Culture clash in France

The conflict in France between Islam and secularism has so far centered around the hijab, the headscarf that Muslim women and girls wear.

It has become symbolic of a larger challenge to France's secular society: "A French school yesterday expelled a 12-year-old girl who refused to remove her headscarf in class, a family acquaintance said. The girl of Moroccan origin was the latest pupil caught in a wide-ranging debate in France over the nation’s separation of state and church and rules that forbid 'ostentatious' symbols of religion in public schools." This from AP.
"Thomas Milcent, a convert to Islam who has been advising the girl’s parents, said a disciplinary commission at the Charles-Walch school in Thann, in eastern France’s Upper Rhine region, expelled her for 'aggravated proselytizing and disturbing public order.'
"The girl, who had been suspended from classes since Oct. 13, and her parents were informed of the decision at a disciplinary hearing, Milcent told journalists. The clash between the girl’s family and the school again highlighted a long-running row in France over Islamic headscarves in schools.
"School authorities refused to comment. The school’s regulations forbid pupils from wearing headgear, including berets and caps. Several girls have been expelled from public schools this year for wearing the scarves.
"Politicians are divided on whether France needs a law to enforce bans on wearing headscarves in schools and public offices.
"Some proponents argue that Islamic fundamentalists are encouraging women and girls to wear headscarves, chipping away at France’s secular foundations. But opponents fear a law would marginalize France’s estimated 5 million Muslims, the largest Muslim community in Western Europe.
"A panel studying the issue, set up by President Jacques Chirac, is to report its findings by the end of the year. Chirac’s party, the Union for a Popular Movement, is expected to make public on Friday its official position on whether a new law is needed to regulate headscarves.
"In October, two sisters at a Paris high school were suspended for refusing to remove their scarves. The girls’ father, a Jewish human rights lawyer married to a non-practicing Muslim, has been fighting that decision with the help of an anti-racist organization. While virtually all politicians have declared themselves in favor of upholding the country’s secular tradition in state institutions, they are split over whether a law should be imposed which expressly bans headscarves and other religious wear, such as Jewish skull caps or Christian crosses.
"Last month, Chirac hinted strongly that he supported a ban on headscarves when he told an audience in the northern town of Valenciennes that secularism was 'not negotiable.'"

Media dhimmitude re AMECA protest
The Chicago Tribune carries a story today on the demonstration by the American Middle East Christian Association (AMECA) against the Ramadan assignment given in a California public school. You may have read about it here last Tuesday. The Trib story is a classic media treatment. Although it says that "a 7th-grade world history teacher in California outraged Christian groups by offering extra credit to students who fasted in the tradition of Ramadan to learn about Islam," it never gives the name of any of thoseb groups.
Instead, it mentions only "evangelical radio show host Bob Morey of KPLS-AM," who responded to parents' complaints by helping to "organize a rally last week that drew several hundred people." In other words, there was no mention of AMECA, with its significant contingent of Egyptian Coptic Christians. That might have aroused sympathy for the demonstrators. Instead, they name just one man from that perennial media bogey, the evangelicals.
Also, imagine you are reporter David Pierson, and you have this quote from Morey: "What would Muslim parents feel if their students came home with a letter from their public school teacher [saying] that next Thursday they're bringing in a priest to baptize all the Muslim children?" And you also have this quote from a student: "Eighth-grader Nicole DeWitt said: 'I think it was stupid that they were protesting. They're just trying to make kids understand other religions. They teach us about everybody.'" As the reporter you can put these quotes and your other material in any order you choose. By placing Nicole's quote as the last element in the article, you give her the last word. (That is in fact how the article ends.) Imagine how different the effect of the article would be if Morey's quote had been at the end.
Pierson also provides a platform for Sabiha Khan, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who said: "It goes to show how irrational some people's fears are and how deep ignorance of Islam is." Of Morey, Khan says: "He's part of the new `bash Islam' industry." Then comes the inflammatory statement: "Morey has said that the more than 6 million Muslims who live in the U.S. should be registered." But Morey is given no chance to defend himself against Khan's charges, and no mention, of course, is made of CAIR's own shadowy ties to Islamic extremism.

November 29, 2003
Dhimmitude in Pakistan: Police arrests Christian for "blasphemy," lets attackers go
Pakistan's Daily Times reports: "Shadhra Town police arrested a Christian labourer Anwar Masih for blasphemy on Friday, after a case was registered by his acquaintance Naseer Ahmad, who converted to Islam about three months ago. While registering the case against Mr Masih, the police ignored the fact that his accuser gathered other people and attacked his house. Zulfiqar Ahmad, police sub-inspector (SI) and investigating officer (IO) in the case, told Daily Times that he arrested Anwar Masih on Friday evening. The complainant Naseer, who lived in Paracha Colony in Shahdara, was visiting his mother at her Paracha Colony home on Friday when Mr Masih, Naseer’s mother’s neighbour, stopped him in the street and began discussing Islam. During the discussion, the sub-inspector said, Mr Masih got angry and blasphemed. Naseer related the discussion to two other neighbours of his mother, Attaullah and Younas Salfi. The three subsequently gathered other locals and pelted stones at Mr Masih’s house, on which police reached the scene and taking no notice of the attack on his home, arrested Mr Masih."
It is good to see this kind of report in the Daily Times. Most of the time Islamic media sources never acknowledge that this kind of thing can ever happen.

Indonesia: The politics of religious pluralism
Muhamad Ali, a lecturer at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) in Jakarta, writes on religious freedom in Indonesia in the Jakarta Post: "Religion has become part of not only private but also public life in Indonesia as elsewhere. The question about how the state should deal with religious pluralism remains unresolved and therefore needs to be rethought.
"The Indonesian Constitution clearly states that every person has the right to worship according to his or her own religion and beliefs. The government has so far given official recognition in the form of representation at the Ministry of Religion to five major religions and indigenous beliefs (aliran kepercayaan). In January 2000, the ban on the practice of Confucism that had existed since 1967 was lifted. While only five religions are officially recognized, the law also states that other religions are not forbidden.
"However, there are still some restrictions on certain types of religious activity and civil administration that are felt by Confucians and the adherents of other minority religions.
"For example, many Confucians still have difficulties with civil registration. The National Identity Card (KTP) should state the religion of the holder. Confucians have not been legally allowed to state their religion on their identity card. Accordingly, Confucians are precluded from renting venues to hold services.
"Because they cannot register they are forced to find alternative means to practice their faith, to be hypocritical by stating an official religion other than their own -- for example, by identifying themselves as Buddhists -- or run the risk of not being issued with an identity card. The failure to state a religion would mean being refused an ID card, something that is required for employment and other purposes.
"Some groups have urged the government to abolish the need to state one's religion on one's ID card. However, little if any progress has been made. Activists have noted bureaucratic resistance to change and say that the Muslim majority see no need to remove the requirement. They say that stating a person's religion on his ID card is necessary so that if he dies and his body is not claimed by relatives, the authorities will be able to ensure appropriate treatment for the remains.
"Such resistance shows a lack of understanding about the principle of equal citizenship.
"Certain policies, laws and official actions restrict religious freedom, and the police and military occasionally tolerate discrimination against and abuse of religious groups by private organizations. Although the Constitution does not discriminate, there is de facto discrimination that limits the access of minorities to government jobs and places in public universities.
"Although the adherents of minority religions are able to obtain police permits to hold meetings in hotels and other public places, there are still some difficulties registering marriages, enrolling children in schools and concerning other civil matters in some areas. They are unable to register their marriages at the Civil Registration Office because they do not belong to one of the five recognized religions. Also it is difficult to obtain official recognition for interfaith marriages between Muslims and non-Muslims. These difficulties result in some persons converting, often superficially, in order to get married and some others going abroad to get married.
"Some leaders of religious minorities have also expressed concerns that the onset of decentralization and enhanced regional autonomy in the country, which is designed to empower provincial and district governments, might result in the issuance of regulations by local officials that could erode the rights of minorities to practice their religions. This worry has become more pronounced in some areas where Islamic Law is being or is to be applied. The implementation of Islamic Law is rejected by minorities as it will undermine religious tolerance and pluralism.
"The state should serve as an agent of religious pluralism in that it should pursue the politics of recognition. All men and women should have equal religious and civil rights -- private rights and public rights. No religion should be excluded from state recognition. Everyone should be recognized because everyone is authentic, unique, and equal.
"The government should be aware that they have mistakenly left minorities unrecognized or misrecognized. A person or a group could suffer real damage and real distortion as a result. Nonrecognition or misrecognition can inflict harm, can be a form of oppression, imprisoning someone in a false, distorted and reduced mode of being.
"Misrecognition shows not just a lack of due respect. It can inflict a grievous wound, saddling its victims with a crippling self-hatred. Due recognition is not just a courtesy we owe people. It is a vital human need. As the philosopher Rousseau put it 'le sentiment de l'existence' should be respected.
"Every one shares the dignity inherent in human beings, or the dignity of the citizen. Universalism emphasizes the equal dignity of all citizens, and the state should be concerned about the equalization of rights and entitlements. The state should avoid the existence of 'first-class' and 'second-class' citizens.
"For some, equalization affects concerns religious rights; for others, it concerns civil rights and voting rights, and even the socio-economic sphere. But despite all the differences of interpretation, the principle of equal citizenship has come to be universally accepted and any violation of this principle constitutes a violation against human dignity.
"The politics of equal dignity should be tied to the politics of recognition. With the politics of recognition, everyone should be recognized for his or her unique identity. With the politics of equal dignity, what is established is meant to be universally the same, an identical basket of rights and entitlements. Both politics are manifestations of the principle of equal citizenship.
"The government should ensure that all laws and regulations are in accordance with the principle of religious freedom, increase religious harmony and interfaith dialogue, encourage comparative religious education and increase the role and function of religious institutions in overcoming the difficulties of social change, and strengthen interreligious and interethnic harmony." (Thanks to Nancy Block.)

Dhimmitude at the University of Toronto
"The University of Toronto is allowing a pro-Palestinian conference to proceed this weekend after student organizers agreed participants do not have to agree with a mandatory list of beliefs such as the rejection of the right of Israel to exist and a refusal to condemn Palestinian suicide attacks."
So much for hopes of a negotiated settlement.
So says the National Post. Thanks to Steve, who sent me an email message he received from conference organizers, the Al-Awda student group. It informed prospective conference-goers that "there is a political basis of unity for the conference which serve as political principles which all participants at the conference must respect in order to attend.
"The Basis of Unity is as follows:
1. We support the Palestinian right of return. It is non-negotiable.
2. It is becoming increasing clear that a two state solution is not a viable or acceptable option for the Palestinian people.
3. Israel is a racist apartheid state.
4. Our activism is imbued with an anti-colonial feminist practice.
5. We support the right of the Palestinian people to resist Israeli and colonialism by the means of their choosing. [I.e., suicide bombing]
6. Actions that we organize out of this conference will be developed under the framework of respecting a diversity of tactics."
The Post says that "university officials called off the Toronto Palestinian Solidarity Conference a week ago after learning conference participants were required to sign a six-point Basis of Unity, also stating Israel is a racist apartheid state and calling for a non-negotiable acceptance of the Palestinian right of return.
"The university said the statements fall within the boundaries of free speech, but the Al-Awda student group contravened university policy protecting dissenting opinions by forcing conference participants to agree with its views.
"The clash led to a week of campus protests that saw one student arrested and a student newspaper closed.
"'It's scary,' said Ashleigh Morton, president of the University of Toronto Students' Administrative Council. The engineering student has spent much of this week mediating arguments between Jewish and Arab students.
"'I am hoping everything will calm down. Students are capable of expressing strong opinions without resorting to violence.'
"Conference participants will still have to sign a copy of the Basis of Unity, but do not have to agree with the statements. The advisory, 'Please be advised that the organizers of this conference subscribe to these principles and the event has been planned in the manner that subscribes to these principles,' will appear next to the statement.
"Hazem Jamjoum, a 22-year-old University of Toronto student and member of the Arab Students' Collective, is expecting Jewish protesters to attend the conference and is concerned for the safety of Arab students.
"'People are going to come solely to provoke,' he said.
"A spokeswoman for the Jewish student group Hillel said she had no plans to attend the weekend conference at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. 'I respect their right to freedom of speech,' said Johanna Herman, a fourth-year art history student.
"Another Jewish student, Ben Bach, who is on the university's student council, said he respects the Al-Awda group's right to freedom of speech but is concerned about increasing anti-Israel propaganda on campus.
"He is considering filing a human rights complaint against the Mississauga branch of the Students' Administrative Council for posting a cartoon on its office wall depicting an Israeli soldier, with a grotesquely large nose, holding a smoking rifle and standing on top of a dead Palestinian man, talking to George W. Bush. Dollar bills and coins bulge out of his pockets."
And this in Canada, where even your tone of voice can get you in hot water if you dare to speak about radical Islam.

Christian fish, Muslim sharks
Islamic law views Christians and Jews as renegades, guilty people (dhimmis) by virtue of their rejection of the Prophet Muhammad, and subject to numerous statutes that enforce their humiliation and subjugation.
Muslims therefore traditionally have not regarded Christians as equals, but as inferiors. If there were ever evidence of this, it is in the new bumper sticker war in Egypt.
Remember when atheists began responding to the Christian fish symbol in the U.S. by printing up stickers depicting a fish with legs, labeled "Darwin"? The message was, "We have moved beyond all that religious superstition." Not a Christian-friendly message, but not a particularly threatening one, either. Contrast that to the Islamic response to the same fish stickers in Egypt: they have created a Muslim shark.
"War of Stickers: Christian Fish, Muslim Shark," by Maggie Michael for AP:
First came the fish bumper stickers, imported from the United States and pasted on cars by members of Egypt's Coptic minority as a symbol of their Christianity. Before long, some Muslims responded with their own bumper stickers: fish-hungry sharks.
It's not exactly war at sea, but the competing symbols that have cropped up on Cairo streets are a tiny reminder of the tensions between Egypt's Copts and majority Muslims. Some Christians are annoyed at the Muslim response.
"All I wanted to say is that I am a Christian, kind of expressing my Coptic identity," said 25-year-old Miriam Greiss, who has a fish sticker on her car. "I think choosing a shark doesn't make sense, as if someone is saying, 'I am a violent, bloody creature, look at me.'"
Emad, a Muslim, laughed when asked about the competing symbols but was unapologetic about the two shark stickers on his car.
"The Christians had the fish so we responded with the shark. If they want to portray themselves as weak fishes, OK. We are the strongest," said Emad, who would give only his first name. . . .
Relations are generally calm between Copts, an estimated 10 percent of Egypt's more than 70 million people, and the Muslims who make up virtually all the rest. But tensions do occasionally erupt into violence, and Copts complain of job discrimination and being shut out of a share of political power.
The complaints, though, are spoken softly. Copts -- who trace their history to St. Mark's bringing Christianity to Egypt soon after the death of Christ -- didn't survive Roman persecution and Arab conquest by being overly assertive.
That is the iron law of how to survive as a dhimmi: shut up and take it.
Copts often wear gold cross pendants or have tiny crosses tattooed on the inside of their wrists, but the stickers seem a more public step. Karl Innemee, a specialist in Coptic studies at the American University in Cairo, said the arrival of the fish could reflect a new desire by Egyptian Christians "to express themselves openly."
Still, the Coptic businessman who began importing the fish stickers two years ago refused to give his name when contacted by The Associated Press at the Maria Group -- the company name on the stickers. He said discussing religion could be asking for trouble.
The fish stickers are sold in churches or Christian bookstores for about 8 cents. The Maria Group owner said sales of the fish, which come plain or with the word "Jesus" inside, have picked up in recent months -- soon after the shark stickers first appeared in August.
Muslims apparently copied or adopted the symbol of an Egyptian sporting goods company to create their shark symbol. The stickers are sold in Islamic bookshops and also come plain or fancy -- some with the Arabic phrase "No god but Allah" printed in the shark's body.

November 28, 2003
Nigeria: convert attacked for refusing to renounce Christianity
"A Muslim convert to Christianity narrowly escaped death when he was attacked by a Muslim fanatic on September 15 in the city of Jos, central Nigeria."
The "fanatic" no doubt believed in this statement of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Sahih Bukhari, volume 9, book 84, no. 57).
"'It was around 5 p.m. on Monday in my store,' Mr. Lucky Kadri told Compass from his hospital bed, where he is recovering from injuries. 'I decided to pack up my things because it was already getting late. As I bent down, I felt a blow on my head and I fell down. My assailant was tearing at my stomach with a sharp object. Before I knew it, I saw my intestines spilling out.' Police arrested Kadri’s assailant. 'I have not seen him before, but I have been told that he confessed that he was sent to kill me because I left Islam to become a Christian,' he told Compass. A Christian since 1984, Kadri said Muslim leaders regularly visited his shop to convince him to renounce Christianity and return to Islam. He believes his refusal to recant provoked the attack."
Terror suspect hoped to become a "priest"
"Suspected al Qaida operative Sajid Badat was described today as a bright, well– educated man from a deeply religious family." So says The Scotsman.
He was, of course, "quiet" (has any suspect in a newspaper report ever not been quiet?): "Neighbours said the 24-year-old, arrested yesterday under the Terrorism Act, was softly spoken and respectful, while his former headteacher said he was a quiet teenager who took his religious beliefs seriously."
Indeed, he seems to have taken some parts of the Qur'an, such as the Verse of the Sword ("slay the unbelievers wherever you find them" Sura 9:5) so beloved of Osama bin Laden, altogether too seriously
But this article, which is otherwise a perfectly ordinary news article, does a strange thing: twice it says that Badat was studying to be a "priest":
"Born in Gloucester to a strict Muslim family who moved to England from Malawi, he is said to have been an active member of his community and had hopes of becoming a Islamic priest, according to reports."
And again: "Locals have spoken of how the devout Islamic scholar and teacher had recently returned home after spending five years in Pakistan to train to become a priest."
Maybe the locals did use the word, but in fact there is no priesthood in Islam. Badat "recently led prayer sessions during the month of Ramadan," which makes him an imam. Isn't the word "priest" is much more commonly associated with Christianity (at least Catholicism and Orthodoxy) than it is with Islam? Why call this guy a "priest" twice in the space of a few paragraphs?
I am not saying that there was necessarily any malicious intent here, but to use this word is a curious species of carelessness. It implies (particularly in versions of this story where "priest" was in the headline, all of which seem to have suddenly vanished) that Badat was associated with groups that in reality he would have had nothing to do with. Maybe it's nothing, but remember: journalists choose their words (and pictures) very, very carefully, in order to try to create certain opinions in the reader.

