The Lord's Resistance Army is a particularly nasty Christian terrorist organisation headed by Joseph Kony. It has been responsible for the deaths of many thousands of people in Uganda. However looking at your nightly news coverage one would be very hard pressed to find even one news story about these Christian terrorists murdering in the name of Christ and the Bible.

Joseph Kony's terrorist group has been fighting the Ugandan army since 1987 and their main objective is to establish a theocratic Christian state that will rule by the Ten Commandments. In this pursuit Joseph Kony's and his band of Christian warriors have killed around 12,000 people, 2 million civilians have fled the fighting and 20,000 children have been kidnapped by the terrorist group to be used as child soldiers and as sex slaves.

Now news is emerging that the elusive Christian terrorist leader Joseph Kony has named one of his children George Bush after the 43 President of the United States:

"The leader of Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Africa's most wanted rebel leader, has named one of his sons "George Bush", said British journalist Matthew Green in a report published recently in the Financial Times magazine.

In 2006, Green had met LRA rebels' relatives, including three of Kony's wives in Sudan's border with Congo.

''He taught us how to pray,'' Green quotes one of Kony's wives speaking of her husband, before seeing the toddler Kony had named "George Bush".

For two decades his Lord's Resistance Army has abducted thousands of children in northern Uganda and committed hideous atrocities, slicing off victims' ears and noses and padlocking their lips together. The conflict has killed tens of thousands and uprooted 2 million people.

Kony and three other commanders have been indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for raping and mutilating civilians, enlisting child soldiers and massacring thousands....

....According to Green, Ugandan newspapers described Kony as a self-styled prophet who wanted to rule according to the Ten Commandments.

Green quoted one of Kony’s aides, Moses, say: “Kony is a messenger from God! We follow the commands of the Holy Spirit!”

Moses continues to explain Kony’s reasoning: “If someone has done something bad to you, you have to kill them!"

“Go and read in Matthew, chapter what and what, it is stated that if your right hand causes trouble, cut if off! It is there in the Bible!" (Source: Middle East Online)

Who would have thought that the Bible is a terrorist manual ? I wonder how many right-wing Christians will be calling for the banning of the Bible as they do the Qur'an ? As can be seen from above the Bible causes human beings to murder, kidnap and rape.

For more on the Lords Resistance Army see :

• Murderous And Perverted Christian Terrorists Try To Evade Justice
• Christians Do This In The Name Of The Bible?
  

Image source: Magnus Manske

Jewish leaders have welcomed an initiative taken by leading Muslim in Europe trying to build bridges between Jews and Muslims:

"Jewish leaders have welcomed an unprecedented open letter from Muslim communities around the world calling for "positive and constructive action" to improve relations.

The landmark document decries tensions between the two faiths and calls for further dialogue and an end to the Israeli Palestinian conflict....

...Signatories of the letter, launched at the Muslim and Jewish relations department of Cambridge University’s Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths on Monday, included professor Tariq Ramadam, Sheikh Suhaib Hasan Secretary General of the Islamic Sharia Council, the Muslim Council of Britain’s Ibrahim Mogra, Professor Sari Nusseibeh President of Al Quds University, and Sheikh Mustafa Ceric The Grand Mufti of Bosnia.

It outlines shared values between the religions and calls for further dialogue, “We both share a common patriarch, Ibrahim/Abraham, other Biblical prophets, laws and jurisprudence, many significant values and even dietary restrictions. There is more in common between our religions and peoples than is known to each of us.

"It is precisely due to the urgent need to address such political problems as well as acknowledge our shared values that the establishment of an inter-religious dialogue between Jews and Muslims in our time is extremely important.

"Failure to do so will be a missed opportunity. Memories of positive historical encounters will dim and the current problems will lead to an increasing rift and more common misunderstandings between us."
The letter also calls for closure to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “a peaceful resolution that will assure mutual respect, prosperity and security to both Palestinians and Israelis, while allowing the Palestinian people their rights to self-determination.”

Sheikh Michael Mumisa, lecturer at the Woolf Institute, "We believe that this is a very significant and positive development in the history of relationships between Muslims and Jews. This is as much a letter to fellow Muslims as it is to Jews. To Jews it demonstrates that Muslims realise that it is important to read and interpret the Qur'an within a context of positive interreligious dialogue and understanding between Muslims and Jews.

At the same time, it also demonstrates to other Muslims that such a reading and interpretation is legitimate and acceptable within Islam." (Source: Totally Jewish)

No doubt the anti-Islam bigots will be out trying to paint this as another example of how Muslims are trying to lull non-Muslims into a sense of false security only to impose the global Islamic caliphate on them afterwards and without anyone noticing.

The conservative American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington authored an article in 1993 that was published in the Foreign Affairs magazine and which was entitled "The Clash of Civilizations?". The primary thrust of Huntington's theory was that after the fall of the Soviet Union religion and culture were going to be the primary sources of future conflict in the world.

Unlike Samuel P. Huntington I have not studied political science nor am I a professor at Harvard University . However I wish to make an observation regarding Samuel P. Huntington's theory, namely that culture and religion will be the primary sources of conflict in the world.

I believe that religion and culture have always sources of conflict the world over and throughout human history. One only needs to look at expansionist 19th century European Christian empires as prime examples of this type of activity.

