I Freakin' Love Freddie Mercury And, Of Course, Muslims Hate Him

(UPDATE: An Anonymous reader corrects me. Freddie Mercury was not a Christian. He was a Zoorastrian. Didn't know that. Additionally, the reader says my interpretation of Mercury's lyrics below are completely wrong. That would not surprise me. Mercury seemed to be openly hostile to religion through much of his life.)

Many are not aware that Freddie Mercury was born in a Muslim country. I don't think he was Muslim himself. I believe he was a Christian (which I know seems a strange thing to say about such a hedonist), because of the following lyric:


You say Rolls I say Royce
You say car give me a choice
You say Lord I say Christ
I don't believe in Peter Pan
Frankenstein or Superman


Go ahead, my Christian brothers and sisters, and argue with me if you wish. But, that sounds like a profession of faith to me.

But, I digress.

:)

The point is, Muslims hate Freddie Mercury that they can't even allow a celebration of his birthday in his own home town:


ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AFP) - Organizers of a 60th gala birthday party for the late Zanzibar-born rock star Freddie Mercury, have cancelled the weekend event after outraged Muslims threatened to disrupt it.

Faced with fierce opposition from Islamists, who complained the flamboyant Queen lead singer's lifestyle was offensive to many on the overwhelmingly Muslim archipelago, organizers said they had no choice but to call it off.

"We have decided to cancel the party after misleading and erroneous information was spread about it," said organizer Simai Mohamed Saidi, who runs a Freddie Mercury theme restaurant in the capital.

"I urge Muslim groups in the future to seek correct information from us instead of relying on rumors," he said in an open letter, adding the event was intended to be celebration to honor Mercury, who died of AIDS in 1991.

Saidi also lamented that the cancellation would hurt his intention to use the party to raise money for HIV/AIDS victims on Zanzibar.

Conservative Zanzibari Islamists last week demanded that authorities ban the party and then vowed to stage mass demonstrations if it went ahead, saying it would tarnish the islands' reputation and culture and promote homosexuality.

"We were ready to join forces against the party because we had information that a number of gays from abroad had come to take part," said Sheikh Azzan Hamdani of the association for Islamic Mobilization and Propagation (UAMSHO).

"We had also written letters to the tourist commission and the owner of the Mercury restaurant, demanding that they stop the party," he told AFP.

The authorities, who have long tip-toed between secular constitutional ideals, the demands of a booming tourist industry and the wishes of conservative Muslims, never formally responded to Islamists.

But Zanzibar's information ministry this week ordered local state-run media not to give the event any coverage.

Few on Zanzibar are aware of Queen or Freddie Mercury, who was born Farrokh Bulsara on the main island of Unguja to Persian parents employed by the British colonial administration on September 5, 1946.



Earlier today, I left the following comment on Pim's Ghosts post about "Islam-mania" manifesting itself in the latest fashions:


The reason we decided to call this blog the Infidel Bloggers Alliance is because we believe we need to glory in our Infidel-ness. I, personally, am a Christian. Thus, I am considered by Muslims to be part of the "people of the book." I am entitled to special treatment by Muslims as a person of the Book. Technically, I am not an Infidel.

But, you know what? Fuck that. I'd rather be known to a radical Muslim as an Infidel, an enemy. Because, certainly, I consider them my enemies.


No one was a better Infidel than good old Freddie Mercury. My favorite Freddie Mercury moment was when he came out on stage at Live Aid (the rock n' roll benefit concert broadcast to over a billion people around the globe) and bent over and simulated opening open his butt cheeks for the whole world.

It was such a great way to say "Kiss my ass" to all the pomposity of the event, and to all those who he well knew hated Western Civilization anyway.

You go, Freddie. You da man. Well, kind of.

;-)

Osession: Radical Islam's War Against The West

The movie Obsession is once again available online.

Google has twice removed this content without explanation. Both times they have inserted pro-Islamic propaganda in its place, so one can make a guess that someone at Google doesn't want you to see this movie.

Get it here.

BBC's Suggestion

Just caught an ad for this upcoming show on the BBC, Al Qaeda: Time To Talk. Here's what they have to say about the programme-

Reporter Peter Taylor has spent five years since 9/11 investigating Al Qaeda in Britain and around the world.

In the first of two special investigations, Taylor concludes that Iraq has become the dominant radicalising and recruiting force for many muslims and that British support for US foreign policy has made Britain a prime target.

With the so called 'War on Terror' far from won and the August's chaos at UK airports, is it time to consider a new approach?

To try and end the violence, is it time to engage with Al Qaeda?

I wonder what exactly they would have us say to Al Qaeda? "We surrender"? Is there anything else they would be satisfied hearing from us? I guess I'll have to tune in on 3rd September to see exactly how the BBC thinks we should be running the war on terror.

Storm Track Appeasement: Hope Over Experience

From The Gathering Storm

The saying goes that a second marriage is the conquest of hope over experience. That adage applies 100 percent to the following story out of Australia.

Here's the experience.

Several hardcore Islamists have been invited to a taxpayer-funded Muslim leader’s conference run by the Howard Government. The hardliners who have been invited to the conference, believed to cost taxpayers around $300,000, practice Wahabbism, a fundamentalist teaching of Islam that is preached by Osama bin Laden, and inspired by the fanatical Taliban regime in Afghanistan.€

Here's the hope.

The Prime Minister's Muslim advisory board chairman, Ameer Ali, says invitations to the Conference of Australian Muslim Religious Leaders next month were sent to extremist clerics including the ultra-radical Sheik Abdul Salam Mohammed Zoud, The Australian newspaper reported today. Dr Ali said the aim was to help bring the clerics into the mainstream. Once you marginalize these people, keep them outside the fold, then they will continue with their opposition and with their radical ideas, Dr Ali told the newspaper. “Once they come into the fold and realize that the vast majority, mainstream imams are against those views and they are minority views, there's a good chance of them turning to new views (on) life.€

Really? I wonder what the chances are of converting the Wahabbies to €˜mainstream Islam?. Wanna take bets?

Education in the West

Bengali Fob on Loose Change:

My politics prof even showed this doc in our class! That just strengthened my opinion and belief in this video even more.

Lesson learned:

I don't know about you folks, but I certainly believe that the US government would stage an attack on its own citizens just to gain support for a war.

Hey, on the bright side, the education in Canada is "free"!

Miss England is a comedienne !

Stereotyping is leading to terror, says first Muslim Miss England

The first Muslim to be crowned Miss England has warned that stereotyping members of her community is leading some towards extremism.

Hammasa Kohistani made history last year when she was chosen to represent England in the Miss World pageant.

But one year on, the 19-year-old student from Hounslow feels that winning the coveted beauty title last September was a "sugar coating" for Muslims who have become more alienated in the past 12 months.

She said: "The attitude towards Muslims has got worse over the year. Also the Muslims' attitude to British people has got worse.

"Even moderate Muslims are turning to terrorism to prove themselves. They think they might as well support it because they are stereotyped anyway. It will take a long time for communities to start mixing in more.

Honey, pack your bags, you're in the wrong place.

THIS is what causes the kind of terrorism you are thinking about.

Continue reading "Miss England is a comedienne !" »

23 Bombs Explode in Thailand Attack (And the Two Reactions)

“Yala - Muslim militants launched 23 coordinated time bomb attacks at commercial banks in this southern province Thursday, killing at least one man and severely injuring at least four bank customers, police said.

“The bombs, mostly left on bank counters and some in ATM booths at the banks, were detonated mostly by clocks between 11:30 to 11:35 am. Twenty six people suffered minor injuries.” – from The Nation of Bangkok, via LGF

MOONBATISTAN, EURABIA, A FEW HOURS LATER:

Neville Rootcause: Thailand out of Iraq NOW!!!

Winston Stormfacer: But Thailand doesn’t have any troops in Iraq.

In full on Our Children Are The Guarantors »

Storm Track Intimidation: Europe’s Continuous Descent Into Dhimmitude

From The Gathering Storm

"The horror line" is how train conductors refer to line 124 between Brussels and Charleroi according to the Brussels Journal one of the few MSM outlets in Europe that sees the cultural jihad threat before it.

“For years now it has been controlled by ruthless gangs of youths. [...] “There are incidents every day. One conductor has been beaten up 33 times already. None of us has the courage to check the tickets. Asking someone for their ticket is asking for a beating”, say half a dozen train conductors who are testifying anonymously for fear of being fired by the NMBS [Belgian Rail], the [state owned] national railway company. …The situation has been tense for years, but for the past six months many conductors have been refusing to emerge from the driver’s cabin and leave the train to the gangs. “It’s a pity for the passengers, but we are fed up.”

Fed up indeed. I said in this blog before that one of the three fronts in this war against Islamism is the coming civil war in Europe. The socialist European leadership is content to let the infiltration, intimidation and disinformation of the Islamist slowly bring European civilization to its knees and join the happy family of the Islamic nations.