November 27, 2003
Dhimmitude in Iraq: Iraqis wrestle with Jewish factor
"When Imam Mahdi al-Jumeili of the small Hudheifa mosque in Baghdad's Shurti neighborhood met three American officers to resolve a dispute over soldiers entering the grounds of his mosque, his first question to them was 'are any of you Jews'? When he was satisfied that none were, he allowed the meeting to proceed. Prior to the arrival of the Americans, he made his prejudices about them clear: 'We are sure they came here to steal the country and protect Israel,' he said, adding that 'Judaism and Masonism are at war with Islam'."
This insight into radical Muslim hatred of Jews, and anti-Semitic paranoia, in Iraq comes from Asia Times, with thanks to Ruth S. King.
"These views are common in Iraq, where references to 'al-Yahud', or 'the Jews', are made everywhere and they demonstrate the degree to which the outside world is misunderstood and feared by Iraqis whose views were shaped by years of authoritarianism, control and fear, with little access to information not dictated by Ba'athist or religious sources.
"And the prejudices appear to still flourish. For a journalist, not a day goes by without mention of Jews and Israel. Even taxi drivers talk about the Jews when they grumble about the occupation. 'We are Muslims!' one declared proudly during an evening ride to a hotel, 'and Jews come to our land?' When asked who he was referring to, he said, 'They are all Jews. The Americans are all Jews and mercenaries. We know their religion.' When asked if he wanted a Sunni or Shi'ite leader in Iraq, this driver said. 'We are all Muslims, it makes no difference. Only the Jews want to separate Sunnis and Shi'ites, they are non-believers.'
"Another taxi driver explained that 'America and the Jews are one. We know this from their interests, their relationships and America's defense of the Jews. They don't give rights to Arabs, only Jews. America and Jews are the same because they have the same goals and the same faith.' A third taxi driver explained that the Jordanian embassy was bombed because Jordan was organizing the migration of Jews into Iraq.
"In the market of Abu Ghraib, a town west of Baghdad, when asked about the Americans, one angry man replied: 'Saddam was better. At least he was a Muslim. Isn't that better than Jews?' When pressed on the issue, he explained that 'the Americans are Jews, their work is Jewish. Nobody accepts them'. The prayer leader of Abu Ghraib's local mosque agreed. 'They are all Jews and Christians, these occupiers,' he said.
"Signs on the walls of the Abu Hanifa mosque warn Iraqis that Jews have come to the Ekal Hotel and they plan to purchase land, just as they did in Palestine, to drive Iraqis out of their country. 'Do not stab your fellow Iraqis in the heart' by selling land to the Jews, exhorts the sign. A visit to the Ekal Hotel proves that it is closed for renovations and has no guests. The same signs warning of Jewish real estate agents invading Iraq are distributed by university students.
"On the walls of the mosque in Maalef, a Shi'ite slum in Baghdad, large spray-painted graffiti says, 'Kill the Jews'. In Baghdad's Mansour district, at the Rahman mosque, faithful Shi'ites heard Sheikh Ali al-Ibrahimi condemn a recent decision by the Iraqi Governing Council to permit certain non-Iraqi citizens to obtain Iraqi citizenship. Ibrahimi warned that 'if Jews reside in Iraq then they will become Iraqi citizens and they will own Iraq and we will be their guests'. He explained that the founders of the US initially feared letting the 'owners of money' enter the country, but that 'this happened when the Jews came. The Americans and others became their guests'.
"In the large slums of Sadr City, Seyid Hasan Naji al-Musawi, the leader of the Muhsin mosque in this Shi'ite neighborhood declared that the Mahdi, Islam's version of the Messiah, 'will be coming soon and when he comes he will kill the Jewish leadership', which he equated with the Americans, adding that Julius Caesar was Jewish, and the Jews were the Romans. Al-Musawi quoted a verse from the Koran prognosticating the eventual defeat of the Jews."
A verse from the Qur'an! That book of peace prophecies the eventual defeat of the Jews?
"A common belief in Iraq and the Arab world in general is that when held to a mirror and reversed, the Coca-Cola logo says 'No Mecca No Mohammed'. This is attributed to the alleged Jewish ownership of Coca-Cola. It is said that all night long trucks smuggle Iraqi oil through Jordan into Israel. And the rumors continue ad nauseam. The fact that the Old Testament contains references to Jewish hegemony over the lands between the Nile and the Euphrates does little to ease concerns.
"Works purporting to be scholarly are available in every book market, elaborating on themes of the Jewish threat. The ubiquitous Protocols of the Elders of Zion detailing a Jewish plot to rule the world, long proven in the West to be a fabrication written at the behest of a Russian czar, is sold in Arabic. Volume one and volume two. Another book called The Crimes of the Jews is on display on Baghdad streets alongside a book about Drugs and the Sons of the Devil. On further reading, the book reveals that the Jews are the 'sons of the devil' the title refers to. A book in Kurdish is also available, its cover bearing a Star of David, and inside it a monster with blood dripping down its fangs. The book is called In the Jaws of the Jews.
"The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a member of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, sells a book called Jewish Nights, refuting various Jewish claims about their history, and in Najaf, the office of the cleric Seyid Muqtada Sadr sells a book called Ali and the Jews,detailing Ali's conversion of Jews to Islam.
"Iraqis are clearly very concerned about Jews. Islam is traditionally ambivalent to the Jews, condemning them often in the Koran but mandating a modus vivendi with them at the same time, relegating them to an inferior and protected status called dhimi. Hostility between different religions is a normal phenomenon, resulting from their competition for the same market of believers and their inherent belief that their religion purveys the truth and therefore the others are necessarily false.
This article then goes into some needless and irrelevent disparagement of Christianity, never mentioning the repudiations of anti-Semitism by the Pope and other Christian leaders, and suggesting, against all the evidence presented above in the same article, that Islam is more hospitable than Christianity toward Jews: "As the oldest of the three monotheisms, Judaism was viewed with derision by the other two for its rejection of their newer prophets. In the Christian West, this led to anti-Semitism, the belief that Jews are a race or nation to be disparaged. Judaism was a stain that could not be removed by mere conversion. Martin Luther lamented the existence of Jews whom he viewed as a 'damned, rejected race'. In Islam, with its explicit rejection of races, it led only to anti-Judaism, the belief that the Jewish religion was the problem and if individual Jews became Muslims and recognized Mohammed, then they were no longer Jews and these individuals would be treated just like any other Muslim.
"With the creation of Israel, the Jewish state, and with its successful defeat and occupation of Arabs and Muslims, as well as its oppression of occupied populations, Jews became a threat rather than an anachronistic and vestigial relic. Arab and Muslim authors incorporated European racist and anti-Semitic theories about Jewish conspiracy theories to explain the existence and strength of Israel, as well as its influence over American policy. While the Koran is a vast book with statements that can lead to variegated interpretations, those seeking them can find many verses in the Koran to give these theories religious blessing and validity."
This is historically inaccurate. See Onward Muslim Soldiers and the writings of Bat Ye'or for many examples of Islamic anti-Semitism predating the creation of Israel.
Those examples stem ultimately from elements of the Qur'an that the article does cite: "'Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews and pagans' instructs the Koran in 5:85, implying that Jews and pagans are of equal stature and that Jews are the enemies of Muslims, leading to the conclusion that they are therefore God's enemies as well since they are the enemies of those who believe in him. In 2:97-8 God declares that he is the enemy of whoever is the enemy of the Angel Gabriel. And this is generally interpreted to refer to the Jews.
"The Koran, the Old Testament and the New Testament are all quoted to prove the treachery of the Jews."
This is false. The Old Testament and New Testament are never quoted as such in the Qur'an. The Qur'an contains some stories from the Old and New Testaments, but all are altered and seem much more likely to come from oral tradition rather than from actual readings or quotations of the texts themselves.
"The Jewish worship of the golden calf after God had made a covenant with them (2:92-3) and their recurring violations of pacts made with the Prophet Mohammed (8:56-8) prove that Jews are not to be trusted. In 2:96 Jews are unfavorably compared with idolaters. 'Of all people the most greedy for life - even more than the idolaters' are the Jews. In Verse 88 of 'the Cow' chapter [Sura 2], the Koran describes Jews as follows: 'They say our hearts are the wrappings (that keep God's words) nay God's curse is on them for their blasphemy. Little is it they believe.' Verse 2 of this chapter asks 'is it not that every time they make a covenant, some party among them throw it aside?' In 2:58 the Koran attributes punishments wrought on the Jews for their blasphemy: 'and abasement and poverty were pitched on them, and they were laden with God's wrath; that because they had disbelieved the signs of God and slain prophets unrightfully; that because they disobeyed, and were transgressors'.
"Jews are viewed as unbelievers, disobedient and treacherous, rejecting God and his messengers. In 2:87 the God states 'and we gave Moses the book and followed him up with a succession of messengers; we gave Jesus the son of Mary clear signs and strengthened him with the holy spirit. Is it that whenever there comes to you a messenger with what you yourselves desire not, you are puffed up with pride? Some you called imposters and others you slew.' In 4:157 it is stated that 'they boasted "we killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the messenger of God".' In verse 58 of 'the Table' chapter [Sura 5] the Koran states that God himself has cursed the Jews. Verse 86 of that chapter implies that Jews 'shall be the companions of hell fire'. Verses 79 and 80 describe the 'evil' works and deeds of Jews. Verse 51 of the chapter 'women' [Sura 4] accuses Jews of believing in evil.
"In 5:66, God scolds the Jews for not obeying their Torah and therefore rejecting both Jesus and Mohammed. Verse 56 of 'the Spoils' chapter [Sura 8] describes how Mohammed fought and defeated the Jews at the battle of Khaybar. In 5:78 both David and Jesus curse the Jews for 'disobedience' and 'excesses'."
In light of all these Qur'anic verses, how can Islamic anti-Semitism be eradicated? But instead of an answer to this question, most Muslim "moderates" try to ignore or deny that these passages and others like them exist at all.
"Thus the basis exists, for those who choose to use it, to promote the hostility and palpable fear of Jews that confront journalists in Iraq on a daily basis. The many Iraqis who now have access to satellite television can also watch a Syrian Ramadan series aired on the Lebanese Hezbollah-owned channel 'Al-Manar' that provides a tendentious version of recent Jewish history. 'Al-Shatat' or 'the Diaspora', as the series is called, tells the story of Zionism from 1812 until the establishment of Israel. The series contains familiar themes of Jewish plots to dominate the world. The first episode began with a description of a 2,000-year-old Jewish creation of a world government and attempts by Jews to provoke wars among non-Jews. Subsequently, Jews are shown plotting to kill non-Jews, dominate various countries, oppose other religions, and incite Germany to enter a succession of wars. Actors play famous Jewish figures, such as the wealthy Rothschild dynasty, the founder of Zionism Theodore Herzl and the falsely-accused Alfred Dreyfuss. Jews are shown committing brutal acts of murder and dismemberment against non-Jews and Jews who betrayed the race. Such a program is consistent with a wide body of literature produced in the Arab world, including recent Iraqi newspaper articles.
"After the war, with the flowering of new Iraqi publications, newspaper articles contained numerous Jewish themes, helping to spread the panic that Jews were indeed invading the country. The independent Iraqi daily al-Yawm al-Aakher reported, that 'the frantic campaign to resettle the Jews [in Iraq] has aroused the annoyance of Iraqis, particularly the clerics'. Al-Adala, a newspaper published by the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution, warned that 'a number of Jews are attempting to purchase factories in Baghdad'. The article went on to describe an eyewitness who observed Jews purchasing factories. In fact it seems nearly everyone in Baghdad has a friend or relative who was an eyewitness to Jews buying land.
"An editorial in al-Rassed also warned that Jews were attempting to purchase land as a result of the occupation. Dar al-Salam, a newspaper owned by the Iraqi Islamic Party, reported that Mosul's association of clerics issued an edict prohibiting the sale of land to non-Iraqis because it may end up in the hands of Jews. Meanwhile, al-Sa'ah warned Iraqis to check Taiwanese and Chinese-made appliances for concealed Stars of David because the Israelis would be surreptitiously selling their products in Iraq.
"Another rumor going around is that Michel Aflaq, the now-hated founder of the Ba'ath Party, was a secret Jew who had converted to Christianity. It is also rumored that in Israel, Jewish brothels are built to look like mosques, even with the minaret, or tower. Shi'ites believe that a final battle between Jews and Muslims will occur when the Jews come to the city of Kifil on the Euphrates to visit the tomb of an alleged Jewish prophet. Here Muslims and Jews will fight, and the Jews will hide behind rocks, which will speak and say 'there is a Jew behind me', and the Muslims will be victorious."
This is not just Shi'ite belief. It is founded upon well-attested traditions accepted by Sunnis as well as Shi'ites. Muhammad said: "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. 'O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him'" (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 52, Number 177).
Posted at 8:08 PM
A ray of hope in Sudan
Charles Jacobs, president of the American Anti-Slavery Group, and John Eibner, assistant to the international president of Christian Solidarity International, report in the Washington Times on a ray of hope in Sudan, where Christians have been enslaved and brutalized by Muslims for years:
"For the first time in 20 years, Southern Sudan stands on the threshold of peace. The guns are silent. Slave raiding is suspended. Humanitarian aid is flowing. Plans for reconstruction are on the drawing board. Secretary of State Colin Powell expects a comprehensive peace agreement before the end of the year.
"This is a ray of hope in a long, dark night of despair: More than 2 million have perished; more than 4 million have been displaced; and tens of thousands of women and children have been enslaved in Khartoum's declared jihad against the non-Muslims of Southern Sudan. . . .

"Success is within reach. The United States has already pressured and cajoled the belligerents — the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (PLA)— into accepting a settlement based on sound principles: autonomous, Shariah-free self-government for Southern Sudan; and a referendum on independence for Southern Sudan at the end of a six-year interim period."
All is not resolved, as the piece makes clear. But real progress has been made. Let's hope it holds.
Posted at 3:24 PM
Canada: Sharia's dhimmi enforcers
This WorldNetDaily report on the possible adoption of Sharia law by the Islamic community in Canada draws on the same source I used for my report on this on Tuesday. However, WND emphasizes one aspect of the report that I had overlooked: if Canadian Muslims adopt Sharia for their internal affairs, enforcement will still be up to Canadian authorities.
Can you see it? Snidely Whiplash has Nell tied to the railroad tracks, until Dudley Doright rushes up to untie her — and stones her for adultery. (Thanks to Seymour Paine.)
Posted at 2:50 PM | Comments (2)
November 26, 2003
Dhimmitude at the FBI: Jews Need Not Apply to Fight Terror
The best line in this terrific Front Page piece by Paul Sperry is the last: Shelomo Alfassa, vice president of the Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture in New York, says: "Imagine if during the war against Hitler, Franklin D. Roosevelt felt that having Jews fight the Nazis might upset the everyday German?"
But that's what's happening in the war on terror: Jews (and people from other dhimmi communities whom I know personally) have been having trouble getting jobs for which they are eminently qualified.
Says Sperry: "A few weeks after Islamic terrorists toppled the World Trade Center, two FBI agents from the New York field office paid a visit to a Sephardic Jewish community center in Brooklyn. Their mission: recruit Arabic linguists to help interpret interviews and intercepts of Osama bin Laden's network.
"Sephardic Jews have lived in Arab countries and know the language, not to mention the culture and history of the region. And being close to Israel, the main target of Islamic terrorism, they were gung-ho to help the feds fight the war on terrorism here.
"It was a good move, or so most involved thought at the time -- and long overdue.
"Federal investigators had missed clues to both the 2001 and 1993 World Trade Center attacks not because they didn't have them, but because they didn't know what they had until it was too late. They were buried in a backlog of untranslated wiretaps and documents in Arabic.
"A chronic shortage of Arabic-speaking translators had resulted in an accumulation of thousands of hours of untranslated audiotapes and written material stored in FBI lockers.
"The FBI's New York field office, at least, knew such delays were no longer acceptable after the 9-11 attack. The bureau's translators were the key to preventing another homeland strike, but they had to convert Arabic chatter to English faster. That meant hiring a lot more translators as quickly as possible.
"So in October 2001, while rescue workers were still pulling remains from Ground Zero, two agents from the FBI's offices located nearby reached out to local Arabic-speaking Jews to do just that. Agents Carol Motyka and Marsha Parrish met with an official at the Sephardic Bikur Holim, a Jewish social-services agency in Brooklyn.
"At the meeting, Yola Haber, who heads the agency's employment division, says she agreed to help recruit Arabic-speaking Jews for the bureau. Most of them applied on-line for the translator jobs. All told, she says she referred some 90 applicants, possibly more, to the FBI. They included retired linguists who had experience working for Israeli radio in Arabic and for the Israeli army.
"Remarkably, not one of them was hired.
"'We sent them a lot of people, and nobody made it to the finish line,' complained Sephardic Bikur Holim director Doug Balin. 'Not one person was found eligible for these jobs, which is outrageous.'
"Instead, the FBI hired dozens of Arab-American Muslims as translators."
Posted at 9:16 AM
November 25, 2003
Dhimmis in California no longer compliant
The American Middle East Christian Association has staged a public protest against the teaching of Islam in a public school in California: "Hundreds of Christians who fled Egypt to the United States claiming persecution under Islam showed up outside a Southern California middle school yesterday to protest an extra-credit assignment urging students to participate in the Muslim Ramadan fast." This from WorldNetDaily, with thanks to Alyssa Lappen.
"The teacher at Royal Oak Intermediate School in Covina, Calif., wrote parents of students in his world history class, saying he wanted to take advantage of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan 'to promote a greater understanding and empathy towards the Muslim religion.'"
When was the last time a public school declared an intention to promote "a greater understanding and empathy" toward Christianity or Judaism?
"But on a public sidewalk adjacent to the school grounds yesterday afternoon, about 500 people, according to organizers, gathered peacefully to 'tell the truth about Islam' as classes ended for the day.
"A group called the American Middle-East Christian Association maintains that at a time when discussions about Jesus Christ have been barred from classrooms, the teacher is urging impressionable school children to participate in a religion the group views as a threat to America.
"Ultimately, the protesters maintained, the teaching of Islam in a public school is furthering the aim of making America a Muslim nation.
"About 450 of the protestors were Coptic Christian immigrants from Muslim-majority Egypt, whose families had suffered discrimination and persecution because of their faith, said Steve Klein, who helped organize the event.
"'Many of them were in tears, thrilled that they could come out and assert their First Amendment free-speech rights, which are found in no Islamic nation,' Klein told WorldNetDaily. 'They had survived 14 centuries in Egypt by not getting involved in politics.'"
Backpedaling furiously, "Superintendent John Roach insisted the teacher meant only to promote empathy with Muslims, not with Islam. He conceded the instructor told parents in his letter the assignment was about empathizing with the Islamic religion. 'If I had the opportunity to correct the letter before it was sent out, I would have changed that paragraph,' he told WND.
"Roach said he most certainly would have put a stop to the assignment if it had been about promoting Islam and can understand why some people would make an issue of it.
"The letter to parents said students 'may choose to fast for one, two or three days. During this time, students may only drink water during daylight hours. Once fasting is completed, students are to type a ½ page summary of their experience. They should describe how it felt to go without food during the day and connect it to the theme of sacrifice. Fasting is inconvenient and sometimes uncomfortable, many religions to consider it an important sacrifice.'
"The teacher said he wished 'to emphasize that this is an EXTRA CREDIT assignment and is by no means mandatory. For those unable to fast, they may choose to type a 2 page paper in which they compare different religions that encourage sacrifice during the year.'
"Roach went over to the school, which has about 1,600 students, to observe the protest yesterday and estimated the number of protesters to be about 150.
"'If in fact we had been inculcating one religion over another, I'm thrilled that there were 150 people who recognize that that's what schools should not be doing,' said Roach.
"But the official said he was 'saddened' that organizers would mobilize all those people to 'believe what we're doing is training the next generation of al-Qaida.'
"Roach noted, however, the protest was peaceful and orderly.
"The Coptic Christians passed out literature and talked to many parents about their personal experience of persecution under Islam, Klein said, warning passersby that Islam is here to take over America."
Well, there are indications of that. Consider the quote from CAIR's Omar Ahmad in this article. Ahmad denied saying it five years after the fact when he began to be asked about it, but the reporter stands by her story. Said Ahmad: "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Quran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth."
Meanwhile, at the AMECA rally, "'many parents were very curious,' Klein said. 'They were stunned by what their kids were being taught.'
"One parent objected to the protest, he said, but 'changed his tune' after the immigrants told their stories.
"Many of the Coptic Christians who showed up are articulate professionals, such as dentists and physicians, said Klein, a former Marine officer who served in Vietnam.
"After seeing how the First Amendment works, he noted, they said they need to get together and organize to tell their message further.
"'These people who have suffered have so much to offer [Americans] who are sleeping, refusing to recognize the true nature of Islam,' said Klein, who said he has organized hundreds of protests, including many that have confronted Islam, through a group he established called Courageous Christians United.
"Roach said he's been contacted by some of the Coptic Christians. 'Several people have called me on the phone and spoken to me, wanting to make sure I'm teaching the Islamic religion is a murderous, terrorist religion,' he said.
"But the superintendent argued, if he were to teach that, he would be 'just as guilty as I would be if I went the other way.'"
"'I can't impede a religion any more than I can promote it,' he said."
All right. But I doubt Klein or the Copts are saying that all Muslims are murderous terrorists. They are pointing out that radical Muslims have ample justification within Islamic tradition for their actions. If moderate Muslims manage to affect a transformation within Islam such that radicals will no longer be able to get recruits by referring to these elements of Islamic tradition, I'm sure that Klein and these Copts would welcome that eventuality.
"The teacher's letter to parents opened, 'As part of the world history curriculum, your student has recently been studying the rise of Islam and the teachings of Mohammed. Fundamental to the Muslim religion are the Five Pillars of Islam. They emphasize the "word of God," prayer, charity for the poor, fasting and the pilgrimage to Mecca. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims refrain from food or drink during daylight hours.'
"Roach insisted the seventh-grade class presents a balanced view of Islam, covering mostly the social implications of the religion's rise, as part of a world history curriculum that begins with the Roman Empire.
"As WorldNetDaily reported in January 2002, public school students at Excelsior Elementary School in Byron, Calif., apparently were taken on a deeper journey into Islam in which they pretended to be Muslims, wore robes, simulated jihads via a dice game, learned the Five Pillars of Faith and memorized verses from the Quran in classroom exercises as part of a World History and Geography class for seventh-graders. The class was included in the state's curriculum standards required by the state board of education. These standards outline what subjects should be taught and are included in state assessment tests, but don't mandate how they're to be taught.
"The Islam simulations at Excelsior are outlined in the state-adopted textbook 'Across the Centuries,' published by Houghton Mifflin, which prompts students to imagine they are Islamic soldiers and Muslims on a Mecca pilgrimage."
Posted at 1:27 PM | Comments (4)
Anti-dhimmitude from Mark Steyn
Mark Steyn's column today addresses the furor over a comic strip that the Council on American Islamic Relations says insults Islam. Steyn, unlike CAIR, manages to keep a more balanced perspective. When asked to speak about the strip in The Media, Steyn declined: "Although I agreed of course that Islamophobic cartooning was the most pressing issue of the week, in my usual shallow way I'd become distracted by some of the day's more trivial stories - the 11 Hindus burnt alive by a Muslim gang in Bangladesh, the 13 Christian churches torched by Muslim rioters in the Nigerian town of Kazaure, and the 27 Turks and Britons murdered by Muslim terrorists in Istanbul."
He also has a few trenchant words for those who buried the EU report on anti-Semitism because it named Muslims as the perpetrators: "Let's go back over that slowly and try not to get a headache: the EU's main concern about an actual epidemic of hate crimes against Jews is that it could provoke a hypothetical epidemic of hate crimes against Muslims. You couldn't ask for a better illustration of the uselessness of these thought-police bodies: they're fine for chastising insufficiently guilt-ridden whites in an ongoing reverse-minstrel show of cultural self-abasement, but they don't have the stomach for confronting real racism. A tolerant society is so reluctant to appear intolerant, it would rather tolerate intolerance." (Thanks to rumcrook.)
Posted at 12:41 PM
Australian pol: radical Muslims could threaten Australia's future
Watch for New South Wales Premier Bob Carr to be savaged as a racist for daring to declare that Australia faces a threat from "Islamists in Indonesia and I know there are different gradations of Islamist ideology and practice. But it was only 10 years ago we were being assured that aggressive Islamism would be inconceivable in Indonesia.
"Now schools across Java - Islamic schools - are full of Arab language material, focused on the Middle East and well disposed to Osama bin Laden."
Meanwhile, the Indonesian radical Muslim responsible for the Bali bombing called on Muslims to "continue the struggle." But surely he didn't mean in Australia.
Posted at 11:39 AM
Dhimmitude in Australia: "If we arrest them it would cause a riot"
Columnist Michael Duffy of Sydney, Australia's Daily Telegraph writes of Muslim thugs committing petty crimes — and dhimmi cops afraid to arrest them for fear of creating a political incident.
He said that in response to a recent column, he received letters that "told me of incidents journalists never get to see. Incidents which do not make it on to the crime statistics but which are clearly hugely important to many people."
Priest [a former policeman interviewed in the previous column (see below)] claimed NSW Police has been so weakened in the wake of the Wood royal commission it has been unable to contain crime in this city since the mid-1990s.
By then, young men of Muslim Lebanese background were creating problems, as most young immigrants (going way back to the Irish) tend to do.
This had been going on for a while – one correspondent, who has lived in Greenacre since 1953 – told me his son, who was no saint himself, first complained about vicious and violent Middle Eastern gangs 20 years ago.
"They have the police bluffed. I lament the ruin of our local area," he said.
Police failure to deal with these young hooligans meant many of them have now grown up to be adult gangsters. This explains the escalation of gun crime in Sydney we are now witnessing.
Duffy asserts that:
...the fear of violence is now so widespread it is eating into people's lives. There is a strong sense among many people – including Lebanese Christians – that they have been let down by the authorities.
Again and again I have heard stories of situations where the police seemed to be scared to act.
In one incident, police told a victim: "If we arrest them it would cause a riot and our jobs would be a lot harder in future."
Another Sydney man observed: "I am sure the majority of these occurrences go unreported and unpublished because of the threats and intimidation by these hoodlums."
Duffy added "that this suits the Government because it keeps crime statistics down."
Here also is the previous Duffy column that inspired all these messages to him. It no longer seems to be available on the web:
One day in Auburn in 2001, two uniformed police officers stopped a car with three occupants of Middle-Eastern background. The police had been told the men, well-known offenders, had been involved in a series of robberies. They searched the car and found property stolen in the robberies. What happened next was extraordinary.
The three criminals began to abuse the police and threaten them physically. They told the police they would follow them home, kill them and "f... your girlfriends". The two officers were forced to take refuge in their car where they called for urgent assistance.