Aborigines had been living peacefully in Tasmania for about the last 40,000 years and in 1803 their population numbered between 4,000 and 6,000 person. Their numbers fell to around 300 in 1833 in what can only be described as a genocide. The latest research on the matter believes that polytheistic European Christians murdered around 118 Aborigines from 1803 to 1847. The rest of the Aboriginal population was killed off through the introduction of alcohol and some claim sexually transmitted diseases.

In 1833 a Christian missionary by the name of George Augustus Robinson persuaded the remaining 300 Aborigines to exile themselves on Flinders Island. Of those 300 exiles 250 died in the next 14 years. From Flinders Island 47 Aborigines were transported to Oyster Cove where the last full blooded Tasmanian Aborigine died in 1876.

The manner in which European Christians dealt with the hapless Aborigines of Oyster Cove can only be described as barbaric:

"The remains of the Oyster Cove people were treated with disrespect during the 1860s, with many museums claiming body parts for their collections, even though one of the central traits of Aboriginal belief is that a soul can only be at rest when laid in its homeland. In one case, the Royal Society of Tasmania received permission to exhume the body of Truganini in 1878 on condition that it was "decently deposited in a secure resting place accessible by special permission to scientific men for scientific purposes." Her skeleton was on display in the Tasmanian Museum until 1947.

Other cases included the removal of the skull and scrotum — for a tobacco pouch — of William Lanne, known as King Billy, on his death in 1869.

Body parts and ornaments are still being returned from collections today, with the Royal College of Surgeons of England returning samples of Truganini's skin and hair in 2002." (Source: Wikipedia)

According to Samuel P. Huntington the primary sources of future conflict in the world are going to be culture and religion. As can be seen from the example above this has been always the case. Polytheistic Christian Europeans have always used culture and religion as a justification for empire building and genocide:

"Justification and motivation for imperialism also came from the belief that the Christian religion and European forms of government, education, and law would improve the lives of the indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, and Australasia, and that it was, therefore, a duty to spread European civilization. The work of the Christian mission was important for many Europeans who believed the native inhabitants of their nations' empires to be pagan or without true religion. Protestant and Catholic missionaries travelled throughout the world trying to convert indigenous peoples to Christianity. Many of these, such as the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone in Africa, helped to open up unexplored regions of a continent to European influence and eventual imperial activity." (Source: Farlex Encyclopedia)

Will religion and culture play a role in the conflicts that human kind will face in the future ? Of course it will but that is how it has always been.

Comments made by Rowan Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury concerning Shari'a and English law have now become famous the world over.

The Archbishop's comments opened the flood gates for every Tom, Dick and Harry to voice their hatred of all things Islamic and all people Muslim. The boiling hatred of Islam was only too clear for many to see but how different things could have been.

According to a Benedictine monk King John of England in 1213 offered to convert to Islam and place England under the rule of the Almohad Caliph Muhammad an-Nâsir:

"Was England ever on the verge of becoming an Islamic state? In 1215 King John was forced to accept the Magna Carta, that touchstone of English liberties. But according to one medieval chronicler, only two years previously he was toying with passing the country over to Sharia.

The claims appear in the Chronica Majora written some years after the event by a Benedictine monk by the name of Matthew Paris.

In 1207 Pope Innocent III placed England under an interdict that effectively closed down the country's churches. He excommunicated John two years later. Facing war with France and rebellion at home, the monarch was in a tight spot.....

...John dispatched Thomas of Erdington, Radulus, son of Nicholas Esquire, and a cleric, Robert of London, on a top secret mission to Morocco.

On arrival, they approached the powerful Almohad caliph, Muhammad an-Nâsir. Their task was to win his military assistance to help to see off John's converging enemies. Paris claimed that they brought a letter from the King offering to place England at the caliph's disposal and promising that John “would not merely relinquish the Christian faith, which he considered vain, but would adhere faithfully to the law of Muhammad”. Far from being impressed, the caliph sent John's emissaries away, curtly assuring them that he had no intention of allying with someone so lacking in faith that he was intent on becoming an apostate for the sake of political expediency. Thus rebuffed, John ended up having to appease the Pope and the barons instead." (Source: The Times)

I wonder even in an age of religious tolerance can any western leader in today's world ever toy with the notion of converting to Islam and still remain in power?

A local celebrity in Britain DJ Grooverider has caught the attention of the international media after being given a 4 year sentence for possession of marijuana in Dubai:

"A Radio One disc jockey has been jailed for four years in Dubai after being caught with drugs.

"Grooverider" - real name Raymond Bingham - was handed the jail term by the Dubai Court of First Instance.

They 40-year-old drum and bass star was found guilty of illegally bringing in and possessing marijuana.....

...He was arrested at Dubai Airport on November 23 last year after travelling to Dubai to play a set.

Police found a small transparent sack containing 2.16 grams of marijuana in his luggage. He allegedly also had some pornographic DVDs in his possession.

The DJ had previously told the court that he did not know he had the drugs on him and that he had no intention of bringing them to Dubai.

At an earlier court appearance, he said: "The drugs were in my possession and I forgot I had them in my trousers."

....In a published interview from jail before he was sentenced, he said: "I just want this to end and to never come back. It was a small amount. Back home I would not even get prosecuted."

....Drugs are strictly banned and recently there have been several high-profile cases of foreigners being jailed for smuggling small amounts into the country.

