Author Archives: Grace

Sharia law ‘highly misunderstood’ says Obama advisor Dalia Mogahed

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From The Telegraph U.K.

Miss Mogahed, adviser to President Obama, sits with Nazreen Nawaz of Hizb ut Tahir for a chit-chat on sharia law. “ The majority of women around the world associate gender justice or justice for women, with sharia compliance”, Mogahed asserts.

Barack Obama adviser says Sharia Law is misunderstood

President Barack Obama’s adviser on Muslim affairs, Dalia Mogahed, has provoked controversy by appearing on a British television show hosted by a member of an extremist group to talk about Sharia Law.

By Andrew Gilligan and Alex Spillius in Washington
Published: 8:00PM BST 08 Oct 2009

Miss Mogahed, appointed to the President’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships, said the Western view of Sharia was “oversimplified” and the majority of women around the world associate it with “gender justice”.

The White House adviser made the remarks on a London-based TV discussion programme hosted by Ibtihal Bsis, a member of the extremist Hizb ut Tahrir party.

The group believes in the non-violent destruction of Western democracy and the creation of an Islamic state under Sharia Law across the world.

Miss Mogahed appeared alongside Hizb ut Tahrir’s national women’s officer, Nazreen Nawaz.

During the 45-minute discussion, on the Islam Channel programme Muslimah Dilemma earlier this week, the two members of the group made repeated attacks on secular “man-made law” and the West’s “lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism”.

They called for Sharia Law to be “the source of legislation” and said that women should not be “permitted to hold a position of leadership in government”.

Miss Mogahed made no challenge to these demands and said that “promiscuity” and the “breakdown of traditional values” were what Muslims admired least about the West.

She said: “I think the reason so many women support Sharia is because they have a very different understanding of sharia than the common perception in Western media.

“The majority of women around the world associate gender justice, or justice for women, with sharia compliance.

“The portrayal of Sharia has been oversimplified in many cases.”

Sharia in its broadest sense is a religious code for living, which decrees such matters as fasting and dressing modestly. However, it has also been interpreted as requiring the separation of men and women.

It also includes the controversial “Hadd offences”, crimes with specific penalties set by the Koran and the sayings of the prophet Mohammed. These include death by stoning for adultery and homosexuality and the removal of a hand for theft.

Miss Mogahed admitted that even many Muslims associated Sharia with “maximum criminal punishments” and “laws that… to many people seem unequal to women,” but added: “Part of the reason that there is this perception of Sharia is because Sharia is not well understood and Islam as a faith is not well understood.”

The video of the broadcast has now been prominently posted on the front page of Hizb ut Tahrir’s website.

Miss Mogahed, who was born in Egypt and moved to America at the age of five, is the first veiled Muslim woman to serve in the White House. Her appointment was seen as a sign of the Obama administration’s determination to reach out to the Muslim world.

She is also the executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, a project which aims to scientifically sample public opinion in the Muslim world.

During this week’s broadcast, she described her White House role as “to convey… to the President and other public officials what it is Muslims want.”

Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, said Miss Mogahed was “downplaying” Sharia Law.

“There is a reason sharia has got a bad name and it is how it has been exercised. Regrettably in the US there have been acts of injustice perpetrated against women that are driven by the Sharia-type mindset that women are objects not human beings,” she said.

She cited the example of Muzzammil Hassan, a Buffalo man who ran a cable channel aimed at countering Muslim stereotypes and was charged earlier this year with beheading his wife after she filed for divorce.

“Americans understand by example, it’s not as if we are an ignorant mass of people. Just as we don’t broad brush all Muslims, so should Dalia not downplay the serious nature of sharia law.”

German banker sparks anger over ‘racist’ tirade aimed at Turks in Germany

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From The Telegraph U.K.

German bank governor forced to deny colleague’s racist remarks

A tirade against Turks in Germany by a recently appointed central bank board member provoked widespread anger.

By Robin Prince
Published: 9:27AM BST 09 Oct 2009

A partial eclipse of the sun visible above the minaret of Dresden's Tabacco Mosque

A partial eclipse of the sun visible above the minaret of Dresden’s Tabacco Mosque Photo: AP

The governor of the German Central Bank, Axel Weber, has been attempting a damage limitation exercise after remarks by Thilo Sarrazin about the country’s 2.5 million-strong Turkish minority provoked popular anger.

Last week Mr Sarrazin, who was recently appointed to the central bank’s board, told cultural magazine Lettre International that Turks, who are three per cent of the country’s population, contributed little to the German economy and were a threat due to their high birth rate.

“Turks are conquering Germany…with a strong birth rate,” Sarrazin was quoted as saying. “I would be happy if it were a question of eastern European Jews whose intelligence is 15 per cent greater than the German population.

“I do not want groups within the population that do not accept the duty of integration, and on top of that it costs a lot more money.”

