Year: 2010

Dozens speak out against planned mosque near ground zero at NYC hearing on landmark status

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FOXNEWS…Dozens of opponents and some supporters of a mosque planned near ground zero attended a raucous hearing Tuesday about whether the building where the Muslim place of worship would be created warrants designation as a city landmark and should be protected from development.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio, who has sought an investigation into the funding of the mosque, was among the witnesses who testified in support of giving the building landmark status, which could complicate plans by Muslim groups to develop a community center and mosque there.

After noting the lower Manhattan building’s history and architectural significance, Lazio said it also warranted landmark designation because on Sept. 11, 2001, it was struck by airplane debris from the terror attacks against the nearby World Trade Center. That connection to the attacks, he said, made it “a place of deep historical significance and a reminder of just what happened on New York’s darkest day.”

Lazio has called on state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, his Democratic opponent in the governor’s race, to investigate the funding of the project. On Tuesday, he repeated that request and said the pace of the landmark designation process should be slowed to allow time to thoroughly investigate the matter.

Nearly 100 people attended the hearing at a college campus on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Fifty-six people testified at the hearing, which turned contentious at times, with some speakers drowned out by shouts from the audience and with one man escorted out by campus security.

“To deprive this building of landmark status is to allow for a citadel of Islamic supremacy to be erected in its place,” said Andrea Quinn, a freelance audio technician from Queens who said she had worked with people at the World Trade Center.

But Rafiq Kathwari, who described himself as a moderate Muslim, said the landmark discussion had been hijacked.

“This has been made by a very vocal minority into an issue of bigotry,” said Kathwari, as he held up his U.S. passport and was nearly drowned out by shouts from the crowd. “I’m standing in a hall in which I feel ashamed to be an American.” Continue Reading →

You HAVE land rights. You just didn’t know it.

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A recent media report has brought to light something called “Land grant patents”. These documents are instrumental in protecting land owners against the unlawful infringment on their ability to own, use and profit from their private property. The land grant patents are vital in the fight to control overzealous governments and their agencies for two basic reasons. The first is that they spell out in very specific terms what those rights include, and secondly it makes those rights eternal. For those of you who don’t like the monarchy, I would suggest that in this instance at least, it has done us all an unparalleled service.

BOSTOM: John Brennan: Witless for the defense

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By Andrew Bostom published first in The Washington Times:

By Andrew Bostom

7:54 p.m., Monday, July 12, 2010

MugshotIllustration: John Brennan by Alexander Hunter for The Washington Times

A dry pun asks, “When is a door not a door?” – the answer being, “When it is ajar.” But dry humor is clearly preferable to the deluded warping of the lexicon by the Obama administration‘s lead counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, which leads to this question, and requisite answer, “When is jihad not jihad?” – “When it is bloodless, spiritual struggle.” Mr. Brennan vociferously advocates an exclusive, bowdlerized definition of jihad in the public discourse as “to purify oneself or one’s community,” lest the tender sensibilities of Muslims be offended. He further claims that, somehow, self-described jihadists “have truly just distorted the whole concept” of jihad. But it is Mr. Brennan who, irrespective of whatever flimsy, ahistorical rationale he provides, thoroughly misrepresents jihad – a living, bellicose Islamic institution that dates from the advent of the Muslim creed almost 14 centuries ago.

The dangerous absurdity of Mr. Brennan‘s jihad denial is self-evident: More than 15,600 jihad terror attacks have been committed by Muslims worldwide since the cataclysmic acts of jihad terrorism committed against the United States itself on Sept. 11, 2001. These data should remind us that there is just one historically relevant meaning of jihad, despite contemporary apologetics. Jahada, the root of the word jihad, appears 40 times in the Koran. With four exceptions, all the other 36 usages in the Koran, as understood by both the greatest jurists and scholars of classical Islam (including Abu Yusuf, Averroes, Ibn Khaldun and Al Ghazali) and ordinary Muslims – meant and mean “he fought, warred or waged war against unbelievers and the like.” Continue Reading →

Counter Jihad Zurich: The Alliance to STOP Sharia

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From Gates of Vienna:

The Alliance to STOP Sharia

by Baron Bodissey

Counterjihad Zurich 2010
Last month’s Counterjihad meeting in Zurich was a milestone for several reasons, one of them being the participation of a substantial contingent of French delegates. Gandalf*, who has appeared several times previously at Gates of Vienna and blogs at Vérité, Valeurs et Démocratie, gave a presentation on his proposed Alliance to STOP Sharia.

