islamic bookshop, a closet-sized stall nestled near one of Eastleigh's radical mosques, several youths browsed the fare on a recent day. Koranic tomes pack the shelves. Recordings of lectures and debates that glorify the neighborhood's radical Somali preachers are sold openly.

"Our religion calls on us to kill everyone who does not believe in Allah and his Prophet Muhammed deeply," Abdulrahman Abdullahi, a black-clad imam, declares in one DVD.

Al-Shabab has long threatened to attack Kenya, which has been targeted by extremists over the years. In 1998, al-Qaeda operatives bombed the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and in Tanzania; in 2002, an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa was bombed. Earlier this year, protests erupted in downtown Nairobi over the arrest of a radical Islamic preacher from Jamaica.

Eastleigh, community leaders say, is an ideal breeding ground for radicalism. The neighborhood is poor and isolated; few Kenyans enter it. Local authorities have ignored it: Roads are unpaved, muddy and covered with trash. The smell of raw sewage wafts across the terrain.

Kenyan police have long harassed Somalis, demanding bribes under threat of arrest or deportation, generating resentment. Since the Kampala attacks, police have rounded up hundreds of people in Eastleigh and other areas, including four Kenyan Muslims who human rights activists say were illegally extradited to Uganda for interrogation.

"The community is suffering," said Abdufatah Ali, an Eastleigh representative on the Nairobi City Council. "The police stop you and take your phone, and say 'You are al-Shabab.' They enter your house and rape you, and say 'You are al-Shabab.' "

Radical preachers are filling the void, playing a key role in recruiting and fundraising for al-Shabab. They operate the largest mosques in the neighborhood, providing ideological leadership and a resource base for militants, according to a U.N. report on Somalia in April.

"They have a very big influence in terms of radicalization," said Nicholas Kamwende, Kenya's anti-terrorism police chief. "Eastleigh provides the best grounds for recruitment...."

Read the full report here.

Video Of Lynch Mob Killing Two Teenage Brothers Sparks Mass Demonstrations Across Pakistan

From the Daily Mail (UK):

A horrifying video of a crowd watching a mob beat two teenage brothers to death has sparked mass demonstrations in Pakistan.

The video, broadcast on Pakistani news channels, shows a lynch mob taking turns to savagely beat the two boys with sticks, drawing blood from them before dragging and hanging their dead bodies from a nearby pole.

But perhaps just as shocking is that none of the dozens of people and police watching tried to stop the vicious attack.

It is now thought the boys, who were on their way to play cricket in Sialkot, an eastern Punjab province, may have been mistaken for robbers by the group who decided to deliver brutal justice for their supposed crime last Sunday.

The scenes have outraged Pakistanis, some who are questioning how their society could passively watch the shocking killings without intervening.

The News, an English-language daily newspaper, wrote: 'Is this what we are? Savages? So utterly bereft of a speck of humanity that a crowd of ordinary men are passive spectators to public murder?'

The government has responded to the attack after civic groups condemned the killings and youths held demonstrations.

As details have emerged authorities appear increasingly confident the two boys - Moiz Butt, 17, and his brother Muneeb, 15 - were innocent.

The two went to play cricket after praying and eating breakfast, carrying a bag with them containing game equipment, said Mujahid Sherdil, a top government official in the district.

They were sons of a middle-class man who deals in fabric for soccer balls. Moiz was honoured with the title 'Hafiz' for having memorized the Muslim holy book, the Quran.

An armed robbery had taken place in the vicinity of the cricket field so residents were on alert and police were nearby.

When the boys appeared with a bag they were thought to be the robbers Mr Sherdil said.

He added, however, that more information was still being sought.

The boys were believed to have been in fights over the past few days for the right to play on the cricket ground, which was about a mile from their home.

Stations showing the video blurred out some of the more graphic images of the boys' bloodied bodies, but several faces in the crowd are clearly identifiable, including several police officers in uniform who watched.

Punjab province Police Chief Tariq Saleem said the government has ordered two separate inquiries into the killings.

'This incident is highly condemnable, especially in the police presence,' Saleem said after visiting the boys' family. 'All accused, including police, will be arrested soon....'

Read it all here.

Ground Zero Mosque Imam Feisal's Extremism Exposed

This is related to this story.

From Atlas Shrugs:

The media frenzy to destroy good, decent Americans who oppose a 15-story mega-mosque on Ground Zero is rabid. Even for them. Despite red flags everywhere and the nationwide grief caused by this grotesque act of Islamic supremacism, why isn't the media doing its job, investigative journalism?