But simultaneously the criminals used their mobile phones to do the same. Within minutes a crowd of 60 Lebanese Australians had gathered, some pouring out of the houses nearby and some arriving by car. When more police arrived they were punched and pushed to the ground and their vehicles were damaged.

The police duty officer appeared and ordered all police to retreat immediately. Within minutes they were gone. Some of the crowd followed them to the police station where they intimidated staff and damaged property.

Again the duty officer ordered his officers to do nothing. Eventually the crowd left the station. The stolen property was never recovered. No one was ever arrested.

The above story was told by ex-cop Tim Priest at a Quadrant dinner this week. He claimed it is typical of literally hundreds of incidents where "police have backed down to Middle-Eastern thugs and have taken no action and allowed the incident to go unpunished".

He stresses "the unbelievable influence that local politicians and religious leaders played in covering up the true state of the south-west".

Priest told an amazing story of a city where Lebanese organised crime has been increasingly out of control for years, thanks to a combination of the loss of police morale due to the Wood Royal Commission and an ineffective commissioner in Peter Ryan.
According to Priest, there are now more than 1000 young men of Lebanese descent running intimidation rackets and dominating the heroin and cocaine trade in large areas of Sydney. They are the product of what Priest claimed was the castration of the police force during the Ryan years, when cleanskin cops with little front-line experience were appointed to important positions in the suburbs. As a result, there is now a generation of young Lebanese men, many of whom who despise authority because they perceive it as weak. They have got stronger as the police have grown softer. These days, the only place they fear to go is Cabramatta, because of their respect for the equally violent Asian gangs there.

Priest said the most influential gang is the Muslim males of Telopea St, Bankstown known as the Telopea Street Boys. He claimed they and their associates have been involved in numerous murders over the past five years, and other major crimes such as ram raids and the car-jacking of expensive vehicles while their owners are in them.

He described how nightclubs are targeted for protection payments. "A large number of Middle-Eastern males would enter the club, upwards of 20 at a time. They would outnumber the security staff and begin assaulting male patrons, sometimes stabbing them. The incident would be over in minutes and the gang members long gone before police arrived. A few days later, senior members of the gang, well-dressed and business-like, would approach the club owner and offer to provide protection from similar incidents for a small fee of around $2000 or $3000 per week." Priest claims that in one busy part of the city almost every bar, nightclub and hotel now pays protection money.

What sets these gangs apart from previous ones, Priest said, was their propensity to use violence at any time and for any reason. The violence from the Asian gangs in Cabramatta is horrific, but at least it is localised, making it easier for the police to act – but the Lebanese gangs attack anywhere. "The violence is directed mainly at young Australian men and women," Priest claimed. "Violent attacks on [non-Lebanese] men and women are racial as well as criminal. Quite often when taking statements from young men attacked by groups of Lebanese males around Darling Harbour, a common theme has been the use of racially-motivated violence on the victims simply because they are Australian."

Tim Priest is bitter and angry. He predicts a dramatic rise in gang shootings and says Sydney will soon be a city in which gangs have the sort of power they currently hold in Los Angeles.
(Thanks to Mike Brosnihan.)
Posted at 8:52 AM | Comments (4)
Islamization in Switzerland: more Muslim school news
Showing that it can outsneer the New York Times any day, Switzerland's Neue Zürcher Zeitung headlines this story "Zurich's Right fears rise of "Koran schools.'"
I see. So the possibility that Muslim schools in Switzerland may become "universities of jihad," or that Muslims in Switzerland may hold the radical Muslim convictions that no government has any legitimacy unless it governs according to Islamic law, and that Muslims must wage war to overthrow such governments — those are all just "fears" of the "Right." It doesn't matter how many Muslim spokesmen are on record saying that they want Sharia. To pay attention to them is to betray one's allegiance to the "Right."
Anyway, the NZZ says that "voters in Zurich are set to decide on controversial new laws that would lead to the official recognition of non-Christian faiths, including Islam. But the proposals are being challenged by politicians from the Right, who have been accused of running an inflammatory campaign."
Surprise, surprise. "The People's Party claims that cantonal contributions — which are given to all recognised religions — would be used by Muslims for fundamentalist religious teaching."
Well, there are precedents.
"Party literature even shows a montage of the Zurich Münster with its tower replaced by a minaret and the words 'it’s a question of time'."
There are precedents for this also, abundant ones in history. Swiss multiculturalists are outrageously self-deceived if they believe that Muslims have discarded the elements of their religion that call upon them to expand the hegemony of Islam by force. In the words of a legal manual approved in the 1990s by the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the Muslim community must make "war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians . . . until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax" ('Umdat al-Salik, o9.8).
Nevertheless, "both the three recognised Churches and the country’s anti-racism commission have heavily criticised the [People's Party] campaign. In a joint statement, the three Churches said that opponents’ assertions were simply not true, because funds were not given for religious lessons."
This is specious. Islam makes no distinction between the sacred and the secular. If they were forbidden outright to give "religious lessons," radical Muslims would teach jihad under the guise of politics or civics or history or any number of other things.
"Gioia Weber from the Federal Commission against Racism told swissinfo that this was the case, adding that the Right's campaign bordered on being racist."
Gioia, radical Islam is not a race. It is an ideology.
Meanwhile, "Markus Notter, director of justice in canton Zurich, said that assertions that cash could be used for 'Koran schools' were simply false. He said there were strict requirements that needed to be met before a religious community could gain official recognition. These automatically rule out sects, splinter or fundamentalist groups."
With all due respect, I wonder if Mr. Notter and other Swiss officials are sufficiently informed of the root causes of radical Islam to be able to distinguish between "splinter or fundamentalist groups" and those deserving of official recognition. In reality, there is no great schism between moderate and radical Muslims. Signs are not posted outside mosques denoting their "moderate" or "radical" status. And even if Notter did get condemnations of terrorism from his groups, would he be able to distinguish between genuine ones and counterfeits?
These are the kinds of questions that ought to be asked now in Switzerland and all over Europe. Careful and detailed answers should be known by every leading governing official. I doubt such an effort is being made.
"The law for recognising religions sets out that among other things, a Church must carry out charitable activities. It is not allowed to have any political or economic goals."
This stipulation is certain to collide with Islam's traditional character as a political and social system as well as an individual faith.
"The faith in question must also have been active in Switzerland for 30 years, be organised democratically, recognise the Swiss legal system and exercise religious tolerance."
Will the institutionalized inferior status of the dhimmis count as tolerance? Probably. (Thanks to LGF.)
Posted at 8:25 AM
November 24, 2003
Islamization in Scotland: Muslims target schools for takeover
"Four Scottish schools have been targeted by Islamic campaigners who are calling for them to be converted into the country’s first dedicated Muslim primaries." (This from The Scotsman, with thanks to Alyssa Lappen.)
"The schools in Glasgow, including one which is currently Roman Catholic, are at the centre of the controversial move by Scotland’s Muslim community to satisfy increasing worries about the negative influence secular education is having on their children.
"While ministers and politicians will not want to be seen to oppose the campaign, they will regard it as a major political headache as any public opposition would also put the issue of separate Catholic schooling under the spotlight.
"The largest of the four schools - all of which have 90% Muslim pupils at the moment - is the Roman Catholic St Albert’s School in Pollokshields, which has 360 children. The others are Pollokshields Primary, with 350 children, Annette Street Primary in Govanhill, with 200 pupils, and Willowbank Primary in the Woodlands area of Glasgow’s West End.
"The campaign comes in the wake of ministers south of the Border funding Islamic schools, and East Renfrewshire Council - which also runs a Jewish primary - saying it would be prepared to consider any request for a Muslim school. . . .
"Osama Said, the Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain and the organiser of the campaign, said: 'As parents, we are becoming increasingly worried about the influence of secular schooling on our children. We are worried the boys may be buying into the gang culture, and feel cut off from their heritage. If other faiths have the right to separate schools funded by the state, then it should not be denied to us.'" . . .
"A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church last night backed the Muslim campaign, and said the Church would have no problem allowing one of their schools to be changed from Catholic to Muslim.
"He said: 'We are in favour of Muslim schools, we support faith schools across the board. In the case of St Albert’s, we see a school in which for 95% of the children the festival of Eid has more significance than Christmas or Easter. It is de facto not a Catholic school.'"
However, others voiced fears that "racists" would capitalize on such a change: "Fred Forrester, the former general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland - Scotland’s largest teaching union - was horrified. He said: 'Can you imagine how racists would exploit this? The BNP would be able to move into the area and tell people, "Look over there, they took your school away from you". It would be explosive, a gift for racists.'"
It may not just be racists who would have reason to be concerned. For example, "last May, Scotland's first Muslim school, in the south side of Glasgow, was closed after a damning report by inspectors. Iqra Academy, a private Islamic school, was criticised amid allegations of bullying, lack of staff training and the use of corporal punishment. The local Imam who ran the school was also criticised by parents for running it along hard-line religious principles."
Hard-line religious principles? This is interesting in light of another statement from Turkey today: "'Because families in Bingol bring up their children from a young age according to Islamic principles, once they reach a certain age they join Islamic groups and they take part in acts of terror,' said Mehmet Polat, an unemployed man in Bingol." (Thanks to aaron.)
It is hardly racist to be concerned that Islamic schools in Scotland may have the same result, and to try to ensure that they won't.
Posted at 12:40 PM | Comments (4)
New York Times: dhimmitude a "deep, amorphous fear"
In an article about the European Union's reluctance to admit Turkey, the New York Times piles on the sneer words and suggests that legitimate concerns about the attachment of Muslim immigrants to the Sharia are just racist fears:
Many in Europe have yet to accept that the white, Christian culture of their ancestors is giving way to a multicultural mix heavily weighted with Islam.
Those benighted, racist white Christians. Why can't they placidly accept a multiculturalist, inclusive Europe that welcomes Islam? The real answer, of course, is one that you'll never see in the Times: that European concern about Islam has nothing to do with race, but with jihad ideology that mandates the subjugation of non-Muslims, and the imposition of Islamic law. That jihad idology is alive and well in Europe, and growing daily.
Europe's governments are already grappling with the social tensions created by expanding Muslim immigrant communities. Shrinking populations across Europe mean more immigration is in store. Accepting Turkey as a European Union member would quicken that trend and irrevocably alter the definition of Europe.
Part of the problem is Turkey's population of 70 million. In Europe only Germany is bigger, and given the two countries' birth trends, Turkey could be the leader by the time it is admitted to the union. That would give it a major — to some Europeans, an inordinate — say in European affairs. Former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing of France spoke for many Europeans a year ago when he said Turkey's membership would be 'the end of Europe.'
But there is also a deep, amorphous fear in Europe of accepting a Muslim country into its midst, despite Turkey's strong secular tradition, in which many people practice their religion with the same moderation as European Catholics.
Ah. You see, these racist Europeans just need a bit of therapy to dispel their amorphous fears. But in fact, there is nothing "amorphous" about it. The ideologies of jihad and dhimmitude (the subjugation of non-Muslims as inferiors under Islamic rule) are quite carefully delineated in Islamic law. For details, see the sidebars on the lefthand side of this page and the Jihad Watch page. For more, see Onward Muslim Soldiers.
Meanwhile, don't you see, Turkish Muslims are just like you and me:
Back at the Memek bar, the voices of Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand are booming 'Enough Is Enough' through the gyrating crowd. If it were not for the Turkish lira changing hands at the bar, the scene could be in Italy or Germany or even France.
'If the E.U. is happy with the way we are, okay,' said Ms. Bayburt [a secular Muslim introduced earlier in the article], 'but I don't want to change for anyone.'
Terrific. But neither do the jihadists, and they come right along with Ms. Bayburt and her Donna Summer records.
Posted at 10:24 AM | Comments (2)
Iraqi Muslim Mission Activities
Here's a story out of Iraq that you're not likely to find in the New York Times or CNN: "Bombs found in Christian Schools. Pupils Warned to become Muslims or Die." This from the Barnabas Fund.
"Christian schools have been leafleted with threats demanding the students should become Muslims or face death. Last week bombs were discovered in two schools, one in Baghdad and another in Mosul (northern Iraq)."
The leaflets are similar to a letter sent recently to Hindus in Bangladesh.
"The bomb at St Thomas’ School in Mosul was discovered on 11 November; it was a cluster of low explosive hand grenades that could have caused significant injury or even death. The school has around 500 pupils of whom approximately 450 are Christian and 50 are Muslim. Thankfully the bombs in both schools were successfully defused. The schools have received intimidating written warnings demanding that the children should become Muslims. If they failed to do so, the warnings read, they should expect to be killed. It is thought that a Saudi backed Wahhabi Sunni group are responsible for both the warnings and the bombs.
"Christian families all over Iraq have been receiving threatening letters, one of which has been posted on an Assyrian Christians website:
"'In the name of God: the Merciful, the Compassionate.
"'Do not adorn yourselves as ignorant women did before the time of Islam (Sura 33.33).
"'The leadership of the Islamic Badr Brigade hopes that the head of this noble family will stand with the Muslim brethren and follow basic Muslim rules. The veil should be worn and the honourable teachings of Islam that have come to us from ages past must be adhered to. We are Iraqis and Muslims; we will not tolerate sin. If this announcement is not complied with we shall either inflict some unbearable punishment, kill offenders, kidnap them, or destroy them in their homes with fire or by bombing.
"'This order applies to the daughters of this family, their mother and the little girl.
"'The Islamic Badr Brigade, Najaf'
"This notice has been sent out by Al-Badr, which is the militia of the main Shi’a group, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). SCIRI has a representative on the 25 member Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) set up by the coalition. This warning is thus the first one that comes from a group that has official international recognition.
"Sheikh Abbas Rubai presided over the first sitting, in May, of an Islamic court in Baghdad at Hikma Mosque in Sadr City. The mosque has established four committees to enforce Islamic law. These committees are stopping women on the street to force them to cover their heads and not wear make-up. Sheikh Mohammed Fartousi, also of al-Hawza, has said, 'Women who don’t wear the veil won’t be served when they go shopping; taxis won’t pick them up and they might have eggs and rotten tomatoes thrown at them.'
"Life in Iraq is becoming increasingly difficult for the estimated 700,000 Christian Iraqis. Many now feel that their situation is worse than when they were living under Saddam Hussein. In Baghdad most are afraid to go to Church. They fear that large numbers of Christians meeting together in a church pose an unacceptable security risk as they would constitute a likely target for a bomb attack. In Basra the clergy are being specifically targeted. In the same week that the school bombs were discovered a Kalashnikov was fired at the residence of the Syro-Antiochan Bishop of Mosul. Christians in the North have been illegally dispossessed and are under constant pressure from the Kurds to convert, if they wish to enjoy their protection."
Posted at 9:37 AM | Comments (3)
European Parliamentarians express concern over persecution of Pakistani Christians!
The Pakistan Christian Post reports that Claude Moraes, a member of the European Parliament, has declared that "the suppression of individual's freedom to practice their religion is a violation of human rights and breach the fundamental ideals of democracy." The report here is a bit unclear, but it indicates that at least a few people in Europe are beginning to notice the realities of dhimmitude.
Moraes "has requested the European Commission to take notice of the situation in Pakistan." He asks that "non Muslims in Pakistan be exempted from the Shariah Law adopted in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan," and "has submitted a Parliamentary Question to the Commission in order to press the matter."

