Category: General

 

Activists Lunatics from the Islamic parties chant slogans against British author Salman Rushdie during a protest in Lahore June 25, 2007. A group of hardline Pakistani Muslim clerics has bestowed a religious title on Osama bin Laden in response to a British knighthood for the Rushdie, whose novel “The Satanic Verses” outraged many Muslims around the world. The placards top line says, “Curse Salman Rushdie,” and the bottom line, “Duty to kill.”

REUTERS/Moshin Raza (PAKISTAN)

You rarely get them dumber than that:

Here’s a Muslim “scholar,” Dr. Zakir Naik, explaining why Muslims must build mosques in non-Muslim countries while prohibiting churches and temples in Islamic states—because they know the “truth” and infidels do not.

Yesterday we were informed that a group in Denmark was planning to burn an effigy of Mohammed (instead of a witch) at the traditional midsummer festival. The Danes made quite a production of the bonfire — the soundtrack has “Light My Fire” on it…

The last thing you see before the action rolls is this:

For a Mohammedan-free Denmark!

Update: We have the translated Danish text for you

We declare:

Saint Hans’ Eve has always celebrated the tradition of burning away the evil, in earlier times symbolized by the witch, who was supposedly directly connected to Satan. And if the witch was not burned then the harvest could not be safely brought into the house.

Now a new evil has arrived in Europe, an evil that lies and kills in the name of their so-called God. An evil that springs from the so-called Prophet Mohammed. Therefore, in our time, it is he who symbolizes evil and it is not just one harvest that will disappear, but all of Western Europe’s future that will vanish if this evil is not dispatched to Hekkenfeldt [i.e. Hell, literally the Hekla volcano in Iceland — BB].

Therefore will we burn the so-called Prophet Mohammed, on June 23, 2007, in three nameless places.

We burned Mohammed in three different places across the country. We now release the video from the first burning. The next videos will be released on July 23 and August 23.

For a Mohammed-free Denmark!!!
Hold on to your helmets, Vikings. You’re in for a wild ride…

From AFP: Iran says Rushdie death fatwa still stands.

Iran said on Sunday that a fatwa ordering the death of British writer Salman Rushdie issued by its revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini still stands after his knighthood by the queen.
“The stance of the Islamic Republic of Iran with regard to this issue has not changed from what was put forward by the Imam Khomeini,” foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.

The Indian-born Rushdie, 59, was forced to go into hiding for a decade after Khomeini issued the 1989 death sentence over his book “The Satanic Verses,” saying it insulted Islam.

Khomeini’s successor as supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in January 2005 he still believed the British novelist was an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam.

Update:

Hirsi Ali:

“By knighting Salman Rushdie, the queen has honored the freedom of conscience and creativity cherished in the West, making her a symbol of the essence of our way of life”

In “An honor worth defending” in the IHT Ayaan Hirsi Ali calls on the West to recover its spine and defend its culture and civilization. But there is a curious phrase in the opening paragraph:

Imagine if a crowd of Englishmen marched in London carrying effigies of Muhammad, peace be upon him, stacks of the Koran, miniatures of the Kaaba in Mecca and Saudi flags. Imagine if they then built a bonfire and hurled the items one at a time into that fire screaming “Long Live the Queen!” each time the flames shot up.
“Peace be upon him”? This is an interjection that pious Muslims add after uttering the name of a prophet. Yet Hirsi Ali has referred to Muhammad as a tyrant and a pervert. She has not presented herself as a Muslim except in a broad cultural way. So I wonder: did she add this interjection herself, as a means of identifying herself as a cultural Muslim? Or did an editor at Tribune Media Services (which distributed this piece) or the IHT add it in as an exercise in politically correct sensitivity?

Robert Spencer from Jihad Watch is asking this question, and rightly so.
Anyway, Hirsi Ali goes on:

This would be the equivalent of what hardline Muslim students did in the eastern Pakistani city of Multan, to take just one example, when they burned effigies this week of Queen Elizabeth II and Salman Rushdie, chanting “Kill him! Kill him!” in response to his recently bestowed knighthood.
[…]

Westerners have too often shrugged their shoulders at the trashing of their icons – such as when the queen is burned in effigy – by the foot soldiers of tribal barbarism. This perceived weakness makes the foes of the West more ferocious and helps recruit more jihadists.

Instead the West should join together to vigorously defend its symbols and civilization that, with all its flaws, still offers the best life to the most people.