....British tourists have increasingly headed for Dubai instead of more downmarket European party resorts like Ayia Napa and Faliraki.

The city, with its luxury hotels and relatively cheap weekend package deals, is a convenient and comfortable choice.

But many visitors are apparently unaware of its strict anti-drug policy." (Source: Daily Mail)

"These foreigners coming to our countries and spreading their filth". I wonder where I have heard that before and in relation to whom ?

The BBC has been able to obtain documents that show that the British police refused to arrest a wanted Israeli General at Heathrow airport, for fear of an armed confrontation with his body guards or air marshals:

"An Israeli general wanted for alleged war crimes escaped arrest in the UK because British police feared an armed confrontation at Heathrow airport.

Documents seen by BBC News reveal how Major General Doron Almog managed to fly back to Israel when police failed to board his plane in September 2005.

He stayed on board for two hours after a tip-off that he was facing detention.

Police were concerned about a potential clash with Israeli air marshals or armed personal security on the plane.....

...Lawyers acting for Palestinian campaigners lobbied the Metropolitan Police to act over allegations he had ordered the destruction in 2002 of more than 50 Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.

Campaigners say the homes were destroyed by the Israeli army as retribution for a Palestinian militant attack, in contravention of the laws of war protecting civilian property. Israel says destruction of Palestinian houses is among the necessary measures it takes to protect its citizens.

The Met initially refused to get involved, citing massive pressures on counter-terrorism teams in the wake of the London bombings.

But the legal representatives successfully applied to a judge for an arrest warrant for a private prosecution.

A decisions log prepared for the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which has investigated the incident, shows officers decided to detain the general at Heathrow's immigration control.

They then planned to take him to a police station to consider executing the warrant.

However, news of the warrant leaked to the Israeli Embassy.

Officials tipped off the general and he and his wife refused to leave the El Al flight for the two hours it sat at the London airport's terminal.

The documents now show Det Supt John MacBrayne, a senior counter-terrorism officer who was responsible for the operation, could not get confirmation that his team had the right to board the plane.

El Al, Israel's national airline, had refused permission.

In his log, he wrote: "Another consideration [was] that El Al flights carried armed air marshals, which raised issues around public safety.

"There was also no intelligence as to whether Mr Almog would have been travelling with personal security as befitted his status, armed or otherwise."

The officer concluded there were real risks to the police and public and also had concerns about the "international impact of a potentially armed police operation at an airport".

....John O' Connor, a former head of Scotland Yard's flying squad, told BBC One's Breakfast programme: "All they needed to do was to stop the plane from taking off and negotiate through the Foreign Office."

He said he felt the arrest had been "written off", putting "British justice is in the dock." (Source: BBC News)

Sometimes life is stranger than fiction.

Birds of feather flock together as the saying goes and it certainly is a very descriptive saying when used in reference to Walid Shoebat and Zachariah Anani.

Both of these supposed experts on Islam have three things in common. The first being they both originate from the Middle East, the second being that they both hate Islam and finally the third being that they both want you as non-Muslims to be just as bigoted as they are about Islam and Muslims.

After much exposure on television channels like Fox News and throughout the right wing Christian media the truth is starting to seep out about these supposed Islamic experts.

The truth about Walid Shoebat is so damning that even former supporters such as anti-Islam bigot Debbie Schlussel are starting to distance herself from him:

"Walid Shoebat says there's a $10 million dollar contract out for his assassination, and he claims to have been a major terrorist working for the PLO. His associate Zachariah Anani says he has killed 223 people, many of them with daggers, and also survived a beheading attempt. The two are part of a trio making the rounds as the "Three ex-Terrorists" who purport to have great knowledge about Islamic terrorism (and what America should do about it)....

...Shoebat and his two "ex-terrorist" associates are already booked, along with US Senator Joe Lieberman, as speakers at the 2008 "Christians United For Israel" conference in Washington DC this summer but a rising chorus of voices has begun to challenge the veracity of Shoebat's claims to having been a major PLO terrorist. Shoebat has recently managed to offend a Princeton pro-AIPAC group (PIPAC) through his use of the epithet "judenrat" and has also alienated a former fan, right wing blogger Debbie Schlussel who wrote in a comment attached to a post on her blog,

"AS FOR SHOEBAT, HE IS A COMPLETE CREEP AND AN APPARENT FRAUD, WHO IS IN THIS FOR THE BUSINESS ASPECT OF IT FOR HIMSELF. IN MY OWN PERSONAL ENCOUNTERS WITH HIM, HE COMPLETELY REPULSED ME AND ENTIRELY CHANGED MY VIEW ON HIM (I HAD PRAISED HIM, PREVIOUSLY, ON THIS SITE). HE STOLE A COLUMN I WROTE--WORD FOR WORD--ON IMAD HAMAD AND USED IT IN A PRESS RELEASE. WHEN I CAUGHT HIM AND PINNED HIM DOWN, HE ADMITTED TO IT, BUT STATED HE DOES NOT WANT TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH CONSERVATIVES (WHO MAKE UP HIS WHOLE BASE) AND THAT'S WHY IT WAS OKAY TO STEAL FROM ME UNATTRIBUTED. HE PROMISED TO CORRECT, BUT WHEN HE DID NOT AND I CALLED HIM. HE SAID, "F-CK YOU, BITCH," AND HUNG UP."