Speaking of the German capital, Berlin, Sarrazin added: “A large number of Arabs and Turks in this city, the number of whom has grown owing to poor policies, have no productive function aside from selling fruit and vegetables. Continue Reading →

Church ordered to cut music after Muslim complaint

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From The Telegraph U.K.

Church congregation dwindles after Muslim complains about noise

A church has been ordered to cut the amount of music played in its services after a Muslim neighbour complained that worshippers were too noisy.

By Murray Wardrop
Published: 7:00AM BST 09 Oct 2009

The Immanuel International Christian Centre, in Walthamstow, east London, can now only play music for 20 minutes on Sundays after it was served a noise abatement order.

However, the church claims that the move by Waltham Forest Council has left it lacking in soul and driven away almost three quarters of its congregation.

Pastor Dunni Odetoyinbo, 55, said the congregation has since dropped from 100 to 30.

“It has affected the life of the church completely,” she said. “Most people want to come to church to sing hymns but now they can’t do that. It’s not such a lively place any more.

“We don’t want to be a nuisance to the neighbour. All we want to do is use the church as a place of worship. We need to speak to our solicitor to see what we can do next.”

The notice was served after Muslim neighbour Baha Uddin complained that he was unable to use his garden at weekends due to the noise coming from the church. He also claimed that his one-year-old daughter was disturbed by the amplified music. Continue Reading →

A cartoonist at Yale; police, sniffer dogs & heavy security

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From: 06520 The News Blog of the Yale Alumni Magazine.

” I am so old that I have experienced Nazism, Fascism, Communism and now, Islamism…” Kurt Westergaard.

A cartoonist under police protection

Posted by Kathrin Day Lassila ’81 at 3:20 pm Friday, October 2, 2009

“This is the first time we’ve ever held a master’s tea that required such extensive security,” said Branford College master Steven Smith before introducing his Thursday afternoon guest. The standing-room-only audience of more than a hundred had had to abandon their backpacks, purses, and cellphones at Smith’s house. They had needed IDs and preapproved tickets to get on the Yale buses, guarded by several police officers, that would take them direct to the Greenberg Center on Prospect Street. Once in the buses they had to sit still, holding their IDs and tickets up for inspection, while a small black dog led by a plainclothes officer walked the length of the aisle and then back, sniffing eagerly at the floor.

Smith’s guest at the heavily guarded tea was Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who drew the most controversial of the group of cartoons published by a Danish newspaper in 2005 under the headline “The Face of Muhammad.” In an editorial, the newspaper said the cartoons were its response to a “sickly oversensitivity” among Danish Muslim leaders. (There had been a series of complaints by Christian Danes that Muslims were unwilling to take criticisms or jokes. Much more seriously, in 2004 a non-Muslim university lecturer had been beaten by a group of Muslim men for reciting from the Koran in a class.) The cartoons later became the focus of violent demonstrations by Muslims in the Middle East and Africa, in which, according to one estimate, some 250 people died. Continue Reading →

Cultural misogyny; young Punjabi mothers in Canada pressured to birth sons, reject girls

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From The Toronto Star.

Desperate mothers

October 3, 2009

Raveena Aulakh

STAFF REPORTER

On a windswept street in a bustling industrial area on the outskirts of town, a stocky man in a white shirt and dark jeans pulls out three Ziploc bags containing red, brown and silver pills.

Take two red and brown pills each day for a week, he tells the woman who says she is nine weeks pregnant, and your baby has an 85 per cent chance of being a boy. Then he demands $750 in cash.

In the Indian state of Punjab, the culture is obsessed with boys. Desperate to avoid giving birth to girls, women for decades have taken extreme measures. They swallow herbs, drink pregnant cow’s milk, pray in marathon sessions, and since the widespread use of ultrasound technology, abort female fetuses.

It’s a huge topic of debate in India, with an alarmingly skewed birth ratio of boys to girls.

But this scene on an industrial strip was not played out in Punjab, but just west of Toronto, in an area a large number of Punjabis now call home – and where the latest Canadian census figures reveal significantly fewer girls than boys in the South Asian community. Continue Reading →

Kurt Westergaard: ‘The most hated man in Mecca’

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From The National Post.

The most hated man in Mecca

Meet the Danish cartoonist who set the world on fire

Adrian Humphreys, National Post Published: Saturday, October 03, 2009

In Pakistan, tens of thousands of protestors torched cinemas, music stores, fast food outlets and other perceived symbols of Western influence in response to the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad in Denmark. Arif Ali, AFP, Getty Images In Pakistan, tens of thousands of protestors torched cinemas, music stores, fast food outlets and other perceived symbols of Western influence in response to the publication of cartoons depicting the …

Despite a grey beard and heavy cane making him look every bit his 74 years, Kurt Westergaard dresses like a teenager: bright red cargo pants strapped up by a studded black belt and red suspenders over a black top, capped by a flowing red scarf and black Stetson.