By knighting Salman Rushdie, the queen has honored the freedom of conscience and creativity cherished in the West, making her a symbol of the essence of our way of life.

* Something that cannot be said for the idiot prince Charles who wants to be known as ‘defender of the faith’s’….

A reminder: One of the reasons why our media is so perverted

During last month’s street riots in France, Fox News ran a banner during a news segment, reading: “Muslim riots.” Billionaire Saudi Prince al-Walid bin Talal, who owns 5.5% of Fox News, was unhappy with the tagline:

I picked up the phone and called Murdoch… (and told him) these are not Muslim riots, these are riots out of poverty. Within 30 minutes, the title was changed from Muslim riots to civil riots.

Talal gained notoriety after 9/11 when he blamed U.S. policies for the terrorist attacks.

Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti refused to confirm or deny that the call took place but “acknowledged the network changed the banner after receiving complaints.”

*

Balanced reporting flashback:

Muslim Grievances

Danes At It Again

Gates of Vienna reports that those irrepressible Danes are at it again. In their midsummer festival, they traditionally burn an effigy of a witch; but this year they chose a different personality for the effigy: Update on the Burning of Mohammed.

From correspondents in Jakarta/Herald Sun

with thanks to Rosie

* STOLEN Muslim land drives the hatred of Indonesia-based extremist network Jemaah Islamiah for the west, the group’s jailed military boss told CNN in an interview broadcast today.

* No surprises here. All the world belongs to the soldiers of Allah, and land once conquered must never fall back to the infidels. But that doesn’t mean that any infidel country is safe: Muslims are commanded to kill unbelievers until all the world belongs to Allah:

* Muslim (1:33) The Messenger of Allah said: “I have been commanded to fight against people till they testify that there is no god but Allah, that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah…”

* Terror in the Koran

Abu Dujana, one of South-East Asia’s most wanted men, was arrested by Indonesian anti-terror police on June 9 as he rode a motorcycle with three of his four young children.

Police say he is linked to several major bombings that have rocked Indonesia in recent years, including the 2002 Bali blasts that killed 88 Australians.

Analysts, however, have said they are sceptical of his involvement in that bombing, which left a total of 202 people dead.

He has claimed he was against the 2003 bombing of the Marriott hotel in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

In the interview with CNN at a police station in the central city of Yogyakarta, Dujana, shown handcuffed and smiling, said he thought “Americans or other civilians can become a target – that’s how I see it”.

Asked where the hatred of the west came from, he replied: “Many lands owned by Muslims have been taken away by our enemies. America is part of it, like in Palestine and other places.

“We demand those governments return those lands and let us put Sharia law in place.”

Asked where it said in the Koran that it was acceptable to kill innocent people, he said: “I didn’t read it in the Koran. It’s based on the teachings of our teachers, clerics, especially what Osama bin Laden first said.”

* Comment from JW: This is misleading, as it implies that what his teachers and clerics have told him is contrary to the Qur’an. In fact, however, the point of controversy here is not over whether or not it is acceptable to kill innocent people. That is not in dispute, and the Qur’an forbids it (5:32). The controversy is actually over whether or not American, British, Israeli and other citizens of non-Muslim states are innocent at all. And on that moderate Muslim spokesmen have never spoken unequivocally.
Jemaah Islamiah has been linked to al-Qaeda in the past, though analysts say the group operates independently.

Asked by the British interviewer whether he personally was a legitimate target, Dujana giggled.

“This is how it is. Islam has rules and everything is based on Sharia law,” he said through a translator.

“If you ask me if you are a legitimate target, if there is clear evidence your country has attacked Islam, then we are permitted to kill you.”

Muslims united against Australia and the Jooozzz

* Another classic case of Islamofascist behavior, from the ‘we’re all Hezbollah now’- department:

Richard Kerbaj/The Australian

AUSTRALIA’S Sunni Muslims have pushed aside ideological differences with their Shia counterparts to form a united front against Israel and declare their support for the Iranian-backed terrorist network Hezbollah.
The unity among the two Muslim sects, which have been at war with each other for centuries, comes as the nation’s Jewish community accuses top Shia spiritual leader Kamal Mousselmani of creating hatred towards Jews by calling Israel a “terrorist” state and expressing his allegiance to Hezbollah militants.

The Howard Government yesterday also accused Sheik Mousselmani of sending the wrong message to his followers through his adverse views on Israel.