In the wake of the meeting a group of people from a number of European countries (plus the United States and Canada) began preparations for the launch of the Alliance to STOP Sharia as an umbrella group that can apply anti-sharia strategies across the entire West.

Countries with secularism written into their constitutions encounter a problem with any official effort to oppose Islamization. How can Islam be stopped when the state is enjoined not to interfere in religious affairs? In particular, the constitutions of France and the United States forbid any state meddling with religions. We Americans have the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, and the French have an official policy of laïcité — the complete removal of religious matters from the purview of the government.

The Alliance, however, is completely unconcerned with Islamic religious beliefs — as far as it is concerned, Muslims may believe whatever they want. Instead, the focus is on Sharia, or Islamic law.

Last week Gates of Vienna interviewed Gandalf about the reasoning and methodology behind the planned alliance.

Alliance to STOP Sharia
Q: You say that you do not take issue with Islamic beliefs or religious doctrines, but only with the body of law known as Sharia. Could you please explain the reasons for your focus on Sharia?

A: Well, let’s begin with Islamic beliefs and religious doctrines. We cannot take issue with someone’s beliefs for the simple reason that we are respectful of their human rights. In a democratic society you have the right to believe what you want; it’s as simple as that. Let me add that having issues with what’s inside your neighbour’s brain seems a very unproductive way of spending your time.

Sharia is an entirely different matter, Sharia in an occidental society is of a political nature (politics being the thing that rules society). In a Muslim society Sharia is of religious essence but we are not in a Muslim society, and we don’t have to consider their weltanschaaung in this matter.

Some people pretend to introduce something they consider as a body of laws into our society. Laws regulating individual and collective behaviour, morals, clothing, food, justice, matrimonial relations, sexual life, inheritance, citizenship status, and even what you are allowed to believe or not believe. Laws voted by nobody, laws absolutely incompatible with the principles of democracy, laws violating each and every human right you can think of, laws rejecting our basic civilisationnal concept of human dignity, and you ask why we focus our concerns on the Sharia?

Let me return your question by asking this: why hasn’t everyone in our democratic countries focused yet on the Sharia problem we are facing today?

Some clever souls say that it only concerns Muslim people, why should we care?

What is a Muslim? A new kind of citizen having different rights and obligations? A new kind of citizen denied the benefits of his constitutional rights, of his basic human rights — especially if this Muslim person is a woman?

We don’t know what a Muslim is, and to be really honest, we don’t care. But we know what a free citizen is and we know what Sharia does to people: it enslaves them in a degrading servitude. Sharia is mental slavery, that’s why we take issue with it. Continue Reading →

France bans the burqa.

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From CNN World

Burqa ban passes French lower house overwhelmingly

By the CNN Wire Staff
July 13, 2010 11:24 a.m. EDT

Paris, France (CNN) — France’s lower house of parliament Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a ban on any veils that cover the face — including the burqa, the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women.

The vote was 335 to 1, with 339 lawmakers not voting.

The measure must still go to the French Senate before it becomes law. The Senate is expected to vote on it in the week of September 20.

A veiled woman speaks with another woman at a courthouse in Nanterre, Paris, earlier this month.

A veiled woman speaks with another woman at a courthouse in Nanterre, Paris, earlier this month.

French people back the ban by a margin of more than four to one, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found in a survey this spring.

Some 82 percent of people polled approved of a ban, while 17 percent disapproved. That was the widest support the Washington-based think tank found in any of the five countries it surveyed.