But the European public will one day, some day, respond to the Islamist threat – and civil war in the streets and villages of Europe will result.

The dhimmitude of Europe continues apace. Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alima believes that Hezbollah is not merely a terrorist group as if their good works in Lebanon excuses them from the fact that they are a murderous organization that wantonly kills innocent Israelis and seeks to annihilate Israel. Britain’s race relations chief defends the right of Muslims to open their own schools.

“In remarks that put him at odds with Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, Trevor Phillips said that Muslims had as much right as other religious groups to educate their children according to their beliefs. Last weekend Ms Kelly said the Government had to stamp out Muslim schools that were trying to change British society to fit Islamic views.

Ms Kelly is correct. She sees the threat of Islamist teaching their young jihadis hate for the Jew, for Israel and the very country they live in. But the dhmimmis say let it continue.

Phillips said: “What the proponents of this view really want to say is one of two things. One, a perfectly valid view, is that religion should be banned from the public sphere and practiced only in private if at all. “The other, not at all valid in my view, is that Muslims can’t be trusted to run schools, like Christians have done for centuries

Umm. Yes. They can’t be trusted. Look at the recent history of the preaching and teachings in mosques and Muslim schools. This is where the home grown terrorist of Britain received part of the education of hate.

One of the best analyses of the European dhimmi problem was a recent article by Serge Trifkov. He shows how Europeans are being forced to accept and accommodate Islam, based on the disingenuous notion that Islam is superior to European culture .Instead demanding Muslims assimilate European countries and adhere to shared Western values they are facilitating the emergence of an Islamist state within their own countries, by implementing programs and legislation aimed to accommodate Muslim religious, social and political demands. The European Union is becoming the European ummah as Europeans are being forced by their leadership to accommodate Islam.

“The emerging transnational hyper-state is actively indoctrinating its subject-population into believing and accepting that the demographic shift in favor of Muslim aliens is actually a blessing that enriches the Old Continent’s culturally deprived and morally unsustainable societies. Europe is losing the ability to define and defend itself, to the benefit of unassimilable multitudes filled with contempt for the host-society…..Many Muslims in Europe already consider themselves de facto autonomous, a community of believers opposed to the broader society of infidels……Most Muslims in Europe live in a parallel universe that has very little to do with the host country. Their mindset has nothing but contempt for the liberal concept of “tolerance” and “diversity,” and they possess a disdainful and hostile attitude to the host-society……But since the dictum of the multiculturalist ruling elite is that Islam is peaceful, tolerant, and as European as the Sistine Chapel, the truth must not be spoken.”

We in America think we are immuned to the effects of this European dhimmitude but think again. Whose citizens pose a bigger terror threat to the security of the United States today? Saudi Arabia? Iran? Syria? Pakistan?

Nope. It’s Britain. We’ve seen how home grown terror groups have immerged from the Muslim community in Britain and this poses a big terror threat to the US. The United States government is being pressed to review its visa requirements for visitors from the UK amid claims that British Muslims are being recruited by Islamic terror groups. A recent news article in the Daily Mail said:

“An article in the New Republic, a respected liberal American magazine, describes what amounts to a worrying gap in US security that could be exploited by extremists. Citing the recent discovery of an alleged plot by British-born Muslims to attack flights bound for the US, it claims they could use their UK passports to evade border controls and attack America.”

If Europe and particularly Britain does not begin to resist the ideology of the Islamification of their countries, we won’t have to worry about screening illegal entrants to the US. Potential terrorists will be welcomed with open arms as friendly allies.

“The article warns: "For terrorist organisations like al-Qa'eda - which in the years since American troops deposed the Taliban, has reconstituted itself in Pakistan - ethnic Pakistanis living in the UK make perfect recruits, since they speak English and can travel on British passports. "Indeed, in the wake of this month's high-profile arrests, it can now be argued that the biggest threat to US security emanates not from Iran or Iraq or Afghanistan, but rather from Great Britain, our closest ally."

Ask not for whom the bell tolls – it tolls for US.

Why the 'Islam' Reference in a Couture Op-Ed?

Ahh, late August, when the September issues of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and their lesser competitors appear. I admit, I am a fashion magazine addict. I usually stick to the pictures and just skip the articles about just which outfits-I-can't-afford, especially as I'm never around the women who CAN afford this stuff. Now I know, you guys are thinking, Pim's Ghost, what the hell, you found something in a fashion magazine, and then took it seriously enough to write about? But bear with me.

So, I decided to read an article in this September's Bazaar about the over-sized, layered looks that have taken runways and magazines by storm, aptly titled "Could You Get a Date in These Clothes?". Written by long-time and older Glenn O'Brien, he laments the odd looks and their lack of sex appeal, noting quite rightly that "women don't dress for us; they dress for each other". I'll buy that. But what grabbed my attention, other than the clothing pictured, was his offhand references to Islam in the op-ed piece, pp. 307-308.

"Sure, for the uninitiated, leatherlike masks, burka headgear.....might seem outrageous." Now I took that as just mocking the goofiness of Couture shows, as O'Brien also mentions that they "wouldn't be shows without showmanship". Still, after a paragraph lamenting the Chloe collection resembling maternity wear, he continues to muse on what is behind these new trends.

"Another big trend: covered. Floor-length, chin-high clothes. Is it Islam-mania? The rash of interest in films about Elizabeth Regina? A tribute to the new Supreme Court?"

The man obviously has a sense of humor, but why an offhand use of a term, "Islam-mania", used just as casually as some writers throw around "Islamophobia"? I have yet to have heard of "Islam-mania", even from under my Islam-monitoring rock, except from the wackier articles presented by CAIR and the ISNA. But used casually in the fashion world? I must admit to being baffled.

Fashion cycles, it always does. I took these layered looks as a well-deserved homage to the early 80s and break from the class-less images of Paris Hilton and her ilk. Yet these new looks have taken an odd tinting to me now, especially after articles by Mark Steyn and Fjordman, among others, noting that European women are starting to wear clothing that is more "covering" and modest, even headscarves, to stem abuse in public by verbally abusive Muslim men. As Steyn noted in his "Happy Warrior" column in "National Review" only a few months ago, some of his European female friends were enjoying the change that they experienced in the attitude of Muslim men when they went out at night. They, over his objections, claimed to like being treated with "respect" instead of being called "whores" or threatened with attack.

So, now with these Couture sea-changes coming out of Paris, Milan and New York, are we just seeing a normal cycling of the fashion world, or is this an "Islam-mania" that hasn't reached our ears and just slipped out through O'Brien, or is this "Islam-mania" really just the typical appeasement of "dhimmi-mania"? I think we all have noted that phenomenon already. It just made me wonder. Quite a bit.

You Have To Wonder, Are There Any Moderate Muslims At All?

Hammasa Kohistani, the Muslim woman who is this years Miss London says that the stereotyping of Muslims is causing terrorism:


The first Muslim to be crowned Miss England has warned that stereotyping members of her community is leading some towards extremism.

Hammasa Kohistani made history last year when she was chosen to represent England in the Miss World pageant.

But one year on, the 19-year-old student from Hounslow feels that winning the coveted beauty title last September was a "sugar coatingî for Muslims who have become more alienated in the past 12 months.

She said: "The attitude towards Muslims has got worse over the year. Also the Muslims' attitude to British people has got worse.

"Even moderate Muslims are turning to terrorism to prove themselves. They think they might as well support it because they are stereotyped anyway. It will take a long time for communities to start mixing in more.

"People may feel I am just a sugar coating on the situation. I am a symbol to show it's not really that bad.

But at the same time, she said, "there is this hostilityî, which comes "mainly from the Governmentî.

The Prime Minister told MPs last month that moderate Muslims were not doing enough to tackle extremists in their own community.

Miss Kohistani said: "Tony Blair addressed Muslims in particular, telling them that they need to sort out the problem within. That was a huge stereotype of the Islamic community. Even the more moderate Muslims have been stereotyped negatively and feel they have to take actions to prove themselves.

Born in Uzbekistan and raised in Afghanistan, Miss Kohistani divided Muslim opinion when she entered and won the Miss England pageant in Liverpool.

Several community leaders openly declared her to be betraying the laws of Islam while radical Muslims sent the teenager and her family death threats.

But after a busy year travelling around the world as an ambassador for England, Miss Kohistani said she feels Muslims are unfairly being branded as terrorists.

She added: "For a Muslim to represent England is asking for controversy at the moment. I feel after everything that's happened Muslims are being stereotyped negatively. The whole community has been labelled and, whether they are guilty of crime or not, they are getting penalised for it.

"I like being in the limelight because people can look at me and see I am a Muslim but good. Most of the people being pinpointed are judged by their outer appearances and people assume because they are Muslim and have a beard they have done something wrong.