Walid Shoebat has made a career for himself by painting Islam as a religion bent on world domination. Along with Brigitte Gabriel-- who I heard as a speaker, last summer at the Christians United For Israel conference where she proclaimed in speech that "Arabs and Muslims "have no SOUL !" --Walid Shoebat and his "former terrorists", converts to fundamentalist Christian zionism Christianity (apocalyptic premillenniallist dispensational Christianity to be exact) have been traveling around the US, around for several years now, beating the drumbeat for a full-blown religious war between the United States and the entire Islamic world. Shoebat and his associates claim that, because of their alleged background as former terrorists in the PLO, Hamas, or Hezbollah, they knew what Islam is really about: killing Christian and Jews. Along with a large cohort of Christian Zionists and other speakers and publicists, NeoConservatives and Israelis tied to the Likud Party, Walid Shoebat has been part of an ongoing PR campaign seemingly bent on to whipping Americans into a frenzied panic about the alleged menace of militant Islam...

...But a rising chorus has started to call out the veracity of claims Shoebat and his associates have made, on having been significant terrorist figures....

...Shoebat and his fellows are a staple of right wing conferences and Christian Zionist events, as speakers, and they're constantly on not only dedicated radio and TV broadcast outlets of the American Christian right but also Fox and CNN, and their consistent message to Americans could be summed up as the following:

"Two or three hundred Muslims want to kill you, they want to destroy America and they'll do it if they have to swim over here, bombs strapped to their backs, to do it. So you'd better get them before they get you. And, by the way, they're over here too. Any American Muslim you see might be one of them, you never know."

A few weeks ago however, Canada's top terrorism expert suggested that autobiographical details provided by one of Shoebat's three "ex-terrorists", Zachariah Anani, didn't add up:

Last January 20th, 2007, the Windsor Star featured the reaction of Tom Quiggen to self--described "terrorism expert" Zachariah Anani, who had made some speaking appearances in Canada. Tom Quiggen is "Canada's only court-qualified expert on global jihadism and a former RCMP intelligence and national security expert" and Quiggen stated that in his studied, polite but unequivocal opinion self-proclaimed "former terrrorist" Zachariah Anani's story, about his alleged terrorist background, just isn't credible. In short, Quiggen pegged his professional reputation on the likelihood that Zachariah Anani has been lying about his background. As Quiggen said in the Windsor Star article,

"It appears to be that Mr. Anani is nothing more than an extremist who is trying to create an imaginative history from a contemporary set of fears and stories," said Quiggin. "Mr. Anani's myths that he has built up around himself lack validity on a number of key points...

"His story of having made kills shortly after he joined and having made 223 kills overall is preposterous, given the lack of fighting during most of the time period he claims to have been a fighter," Quiggin said. "He also states he left Lebanon to go to Al-Azhar University at the age of 18, which would mean he went to Egypt in 1976. In other words, according to himself, he left Lebanon within a year of when the fighting actually started.". . .

Quiggin said Anani's description of himself as a Muslim terrorist also "defies logic" based on the time frame.

"Most the groups involved in the fighting in Lebanon were secular and tended to be extreme leftists or Marxists," he said.

Quiggin said religious-based terrorism as part of the warring in Lebanon didn't begin until after 1979, following the revolution in Iran, the Soviet attack on Afghanistan and the attack on the Grand Mosque in Mecca by Sunni Muslim extremists.

Anani's claim to have survived a beheading attempt is also questionable, said Quiggin.

"This was not a common practice in Lebanon at any time and again it appears as though he is attempting to build up his past mythology by playing on current Iraqi-based fears," Quiggin said.

Now, a woman who says she has tracked down and talked to one of Walid Shoebat's Palestinian-American relatives- who supposedly has said Walid Shoebat's story is fraudulent -has now called Shoebat out to the extent of refusing to retract her story, which contradicts Shoebat's story of having been a major PLO terrorist, despite a lawsuit threat from Shoebat's agent.

As reported by Eileen Fleming, on her blog, a relative of Shoebat's told Fleming that:

"The biggest act of 'terror' he ever committed was to glue Palestinian flags on street posts. But, when he was in jail he met someone who invited him to join a group against Israel. In 1977 Walid and his friends put packages behind a bank, but there were no explosives in it. That year he also met some Jehovah Witnesses and joined them for a while."

As Fleming's account, of this alternative and somewhat drab alternate chronicle of Shoebat's past, continues it descends to a sad, tawdry level:

"Walid came to the U.S. in 1978 and met an Afghani friend and they went into business together, but it didn't work out, so he moved to Chicago in 1981 where many cousins live and asked for help. He went to Loop College [now Harold Washington College] and was appointed as a foreign student advisor; a position offered him so he could pay his tuition."

"The repo man took Walid's truck and after that he went back to California. He met a Palestinian girl there and they got married and had a son. But, he beat his wife and that marriage broke up." (Source: Talk To Action)

In Walid Shoebat and Zachariah Anani's defence I must say that it is a dog eat dog world out there so if they make a quick buck and become famous for spreading "the truth" about Muslims then the world should not really hold it against them.

It appears that the whole world and his dog has been wrong about Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

Many thought that his pronouncements about Islam and Muslims were driven by a base hatred of Muslims. However as you will see from the following interview he gave to a British newspaper Geert Wilders does not hate Muslims just Islam:

"Islam is not a religion, it's an ideology," says Wilders, a lanky Roman Catholic right-winger, 'the ideology of a retarded culture."