His duo-chromatic clothing is perhaps the least shocking part of his appearance, however.

As the Danish man who drew the notorious cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad with a lit bomb wrapped in his turban — considered the most inflammatory of 12 cartoons published four years ago this week that ignited a deadly furor — it is the absence of security and the carefree way he stands outside smoking that is most striking.

Beside him, a friend casually carries a large framed reproduction of the cartoon, as if to dispel any mystery about who the flamboyantly dressed man might be. “It is very relaxing,” Mr. Westergaard says about being in Canada for the first time as a spattering of raindrops, rather than concerns over security, drives him indoors. “At home I live under police surveillance, protected by the Danish secret service. We lived in 10 different safe houses and drove 10 different cars.

“I live in a house now which is really a fortress, with steel doors, a panic room, reinforced glass in the windows, surveillance cameras and so on.”

That is the life of a man under threat, with a lucrative bounty on his head. With his fear now transformed into anger, Mr. Westergaard has emerged from his protective cocoon.

Rather than work to mitigate the offence he and fellow Danish artists caused to some fundamentalist Muslims, however, he remains unrepentant and unabashed.

“I don’t regret anything,” he says. Continue Reading →

“It’s good to fight for Allah; it’s good to fight the West; kill the Jews”, says Nassur the bear

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From The National Post

Puppets preach hate on Hamas TV

Michael Higgins, National Post Published: Thursday, October 01, 2009

A screengrab shows a bear on a Hamas TV show, the bear calls for the slaughter of jews. Palestinian Media Watch A screengrab shows a bear on a Hamas TV show, the bear calls for the slaughter of jews.

A Palestinian children’s program is using a bear puppet that talks about “slaughtering” Jews, according to the Israeli watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch.

The character on Hamas TV is the latest in a series of puppets and cartoons used by the weekly show Tomorrow’s Pioneers to promote anti-Semitism and incite violence, said media watch director Itamar Marcus.

The show, which started in 2007, became popular in the Arab world when it began to feature a Mickey Mouse-type character, he said.

“This Mickey Mouse character was teaching killing and murder and slaughter and destruction of Jews. In fact, he was also teaching conquest of the West as well,” Mr. Marcus said.

When media watch, a pro-Israeli organization that monitors Palestinian media, highlighted the story the subsequent international attention led to the character being killed off.

“They had the Mickey Mouse character killed on TV. They had an Israeli kill him and he became a Shahid [martyr],” Mr. Marcus said.

He said since then there have been three more characters, Nahul the Bee (who also became a martyr) and a bunny character called Assud, who in the show was killed during the Gaza war.

“Every time Israel was responsible,” he said.

The latest character is a giant bear, Nassur.

Mr. Marcus said during the show, which also features a real presenter called Saraa, the bear uses two different words for “slaughter” to describe how to rid Israel of Jews.

During the show a child also phones in and talks about wanting to kill Jews for the death of his father.

The program was shown on Al-Aqsa TV, more commonly called Hamas TV, last week.

“All the adult messages of ‘It’s good to die for Allah; it’s good to fight the West; we are going to conquer the West; it’s important to kill the Jews,’ all these adult messages that often come through religious leaders and political leaders, the kids are getting through these cartoon and gigantic puppet characters,” Mr. Marcus said.

In recent years, Hamas has been using mass media to spread its message. In addition to a satellite TV channel, it owns a radio station and newspapers. A German-trained director also released a feature film produced by Hamas earlier this year; reports said he hoped to enter it in the Cannes Film Festival.

Tomorrow’s Pioneers has been widely criticized by media watchdog groups.

The TV station did not return calls for comment.

When the show launched, the station’s deputy manager told CNN that it was about Palestinian children.”They express their feeling regarding what they witness – if it’s occupation it’s about that, and about the prisoners and how to lead the world,” the deputy manager was quoted as saying.

Media watch was set up in 1996 to “gain an understanding of Palestinian society through the monitoring of the Palestinian Arabic language media and schoolbooks,” its website says.

National Post

International Blasphemy Day

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From The Telegraph U.K.

International Blasphemy Day: from Danish cartoons to Jerry Springer – The Opera

It’s International Blasphemy Day. We take a look at some of the key moments in the history of the profane.

By Tom Chivers
Published: 3:29PM BST 30 Sep 2009

Muslims protest in London against the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. International blasphemy day from Danish cartoons to Jerry Springer - The Opera

Muslims protest in London against the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed Photo: EPA

International Blasphemy Day, 30 September, is intended “to remind the world that religion should never again be beyond open and honest discussion”.

It marks the anniversary of the 2005 publication of the 12 Danish cartoons that depicted Mohammed and led to worldwide riots. Its founders want to “dismantle the wall which exists between religion and criticism”.