Sunni Muslim leader and community spokesman Keysar Trad yesterday said his sect largely championed Sheik Mousselmani’s support for Hezbollah (Party of God), which was revealed by The Weekend Australian.

“Sunnis outside of Lebanon, yes, they still have a great deal of respect for Hezbollah,” he said.

But Mr Trad, who does not believe the Lebanese-based Hezbollah is a terrorist group, said Sunni Muslims in Lebanon were less inclined to back the terrorist organisation because of political differences with the Shi’ites.

“I don’t believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation,” he said. “I agree with (Mousselmani) that the state of Israel has … consistently engaged in acts of terror which have brought a great deal of pain to the poor Palestinian population and the Lebanese population.”

The new mufti of Australia, Sunni spiritual leader Fehmi Naji el-Imam, last year called Hezbollah militants “freedom fighters” during an anti-war rally in Melbourne. Sheik Fehmi’s spokesman said yesterday the cleric could not be reached.

Story continues below:

* In Islam, you can have any freedom you want, as long as it is Islamic, under sharia. You know what that means: Like here:

Al Reuters: Propaganda Tool for Iran

As Iranian thugs beat men dressed in Western clothing and force them to drink human waste, the Reuters wire service publishes absolutely blatant Iranian propaganda intended to “humanize” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—in their “Oddly Enough” category: Iran president turns to butcher for economy tips.

Story from above, continued:

Sunni Muslim spiritual leaders contacted by The Australian, including several who formerly served on John Howard’s Islamic advisory council, yesterday refused to put their support for Hezbollah on the record for fear of upsetting the federal Government and jeopardising future community funding.

A senior Sydney-based cleric who refused to be named said “you won’t see any Muslim standing with Israel against Hezbollah even if they hate Hezbollah’s politics”.

The Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council executive director, Colin Rubenstein, said Sheik Mousselmani was an embarrassment to his community whose views brought into sharp focus the Shia extremism on which Hezbollah was founded.

“One would think that the sheik should be telling his followers to obey Australian law rather than being so supportive of such an organisation with such an appalling track record,” he said.

Hezbollah’s military arm, the External Security Organisation, is a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia, and supporting Hezbollah’s political and military wings is illegal under UN counter-terrorist financing declarations.

Dr Rubenstein said Hezbollah was committed to the destruction of Israel and espoused “genocidal intentions for Jews everywhere”.

This follows The Weekend Australian’s revelations in which Sheik Mousselmani attacked the Howard Government’s support for Israel against Arabs and said Hezbollah was a resistance group, not a terrorist network.

It was also revealed that national security authorities have stepped up their investigations into the nation’s Shia community, whose members were not as closely monitored as Sunni Muslims.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock yesterday said Israel was entitled to exist and the federal Government’s foreign policy was against any terrorist group that threatened Israel’s sovereignty.

“Those who threaten its sovereignty do so, in our view, in breach of international law and we’ve always counselled not only Hezbollah but Hamas and Fatah to recognise the right of Israel to exist,” he said.

That, in a nutshell, is still pussyfooting around the issues…

* What it really shows it that Australia has been invaded by 350 000 Islamofascist genocidal maniacs who are a fifth column among us and who work towards our demise while we pay for it.

*

Update:

This comes as three Australian Muslims are arrested in Lebanon with suspected ties to Hizballah.

A SYDNEY accountant is believed to be among three Australians arrested in Lebanon over suspected links to an Islamic terrorist group.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed last night three men were arrested in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, over the past few days.

One of the men is believed to be Ibrahim Sabouh, an accountant from Auburn in Sydney’s west who moved to Lebanon with his wife and three children a year ago. …

Some reports say the men may have links with the Islamic political and paramilitary group Hezbollah.

Daily Telegraph

Shi’ite cleric in Australia supports Hizballah, takes orders from Sistani 

Well, he wouldn’t submit to  the ‘man-made’ laws of the filthy kufar: Google ‘Kufar’ and you’ll find yourself among urine, excrement and cadavers… 

The Creation of Eurabia and the Muslim Invasion

From Reuters: A call for descendents of Muslims expelled from Spain in the seventeenth century to be given preferential terms for Spanish citizenship has highlighted the country’s uneasy relationship with its Islamic heritage.

*

How thoroughly has Spain caved in, in the face of Islamic terror attacks and threats to reconquer “Andalusia?”

So thoroughly that the government is actually considering a proposal to give special preference for Spanish citizenship to the descendants of the Muslim invaders.