Clear majorities also backed burqa bans in Germany, Britain and Spain, while two out of three Americans opposed it, the survey found.

The French Council of Ministers approved the measure in May, saying veils that cover the face “cannot be tolerated in any public place.” Their approval sent the bill to parliament.

The parliamentary vote is the latest step in France’s efforts to ban the burqa, niqab and other Muslim garments that cover a woman’s face.

A panel of French lawmakers recommended a ban last year, and lawmakers unanimously passed a non-binding resolution in May calling the full-face veil contrary to the laws of the nation.

“Given the damage it produces on those rules which allow the life in community, ensure the dignity of the person and equality between sexes, this practice, even if it is voluntary, cannot be tolerated in any public place,” the French government said when it sent the measure to parliament in May.

The bill envisions a fine of 150 euros ($190) and/or a citizenship course as punishment for wearing a face-covering veil.

Forcing a woman to wear a niqab or a burqa would be punishable by a year in prison or a 15,000-euro ($19,000) fine, the government said, calling it “a new form of enslavement that the republic cannot accept on its soil.”

The measure would take effect six months after passage, giving authorities time to try to persuade women who veil themselves voluntarily to stop.

The French Council of State has warned that the ban could be incompatible with international human rights laws and the country’s own constitution. The council advises on laws, but the government is not required to follow its recommendations.

Amnesty International has repeatedly urged French lawmakers not to approve the ban.

“A complete ban on the covering of the face would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion of those women who wear the burqa or the niqab in public as an expression of their identity or beliefs,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s expert on discrimination in Europe, in May.

If the French bill is approved by the upper house and signed into law, it will be the first national ban in Europe on the burqa, a full-body covering that includes a mesh over the face, and the niqab, a full-face veil that leaves an opening only for the eyes.

The hijab, which tightly covers the hair and neck but not the face, and the chador, which covers the body but not the face, apparently would not be banned by either law. However, a 2004 law in France bans the wearing or displaying of overt religious symbols in schools — including the wearing of headscarves by schoolgirls.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life estimates that France has about 3.5 million Muslims, or about 6 percent of the population.

France does not keep its own statistics on religious affiliation of the population, in keeping with its laws requiring the state to be strictly secular.

Related: Muslim World: Sweeping support to ban full Islamic veil in Western Europe as France votes on burka ban, suryey shows.

Honour killings and Canada

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It seems that Canada had yet another attempt at a Muslim honour killing of a daughter. The good news is Canada’s clear, unmitigated, non-politically-corrected, not-culturally-relativist (even if the good minister for women’s affairs cannot pronounce that word properly) policy making it perfectly clear that killing people is unacceptable and being a matter of culture or religion does not make it OK.

And below, the statement from the good minister for women’s affairs. As usual for these times, it takes a conservative to set truly liberal policies.

Barbara Kay: Action on Honour Killings.

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From The National Post

Barbara Kay: Action on honour killings

July 12, 2010 – 4:20 pm

Muhammad Shan Parvez and Waqas Parvez

Nathan Denette / National Post

Muhammad Shan Parvez, left, and Waqas Parvez — brothers of murderer teenager Aqsa Parvez — leave a Brampton, Ont., courthouse on Dec. 14, 2007.

The Minister for Status of Women, Rona Ambrose, gave a press conference today on “culturally-driven violence and so-called ‘honour crimes.’ ” The occasion prompting her remarks was the official release of a position paper on the growing problem of culturally driven violence in Canada’s immigrant communities by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, the subject of my July 7th column.

The report, Culturally-Driven Violence Against Women: A growing problem in Canada’s immigrant communities, was written by Aruna Papp, a counsellor to immigrant men and women caught up in domestic conflicts. Ms Papp, an immigrant from India who herself suffered a great deal of culturally-related abuse, has emerged as an expert on South Asian cultural gender roles and honour/shame-related behaviours. Ms Papp has written about the subject of culturally-driven violence in the National Post.