It has, of course, met with criticism – prominent US Catholic Bill Donohue accuses the movement of picking on Christianity: “The stated purpose of Blasphemy Day has nothing to do with any religion but Islam. So who have they chosen to mock? You guessed it – Christians.”

However, not all religious people take offence. “The Lord Jesus Christ was and is despised and rejected of men,” says Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are not commanded to defend his honor, but to be willing to share in the scorn directed to him.”

Here is a brief look at some of the recent history of blasphemy.

• Blasphemy in the UK
The last successful prosecution for blasphemy under British law was surprisingly recent – 1977.

The publisher of the magazine Gay News was given a suspended sentence when he printed a poem, The Love That Dares To Speak Its Name, telling the story of a gay Roman centurion’s love for Jesus.

The prosecution had been brought privately by the morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse.

• Jerry Springer – The Opera
In 2005, the BBC broadcast the musical Jerry Springer: The Opera on national television. In 2007, the campaign group Christian Voice tried to bring a prosecution under blasphemy laws, which outlaw anything which insults, offends or vilifies the Deity, Christ or the Christian religion.

Stephen Green, the director of Christian Voice, said: “Christ is shown apparently wearing a nappy, swearing, saying that he’s a ‘little bit gay’, while God is portrayed as an ineffectual old fool.”

The courts rejected the prosecution.

• UK blasphemy laws are lifted
After the failure of the Jerry Springer prosecution, the human rights organisation Liberty moved to have the laws changed, saying that they “should be shelved in dusty archives, not used as a tool to bring mischievous prosecutions against the arts.”

Within a year they had achieved their goal. MPs voted to abolish the laws in May 2008, after a campaign supported by the author Philip Pullman and the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.

Edward Leigh, a Conservative MP, said the move would encourage more people to make fun of Christianity. He said: “Getting rid of the blasphemy law sends a message that that is OK, but it is insulting to many Christians.”

In the United States, laws against blasphemy were declared unconstitutional in 1952, as the First Amendment of the Constitution demands the separation of church and state. Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wyoming and Pennsylvania have blasphemy laws on their statutes nevertheless, but no-one has ever been prosecuted under them.

• Irish blasphemy laws
As Britain has moved away from criminalising being rude to deities, across the Irish Sea the opposite has happened. In July 2009, the Dáil – the Irish Parliament – voted to make “publishing or uttering blasphemous material” a crime punishable with a fine of up to 25,000 euros.

Prof Dawkins described the move as “a wretched, backward, uncivilised regression to the middle ages,” while Father Ted creator Graham Linehan said that it might have made his sitcom illegal.

The Irish Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, said he was surprised at the “hysterical and incorrect reaction” to the proposals, adding that he believed one of his critics “to have a brain the size of a pea.”

• Mohammed the teddy bear
A British schoolteacher was arrested in Sudan and sentenced to 15 days in prison for insulting the Prophet, after letting her class of seven-year-olds name a teddy bear Mohammed.

Following an international outcry she was released after eight days, despite calls from some Islamic hardliners in the country for her to be publicly flogged or even put to death.

British Muslim peers Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi had flown to Sudan to negotiate her release.

• Muslims march over cartoons of the Prophet
The snowflake that started an avalanche. In September 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten performed an experiment testing “the limits of freedom of speech”. Its results were spectacular.

It printed 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. It is blasphemous in Islam to create images of the Prophet – especially when he appears to have a bomb in his turban.

Thousands of Muslims took to the streets around the world. Danish embassies were firebombed, and over 100 deaths were recorded worldwide (some caused when police opened fire on rioting crowds).

A photograph apparently showing a protestor holding a sign saying “Behead those who say Islam is violent” did the internet rounds for a while, but was eventually shown to be doctored.

International Blasphemy Day was founded in response to the outcry.

• Wafer kidnap angers Catholics
In July 2008, a student at a Florida university attended a Catholic Mass. Having received the Communion wafer, he didn’t swallow it, but instead tried to return to his seat to show it to a friend. He was then allegedly accosted by members of the congregation who tried physically to retrieve the Body of Christ.

The local priest described it as “kidnap”, and the abovementioned Bill Donohue called it “beyond hate speech”. The student received emails condemning him to hell, as well as threats to break into his dorm room to steal the cracker back. He then returned the wafer at the following mass, while armed university police officers stood guard.

Atheist blogger PZ Myers, in a post entitled ‘It’s a goddamned cracker!’, defended the student and asked his readers to get hold of a Communion wafer that he could hold hostage himself. He said that he received four death threats in response to the post, including one that “says I should be fired, that the author would like to kill me, and that I only criticize because Catholics are so gentle and kind.”

September 30 is International Free Press Day

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Four years ago on September 30, 2005,  Jyllands-Posten published twelve drawings of Islam’s prophet Muhammed. To demonstrate that prohibition of any depiction of the prophet, as stipulated by sharia law would not trump Denmark’s freedom of the press, twelve cartoonists had their entries published.