The Dutch politician, who sees himself as heir to a recent string of assassinated or hounded mavericks who have turned Holland upside down, has been doing a crash course in Koranic study. Likening the Islamic sacred text to Hitler's Mein Kampf, he wants the 'fascist Koran' outlawed in Holland, the constitution rewritten to make that possible, all immigration from Muslim countries halted, Muslim immigrants paid to leave and all Muslim 'criminals' stripped of Dutch citizenship and deported 'back where they came from'. But he has nothing against Muslims. "I have a problem with Islamic tradition, culture, ideology. Not with Muslim people."

Wilders has been immersing himself in the suras and verse of seventh-century Arabia. The outcome of his scholarship, a short film, has Holland in a panic. He is just putting the finishing touches to the 10-minute film, he says, and talking to four TV channels about screening it....

...Where a few years ago the far right in Europe concentrated its fire on immigration, these days Islam is fast becoming the most popular target. It is a campaign that is having mixed results....

...Wilders echoes some of the arguments against multiculturalism that have convulsed Germany in recent years. Like many on the traditional German right, he wants the European Judaeo-Christian tradition to be formally recognised as the dominating culture, or Leitkultur. 'There is no equality between our culture and the retarded Islamic culture. Look at their views on homosexuality or women,' he says." (Source: The Observer)

I am so relieved to be informed that Geert Wilders does not in fact hate Muslims.

Image source: Groep Wilders

A day does not pass without some anti-Islam bigot harping on about how Muslims having migrated to the west refuse to integrate with the host non-Muslim community.It has become some sort of mantra now that every anti-Islam bigot must repeat 1000 times daily otherwise his/her hatred of Islam and Muslims is questioned by all and sundry.

The reality of the situation is that there some Muslims who do not want to integrate with host communities in the west but there are also many indigenous westerners who believe that they are superior and refuse to have anything to do with a Muslim.

A report conducted by Lancaster University and funded by the British government has found a majority of students at all white schools in the north of England were against integrating with Asians. In the British context the term Asian is used to mean peoples whose ancestry is originally from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh and in the case of northern English towns normally means Muslim :

"Schools that have mainly white or Asian pupils may damage community relations and should be avoided, a report claims.

A study by researchers from Lancaster University says non-mixed schools perpetuate extremist attitudes among white pupils and fail to prepare young Muslims for prejudice they may suffer later....

...The study questioned more than 400 15-year-olds in Burnley and Blackburn about their attitudes towards race, religion and cultural integration....

...The survey also found that pupils from the predominantly white schools were against integration while Asians were liberal and tolerant.

Almost one-third of the white pupils believe one race was superior to another, compared with one-tenth in the Asian school.

Those findings, the report says, were "unanticipated and troubling". (Source: The Citizen)

Pretty hard to integrate with some one who does not want to particularly integrate with you.

Dear reader it is that time of week again when we have a look at some of the interesting posts that can be found on weblogs in my blogroll. So without anymore ceremony here are my "accelerated links" for 02/17/2008:

1. Arabisto on Arab-Americans tending to favour Barack Obama.
2. Austrolabe on Sharia arbitration in American courts.
3. The Rude Pundit on Hilary Clinton's Presidential campaign and Mark Penn.
4. Inside Iraq on American logic and the awakening councils in Iraq.
5. Atlas Shrugs asks is Barack Obama really an Arab-American ?
6. Haitham Sabbah on $2.55 billion worth of American military aid to Israel.
7. Muslim Matters on the case of 3 American men charged with targeting a mosque in Tennessee.
8. The Daily Scare on the role that the Iraq factor is playing in the American presidential race.
9. Crossroads Arabia on Saudi plans to translate non-fiction western books into Arabic.
10. The Moor Next Door on conservative Americans thirst to change the world by bringing it freedom and democracy .
    
11. Arab Writers Group asks what if Barack Obama is a Muslim ?
12. LFG Watch on Little Green Footballs and news from the Middle East on Israel giving homosexuals full rights to adopt.
13. The Truth Will Set You Free on the reality of the Federal Reserve.
14. Fiery Spirited Zionist on how it was actually the Muslims of the Balkans who committed genocide against the Serbs and not the other way around.
    
15. Jews Sans Frontieres on a growing fear amongst Israel's supporters in Washington regarding anti-Israel rhetoric.
    
16. Samson Blinded on how only expulsion of Muslims and Arab Christians from Israel can lead to peace in the region.
17. Craig Murray on the international implications of Kosovo declaring independence from Serbia.
18. Newshouds on Fox News comparing Barack Obama's speeches to those of Adolf Hitler.
19. Israpundit on how American Jewish gangsters helped to found the modern state of Israel.
    

The links in this post are provided solely for informational purposes and inclusion should not be construed as endorsement or acceptance by the author of this weblog.

Bulgarian Muslims have a particular problem with a virulent form of hatred directed towards them.

This hatred has seen mosques and faith-based schools being desecrated almost every month in the European nation:

"Graffiti proclaiming "Turks, die!" was found scrawled outside the building of Bulgaria's grand mufti Saturday, adding to mounting slurs against the country's large Muslim population, his office said.