Reflecting opinions expressed in the report, the minister endorsed Ms Papp’s most important points, emphasizing, with regard to honour killings, “These heinous acts cannot be justified by cultural relativism or excused under the guise of political correctness.” Continue Reading →

Canada: Mother declared fit to stand trial for attempted honour killing

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From CTV News

Mom fit for trial for alleged ‘honour crime’ attempt

By: The Canadian Press

Date: Monday Jul. 12, 2010 10:59 AM PT

MONTREAL

— A woman alleged to have stabbed her daughter in the head in a so-called “honour crime” has been declared fit to stand trial.

Johra Kaleki will return to Quebec court on July 26 for a bail hearing. The prosecution says it will seek to have Kaleki remain behind bars.

Kaleki, 38, is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon against her own 19-year-old daughter.

She had been sent to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation at the defence’s request, and the results were deposited with the court Monday.

“There were two things that were evaluated: her fitness to stand trial and her responsibility,” Crown prosecutor Anne Gauvin told reporters outside the courtroom.

“At this stage, she comes back fit and responsible.”

The Crown said it would oppose Kaleki’s attempt at bail because of the emotions involved in the case.

Slideshow image

Johra Kaleki, 38, is seen in this artist’s rendition during court proceedings, Monday, June 14, 2010.

Gauvin argued unsuccessfully that Kaleki should be barred from speaking with her family, notably her husband Ebrahim Ebrahimi.

Ebrahimi will be the one putting up bail in two weeks’ time. The Crown fears there will be pressure on the victim to alter her testimony or simply not testify at all.

“It (parental pressure) could change the way it’s related in court,” Gauvin said.

“She’s (the victim) sort of facing her mother, what happened to her is not something ordinary and the pressure is there.”

The incident occurred inside the family’s Montreal-area home in the early morning hours of June 13.

The daughter is said to have returned home after a late night out and police said Kaleki was in a hysterical state.

Initial police reports suggested Kaleki’s husband tried to stop the attack.

Police quickly reached a conclusion that they were dealing with a so-called “honour” crime — an attack by a family on one of its members for an act believed to have brought shame to the family.

Ebrahimi has said the case was a misunderstanding and has pleaded with authorities to release his wife and reunite the family.

The 19-year-old victim, the eldest of four daughters, has since returned home after spending some time in hospital.

Gay people and Muslims have minor conflict in England… Minor this time.

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H/t to Vlad reader AJ and story lifted from The Derby Patriot

Today was the 3rd Derby Gay Pride festival and according to gaypedia it is a street festival followed by a street parade of gays and lesbians, the theme being ‘Pride not Prejudice’.

Derby has a large muslim community and up to 2,000 people attend Friday prayers at the Jamia Mosque on Normanton road.

Posters advertising a protest against the festival were seen in the Normanton Road area of Derby earlier on in the week. The posters urged muslims to demonstrate against the Derby Gay Pride festival as ‘gays are un-islamic’.

Around a dozen muslims gathered outside St Peters Church, some with megaphones and ‘chanting in a foreign language’ according to my source who was in the area.

A woman stood in front of them waving a placard that said ‘Live and let live’ and trying to argue her point along with a couple of men. The muslims just drowned them out with megaphones.

A group of 30-40 shoppers stood around trying to see what was happening before walking off in disgust, either shaking their heads or calling the muslim group scum.

Police took photos of the group of muslims and eventually escorted them off towards the spot.

Hat tip t

‘Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom’

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 ABCNEWS… The Al Qaeda affiliate based in Yemen has launched a new English-language web site that features statements from Osama Bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri and Anwar Awlaki, the radical American-born imam linked to numerous U.S. terror plots, and gives instructions on how to make a homemade bomb.

Inspire” magazine, aimed at Westerners and published by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, includes such articles as “Make A Bomb In The Kitchen Of Your Mom,” written by someone called “The AQ Chef,” that gives step-by-step directions on how jihadis can make a bomb “from ingredients available in any kitchen in the world.” In addition to an interview with AQAP head Sheikh Abu Basir Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the magazine also republishes past statements by Bin Laden and Zawahiri, like an essay on climate change in which Bin Laden says that the earth is getting warmer because Al Qaeda has opened the gates of hell. A message from Awlaki praises accused underwear bomber Umar Abdulmutallab and accused Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, both of whom were reportedly in touch with Awlaki.