Here they are:

File:Jyllands-Posten-pg3-article-in-Sept-30-2005-edition-of-KulturWeekend-entitled-Muhammeds-ansigt.png
Size of this preview: 424 × 599 pixels

Muslims around the world rioted in response. At least one hundred deaths were reported. The Danish embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran were torched. European buildings were stormed and the Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, and German flags were desecrated in Gaza City. Mahmoud al-Zahar of Hamas issued death threats. Critics of the cartoons described them as Islamophobic and racist, arguing they were blasphemous to Muslims and a manifestation of western imperialism. In 2008, slightly after two years of the initial publication, the cartoons were re-published. More riots ensued, complete with shouts of ” death to the cartoonist!”.

Meanwhile, thousands of illustrations of Muhammed have appeared in books by and for Muslims.

mohammedteaches
Persian or central Asian illustration showing Muhammed teaching.

mohammedgabriel
mohammedatmedina
Fourteenth-century Persian miniature
showing the Angel Gabriel speaking
to Muhammed.
Muhammed at Medina, from an
Arab or central Asian medieval-era
manuscript.
mohammedinmosque babymohammed

The Prophet Muhammed in a Mosque. Turkish, 16th Century, painting on paper. The artist depicted Muhammed in very long sleeves so as to avoid showing his hands, though his neck and hints of his features are visible. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Newly born Muhammad in his mother’s arms being shown to his grandfather and citizens of Mecca. From Turkish book painting (date unknown). University of California, San Diego.

——–

James Cohen, vice president of the Canadian desk, IFPS writes thoughtfully and succinctly on the declaration of September 30 as International Free Press Day:

“To further advance the cause of freedom of the press, the International Free Press Society takes the occasion of this first International Free Press Day to salute Kurt Westergaard, and to call, once again, for the repeal all blasphemy and hate speech laws that currently inhibit and restrict vital exchange and debate”.




Sikh ‘reformed’ terrorist wants to practice law in Toronto

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From The Toronto Star

Forget the fact that Parminder Singh Saini entered Canada illegally with a fake name and a fake Afghan passport, remains a national security threat, hijacked an airplane, shot a flight engineer in the back, terrorized the crew and passengers for over twenty hours, threatened to blow the plane to smithereens, was a ‘disciple’ of Sikh militant (code for terrorist), Jarnail Singh Bhindanwale and has been ordered deported, Saini who claims he is reformed, wants to set up shop in Toronto and practice law.

Former terrorist wants to be lawyer

TARA WALTON/TORONTO STAR
Parminder Singh Saini, a convicted hijacker, says he is rehabilitated.
Sep 28, 2009 04:30 AM
John Goddard

Staff Reporter

A convicted terrorist is asking to practise law in Greater Toronto.

Parminder Singh Saini, 46, blames youth and naïveté for his role in a violent airline hijacking 25 years ago in his native India and says he is rehabilitated.

“I had no legitimate right to do that,” he told the Law Society of Upper Canada recently. “It’s not legal.”

He deserves a second chance, he and his advocates say.

“He served his time and was subsequently pardoned,” says York University political science professor Sandra Whitworth, who taught him in 2001.

“The evidence of his character in the last 25 years points toward a complete rehabilitation on his part,” his lawyer Frank Addario told the law society hearing.

But critics remain skeptical.

Aside from hijacking a plane and shooting at several of his 270-plus hostages, Saini lied his way into Canada, has never gained landed immigrant status, faces deportation and by ministerial order remains a national security threat. Continue Reading →

Violence erupts in Jerusalem….again

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From The National Post.

Palestinians warn Israel after Jerusalem clash

Reuters Published: Sunday, September 27, 2009

A masked Palestinian youth throws a glass bottle at Israeli policemen in Jerusalem's Old City following scuffles in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Sep. 27, 2009. Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images A masked Palestinian youth throws a glass bottle at Israeli policemen in Jerusalem’s Old City following scuffles in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Sep. 27, 2009.

JERUSALEM – Palestinian leaders warned Israel on Sunday not to stoke tension in Jerusalem in the hope of thwarting peace talks, after clashes at a sacred site in which Palestinians and Israeli police were injured.

“At a time when [U.S.] President [Barack] Obama is trying to bridge the divide between Palestinians and Israelis, and to get negotiations back on track, Israel is deliberately escalating tensions in Jerusalem,” chief peace negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

“We’ve seen this before, and we know what the consequences are,” the Palestinian minister added, in a statement that recalled the visit of then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to the site in Jerusalem’s Old City in 2000.

Sharon’s presence at al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, triggered the second Palestinian uprising and dealt the biggest setback to peace efforts in years.

The reasons behind Sunday’s clash were disputed.