She continued: "The bridge I have made is slowly being broken by more and more wars. Now the Iran situation is brought up and another Islamic country is under scrutiny - and the recent Heathrow scare. I guess I am needed even more now than last year to an extent because of what has happened.

"It is not for me to answer how to get people to turn away from terrorism. The politicians don't know what to do and I am just a 19-year-old.


Maybe it's just my mood, but I find this story to be one of the most maddening and depressing things to come out of the Muslim community ever. If anyone has a reason to understand the problems in Islam it is a woman who has chosen to participate in Western popular culture as a performer of any sort.

As is noted in this article, Ms. Kohistani did face quite a bit of criticism from her own community, so she has direct experience with the totalitarian nature of Islam. And yet, even she would blame the problems within Islam on her home country rather than face the fact that it is Islam itself which has the problem.

If it is not Islam itself with the problem, then why is it that Muslims are killing people everywhere in the world, from Indonesia, to the Phillipines, to the Sudan, to the streets of Iraq, where they are killing each other?

And, if it isn't the Muslim community itself that is to solve the problems within Islam, then who is to solve them? And how?

Can you imagine what it will look like if people from outside of Islam are to have to try to solve the problems of Muslims, for Muslims?

Jeez, Muslims. Get with the program. Don't make us have to clean up your crap.

It's ROME 56 BC...Pompey, Crassus, Caeser, Clodius, and a clot of conceited Ciceros

We are about to enter a time of sine wave swings in political vicissitudes as each party is unable to solve the issues confronting us, because they refuse to FACE them. The potential dems poised to take over may well beget a larger sine wave of polar opposite repubs, perhaps as soon as 2008.

WSJ:

Consider the democratic house members who will become charimen of powerful committees if the pundits and MSM are correct about this November.

With a little more than two months to go before midterm elections, the polls show Democrats well positioned to win the House after 12 years out of power. So it's not too soon to consider who these Democrats are and how they would govern.

All the more so because we've seen most of these faces and their agenda before. While Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi would be a new Speaker of the House, the 19 primary committee chairmen who would dominate hearings, issue subpoenas and write legislation are agents of change only in the sense of going back to the future. They represent the same liberal priorities that bedeviled Bill Clinton's attempt to govern as a New Democrat from 1993-94, and before that Jimmy Carter in the 1970s. To pick one example, 13 of the 19 voted against the welfare reform that Mr. Clinton signed in 1996 and hailed this month as a triumph of "bipartisanship."

Republicans have done little to deserve re-election, and so perhaps voters will ignore Democratic priorities. But one of the ironies of current politics is that a swing in only 15 House seats would result in a huge ideological shift in the legislative agenda. Most of the House seats in play are "swing" districts held by political moderates. The most liberal seats also tend to be the safest and thus are held by Members who can stay around for the decades needed to become chairmen. Their agenda is not the one those "swing" voters would be endorsing.

Consider the man likely to run the Judiciary Committee, Michigan's John Conyers, from the Congressional class of 1964. He recently made his plans clear in a 370-page report, "The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution and Coverup in the Iraq War, and Illegal Domestic Surveillance." The report accuses the Administration of violating no fewer than 26 laws and regulations, and is a road map of Mr. Conyers's explicit intention to investigate grounds for impeaching President Bush.

It was at Mr. Conyers mock hearings that racist materials regarding jews were handed out by paid democratic party operatives.I see no Marcus Scaurus out there, and if anyone can lay claim to being a Cato, it's unfortunately, Robert Byrd

Continue reading "It's ROME 56 BC...Pompey, Crassus, Caeser, Clodius, and a clot of conceited Ciceros" »

The UN is WORSE for the future than the League of Nations in 1936

The League was simply moribund, impotent and useless.

The UN is now antisemitic, biased and has an agenda.

UN condemns Israeli strategy as ‘immoral’

The United Nations on Wednesday described as “shocking and immoral” the fact that Israel dropped well over 90 per cent of its cluster munitions in Lebanon during the last three days of the conflict – when it was already clear there would be a cessation of hostilities.

Of course nowhere in the article or statement by the UN will you find a word about Hizballah, whose aim is the end of a sovereign state setting daily RECORDS for indiscriminate use of missiles against Israeli populations durintg the same time frame

Jan Egeland, UN humanitarian chief, made his comments just hours after Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, left Israel after talks with Ehud Olmert, prime minister, and other government members. The UN said Mr Annan had asked Israel to provide a map of where cluster weapons were used but did not raise Mr Egeland’s concerns because he was unaware of the details during his Jerusalem visit.

Israel intensified its military offensive in southern Lebanon in the 72 hours between Security Resolution 1701 being signed in New York and the ceasefire on August 14.

Cluster weapons contain dozens of small explosives which spread over a wide area and are either air-dropped or ground launched.

The UN said it had identified 359 cluster bomb-strike locations, and that 102,000 unexploded small bombs continued to maim and kill people every day.

Continue reading "The UN is WORSE for the future than the League of Nations in 1936" »

The root of problems from Islam is Islam itself

Liberty and Justice's newest co-blogger Muslihoon immediately published a truly marvelous post regarding the nature of Islam and why calling for a 'different interpretation' might be difficult to achieve.

In the latest edition of The International Jerusalem Post (no. 2391), there is an excellent article on Wafa Sultan ("Her 15 minutes: Is Wafa Sultan the voice of reason or Islam's false messiah?" by Brenda Gazzar, pp. 10-11 of the aforementioned edition of The International Jerusalem Post).

In it is written:

Much of the controversy that surrounds Sultan comes from her opinion that Islam and the Koran - not its interpretation by Muslims - are "the source of every problem we have in the Middle East" including the disrespectful way she argues women and non-Muslims are treated in Islamic culture.

This is a significant point. Proponents of moderate Islam claim that the problem resides in the interpretation of Islam's fundamental sources (which comprise of the Qur'ān, ahadīth, sunnah, and sharī'ah): change the interpretation and the problem is solved! But this is not entirely correct.

Continue reading

US Military sees Iran with nuke in 5 years? Pulleeeeze !

It took Pakistan 5 years, in 1978 to produce a weapon from scratch in absolute secrecy. This is a generation later. In 1944-45 it took us LESS THAN ONE YEAR

US Military says this I just don't buy this.

If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own. We have no other choice. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto - 1965. Anyone think the resolve of the Hojatieh is less?

Pakistan, as the first of a series of examples of massive critical failures of american intelligence as to the timings, intentions, capabilities and accuracy of predictions uttered in full confidence by EXPERTS regarding other nations, the USA, and the state of the world.

Although Pakistan did not know it at the time, when Ali Bhutto made his decision to proceed with a weapons program in 1972, an Indian team had already been engaged for a few years in developing a prototype nuclear explosive device. In fact, at that moment the basic design for India's first nuclear device was already complete.

During mid-1971 Bhutto approached North Korea in an effort to obtain critically needed weapons. An agreement was quickly reached and on 18 September 1971 the first arms shipment from the DPRK arrived in Karachi. On 9 November 1972, only one day after withdrawing from SEATO, Pakistan announced that it was establishing formal diplomatic relations with the DPRK. Military assistance to Pakistan continued through the late 1970s, with the DPRK providing artillery, multiple rocket launchers, ammunition, and a variety of spare parts.
According to Khan in a 1998 interview, the first enrichment was done at Kahuta on 4 April 1978. The plant was made operational in 1979 and by 1981 was producing substantial quantities of uranium.In recognition of A.Q. Khan's contributions the ERL was renamed the A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) by President Zia ul-Haq on 1 May 1981. Khan was convicted of espionage in the Netherlands in 1983 in absentia and sentenced to four years in prison. The conviction was later overturned in 1985 for failure to properly deliver a summons to him.

Continue reading "US Military sees Iran with nuke in 5 years? Pulleeeeze !" »

Islam versus Civilization

Islam vs. Civilization: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Written by Raymond Kraft
Friday, August 25, 2006

To those Muslims, the silent and invisible majority, who truly are peaceful, or moderate, or liberal, and tolerant of others unlike yourselves, who are opposed to the deadly militancy of Islamic Jihad and Islamic Imperialism, whoever you are, wherever you are, I wish to make a pre-emptive apology for the broad brush with which I shall paint Islam. But a religion is what its believers say it is. In any age the nature and substance of any religion is defined by those who are most strident and assertive in saying what it is. And in this age it is the Islamic Resistance Movement, the voices of Puritanical Islam, the Islam of Jihad against the Unbelievers and Infidels, all the Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, the Liberal Democracies, and all the others, that define Islam for the world...

Read the rest at Pedestrian Infidel.