The magazine also quotes Noam Chomsky, David Letterman, and an email from failed Times Square car bomber Faisal Shahzad: “You would have to agree to the fact that there’s a force out there that’s fighting the West, and is defeating them.”

In an advice column called “What to Expect in Jihad – Part One, ” “Mukhtar” urges would-be jihadis to pack light when on the road, warns them not to become frustrated by language barriers, and notes that having a companion eases travel. “Having a friend makes a difference,” says a cheery yellow post-it note displayed next to a handful of bullets.

Somalia: Al Shabaab Threatens Burundi

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Somalia: Al Shabaab Threatens Burundi STRATFOR:
July 12, 2010
Al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said the attacks in Uganda on July 11 were the beginning of plans to take revenge on African Union Mission in Somalia forces, Radio Simba reported July 12. He said the Ugandan people tested al Shabaab’s warnings and that Burundi could be next. In a comment addressed to the people of Burundi, he said, “You are softer than the Ugandans. We have repeatedly asked you to press your government to have your troops leave our country…but you still have a chance.

An open letter to Burak Obama on NASA’s new role

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Here is an excellent bit from Canada Free Press:

NASA Unveils New Plan for Muslims in Outer Space

By Daniel Greenfield  Tuesday, July 6, 2010

imageBarack H. Obama
666 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington, DC 20006

Dear Sir,

I cannot tell you how much we appreciate your budget cuts, your cancellation of the space shuttle and any replacement launch vehicle for it, forcing us to rely on Russian Soyuz ships and their space program, which can’t even seem to dock with the ISS Space Station.

Your wise decision in this regard, as well as your cancellation of any return trip to the moon, has caused us to reevaluate many of our programs, including the search for intelligent life on earth. We understand of course that space exploration must take a backseat to more important matters, such as bailing out the car companies and banks who contributed to your campaign. And of course the White House entertainment budget. Your historic actions since taking office have truly challenged us as an agency. We can only hope to one day be able to return the favor.

After carefully reviewing your new priority for NASA, to reach out to Muslims and make them feel good about “their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering”, which consisted mainly of ripping off Greek and Indian science, and passing it off as their own, we have developed a comprehensive plan for utilizing the talents and abilities of Muslims to further the goals of this nation’s goals space program, which you so articulately described as “That Outer Spacey Thing”.

Please click here for the rest:

Canada Will Not Tolerate “Honour killings”

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Can’t wait for the Muslim organizations to claim this new law as anti Islamic

National Post…The federal government this afternoon affirmed its zero-tolerance stance against ‘honour killing,’ declaring such “barbaric cultural practices” as “heinous abuses” that have “no place in Canadian society.”

The government is taking gender-based violence “very seriously” and called on women’s groups and members of the immigrant community to do their part in tackling these “heinous abuses, said Rona Ambrose, Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women.

The minister’s announcement at a a press conference at the Punjabi Community Health Service Centre in Mississauga, Ont., was apparently prompted by this weekend’s release of a high-profile report focusing on the growing problem of the abuse of girls and women in Canada’s immigrant communities.

The report, released by the Frontier Centre on Public Policy, outlines 14 recommendations for the federal government — including criminal record checks for men coming to Canada, and mandatory orientation sessions for male sponsors and sponsored women regarding gender-equality in this country.
Ms. Ambrose said the government is already working some of the recommendations and is “looking at” others, including the launch of government-funded programs on local and national television that could be used to reiterate the consequences of abuse.

She also said the government is “looking at” adding ‘honour killing’ as a separate charge to the criminal code.

“If we have a different family dynamic at play, then we have to address that family dynamic,” Ms. Ambrose said, addressing media and about a dozen women and a few men from the community who gathered at the centre.