According to legislator Hathem Abdel Kader and other Palestinian sources, the clash erupted in the early morning when Palestinians inside the complex — sacred to both Islam and Judaism — saw a group of 15 religious Jews trying to enter. Continue Reading →

Najibullah Zazi desperate for bomb mix, Canadian relatives claim arrest result of racism

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From The New York Post

Fiend put out SOS for bomb mix: feds

By KATI CORNELL and MURRAY WEISS in NY and KEITH COFFMAN in Aurora, Colo.

Last Updated: 9:08 AM, September 26, 2009

Posted: 5:26 AM, September 25, 2009

The Muslim fanatic charged with planning massive terror attacks on New York was frantically trying to get recipes for building a diabolical “weapon of mass destruction” in the days before his arrest, authorities claimed yesterday.

Najibullah Zazi, 24, began researching how to make bombs from household ingredients nearly a year ago — but sought “urgent” help in preparing the devices over the past two weeks, according to papers filed yesterday in Brooklyn federal court.

Zazi’s efforts grew increasingly frenzied in the days leading up to the anniversary of 9/11, the feds said.

EXPLOSIVE CHARGE: Queens imam Ahmad Wais Afzali, who allegedly tipped off bomb-plot suspect Najibullah Zazi, leaves Brooklyn federal court yesterday with wife Fatima after making bail.

Brian Branch Price
EXPLOSIVE CHARGE: Queens imam Ahmad Wais Afzali, who allegedly tipped off bomb-plot suspect Najibullah Zazi, leaves Brooklyn federal court yesterday with wife Fatima after making bail.

READ THE INDICTMENT AGAINST ZAZI

On Sept. 6 and 7, Zazi holed up in a hotel suite in his hometown of Aurora, Colo., and “attempted to communicate on multiple occasions with another individual — each communication more urgent in tone than the last — seeking to correct mixtures of ingredients to make explosives,” a frightening detention memo says.

“Zazi repeatedly emphasized . . . that he needed the answers right away.”

Court papers say little about where and when the alleged attacks were to occur, but counterterrorism officials fear Zazi planned to target passenger trains and stadiums.

READ THE MOTION TO DENY ZAZI BAIL

Residue from acetone, one of the three main components of the explosive he allegedly planned to detonate, was found in a vent above a stove in the hotel room, where authorities believe Zazi was creating a highly concentrated form of the material.

More than a year earlier, in August 2008, Zazi traveled to Pakistan, where he used three e-mail accounts to store jpeg images of “nine handwritten notes containing formulations and instructions regarding the manufacture and handling of different kinds of explosives,” court papers say.

The notes allegedly contain details for an explosive known as triacetone triperoxide — the same used in 2001 by airline shoe bomber Richard Reid and in 2005 by the London train bombers — made from hydrogen peroxide, acetone and hydrochloric acid.

Zazi, an airport shuttle driver who lived in Flushing, Queens, before his overseas trip, flew back to New York in January 2009 and moved to Aurora, where he allegedly continued trolling the Internet for bomb-making information.

Over the summer, he and at least three unidentified cohorts bought “unusually large quantities” of the explosive ingredients from beauty-supply stores in the Denver area, the papers say.

According to one law-enforcement official, Zazi’s associates traveled to Colorado specifically to help him stockpile the materials, bought with stolen credit cards.

Zazi also searched the Internet for home-improvement stores in Queens — presumably as a source for additional bomb-making materials, the feds said — before renting a car Sept. 8 and driving to New York.

But he’d been under surveillance and agents were right behind him. They stopped him on the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 10.

Still under surveillance, he was allowed to return to Colorado, where he was formally arrested in Aurora on Sept. 19.

Prosecutors in Colorado yesterday dismissed relatively minor charges that Zazi lied to the feds — so he could be brought to New York to face charges of “conspiracy to use one or more weapons of mass destruction.”

His father, Mohammed Zazi, 53, also charged with lying, but not in the alleged bomb plot, was released to an undisclosed location and will have to wear a monitoring device. Sources said he’d gotten threats and didn’t want to return to his apartment.

Also yesterday, Ahmad Wais Afzali, one of several Queens residents whose homes was raided after Zazi’s arrest, was in Brooklyn federal court and released on $1.5 million bail on a charge of lying to investigators. He, too, has to wear a monitoring device.

Police suspect Afzali, a Muslim cleric and sometime informant for the NYPD, tipped Zazi that he was being watched. “I never did, never will, and would never do it,” he said outside his home.

He admitted only that, in his role as an imam, he knew Zazi when the alleged terrorist was 14.

Zazi has denied any involvement in terrorist activities.

Meanwhile, as The Post reported Sunday, a senior NYPD commander in the terror probe, Inspector Paul Ciorra, has been transferred amid questions about the handling of Afzali. The imam telephoned Zazi after detectives from Ciorra’s division started asking questions about him around Queens earlier this month.