"These acts disturb us. Our anxiety is heightened by the fact that mosques, schools and other buildings related to our religion are desecrated almost every month," the office of Grand Mufti Mustafa Alish Hadzhi said in a statement.

The 45-year-old cleric appealed to the Bulgarian government to take urgent measures to find the culprits of the graffiti, which was apparently sprayed on the facade of the building Friday night, it said.

About 12 percent of Bulgaria's population of 7.6 million is Muslim, the latest census conducted in 2001 showed.

The 90-percent Christian Orthodox country, which joined the European Union in 2007, also has the largest Turkish minority in the bloc -- at about 10 percent....

....Bulgaria's ethnic and religious minorities have lived peacefully since the fall of Communism in 1989. The Turkish minority party Movement for Rights and Freedoms is now a major coalition partner in two successive governments since 2001.

But in 2005, the ultra-nationalist Ataka party also made its appearance on Bulgaria's political scene, running in general elections on slogans like "Against the Turks in the government." Today, it has 11 deputies in the 240-seat parliament.

And Ataka leader Volen Siderov challenged incumbent President Georgy Parvanov in a run-off ballot in 2006.

Bordering on Serbia and very close to Kosovo, Bulgaria recently declared it "will not be among the first to recognise the independence" of the breakaway, largely Muslim province." (Source: Middle East Online)

Dear reader I would like to take this opportunity to inform you of a very exciting development here at Islam and the west - opinions of a Kashmiri nomad.

Just recently I have been able to convince one of my friends "Stormin Norman" to contribute regular posts to this weblog.

Norman has never written for a blog before but I am sure you will like his in-depth analysis of the current situation between the Islamic and western worlds.

To those of you who are regular visitors to this weblog please could I request that you give him the most heartiest of welcomes.

Once again thanks for visiting us. Both "Stormin Norman" and I would like to continue our conversation with you.

As seen on a truck in the Greenbelt.

I wonder how the permit holder knows who a terrorist is and who is not a terrorist ?

Image source: iwantamonkey

English town council mayor Robert Bennett has left the Conservative party after a private e-mail he wrote was leaked. In the e-mail he expressed his true feelings regarding Islam and Muslims:

"A TOWN council mayor who claimed Muslims “cause mayhem with explosives” quit the Conservative party last night.

Mirfield Mayor Clr Robert Bennett provoked outrage when comments he made about Islam in an email were leaked.

He told a meeting of Mirfield Town Council last night that he was withdrawing from the Conservative party – but he remains mayor following a vote of confidence.

Clr Bennett’s email late last year had been in response to an apparent request from the Huddersfield-based Ahmadiyya Muslim Association for permission to seek funding.

But the association insisted that no application for cash had been made.

Clr Bennett wrote in the email: “I am aware Islamic organisations are keen to promote a view that they are peaceful, forward-thinking individuals who wish to integrate into the British way of life.

"The policy of clothing the feminine population of Dewsbury in black sack-like clothing from head to toe, the occasional trip out to cause mayhem with explosives and the proposal that all those of homosexual persuasion should be killed by shooting or other means is adequate and practical testimony to the level of progress being made in this direction.

"I, for one, am not prepared to spend the time on something that can be dealt with elsewhere… We have enough non-religious problems to address in Mirfield at this time without adding a religious dimension to our discussions."

....At last night’s meeting the mayor again expressed regret for his remarks.

He said: "I would like to confirm my previous apology to the residents of Mirfield and to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association of Huddersfield who mistakenly believed that the comments were directed at them.

"I apologise for any distress."

....With an investigation into the leaked email under way, Clr Bennett told the town council: "I have decided to withdraw from membership of the Conservative party until such time as this matter is resolved."

He denied the Conservative leader had phoned him to demand his resignation. Clr Bennett also said he would continue to represent Hopton ward on Mirfield Town Council." (Source: The Huddersfield Daily Examiner)

I just hope that no one in the town after hearing about the mayor's views decided to beat a veiled Muslim women or attack a mosque. After all with inflammatory statements like the mayor's anything is possible.

Sergeant Wallace Nelson is stationed in Afghanistan with American forces.

Nelson recently converted to Islam in a ceremony hosted near the Pakistan border. In a surprising statement for some he said that Islam was the only religion that makes sense to him :

"A US soldier in Afghanistan said he converted to Islam Monday at a ceremony in a remote area near the rugged border with Pakistan.

Sergeant Wallace Nelson, 31, told AFP his interaction with his interpreters and other Afghans had persuaded him that Islam "is pretty much the only religion that makes sense to me."

They had explained that the extreme Taliban religious movement "takes things way out of proportion," Nelson told AFP by telephone from his base in the eastern province of Kunar.

"I really wish everything would stop and we would be able to live together and be happy," he said after the ceremony attended by district officials, including the area's Afghan army commander, and tribal elders.

The US military base at Bagram, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Kabul, said it did not know of the conversion but did not monitor such matters since religion was a personal choice. Afghan media reported in July last year that two US soldiers had converted to Islam.." (Source: Antara)

Surely a case of Stockholm syndrome? I wonder how many anti-Islam bigots will now want to see him be given the death penalty for treason ?

Image source: American forces in Kunar province 2006

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance in its latest report released on 12 February 2008 reports a rise in Islamophobia, attacks on Muslims and an outright racist national political discourse in the Netherlands.

The report is shocking reading for those that believe that Europe is cowering under jackboots of barbarian Muslim invaders :

"Islamophobia is gaining ground in the Netherlands, with Muslim minorities facing rising violence and discrimination, a pan-European anti-racism commission said in a report released Tuesday.

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) found Islamophobia in the country to have "increased dramatically" since 2000, reporting that Muslims were "disproportionately targeted" by security policies and faced racist violence and discrimination....

...“The tone of Dutch political and public debate around integration and other issues relevant to ethnic minorities has experienced a dramatic deterioration,” it said, warning of a "worrying polarisation between majority and minority communities.”It found that the country’s Muslims - a community of one million people, or six percent of the population - had faced "stereotyping, stigmatising", "outright racist political discourse" and "biased media portrayal". (Source: The Times)

The full report from the commission in .pdf format can be accessed by clicking the following link: European Commission against Racism and Intolerance - Holland.

To see a video report from EuroNews on the situation of Muslim women in the Netherlands click: Holland's Partial Ban Of The Niqab.

Three American men have been arrested on charges related to an arson attack on a mosque in Columbia, Tennessee:

"A mosque was destroyed Saturday by a fire which investigators believe to have been caused by arson Saturday morning.

The Islamic Center of Columbia was sprayed-painted with swastikas and then destroyed by flames, Special Agent Eric Kehn of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said, according to the Associated Press.

The words sprayed on the wall of the mosque included the words “white power” and “we run the world,” said Daoud Abudiab, president of the center.

The fire is believed to have started at 5 a.m., according to the authorities. The firefighters arrived at the mosque around 5:30 a.m. and found it ablaze and discovered the hate slogans in the side of the building....

...The motive of the arson was painted on the wall, according to Jim Cavanaugh, a special agent with the federal Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agency.

On Sunday, the authorities arrested three men on arson charge. They were Eric Baker, 31, Michael Golden, 22, and Jonathan Stone, 18, all from Columbia. They are being held in the Maury County Jail and face possible federal charges for attacking a house of worship and other federal crimes, the authorities said." (Source: E Flux Media)

For a video report from CNN on this incident see Tennessee Mosque Attacked

One would have thought with the amount of time and effort that Ayaan Hirsi Ali has spent in advancing the neo-conservative cause in the west at least one western nation would be bothered enough to pay for her protection but apparently not.

As both the Dutch and American governments have refused to pay for her security so Ayaan Hirsi Ali is now begging at the doors of the French for citizenship and protection:

"A campaign is under way in France for a former Dutch politician facing death threats from Islamic extremists to be granted citizenship. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an oustpoken critic of radical Islam, says she cannot be assured of protection in the Netherlands.

During a visit to Paris she called on President Nicolas Sarkozy to make good on an election campaign promise to offer protection to anyone suffering persecution in the world. She has been living in the US since 2006 but neither authorities there or in the Netherlands will underwrite her security....

...Her efforts continue in the US where she works for a right-wing think-tank But Washington will not offer her protection as she is not a US citizen. She is still waiting for a response to her request for French citizenship. Ali also believes women in her situation should be protected by the EU and will take her campaign to Brussels on Thursday." (Source: EuroNews)

Chris Hedges in this article uses the examples of Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem And Zachariah Anani to show how the Christian Right in America are stoking the flames of hate against Islam and Muslims:

"Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem and Zachariah Anani are the three stooges of the Christian right. These self-described former Muslim terrorists are regularly trotted out at Christian colleges—a few days ago they were at the Air Force Academy—to spew racist filth about Islam on behalf of groups such as Focus on the Family. It is a clever tactic. Curly, Larry and Mo, who all say they are born-again Christians, engage in hate speech and assure us it comes from personal experience. They tell their audiences that the only way to deal with one-fifth of the world’s population is by converting or eradicating all Muslims. Their cant is broadcast regularly on Fox News, including the Bill O’Reilly and Neil Cavuto shows, as well as on numerous Christian radio and television programs. Shoebat, who has written a book called “Why We Want to Kill You,” promises in his lectures to explain the numerous similarities between radical Muslims and the Nazis, how “Muslim terrorists” invaded America 30 years ago and how “perseverance, recruitment and hate” have fueled attacks by Muslims.

These men are frauds, but this is not the point. They are part of a dark and frightening war by the Christian right against tolerance that, in the moment of another catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil, would make it acceptable to target and persecute all Muslims, including the some 6 million Muslims who live in the United States. These men stoke these irrational fears. They defend the perpetual war unleashed by the Bush administration and championed by Sen. John McCain. McCain frequently reminds listeners that "the greatest danger facing the world is Islamic terrorism," as does Mike Huckabee, who says that "Islamofascism" is "the greatest threat this country [has] ever faced.” George W. Bush has, in the same vein, assured Americans that terrorists hate us for our freedoms, not, of course, for anything we have done. Bush described the “war on terror” as a war against totalitarian Islamofascism....

... The three men tell lurid tales of being recruited as children into Palestinian terrorist organizations, murdering hundreds of civilians and blowing up a bank in Israel. Saleem says that as a child he infiltrated Israel to plant bombs via a network of tunnels underneath the Golan Heights, although no incident of this type was ever reported in Israel. He claims he is descended from the “grand wazir” of Islam, a title and a position that do not exist in the Arab world. They assure audiences that the Palestinians are interested not in a peaceful two-state solution but rather the destruction of Israel, the murder of all Jews and the death of America. Shoebat claims he first came to the United States as part of an extremist “sleeper cell.”

