Month: February 2010

British journalist Paul Martin held in Gaza

Posted on by

I like hiw BBC explains that Hamas ‘took control after winning elections’ as if it was somehow a democratic government. Doesn’t mention the coup at all except by effect. Well, it isn’t like the BBC is a serious news organization after all.

Map

A British journalist has been arrested in Gaza by Hamas security forces, British and Hamas officials say. BBC

The man was identified as Paul Martin. The arrest was confirmed by the Foreign Office, which also said it was providing consular assistance.

A Hamas spokesman said Mr Martin was arrested for violating security but further details were not given.

Reports say he was taken into custody for a fortnight while attending a court hearing.

Mr Martin has written for the BBC and the Times.

Hamas interior ministry spokesman Ehab Ghussein said: “We have confessions that the British journalist committed offences against Palestinian law, and that harms the security of the country.”

Hamas is the Palestinian militant Islamist organisation that took control of Gaza after winning elections there in 2007.

Lebanon opens fire on IAF jets

Posted on by

From The Jerusalem Post


Photo by: AP

Lebanon says its army has opened fire on four Israeli warplanes that flew into Lebanese airspace.

The Lebanese army said in a statement that its units used anti-aircraft fire Sunday to force the Israeli warplanes out of Lebanese airspace.

The army said the planes were in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley, in central Lebanon.

Israeli warplanes frequently fly over Lebanese airspace in what Israel says are reconnaissance missions. The overflights and violations of UN Security Council resolutions have been a constant source of tension between the two countries.

Sunday’s events come amid heightened tensions in the Middle East following some of the sharpest exchanges in years between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

A Lib Dem and a blood libel

Posted on by

From The Guardian

By Uri Dromi

Just when we thought we heard everything, there comes Lady Tonge, the Liberal Democrat peer, calling for Israel to set up an inquiry to disprove allegations that its medical teams in Haiti “harvested” organs of earthquake victims for use in transplants.

It is easy to dismiss this as sheer nonsense. Indeed, my friend Yisrael Medad, with whom I usually disagree, had it right this time, when in his blog he wondered whether someone had made off with the baroness’s brain. One thing for sure: nobody stole Tonge’s tongue, and whether or not it is connected to any brain at all, it keeps erupting anti-Israeli abuses, which had already caused her party embarrassment in the past.

Attacking Israel’s policies is one thing; insinuating that the army of the Jewish state is stealing organs or – as the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet published last year, that the IDF was killing Arabs for their organs – is to repeat what antisemites were saying about the Jews in the darkest periods of history. A blood libel, in short. Continue Reading →

Muslims Confront Islamism, Get Targeted by Islamists

Posted on by

From Islamist Watch

French imam Hassen Chalghoumi recently learned firsthand that Islamists despise non-Islamist Muslims as much as they do anyone else. Chalghoumi attracted their ire by coming out strongly in favor of a ban on face-covering veils, a prohibition that is moving closer to reality. Echoing President Nicolas Sarkozy, he described the niqab as a “prison for women, a tool of sexist domination and Islamist indoctrination” that “has no place in France.” Moreover, he explained:

Having French nationality means wanting to take part in society, at school, at work. But with a bit of cloth over their faces, what can these women share with us? If they want to wear the veil, they can go to a country where it’s the tradition, like Saudi Arabia.

Islamist reaction to his comments was swift and fierce, with a gang of nearly a hundred men storming his Paris mosque during a meeting of an organization focused on interfaith relations:

“They started to cry ‘Allah akbar’ and ‘God is great,'” recounted Chalghoumi. “Then they insulted me, my mosque, the Jewish community, and the [French] republic. They left after an hour and a half.” Continue Reading →

Woman with Iquan told “Take it Off or Leave” in Belgian parliament

Posted on by

From Gates of Vienna:

Saturday, February 13, 2010

“Take it Off or Leave”

by Baron Bodissey

Our Flemish correspondent VH has done a little background research on an incident that occurred in the Flemish parliament on Wednesday. Through his efforts we learn that the “woman with a headscarf” in the public gallery — who was supposedly made a victim by the Islamophobia of Vlaams Belang leader Filip Dewinter — is not what she seems.

Ms. Fatima Zibouh is not an innocent Muslima who just happened to be in the public gallery when she was picked on by Filip Dewinter. Her associations and connections, as demonstrated in the material below, lead not just to the extreme Left in Wallonia, but all the way back to radical Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe.

VH begins with a translation of this news account from Het Laatste Nieuws (and related linked articles) and a video of the triggering event. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for his prompt subtitling:

Headscarf incident in Flemish parliament: “take it off or leave”

In the Flemish parliament on Wednesday February 10, Vlaams Belang leader Filip Dewinter lashed out about a woman with a headscarf in the public gallery of the parliament, who was in the audience for the plenary session. Dewinter demanded that the woman take off her headscarf out of respect for the parliament or leave the public gallery.

“When Muslimas are in the public gallery, they must at least take off their headscarves out of respect for parliament,” Dewinter said, noting the veiled woman. “Otherwise, they should leave the gallery,” he added. The Vlaams Belang leader pointed out that regulations state that neutrality [in visible political expressions] is required in parliament. The party colleagues of Filip Dewinter applauded this.

The Chairman of Parliament, Jan Peumans (N-VA) did not follow up on Filip Dewinter’s demand. “It disturbs me not at all that this lady is in the audience with a headscarf. And moreover, you are directing your remarks at someone who is in the audience and can not defend herself. I want to make that clear,” Peumans said. The Chairman of Parliament received extended applause for his intervention.

(A full transcript of this video is at the bottom of the post.) Continue Reading →

Cupid reviled: Why Islamists hate Valentine’s Day.