And notice how Reuters blithely promotes the Islamic view of the Reconquista, ignoring the jihad and invasion, and summing the history up with the ludicrous statement that King Philip III simply expelled 300,000 people, apparently for no reason.

The proposal was made at a meeting this week in Cordoba, a city in Andalusia which was the centre of Islamic civilization in the Iberian peninsula during nearly eight centuries of Moorish rule of much of what is now Spain and Portugal.

In 1609, Spain’s King Philip III ordered all Muslims to leave his kingdom, leading to the expulsion of about 300,000 people. Their descendents today mainly live in North Africa and still regard themselves as “Andalusians”, after the old name for Muslim Spain — “Al Andalus”

Giving them preferential terms for Spanish citizenship would be an act of symbolic reconciliation, said Mansur Escudero, head of Spain’s Islamic Board, the biggest group representing Spanish Muslims.

“The Andalusians who live in North Africa, most of them in Morocco, in Tunisia, in Libya, they’re part of those societies and aren’t going to want to come to Spain,” Escudero said.

“It would be more of an emotional, moral gesture, a recognition of an historic injustice,” he told Reuters, adding that some “Andalusian” families still preserved keys to houses they left behind four centuries ago.

Sephardic Jews, whose ancestors were expelled from Spain in 1492, already have a special right to obtain Spanish citizenship after two years legal residence in Spain, a privilege also available to citizens of Spain’s former colonies.

A small left-wing party, Izquierda Unida, has backed the call for preferential citizenship for descendents of Spanish Muslims. The governing Socialists, who have promoted an “Alliance of Civilizations” between the West and Islam, have yet to give their response, Escudero said.

But many Spaniards, particularly Catholic conservatives, fret about Muslim assertiveness, especially now that immigration has given the country a significant Muslim population — about one million — for the first time in 400 years.

The Madrid train bombings, blamed on a group linked to al Qaeda, which killed 192 people in 2004, have deepened suspicions about Islam in sectors of the Spanish political right.

Former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a member of the conservative Popular Party, last year called for Muslims to apologise for invading Spain in the eighth century.

The Popular Party’s current foreign affairs spokesman, Gustavo de Arestegui, has also published a book whose subtitle is: “The obsession with reconquering Al Andalus.”

*

Andalusian Myth, Eurabian Reality

Inventing the past, and denying the present. A Jihad Watch EXCLUSIVE essay by Bat Ye’or and Andrew G. Bostom: Absolute must read!

And another look at the inquisition

Update:

Spanish Communist leader to convert to Islam?

Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, Nazis: The attraction of Islam, another totalitarian system, seems irresistible. Here we have more proof from a Spanish blogger:

Gaspar Llamazares, general coordinator of United Left, has been living for some months in a spiritual crossroad that can lead him to convert to Islam, as has declared to Alerta Digital, the MP and president from the Commission of Spanish-Moroccan Friendship in the Parliament of Rabat, Yahia Yahia, one of the politicians of the neighbouring Kingdon who has better contacts with the Spanish MPs. It seems that Llamazares’ conversion has been one of the best guarded secrets in his entourage. Yahia commented to our newspaper that, according to his informations, Llamazares has been lectured throughout some months by one of the main authorities of the Islamic religion in Spain. According to the same sources, during some months, with expert teachings, Llamazares has been studying and meditating on the Koram and other various religious treaties that “could had driven him to find the inner peace that all human beings are searching for”. “It’s very normal”, he continues, “that a lot of European Communists end coverting themseleves to the Muslim faith”. He also comments an important percentage: 70% of the Spanish citizens who converted into Islam in the last 15 years come from organisations belonging to the radical left or to anti-system groups.

Read it all..

“Don´t worry. We will liberate you from the western corruption”

Aristegui, expert on Islam: “In Europe a new generation of radicals is being formed”

“20 to 30 percent of the believers of Islam have a certain degree of sympathy with jihadi theses”. Gustavo de Aristegui.

Gustavo de Aristegui is a former member of the Spanish Parliament and he was a confidant of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. He is a frequent lecturer on the Arab world, the Middle East and the issue of terrorism. Aristegui is viewed as a leading analyst on militant Islam.

Last Friday Aristegui held a conference in Oviedo, capital of the provence of Asturias, located in northern Spain.

I´ve translated this article published Saturday by the spanish newspaper La Nueva España.