Also, "the European Commission during its recent visit to Pakistan in October has raised Human Rights issues with Pakistani authorities. The European Commission has called for more protection for Christians and members of other minorities in Pakistan."
Another European Parliament member, Glenys Kinnock, "said that the European Union is very much aware of incidents occurred over the past two years, in particular, [s]he mentioned the attack on the office of Idara-e-Amn-o-Insaf (a Christian NGO working for Justice and peace in Karachi), the killing of worshipers at churches in Bahawalpur and Islamabad, and atrocities committed against Christian institutions in Muree and Texala."
Not only that: "the EU has reiterated its concern about the blasphemy laws, and continue to call on the Government of Pakistan to take all possible measures to prevent the abuse of the blasphemy laws, and those accused under these laws should be provided protection."
Even Jack Straw "has supported the campaign against Shariah Law by saying 'we have taken action on this issue with our EU colleagues, as well as raising it repeatedly in both official and ministerial level contact with the Pakistanis.'"
Says Nasir Saeed of the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS): "We believe that every human being in the world should be respected, and able to enjoy full human and fundamental rights."
Since the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan adopted the Sharia, Saeed "has been campaigning to get the religious minorities exempted from Shariah law in Pakistan, and get the blasphemy law abolished, which has mandatory death penalty. He told that he has received a very positive response from the Members of the European Parliament. The EU has asked the Government of Pakistan to guarantee fully the fundamental rights of all Pakistani citizens, particularly the most vulnerable, such as women, children and religious minorities. He said he would continue to take every appropriate opportunity and forum to urge Pakistani Government to pursue laws and practices, which foster tolerance and mutual respect, and to protect religious minorities against discrimination and intimidation and attacks."
Posted at 9:22 AM | Comments (1)
November 23, 2003
Pakistani Christian calls for equal rights
Christians living in our friend and ally Pakistan still suffer under much of the discrimination and deprivation of dhimmi status. But this is a courageous community that is not willing to accept dhimmitude without a struggle.
According to the Pakistan Christian Post, James Khokhar, a prominent Christian leader who has now been granted asylum in Canada, it is "time that [Pakistani] Christians shall be given equal opportunities to become doctors, engineers, scientist and businessman by the government of Pakistan."
Said Khokhar: the "government of Pakistan shall repeal blasphemy laws at an earliest to seek liberal image of Pakistan in international community." He said that the law, "section 295 C PPC," is an "open hanging sword on Christians in Pakistan and it ha[s] been misused by the majority community against Christians."
Posted at 6:51 PM
Islamic Indoctrination in America's Public Schools
"The American Middle-East Christian Association (AMECA) has learned of Royal Oak Intermediate School, Covina, California, teaching the Islamic religion to America's young, naive, impressionable school children." (Thanks to LGF.)
"In a letter sent home to parents, the teacher wrote, 'During the month of Ramadan, Muslims refrain from food or drink during daylight hours.' For EXTRA CREDIT, he asked parents' OK for student participation by choosing 'to fast for one, two or three days.'"
This is far from the only such instance. There are other such cases proceeding today.
The AMECA press release correctly observes: "America's Christian children had better not even utter the name Jesus Christ in public schools without persecution and prosecution by the 'separation of church and state' zealots.
"AMECA will conduct a peaceful educational seminar in accordance with our First Amendment rights on the public sidewalk in front of ROYAL OAK INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL at 303 South Glendora Av in Covina, CA 91723 from 2:00-3:00 p.m. on MONDAY, NOV. 24."
The press release concludes: "We will have a number of experts in Islam to share quotes from the Koran in both Arabic and English. We will provide an American civics lesson for Royal Oak students, to see our FIRST AMENDMENT exercised peacefully and profoundly: A RIGHT FOUND IN NO ISLAMIC CONTROLLED NATION ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD." Certainly this is true of nations in which Islamic law is enforced in its fullness: there is no idea of equality and freedom of religion, but for non-Muslims only the limited tolerance and humiliation of dhimmi status.
Posted at 6:23 PM | Comments (5)
You may practise any religion, as long as it's Islam
"A Muslim may not declare that he is not a Muslim, save where he has been certified as such by a Syariah court."
This is Malaysian law, which also prescribes jail for those who leave Islam: an ex-Muslim is "to be detained at an Islamic Guidance Centre for up to 36 months for religious instruction and repentance if he attempted to renounce his faith."
All this comes from a story about four Malaysian ex-Muslims who have run afoul of these laws: "The Federal Court today reserved judgment on an appeal by a couple and two others against the Court of Appeal's judgment rejecting their application for a declaration that they have absolute right and freedom to practise the religion of their choice.
"Chief Justice Tan Sri Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim heard their appeal with Federal Court judges Datuk Wira Mohd Noor Ahmad, Datuk Pajan Singh Gill, Datin Paduka Rahmah Hussain and Court of Appeal judge Datuk Richard Malanjum. Daud Mamat, 62, Kamariah Ali, 51, her husband Mohamad Ya, 57, (now deceased) and Mad Yacob Ismail, 62, had appealed against the Court of Appeal's decision handed down on Aug 2 last year.
"It had dismissed their appeal for a declaration that the Syariah court had no jurisdiction over them in view of their apostasy.
"The court had also dismissed application for writ of habeas corpus for their release from the Pengkalan Chepa prison."
Against them, "Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, for the director of the Pengkalan Chepa prison, in his submission today, said a person's right to profess a religion of his choice as stipulated under Article 11(1) of the Federal Constitution was not an absolute right."
You may practise any religion you want, as long as it's Islam.
"He said since the country had a dual system - civil and syariah - the religious affairs of the Muslims were governed by the syariah, including the issue of apostasy." (Thanks to LGF.)
Posted at 8:42 AM | Comments (1)
Dhimmitude at Homeland Security
"The Homeland Security Department has decided to stop a program that required thousands of Arab and Muslim men to register with immigration authorities after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, officials said on Friday."
If that phrase, "Arab and Muslim men," had any substance, the program was wrongly conceived from the start. Arab men (and women and children) who are not Muslim have nothing to do with the problem of jihadist terrorism, except as its victims. The ideology of violent jihad is not held by Arabic-speaking Christians.
But there is more. "Of the 85,000 men who went to immigration offices early this year, as well as tens of thousands screened at airports and border crossings, 11 had links to terrorism, officials said."
Sounds like a painstaking process, but I fail to see how a program that has stopped 11 terrorists before they could murder anyone is not working. But the problem, of course, is not that it's a failure; it's that it is "racist." Therefore, "the program might be superseded by an effort in which immigration officials at 115 airports and 14 seaports will begin collecting digital fingerprints and photographs from foreign visitors who enter the United States with visas. That program, which is scheduled to begin in January, is not be specifically directed at Muslims and Arabs, he said."
This is as silly as searching white-haired grandmothers in airports. Jihad terrorism isn't being waged by Lutheran or Buddhist or animist or Hindu immigrants. I am sorry if non-terrorist Muslims will be inconvenienced, but if they are not doing anything illegal, then that is all they will suffer: inconvenience. The fact that jihad terrorism is coming from the Islamic world is an unpleasant fact of life; evidently the alternative to being realistic about it, which has become politically impossible, is to inconvenience everyone. I don't mind being inconvenienced in order to help stop terrorism, but for Homeland Security to be fingerprinting Japanese tourists who are wielding nothing more lethal than cameras only diverts time and attention from real anti-terrorism efforts.
(This from the New York Times, with thanks to LGF.)
Posted at 7:50 AM
November 22, 2003
More European dhimmitude: anti-Semitism report shelved
The Financial Times reports that "the European Union's racism watchdog has shelved a report on anti-semitism because the study concluded Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were behind many of the incidents it examined."
This is a product of the multiculturalist "Muslims can't be racists; they're victims" school. "The Vienna-based European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) decided in February not to publish the 112-page study, a copy of which was obtained by the Financial Times, after clashing with its authors over their conclusions."
Specifically, "when the researchers submitted their work in October last year, however, the centre's senior staff and management board objected to their definition of anti-semitism, which included some anti-Israel acts."
And more pointedly: "the focus on Muslim and pro-Palestinian perpetrators, meanwhile, was judged inflammatory."
Said an unidentified "person familiar with the report": "There is a trend towards Muslim anti-semitism, while on the left there is mobilisation against Israel that is not always free of prejudice. Merely saying the perpetrators are French, Belgian or Dutch does no justice to the full picture."
There was more also: "Some EUMC board members had also attacked part of the analysis ascribing anti-semitic motives to leftwing and anti-globalisation groups, this person said. 'The decision not to publish was a political decision.' . . .
"In July, Robert Wexler, a US congressman, wrote to Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, demanding the release of the study.
"Ole Espersen, law professor at Copenhagen University and board member for Denmark, said the study was 'unsatisfactory' and that some members had felt anti-Islamic sentiment should be addressed too."
Fair enough, until you read on: "The EUMC, which was set in 1998, has published three reports on anti-Islamic attitudes in Europe since the September 11 attacks in the US." (Thanks to Charles Johnson.)
Posted at 7:09 AM
November 21, 2003
Not free not to pray — unless you're a Christian
This AP story chronicles a common sight in Saudi Arabia: "a sweep by the muttawas, or religious police, rounding up Muslim men -- Saudis and foreigners alike -- and forcing them to go to the mosque at prayer time."
Meanwhile, the article states the plight of non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia with unusual clarity: "Under Saudi law, all citizens must be Muslim. Non-Muslim foreigners sometimes get caught up in the muttawa sweeps."
A Christian friend of mine who worked in Saudi Arabia for awhile once told me that he would routinely have to hide when one of the five daily prayer times came around — if the muttawas caught him on the street, he would be jailed.
"The kingdom forbids non-Muslim public worship among the country's estimated 7 million expatriate workers, around half a million of whom are Christian. The kingdom also prohibits non-Muslim religious literature and public display of the symbols of other religions.
"Larry, 39, a computer programmer from the Philippines who gave only his first name, said he had been jailed for a day on three different occasions, including once for possessing a Bible. . . .
"In January, at least half a dozen Christian Filipinos were deported, after the muttawas found them holding religious gatherings, a diplomat in the kingdom said on condition of anonymity. Several others reportedly were arrested and deported in sweeps in 1998 and 1999 for similar reasons, including distributing Christian literature in Arabic."
Why does Saudi Arabia forbid Christian worship? This prohibition is founded on the Prophet Muhammad’s famous deathbed statement that “no two religions are allowed in Arabia.” Muhammad also said, “I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslims.” How can Saudis offer non-Muslims the freedom to practice their religions on sacred Arabian soil when the Prophet himself forbade it?
Posted at 11:15 AM | Comments (5)
More Ramadan dhimmitude at State
The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs Washington File has published a release entitled "Muslims Reach Out to Non-Muslim Americans During Ramadan: Muslims seek to clear up misperceptions about Islam."
It features comments made by Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), on the November 19 "Global Exchange" television program. CAIR is identified as a "Washington based advocacy group that seeks to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America and present an Islamic perspective on issues of importance to the American public."
No mention is made, of course, of the many questions surrounding CAIR's real posture toward Islamic radicalism, which may have been why CAIR wasn't invited to the President's recent Ramadan iftaar.
Might CAIR be persona non grata at the White House and still be a good friend of the State Department? Maybe. Or maybe administration officials are being good dhimmis, and caving in to the pressure created by the universal media treatment of CAIR as a moderate Muslim group.
Posted at 10:15 AM
Muslims "Must Choose the British Way - Or Terrorism"
"Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane told the leaders of the UK’s Muslim community today that they must make a choice between the 'British way' of political dialogue and Islamic terrorism.
"Following the Istanbul bombs, Mr MacShane likened the terrorists to the Nazis and urged [imams] and other Muslim leaders to use 'clearer, stronger language' to speak out against them.
"'It is time for the elected and community leaders of British Muslims to make a choice: it is the British way – based on political dialogue and non-violent protests – or it is the way of the terrorists against which the whole democratic world is now uniting,' he said in a speech in his Rotherham constituency.
"'I hope we will see clearer, stronger language that there is no future for any Muslim cause anywhere in the world that validates, or implicitly supports, the use of political violence in any way.
"'Democracy has no place for terrorism and – like Nazism and other forms of tyranny – it must be defeated by the common will and determination of all who live under rule of law and in democratic freedom.'"
It is refreshing to see any public official in Europe speak forthrightly about the incompatibility of republican government with radical Islam. Especially in Britain, where advocates of violent jihad operate openly.
UPDATE: After Muslim protests, MacShane has toned down his remarks. "But," says the latest report, "he stood by his most inflammatory comments in which he told Muslims they must be stronger in their condemnation of terrorism."
Posted at 9:39 AM
November 20, 2003
Bad dhimmi! Dr. Laura rebuked for "anti-Muslim tirade"
"A controversial Islamic lobby group is demanding an apology from radio counselor Dr. Laura Schlessinger for an alleged 'anti-Muslim tirade' on her program this week." This from WorldNetDaily.
This is what Dr. Laura said in response to a caller asking if she should allow her daughter to go on a field trip to a mosque, "aimed to help students learn how 'Muslims are treated' in the United States": "This is a class on morals. What is the point of going to a mosque? ... You're joking of course. How many Americans have tortured and murdered Muslims. I think you ought to stand up against this class and this teacher. This is despicable. You tell him you are willing to go to the mosque only if it is one that has done its best to rout out terrorists in its midst. Instead of complaining. I am horrified that you would let her go. I am so sick and tired of all the Arab-American groups whining and complaining about some kind of treatment. What culture and what religion were all the murderers of 9-11? They murdered us. That's the culture you want your daughter to learn about?"
Bad dhimmi! Imagine her calling on Muslims to root out terrorists from their midst!
Not only that, but the "controversial group" in question is the Council on American Islamic Relations, with its spokesman, my old pal Ibrahim Hooper.
As I have noted many times, CAIR has numerous unexplained ties to radical Islam. In a similar vein, the WND article informs us that "CAIR is a spin-off of the Islamic Association For Palestine, or IAF, identified as a 'front group' for the terrorist organization Hamas, according to two former heads of the FBI's counterterrorism section."
Also, "CAIR's leaders . . . have provided evidence for claims Muslims have a plan for domination.
"As WorldNetDaily reported, CAIR's chairman of the board, Omar Ahmad, was cited by a California newspaper in 1998 declaring the Quran should be America's highest authority.
"He also was reported to have said Islam is not in America to be equal to any other religion but to be dominant.
"Hooper himself indicated in a 1993 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he wants to see the United States become a Muslim country. 'I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future,' Hooper told the paper. 'But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education.'
"In addition, CAIR has sought to convey the impression Muslims are under siege in America. A report released this year, titled 'Guilt by Association,' blasted the Bush administration for government policies that unfairly single out Muslim individuals and organizations' – a charge denied by the Justice Department.
"CAIR claimed when compared to the year preceding Sept. 11, its 2002 report on bias or hate-related incidents against Muslims showed a 64 percent increase.
"Justice Department spokesman Jorge Martinez told WorldNetDaily, on the contrary, he sees a vastly improving situation in 'backlash' incidents since a 'spike' in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."
See also this about CAIR's claims of bias attacks.
UPDATE: Dr. Laura will not be treated like a dhimmi. She will not apologize. The WND headline: "Dr. Laura: No apology to Muslims needed — Remarks 'quite specific to terrorists and the people who harbor them'"
Posted at 9:45 AM | Comments (2)
Christian Centre Attacked by Army
More harassment of the dhimmis in Egypt. According to the Barnabas Fund, "the Egyptian Army has once again carried out a totally unprovoked attack on the Patmos Christian Centre 30km to the east of Cairo.

"Just after midnight in the early hours of Tuesday 18 November an army dump truck was driven repeatedly into the perimeter wall surrounding the Patmos Christian Centre. As pictures show considerable damage was caused, including the destruction of one of the reinforced concrete pillars."
Obviously in secular Egypt there are still significant sectors that believe in the Sharia stipulation that dhimmis are forbidden to build new churches (cf. a legal manual approved by Al-Azhar University in Cairo, 'Umdat al-Salik (o11.5 (7)).
Posted at 8:53 AM
November 19, 2003
Dhimmitude in France: don't wear yarmulkes
"Worried about a surge in anti-Semitic attacks, France's chief rabbi has cautioned Jewish men against wearing yarmulkes in public, suggesting they wear baseball caps instead.
"After a weekend arson attack on a Jewish school, Rabbi Joseph Sitruk urged young men to be extra cautious, saying they could become targets of violence if they wear the yarmulke, or skullcap.
"'I ask young Jews to be alert, to avoid walking alone, to avoid wearing the yarmulke in the street or in the subway and consequently becoming targets for potential assailants,' Sitruk told Radio J this weekend."
It may be not too long before the headscarves that Muslims are fighting to change France's secular laws in order to wear will be the only religious apparel visible on French streets.
Posted at 12:10 PM
Who is funding the Said Chair?
Who is funding the Edward Said Chair in Middle East Studies at Columbia University? An anonymous dhimmi? Or more ominous figures?
Reports Jonathan Calt Harris at FrontPage magazine: "Columbia University’s newly established Edward Said Chair in Middle East Studies is noteworthy for several reasons. The position is named for the recently deceased professor best known for his defense of Palestinian 'resistence.' And Rashid Khalidi, an overt supporter of Palestinian violence and – according to a just-published biography of Yasir Arafat from Oxford University Press – a former PLO press spokesman, has joined Columbia to fill the post.
"But there is something even more objectionable about this chair: It is anonymously endowed and Columbia University – perhaps against the law – refuses to disclose the donors. According to Columbia, the donors’ names are confidential. 'We don’t disclose them without their permission,' said spokeswoman Katie Moore, adding that Columbia has 'the same policy that every school would have.'"
Neverheless, "several donors to the chair’s endowment fund have been identified. The Hauser Foundation, headed by New York philanthropist Rita Hauser, is one of them. Ms. Hauser’s former law firm, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, has been registered as recently as 2001 with the Justice Department as an agent for the Palestinian Authority.
"Another donor is the Olayan Charitable Trust, a New York-based charity affiliated with the Saudi-based Olayan Group. The vice president of corporate communications at Olayan’s New York offices, Richard Hobson, has said that while the trust does not publicize its donations, that he believed it is, 'one of the lead donors but not the lead donor.'
"And Martin Kramer, editor of the Middle East Quarterly, reports he has a list of contributors to the chair that includes a foreign government.
"Hiding the donors goes against Columbia’s own rules, which stipulate that a 'principal investigator' involved in any university grant or contract is mandated to release information for 'dissemination to members of the University community' when such requests are made. An endowed chair is not specifically a university grant or contract, but neither is it that different.
"'It is highly unusual, to say the least, for the donor or donors of an academic chair to hide their identity,' says Columbia’s Awi Federgruen, a former dean of the graduate business school. 'In the face of various precedents,' he continues, 'at Berkeley, Michigan and most recently the Zayed chair donated by the United Arab Emirates to the Harvard Divinity School, one cannot blame the public for being concerned.'" Indeed.
Posted at 11:42 AM
"Convert to Islam in seven days"
The Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities reports that a militant Islamic group there, Harkat-E-Islam Al-Jihad, has sent a letter to "religious minority businessmen and leaders of opposition party" demanding that they "convert to Islam with in seven days of receiving letter." If they don't, "their family members will be attacked and houses will be burnt."
"Osman Bin Abdulla Al Jihadi, South-East Asian Sub Committee, signed the letter. The signature is written in Arabic language. The letter sent to Rajat Subhra has a postmark of October 31st and it was sent from Khilgaon Post Office. The letter used his father’s nickname 'Gop Babu' in the care of. It is believed that some locals are involved with the organization.
"The letter is written on organizational pad with picture of two swords on the left, a picture of mosque and moon in the middle. Document number is: 2/ES/G/ASIA 029. The date is hand written, 2 Ramjan 1424 Hijri (Arabic Year). In addition, the whole letter is composed with computer.
"The letter started with, hey Infidel (non-believers), Jews and Kafers (Non-believers) you are living in Muslim Bangladesh and sending assets to a neighboring Infidel country. We have established Harkat-E-Islam Al-Jihad to eliminate people like you. Our Jihad will continue until we win. Our main objective is to exterminate you from this country. The same letter has been sent to Dipak Ghosh and some others through postal, in addition to Rajat Subhra. Those letters reached Mankganj yesterday.
"Source: The Daily Sangbad (Bengali News Paper), November 3, 2003." (Thanks to fanabba).
Posted at 10:08 AM
November 18, 2003
Happy Ramadan viewing
Reports MEMRI: "During the month of Ramadan, Hizbullah's satellite television channel Al-Manar, which is viewed worldwide, is broadcasting a 30-part antisemitic Syrian-produced series titled Al-Shatat ('Diaspora'). According to a November 11, 2003 report by the Syrian daily Syria Times, it is 'a Syrian TV series recording the criminal history of Zionism.' The series purports to tell the story of Zionism from 1812 to the establishment of the state of Israel and depicts a 'global Jewish government' similar to that described in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
MEMRI's report includes a video clip, script excerpts, and photos from this series, "which depict Jews carrying out acts of torture and plotting to secretly dispose of the body of a community member."
This is the mentality underlying the entire dhimmitude system in Islamic law: it regards dhimmis as accursed, as renegades, as untrustworthy, and as people who must be subdued, because to treat them as equals would invite disaster for the Muslims. That's why dhimmi testimony is devalued or rejected in Sharia courts, why a dhimmi's life is worth less than a Muslim's, etc.: the dhimmis are fundamentally evil people who have defied God and rejected His Prophet.
Posted at 2:28 PM | Comments (2)
Dhimmitude at the Red, um, Cross
"Fearing they might offend someone, Red Cross stores in Britain have taken the Christian out of Christmas this year, banning any display of overtly religious decorations." This from WorldNetDaily.
"At a shop in Ipswich, England, for example, Christmas cards are on display but none of them depict the classic Christian images of the birth of Christ, Joseph and Mary, and Bethlehem, the Evening Star newspaper of Ipswich reported.
"Instead, the store carries only cards with wintry, non-religious scenes.
"Its window display shows snowmen and tinsel.
"'We are a non religious organization, but personally I think it has gone too far,' a volunteer in the store told the newspaper. 'I don't think Muslims are offended by Christmas.'"
Even if they may be offended, part of what living in a pluralistic society means that you put up with the existence of certain things that may offend you.
Posted at 7:05 AM
Italy to expel controversial imam
A sign of hope that maybe Europe, or at least Italy, is not going to surrender abjectly and accept dhimmitude: "officials in Italy say they are deporting a Senegalese imam who poses a 'great threat' to state security."
No doubt there will be cries of racism and bigotry all around, but Italian authorities seem to be on firm ground: "The decision follows recent statements to the media by Fall Mamour, predicting that there would be attacks on Italian soldiers in Iraq. The 39-year-old imam was already being investigated for his financial deals, an interior ministry statement said."
A spokesman said that Mamour "was already known to authorities as somebody who received suspect funds. . . . In addition, for a long time, and even more so since the slaughter of Italian soldiers in Nasiriya, he has launched dangerous initiatives, especially in the present context of international terrorism."
Some of these seem to indicate that he knew Italian troops in Iraq would be targeted: "Since the Nasiriya attack, several Italian newspapers have published stories on a series of predictions Mr Mamour made weeks before the bombing, in which he warned of attacks against Italian soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The imam said Italy's troops would be targeted because they were aiding the US-led coalition, adding that further strikes would then follow on Italian soil."
Nor is that all: "Mr Mamour - who has lived in Italy for 11 years - has previously stirred controversy by his statements on Italian television programmes. During one of the TV interviews, he said he had once fought alongside Osama bin Laden and was linked to the al-Qaeda leader by what he said was a 'blood pact'."
Posted at 7:00 AM | Comments (1)
November 17, 2003
Al-Qaeda didn't do it. Guess who did
Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency reports that the "leader of a Pakistani religious group has said that Al Qaeda or Islamic militants were not responsible
for Sunday's suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed at least 11 people, Daily Times reported."
Who was, then? "'It is a Jewish and American conspiracy against the Mujahideen
and Al Qaeda,' Jamaatud Dawa Chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed said in Lahore on Wednesday."
It's all a conspiracy, you see. "'America wants to extend its stay in Saudi Arabia as its contract to hold Saudi air bases has expired,' he said. 'If jihad in Kashmir is stopped, India could attack Pakistan, and if the Mujahideen lay down their weapons in Afghanistan, America could attack Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. America is looking to withdraw its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, but it has no way out. The day is not far when America will be crushed like the USSR by the mujahideen,' he added.
This is the kind of propaganda that is pandemic in the Muslim world. Variations on these themes are spread westward by dhimmi academics and journalists frantic to paint the West and the U.S. in the worst possible light, even if it means presenting elaborate conspiracy fantasies as truth.
Saeed also "criticized the government of Pakistan for trying to improve ties with India rather than supporting jihad in Kashmir. 'It is treachery against the mujahideen, who are fighting for the Pakistan survival,' he said.
Saeed's group, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, has been placed by the Pakistani government on "a watch list under the Anti Terrorist Act," although it continues to operate while three other radical Muslim groups have been banned.
Posted at 10:11 AM
November 16, 2003
Egypt: Christians imprisoned, Islamists released
This report comes from World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty researcher and writer, Elizabeth Kendal, courtesy Freedom Now News:
EGYPT: CHRISTIANS IMPRISONED - ISLAMISTS RELEASED
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The Egyptian government recently released around 1,000 members of the Islamist fundamentalist group Gammaa el-Islamiya, and then moved to detain and torture Christians (apostates; i.e. former Muslims) for changing their Muslim names to Christian names.
A 26 September 2003 Stratfor Global Intelligence Report entitled, "Egypt: Internal Focus and Political Stability", provides a basis for analysis. Stratfor says, "Egypt's ruling party is touting economic and political reform, signalling Cairo's renewed focus on domestic issues.
"Egypt plays a pivotal role in the region. The country has seen slow but steady economic growth in the past decade, with purchasing power parity rising steadily from 1992 to 2002. This has eased internal pressures on the government, despite widespread anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment and opposition to Cairo's relationship with Washington. Instability in Egypt would resonate throughout an already troubled region, encouraging instability in states such as Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. In a bid to prevent such instability, Cairo is focusing almost all of its attention inward."
According to this Stratfor report, the government's main problems at present are "anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment and opposition to Cairo's relationship with Washington". This might go some way to explaining the recent prisoner movements in Egypt.
PRISONERS IN - CRACKDOWN ON APOSTATES
On 20 October, Egyptian police commenced a crackdown on apostates. According to the U.S. Copts Association (26 Oct), "The assault started with the arrest of a husband and wife who secretly converted from Islam to Christianity. Yousef Samuel Makari Suliman, whose former Muslim name was Muhammad Ahmad Imam al-Kurdi and his wife Mariam Girgis Makar formerly Saher El-Sayid Abd al-Kani and their two daughters, Sarah and Marina (formerly Sarah and Shaymaa), had all secretly converted to Christianity and had been living as
Christians in hiding."
Compass Direct reports that Yousef and Mariam told the prosecutor "that they did not know it was illegal for them to change their religious identity. Since it was commonly known that Christians in Egypt could convert to Islam and change their identity papers, they assumed that Muslims had the same rights."
The U.S. Copts report (26 Oct) continues, "Following the arrest of Yousef and Mariam, the police arrested individuals who helped them secure new ID cards with new Christian names. Under severe torture; the police were able to extract the names of some 100 other converts who secured new ID cards with Christian names. Immediately, thereafter, 20 more converts were arrested in Alexandria alone.
"Officially the 22 arrested converts are being charged 'with falsifying ID papers,' because they obtained new ID cards with their Christian names."
The most recent report from the Barnabas Fund (12 Nov) states that 17 of those arrested have been released on bail, whilst five (including Mariam) remain in prison. The Barnabas Fund report on the torture inflicted upon the prisoners is harrowing reading. Torture is said to have contributed to the death in custody of one of the Muslims arrested for allegedly 'falsifying' the Christian's ID cards. Mariam is reportedly being held in the same quarters as prostitutes and being told that while they will be released, she, as an apostate, will never be released. She is under great pressure to return to Islam .
According to Barnabas Fund, the detention of the five remaining in prison comes up for review on 20 November.
The Institute on Religion and Public Policy has expressed outrage that the Egyptian government could abuse religious liberty after signing the "Declaration of the Interparliamentary Conference on Human Rights and Religious Freedom" in Brussels in September. The Declaration has a very strong statement concerning religious freedom.
Only days later, representatives from Cairo participated in the Congress of World and Traditional Religions in Astana, Kazakhstan and signed a concluding declaration which affirmed, among other things, "the right of each human person to freely be convinced, choose, express, and practice his/her religion."
Institute President Joseph K. Grieboski declared, "These actions of the Egyptian government have demonstrated that they have little interest in adhering to documents or principles to which they have signed, in essence making liars of their own people."
PRISONERS OUT - AMNESTY FOR GAMMAA EL-ISLAMIYA MILITANTS
On 6 October 2003, Egyptian president Husni Mubarak released nearly 3,000 prisoners under an amnesty to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur war with Israel.
About 1,000 of those set free were members of the Islamist fundamentalist group Gammaa el-Islamiya. Three of the group's leaders, Karam Zohdi, Fou'ad El-Dawalibi and Assem Abdel-Maged, convicted for their involvement in the 6 October 1981 assassination of former President Anwar Sadat, were among those released. Anwar Sadat was assassinated for signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Thus the timing is very significant. These men were amnestied on the anniversary of the assassination for which they were imprisoned - an assassination committed in protest of a peace treaty with Israel.
Gammaa el-Islamiya is known for the terror campaign it has waged against the Egyptian government. Gammaa el-Islamiya's aim had been to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state. They were infamous for killing of tourists (i.e. the Luxor massacre), but they also killed and terrorised Christians, whose very existence conflicted with their ideals of an Islamic state. The Gammaa el-Islamiya militants have allegedly been released because their leaders have declared that they have renounced violence.
However, as Michael Meunier, the Executive Director of the Center for Freedom in the Middle East in Washington, D.C., points out, the leaders of the Gammaa el-Islamiya may have issued statements of repentance, but they have not shown any remorse concerning the killings and terror inflicted upon Copts (Egypt's Christians), Jews, and Westerners during their campaign of violence.
Meunier says, "The discriminatory Islamist ideology that propelled the group's members to violence against the Copts appears to remain ingrained within its new, revised philosophy. We hear no remorse for the brutality demonstrated against the infidels (Christians and Jews) - they are once again sidelined as acceptable victims of violence."
An article in the Cairo weekly Al-Ahram reports that the Gammaa el-Islamiya leaders explain their change of heart as the result of "ijtihad, or independently reasoned interpretation of the Holy Qur'an and Sunna (teachings of Prophet Mohamed)". They are saying that interpretation must be "suited to exigencies, and changing realities".
Al-Ahram reports, "In their books Al-Gama'a's leaders stressed the inevitability of 'sincere Muslims', including Al-Gama'a, reviewing their stance on resistance due to the situation in Iraq, external pressures on Arab governments and the global order of power, all of which threaten 'national autonomy itself'."
Al-Ahram notes that some commentators have suggested that Gammaa el-Islamiya's call for an end to Islamist violence is purely tactical, and some expatriate Al-Gama'a members have suggested that the incarcerated leaders were enticed by a government offer for early release.
In response to such accusations Karam Zohdi says, "While an agreement with Jews can be temporary, until war against them is resumed, in a peace agreement between Muslims there can be no exit."
We can take this to mean that Gammaa el-Islamiya will honour its agreement with the Egyptian government, but an agreement regarding non-violence against Jews or Christians need not be honoured if war is declared against them.
That statement by Gammaa el-Islamiya puts weight behind this statement by Michael Meunier: "The release of more than 1,000 members of the Gamma el-Islamiya and al-Jihad organization, including several top leaders may very well serve the surge of international terrorism. In this context, therefore, it should serve as no surprise that Egypt has granted the Gamma el-Islamiya a new
lifeline."
The security situation for Christians and Jews in (and possibly beyond) Egypt looks set to deteriorate.
- Elizabeth Kendal
Posted at 8:32 PM
Dhimmitude in Istanbul and Washington
A reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune, traveling in Istanbul, records some tourists' reactions to the Istanbul synagogue bombings: "Americans touring Turkey's largest city Saturday reacted with disbelief that terrorism had shattered a peaceful religious and ethnic co-existence that is foreign to many other Muslim countries."
President Bush said it too: "I condemn in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attacks today in Istanbul, where Turkey's diverse religious communities of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian believers have flourished together for centuries."
I hate to sound a sour note here, but take a look at this to see how well the diverse communities flourished together in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire and the beginnings of the secular Turkish state: over three million non-Muslim victims of jihad.
Also note that the non-Muslim population of Istanbul itself has gone from 50% in 1914 to less than one percent today. How could this have happened in a land of such harmonious diversity? (Thanks to Beck.)
Posted at 9:14 AM | Comments (1)
November 15, 2003
Slavery lives on in Sudan
The estimable Michael Coren hits another nail on the head in this article about jihad slavery in Sudan: "In fact, millions have been enslaved, murdered, mutilated and abused in this campaign, far more than have suffered in, for example, what are known as the Occupied Territories in Israel. Odd, then, that so much media time is given to that situation, so little to this.
"The world ought to look closely at what takes place in Sudan in the months and years to come. There are very powerful and very bad people who will resist ceaselessly the creation of a separate African and largely Christian state on the edge of the House of Islam.
"Let us hope the world does not play the role of hypocrite once again. The stench of the blood is becoming overwhelming."
Posted at 5:39 PM | Comments (1)
Worst terror reporting since 9/11
The dhimmis at Reuters have compiled a list of the "worst terror attacks since 9/11."
Charles at LGF points out one glaring problem with this list: "Not one attack by Palestinian Arab terrorists in Israel is listed."
Another example of PC dhimmitude is the fact that these attacks are identified as "some of the worst terror attacks around the world since September 11, 2001." The words "Islam" or "Muslim" never appear anywhere, even though all 20 attacks listed were the work of radical Muslims who were operating in the name of Islam. For all anyone can tell from this Reuters list, these attacks could have been committed by Free Will Baptists or Amish.
UPDATE: CNN, perhaps bowing to protests, has removed this list. The link above doesn't work.
Posted at 12:13 PM | Comments (4)
Academic dhimmitude and the Golden Age
A trenchant address by Serge Trifkovic skewers the tendency of dhimmi academics to "twist the Moslem past to serve their present-day intellectual agendas" — a tendency I also explore in Onward Muslim Soldiers.
Posted at 10:16 AM | Comments (1)
Dhimmitude in Turkey
Dhimmitude seems to be alive and well in enlightened, secular Turkey, everyone's favorite model of a thriving Islamic democracy. Compass Direct reports that when Deniz Kasan, a convert from Islam to Christianity, applied to change her religious identity (yes, this must be registered with the "secular" government), her application was denied.
"But to Kasan’s shock, her routine application was refused by the Kadikoy 'kaymakam,' or presiding district official. In a notice issued that same day, September 29, the official declared that her church was 'not recognized as an official house of worship' and thus her baptismal certificate could not be considered valid."
Other applications from the same Presbyterian church, however, including that of Kasan's husband, also a convert from Islam to Christianity, have been accepted in the past. More recently, however, others have also been rejected — and this pattern is recurring all over Turkey.
On Timur Topuz's second try to change his registration from Muslim to Christian, "he was given a written notice declaring that his identity could not be revised as requested. Citing an Interior Ministry directive dated October 14, 2002, the office ignored his objections and issued him a new card identifying him as a Muslim. When asked if he planned to open a court case over his denied request, Topuz confirmed that his church was considering it. 'But it seems it could be very expensive,' he noted."
Another was Emrah Unver: when he "told the officials he wanted to change his identity from Muslim to Christian, they told him it was not allowed and refused to accept his application."
Says lawyer Erol Dogru: "Without question, Turkey’s laws and constitution guarantee freedom of religion. But in order to win this, our citizens have to fight for it in the courts of law."
Posted at 8:03 AM | Comments (1)
November 14, 2003
Alexandrian Converts & Supporters: All but 5 Released
"Seventeen of the 22 Christian converts and their supporters who were arrested in Alexandria in late October have been granted bail; the five remaining in prison are still suffering degradation and abuse," says Project Open Book.
The article notes: "A Christian who converts to Islam in Egypt can receive new ID papers with a new adopted Muslim name within 24 hours. However, it is impossible for a Muslim who converts to Christianity to change their name to a Christian one at all."
Posted at 4:00 PM
Why those who leave Islam must die
The Palestinian textbook that I discuss at Jihad Watch also explains why anyone who leaves Islam deserves death:
"The logical reason for executing a person who abandons Islam is the following: There is nothing in Islam that comes in contrast to human nature. Whoever joins Islam after recognizing its truth and after tasting its sweetness and then abandons it - is in fact rebelling against truth and logic. Like any other regime, Islam has to protect itself therefore this punishment [execution] awaits the person who abandons it, because he is spreading doubt about Islam…
"Abandoning Islam is a crime that warrants a severe punishment… [The phases of punishment are]:
"Urging [the sinner] to recant immediately… "Warning him of the implications of his persistence in abandoning Islam, namely warning him that he will be executed.
"Execute the sinner if he persists in [his decision to] abandon Islam…"
Christian missionaries, meanwhile, are merely agents of the Great Satan: "Missionaries are one of the Western institutions used for intellectual invasion of the Muslim world. They tried to get the Muslims out of Islam by weakening the faith in their hearts and accepting the Western way of life. Outwardly they call for adopting the faith of Jesus, but in reality they try to facilitate the Western intellectual invasion of the Islamic countries… The missionary organizations throughout the Islamic world tried to weaken the faith in the hearts of the Muslims, to spread secular ideas to replace Islamic ideology and to pave the way for the occupation of Islamic countries and strengthening Imperialism in them…
"The missionary movement left deep impressions in Islamic life, such as:
"Admiration and adoption of the Western way of life… Materialistic and exploitative Western criteria and values and their understanding of life was common to the point that many Muslims yearned for it and turned to Western culture and literature.
"Weakening the Islamic spirit of the young generation as a result of weakening the faith in their hearts and the acceptance of contagious Western ideas and principles. Capitalist, Communist, and atheist ideas spread among the Muslims…
"Giving the educational system in the Islamic countries a Western flavor. The missionaries, with the help of Imperialism, were able to turn their philosophy and culture into educational foundations in many Islamic countries. Western history and culture became the main source of education and science-learning for Muslim children…
"Defamation of Islamic history and the life-histories of the Muslim Khalifs, and presenting Islamic history as [a series of] wars, conflicts, civil wars, revolutions, battles over power, and repression of citizens…
"Faulting Islam, its Messenger, and the truth of his prophecies, and spreading misleading ideas, such as the claim that Islam expanded by the sword and by coercion. Also, faulting the divorce laws and polygamy and depicting Islamic legal punishments as inhumane."
Imagine! Stoning and amputation inhumane! The idea!
All this, needless to say, is an extended apology for Sharia and the terrorism that radical Muslims justify on its basis.
Posted at 3:45 PM
Anti-dhimmitude in Thailand
An editorial from Thailand's The Nation dares to point out the Islamic world's "double standards about al-Qaeda and the Taleban."
It points out that "the recent suicide attack by al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia was met with unusually loud condemnation from the Muslim world, apparently because virtually all the victims were Muslims and perhaps because Riyadh has been one of the most generous aid givers to poorer Muslim nations. In contrast, exactly the same heinous acts being carried out by Taleban terrorists in Afghanistan have hardly attracted any outrage from the Muslim world, perhaps because the country is a pauper state struggling to build itself up from total collapse."
The conclusion: "Moderate and sensible Muslims everywhere who have too often been cowed into submission by the extremist elements in their societies must abandon the double standards that make a distinction between non-Muslim and Muslim victims of terrorists. After all, there is only one standard for humanity, which calls for the eradication of terrorism from the face of the earth." Indeed.
Posted at 8:57 AM | Comments (3)
November 13, 2003
CAIR to Bush: Be a good dhimmi
From Fox: "President Bush is willing to pose for pictures with American Muslims and publicly praise Islam, but developing a substantive relationship with the Bush administration will take much more work, say some Muslim-American groups."
Said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR): "We need to see regular, productive, policy-based meetings."
You have to admire Hooper's, uh, chutzpah. He wants to dictate policy to Bush when there are some things about CAIR that may well explain why he wasn't invited to the President's recent iftaar: radical Islam has long been a troubling element of the Council on American Islamic Relations. CAIR’s founder and Executive Director, Nihad Awad, has repeatedly declared his support for the terrorist group Hamas. Former CAIR communications specialist Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer has been charged with "conspiracy to levy war against the United States and conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida and the Taliban." Bassem K. Khafagi, who has been identified in news reports as the community affairs director for CAIR’s national office in Washington, pleaded guilty to charges of bank and visa fraud. An organization he helped found, the Islamic Assembly of North America, is suspected of providing websites for two radical Sheikhs with ties to Osama bin Laden.
To my knowledge, Hooper has never explained any of this. When confronted about CAIR's support for Hamas and other terrorist groups, he reportedly replied: "CAIR does not support these groups publicly." But he responded rudely to requests to clarify this curious statement — just as he has ducked uncomfortable questions with rudeness and bluster in the past.
But this man still receives carte blanche in this story from Fox News as a neutral civil rights leader with a legitimate claim to discuss policy with the President.
Posted at 12:11 PM | Comments (1)
Islamic democracy watch
In the New York Times, Noah Feldman asks, "Can a nation be founded on both Islam and democracy without compromising on human rights and equality?" He has high hopes for Afghanistan's new constitution, although he acknowledges that its provisions about women's rights are ambiguous.
About non-Muslim rights he says: "The provision that makes Islam the nation's official religion also recognizes the right of non-Muslims 'to perform their religious ceremonies within the limits of the provisions of law.' This carefully chosen language might arguably leave room to restrict proselytizing — as, for example, do similar laws in India and Israel — but it nonetheless guarantees individual expression as an inviolable right. (It's worth noting that the right to change one's religion is enshrined in the human rights declaration.)"
Unfortunately, Islamic law can't legitimately be compared to whatever India and Israel say about prosletyzing. “The subject peoples,” according to a manual of Islamic law that carries the endorsement of Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam’s most respected authority, must “pay the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya)” and “are distinguished from Muslims in dress, wearing a wide cloth belt (zunnar); . . . must keep to the side of the street; may not build higher than or as high as the Muslims’ buildings, though if they acquire a tall house, it is not razed; are forbidden to openly display wine or pork . . . recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals or feastdays; and are forbidden to build new churches.”
Feldman also mentions Afghanistan's adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He notes that "One essential provision mandates that the state shall abide by the United Nations Charter, international treaties, all international conventions that Afghanistan has signed and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." He also tells us that the new constitution calls for "elimination of traditions contrary to the principles of the sacred religion of Islam."
What he doesn't tell us is that those two principles are on a collision course. The human rights declaration does indeed contain the right to change one's religion, but the Sharia does not. The death penalty for people who leave Islam is rooted in the words of Muhammad: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Sahih Bukhari, volume 9, book 84, no. 57).
Also, there are numerous indications that democracy is going to have a tough time in the Muslim world, just as I predicted: today in Arab News, Fawaz Turki sneers at President Bush's Wilsonian plans to export democracy:
"A people’s habits of vision — their history, culture, faith, language, literature — codify that people’s immemorial reflexes, the contours of their communal reference . . . President Bush in effect wants Arabs, along with folks elsewhere in the Muslim world, to weld these habits of vision to an idiom appropriated from Jefferson, Locke and Montesquieu. Well, it ain’t gonna happen, fellow, not only because the whole enterprise is degrading for its ethnocentric bias, but because that’s not the way social systems organically evolve and transform."
Rather, "in the end it will be in the wealth of our own heritage, not in the borrowed dress of other tongues and political traditions that an Arab renaissance will strike root."
Wonderful. But does that mean more dhimmitude — discrimination, harassment, subjugation — for non-Muslim minorities? After all, that's the heritage of Islamic law.
That heritage is being asserted now in Malaysia, where the Washington Times reports that "Malaysia's biggest opposition party yesterday declared its goal of forming an Islamic state, with punishments such as stoning and amputation for criminals and a ban on non-Muslims becoming prime minister."
They were full of reassurances: "Party leaders tempered the announcement by promising the country's large non-Muslim minorities they would not lose religious freedoms guaranteed by the constitution or the right to hold other government posts."
But again, such a reassurance is on a collision course with the law according to which Islamic states have been constituted throughout history, and other political groups in Malaysia are fully aware of that. Lim Kit Siang of the Democratic Action Party charged that an Islamic state would create "a new dichotomy between Muslims and non-Muslims. It confirms the worst fears of the non-Muslims in Malaysia. The proposals raised would alter the citizenship rights of both Muslims and non-Muslims."
The man knows his Islamic law.
Posted at 9:38 AM | Comments (1)
November 12, 2003
Sudan: a report on the peace process
Courtesy of Freedom Now News, a report on the ongoing tragedy of the dhimmi populations in Sudan:
Red Flags in Sudan: Threats to the Peace Process; Widening Humanitarian Crisis in Darfur
by Eric Reeves
The massive and growing humanitarian crisis in Darfur Province (northwestern Sudan) is not typically seen in the context of peace negotiations between Khartoum's National Islamic Front regime and the SPLM/A, representing southern Sudan and the country's marginalized areas. And to be sure, it is important to note that the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) in Darfur is not directly related to the forces struggling against Khartoum in the south and other marginalized areas. What both conflicts have in common, however, is the refusal to accept any longer the Islamic fascism that has ruled Sudan for the last fourteen years.
At the same time, it is critically important to understand all that lies implicit in Khartoum's present response to the human catastrophe in Darfur. We will then come much closer to seeing the nature of remaining obstacles in the Machakos/IGAD peace process, and the challenges that will follow immediately upon any peace agreement. This is especially true if we consider very recent and ominous militia movements in Upper Nile province, as well as inflammatory statements by NIF President Omer Beshir on the key outstanding issue in negotiations, the status of the three contested areas of Abyei, the Nuba Mountains, and Southern Blue Nile.
With all this in mind it may not be so difficult to understand why local observers in Khartoum are reporting that the mosques in the city are generating a greatly heightened rhetoric directed against a peace agreement. Though such an agreement seems increasingly likely to be reached in Kenya, Khartoum still seems to be preparing for a possible strategic collapsing of the peace talks---or perhaps a full-scale reneging on any actual signed agreement. There is in any event a good deal in recent days that bears close scrutiny and is cause for deep concern.
Strikingly, the US charge d'affaires in Khartoum---presently the ranking US diplomat in Sudan---was prevented from traveling to Darfur two days ago. Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa) reports that the American Embassy in Sudan published a statement Sunday (November 9, 2003), "expressing regret that the U.S. charge d'affaires in Sudan, Gerard Galluci, and other representatives of the Embassy and US AID [Agency for International Development] were prohibited from traveling to Nyala town in the South Darfur region of western Sudan. The statement said that Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), a government establishment regulating the work of local and international relief organizations cancelled the trip despite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs granting permission to travel." (Deutsche Presse Agentur, November 9, 2003)
This comes even as a number of reports from the UN are directly critical of the Khartoum regime for obstructing humanitarian access to Darfur. Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports: "Sudan's government is hampering an adequate response to an escalating humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged Darfur region by reneging on a pledge to process aid workers' travel permits speedily, the UN accused on Monday. 'Some aid operations haven't been able to start. Aid workers who are ready to go (to Darfur) are getting stuck,' because their permit applications have not been turned around within a promised 24-hour period, Ben Parker, the Nairobi-based spokesperson for the UN's Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Sudan, Mukesh Kapila said." (Agence France-Presse, November 10, 2003)
A further statement yesterday from the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan notes: "New regulations [from Khartoum] on travel permits that entered into force on 1 October 2003 have not been followed consistently. As a result, travel procedures remain slow and cumbersome and, in some cases, permission to visit affected areas is withheld." Statement from UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan (issued Nairobi/Khartoum, November 10, 2003)
The statement continues by giving a sense of the vast dimensions of Darfur's crisis: "The number of displaced people continues to increase thanks to the escalation of armed conflict in the region since February 2003. The estimated 500,000 to 600,000 newly displaced people live in North, South and West Darfur. 70,000 people have sought refuge in Chad, and one million others have been affected by the war." Statement from UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan (issued Nairobi/Khartoum, November 10, 2003)
The situation of many of these people is dire in the extreme: that the National Islamic Front regime should be manipulating humanitarian access for military advantage suggests all too clearly the manner of thinking of those who are presently negotiating with the SPLM/A in Kenya. And of course when the UN statement continues by giving a comparative sense of the disaster--- "The United Nations in Sudan warns that the situation in the Greater Darfur Region of western Sudan may emerge as the worst humanitarian crisis in the Sudan since 1998"--- the reference is ominous in the extreme. For 1998 was the year of the terrible famine in Bahr el-Ghazal Province, when Khartoum's denial and manipulation of humanitarian access was the major factor in the death by starvation of perhaps 100,000 human beings. The unspeakable barbarism of denying and manipulating humanitarian aid for destructive purposes also tells far too much about the people representing the Khartoum regime in the Machakos/IGAD talks.
That a cease-fire agreement for Darfur has not resulted in a halting of attacks by Khartoum-backed Arab militias gives a clear warning about one of the central threats to any peace agreement between the SPLM/A and the National Islamic Front. Notably, a number of highly reliable regional sources are reporting on new militia activities by Khartoum-backed militias in the oil regions of Upper Nile. Humanitarian organizations have apparently been evacuated from Central Upper Nile because of the threat of militia activities---activities that may be related to efforts to secure more of the oil regions prior to the resumption of peace talks.
Khartoum may now have adopted a policy of using its militia forces before more of them return to the SPLM/A, as was the case last week with the return of Lam Akol and the SPLM-"United." A number of other militia commanders are widely reported to be in active negotiations with the SPLM/A leadership about abandoning Khartoum as a possible peace agreement approaches; sensing the military implications of such losses, Khartoum may be intent on using those militias that remain dependent upon them for food, military supplies, and logistics. Given the number of dangerous flash points in Upper Nile Province, this is a highly risky policy, and one that clearly threatens the overall peace process.
In light of such evident willingness to threaten the peace process, it is no surprise that NIF President Omer Beshir recently declared to the paramilitary "Popular Defense Forces" that his regime would "never surrender the three areas [Abyei, Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile] at the center of a territorial dispute" (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, November 7, 2003). Speaking in El Obeid (Kordofan Province) Beshir was explicit about the Ngok Dinka enclave of Abyei, which was promised (but never granted) a self-determination referendum in the 1972 Addis Ababa peace accord: "'Abyei has never been part of Bahr al-Ghazal and will therefore remain part of Kordofan.'" (Agence France-Presse, November 9, 2003) Beshir went on to declare of the notoriously brutal PDF that, "the Popular Defence Forces are the sole pillars and cornerstone of the government of national salvation revolution" (Deutsche Presse Agentur, November 7, 2003). For "government of national salvation revolution" we may quite accurately read "the Islamist project of the National Islamic Front" regime that Beshir heads. Such inflammatory talk may, of course, be mainly for domestic consumption; but it hardly makes more credible Beshir's declaration in a television interview that peace talks could resume prior to the December 1, 2003 date presently scheduled (Associated Press, Cairo, November 10, 2003).
In the same interview with the pan-Arab television network Al-Arabiya, Beshir also revealed an unwillingness to accept a peacekeeping force to bolster any Sudan peace agreement: "Concerning the joint armed forces, el-Bashir said he would accept foreign observers but that a peacekeeping force is not necessary now that the warring parties have signed cease-fire agreements and are working toward a peace deal." (Associated Press, November 10, 2003)
This is, of course, yet another instance of spectacular disingenuousness on Beshir's part. His notion that because there might be a signed peace deal there is no need for a robust international peacekeeping force simply ignores the fact that Khartoum has been, for over a year, relentlessly and significantly in violation of the same "cease-fire agreements" that Beshir refers to (i.e., the "cessation of hostilities agreement, October 15, 2003 and the February 4, 2003 "addendum" to the October 15 agreement). More consequentially, Beshir ignores the fact that Khartoum has violated or reneged on every single agreement it has ever made with any Sudanese party. A peace agreement is meaningful only if there are credible and fully adequate international guarantees---and guarantors.
The same refusal to accept the essential role of the international community is evident in Khartoum's rejection of observers in the Darfur peace talks, or in Darfur itself. Khartoum's Al-Ayam newspaper recently reported NIF Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail as saying that "the sending of international monitors to Darfur is ruled out because this will be an internationalisation of the problem," and further that "there shall be no such [international monitoring] arrangement and Darfur is not like the South so that people can talk about monitoring" (UN Daily Press Review for Sudan, October 30, 2003). This arrogant denial of a role for the international community comes even as it becomes daily more evident that Khartoum is unable to bring peace or to provide anything like adequate access or protections for humanitarian relief to Darfur. The need for a larger international role in the Darfur crisis could not be clearer.
How can Khartoum's callous attitudes and actions be the basis for an effective transition to peace in southern Sudan, should an agreement be reached? Just today the UN's Integrated Regions Information Networks (IRIN) has published an extensive analysis of the problems associated with a post-war Sudan, concentrating on the immense challenges in southern Sudan that will be occasioned by returning refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Behavior by Khartoum such as we see in Darfur will ensure that these people will be part of a massive human catastrophe.
The three-part IRIN report treats not only the impact of a peace agreement on refugees and IDPs, but the likely upsurge in HIV/AIDS and the particular predicament of women returning to southern Sudan. It is blunt in its largest generalization: "The only certainty is that if people do move quickly, they will experience tremendous hardship as they walk for days across a country the size of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda combined. With practically no roads, health care, sanitation facilities or infrastructure of any kind to welcome them, they will be vulnerable to hunger and outbreaks of disease both en route and when they arrive. Keeping their deaths to a minimum is one of the key challenges facing the international community." (Special Report, UN IRIN, November 11, 2003)
Nothing will be cheap, given the immense numbers involved. Though the IRIN special report highlights the uncertainty about numbers of IDPs, and their intentions following a peace agreement, there is clear consensus that a huge number will move soon after a peace agreement, including many from the estimated 2 million people living in squalid camps and slums around Khartoum: "A CARE/International Organisation for Migration survey conducted in Khartoum indicated that about two-thirds of the IDPs there wanted to go home as soon as a peace agreement was signed." (IRIN, November 11, 2003)
These people simply must have assistance in moving home across this vast and difficult land. One effective strategy has been recommended by Stephen Houston, a senior IDP adviser in the office of the UN humanitarian coordinator in Khartoum: "The possibility of establishing 'way-stations' along key roads and the Nile is being discussed to provide food and medical care for them, and as the only means of registering who is moving where, Houston told IRIN. But the current thinking is that agencies and NGOs should improve conditions in the IDPs' home areas---such as schools and health care---for everyone in the community, instead of singling them out for special treatment or assistance." (IRIN, November 11, 2003)
But this will require substantial resources, of a sort that have not yet begun to be marshaled by the US or its European allies and Canada. Indeed, peace itself is clearly at risk not only from the military threat posed by the remaining Khartoum-backed militias, but from the competition for what will be, at least initially, highly limited resources: "Conflict with host communities which will see the refugees being assisted by the international community while they are not, coupled with increased competition for water, land, firewood, and food in certain areas, as well as the economic shocks of mass influxes of people into areas, are further potential sore points." (IRIN, November 11, 2003)
This situation holds all the potential for renewed fighting; and if such fighting is not organized in the way the war of the last 20 years has been, the destructiveness of such potential conflicts should not be underestimated. Yet again, only substantial resources in the near term can avert what may quickly grow into a spreading human catastrophe.
Other problems loom very large as well; IRIN notes at one point that, "Rates of HIV infection [in Sudan], currently estimated by UNAIDS at 2.6 percent country-wide, are expected to increase dramatically with the return of the refugees from neighbouring countries with much higher rates." (IRIN, November 11, 2003)
The experience of too many other African countries makes the nature of this threat alarming in the extreme. Prophylactic, medical, and educational measures now will save lives, perhaps millions of lives, and resources in the longer term; but there must be a substantial commitment of funds in the near term if this terrible pandemic is not to extend into southern Sudan and other parts of the country.
The IRIN report also highlights in its third section the particular problems and vulnerabilities of women returning to southern Sudan. The issues are many, but one in particular looms especially large: "What will happen when tens of thousands of widows descend into this environment to reclaim land and cattle may become one of the country's future tragedies, [analysts] note. Many will have to choose between being 'inherited' by their husband's clan---land is owned communally---or start a losing battle to regain their former wealth through the village courts." (IRIN, November 11, 2003)
***********************************
May we reasonably expect that a Khartoum regime that has behaved so brutally in its conduct of the war over 20 years will be adequately responsive to the human needs that IRIN outlines for a post-war Sudan? Does Darfur give us any hope that Khartoum has changed its attitudes toward humanitarian relief? Toward the role of the international community in protecting all the people of Sudan? Toward the obligations entailed in signed agreements?
The answers to all these questions are painfully obvious, and should put the international community on notice that the window of opportunity for making of any "peace agreement" a truly just and sustainable peace will be exceedingly small. Despite Khartoum's reluctance to see peacekeepers deployed in the wake of an agreement, there must be immediate, urgent, detailed planning for a robust, fully staffed and fully equipped force, with an appropriate mandate (whether peacekeeping or, under Chapter VII authority per the UN Charter, peace-enforcing).
There must also be a full and ready commitment of adequate resources for the various acute needs that IRIN has so authoritatively established in today's special report. In the short term these will be costly; in the long term, these same needs will be much, much more costly---in lives and resources.
Planning for peace, including funding commitments, is already far behind schedule on all fronts, should an agreement be reached by the target date of January 1, 2004. To be sure, Khartoum may yet collapse the peace talks on the remaining issues, especially the status of the three contested areas---which, significantly, all have significant strategic bearing on future oil development, as well as their own acute humanitarian needs. But the need for planning cannot be held hostage to this possibility: the assumption must be [1] that a peace agreement will be signed and [2] that its meaningfulness will depend almost entirely on the immediate and comprehensive response of the international community.

Darfur makes all too clear the logic of this latter claim.
Eric Reeves
ereeves@smith.edu
Posted at 3:45 PM
Dhimmitude at the Ford Foundation
According to FrontPage magazine, "American philanthropic organizations have given substantial amounts of money to Palestinian charities over the years, but their dollars may have funded a great deal more than charity. There is reason to believe that some of this money may have gone from philanthropic foundations, through Palestinian NGO's, into the hands of terrorist organizations. The Ford Foundation is one philanthropic group whose money has made its way, through various twists and turns, into terrorists' hands."
The article notes that "the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) informed U.S. tax-exempt organizations that if they partnered with Palestinian NGO's, those NGO's would be required to sign a Certification Regarding Terrorist Financing. This statement vows that no funds ever have been given or ever will be given to terrorist groups."
But according to a Palestinian official, "Ford does not make us sign this agreement." Why not?
Posted at 10:55 AM | Comments (2)
Anti-dhimmitude in Germany
According to Al-Jazeera, in the German state of southwest state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, "authorities have agreed for the first time to ban women teachers from wearing a Muslim headscarf in school, although Christian and Jewish attire will be allowed."
In an Orwellian touch, "the Central Council of Muslims said that if it was passed, the bill 'would hinder integration' . . ." Wouldn't it be more likely to encourage the integration of the German Muslim community into the wider culture?
Explained state premier Erwin Teufel: "The aim of the law is to forbid state teachers from wearing symbols which could be regarded as political." He and another official "defended the decision not to include Christian or Jewish symbols in the ban, saying the state constitution placed Christian and Western values and culture at the heart of the education system."
It's astonishing to see anyone in sclerotic, dhimmi Europe actually assert that Europe has any connection to "Christian and Western values and culture." I'm confident that the Muslim groups that are protesting this have no trouble insisting on the unique Muslim identity of other nations where "Christian and Jewish attire" is most definitely unwelcome. Try, for example, to wear a cross in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Even possession of a cross can earn you the wrath of the religious police. After all, the Prophet Muhammad said: "I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslims" (Sahih Muslim, book 19, no. 4366).
Posted at 10:14 AM | Comments (3)
November 11, 2003
Saudi Arabia respects Human Rights (But not rights prohibited by Allah)
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirmed today that it abides by human rights including the rights that are endorsed by the Islamic Sharia," reports IMRA.
The Saudi ambassador to the United Nations, Fawzi Abdul-Majeed Shobokshi, said this in a speech at the UN: "Human rights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were those recognized in Islam. They might not extend what the Almighty had prohibited, or transgress what the Almighty Allah had ordered."
It is doubtful, then, that Shobokshi believes in any right of a Muslim to leave Islam, or any right of non-Muslim dhimmis to share equal rights and dignity with Muslims in Islamic societies. For these rights are not recognized in traditional Islamic jurisprudence.
Shobokshi also complained that "some media repeatedly pretended that Islam and Muslims had become the source of terrorism and violence." I trust he will take up this complaint with Osama bin Laden, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, Indonesia's Abubakar Bashir, England's Omar Bakri, the Internet wolf-crier at the Daleel Al-Mojahid Yahoo group, and all the multitudinous other Muslims who have linked Islam to terrorism and violence without any prodding from the media at all.
Posted at 4:34 PM | Comments (5)
More dhimmitude in Britain
Reader Scandinavian infidel last night sent me this story, in which the Muslim Public Affairs Council of the UK calls upon Muslims to protest an illustration in a book:
"It has been brought to our attention that a British company has published the above 'portrait' of Allah's last prophet, Muhammad (peace be upon him) to illustrate the topic of Shariah in their book, 'The History of Punishment'. Why would anyone paint the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) surrounded by naked women?! Why have they chosen to cause so much hurt to Muslims? Is a tiny bit of respect really too much to ask?"
No, not really. I am not in favor of insults to anyone's religion. But I could do an Internet search right now and find thousands of insults to mine, and no one would take me seriously if I set out to get them all removed: America and Britain are, at least at this point, pluralistic societies, in which freedom of speech has a long history. If everything that insulted someone else were banned, what would remain of that freedom?
MPAC also includes a bit of saber-rattling: "This picture is possibly the most disgusting insult against our prophet since 'The Satanic Verses' was published. This humiliation will not stop while most Muslims remain too pacified to lift a finger to stop this."
The Satanic Verses drew a death sentence that sent Salman Rushdie into hiding for years. Is that the sort of response that MPAC would like to see to this "humiliation"?
In any case, I see in LGF that like a good dhimmi, the publisher immediately agreed. "The company's representatives have said that the portrait was unwittingly reproduced, without the realisation that it would cause offence. Negotiations are currently underway to resolve the matter - Amber will be placing a statement on its website."
Posted at 6:26 AM | Comments (1)
Will Britain convert to Islam?
Peter Hitchens, author of The Abolition of Britain, has now written about what could well be the next stage of Britain's history: Britain as an Islamic society. He explains how Islam is already filling the spiritual void left by the collapse of Christianity there, and that there is no adequate counterweight to its force in the country now.
Hitchens writes of "an astonishing Channel 4 programme last week - The Last White Kids -- showed two English children who live in an entirely Muslim district becoming enthusiastic attenders at the local mosque, wrapping themselves in Islamic draperies and learning the Koran."
The subjects of the show, "Amie Gallagher, nine, and her sister Ashlene, 12, are all-too-typical children of modern Britain in some ways, daughters of a single-parent household where the father is absent."
Why does their family situation matter? "In Islam they seem to have found something that would otherwise be missing from their lives. At the mosque there is authority, certainty, even disciplined education in the Arabic language and the Koran."
That discipline is in contrast to Britain's current miasma of "sexual chaos, drunkenness, family breakdown and the epidemic use of stupefying drugs. Sooner or later, as in every other era of human history, there will be a revulsion against this licence, a desire to stop the waste, cruelty and misery which these things bring, especially to children."
But Christianity, Hitchens explains, which brought an end to similar periods in the nation's history, is too exhausted to do it again. "Its leaders are more concerned about foreign conflict than about domestic misery, and more interested in the sexual tastes of bishops than in trying to regulate the confused sex lives of Britain's young."

He paints a riveting picture of Britain in cultural transition. "The Christian churches have all but disappeared from the lives of the British people. The chapels of Wales are gaunt ruins, the great Roman Catholic churches of the industrial North West are often empty and derelict, the Anglicans scuttle about in their hallowed, lovely buildings like mice amid ancient ruins, rarely even beginning to fill spaces designed for multitudes. The choirs and the bells gradually fall silent, the hymns are no longer sung and one by one the doors are locked and places which in some cases have seen worship for centuries become bare museums of a dead faith. . . . When Christianity was part of our culture and its beliefs were handed down in homes and schools, its familiarity kept it strong. Everyone knew Bible stories, hymns and prayers. Now it is at least as alien to many young people as Islam, if not more so because it does not seem to be interested in them.
"But Islam is interested in them. And Islam is growing. More and more British cities have seen the domes and minarets of smart, prominently positioned new mosques rising in their neighbourhoods.
"A large and imposing Islamic centre is now nearing completion in Oxford, one of Christian England's holiest places. Imagine what would happen if Anglicans sought to build a Christian centre in Qom, Isfahan, Najaf or anywhere on the soil of Saudi Arabia, and wonder what Muslim leaders think of Christian feebleness on such matters.
"Thanks to the immigration of recent decades, Britain has a young, energetic and swelling Muslim population which is increasingly assertive about its faith."
And with this population has come nasty signs of the presence of radical Islam and the dhimmi impulse: "Official Islam may disapprove of such things but there have even been signs of the Muslim intolerance towards Christianity that is a nasty feature of so many Islamic societies. In the Bradford suburb of Girlington, not far from where the Gallaghers live in Manningham, Asian youths tried to set fire to an Anglican church. Soon afterwards, a Brownie pack leader was attacked in a nearby street by young men who snarled 'Christian bitch' at her. . . . If you travel to these areas, you get the sense that Islam, one of the great forces of history, long ago defeated by the armies and navies of a mighty Christian Europe, is once again feeling its strength and finding that it has been able to penetrate what were once the most impregnable fortresses of its great rival."
The bottom line for Britain's future: "In a country in the grip of unbelief, those with strong, clear convictions and an uncluttered message have a great advantage over those who offer nothing but choices to the perplexed and cannot seem to make up their minds about anything."
Some trenchant questions: "If bureaucratic police and feeble justice continue to fail to suppress crime and disorder, will the savage but simple remedies of Sharia law begin to appeal to the British poor, who are already weary of seeing dishonesty triumph everywhere and lawless violence go unchecked?
"Might Islam become respectable among the politically correct middle classes, in a way that Christianity never really can, because Christianity is always associated in this country with the conservative, imperial past?" (Thanks to Little Green Footballs.)
Posted at 5:56 AM
November 10, 2003
Dhimmitude at Stanford
Another example of the common tactic of labeling any criticism of radical and terrorist Islam as "racist."
At Stanford University, "A group of students began circulating an e-mail petition yesterday asking for the recall of Daily Editor in Chief Ramin Setoodeh, after The Daily decided to continue running a series of controversial advertisements from a pro-Israeli group.
"The ads, which have run in many college newspapers nationwide, have attracted campus attention over the past two weeks for claims some students say are anti-Palestinian. One ad depicts Israelis lighting candles in remembrance of Sept. 11 victims, under the words, 'On September 11, 2001, Israelis mourned in Tel-Aviv.' Next to it is a photo showing Palestinian men and children cheering, beneath the text, 'On September 11, 2001, Palestinians celebrated in Lebanon.'" . . .
"'The advertisement suggests that all Palestinians are inhumane and they revel in the shedding of innocent blood,' wrote the group, called the Coalition for Justice, in a letter that members of the Stanford community signed."
No one is suggesting that all Palestinians think one way about anything. But people should be aware that overwhelming majorities of Palestinians are supporting suicide attacks against innocent people.
When will it begin — the massive effort by the Palestinian Authority to convince these people that attacking civilians is wrong, that it damages their cause, and that all people who value human dignity and rights should repudiate such attacks? When will American Muslim groups start calling for such an effort?
Instead, we get the attempts to enforce the silent subservience of dhimmitude on those who dare to speak out against such horrors.
Posted at 11:41 AM
Egyptians, not Arabs
I have many close friends who are Lebanese Christians; they politely decline to be designated as "Arabs," and remind those who call them by that name that they are descendants of the Phoenicians who were in Lebanon long before the Muslim conquerors arrived from Arabia.
Now in Egypt there is a movement stemming from similar principles. "Scores of Egyptian intellectuals and vocational members formed a party called 'Egypt the motherland' ( Mesr al-Um) for dismantling Egypt from its Arab identity.
"Lawyer Mohsin Lutfi said that he will apply to the Parties affairs at the Shoura council after Eid al-Fiter for licensing the party. He explained 'we are a party which says: we are Egyptians and not Arabs.. The Arabs are our friends and neighbors and we have common destiny.. but we are not Arabs.'" . . .
"Lutfi calls for reviving the Heoglyphic and Coptic languages and has been teaching scores of students the Heroglyphic language in his house since 10 years. He studied Heroglyphic language at the French Surrbornne university after he had graduated in 1948 from the law faculty, Fouad 1st university ( the current Cairo university). He also studied at London's university for more than 3 years."
This is a strong anti-dhimmi movement. Also, it is a strong rejection of the general Islamic contempt for the pre-Islamic history of Muslim nations. And many in Egypt are well aware of this: "The Egyptian writer Jamal Badawi strongly criticized the idea of the new party in the Egyptian daily al-Wafd issued on Tuesday, saying 'those of the Pharos trend do not care what form of government there is, rather what is of concern to them is to cancel the Arab era from Egypt's history.' He added they 'are not brave to show off their hostility to Islam, and therefore they concentrate their arrows on Arabization, and put the Arabs in one bunch along with the foreign forces which occupied Egypt.'"
Posted at 10:52 AM
Amputations in Nigeria
"All is set for the amputation of the limbs of two men convicted by a Sharia court in Zaria. . . . The Kaduna State Grand Khadi, Dr Maccido Ibrahim, who announced this at a Ramadan fast-breaking ceremony at the palace of the Emir of Zauzzau, Dr Shehu Idris, said the judgment signalled the effective take-off of the Sharia legal code in Kaduna.
"He described critics of the Sharia law as ignorant people who are uninformed about the islamic code of jurisprudence." . . .
"Kaduna has an almost equal number of indigenous Christians and Moslems who occupy the southern and northern parts of the state respectively."
Those Christians no doubt realize that the more the Sharia is enforced in Kaduna and elsewhere, the closer they are to being subjugated under the Sharia's laws of dhimmitude.
Posted at 10:36 AM
November 9, 2003
"A Moderate Islamist"
A reader, Doug, has kindly pointed me to this story in which a Saudi gentleman named Mohsen al-Awajy is identified as a "moderate Islamist."
Come again? I thought "Islamist" was the term du jour for a Muslim who believes that it is part of his religious responsibility to wage war and commit acts of violence in order to institute Islamic law. As Doug puts it, "I guess a moderate islamist is one who will start by just killing your pets or putting sugar in your gas tank in a humane attempt to get you to see the light."
Posted at 2:33 PM
"Real Islam respects human rights"
Good news for the world's dhimmis? "Iran's vice president for legal and parliamentary affairs Mohammad-Ali Abtahi said here Saturday that the real Islam is the religion of freedom and peace which does not contradict principles of human rights."
In a meeting with a UN official, Abtahi explained that "The (Iranian) government has done its best to opt for a version of religion which would not be against human life, peace and freedom because any religion which stands against human freedoms would be removed from political and social scenes. . . . Today, the Iranian nation demands reforms and this is among great achievements of the Islamic Republic's government."
Wonderful. Then I assume that Abtahi fully supports Nobelist Shirin Ebadi's call for the "abolition of Islamic penalties and their replacement by judicial punishments."
I trust he also supports her call "for an end to stoning and the amputation of limbs," and that he shares her "grave concern about women's rights in Iran, pointing to the fact that a woman's life is officially considered only half as valuable as a man's and that a woman's divorce rights are far weaker than her husband's."
If the Iranian government denounces the death threats against Ebadi and adopts her recommendations at the highest levels, then I'll believe Abtahi.
Posted at 8:49 AM | Comments (1)
November 8, 2003
Dhimmitude in Norway
The bishop of Oslo, Gunnar Staalsett, has "warned Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Erna Solberg of the dangers of criticizing Islam after she told Norway's Muslims that they should modernize their religion. Staalsett fears that the statement will create a warped view of Islam."
What kind of warped view of Islam? Solberg said last week that "Islam in Europe must function differently than it does in Islamic countries. . . . These religious leaders can't just be brought up from Islamic countries where Muslims are in the majority. They have no understanding of what it's like to be a Muslim in a country where they're a minority. . . . It's especially important that immigrants learn what it means to live in a feminist society."
Oh, and by the way, "Solberg earlier this year was the target of death threats by a disgruntled Muslim asylum-seeker, and she also has been at the center of the storm around Mullah Krekar, the suspected terrorist who remains in Norway despite a deportation order."
Meanwhile, MSNBC reports that Ansar al-Islam, the Kurdish radical Muslim group that Krekar headed until 2002, has been blamed by U.S. officials for "the wave of anti-U.S. attacks in Iraq, and at least four Islamic groups linked by ideology or personnel to the international jihadi movement that includes Al-Qaeda are operating in Iraq, along with at least two Saddam-ite groups and cells from Ansar al-Islam itself." No word as to whether Staalsett scolded Krekar for presenting a "warped view of Islam."
Posted at 5:07 PM | Comments (1)
November 7, 2003
Dhimmitude at the NYPD
The Qur'an is now on display in a glass cube atop a brass pedestal at One Police Plaza in New York City.
This one speaks for itself.
Posted at 10:57 AM | Comments (4)
Diana West on the Vatican and Islam
This morning Diana West has a superb column on the Vatican's extraordinary new statement on Islam and dhimmitude, about which I have written before here and at Front Page.
West recounts a conversation with an official at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops which indicates that dhimmitude is still alive and well there. Charity and openness to dialogue are still being equated with glossing over and ignoring unpleasant truths, as is the case with many Catholics and others in the West today.
But Rome seems to be abandoning this willful naivete — perhaps because Vatican officials simply can't ignore the world situation any longer. West says that "Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House, suggests that the new frankness in Rome may be linked to the increasingly dire plight of Christians at the hands of Muslims in Sudan, Nigeria and other parts of Africa. The situation in Europe, where immigration policies have created large, unassimilated Muslim communities within traditionally Christian, secular societies, could also be influencing Vatican thinking. 'Before the 1990s,' Ms. Shea said, 'the biggest persecutors of Christians were communist countries.' With the fall of the Soviet Union, radical Islam took communism's place. 'We're still very naive,' she said. 'We need to educate people.'"
Posted at 6:18 AM | Comments (1)
November 6, 2003
Dhimmitude in Dearborn
Imad Hamad of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) wanted the Crestwood Board of Education in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, to make Eid (Eid ul-Fitr, the Muslim holy day marking the end of Ramadan) a day off from school.
So Hamad wrote in a letter to school board president Ron Panetta: "We are urging you to thoroughly review this matter, and consider the various concerns, before making an ultimate decision. Rushing into decisions that involve such sensitive issues might bring serious ramifications and unexpected unhealthy consequences." (Thanks to Agent Azure.)
Serious ramifications? Unexpected unhealthy consequences? Panetta thought he was being threatened; Hamad denies that the letter meant anything more than "an effort to alert the district of the wrong message that might come across to the community if this matter were to become more political, rather than educational in nature."
All right. Maybe that's all Hamad meant, although if so his choice of words was outrageously undiplomatic and imprudent. But even if that is all he meant, why the strong-arming and threats of political agitation over a school holiday? I don't believe that Good Friday or Yom Kippur are generally public school holidays. Why should Eid ul-Fitr be any different? Why is equality for minorities so often confused with special treatment for minorities?
By insisting on what amounts to preferential treatment for Muslims and the subservient dhimmitude of the larger community, Imad Hamad and the ADC are perpetuating the need for themselves: the strong-arming, whether it involves physical threats or not, will lead to resentment, which will lead to the perceived need for an advocacy group. The ADC would do all Muslims in America a favor by dropping this kind of bullying from its tactic sheet.
Posted at 8:57 PM | Comments (3)
Dhimmitude at the State Department
Colin Powell hosted an Iftaar dinner (the evening meal to break the day's Ramadan fast) last night at the State Department.
In his address to the gathering, he declared: "I have learned about Islam as a religion of peace and caring, a religion that teaches values we all share, such as tolerance, justice, and respect for human dignity."
That's wonderful, and it's undoubtedly true that millions of Muslims share the values of tolerance, justice, and respect for human dignity. It's also undoubtedly true that within Islam there are broad and established traditions with quite different takes on tolerance, justice, and respect for human dignity from what we might expect. One need only look at Shirin Ebadi's struggle to end, among other things, stonings and amputations in Iran — efforts which are resisted by the leaders of Iran on Islamic grounds.
Look at the Iranian Sufi leader, Sheikh Tabandeh, who wrote A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To take one of many examples: while arguing for capital punishment if a Muslim is killed, Tabandeh argues against it if the murderer is Muslim and the victim non-Muslim. "Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim . . . then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain. A fine only may be exacted from him . . ."
What does this have to do with Powell's iftaar? Everything. For Tabandeh's views are not just how own. They are quite widespread in the Islamic world, and they are a key guide to its attitudes toward the West today. It is nice, and diplomatic, for Powell to assert otherwise, but I hope that he is aware that his statement of what Islamic attitudes are is not universally accepted by Muslims, and that that fact has important geopolitical implications.
Posted at 7:32 AM | Comments (4)
"O Moderate Muslims, Where Art Thou?"
I take my questions to Dr. Badawi (below, "In search of moderate Muslims") to a wider forum in a new article, "O Moderate Muslims, Where Art Thou?" at FrontPage this morning.
Posted at 6:24 AM
November 5, 2003
Dhimmitude in Canada: watch your tone of voice there, buddy
"An American evangelist's television series on Islam in America was canceled by a Canadian station after the first program because Muslims complained his tone and demeanor was an incitement of hatred," according to World Net Daily.
Program Manager Rob Sheppard wrote "a letter of apology" to the Canadian branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations, even though there wasn't any incitement in anything pastor John Hagee actually said. "It was a tonal thing," Sheppard explained. "You could see what he was trying to do by his tone and body language. . . . I listened to the people who contacted us, and they perceived his tone to be demeaning. It is subjective, but there were a lot of people who contacted us who were upset."
Hagee has evidently had this kind of trouble before: "A program in which Hagee played video of Muslim imams in both the United States and overseas preaching hatred and violence against Jews and Israel upset Muslims and resulted in complaints filed with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the equivalent of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, or FCC."
Now let me get this straight. It is incitement to speak about Islam with a tone of voice that Muslims don't like? It is incitement to play a video of Muslim imams preaching hatred and violence? But does CAIR have anything to say about the imams themselves? CAIR's website features plenty of mechanisms for reporting discrimination and hate crimes, as well as for protesting against FBI investigations, but I never have found there any way for a moderate Muslim to report terrorist activity that he may witness at his mosque or Islamic center.
Also: so the imams preaching hate aren't shown, and Canadians aren't incited to rise up and form gangs of Canadian bullies to terrorize peaceful Muslims. But that wasn't going to happen anyway. The other effect is that Canadians who don't see these videos are that much less aware that there are Muslim imams preaching hatred and violence, and that some of them are quite close at hand. So they're that much less aware of the need to take legitimate steps to defend themselves against terrorism. But CAIR doesn't seem to be concerned about that.
Even worse: sailing by on Canadian television without any concerns about "incitement" was a "documentary series comparing the U.S. to the Hitler regime. [Canadian network] Vision's six-part series charged the U.S., in collaboration with its 'CIA-trained partner' Osama bin Laden, planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as a pretext for attempts to gain world dominance. The U.S. is going about this, Vision said, in much the same way Nazi brownshirts torched the Reichstag, or parliament, in Berlin in 1933 and blamed it on Adolf Hitler's enemies to provide a pretext for a crackdown propelling Hitler into power."
This is not just Canadians modeling cringing, subservient dhimmitude, pulling shows because of their tone. This is Canadians acting as a mouthpiece for full-blown radical Muslim hate and paranoia.
Posted at 12:16 PM | Comments (8)
Dhimmitude in Europe
The superb Michael Radu, Senior Fellow and Co-Chair of the Center on Terrorism and Counterterrorism at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, here dares to ask the hard questions about the future of European freedom of religion and secularism in the face of increasing Islamic militancy.
Radu recounts some of the recent controversies in Europe over the Islamic headscarf, and then gets to the heart of the matter: "The issue of the Islamic scarf, everybody agrees, goes far beyond the whims of two impressionable teenagers, to the very fundamental issues of laicité (secularism) as a fundamental aspect of the French Republic. It also reflects the ability, or lack thereof, of the country’s millions of Muslims to integrate in or accept the values of the French society. In a larger context, the issue raises some fascinating dilemmas for the Left, inasmuch as it conflicts between its historic hostility to religion and religious symbols and its beliefs in 'multiculturalism,' with a promiscuous definition of tolerance."
Could we someday face the same dilemmas here? "From Aubervilliers to Karlsruhe to Göteborg to Granada – and perhaps soon, Detroit - the issue appears to be more or less the same. It is not nearly as confusing or 'complex' as the liberals would make it. Are Western values like freedom of religion and secularism to be sacrificed as 'outdated' in a 'multiculturalist' [society]? How ironic that the same people who applaud the prohibition of any church or synagogue in Saudi Arabia support a 'democratic right' to build Europe’s largest mosque very close to the Vatican."
Posted at 9:57 AM
November 4, 2003
Slavery in Saudi Arabia
In Islam Unveiled I explain the theological and legal reasons why slavery persists in some Islamic societies — notably Mauritania and Sudan. I had a little bit of information on slavery in Saudi Arabia in there but for reasons I don't recall it didn't make the final draft. Still, slavery was only abolished in Saudi Arabia in 1962, and there are numerous indications that it continues today — including this ad in Saudi paper (which I saw thanks to LGF) offering a 1991 Dodge for a "female servant" from Sri Lanka or India.
And why not? It's taken for granted in the Qur'an (see Suras 2:178, 2:221, 4:92, 5:89, and many more), and that is the foundation of Saudi society. It is also a cornerstone of the oppression of non-Muslims dhimmis, who throughout history have often been enslaved or treated as slaves by their Muslim overlords. The fact that such laws are still on the books ought to be the first concern of human rights organizations worldwide.
Posted at 2:51 PM
Refugees, Refugees
Here is a press release about a resolution introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Frank Pallone (D-NJ).
The resolution seeks official recognition of "the oppression and expropriation of property faced by the 900,000 Jews who were expelled from Arab nations in the period leading up to and following the creation of the State of Israel. The resolution also seeks to promote peace in the Middle East by urging the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to resettle Palestinian refugees from Arab countries."
It also calls upon the UNRWA not only to "take responsibility to ensure that these refugees are provided homes," but also to make sure "that the educational materials provided by UNRWA do not promote anti-Semitic beliefs, and that UNRWA's facilities are not being used to store weapons or to promote violence and terrorism."
This is initiative attempts to call attention to the Jewish dhimmi refugees from Muslim nations in order to contrast the fates of the two refugee groups. I have enormous sympathy for the Palestinian refugees, and deplore how they have been used, as this resolution points out, "as a political weapon by Arab nations against Israel," and as a recruiting grounds for Islamic terrorism. Thus I applaud this bipartisan resolution.
Posted at 2:31 PM | Comments (1)
Dhimmitude in New Hampshire
Kaushik Kapisthalam reports that two New Hampshire state representatives, Robert Giuda and Saghir Tahir, "use half-truths and misleading statements to excoriate India, a democratic ally of America, in the name of requesting help for Kashmir while simultaneously white washing the acts of anti-American terrorists."
The article explains how the congressmen uncritically repeat Pakistani military propaganda while ignoring mountains of evidence of jihad terror activities by radical Muslim groups in Kashmir.
Tahir himself is a Muslim from Pakistan, which may explain his perspective and behavior, but how did he inspire such obliging dhimmitude in Giuda?
Posted at 11:02 AM | Comments (1)
Christian minorities betrayed
Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, founder of the Centre for the Study of Islam and Christianity and the Barnabas Fund, has had the courage to state the truth that almost everyone (including many Christians who should know better) wants to ignore: "Western churches are betraying Christian minorities in Muslim countries by trying to appease Islam."
Sookhdeo, whom governments have called upon to advise them about Islam, said according to this report that after 9/11, "Christian leaders rushed to call Islam a religion of peace, but did not speak out against the persecution of Christians, such as the death of 3 million in Sudan."
This underscores an unpleasant fact about politically correct silence and distortion about radical Islam: it abets murder.
Posted at 10:33 AM | Comments (2)
November 3, 2003
In search of moderate Muslims
I recently came across a description of the Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch weblogs as "exclusively devoted to presenting the negative and most deplorable face of Islam."
That is in fact not the case. These weblogs, and the Jihad Watch organization (which is now being formed) in general, are devoted to bringing public attention to the devastation wrought by jihad and dhimmitude, and to defending the human rights of the victims of those institutions. As I say in the "Frequently Asked Questions" section on my bio page, "Any Muslim who renounces violent jihad and dhimmitude is welcome to join in our anti-jihadist efforts."
Consequently I read with great interest this piece about Dr. Jamal Badawi, a Muslim scholar who insists that "a careful reading of the Qur'an leaves no doubt" that "Islam is a religion of peace and nonviolence."
Well, if the world needs anything today, it needs a large — indeed, global — contingent of Muslims who believe this, are ready to act upon it, and are willing to confront radical Muslims and dispute their differing understanding of the Qur'an and the Sunna, the traditions of the Prophet.
As I am aware of some of the objections that these radicals might make to Dr. Badawi's contention, I will raise them here. If Dr. Badawi sees this, I invite him to respond, and I assure him that I mean these questions with all respect and would love to see thoughtful and compelling answers from him. For it should be clear by now that simply to assert flatly that the Qur'an teaches peace isn't enough: the people who really need convincing aren't Western non-Muslims, but the radical Muslims who are convinced that it teaches violence.
So to the questions:
The article reports Badawi as explaining that "when people quote just one Qur'anic passage they pull the meaning out of its historical context and out of the complex system of translation from Arabic to another language."
Fair enough. Two questions:
1. Does Dr. Badawi then reject the extensive theological and legal tradition within Islam that teaches that the Muslim community must wage war against unbelievers until they convert to Islam or submit to Islamic rule? This tradition is not based just on one verse, but many, as well as upon many statements of the Prophet Muhammad and rulings of Muslim legal scholars from all four major schools of Sunni Muslim jurisprudence — as I explain in my book Onward Muslim Soldiers.
2. Can translations of the Qur'an and other Islamic texts made by Muslims for Muslims be trusted? Many (such as the Qur'ans of Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall) contain numerous verses enjoining violent jihad. If these have a substantially different meaning in Arabic, why are they universally mistranslated?
The article quotes Dr. Badawi: "It is a common misconception, especially after the tragic events of September 11th, that the attitude of hatred and violence towards non-Muslims is embedded in Islamic sources." He, in contrast, "contends that the Prophet Mohammed did not preach violence against people of other faiths."
In light of the fact that many Muslims seem to hold this misconception, I would be interested to hear Badawi's explanation of many passages of the Qur'an and Hadith. For space reasons I will ask about only one here. In a well-attested hadith, Muhammad says: "When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. . . . Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them. . . . If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya [the special tax on non-Muslims]. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them" (Sahih Muslim, book 19, no. 4294).
Dr. Badawi, what would you say to a Muslim who invoked this passage and others in support of the idea that Muhammad did, in fact, "preach violence against people of other faiths"?
"The challenge," says Badawi, "is that many say that the Qur'an calls Jews and Christians infidels. It's a term that many incorrectly translate as kafir. But infidel means someone who has no faith. How could Jews and Christians be infidels when the Qur'an is clear that they worship the one God, the God of Abraham?"
"One passage," says the article, "often is quoted by those who say Islam is a religion of violence. It's an exhortation to kill unbelievers wherever one finds them. [Badawi is referring to Sura 9:5.] However, Badawi says the passage refers to pagan Arabs of Mohammed's time. 'The verse has nothing to do with Jews and Christians,' he said."
Dr. Badawi, the Qur'an also says "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued" (Sura 9:29). The People of the Book are primarily Jews and Christians. What then would you say to a Muslim who included Jews and Christians among those who should be fought on the basis of this verse?
Again, I raise these questions seriously. I am not saying that Dr. Badawi is being dishonest or trying to mislead his hearers. Any preacher of nonviolence in a Muslim context has my support. But if he does not answer these questions, I question the effectiveness of his presentation among Muslim audiences. And they are the ones who must be convinced.
Posted at 10:52 AM | Comments (7)
Afghanistan's New Constitution: Freedom or Dhimmitude?
Funny thing about some of the stories flooding news outlets worldwide this morning about Afghanistan's new constitution.
The CNN story says: "'The draft is based on Islamic principles and recognizes that no law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam,' Afghanistan's 35-member Constitutional Review Commission said in a statement Monday, adding that the document provided for the freedom of religion for other faiths."
How's that again? "No law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam" but "the document provided for the freedom of religion for other faiths"? Most Americans who read this story, which is circulating beyond CNN, will probably take that at face value: Afghanistan will be a tolerant Islamic state where non-Muslims can practice their religions freely. But the AP story contains a key clarification. It quotes the draft constitution: "The religion of Afghanistan is the sacred religion of Islam. Followers of other religions are free to perform their religious ceremonies within the limits of the provisions of law."
There it is: "within the limits of the provisions of law." Since "no law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam," and the laws of that religion mandate a strict inferior status for non-Muslims, I expect that the phrase "limits of the provisions of the law" refers to dhimmitude, the institutionalized inequality of dignity and rights for non-Muslims under Islamic law.
If the new Afghan constitution were to allow non-Muslims to practice their religions with full freedom, including the freedom to build houses of worship, testify in court, hold authority over Muslims (i.e., hold any job aside from the most menial ones), and to welcome Muslim converts, then it would be "contrary to the sacred religion of Islam." For all those stipulations and more are mandated by the Sharia.
Combine all this with Hamid Karzai's smiling approval of Mahathir Mohamad's anti-Semitic speech at the OIC last week, and there is even more reason for concern.
Thanks to reader "H. Simpson" (Homer, is that you?), here is a link to a site about the Afghan constitution draft.
Posted at 8:25 AM | Comments (1)
November 2, 2003
Dhimmitude in Iraq
The headline is "Iraq's Christians run gauntlet of anti-US hostility," and the article is also full of evidence that radical Muslims in Iraq are trying to reinstitute the legal provisions of dhimmitude, the institutionalized subjugation of Christians, Jews, and other non-Muslims.
"Before the war," it says, "the Oro family ran a popular entertainment empire, serving alcohol in their restaurants and shops. Now, an Islamic fatwa declares that no one should trade in alcohol on pain of death."
Why? Dhimmi Christians are, according to Islamic law (Sharia), "forbidden to openly display wine or pork" ('Umdat al-Salik, o11.5(6)).
This is traditional law, which radicals are reasserting after years of relative secularism. The article continues: "'Fifty years I was working with drink and now I have nothing,' said David Younan Oro, the 70-year-old patriarch, his voice trailing off. 'They drink like donkeys here. Business was good. I had a lot of restaurants and shops. Now my family tell me they want to kill me for keeping them here in this place.'" The radicals plan to turn the place into a mosque.
David Younan Oro's son-in-law adds: "We had a very good situation until the fundamentalists began to appear and we were affected. They changed the idea of Christians among the people and from then on we have suffered. Because America and Britain are Christian countries, they blame us for the war. We are terrified. We really don't know what the future will hold."
"Ramadi," says the article, "100 miles west of Baghdad, has long been a stronghold of a fundamentalist branch of Sunni Islam. Nonetheless, thousands of Christians were attracted to the area by the prospect of working as clerks, nurses, cleaners and launderers at the biggest RAF base in the Middle East, 15 miles out of town at Harbiniye."
But now those thousands are gone: "Only 10 Christian families are left in Ramadi."
Says Charlemagne Shmool, the fantastically-named parish priest: "The fundamentalists have put pressure on us as never before. Within 10 years there will be no Christians in this area. We will be finished."
Posted at 9:00 AM | Comments (1)
November 1, 2003
Dhimmitude in Indonesia
It's interesting that a proposed new Indonesian law restricting Christianity is entitled the Religious Tolerance Bill. It is useful to bear in mind that when many Muslims speak of Islam as a tolerant faith, they mean the tolerance that Muslim masters had for the dhimmi Christians and Jews: the tolerance of a superior for an inferior. The tolerance accorded to the dhimmis is bounded within strict limits — some of which appear in this bill, which revives several age-old provisions of Islamic law for the treatment of dhimmi populations:
• "Among other things, it will restrict the building of new churches . . ."
Restrictions on building new churches or repairing old ones are among the oldest and most consistently applied provisions of dhimmi law in Islamic history.
• "One article in the draft Bill states that religious rituals will be restricted to members of the faith, in effect putting the brakes on conversion efforts by Christian groups."
Dhimmi Christians are forbidden in Islamic law to practice their rituals publicly, i.e., through processions or even the ringing of bells. Go to the Middle East today and you will see that the Christian churches still lack bells.
• "The proposed measure will also ban a person from converting to another religion upon marriage."
Conversion from Islam, of course, is punishable by death in traditional Islamic law. As Muhammad said: "If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him" (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 52, Number 260).
Posted at 3:42 PM | Comments (2)
Dhimmitude in the libraries: an antidote
Not long ago the local paper here in Secure Undisclosed Locationville ran a large photo of a pair of hijab-wearing Muslim ladies happily looking at a book. The caption explained that the local library had recently accepted a donation of books on Islam from the Council on American Islamic Relations's Library Project. The library was happy to be able to provide library patrons with information about this faith that it was so important for Americans to understand.
The problem, of course, is that CAIR's booklist is severely flawed, giving no hint of why or how tenets of Islam gave rise to a global network of terrorists. Anyone who reads only CAIR's books about Islam will come away with no understanding of how the war on terror came about, or what can be done about it.
But now there is an alternative. The Free Congress Foundation, of which I am an adjunct fellow, has put together an alternative list of books to give libraries a more balanced view of Islam. I am grateful to see that my new book Onward Muslim Soldiers is on the list, which is a particular honor given that classics such as Bat Ye'or's Islam and Dhimmitude and David S. Margoliouth's The Early Development of Mohammedanism are also included.
Paul Weyrich and FCF don't have Saudi millions behind them to get these books into libraries for free, but you can help them with donations and by getting the word out to your local library that if they stock CAIR's books, in the name of fairness they should stock these alternatives also.
Posted at 3:26 PM | Comments (3)
"Anti-Semitism is the kind of thing you do to establish your ostensible Islamic credentials"
In a recapitulation of the dubious accomplishments of the now ex-prime minister of Malaysia, the notorious Mahathir Mohamad, the New York Times lets it slip (in a quotation from "Jomo K. Sundram, a critic of Dr. Mahathir and a professor of applied economics at the University of Malaysia"): "Anti-Semitism is the kind of thing you do to establish your ostensible Islamic credentials. Mahathir does this because his Islamic credentials are so weak, and because he spends so much time attacking the ulamas. He was saying, `In case you think I'm anti-Muslim, here is some anti-Semitism.' "
Um, I thought the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemned Mahathir's anti-Semitism. Didn't Amir Taheri explain to us that Mahathir was just a politician with foot-in-mouth disease, and that his views revealed nothing about what Muslims really think? And now Mahathir is a populist, proving his Islam by being anti-Semitic?
And if anti-Semitism is really "the kind of thing you do to establish your ostensible Islamic credentials," then the Religion of Peace is long past due for a serious and thoroughgoing reform.
Posted at 1:02 PM | Comments (1)
Saudi Arabia: Fighting Smears with Dhimmitude
Arab News this morning informs us that in an address to senior military commanders, Saudi Arabia's Prince Sultan, "second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, has denounced what he called a smear campaign against Islam and the Kingdom and said it was an outpouring of jealousy of its resources and Islam."
"We are neither terrorists nor parasites," Sultan declared. But then he added: "We believe in Islam and in other revealed religions. We believe in the Torah and the Bible."
This is how Islamic rhetoric snares multiculturalists. Sultan sounds at this point something like the cinematic Mahatma Gandhi saying, "I am Christian! I am Jew! I am Muslim! I am Hindu!" — in other words, like a contemporary New Ager or an "open minded" admirer of "all the world's great faiths," courageously rejecting what he perceives as the narrow-mindedness of exclusivist faiths.
But then the Prince reveals that he is a first-class Muslim exclusivist, calling upon Jews and Christians to behave like good dhimmis: "As we believe in Moses and Jesus, so they (Jews and Christians) should also believe in our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the Holy Qur’an."
This is a common but false comparison. Muslims believe in the Moses and Jesus of the Qur'an, who are quite different from the Moses and Jesus of Jewish and Christian tradition. In the Qur'an, Moses and Jesus are prophets who taught a message identical to Muhammad's — a message which in the traditional Islamic understanding was perverted by their followers to form what are known today as Judaism and Christianity. But their true message was Islam.
So what Prince Sultan is actually saying, under the guise of generosity and open-mindedness, is that Jews and Christians should abandon their religions and embrace Islam. If Jews and Christians accept the prophethood of Muhammad, they are not just being open-minded — they're abandoning their faiths and becoming Muslims. This kind of deceptive appeal is part of the reason why multitudes in the U.S. and Europe think that Islam is somehow more tolerant than the faiths that form the spiritual heritage of the Western world.