“These three jokers are as much former Islamic terrorists as ‘Star Trek’s’ Capt. James T. Kirk was a real Starship captain,” said Mikey Weinstein, the head of the watchdog group The Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The group has challenged Christian proselytizing in the military and denounced the visit by the men to the Air Force Academy.

The speakers include in their talks the superior virtues of Christianity......

.... This creeping Christian chauvinism has infected our political and social discourse. It was behind the rumor that Barack Obama was a Muslim. Obama reassured followers that he was a Christian. It apparently did not occur to him, or his questioners, that the proper answer is that there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim, that persons of great moral probity and courage arise in all cultures and all religions, including Islam. Christians have no exclusive lock on virtue. But this kind of understanding often provokes indignant rage.

The public denigration of Islam, and by implication all religious belief systems outside Christianity, is part of the triumphalism that has distorted the country since the 9/11 attacks. It makes dialogue with those outside our “Christian” culture impossible. It implicitly condemns all who do not think as we think and believe as we believe as, at best, inferior and usually morally depraved. It blinds us to our own failings. It makes self-reflection and self-criticism a form of treason. It reduces the world to a cartoonish vision of us and them, good and evil. " (Source: Truthdig)

Dear reader it is that time of week again when we have a look at some of the interesting posts that can be found on weblogs in my blogroll. So without anymore ceremony here are my "accelerated links" for 02/10/2008:

1. Israpundit on how the United States is aiding terrorists in the Middle East.
2. Yahya Birt on calls for Shariah to be incorporated into the British legal system.
3. Fox Attacks on Fox News labelling John McCain as a Democrat.
4. Newshounds on Fox News trying to terrorise their viewers with a non-terror terror report.
5. Samson Blinded on how to rip the heart out of Islam through nuclear strikes on the cities of Mecca and Medina.
6. Majority Rights on Ron Paul, the civil rights act of 1964 and the American constitution.
7. The Moor Next Door on terrorism experts and the scholastic study of Islam.
8. Jews Sans Frontieres on claims of an anti-semetic attack.
   
9. James H.Shott on the future for conservatives with a McCain as the Republican candidate for American president.
   
10. Project For The Old American Century has an interview with "Shallow Throat" a mole in the Bush White House and his view on the GOP and Democratic Presidential race.
    
11. A Conservative Blog For Peace on the nature of Islamic terrorism.
12. The Truth Will Set You Free on the continuing Israeli actions in the Gaza strip.
13. A Fiery Spirited Zionist on Islamist infiltration of the Pentagon.
14. Dr. M on advice for which candidate to vote for in the upcoming American election.
15. Lawrence of Cyberia with a personal letter to Senator Clinton regarding the Palestinian education system.
16. Orthodox Anarchist with a video exposing the lie that Barack Obama is a closet Islamist and anti-semite.
    
17. Crossroads Arabia with analysis on the root cause of Islamic terrorism.
18. Indigo Jo on the bigotry that has been unleashed after Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams statements about Shariah.
    
19. The Daily Scare on the demise of the American middle class.
20. Elder of Ziyon on Ehud Olmert telling the residents of Sderot to stop whining.
21. Haitham Sabbah on a campaign by supporters of Palestine to boycott Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev and his diamond outlets.
22. Jewish Pride with a video commanding Jewish zionist supporters of Israel to stand proud.
23. Atlas Shrugs having lunch with anti-Islam bigots Ibn Warraq, Bat Yeor and Andrew Bostom.
24. Inside Iraq on the sectarian divide in Ghazaliyah.
25. The Rude Pundit on how Jesus would vote in the American presidential campaign.
26. Austrolabe on Michael Savage and his hatred of Islam.

There must be something in the air or the water as in the last couple of days this is the second story that has come to my notice concerning non-Muslim women covering up.

The first was the case of Rabbanit Bruria Keren an orthodox Jew who advocates that female Jews wear "burqas" and the only communication they have with males is through their husbands.

Now the archbishop of Yekaterinburg has been reported as urging Russian orthodox women to emulate Muslim women and to wear the kerchief in public:

"Archbishop Vikenty of Yekaterinburg and Verkhniaya Tura considers it 'a retreat from the Lord's will' that the majority of Orthodox women refuse to wear kerchiefs in public places.

'I wonder why Muslim women are neither afraid nor ashamed to do it, even the little and the young. They stand before God or Allah, as they say, and are afraid of Allah's punishment. And why we are not afraid of the Lord's punishment?' the archbishop stated in a live broadcast at the Soyuz TV channel and on air of the Voskreseniye radio.

He reminded that covering one's head with a kerchief is 'God's instruction' as 'the Lord commanded that all women should wear kerchiefs.'

'And if a woman doesn't want to wear it or finds it embarrassing saying that most women don't do it and she will show up, she is seriously mistaken because she shouldn't look at the others,' Archbishop Vikenty thinks.

According to him, 'if everyone has the fear of the Lord and strives to fulfill his will, then little by little all will start wearing them (kerchiefs - IF) and there is nothing shameful in it.'

The archbishop has recently urged women to give up cosmetics and strive to preserve natural beauty.

'The Lord makes us beautiful, and we deform ourselves, we make freaks of ourselves. It is fr