A source told The Associated Press he’ll head the Highway Patrol.

Additional reporting by Austin Fenner and Julia Dahl, with AP

—————

Meanwhile in Canada, Zazi’s angry relatives claim his arrest is the result of nothing more than racism because he is Afghan and a Muslim…….

From The Calgary Herald.


How not to offend 101; a London Metro police PC handbook

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From The Telegraph U.K.

How not to offend religious minorities – by the Metropolitan Police

London’s Metropolitan Police force has developed a 100,000-word internal ‘handbook’ on different religions, sexual orientations, politically correct terms and youth culture.

By Ian Johnston
Published: 9:25PM BST 26 Sep 2009

The ‘Policing Diversity Online Intranet Resource’, which has been revealed for the first time following a Freedom of Information request, explains how “over the past 10 years, teenagers have developed almost a language of their own”.

Officers annoyed after being called “prity sik” by a gang member are able to learn it is actually a compliment meaning “great”, while anyone basking in the glow of apparent praise that they are “phat phree” can discover it means they are “uncool”.

However other terms suggest some members of the Met may be slightly behind the times if they need to refer to the explanations of commonly used terms such as “whatever”, “butt out” and “bling”. Continue Reading →

Jummah ‘prayer’ on Capitol Hill-a day of Islamic unity

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IslamonCapitolHill

Poster promoting Jummah prayer on Capitol Hill for September 25, 2009.

“Our Time Has Come!”

The worshipers were invited to come to pray on Capitol Hill 50,000 strong. 90% didn’t show up. Prior to the event, organizer and president Hassen Abdellah of Dar-ul-Islam of Elizabeth touted, “This is not a protest. Never has the Islamic community prayed on Capitol Hill for the soul of America. We’re Americans. We need to change the face of Islam so people don’t feel every Muslim believes America is the great Satan, because we love America.

The soul of America? We love America?

Really Mr. Abdellah? Then explain this:

Muslim white house

Islamoncapitolhill, a site set up to promote the event, charges, “In the name of Allah. The objective of this gathering is to invite the Muslim communities and friends of Islam to express and illustrate the wonderful diversity of Islam. We intend to manifest Islam’s majestic, spiritual principles as revealed by Allah to our beloved prophet, Muhammed in Arabia. Likewise; we intend to inspire a new generation of Muslims to work for the greater good of all people. We shall serve all people, regardless of race, religion or national origin”.

Included on their site is a woman fully decked out in burqa attire. I wonder if the muslimah will have to pray separately in the backyard of Capitol Hill?

Anyone who even has a basic understanding of the Islamist mindset knows full well this objective is a lie, especially given the sentiment of the invited speakers at the event, Sheik Muhammed Jebril and Sheik Ahmed Dewidar (two Egyptians, home based to the Muslim Brotherhood). Atlas Shrugs gives an excellent and thorough analysis of these two ‘bridge builders’. For starters, Jebril attained a degree in sharia law from Al-Azhar University and was named Imam of the extremist mosque Amr Ibn Al’Ass in Cairo in 1988. He is also a university professor in Jordan.

Sheik Dewidar claims that American society is controlled by the Jews, has hinted that the 9/11 attack was an American conspiracy and believes the American media/press is under Zionist control which spreads a negative perception of Islam. (Who needs the western press to give Islam a bad name; Muslims are quite capable of doing this themselves on a daily basis).

And what of event organizer Dar-ul-Islam president Hassen Abdellah? Well, he is also president of The Muslim Brothers Inc., and as an attorney, defended Mahmoud Abonhalima who was charged with the bombing of the World Trade Center-he also defended Faruq Brent who plead guilty to providing material support for Lashkar-e-Taiba. Abdella is quoted to say:

“We are going to the White House , so that Islam will be victorious, Allah willing, and the White House will turn into the Muslim House”.

It’s hard to say why only 5,000 of the faithful showed as opposed to the predicted 50,000 (although some reports indicate as few as 1,000). Regardless, does the United States really want Islamists ‘praying’ on Capitol Hill spurred on by Jew-haters, sharia advocates and terror sympathizers in the very same place Presidents have been inaugurated, or for that matter any place at all?

Islam on Capitol Hill portends: ” The peace, beauty and solidarity of Islam will shine through America’s capital”.

Here’s how Islam’s peace, beauty and solidarity shines throughout the world:

Gaza: Children’s programme incites anti-Jew hatred, violence.

Sydney: Do it yourself terrorist handbook, Provisions of the Rules of Jihad: a Practical Guide to Achieving Martyrdom editor busted;

Converts to Christianity prevented from leaving Egypt;

Brussels: Woman murdered for not wearing veil;

Egypt: Muslim beheads Christian in Egypt;

Milan: Muslim attacks Italian politician for burqa stance;

Turkey: Christian tombs desecrated.

