1. Two left leaning Australian publications have done articles recently on halal certification. It is interesting that they did them at all let alone with a degree of concern.
Here is the first, from SMH.Com,
Kirralie Smith. Photo: Scott Calvin
Kirralie Smith is a permaculture farmer from northern New South Wales and a mother of three. She is also the public face of the virulent campaign to boycott halal food and products. […]
She says her objection is not to Islam itself but the extra cost she thinks is imposed on Australian consumers by companies paying to have products – everything from milk to pies and shampoo – certified halal.

Jamil Makhoul at his halal grocery shop in Coburg. Photo: Justin McManus
Halal products are certified as being free from anything that Muslims are not allowed to eat or use (such as pork and alcohol). The products must be made and stored using machines that are cleansed according to Islamic law.
Large processing plants will have Muslim staff members who are accredited in some instances to bless the factory. Halal slaughtering of animals in Australia is done after they are stunned.
Smith and her supporters claim halal certification is a scam by Muslim interests to raise money for mosques and therefore for “jihad.” They base this assertion on media reports in France, Canada and the United States claiming certification funds had been paid to organisations linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
And a second article here at Theage.com
Boycott Halal movement in Australia set to escalate
The virulent Boycott Halal movement in Australia is set to escalate with a petition to federal parliament in the New Year demanding the Corporations Act 2001 be changed to mean only Muslims bear the cost of halal certification on everyday products.
Halal products are those deemed permissible for Muslims to eat or use under religious law. Many mainstream products in Australian stores are halal certified including food from SPC, Nestle, Kelloggs and Kraft. Supermarket chains pay for certification for some products, as do dairy factories and meat processors.
Worldwide the halal industry is worth $US 2 trillion and is growing 20% a year. Companies are keen to capitalise on the boom, so halal certification is increasingly common. All products exported to Muslim countries are certified before they go.
Here is an old fashioned style petition the Q society is asking Ozzies to download, print, sign, circulate and send back to them. Its a great idea. I hope any ozzies reading this site do exactly that.
2. Strict sharia forces gays into hiding in Indonesia’s Aceh
(Reuters) – Overwhelmed by fear, members of the main gay rights group in the Indonesian town of Banda Aceh started burning piles of documents outside their headquarters in late October, worried that the sharia police would raid them at any moment.
Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh had weeks earlier passed an anti-homosexuality law that punishes anyone caught having gay sex with 100 lashes. Amnesty International criticized it, saying it would add to a climate of homophobia and fear.
3. Man from Ahmadi religious minority killed in Pakistan after Muslim leader calls them ‘enemy’
Gunmen in eastern Pakistan shot dead a member of the Ahmadi religious minority on Saturday, an Ahmadi spokesman said, five days after a Muslim leader denounced Ahmadis on a popular Pakistani television talk show.
Luqman Ahmad Shehzad was shot in the back of the head near Bhiri Shah Rehman village, a small community of Ahmadis in the Gujranwala district, said Saleem ud Din, the spokesman.
4. The British appear to have decided to move the Royal Guard from their usual spots to more secure locations. My guess would be as a response to what happened in Ottawa. Clearly the British also fear random attacks by the mentally ill which have nothing to do with Islam.

5. Interesting article about a 14 year old Syrian boy who joined the Islamic State because he believed in Islam, then realized it wasn’t what he thought it was and volunteered for a suicide mission so he could escape and surrender to rational people.
The New York Times reports how Usaid had dreamed of becoming a doctor before he said he was recruited by Isis extremists in his hometown of Manbij, Syria.
He joined because he ‘believed in Islam’ but soon became disillusioned and was told that if he did not fight, Shi’ites would rape his mother.
The New York Times quotes him as saying: ‘They seduced us to join the caliphate.
‘They planted the idea that Shi’ites are infidels and we had to kill them.’
(Video at link)
6. Yet another ‘Islamophobis Hate Crime against a mosque, this time in Fresno Ca. turns out to be by a muslim member of that congregation forcing a retraction of sorts from the usual leftist apologists for Islam.
“But police announced today that the suspect arrested in the attack is 28-year-old Asif Mohammad Khan, who, according to news reports, is a Muslim who used to attend the mosque and did the attack in response to bullying by some in the mosque.
In response, Dyer has quickly had to walk back his knee-jerk “hate crime” talk.
According to the Associated Press:
In the search for a suspect, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer had said that the broken windows and bleach poured on an American flag inside the Islamic center appeared to be a hate crime. On Saturday, Dyer said that investigators interviewed Khan, and their theory has changed. “It was obviously not as we thought,” said Dyer, adding that police will let FBI agents decide whether hate-crime charges are warranted.
Khan confessed, telling officers he was upset with people at the Islamic center for talking down or bullying him, Dyer said.
Remarkably, a member of Khan’s family was allowed to speak at the police news conference to explain his supposed mental illness.”
I dunno how to tell them all this, but Islam is a mental illness. Its just as common as the Spanish Flu was post WW1 and nearly as deadly.
Thank you Oz-Rita and UK Pete, GoV and all.