Instead, the morally ill media is in full-on operational smear machine mode in the raging war of ideas, the information battle space, the objective of which is to erect the Ground Zero mega mosque. Tolerance is a crime when applied to evil (Thomas Mann). Whilst the NY Times front page spins interfaith yarns into PR gold faster than Rumpelstiltskin and accords godlike status to Imam Feisal Rauf, new audio surfaces. Here are a couple of soundbites of tolerance:

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf: "We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al Qaida has on its hands of innocent non Muslims. You may remember that the US-led sanctions against Iraq led to the death of over half a million Iraqi children. This has been documented by the United Nations. And when Madeleine Albright, who has become a friend of mine over the last couple of years, when she was Secretary of State and was asked whether this was worth it, said it was worth it.

No mention of the 270 million victims of over a millennium of jihadi wars, land appropriations, cultural annihilation and enslavement. No mention of the recent slaughter by Muslims of Christians, Hindus, Jews, non-believers in Indonesia, Thailand, Ethiopia, Somalia, Philippines, Lebanon, Israel, Russia, China................ no candor, no criticism of Islam.

Imam Feisal: "The West needs to begin to see themselves through the eyes of the Arab and Muslim world, and when you do you will see the predicament that exists within the Muslim community."

On the question of reforming Islam and expunging the texts of the threat doctrine and mandated violence and conquest:

Imam Feisal: On the issue of the reformation, in terms of what is again intended by it, Islam does not need a reformation.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf: "So men will say: women, you know, they're emotional, ..... whatever, whatever, and women will say: men, they're brutes, insensitive, etcetera, and you have the beginning of a gender conflict. If gender is not what distinguishes us we'll look at skin colouring and say: n#####s or whities, or whatever"

Reverend Al Sharpton was unavailable for comment. Too busy endorsing the Islamic supremacist mosque. Rest assured, the tolerant Imam Rauf will not suffer as Dr. Laura did (and she was making a "word" point, Rauf is using it.)

Imam Feisal: And when we observe terrorism, whether it was done by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka or by al Qaida or whoever is behind the bombings in London or those in Madrid

Note, when he says about the London and Madrid bombings,that was five days after the London attacks and over a year after Madrid. It was common knowledge who the perps were at that time.

IMAM FEISAL ABDUL RAUF: That's a very common question. In fact, just about two months ago I was interviewed by Barbara Walters, who is doing a special on heaven and she's interviewed suicide bombers who are expecting the embraces of 72 virgins in paradise, and she asked me do women get the same privilege as well, and I answered her telling her: well, the Koran says you shall have whatever your heart desires

And the Imam is conspiracy theorist - 911 was an inside job:

How many of you have seen the documentary: Fahrenheit 911? The vast majority - at least half here. Do you remember the scene of the Iraqi woman whose house was bombed and she was just screaming, "What have they done." Now, I don't know, you don't know Arabic but in Arabic it was extremely powerful. Her house was gone. Her husband, I think, was killed. What wrong did he do? I found myself weeping when I watched that scene and I imagined myself if I were a 15-year old nephew of this deceased man, what would I have felt?
Collateral damage is a nice thing to put on a paper but when the collateral damage is your own uncle or cousin, what passions do these arouse? How do you negotiate? How do you tell people whose homes have been destroyed, whose lives have been destroyed, that this does not justify your actions of terrorism. It's hard. Yes, it is true that it does not justify the acts of bombing innocent civilians, that does not solve the problem, but after 50 years of, in many cases, oppression, of US support of authoritarian regimes that have violated human rights in the most heinous of ways, how else do people get attention?

And while Imam Faisal speaks of tolerance and so forth, he commiserates with worst extremists and inciters to genocide:

IMAM FEISAL ABDUL RAUF: The broader community is in fact criticising and condemning actions of terrorism that are being done in the name of Islam. I just came from a conference in Jordan, Amman where there were over 170 leading Muslim scholars from almost every part of the Muslim world, including some of the most important names like Sheikh Tantawi of Egypt, Sheikh Ali Gomaa, who is the Chief Mufti of Egypt, the Chief Mufti of Jordan, the Sheikh Al-Qaradawi, who is a very very well known Islamic jurist, highly regarded all over the Muslim world....

Read it all here.

Hardhats Vow Not To Work On Controversial Mosque Near Ground Zero

Note that one of the workers says he won't work at the site after learning about the radical Islamic sympathies of the proposed mosque's spiritual leadership (who also think a gay bar near their mosque would be an insult).

From The New York Daily News:

A growing number of New York construction workers are vowing not to work on the mosque planned near Ground Zero.