Posted on by

Saudi scholars hate Valentine’s Day. They hate it so much, that the mutawa is sent to patrol the streets of Riyadh and other Saudi cities scouring for lovers caught in the act of walking together. Shops are raided for stocking red roses, heart-shaped candy boxes and red balloons. Vendors found selling  ‘contraband’ Valentine’s love prose, poetry and greeting cards are threatened with arrest and punishment. Young Saudis wishing to celebrate find themselves buying and stashing  love products weeks before the Festival of Love, knowing such items become illegal the week preceding Valentine’s Day. Florists sneak bouquets to customers in the dark of night and young women with the temerity to don red lipstick or a red blouse are ridiculed. A cleric in Indonesia has also instructed Muslims not to mark the wicked day while Russian Muslim leaders claim the day of love preaches ‘ universal permissiveness, amorality and nihilism’. And not to disappoint the politically correct crowd, the headmaster at Britain’s Ashcombe Primary School has banned Valentine’s citing the emotional immaturity of the students.

Certainly if the Saudis spent as much time hunting down terrorists and Muslim scholars issued hearty fatwas against violence committed in the name of Islam as they do initiating jihad against courting couples, red teddy bears and roses, the world would be a far better place. We are correct to realize that Saudi Arabia’s ban on Valentine’s Day relates directly to Islam’s irrational fixation all things sexual and it’s obsession in securing all things repressive, but are we fully clear on the deeper reason Cupid is so reviled? Is it really the winged cherub with the arrow and pink cheeks that set Islamic scholars into such bizarre fits or the fact that Valentine was a Christian Saint? Continue Reading →

New Statesman Political Editor: Non-Muslims “Like Animals”

Posted on by

Mehdi Hasan, the New Statesman‘s political editor, recently attacked UKIP‘s Lord Pearson for his comments about radical Islam in Britain.

Yet this magazine has advanced the idea of a “kosher conspiracy,” in which British Jews are supposed to effectively control the government. And Hasan has stated that non-Muslims live “like animals” (see video below):

H/T Up Pompei

Videos from Iran. Tehran 11 Feb 2010 Protest P12

Posted on by



gates of Vienna passed me these clips. More information will be available there. Click through to the youtube page they are hosted on, and some information is there. The Iranian regime has done all it can to shut down communications for it’s people to the outside world. Gmail for instance was closed starting a day or more before the 11th, and other services were shut down. Stratfor.com has more on the specifics. Sorry to be vague on this one, but vague is better than wrong. More info as it comes my way.

There is more here for those that are willing to rely on a machine translation, or can speak this Scandinavian language.

Iran uses ‘enemies of God’ charge on protesters

Posted on by

(CNN) — Iran hanged two men at the end of January — the first political prisoners known to be executed in Iran since the demonstrations protesting the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to Amnesty International.

It’s still not entirely clear what Arash Rahmanipour and Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani’s crime was. Rahmanipour’s lawyer said he was already in jail on election day in June 2009, so he couldn’t have been involved in the post-election uprising, she said.

But whatever their earthly crimes were, the two men executed last month were also accused of another offense far more serious than simply protesting against a government.

They were convicted of being “mohareb,” enemies of God.

That is the worst possible crime in Shiite Muslim law, according to Abbas Milani, the director of Iranian studies at Stanford University.

The legal implications are clear, he said.

“A mohareb, according to Shiite law, is executed,” he said.

That the regime is labeling its opponents enemies of God is a sign of how rattled it is by the protests, he said. Continue Reading →

Shah’s son urges help for Iran’s protesters

Posted on by

From The Jerusalem Post

Reza Pahlavi, whose father, the shah of Iran, was toppled from power 31 years ago, said the international community must step up its support for Iran’s opposition movement and stop focusing on the country’s nuclear program.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Pahlavi said nations such as the US should not “even bother” with a new round of sanctions regarding Iran’s nuclear program, if punitive measures merely maintain the status quo.

Instead, he suggested the kind of encouragement that ended South Africa’s apartheid system and caused the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Pahlavi, 50, said that should include dialogue with the Iran’s opposition, which has managed to keep up periodic street protests in the country since the disputed June presidential elections despite a fierce crackdown.

He also said the opposition needs outside technological support to beat government eavesdropping and Internet crackdowns in Iran, and “stay connected” with the outside world. Continue Reading →

Norway, Islam, and New Protests

Posted on by

From The Brussels Journal

By Filip van Laenen

Last week-end, almost a thousand taxi drivers in the Norwegian capital Oslo and neighboring municipality Bærum went on what could be called a religious strike. Both on Friday evening and Monday morning, Muslim taxi drivers refused to drive in protest against Wednesday’s front page of the Norwegian tabloid paper Dagbladet. That day, the tabloid ran an article about some of the “dangerous” pages the website of the Norwegian security service PST links to, and illustrated that with a screen shot of a cartoon showing the prophet Muhammad as a pig trampling the Qur’an.

Let’s not be naive: the tabloid Dagbladet knew very well that it would create a new controversy when it put the cartoon on its front page. By its very nature, this type of newspaper depends on shocking front pages. Just like its biggest competitor in the market, VG, you can’t get Dagbladet delivered to your door every morning, but have to go out and buy it at a shop. Therefore, its front page usually carries a big fat title involving celebrities, sex and violence – if possible, all three of them together – but occasionally, politics or religion will do as well. Apparently, on 3 February, Dagbladet’s best shot at getting as many copies as possible sold was to put the cartoon, which already caused a stir in the nineties of the previous century, on is front page.

Whether or not the 3 February edition of Dagbladet sold particularly well remains unclear, but it sure got plenty of attention. Attention is seldom… Read More.