Not one Word-Sanitizing Islamic Jihad

Did anyone else sit through that bullshit hour of Greta Van Sustern last night and FOX's continuous vanilla coverage today? OMG, one full hour of Centanni and Wiigs without mentioning the 800lb savage in the room - Islamic Jihad.

These men were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint - a good deed according to the Quran - and not one word of it mentioned? What were they thinking then? Are they Muslims now?

Not one bloody word on the subject. That was a classic moment in American dhimmitude.

Bostom: ”Forced conversions in Islamic history are not exceptional—they have been the norm, across three continents—Asia, Africa, and Europe—for over 13 centuries.

What should be gleaned from this harrowing Gazan spectacle of non-Muslim journalists being kidnapped, imprisoned for nearly two weeks, and coerced at gunpoint into converting to Islam, while condemning their own societies? We must avoid indulging fantasies (such as those already expressed by the kidnapped Fox reporters upon their release) triggered by understandable Stockholm Syndrome reactions, or learned, fearful dhimmitude. Unsettling realities of the historical continuum of forced conversion to Islam must be discussed. The living Islamic fanaticism of the past cannot be allowed to poison the present (and future), unchallenged by Muslims themselves.

But it wasn't discussed. Nothing of import was discussed. Complete Sanitization. The ugliness of the track suits provided them was discussed. Yes, the unattractiveness of their garb. Some of the pain inflicted, some of the head shoved in the sand .................. but it was like old home week at FOX. Like some long lost episode of the Brady Bunch (more like the Poseidon Adventure.)

Ayn Rand Institute Presents: The Jihad Against the West: The Real Threat and the Right Response

ARI's ObjectivistConferences has a stellar lineup for this three-day event to be held in Boston:

DANIEL PIPES, director of the Middle East Forum
YARON BROOK, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute
FLEMMING ROSE, culture editor of Jyllands-Posten
ROBERT SPENCER, director of Jihad Watch
PETER SCHWARTZ, author of The Foreign Policy of Self-Interest: A Moral Ideal for America
JOHN LEWIS, assistant professor of history, Ashland University

Hat tip: NoodleFood

Alliance of the Pristinians

(Note: this post dates originally from August 24, but I was only just today invited to contribute to IBA. I decided to post it because it’s one of my most important and, I think, best done so far. —ZY)

In this post I cover another important unholy alliance against the West: that of the spiritual Left with Islam. I use the term “spiritual Left” to distinguish it from left-wing secularists and atheists, most prominently the Marxists. Although both are allied with Islam, their reasons are different.

The puzzlement aroused by the alliance of the secular Left with Islam is, in my opinion, minuscule in comparison to that aroused by the alliance of most (not all, but nearly so, just as with secularists) hippies, New Agers, pagans, environmentalists and the like with the Muslims against the West. For all the Marxists’ delusions, at least one thing can be said for them: they recognize Islam to be a political movement, not a spiritual one, and form their alliance with them out of political expedience. But the spiritual Left see Islam as a spiritual movement like theirs, yet they ally themselves with it against the Judeo-Christian West although Islamic doctrine holds Islam to be Abrahamic, to be more Jewish than Judaism and more Christian than Christianity. Nor is Islam friendly toward so many practices of the spiritual Left, such as “free love”, homosexuality, nature worship, magic, divination and polytheism (that last is the worst crime in Islamic eyes, the unpardonable sin).

[...]

Now the question may be raised as to how the woolly, postmodern, “anything goes if it feels good” spiritual Left can reconcile itself with a religion of one god, of scriptural revelation and of absolute certainty. On the face of it, it looks as if never the twain shall meet, but Islam, for all its talk about certainty, suffers from great weakness in that regard. Perhaps it’s a reaction: the assumption of absolute certainty as a cover for the inability to achieve it.

In full on Our Children Are The Guarantors »

Comforting terror victims up in the north

I wish I could've posted this earlier. Israel at Level Ground talks about how he joined with some Chabad emmisaries who provided aid to residents of northern Israel with The Israel Home Front Fund.

Most amazing is the high spirits among some of the troops. They may have taken some serious injuries, but, as one of the soldiers who was interviewed by the Jerusalem Post indicates, he's not fazed by the attacks:

In the orthopedics ward of Haifa's Rambam Hospital Thursday, St.-Sgt. (res.) Harel Siyani was being visited by a group of teenagers, one of whom brought along a guitar to play songs to raise his spirits. The smile on his face was a relief to his mother, who sat besides his bed.

Siyani, wearing a T-shirt bearing the name and logo of his army unit, was enjoying the music. It was a far cry from last week, when he was flown by helicopter to the emergency room, wounded and in serious condition. Shortly before August 14, when the UN-brokered cease-fire went into effect, Siyani was wounded in both arms and his chest by shrapnel from an anti-tank rocket fired by Hizbullah fighters. He, along with other soldiers in his reserve Golani infantry reserve unit, were taking part in the IDF's operations aimed at reaching the Litani River.

"There is pain, but it's getting better," said Siyani, who lives in Rishon Lezion and is one of some 400 soldiers wounded in Lebanon, the majority of whom were brought to Rambam.

Though currently he can't use either arm, and has to be fed and otherwise cared for, Siyani was in a good mood. The fact that his comrades come to visit him every day helps motivate him to heal faster. And despite his wounds, there seem to be no regrets and no doubt in his mind about where he'd rather be right now.

"I love serving in the army," he says. "I hope to return as soon as I am better. I protected my land and my birthplace, and even with the injury, I'd do it all over again."

I congratulate every soldier of Israel who can show such courage.

Here's also one photo of some damage done in one of Acco's streets:

As many as 40,000 ball bearings slammed into the above street in Acco, and the sign pole seen here took a lot of damage too.

You can read more at Israel at Level Ground.

Olmert equals Saddam?

Yes, says Ivan Eland, Senior Fellow at the libertarian Independent Institute. Showing that absurd moral equivalence isn’t a monopoly of the left, Eland says:

But although chemical weapons provide a grisly death, they kill far fewer people than explosive bombs. Because they have been wrongly included in the ominous sounding category of “weapons of mass destruction,” … their use implies a war crime from the get-go. … the Israelis are no less guilty of committing war crimes … In fact, the main difference between Saddam’s war crimes and Israel’s is that while Saddam denies them, Israeli officials indirectly admit them. … [T]he Bush administration regularly gripes about Saddam Hussein’s war crimes, while cheering on Israel as it does the same thing in Lebanon and Gaza …

With libertarians like these who needs leftists like Chomsky & Sheehan!

Radicalized Jews

If you believe that all narratives are of equal worth and deserve a fair hearing, then you will see the other side to the coin of radicalization. Of course, most professing postmodernists and cultural relativists are hypocritical in that regard, using the idea of “all narratives are of equal worth” as a convenient pretext for casting the “Palestinians” as a David against the Israeli Goliath, but repudiating it in reality when Israel and the Jews today ask for a fair hearing of them. Thank G-d for the blogosphere as a way out.

[...]

We (Israeli Jews in particular, Westerners in general) were better off, and certainly no worse, when we had more the image of oppressor than patronizer. Sir Charles Napier may have been hated in his day for his decision to hang window-murderers in India, and considered the textbook example of a Western colonialist oppressor, but his self-guilty, appeasing, patronizing, weak-looking descendants in modern Britain are paying for their fear of being seen as oppressors with homegrown suicide bombers and plane hijackers and no way of countering them, because of self-righteous screams of the Politically Correct guardians of the always-innocent, ever-oppressed noble savages with their “legitimate grievances”.

In full on Our Children Are The Guarantors »

Conveniently Ignoring The Obvious

Mark Steyn wrote a, as usual, marvelous article. This time he deals with polls among Muslims in Canada, Britain and in the US: the results are frightening: the far majority seems to believe that either Muslims were not involved at all, or that it was some kind of great conspiracy in which the US used Muslims to make Muslims look bad.

It's truly unbelievable.

Islamic passion

The Times of London mentions:

MARTYRDOM videos found by police investigating the alleged airline terrorist plot contain chilling statements made by young men who are apparently willing to die as suicide bombers.

In one of the films, recorded shortly before a spate of arrests on August 10, a man is seen talking to the camera and stating: “As you bomb, you will be bombed; as you kill, you will be killed.”

The would-be martyr said he hoped that Allah would be “pleased with us and accept our deed”. He continued, reading from a script, citing verses from the Koran and listing his reasons for “action that I am going to undertake”.

In another search, police found a last will and testament that concluded: “What should I worry when I die a Muslim in the manner in which I am to die? I go to my death for the sake of my maker, whom if wishes can bless limbs torn away.”

I've seen people argue that Islam is inherently evil, and I've seen people argue that we shouldn't blame an entire group based on their fanatics and that Islam is a religion of peace. I've read opinions and articles from the gamut of opinion from the pro-jihadists to the most right-wingers. As a pure religion (as opposed to a political ideology), I admire Islam in many ways. I try very hard to give all people the benefit of the doubt, even as I read about polls where a large percentage of ordinary Muslims condone terror.