"It's a very touchy thing because they want to do this on sacred ground," said Dave Kaiser, 38, a blaster who is working to rebuild the World Trade Center site.

"I wouldn't work there, especially after I found out about what the imam said about U.S. policy being responsible for 9/11," Kaiser said.

The grass-roots movement is gaining momentum on the Internet. One construction worker created the "Hard Hat Pledge" on his blog and asked others to vow not to work on the project if it stays on Park Place.

"Thousands of people are signing up from all over the country," said creator Andy Sullivan, a construction worker from Brooklyn. "People who sell glass, steel, lumber, insurance. They are all refusing to do work if they build there."

"Hopefully, this will be a tool to get them to move it," he said. "I got a problem with this ostentatious building looming over Ground Zero."

A planned 13-story community center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, Park51 has exploded into a national debate.

Louis Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers' Association, said unions have not yet taken a "formal position" on Park51, but he understands why members would be hesitant to work there.

"It's a very difficult dilemma for the contractors and the organized labor force because we are experiencing such high levels of unemployment," he said. "Yet at the same time, this is a very sacred sight to the union guys."

"There were construction workers killed on 9/11 and many more who got horribly sick cleaning up Ground Zero," Coletti said. "It's very emotional."

L.V. Spina, a Manhattan construction worker who created anti-mosque stickers that some workers are slapping on their hardhats, said he would "rather pick cans and bottles out of trash cans" than build the Islamic center near Ground Zero.

"But if they moved it somewhere else, we would put up a prime building for these people," he said. "Hell, you could do it next to my house in Rockaway Beach, I would be fine with it. But I'm not fine with it where blood has been spilled."

Spina, who sells 9/11 apparel on his website, said he's printed thousands of stickers and plans to produce thousands more.

"They're going all over the country," he said. "They got pretty popular fast."

Popularity aside, there are some construction workers choosing not to set themselves against the project.

"Hundreds of guys here are wearing stickers as a sign of protest, but I'm on the fence about it," said Frank Langan, 50, a site superintendent from Queens working at Ground Zero.

"It's a tough debate," he said. "I sympathize with workers' position, but at the same time, you can't single out all Muslims because of a small number of terrorists."

Chechnya: Women Harassed, Attacked For Not Wearing Headscarves During Ramadan

From Jihad Watch:

There is "no compulsion in religion" according to Qur'an 2:256. However, Islamic law abounds in subtle and not-so-subtle means of coercion (cf. Qur'an 9:29) to impose itself on non-Muslim or not-Muslim-enough societies. Hence, in practice, there is no compulsion in religion until the jihadist thugs are strong enough to make you an offer you can't refuse. And once Sharia's strictures are in place, there is not only compulsion in religion, but the power to imprison and kill to enforce it. Chechnya is rushing headlong in this direction.

"RPT-Women without headscarves targeted in Muslim Chechnya," by Amie Ferris-Rotman for Reuters, August 21:

GROZNY, Russia, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Many women in Russia's volatile Chechnya region said on Friday they had been harassed and some physically harmed by bands of men for not wearing headscarves during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Qur'an 4:34, in its letter and spirit, green-lights the idea of striking disobedient women.

Against the backdrop of a spreading Islamist insurgency, many fear that growing interest in radical Islam could fuel separatism in the volatile North Caucasus, where the Kremlin watches uneasily as sharia law eclipses Russian.

Residents and witnesses told Reuters that bearded men in traditional Islamic dress have been roaming the streets both on foot and in cars since Ramadan started on Aug. 11, demanding bare-headed women wear a headscarf.

"Two men came up to me, one furiously fingering a prayer bead, and said it wasn't pretty to have a bare head during Ramadan," 38-year old Markha Atabayeva told Reuters in the Chechen capital Grozny. "They instilled such fear in me".

Atabayeva was one of at least a dozen women who told of harassment or attacks. One of the women's assailants told Reuters "hundreds" of women had been warned.

Atabayeva said earlier she had seen a group of men with automatic rifles taunting women for not wearing headscarves.

A woman in her mid-30s said she was punched in the face by a man in Islamic dress after refusing to put on a headscarf he had given her.

The men's action follows a radical order earlier this week from Chechnya's spiritual leader to shut all cafes during the month of Ramadan, as well as paintball attacks on bareheaded women in June.

A number of other women described this week how men in cars threatened them with violence if they did not cover up. While some women carry headscarves in their bags, those without were encouraged to go home immediately.

The action targeting women highlights tension over efforts by Chechnya's firebrand Moscow-backed leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, to enforce Islamic rules that can violate Russia's constitution.

One of the assailants, who described himself as an "activist", told Reuters: "We are trying to warn women of their possible sins before God".

"We do this through force, fighting and battles," he said on condition of anonymity, adding that hundreds of Chechen women had been "warned" since the start of Ramadan.

Another assailant said they were working under orders from Chechnya's Centre for Spiritual-Moral Education, which Kadyrov set up 18 months ago.

Critics say that in return for keeping a shaky peace in Chechnya, site of two separatist wars with Moscow since the mid-1990s, Kadyrov is allowed to impose his vision of Islam.

Kadyrov's spokesman declined to comment on the action against women failing to wear headscarves. Alcohol is all but banned in Chechnya and women must wear headscarves in state buildings. Polygamy is encouraged by authorities.

France Expels Radical Islamist Preacher For Second Time

From the Agence France-Presse:

PARIS — France on Thursday expelled for a second time radical Islamic cleric Ali Ibrahim al-Sudani back to his native Egypt having already kicked him out in January, Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said.

"This individual very recently reappeared on our territory despite an expulsion order in his name, carried out in January," Hortefeux said in a statement of the former imam of the Hamza mosque, at Pantin outside Paris.

"This hate preacher has repeatedly said violently hostile things about the West that are totally against our society's values," he said, adding that Sudani was on Thursday afternoon aboard a flight to Egypt.

Since 2002, France has expelled 125 radical Islamists, including 29 imams and preachers, the statement said. It did not say how Sudani managed to get back into France.

Report: U.S. "Reassures" Israel That Iran Is "At Least 12 Months" From Nuclear Bomb Despite Starting Reactor Today

From Jihad Watch:

There, there. You're not going to get obliterated today; it's just later on where things could get a little dicey. You've got at least 12 months, so it all depends on if you're a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty kind of person, you see.

Seriously, though, whatever the timetable, is there any political will left to ensure the Islamic Republic of Iran never reaches the next milestone -- its first bomb test? An update on this story. "Iran '12 months from nuclear weapon' US warns as Bushehr reactor started," from the Telegraph, August 21:

The US sought to reassure Israel that Iran is still a year away from building a nuclear weapon, as Iran's leadership hailed the fuelling of its first nuclear power plant on Saturday.

Right. Just try not to think of the idea that the "dying" Lockerbie bomber could, theoretically, outlive your country as you know it, with the current word being that he could make it at least another two years.

Iranian television showed live pictures of Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi and his Russian counterpart watching a fuel rod assembly being prepared for insertion into the reactor at Bushehr.

"Despite all the pressures, sanctions and hardships imposed by Western nations, we are now witnessing the start-up of the largest symbol of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities," Mr Salehi told a news conference afterwards. He described the plant as "a symbol of Iranian resistance and patience".

The plant, built with Russian help, is expected to begin producing electricity in the next few weeks.

Also known in Moscow as Operation Really, We're 100% Sure This Won't Come Back to Bite Us.

Iran is suspected of wanting to build nuclear weapons. Successfully operating a nuclear reactor will be seen by many in the Middle East and wider afield as a significant step forward for its nuclear industry towards that goal.

Israel has often warned that it cannot live with a nuclear-armed Iran, and there are still fears that Israel could launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iran which could ignite war across the Middle East, although bombing an operative reactor could release deadly radioactivity.

As John Bolton warned about earlier this week in the report linked above.

Gary Samore, President Obama's adviser on nuclear issues, tried to ease tensions among Israeli officials by telling the New York Times that the process of converting nuclear material into a weapon that worked would take at least 12 months.

Russia insists that its help at Bushehr will not assist Iranian efforts to build a bomb. Russia will both supply Bushehr with fuel and take back the spent fuel - which could be used to make weapons-grade plutonium.

"The construction of the nuclear plant at Bushehr is a clear example showing that any country, if it abides by existing international legislation and provides effective, open interaction with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), should have the opportunity to access the peaceful use of the atom," said Sergei Kiriyenko, Russian state nuclear corporation chief, at the news conference.

The United Nations Security Council passed a fourth resolution in June calling on Iran to stop its uranium enrichment, and imposing new sanctions.

Over the next two weeks, 163 fuel assemblies, equal to 80 tons of uranium fuel, will be moved inside the building and then into the reactor core.

The uranium fuel used at Bushehr is well below the more than 90 percent enrichment needed for a nuclear warhead.

Here's the problem: the Bushehr reactor is but one component of the Iranian nuclear program. It is ultimately, and at best, a front for other activities. As always, if Iran were truly only interested in the peaceful generation of electricity, why all the secrecy and subterfuge surrounding its nuclear program?

Iran says it plans to build other reactors and says designs for a second reactor in southwestern Iran are taking shape.

Stoning: A Nightmare

The following is a blog/editorial by Diana West:

Tariq Ramadan holds an MA in Philosophy and French literature and PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Geneva. In Cairo, Egypt he received one-on-one intensive training in classic Islamic scholarship from Al-Azhar University scholars. He is currently Professor of Islamic Studies at Oxford University while also teaching at the Faculty of Theology at Oxford. He is at the same time Senior Research Fellow at Doshisha Universoty in Japan and president of the European think tank European Muslim Network. He has called for a moratorium on the shariah-sanctioned practice of stoning.

This week's column:

Stonings at Ground Zero -- that'll be the day, right? The concept has no manifestation beyond the cold sweat of a dark-hours nightmare. Still, there's something worth gleaning from the not-so-free association process that inspired it.

It clicked when I read a riveting investigation by Christine Brim at BigPeace.com into scrubbed website material of the Cordoba Initiative, the Internet home of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, he of the Ground Zero Mosque. In this trove of information, curiously deleted from the current Cordoba Initiative website, lie key clues to Rauf's long-term program, the Shariah Index Project, whose "goal," as stated in the "hidden" material, is to "define, interpret and implement the concept of the Islamic state in modern times."

What is Shariah? It is the body of sacred laws that regulates public and private life in Islam. How does the Shariah Index Project fit into the planned mosque complex? Very easily, argues Brim. After accounting for the 13-story building's stated uses, from its mosque to its athletic and other facilities, Brim identified six undesignated stories. That's a lot of empty office space. But with its global spread, the Shariah Index Project just might be the perfect tenant.

Since 2006, Rauf has coordinated a series of international meetings with Shariah experts ranging from Muslim Brotherhood associates to Iran's Mohammad Javad Larijani, "who," as Brim reports, "has justified torture of Iranian dissidents as legal punishments under Shariah law."

That's not all Larijani, who heads Iran's Human Rights Council (for real), has justified. He has also justified Shariah-sanctioned stoning. As Anne Bayefsky recently reported, Rauf's picture with Larijani (and former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of the Islamic Conference Sada Cumber) disappeared from the Cordoba Initiative website, too.

So much to hide -- but the Shariah is out of the bag.

What would expanding Shariah mean here? More halal-butchered livestock leading, as in Europe, to halal-only menus? More midnight football practice during Ramadan? More sex-segregated swimming pools? More incitement to jihad in "radical" mosques? More "apostates" living in fear? More self-censorship, I mean "respect," when it comes to discussing Islam?

An excellent benchmark of Shariah's remarkable and, think of it, post-9/11 progress is that none of the above manifestations of Islamic law -- all designed to sync society with Islamic practice -- are shocking to us. Indeed, marital rape, permissible in Shariah culture wherever it spreads, got a "religious" pass from a New Jersey judge last month (overturned by an appellate court). Death by stoning, however, still seems to take everybody's breath away as those who read about last weekend's Taliban stoning in Afghanistan, I hope, would agree.

In brief, a couple -- he, 25, married and with 2 kids; she, 19 -- eloped before being lured to return to their town. They were then seized by the Taliban, who, as the New York Times reported, convened a Shariah court of mullahs from surrounding villages.

Verdict? Guilty. More than 200 local villagers, including family members, proceeded to stone the couple to death. "People were very happy seeing this," a local told the paper, who described a "festive" atmosphere.

"Let me tell you that according to Shariah law, if someone commits a crime like that, we have our courts and we deal with such crimes based on Islamic law," said a Taliban spokesman. The paper noted: "Perhaps most worrisome were signs of support for the action from mainstream religious authorities in Afghanistan."

"Worrisome," indeed -- particularly to American soldiers advised to remove their protective ballistic glasses and get to know these people. (Repeat after me, as Gen. Petraeus says: "The human terrain is the decisive terrain.") Still, Kunduz Province is not Lower Manhattan. Why the bad dreams about stoning?

I promised a study in free association. Imam Rauf's efforts to advance Shariah law, which sanctions stoning, have involved Iran's "human rights" chief, a public advocate of stoning. What next sprang to mind was the polished and educated form of Tariq Ramadan, the celebrated European Muslim "moderate" and grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna. Why? Infamously, Ramadan has refused to condemn stoning, calling merely for a "moratorium." Once, Ramadan's "moderate" stoning position stood out; now it fits into the nightmare -- only not for Ramadan, or Rauf or Larijami.

For them, at Ground Zero and elsewhere, the Shariah dream continues.