Kenya: Muslims kill Christian for carrying Bibles.

Peace, Beauty, Solidarity. Majestic, spiritual, inspirational.

When faith becomes a club

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It has become all the rage for Muslims in the peddling sharia business to initiate soft jihad in the workplace. Take the recent case of a Muslim teen who launched a law suit against clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch for discriminatory employment practices. Told that her hijab was inconsistent with the clothiers ‘look policy’, the young woman initiated court action via the US District Court, where the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission picked up the ball on her behalf. Not only did the EEOC pursue monetary damages, but they also sought non-monetary ones for such things as emotional pain, suffering, anxiety, loss of employment, humiliation and inconvenience.

Instances such as these are increasing.

Imagine you own and operate an upbeat, modern hair salon in London. A young woman looking for work as a hair stylist comes to you in hijab. You convey to her that you need stylists to sport alternative, funky hair styles which would reflect the shops’ image. How is that possible you wonder if her hair is covered? She sues. You pay. London salon owner Sarah Desrosiers found herself in this exact circumstance.

Muslim woman refused job as a hairdresser because she wears a headscarf wins £4,000 payout

From The Daily Mail U.K.

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:38 PM on 30th June 2008

Bushra NoahBushra Noah has been awarded £4,000

A Muslim woman has been awarded £4,000 for “injury to feelings” after a hair salon owner refused to employ her because she wears a headscarf.

Bushra Noah accused , owner of a trendy central hair salon, of religious discrimination after she failed to offer her a job in May last year.

A panel sitting at the central London employment tribunal dismissed her claim of direct discrimination but upheld her complaint of indirect discrimination.

Mrs Noah, of Acton, west London, applied for a job as a junior assistant at the Wedge salon in King’s Cross.

Giving its judgment, the tribunal said it accepted that Ms Desrosiers said that Mrs Noah lived too far away but was persuaded to give her an interview.

But when the 19-year-old applicant arrived at the salon she claimed that the Canadian salon owner was clearly shocked by the fact she wore a headscarf.

Ms Desrosiers told the tribunal she was surprised that the younger woman had not mentioned it earlier.

She said she needed stylists to reflect the “funky, urban” image of her salon and showcase alternative hairstyles.

If an applicant had a conventional hairstyle she would insist that it was re-styled in a more “alternative” way, she said.

After a 15-minute meeting she and Mrs Noah parted and both parties told the tribunal it was obvious that the 19-year-old would not be offered the job.

The panel refused an application by Mrs Noah for aggravated damages and rejected her claims that the episode had put her off hairdressing, finding that she applied for further salon jobs before deciding to retrain in tourism.

Sarah DesrosiersSarah Desrosiers said she needed stylists to showcase alternative hairstyles

But they did find that she had been badly upset by the 15-minute interview and awarded Mrs Noah £4,000 damages for “injury to feelings”.

In their judgment, the panel stated: “We were satisfied by the respondent’s evidence that the claimant was not treated less favourably than the respondent would have treated a woman who, whether Muslim or not, for a reason other than religious belief wears a hair covering at all times when at work.”

But they also concluded: “There was no specific evidence before us as to what would (for sure) have been the actual impact of the claimant working in her salon with her head covered at all times.

“We concluded that, on a critical and balanced assessment, the degree of risk, while real, should not be assumed to be as great at the respondent believed.”

Ms Desrosiers, 32, said: “I feel it is a bit steep for what actually happened. It’s really scary for a small business.

“I never in a million years dreamt that somebody would be completely against the display of hair and be in this industry. I don’t feel I deserve it.”

She said she still had not appointed someone to the job and had decided to “leave it for a while”.

Mrs Noah’s legal representatives were not available for comment.

———-

The strategy is clear. Purposely apply for employment with a retailer, firm, restaurant, transport, etc. deliberately knowing the work standards, policy will conflict with Islamic religious/cultural beliefs. When employed or in some instances, upon interview, issue demands that the business accommodate Islam. When denied, launch a complaint with a human rights commission or file a legal suit against the employer citing religious discrimination. This demonstrates an intention, not to comply with the standards set for all employees but an attempt to change the institutions’ standards and work policy from within, to conform to Islam. The nature of the business itself will be ultimately changed by the force of  mistaken notions of reasonable accommodation, while forcing western institutions, to submit to the most abstract and arcane aspects of sharia law.

Take for example the case of supermarket employees who refuse to handle alcohol and have been awarded the right to ask a colleague to do it for them, or taxi drivers who refused to transport blind passengers with seeing-eye dogs or those with alcohol. Or, the instance of female Muslim employees refusing to comply with safety standards while loading cartons in a UPS warehouse, or that of a Muslim chef  who sued the Met when asked to cook pork. It’s becoming much trickier for employers leading financial institutions as well.

Indeed, when faith becomes a club.

Grace and Eeyore for Vlad.