Aristegui: “In Europe a new generation of radicals is being formed”

“After my father had been kidnapped by Shiite radicals we went to see him in Lebanon. There I started a conversation with a person who asked me where I was from. When responding Spain, he mentioned al-Andalus. He said something to me that I will never forget: “Don´t worry. We will liberate you from the western corruption”. Then I realized that we had a serious problem”. This story, told by the director of Citizen Tribune Javier Gámez, happend twenty years ago to the deputy of the PP (spanish People´s Party), diplomat and expert on Islamic issues Gustavo de Arístegui, who offered yesterday (Friday) a conference in the Asturian Press Association of “La Nueva España” under the title “Islam´s relation with the West: past, present and future”.

More

Comments on DW 

* Ignorance and stupidity rules supreme in today’s Europe: Greece, a country that suffered tremendously under Islamic jihad throughout the centuries, is allowing creeping Islamization:

First center available in nearly two centuries; goal is to get a full mosque 

No mosque for 2 centuries? Hmm, wonder why that is? 

The Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece – Immigrant groups on Friday opened the first formal Islamic prayer site to operate in Athens since rule by the Turks of the Ottoman Empire ended more than 170 years ago.

Plans by Greece’s government to build a mosque for tens of thousands of Muslim immigrants living in the capital have stalled, so businessmen in Arab countries financed the downtown cultural center.

“This is the first time in all the 35 years I’ve lived in Greece that we have a proper place to pray,” said Naim El-Gandour, the Egyptian-born head of the Muslim Association of Greece. “It’s hard for me to describe what’s happening. I am overcome with emotion.”

Most Muslims in Athens use makeshift mosques for prayer, including basements, apartments and converted coffee shops. For weddings, funerals and other important rites, they often travel more than 435 miles to Thrace, a region with a Turkish-speaking Muslim minority of 120,000 people.

More than 1,000 mostly Arab immigrants gathered for the official opening of the cultural center and prayer site, with men in traditional Islamic dress kneeling beside laborers in overalls.

El-Gandour said he did not know how much was spent on the center, a 19,500-square-foot space converted from a former textile factory. It has large prayer rooms, flat-screen televisions and uniformed volunteer stewards.

Representatives of Muslim organizations in Europe attended along with representatives of the Iranian and Saudi Arabian embassies, senior imams from Muslim countries and a representative of Greece’s Orthodox Church.

Plans to build a mosque in Athens have been unpopular, because of their association with centuries of rule by the Ottoman Empire, which ended in 1833 after a long rebellion. Some 97 percent of Greece’s native-born population of 11 million is baptized Orthodox Christian.

But last year, the government promised to spend $20 million for an Athens mosque by 2009. The Education and Religious Affairs Ministry will name a committee to choose the head imam, but says individual communities will be allowed to bring their own imams to the mosque.

International human rights reports, including a 2005 report on religious freedom issued by the U.S. State Department, had criticized Greece for failing to provide an official prayer site for Muslims in Athens.

* Amazing. Truly amazing. The totally infiltrated ‘human rights’ organizations are mere fronts for the spread of Islam. And they are succeeding with the help of the U.S. State Department: Is everybody asleep at the wheel?

Afghan president Hamid Karzai speaks a press conference at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday, June 23, 2007. Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday accused NATO and U.S.-led forces of mounting “careless operations” that killed more than 90 civilians in the last 10 days. (AP Photo/Farzana Wahidy)

Update: Fitzgerald: A tribute to Hamid Karzai 

June 27-07

Slick, oleagineous, is Hamid Karzai, but not more than one is used to in such regions. Think of Hussein of Jordan, in his celebrated role as plucky little king. Hamid Karzai, when he first appeared on the world scene, in that beautifully-colored robe he wears, seemed okay. He had brothers and a sister running restaurants in Maryland and Massachusetts. He was the son of a civic-minded Afghan. He seemed — okay. He seemed to be one of those “Muslim-for-identification-purposes-only” Muslims, or as close to it as one might hope for outside of Azar Nafisi and Fouad Ajami. He was not able to fess up to it all himself, but still…or so one thought.

Then came the Speech of Mahathir Mohamed, the sober-toned, yet hysterical and telling speech, at the O.I.C., when he made an appeal for the world’s Muslims to use their brains, not in order to investigate the nature of the brain or DNA or of the atom or the origins of the universe, but only — the only thing he meant by “science” — to acquire military technology, and to defeat, among others, “the Jews.” Smooth Hamid Karzai, oily Hamid Karzai applauded. Interviewed just after, Karzai was enthusiastic about Mahathir’s speech. The oleaginous Karzai said he found the speech deeply impressive. He said he had found the speech wonderful, inspirational, tip-top. Well, that was it as far as Hamid Karzai was concerned.