But the quotes above crystallized for me what has been bothering me since 9/11.

Read the rest here.

WHAT PART OF THE WAR ON TERRORISM DO THEY SUPPORT?

This year's Democratic plan for the future is another inane sound bite designed to trick American voters into trusting them with national security. To wit, they're claiming there is no connection between the war on terror and the war in Iraq, and while they're all for the war against terror — absolutely in favor of that war — they are adamantly opposed to the Iraq war. You know, the war where the U.S. military is killing thousands upon thousands of terrorists (described in the media as "Iraqi civilians," even if they are from Jordan, like the now-dead leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi). That war. As Howard Dean put it this week, "The occupation in Iraq is costing American lives and hampering our ability to fight the real global war on terror." This would be like complaining that Roosevelt's war in Germany was hampering our ability to fight the real global war on fascism. Or anti-discrimination laws were hampering our ability to fight the real war on racism. Or dusting is hampering our ability to fight the real war on dust.

More at Ann Coulter

Remembering Katrina

Watch here

And who was really responsible for the damages at New Orleans?

Britain ‘is now biggest security threat to US’

Britain now presents a greater security threat to the United States than Iran or Iraq, an American magazine said yesterday.
In an article on Islamists headlined “Kashmir on the Thames”, the New Republic painted Britain’s Muslim communities as a breeding ground for violent extremism.
Citing recent opinion poll evidence suggesting that one in four British Muslims believed that last year’s London Tube bombings were justified, the magazine said: “In the wake of this month’s high-profile arrests, it can now be argued that the biggest threat to US security emanates not from Iran or Iraq or Afghanistan, but rather from Great Britain, our closest ally.”
More at The telegraph

Al-Jazeera-on-Thames on Home grown Terrorism

"Perhaps so. Attempts to understand why young people may grow up in this country so profoundly estranged from its values that they become home-grown terrorists have been prohibited by politicians - faithfully echoed by the media - under the pretext that to do so would represent justification for acts of terrible violence. In this way, those committed to the war on terror immediately disarm themselves of the most useful instrument to tackle the phenomenon.
The British government vehemently repudiates the suggestion that its foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, its slothful devotion to the fate of the Palestinians and its urgent inactivity in the Israel/ Hizbullah conflict have contributed towards the making of fanatics. The motivating factor of choice in the official view is that some suggestible young Muslims have fallen under the sway of powerful preachers of hate, brainwashed and promised a lurid caricature of paradise as a reward for the cult of death.
Part of the problem with home-grown alienation, of course, is that globalisation has a profound impact on local lives, not just economically but socially, culturally and spiritually. Kelly recognised this when she acknowledged that “global tensions are reflected on the streets of local communities”. National borders are increasingly fragile defences against the influence of events that seep through barriers erected to contain them.
That many actual and potential terrorists are not from the most deprived backgrounds, but have often received a good education and have promising prospects, has puzzled observers. This reckons without the widespread psychic disturbance that always accompanies social dislocation, particularly mass migration, which brings contradictory belief systems into stark and sudden proximity - a shock exacerbated for people who, detached from majority status in their place of origin, become a stigmatised minority at their destination. The resulting cultural mix is bound to be volatile and unpredictable, as suggested by the approval of extremists by the 13% of Muslims in Britain who thought the July 7 bombings justified. It should also be remembered, however, that the self-immolation of others is sometimes not unappealing to those who would not dream of imitating them."
More on The Guardian

Pyrrhus victory for hetZZbollah?

In a TV interview in Beirut Sunday, Nasrallah admitted second thoughts about the wisdom of capturing the two Israeli soldiers, an incident that triggered the war: “The party leadership never expected a response on such an unprecedented scale and volume [by Israel],” he said. “Had we known that what we did would lead to this, we would certainly not have embarked upon it.”
Why did Nasrallah decide to change his unqualified claim of victory into an indirect admission of defeat? Two reasons.
The first consists of facts on the ground: Hezbollah lost some 500 of its fighters, almost a quarter of its elite fighting force. Their families are now hounding Nasrallah to provide an explanation for “miscalculations” that led to their death.
Throughout southern Lebanon, once a stronghold of Hezbollah, pictures of the “martyrs” adorn many homes and shops, revealing the fact that many more Hezbollah fighters died than the 110 claimed by Nasrallah. What angers the families of the “martyrs” is that Hezbollah fighters had not been told that the sheik was starting a war to please his masters in Tehran, and that they should prepare for it.

More at Hodja

Storm Track Appeasement: A Useful Idiot Speaks

From The Gathering Storm

An article caught my attention today. One that clearly shows that the useful idiots on the Left have no clue on who we are fighting and why.

Charlie Reese over at Ant-War.com takes Bush to task on his ignorance on the war and Islam. But instead, he shows the ignorance of the dhimmi Left. He wrote:

“President George Bush's ignorance of the Middle East and its people is well-known. So also is his habit of parroting words and sentences given to him by other people. He hit a new low when he referred to "Islamic fascists." No two more opposite concepts are to be found. Fascism glorifies the nation-state; Islam is transnational. Fascism demands slavish devotion to a national leader; Muslims are far too independent-minded to be slavish followers of anybody. Virtually all the people Saddam Hussein murdered were people trying to overthrow him. Fascism is militaristic. Islam is not.

He wrong on three points and it shows his ignorance of Islam and Islamism. You wonder where this guy has been living the last 6 years – or perhaps his world view and hatred for Bush clouds his perception of reality.

First “Fascism glorifies the nation-state; Islam is transnational.” Oh. And wht do Muslims call the ‘nation-state’ they belong to, Mr. Reese. Does the word ‘ummah’, the Ilsamic nation of Muslims ring a bell?

Second, “Fascism demands slavish devotion to a national leader; Muslims are far too independent-minded to be slavish followers of anybody”. Now don’t spit at your monitor on that one. Mr. Reese is way off the reservation on this one. I assume a slavish devotion to the Koran and the command of Mohammed is independent thinking? Man!

Third, “Fascism is militaristic. Islam is not.” The depth of ignorance in the man is astounding! The religion of Islam is not militant? Open your history books Mr. Reese. Oh, wait a minute. You’re most probably a product of the public school system and the subject of history had to make way for multicultural sensitivity courses.

“Mr. Bush, who has dubbed himself the "war president," has made a pathetic and absurd effort to picture himself as Winston Churchill facing off against evil. He is no Churchill. Most of the enemies he imagines, he has created himself.”

That’s right. Our enemies who have vowed to destroy us ate all imaginary. Tell that to the victims of 9-11. And then of course this piece of leftist apologist and appeasement.

The West faces no threat from Islam. Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions in the world, but it really is a religion of peace.”

Oh paleeeze! And the ignorance keeps on coming.

“More importantly, it is a religion that concentrates on individual salvation. There is no Muslim pope, no College of Cardinals, no bishops, no priesthood. Any five Muslims anywhere in the world can start their own mosque. Imams are teachers and, like Protestant preachers or Jewish rabbis, can be fired by their congregation. The Shi'ite version is slightly more organized.”

“Any five Muslims anywhere in the world can start their own mosque.” Huh? That’s an organization? Without a head?

“To dispose of some of the slanderous misstatements being floated about, Islam forbids forced conversions. People would do well to read some history rather than rely on ignorant and malicious radio and TV talk-show hosts.”

You mean like the two Fox reports who said they were converted at gunpoint? I won’t go on. You can read it all for yourself. But there is this one closing thought.

“It's obvious that President Bush will never understand the world into which he was born, but most Americans have more open minds…..”

Mr. Reese. People should have open minds but not so much that their brains fallout like yours. This is going to be a loooong war.

Go Brits!

Check out this post and watch a bunch of Brits lay into Inayat Bunglawala.

That is the British fighting spirit. Those are the Brits with whom we Americans kicked Nazi ass back about 60 years ago.

Good to see you, my friends.

A Visa For Our Enemy

From Reliapundit, the Astute Blogger:


DID FDR GIVE A VISA TO GOERING DURING WW2?!

THEN WHY IS BUSH LETTING KHATAMI INTO THE USA!?

ARE WE AT WAR, OR ARE WE NOT?

The Dangers Of The Downplaying Of Terrorism

Yesterday, in reporting the Hit And Run Jihad story, I wrote the following:


It's a media blackout.

You can see why bloggers are becoming more and more popular.

... if our governments and media do not stop lying to us about Islamofascist terrorism, the people will stop believing that authorities understand the problem.

If the people don't believe that those who run our society understand what we are up against, then the people will begin to take things into their own hands.

The government and the media are playing with fire.


Today, the Anchoress says the same thing:


What the hell is wrong with the press, what the hell is wrong with the leadership? Why are they so incapable of calling anti-semitism what it is, of calling a terrorist action what it is? Newsflash, folks, when someone decides to drive his car into people as they’re crossing the street, it’s the same as tossing a molotov cocktail at them, it’s the same as tossing a grenade. It is destructive, it kills people and terrifies communities, that is called t-e-r-r-o-r-i-s-m! Hey, guess what, fellas, we don’t need no stinking anthrax to kill and terrify…we can use our cars.

... I’m getting weary of watching the press and the people “in charge” go out of their way to downplay it anytime someone with an “Islamic” sort of name drives a car into people on a city street, or on a campus, or starts shooting people in a synagogue, or raises cain at an El Al counter at LAX.

I know that somewhere in the minds of these movers and shakers they think they are protecting Muslims-in-general from reactionary prejudice, distrust and bias from us unruly, racist, mouth-breathing Americans (because we went nuts and burned down mosques after 9/11, right? We took to the streets and rampaged and lynched anyone named Abdul back then, right?) but the truth is, by their incessant downplaying, their knee-jerk move to protect-and-explain perps like this, they’re just making some people very resentful, and in the end, I think that’s going to do more to foment prejudice and bias, distrust and hate toward decent Muslim persons than would simply acknowledging the fact that when these Fundamentalists DO this crap, it is what it is - an act of aggression, hate and terror - and not some “mistake” that can be cooed away.


The government and the media had better get the message.

Where's the Righteous Uproar?

Gitmo. Abu Ghraib.

Just the names invoke a reflex of outrage that the United States would, according to the Muslims and their apologists, stoop so low as to do as much as harm one hair on the head of one poor jihadist who was captured trying to kill us.

Rage by Muslims who feel their religion offended. Rage by human rights fans who feel these inmates' rights trampled.

Rage by every Thomas, Richard, and Harold who has a column, a mic, or a blog.

But yet these same Muslims, you may as well say the same people as the inmates; just change the person in the scene, much like a position player in sports is just a position player, no matter who you put in the uniform at that spot, they all are expected to perform the same function. And the journalists; reporters for a "conservative" (Bush friendly) news outlet. Complete role reversal of Gitmo and Abu Ghraib. The inmates are the guards; the guards, inmates. The captives are mistreated, but all I hear is a scream of silence. No op-ed column of rage against this offense. No Amnesty International protest against the Palestinians. I don't know the background of these two, but for the sake of conversation, assume they're Christian - no sign-waving Christians flocking out into city squares to protest this high offense against their religion - the stripping away of their faith at gunpoint by savages.

Read the rest here.

The Many Faces Of Belgian Fascism

From Bret Stephens in the Opinion Journal:


The hallmark of nearly every European socialist party has long been hostility to religion. In recent years, Belgium's ruling Socialist-Liberal coalition has antagonized Catholics by legalizing gay marriage and euthanasia, banning crucifixes from government buildings, and abolishing the traditional Te Deum service previously held by the government to commemorate the inauguration of Leopold I, first king of the Belgians.

But then the Socialists began taking note of Belgium's Muslim community, some 500,000 strong. In Brussels, notes Joël Rubinfeld of the Atlantis Institute think tank, half of the Socialist Party's 26-member slate in the city's 75-seat parliament is Muslim. In the commune of Molenbeek, longstanding Socialist mayor Philippe Moureaux has made halal meals standard in all schools; police officers are also barred from eating or drinking on the streets during Ramadan.

The Socialist Party was also, improbably, the leading opponent of a bill that would have criminalized the denial of the Armenian genocide. This, too, is a product of burgeoning Muslim-Socialist alliance, as is the party's routine denunciations of Israel.


Read the whole thing.

Hey Kofi, up yours, you anti semitic little cretin

Annan: Israel Must Lift Lebanon Blockade

With Israel's prime minister standing by his side, U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan renewed his demands Wednesday that Israel immediately lift its sea and air blockade of Lebanon, but failed to win Israel's consent. Annan also said he hoped Israel would withdraw all its forces from south Lebanon once the number of U.N. forces in Lebanon has doubled to 5,000, a number he said could be reached in "coming days and weeks."

However, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert suggested Israel was not prepared to do that until a U.N.-brokered cease-fire deal that ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas was implemented fully.

Continue reading "Hey Kofi, up yours, you anti semitic little cretin" »

Bush's Plot To Destroy The World Trade Center, Invade Iraq, And Steal Their Oil

Click to enlarge.

Hit And Run Terrorist May Have Been Stressed Over Wedding

Yes, yes, he may have been stressed over his wedding IN AFGHANISTAN.

The fact that his wedding was in Afghanistan doesn't rate much mention:


Relatives of a Fremont man connected to Tuesday's deadly driving rampage said he may have been distraught after returning recently from Afghanistan without his newlywed wife who iswaiting for a visa.

Omeed Aziz Popal, 29, who sources said was being held by the San Francisco police, was normally a kind and gentle person, said Hamid Nekrawesh, 43, a first cousin in Fremont.

But a recent trip to Afghanistan to participate in an arranged marriage could have caused him a lot of stress, Nekrawesh said.

``He was a very respectful, quiet, nice guy,'' Nekrawesh said. ``I've never seen him do anything violent.''

Zarghona Ramish of San Jose, who also identified herself as Popal's cousin, said he had been having strange dreams since returning a month ago from Afghanistan.

Popal lives with his parents, younger brother and two younger sisters in a working-class neighborhood of one-story tract homes in west Fremont, Nekrawesh said. He worked at a Fremont tire store on Mowry Avenue, neighbors and relatives said, and he and his father also sold household items at Bay Area flea markets.

He was born in Afghanistan, but came to the United States at a young age. Three months ago, he returned to his home country to marry, relatives said, and his wife's family was very traditional and strict.

``He grew up as a Western boy in the United States and went to Afghanistan to get married culturally over there,'' Nekrawesh said.

Nekrawesh wondered if the stress of the trip and the culture shock had an impact on Popal, especially given that Afghan weddings are very large, and Popal comes from a large extended family.

The bride's family didn't allow the couple to meet or talk before the wedding, Nekrawesh said.
``The only thing would be some kind of mental pressure,'' Nekrawesh said, adding that Popal seemed happy before leaving for Kabul. ``The lifestyle is very different in Afghanistan.''


Yeah, it sure is.

A "Debate" with Dr. Danial

Recently, I came across an article (mentioned in the comment thread to a post at PI titled Who are the Palestinians? and also over at a Malaysian Muslim blog) which is a very “interesting debate” between a Dr. Danial (Arabic for Daniel) and a seemingly fictional Christian character, John. Most of the “debate” is worthless, so I am going to discuss just a few important and misleading points from it. It is better that you follow the link provided above and read the “debate” in its whole to understand the points raised in this 2 part post.

Read Part 1 HERE
Read Part 2 HERE

"Madman" In Car Mows Down 14 In Streets Of San Francisco

Live Blogging: UPDATED AT BOTTOM

Scroll Down For New Posts

He was a "madman." I think he also might have been a "youth." Quite possibly an "Asian."

But, we can rest assured, terrorism has been ruled out:


(08-29) 15:56 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- As many as 14 people were injured this afternoon by a motorist who drove around San Francisco running them down before he was arrested, authorities said.

Seven of those injured were in critical condition, police and firefighters said.

Authorities have identified the man who was arrested as Ohmeed Aziz Popal, who has addresses in Ceres (Stanislaus County) and Fremont.

Authorities said they believe Popal was the same driver who ran over and killed a 55-year-old man walking in a bicycle lane in Fremont, at Fremont Boulevard near Ferry Lane, just after noon. That crash scene is just blocks from Popal's Fremont address, where he had most recently been living.

Popal was arrested at a Walgreens at Spruce and California streets.

In San Francisco, the attacks began around 1 p.m., but it was unclear in what order:

• Two people, one of them a child, were critically injured around by a sport-utility vehicle on the 3500 block of California Street in Laurel Heights.

• Three people were hit at California and Fillmore streets. Witnesses said they included a man with a broken hip and a woman with a gashed head.

• Two people were seriously hurt at Bush and Pierce streets and one person was seriously injured at Bush and Buchanan streets, police said. One person suffered minor injuries in an incident at 1850 Fillmore Street.

• Two other people suffered minor injuries when they were hit at Pine at Divisadero streets, and another two were hit and suffered minor injuries at Divisadero and Bush Street.

"It was like 'Death Race 2000,' " firefighter Danny Bright said at California and Fillmore streets, as an ambulance stood nearby. "Guys were walking down the sidewalk and the guy just came up and ran them over. The guy went crazy.''


UPDATE: Six hours later, neither CNN nor Fox are reporting on this huge story.

It's a media blackout.

You can see why bloggers are becoming more and more popular.

The other day, I warned that if our governments and media do not stop lying to us about Islamofascist terrorism, the people will stop believing that authorities understand the problem.

If the people don't believe that those who run our society understand what we are up against, then the people will begin to take things into their own hands.

The government and the media are playing with fire.

UPDATED: From Hugh Hewitt

A caller to the program who stated he had lived in the neighborhood where the attacks occured asserted that this is a heavily Jewish neighborhood. I have not found that confirmed in the media accounts yet.

Four callers have confirmed that without doubt this is a Jewish neighborhood, and that one of the victimns was run over in front of the Jewish Community Center in the area.

From an e-mail:
Look on the web! the JCC located at 3200 California St. Site of one of the attacks: 3250 California ST.

UPDATE:

And here's the inevitable big lie:

Here's the video of Mayor Newsom's press conference. In it he calls the attacks "road rage," and states that "there seems to be no pattern" to the victims in terms of ethnicity or age, and he says "We made no assertions that this was a hate crime, though that is being investigated." The attacker is "relatively young," Newsom stated, and that "it doesn't look in any way shape or form" like an attack related to "international relations."

I repeat myself, the government and the media are playing with fire.

UPDATE

From Jihad Watch:

Omeed Aziz Popal has, like Muhammad Reza Taheri-azar several months ago, driven his SUV into people, clearly trying intentionally to hurt or kill them. Like Taheri-azar, he seemed completely calm and at peace with himself after the incident.

After mowing down as many people as he could, Popal was boxed in by police and arrested. According to this video, he then identified himself as a terrorist (this bit comes right at the end of the report). Police, however, have already ruled out the possibility that these were acts of terrorism -- again, as they did in the case of Taheri-azar.

UPDATE

One attack has been identified by the media as having happened in front of the Jewish Community Center.

UPDATE

Three people have been taken in for questioning. Why three?

Islamophobia Watch

This poor, poor guy:


NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Iraqi architect on Tuesday said he was forced to change his t-shirt before boarding a flight in New York because the shirt had "We will not be silent" written on it in Arabic and English.

Raed Jarrar wrote on his Internet blog (http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com) that he was required to change out of the shirt prior to boarding a JetBlue flight from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to California this month because officials told him people were offended by the shirt.

In an interview with New York Public Radio on Tuesday, Jarrar said, "I grew up and spent all my life living under authoritarian regimes and I know that these things happen. But I'm shocked that they happened to me here, in the U.S."


Gee, I feel so sorry for him.

Let's see; he had to change his t-shirt, and meanwhile, 300 million Americans have to endure long lines at airports,wasting hundreds of thousands of hour of their precious time enduring invasive screening, having to go on board airplanes sans water bottles, gel, etc. - all because Muslim men, ages 20-45 have repeatedly plotted to, and sometimes succeeded in, bringing down airliners.

We have had to watch as the Trade Center Towers fell, killing 3,000 of our fellow citizens.

We have had to watch the Beslan Massacre, the Madrid bombings, the London 7/7 bombings, and countless other acts of Jihad.

And, to top it off, this poor guy had to change his t-shirt.

Well, here, I have something to make him feel better. It's called "The Golden I-Don't-Give-A-Fuck Award."

I hope he displays it proudly on his mantel, OR, up his ass.


Quetzal writes in to say:

I'm no leftist. I even write a blog on our issues with Islam. Still, I hate when these things happen, though I must admit it's a natural outcome of the Islamofascist's ways.

I detected in that comment a bit of an admonishment for perceived stereotyping on my part. I don't think all Muslims are terrorist. However, I do know that all the terrorists who have caused trouble in the Western world in the past few years are Muslim (with the exception of a few in Spain).

We all have to shoulder the consequences, as I note in my post, and as I commented back to Quetzal:

I am a former leftie. 9/11 changed me, and the "Jenin Massacre" did away with my leftism completely.

The reason I make fun of this guy is because I endure all sorts of inconvenience and invasive searching tactics at airports on a regular basis, and I never complain about it one bit. I am, quite often, pulled out of line, forced to take off articles of clothing, have my bags swabbed, and forced to take items out of my bags, etc. And I am a white guy with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Here's what I think when this is happening to me: "Well, they have to make a show of it, don't they? But, if this is what they have to do to make us all safe, then I am glad."

But, this poor Muslim guy can't contribute his share. He has to complain about the fact that he is being racially profiled.

Well, clearly, I am being racially profiled too. I am being profiled because as a white guy with blonde-hair and blue eyes, I am a good show to put on for all those who appear Middle-Eastern who are concerned that they will be racially-profiled.

Everybody needs to shut up and get with the program. Airport security is doing their job. Leave them alone. Stop the whining.

Faith of Our Fathers

Faith of our fathers, living still
In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword;
O how our hearts beat high with joy
Whene'er we hear that glorious word!

Faith of our fathers, Holy Faith!
We will be true to thee till death.

When I was a kid hearing that song in church about the distant olden days, who would've thought, decades later, that the lyrics to the song would once again ring current in my ears for the West, for our own front door. How far we have come from our safety, back into the lion's jaws, in less than a generation.

But ignoring it will not make it not so. I'm afraid we must all ask how we will face this in our less than brave, politically correct, "situation ethic"-ally driven new world. Who knows how we will act if we also were in this situation. Held captive by Muslims, offered the choice of freedom via forced conversion, or punishment. I hope that I can emulate the example of one of my modern day heroes, Fabrizio Quattrocchi. Or, at least I can remember that whoever has hold of me physically in this world doesn't have sway over me in the next, as long as I exercise my Free Will to resist, no matter how my end comes.

Fabrizio Quattrocchi, 36, a baker from Italy went to Iraq to work as a security guard for a contracting firm. He and three other Italians were taken hostage by the Green Battalion, who demanded that Italy release some of the Muslim extremists they are holding, and that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi apologize for statements he made that allegedly insulted Islam. They showed the hostages on video, and threatened to kill them if their demands were not met. To demonstrate they were serious, they took Quattrocchi to a field, and had him dig a large hole. They then put a hood over his head and forced him to kneel by the grave, preparing to murder him. But Fabrizio did not cooperate. He stood and tried to pull off the hood, shouting, "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies!" The terrorists shot him in the back of the neck. Al Jazeera, which obtained the videotape of the killing, chose not to air it, saying it was "too gruesome." Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said, Fabrizio "died a hero."

The enemy we face today would have to rise far to earn even our contempt. Fabrizio's captors wanted not just to kill him, but to humiliate him, the true mark of the savage. However, they needed his cooperation, and Fabrizio knew it. He was beyond help, but not helpless. He was alive. He could still choose, if only to choose the manner in which he would die. Consider the bravery, the nobility, the strength of that act. In his final moments, facing eternity, willfully discarding the shred of hope that maybe it would not happen, maybe he would get out of it alive, shouting defiance in the masked faces of his captors and denying the barbarous cowards intent on murdering him the satisfaction of his complicity in their crime.

Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, the two Fox News journalists who were kidnapped a couple of weeks ago, converted under threat to Islam, then recanted that conversion. I'm not passing judgement on them here. I just hope that I can do better if I had to. I am decended from people who were stuck with the lonely job of fighting back the Turks. The mere thought of uttering the shahadah is as unthinkable as anything I can imagine doing, and I have a very filthy imagination, thank you Army days. I could not think of living with myself, or even living, if I did that.

Loosely bragging "how tough I am" is no way to prepare. Exercising the mind is similar to exercising the body - when you face the moment when you need great strength, you need to already have done a lot of heavy lifting ahead of time in order to prepare yourself, or else you will get crushed. My mantra, if you will, for whenever I think of muslim encroachment into my free world, is the line from Nine Inch Nail's Head Like a Hole:

Head like a hole.
Black as your soul.
I'd rather die than give you control.

p.s.: that phrase isn't sung, it's spat out through the teeth.

Fabrizio, you're in my prayers, one of the very few people I pray for by name who I've never had a personal connection with. May you inspire anyone who also has a muslim captive's fate.

This post is also cross-posted at my blog, Tip Jar.

Great Moments In The History Of Pacifism

Mahatma Gandhi the Father of India. In 1940 Gandhi advised the British to act thus towards Hitler: “You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions…. If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them.”

To the Jews just emerging from the concentration camps in 1946 Gandhi said: “The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.”


Wretchard comments: Only a religious pacifist — or a Jihadi — could say that.

So you think the increased USA presence in Baghdad is to decrease violence? Not according to the DIA

DIA warns of Iran-backed coup in Iraq

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has increased U.S. troop levels in Baghdad to help protect the new government of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki.

U.S. officials said the addition of at least 12,000 U.S. troops in Baghdad was meant to prevent a Shi'ite coup against Al Maliki. The U.S. military and intelligence community have detected evidence of Shi'ite plots within the government to overthrow Al Maliki and establish an Iranian-aligned regime.

Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki
"There is an assessment that Al Maliki could be killed or deposed by fellow Shi'ites under orders from Iran," an official said. "Our fight in Baghdad is against an Iranian plot."

The Bush administration has cited deteriorating security in Baghdad for the increase in U.S. forces. Over the past six weeks, the Defense Department has halted the steady decline in the U.S. military presence and started Operation Together Forward with the Iraq army and police.

But in briefings to Congress, Pentagon officials have described the need to save Baghdad from an imminent coup. The officials said several Shi'ite ministers and senior officials sponsored by the Iranian-financed Mahdi Army were believed to be plotting against Al Maliki.

Excuse me, but in what way would the world be worse if the Iranian mullahs woke up dead tmw? Would Iraq be worse off? Philadelphia? Teheran?

Continue reading "So you think the increased USA presence in Baghdad is to decrease violence? Not according to the DIA" »

Khaled Centanni

Gormless Norman says what I've been thinking, but couldn't find tactful words to say:


I can't get past this story.

Steve Centanni is a coward.

But Gormless Norman, what would you do if you were kidnapped, possibly tortured, and the only way you could escape was by pretending to convert to Islam?

Ok, maybe I would also take the cowardly way out. If I did so, I hope I would then be ashamed of myself. And I hope the society I came home to would recognize my behavior as cowardly.

Centanni took the cowardly way out. But there is no indication that he feels ashamed in any way of converting to Islam to save his precious skin, and there is no indication that our society retains any trace of the notion that this is cowardly behavior.

There's no indication our society even maintains the categories of "courageous" and "cowardly" any more.

Nobody is calling Centanni a coward, as far as I've seen. This says just about everything you need to know about the current war: Westerners would rather convert to Islam than die, because we value bare life above any transcendent idea or principle.


I'd love to hear what others have to say about this.

Here is what I would hope that I would do if I were in a similar situation.

A Disgraceful “Détente”

Guest Editorial by Edward Cline:

The retreat and ultimate defeat of the West will be made possible by an alliance of pragmatism and altruism. Since the stated U.S. policy is to avoid “collateral damage” and loss of “innocent” civilian life, President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have opted for two policies: To cripple our military by establishing “rules of engagement” to avoid collateral damage (especially to civilian infrastructure) and minimize civilian casualties; or, not to engage the enemy at all, but seek a diplomatic solution to a conflict.

This is our operating strategy not only in Iraq and Afghanistan, but now in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah-ruled Lebanon. It accounts for the paradoxical, astonishing failure of Israel to defeat its militarily inferior foe. Israel failed because Bush and Rice engineered the failure in the name of “peace.”

After allowing Israel to attempt to “shock and awe” Hezbollah into ashes with air strikes, and seeing that strategy fail, Bush and Rice allowed Israel to launch a delayed land offensive against Hezbollah into Lebanon. At the same time, they instructed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to not attack Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure, even if Hezbollah fighters were using hospitals, schools and even homes to fire its rockets into Israel and from which to fire at Israeli troops. Despite this hamstringing, non-military policy, Israel advanced rapidly to the Litani River in Lebanon. U.S. satellites observed the advance, and Bush called a halt to it. Israel was suddenly in possession of the field but under “orders” to simply maintain a holding action.

General George Patton’s philosophy of war it’s not. He did not believe in “holding actions,” but advancing and destroying the enemy.

According to the Debka File report (August 22nd), “Olmert’s absolute compliance with Rice’s directives without fully comprehending their military import threw Israel’s entire war campaign into disorder.” At the behest of the U.N., Israel subsequently surrendered its gains, knowing full well that Hezbollah would simply fill the vacuum.

(For the whole report, go to this link: http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1204)

When one thinks that our leadership’s craven pragmatism has reached its limit, that it must acknowledge the utter failure of its policies, what followed was an even greater example of its moral turpitude: Both the U.S. and Israel turned to Syrian president (dictator) Bashar Assad to assist in the resolution of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict.

Instead of conceding that their policy was wrong, the U.S. and Israel compounded their irrational policy by following it to its logical conclusion: by sending out “peace feelers” to the enemy.

The U.S. then handed the “moral” task of enforcing a peace between Israel and Hezbollah to the U.N., which ordered the assembly of a multinational force to create a “buffer zone” between them. With one or two exceptions, the nations sending troops to serve in this capacity are hostile to Israel. France is no friend of Israel, and three of these nations are Islamic. The others are “neutral.” Two other dictatorships, Russia and China, refuse to consider U.N.-imposed economic sanctions against Iran; Russia needs the revenue, and China needs the oil.

Was the hamstringing of Israel an obscene “gesture” to Iran, intended to be an inducement to “talk” about its pursuit of nuclear weapons? Very likely. The cowardice is obvious to our enemies. Why isn’t it obvious to the cowards? Were any lessons learned by Bush, Rice and Olmert? Apparently not. To minds that regard reality, language and principles as “fluid,” with no anchorage in reality, no lessons are possible. Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, and the European appeasers all pose as “realists” in global politics, but reality is not their sole reference. Their rule of thumb is: Reality is what you make it. Reality, however, is not cooperating.

The comparison was made elsewhere by another astounded observer: Just as we did not conduct a war against blitzkrieg and kamikazes in World War II, we should not be conducting a war against “terrorism” but against those nations that facilitate terrorists or encourage them.

The current, unbelievable mess is made possible also by a concern about what the world – the Arab world and Europe – would think of the U.S. if it used its strength to defeat its enemies once and for all. But the concern about what the world will think of the U.S. is a symptom of a perilous lack of self-confidence, not only in the capacity to act, but in its own value and worth. The U.S. will not act with pride.

Economist Walter Williams, in trenchant article on Capitalism Magazine, “Will the West Defend Itself?” (August 23rd) posed this question:

“Think of it. Currently, the U.S. has an arsenal of 18 Ohio class submarines. Just one submarine is loaded with 24 Trident nuclear missiles. Each Trident missile has eight nuclear warheads capable of being independently targeted. That means the U.S. alone has the capacity to wipe out Iran, Syria, or any other state that supports terrorist groups or engages in terrorism – without risking the life of a single soldier.”

But, our policy, based not on self-defense, but on global consensus and approval, regards our strength as a liability.

Thomas Sowell, in another Capitalism Magazine article, “Point of No Return?” (August 22nd) also paints a disturbing picture of what the “realists” in Washington and Europe refuse to see about the nature of our enemies. By his analysis, we are either reaching the “Munich pact” point, or have already passed it.

What is one of the major contributing factors to a lack of self-confidence? Multiculturalism, or the policy that no culture is superior to another (though Islamists claim otherwise). Moral relativism, which predates multiculturalism, is another factor. It takes a “global village” to imbue such nihilistic ethics, and a “world community” to teach the proud and the strong a lesson in humility.

Bush and Rice are Kantian manqués par excellence: altruism, or the sacrifice of the good to evil, is the moral fuel that powers their pragmatism. Their maxim is: peace. Period. Not “peace at any price,” not even “peace in our time.” Just “peace,” with no projection of the consequences.

Career pragmatists come in two varieties: those rendered insensate to reason and insulated against reality; and those hostile to reason. In either case, the corrupting power of pragmatism is evident. And, it is futile to point to a pragmatist’s intelligence. One might ask: can’t these people see what we are seeing, and reach the same conclusions about what is happening and what ought to be done about it? But intelligence is no guarantee of a fealty to reality or a commitment to rationality.

The fear of taking a proud, selfish moral stand against the West’s enemies and a queasy reluctance to take action against them have exponentially multiplied the perils to the U.S. and Western civilization in a pattern just as ominous as that which occurred in the 1930’s, when a sustained policy of appeasement for the sake of “peace” resulted in World War II.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran read Hitler’s book of how to treat appeasers and other “useful idiots.” For the last two weeks his military has conducted “war games,” including the firing a missile from a submarine and numerous surface-to-surface missiles. He inaugurated the opening of Iran’s first heavy water producer. He has in his possession two or three Soviet nuclear warheads obtained in 1993 by Iran after that other “Evil Empire” collapsed. While their fissionable material has expired, undoubtedly they have served as adaptable models to place onto long-range Iranian missiles, to be targeted on Israel.

Ahmadinejad has laughed at the West all the way fulfilling his mission of being the new Muslim “Mahdi,” or “expected one,” giving the U.S. and the U.N. the equivalent of a Bronx cheer. His immediate goal: the erasure of Israel. His long-range goal: to establish a new Persian empire in the Mideast.

The rumblings you hear in the distance are the Persians, the Tartars, the Huns and the Visigoths rallying around their Farsian fuehrer.

Crossposted at The Dougout