Never mind that the poppy trade is flourishing and Karzai is weak. Never mind that he is a better than the Taliban. His Muslim solidarity, of the kind he expressed after that speech, leaves a permanent impression: he is not to be trusted. Oh, he’s more to be trusted than any conceivable Arab leader. He’s more to be trusted than any conceivable Pakistani leader. But he’s not to be trusted. That’s it.

His government is famously corrupt. Oh, not as corrupt as that of the Al-Saud. Not as corrupt as that of Mubarak. Not as corrupt as that of Arafat and his successors and collaborators in the so-called “Palestinian” “Authority.” But corrupt. And the American and NATO forces are tearing their hair out.

But he wants, he wants, he wants. A year or two ago he was lamenting all the money spent in Iraq because he thought it should go to Afghanistan. He wants, he wants, he wants.

And he wants the Western powers to prop up his government — why? — but to fight exactly as he wishes them to fight, obeying Marquess of Queensberry rules that will only cause more Western casualties, and that make no sense in the Afghani context.

He wants, he wants, he wants.

Continue reading Hamid Karzai… 

Original Story:

* Hamid Karzai is upset.

Really, Karzai is shaking his prayer beads in anger:

It seems lately that NATO forces have learned a few lessons, such as never to trust their so-called Afghan ‘allies’- and since they do that, they are roasting Taliban in good numbers. Inevitable that some ‘civilians” are getting killed in the process, because the Taliban and the jihadists who joined them are using women and children as cover. But Hamid doesn’t like that NATO forces are doing their job. He rather sees them get killed, otherwise it wouldn’t be ‘fair’-, right?

Hamid doesn’t mind when NATO-soldiers are being shot and Talibs are unmolested. Hamid is a great admirer of the demented ex-premier Mahatir Mohamed of Malaysia, a chap he quite likes. Hamid really seems to believe that he could survive, even after the coalition troops leave the country, something we would call the ‘Najibulla-syndrome’-

But no; Hamid knows (or does he not?) that he wouldn’t last 24 hours without NATO-protection.

However, Hamid wants to call the shots:

Karzai warns NATO: Afghan life not cheap

By Rahim Faiez, Associated Press Writer | June 24, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan –President Hamid Karzai accused NATO and U.S.-led troops Saturday of carelessly killing scores of Afghan civilians and warned that the fight against resurgent Taliban militants could fail unless foreign forces show more restraint.

“Afghan life is not cheap and it should not be treated as such,” Karzai said in an angry rebuke that drew a contrite acknowledgment from NATO that it must “do better.”

In the past 10 days, more than 90 civilians have been killed by airstrikes and artillery fire targeting Taliban insurgents, Karzai said. The mounting toll is sapping the authority of the Western-backed Afghan president, who has pleaded repeatedly with U.S. and NATO commanders to consult Afghan authorities during operations and show more restraint.

“Several times in the last year, the Afghan government tried to prevent civilian casualties, but our innocent people are becoming victims of careless operations of NATO and international forces,” Karzai said at a news conference in his Kabul palace.

The casualties listed by Karzai bring the number of civilians killed in NATO or U.S.-led military operations this year to 211, according to an Associated Press tally of figures provided by Afghan and foreign officials and witnesses.

That tops the 172 civilians killed in militant attacks.

“If NATO forces want to be successful in their fight against terrorism and in bringing security to Afghanistan, they should coordinate with the Afghan government, no matter if the operation is small or big,” Karzai said in a mixture of English and his native Pashto.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force responded contritely.

“President Karzai has a right to be disappointed and angry over the scale of civilian casualties in the last few days,” ISAF spokesman Nick Lunt said. “We need to do better than we have been doing so far.”

Foreign commanders insist they take great care to avoid civilian deaths while trying to beat back the Taliban so that Karzai’s frail government can deliver services to the impoverished south and east.

Both U.S. and NATO forces, however, rely heavily on devastating air power. That helps minimize foreign troop casualties while inflicting heavy losses on militants — but also regularly harms innocents.

“Every single ISAF commander knows and says that we can do our job here if we have the consent of the people. But unlike the Taliban, we do not set out to cause civilian casualties, and that is a critical difference,” Lunt said.

Link

Satellite photo of the day: