Category: General

* Hmm, once again AP doesn’t give anything away:

‘Sparks Muslim-Hindu fighting’- really? But did it?

Hyderabad happens to be the center of the Indian computer industry. The global jihad had its spies there a while ago to check it out. Could it be a Muslim on Muslim attack just to get the jihad going?

Mecca Masjid is located close to the Charminar (pictured here), the symbol of Hyderabad

A bomb ripped through a historic mosque Friday in southern India, and 14 people were killed – 10 in the blast and four in subsequent clashes between angry Muslim worshippers and security forces, police said.
The bombing, which also wounded at least 35 people, and clashes raised fears of wider Hindu-Muslim violence in the city, long plagued by communal tensions and occasional spasms of inter-religious bloodletting.

Many of the 35 people wounded were seriously hurt, and the city’s police chief, Balwinder Singh, warned the death toll could rise.

There are an estimated 130 million Muslims in India, a country of 1.1 billion people. Authorities across India were told to be alert for any signs of Hindu-Muslim fighting, and top officials called for calm.

The Associated Press

Here is another link:

Update:

* It seems indeed that Muslims bombed the mosque in order to get Hyderabads Muslims all fired up for the jihad against the Hindus, an often applied strategy:

Bangladesh-based terror group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) on Saturday emerged as the prime suspect in the blast at the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad as investigators claimed to have made a breakthrough with the recovery of a SIM card from a phone attached to an unexploded bomb.

Eleven people were killed in the explosion that occurred during Friday prayers while five more died when police fired on protesters who attacked shops and petrol pumps in the communally sensitive Charminar area.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who both went to the mosque and visited the injured, said they were not averse to a CBI probe into the terrorist attack.

From the Business Standard

The plot thickens: 

Targeted killing of Muslims by jihadi terrorist organisations of pan-Islamic and Wahabi orientation is not a new phenomenon. One has seen many instances of such killings in Pakistan itself, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Somalia, Algeria, J&K in India, Bangladesh, and in southern Thailand. In the past, such attacks were directed at Muslims belonging to different sects (Shias vs Sunnis as in Pakistan and Iraq), Muslims, who were perceived as apostate because of their  co-operation with the US and with pro-US Islamic regimes, Muslims who were suspected to be spies of the intelligence agencies and moderate Muslim political leaders, who opposed the ideology of the jihadi terrorists.

In the last one year, one has been seeing a new trend in the countries affected by jihadi terrorism. Jihadi terrorist organisations have been targeting Muslims, who are not prepared to accept Wahabism and the pan-Islamic objective of an Islamic Caliphate. Of all the countries in Asia having a large Muslim population, the maximum resistance to Wahabism and the pan-Islamic objectives has been from the Muslim community in India, which is the second largest in the world after Indonesia.

Read it all…

By Ben Packham
The Courier Mail

Muslims claim “Judeo-Christian’ a ‘post WWII’ guilt phrase
Democrats claim test ‘pointless’

(Of course, anything that would reverse ‘diversity’ and multi-culti socialism is ‘pointless’- why don’t we just lie down and surrender?)

MUSLIMS are outraged that prospective citizens will have to acknowledge the Judeo-Christian tradition as the basis of Australia’s values system.

Unimpressed … top Muslim representative Dr Ameer Ali (right) says PM Howard’s new citizenship test is offensive to Muslims / Warren Clarke

* Perhaps Ameer Ali should consider that Jihad and Arab-Islamic Imperialism is equally, if not more offensive to Australians

Australia’s peak Muslim body said the proposed citizenship question – revealed in the Herald Sun – was disturbing and potentially divisive.

Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Dr Ameer Ali said the “Abrahamic tradition” or “universal values” would be less divisive ways of describing the nation’s moral base.

* Sure. As a good Muslim Ameer Ali believes the sharia is a ‘universal value’-

Dr Ali said use of the term Judeo-Christian was the result of “WWII guilt”, and before 1945 Australia would have been called only Christian.

“That question must be rephrased,” he said.

Dr Ali was backed by Democrats senator Lyn Allison, who said the answer to the question was highly debatable.

But Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews stood firm on the merit of the question.

Mr Andrews said Australia’s Judeo-Christian heritage was indisputable historical fact.

“We are not asking people to subscribe to the Judeo-Christian ethic,” he said.

“We are simply stating a fact that this is part of the heritage of Australia in terms of its foundation.

“This is not an exercise in political correctness. It is trying to state what has been the case and still is the case.”

But Health Minister Tony Abbott confused the issue, saying the modern Australian values system was secular, or of no particular religion.

The Herald Sun yesterday revealed 20 key questions, developed in consultation with Mr Andrews, that are likely to be asked of would-be citizens.

Mr Andrews said the test, to begin by September, would help immigrants integrate into society better.

“We celebrate diversity and people are free to continue their own traditions, but we are also very insistent that we have to build and maintain social cohesion,” he said.

Dr Ali said he would request a meeting with Mr Andrews to discuss the question.

* There is NOTHING to be discussed, Dr Ali. Accept OUR values, integrate, assimilate or ship out. Australia won’t become Islamic.

“It is the wrong message we are sending,” he said.

* No. It is Australia taking a stand against Islamic subversion

Senator Allison said the test was pointless.

“I don’t see what it’s going to achieve,” she said.

“It doesn’t say anything about people’s character, whether they are going to be good citizens.”

* Clueless lefties have got us into this mess in the first place. Don’t wait for them to fix anything or clean up after the fact…

Opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke said Labor agreed in principle with the test, but wanted details.

*

Update:

Red bacteria boycotts Howards citizenship test:

Union props and far left journo’s demand the right to rule, ‘Confucianism’ is the key, didn’t you know?

Excerpt:

Part of the test, which includes English and some knowledge of Australia, consists of 20 simple multiple-choice questions.

Marr found the mere fact that the test was in English problematical, akin to a re-introduction of the extinct White Australia policy which the ALP long cherished.

He couldn’t even stomach the notion of putative migrants being asked whether treating men and women equally, the notion of a “fair go’’, and mateship were Australian values.

“This is where it gets really nasty,’’ he said, adding that Immigration and Citizenship Minister Kevin Andrews also acknowledged that the Judeo-Christian tradition was the basis of Australia’s value system.

“That is incomprehensively wicked,’’ Marr proclaimed. “If you want an orderly, dutiful, intelligent society, you can’t go much past Confucianism, you know.’’

Except that Confucianism has played such an infinitesimal part in shaping Australian society, that few people would know where to find its fingerprints.

When Trioli attempted to make some sense of Marr’s diatribe, suggesting that “no one could argue that we’re founded on that basis’’, he took exception, arguing that making a statement about Australia’s Judeo-Christian heritage “says in a covert way that Muslims are not moral, that’s what it’s saying’’.

* Did Marr study the Koran and the hadith? Perhaps he should have, in order to understand that Muslim ‘morals’ incompatible with democratic values.

Marr, who says he subscribes “to other moral systems which have nothing to do with religion’’, accepted that “maybe we were historically mainly founded on this” but to now make acceptance of Judeo-Christian values a question in the citizenship test was “just brutal’’.

Marr’s concerns about offending Muslims must also be noted but, surely, is it not a fact that the fanatical followersof Islamo-fascism are almost universally condemned for their inability to live peaceably with their neighbours, particularly in Islamic nations?

Coincidentally, while Marr was hysterically proclaiming the notion that accepting Australia’s Judeo-Christian heritage was brutal, a representative of the extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir organisation was spamming media organisations with an open letter it had sent to Prime Minister John Howard.

Hizb ut-Tahrir claimed that Howard had “ensured the public conscience’s fixation with Islam and Muslims by igniting the debate on anything from the ubiquitous war on terror, to home-grown terrorism … ‘’

The sheer volume of vitriol spewing forth is a frightening indicator of Labor’s determination to wrest control of every facet of Australian life, at every level, and subject Australians to its retrogressive philosophy. The rhetoric of the past week should be taken seriously.

It may be the warning the nation needs.

Marr should move to Cuba. His idol, the commie-icon Fidel Castro knows what’s best for crackpots like Marr who don’t toe the line: He puts them in mental institutions. And they don’t have the standards we have in Australia, Marr.

They don’t…

Read it all, by Piers Akerman 

In other News:

Rabbi Mocks Hatefest at UC Irvine

Reut Cohen has lots of coverage of the ongoing madness at UC Irvine, where the Muslim Students Union is finishing up a week of Holocaust denial and support for terrorism, enabled and permitted by a university administration that shares the responsibility for this outrageous hate speech.

UPDATE from LGF

UC Irvine has apparently been willing to overlook violations of their own code in order to let this event continue; Concerned UCI Student has details: UCI MSU again violates UCI code #102.02 by furnishing false information.

One rabbi has hit on a creative way to protest the MSU’s hatefest, a technique against which the radical Islamists have no defense:

mockery

When he doesn’t spew hatred and incites the sons of Allah to wage jihad against infidels & Jooozzz he says just about anything to bullshit the filthy kuffars:

Sheik’s love for Australia

CONTROVERSIAL mufti Sheik elHilaly delivered a bridge-building sermon today, comparing Australia to a “beautiful bouquet of flowers” – a very different position to recent offensive comments likening Aussie women to “uncovered meat”. He has also spoken about a video prank by the Chaser team which ended with the shocked sheik in hospital. / The Daily Telegraph

* Note that none of the perps in the MSM ever writes anything about Jihad-freaks like Al Hilali without the “controversial’ BS label

By Byron Kaye

THE man who branded all Australians as convicts and said our women were “uncovered meat” tried to bury the hatchet today, calling Australia a “beautiful bouquet of flowers”.

Controversial Muslim cleric Sheik Taj el-Dene Elhilaly, in his first sermon in Australia for six months, pledged he would always be a moderate and said he would not let “a racist agenda” spoil his love for his adopted country.

The hour-long speech at Lakemba mosque was in his native Arabic, but ElHilaly’s spokesman Keysar Trad said the mufti spoke strongly in favour of Australian multiculturalism.

Has the Sheik finally seen the light? Tell us what you think using the feedback form below.

But his comments were in sharp contrast to remarks he made last year when talking about rape.

Sheik elHilaly said then: “If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat?

“The uncovered meat is the problem.”

The Sheik has also called on the Arab world to unite behind the radical Iranian regime in its dispute with America over its nuclear programme.

But as part of a new PR offensive, the mufti made nothing but bridge-building remarks today.

Mr Trad said: “He said Australia is like a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

* Agreed. But Hilali is not one of the flowers in it. Where Islam goes no flowers grow, only desert follows wherever the sons of Allah pitch their tents.

Where would you plant Al Hilali if you had a choice?

“We should preserve this beauty and this multiculturalism, because that is the secret of who we are.

* By ‘preserving multiculturalism’ he means more Islamic- immigration, of course,- because that’s what got him into Australia

“He stressed that as long as he’s here, Lakemba will be a moderate place. He will instill people to love Australia.

* Unlikely. Islam forbids it. Its ‘haram’ to love a country, especially one that belongs to the dar-al’harb.  Don’t hold your breath, Hilali is anything but ‘moderate’…

“We should not allow any racist agenda to put aside the beauty of Australia.”

* Hmm, which race is Islam again?

What he actually means is that all criticism of Islam should be forbidden. Its ‘racism’ and must be censored, right?

Mr Trad also said Sheik elHilaly had recovered after being sent to hospital because he was shocked by a stunt from TV comedy team The Chaser earlier this week.

* Poor widdle thing! He had to go to hospital because of a joke? Look what his sidekick  ‘of the criminal dregs’ Keyzar Trad tells us:

However he said the mufti regretted the fact that he didn’t know the stunt was a joke, which he would have gone along with.

“He doesn’t know what the Chaser is,” he said.

“He said, ‘I wish I’d known it was a joke.’ I would have given them something funny.

“He’s got a very Aussie sense of humour.”

* Sure he does. In which circus is he the clown?

Aussies ain’t buying any:

Here are some of the comments from the Daily Telegraph:

Im so fed up of this moron. The sheik is an absolute idiot with no morals and is the biggest bullsh*t artist out there. This man decieves everybody he keeps putting his foot in his mouth and believe it or not nothing is going to change with this degenerate.

…

Once again we have Mr. Trad coming out to defend Mr.Hilaly, sense of humour? What a joke! What was the first thing Mr.Hilaly said to the Chaser team? He said “…YOU”RE A RACIST…” a common response from those of his ilk when challenged about anything.

…

Too late sunshine.

…

this man and i use the term loosely hasn’t seen any sort of light it’s obvious he’s only backflipping and saying all these ‘lovely words’ cause of the outrage and bad publicity he so rightly deserved for the many not only mind bogglingly stupid but downright WRONG things he’s said in the past. I couldn’t care less what his speech contained this guy has his own agenda for Australia in mind and you can bet your arse it’s not in the best interest for true Aussies. This man could not be kicked out of the country quick enough for my liking but then again i’m just a piece of uncovered convict meat hey?

…

Oh, please, as if we’re going to buy this piece of tripe for a second.

And here a dose of reality:

* While the genocidal Pali-zombies have a good go at each other (we support both sides equally, we shall not discriminate!) they just can’t stop shooting rockets into Israel, which invited the inevitable response:

Car swarm, fun for the whole family:

Israel attacks in Gaza amid factional violence

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

At least 25 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday as President Mahmoud Abbas’s secular Fatah faction and Hamas battled for control of Gaza and Israel launched a deadly round of air strikes against the Islamists.

Palestinian officials said the widening hostilities could bring down a two-month-old unity government formed between Hamas and Fatah. Some Palestinians see this leading to all-out civil war and the end of the Palestinian Authority.

Terrified Gaza residents hid indoors as masked gunmen fought running battles street-to-street, killing 20 people — five of them even after the two sides declared a ceasefire at dusk. In one panicked call to a radio station, a woman urged Palestinian leaders to act, pleading: “Do not leave us to die here.”

Israel’s biggest air strike razed a building used by Hamas’s Executive Force in the south Gaza town of Rafah, killing four militants. Israel said the attack was not connected to internal clashes that have killed at least 44 people since Friday.

Car Swarm Time 

It happens after every Israeli airstrike on a car full of “militants;” first, the bizarre car swarming behavior (fun for the whole family! the boys, anyway!), then the equally bizarre, out-of-sync wire service photo captions about “inspecting” and “gathering.” 

A later air strike in northern Gaza killed another Hamas militant and wounded two other Palestinians, residents said.

While battles raged throughout the Gaza Strip, militants have fired rockets at southern Israel, causing injuries but no deaths, in an apparent attempt to draw Israel into the fighting.

Israel said the air strikes, the deadliest since a November truce in Gaza was declared, targeted a Rafah command centre used by Hamas to plan attacks and a rocket crew that had just fired into the Jewish state.

The Executive Force, which has taken a lead in fighting with Fatah, denied the Rafah building was used to plan rocket attacks and said the air strikes proved Israel was taking sides.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Israel may step up military strikes in the Gaza Strip in response to a surge of Palestinian cross-border rocket salvoes.

“Until now, we have demonstrated restraint, but this situation is not a tolerable situation,” Livni told reporters after security consultations with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

More…

Bush acknowledges Palestinian plight

More clueless platitudes from the ‘decider’ and the equally deluded Blair:

AP Photo: Palestinians gather around the rubble of a building after an Israeli airstrike on the facility…

By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer

President Bush said Thursday he and British Prime Minister Tony Blair discussed the plight of the Palestinian people and the “deep humiliation” they face. Bush said the two leaders were concerned about an explosion of Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip.

His remarks appeared to be an empathetic nod toward the beleaguered Palestinians, whose poverty and the heavy restrictions on imposed by Israel have generally been a bigger political issue in Europe than in the United States.

“We recognized the deep humiliation that can come as a result of living in a land where you can’t move freely and where people can’t realize dreams,” Bush said.

“We talked about the need to reject and fight terrorism,” Bush added immediately, a reference to Israel’s vulnerability. “We understand the fright that can come when you’re worried about a rocket landing on top of your home. ”

* George W. Bush & the bleeding hearts for the ‘Palestinians’- Consider Gaza for your retirement, George. Take Condi with you. It will be exiting, no doubt…

Bush did not assess blame for the current violence between Palestinian factions and involving Israeli forces. The Gaza Strip has been the scene of battles between Hamas and Faith fighters in recent days and retaliatory attacks by Israel in response to rocket fire coming into Israel from neighboring Gaza.

More than 20 Palestinians were killed Wednesday in the most widespread factional fighting in nearly a year. Street clashes were ebbing Thursday, with three killed. In all, at least 45 Palestinians have been killed in the infighting since Sunday.

Bush, standing with Blair in the Rose Garden, said he remains committed to a two-state solution in the region, adding that this goal is attainable if both sides show strong leadership.

Blair called the situation “very dangerous” and said a two-state solution is the only path to peace.

* Will the delusion never end?

Earlier, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Israel has shown “great restraint” in responding to repeated Palestinian rocket attacks against Israeli targets.

McCormack said Israel was acting on its right to defend itself in carrying out retaliatory air strikes on a compound and other targets in the Gaza Strip.

Read it all…

Civil war and looming collapse. And no, not Iraq

by Andrew Bolt:

Forget Iraq. The Palestinians have such a hate-riven and warlord-driven culture that they are asking to be invaded or even colonized again –

either by the Israelis:
Hamas today threatened to resume suicide bombings after Israeli planes launched air strikes against the militant Palestinian group in Gaza…

Palestinians inspect a destroyed van following an Israeli air strike in Gaza May 18, 2007. Israel’s air force bombed a van carrying Palestinian militants through Gaza City on Friday, killing at least two people, witnesses said. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)

*
Israel confirmed all three air strikes. It had earlier threatened “harsh” action in response to repeated Palestinian rocket attacks. More than 50 rockets have fallen on the Israeli town of Sderot in the last three days. Seven struck Sderot today, one hitting a school and leaving two people slightly injured.
Or by the Jordanians and Egyptians

(presuming they are mad enough to want to rule more Palestinians):
Some Palestinian analysts predict that a collapse of the Palestinian Authority would pave the way for Jordanian custodial rule in the West Bank and a similar arrangement for Egypt in Gaza.
“The message is the Palestinians cannot rule themselves. This fighting will only end if a third party takes over,” said Ibrahim Abrash, a political analyst in Gaza.
Only when the Israelis defend themselves will the Western media really pay attention, of course, and mostly to bad Israel.

But the fact is that the Palestinians are tearing themselves apart, with near civil war between Fatah and Hamas gunmen:
Arabs were in despair Thursday over the Gaza fighting between Palestinians, and governments that have tried to mediate between the warring factions appeared to be at a loss over how to stop the bloodshed…
But Saudi Arabia has been silent since clashes between the two sides resumed this week, in five days of fighting that has killed dozens of people…
Arab TV stations showed constant images from Gaza, which looked like a war zone, with masked gunmen in the abandoned streets and people rushing the wounded away on stretchers. Al-Jazeera broadcast live from its offices in Gaza, where journalists in flak jackets and helmets were trapped as gunfire raged outside.
Viewers in the Arab world – long loyal advocates of the Palestinian cause – were stunned. “May God curse you all,” renowned Egyptian columnist Ahmed Ragab wrote, referring to the Palestinian factions.
Just so you know the background – before Israel gets (perhaps deliberately) dragged in, and handed the blame.

Palestinians gather around a van following an Israeli air strike in Gaza May 18, 2007. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA) 

American forces too soft on terrorists, says Iraqi sheikh

* Indeed. They are.

AFP Photo: Sheikh Hamid al-Hais, head of the Anbar Salvation Council, the paramilitary wing of a coalition…

Dave Clark from AFP

The key to saving Iraq from the scourge of Al-Qaeda is to subject captured fighters to the swift and deadly rule of tribal justice, according to the leader of a powerful new armed movement.
Sheikh Hamid al-Hais leads the Anbar Salvation Council, the paramilitary wing of a coalition of Sunni tribes from Iraq’s western desert, and he has a simple message for his new American allies in his battle with the insurgents.

“I always tell the Americans ‘Why detain the enemy? Leave him to me, don’t detain him,'” he chuckled during an interview with AFP in a Baghdad hotel.

“We have our own tribal legal system and this is constant and cannot be changed. Murderers must be killed under tribal law and unless we use this force against terrorism, terrorism will continue to rise.”

The Salvation Council is part of a movement called the Anbar Awakening run by Sheikh Abdulsattar Abu Risha, whose alliance of tribal leaders united against the threat posed to Anbar province by Al-Qaeda’s militants.

Anbar’s mainly Sunni population once largely supported attacks on US forces and Iraq’s Shiite-led government.

Many, however, have become sickened by Al-Qaeda’s attacks on civilians and tribal leaders and are angered by the insurgents’ interference in the region’s traditional ways of life.

Since October, sheikhs have funnelled thousands of tribal fighters into the police and “emergency response units”, which now fight alongside US and government forces while retaining their loyalty to their sheikhs.

The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, describes the change of mood in Anbar as “almost breathtaking”, and Hais proudly recounted a series of victories won by his fighters in wresting back territory from Al-Qaeda.

To finish the job, he wants more money and weapons and a free hand to impose rough justice on the enemy fighters that fall into his hands.

“We have 500 prisoners right now. We have our own prisons. There are Egyptians, Libyans, Syrians but most of the foreign fighters were killed during the clashes. Most of the prisoners are Iraqis.”

These jails, he said, are guarded by “police units that we have formed from the tribes.”

“We investigate very quickly. We already have all the information. We don’t need long investigations. We have a very well organised security staff. We don’t make any mistakes when we target anyone,” he said.

“Security is our speciality. We have 1,600 officers, graduates of military and security colleges and academies. We have the skills but we still need funds and weapons. We must have authority, full authority, and enough funding.”

After four years of fierce fighting but little political progress in Anbar, US commanders welcomed the rise of the Council with enthusiasm.

No counter-insurgency campaign can ever be successful without winning over the bulk of the local community.

Tribal ties are important to all Iraqis, but most especially to those in rural areas like Anbar, where these traditions govern politics, social relations and business — including smuggling and highway robbery.

Having grasped this and built their own relationships with the tribes, US commanders now have friends and sources of information in a region where once they were despised outsiders subjected to daily attacks.

Hais, however, feels that his new friends still have a lot to learn about how to win a war in the closed communities and harsh landscapes of western Iraq.

“The Americans don’t know the terrorists like we do. A very dangerous terrorist was freed by the Americans and our police captured him,” he said.

“We asked him during the investigation, ‘Why did the Americans release you, you are very dangerous?’ He said, ‘I told them just two lies and they believed me and they set me free’,” Hais recounted.

“We knew him very well, and he couldn’t deny it. We told him ‘You killed this person and that person’. Yes, he had to die. It’s outside the law, but it’s the only remedy for them,” he added, with satisfaction.

“There’s no way to cure them, they have to be killed.”

Hais, who despite his tough talk looks urbane and cosmopolitan in his smart business suit and neat moustache, says he can now field 15,000 armed fighters, most of them now nominally in the police but still under his orders.

How many of these were once in the resistance, fighting the Americans? “Fifty percent and maybe more,” he said.

And why did they change sides? “Because of the behaviour of Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda did not distinguish between the innocent and the guilty. They killed the resistance, they killed sheikhs, they killed everyone,”

These fighters would make powerful allies for the Americans, if only they are used properly, he argued.

“We’re all sons of Anbar. The sons of Anbar are different from those from other regions. They have powerful bodies and they strike with iron fists without hesitation,” he said.

“Put 10 officers from Anbar on one side and 10 from other regions of Iraq on the other and you will see that they are the fiercest, because of the desert environment in which they have lived,” he said.

“When they strike their enemy they strike him hard, without letting up.”

Hearing such tough talk, some might wonder whether an Anbar run by this coalition of tribal hard men, most of whom once backed Saddam Hussein, can offer a much more open future than Al-Qaeda’s dream of an Islamic caliphate.

But Hais, who makes no secret of his contempt for the “Taliban-style” attitudes of his enemies, says he dreams not only of peace but of rebuilding Anbar’s shattered cities with nightclubs, hotels and international trade.

“We’ll make Ramadi the Dubai of Iraq,” he said, a twinkle in his eye. “I believe in development. I am very liberal, extremely liberal.

“I wanted to forbid the girls from wearing headscarves in Anbar University. They told me I’m the new Chirac,” he said, in a nod to the outgoing French president whose government banned Islamic dress from public schools.

* And why didn’t he..?

For this:

Iran, the 4th largest energy exporter in the world, says it needs nuclear energy for “peaceful” purposes. This recent picture from Tehran suggests a different motive. (photo ht Jeff via TROP)

No other country is threatened with death and complete annihilation while the rest of the world turns away. No other country is promised genocide, day in day out, week in, week out , year in year out, with no condemnation by the civilized men of the EU, UN, UNSC, OIC (ha!)

Divest the nuclear mullahs now. Read more at Front page

But who is to blame?

As always:

Iran’s former President Khatami blames West for nuclear standoff 

How could it be the fault of anyone else? From The Associated Press, with thanks to Jihad Watch

OSLO, Norway: Iran’s reform-minded former president on Tuesday blamed the West for failing to resolve a standoff over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program and said mounting pressure on Tehran would only make things worse.
Mohammad Khatami said that during his time as president, between 1997 and 2005, he came close to reaching an agreement with European nations that would have allowed Iran to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes. But U.S. pressure forced the Europeans to back off, he said.

“I think our European friends made a mistake and the problem has become more complicated,” Khatami told reporters at a conference in Oslo….

“If more pressure is brought on Iran it will be more difficult for both sides,” Khatami said.

Khatami blamed the United States for fueling the spread of terrorism in the Muslim world and compared U.S. neo-conservative leaders to Islamic fundamentalists.

“Extremism has been strengthened in the Muslim world. If terrorism only existed in Afghanistan, it has been spread to Iraq because of the actions of the United States,” Khatami said. “Violence and extremism are dangerous whether followed by al-Qaida or hardline politicians like the neo-conservatives in the United States.”…

When asked whether he agreed with Ahmadinejad’s calls for Israel to be wiped off the map, he said: “Personally I don’t think any people or nation should be wiped out. But I do believe sometimes facts, what has happened in history, has to be taken into account.”

From the ‘Unbelief is worse than slaughter’ department.

Charles from LGF thinks it is Mental illness on a grand scale, brought to you by the despots and terror supporters of the Organization of the Islamic Conference: ‘Islamophobia Worst Form of Terrorism’

ISLAMABAD, 17 May 2007 — Foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) yesterday expressed grave concern at the rising tide of discrimination and intolerance against Muslims, especially in Europe and North America. “It is something that has assumed xenophobic proportions,” they said in unison.

Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Nizar ibn Obaid Madani gestures during his meeting with OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu in Islamabad on Wednesday. (AN photo by Siraj Wahab)

Speaking at a special brainstorming session on the sidelines of the 34th Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM), the foreign ministers termed Islamophobia the worst form of terrorism and called for practical steps to counter it.

The ministers described Islamophobia as a deliberate defamation of Islam and discrimination and intolerance against Muslims. “This campaign of calumny against Muslims resulted in the publication of the blasphemous cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in a Danish newspaper and the issuance of the inflammatory statement by Pope Benedict XVI,” they said. During a speech in Germany last year, the Pope quoted a 14th Century Christian emperor who said the Prophet had brought the world only “evil and inhuman” things. The Pope’s remarks aroused the anger of the whole Islamic world.

* He was not wrong…

“The increasingly negative political and media discourse targeting Muslims and Islam in the United States and Europe has made things all the more difficult,” the foreign ministers said. “Islamophobia became a source of concern, especially after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, but the phenomenon was already there in Western societies in one form or the other,” they pointed out. “It gained further momentum after the Madrid and London bombings. The killing of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh in 2004 was used in a wicked manner by certain quarters to stir up a frenzy against Muslims,” the ministers pointed out. Van Gogh had made a controversial film about Muslim culture.

The OIC foreign ministers deplored the misrepresentation in the Western media of Islam and Muslims in the context of terrorism. “The linkage of terrorists and extremists with Islam in a generalized manner is unacceptable,” they said. “This is further inciting negative sentiments and hatred in the West against Muslims,” they said. The ministers also pointed out that whenever the issue of Islamophobia was discussed in international forums, the Western bloc, particularly some members of the European Union, tried to avoid discussing the core issue and instead diverted the attention from their region to the situation of non-Muslims and human rights in the OIC member states.

The foreign ministers said prejudices against Islam were not helping the situation. “Because of Islamophobia, millions of Muslims in the Western countries, many of whom were already underprivileged in their societies for a variety of reasons, are further alienated and targeted by hatred and discrimination.”

* He didn’t mention that these ‘poor underprivileged Muslims’ suck the hatred in with the mothers milk…

Brought to you by Arab News, of course…

* JW has an interesting take on this story here.. 

The worst form of terrorism. Worse than flying commericial airliners into high-rise office buildings. Worse than beheading preteen Christian girls on their way to school. Worse than launching attacks from civilian areas in order to use retaliatory actions to score propaganda points. The worst form of terrorism.

And with Ban Ki-Moon vowing to do the OIC’s bidding more zealously than ever, watch for the UN to call for muzzling of all “criticism of Islam,” i.e., exploration of the elements of Islam that the jihadists are using to encourage violence. And that will allow the jihadists to operate unhindered.

Of course! Its always the Jooozzz!

* The inside of a terrorists home:  They sure live in style, don’t they?  Did Condi pay for this or your taxdollars?

A Palestinian security force officer loyal to Fatah stands in the damaged house of Fatah security chief Rashid Abu Shbak after it was attacked by Hamas militants in Gaza City.
Photo: AP

“Hamas blames world, Israel and Arabs,”

from AP

Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas Islamic movement.
Photo: AP

The international community, Israel and Arab countries are to blame for the current inter-Palestinian fighting in the Gaza Strip for failing to lift an economic siege on the Palestinians, a senior Hamas official said Wednesday.

* He figured it all out by himself, imagine!

The remarks by Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas’ political bureau, came as fighting renewed between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza early Wednesday when Hamas gunmen stormed the home of a top Fatah official in Gaza City, killing five bodyguards inside, Palestinian security officials said….

“The international community and Arab countries shoulder part of the responsibility for the current events due to their attitudes toward the national unity government,” Abu Marzouk told The Associated Press by telephone in Damascus. “The continued financial and political siege has pushed matters to this simmering tension.”

* Withholding the Jiziyah makes them kill each other? I love it! Why don’t we stop the jiziyah altogether?

He also blamed Israel and Arab apathy toward the economic sanctions for the fighting.

“The Israelis are behind all these events,” Abu Marzouk said. “It’s illogical that the Arabs stand idle watching the Palestinian arena while it’s on the verge of explosion under the siege. … This is a constant pressure that has led to a real explosion.”

* Keeping the pressure up sounds like a good idea, don’t you think?

Read it all

Clashes overshadow Palestinian ‘Naqba’

Palestinian children hold maps of the Palestinian territories that includes Israel as they attend a rally to mark the 59th anniversary of the Naqba, or “The catastrophe” in the West Bank city of Nablus Tuesday May, 15, 2007
Photo: AP

Newest Hamas-Fatah truce collapses

 From Couriermail

A GROUP of right-wing politicians is gathering signatures to try to force a national vote on banning the construction of minarets in Switzerland.

* Wonder why they have to be titled ‘right wing’- is it because lefties see the Muhammedan scourge as natural allies?

The planned building of minarets, the towers attached to mosques from which the Islamic call for prayer is issued, in small Swiss towns has sparked local protests.

A group of politicians from the Swiss National Party and Federal Democratic Union are seeking to prevent the construction of minarets in national law, saying they are a symbol of power and threaten law and order in Switzerland.

The campaign has to gather 100,000 signatures by November 2008 to force a national vote on the initiative which, if it gains a majority vote, would then be written into law.

“We have no doubt that we’ll reach the goal,” Ulrich Schlueer, a Swiss National Party parliamentarian for Zurich who is heading the initiative, said.

“We’ve now been collecting for a week and we’ve already got 10,000 signatures.”

There are currently only two minarets in Switzerland, in Zurich and Geneva.

The call to prayer is not made from these minarets.

But Swiss President and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, a Social Democrat, said a ban on minaret construction would threaten the country’s security.

“Such an initiative endangers Swiss interests and the security of Swiss people,” Mr Calmy-Rey said.

“The liberty to practise a religion is guaranteed in Switzerland.”

The delusion of the lefties can be infuriating… 

You won’t see headlines like that in the MSM:

Here’s  Reuters Nidal Al Mughrabi:

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas gunmen stormed the home of President Mahmoud Abbas’s top security chief in Gaza and at least nine people were killed in fierce factional fighting on Wednesday that pushed Palestinians closer to all-out civil war.

The raid on the home of Rashid Abu Shbak, one of the most powerful Fatah leaders, came shortly after mortars struck near Abbas’s Gaza office and gunmen attacked a Hamas position outside the Interior Ministry building.

Palestinian officials said the widening hostilities could bring down a two-month-old unity government formed between ruling Hamas Islamists and Abbas’s secular Fatah faction.

Fatah official said Abbas may declare a state of emergency, a move that could allow him to rule by decree for a limited period of time.

Terrified Gaza residents hid indoors as masked gunmen fought running battles street-to-street. Witnesses said militants were grabbing some civilians out of their cars to hold as hostages.

In one panicked call to a local radio station, a woman appealed to Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas to act. “Do not leave us to die here,” she pleaded.

The rising death toll on Wednesday included four Fatah security guards at Abu Shbak’s home, a member of Abbas’s elite Presidential Guard and two member of the pro-Fatah Preventive Security service.

More… 

Israel launches air raid on Gaza after rocket fire 

by Charly Wegman

ERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel launched an air raid on an uninhabited area of Gaza on Wednesday after warning that it would respond “in a measured fashion” to continuing rocket fire from the lawless territory.

AFP Photo: Israeli police inspect the damage to a house in Sderot following a rocket attack

*

But Israel has for the moment ruled out a widescale incursion into the Gaza Strip, where escalating violence between rival groups has killed 30 people in four days.

“Our aircraft bombed uninhabited sectors of the Gaza Strip from where rockets have been launched against our territory,” an army spokeswoman told AFP. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Israel had warned it would respond to the continuing attacks that have seen 21 projectiles land inside the country since the flare-up of Palestinian internecine violence on Sunday, wounding two civilians.

“We will respond, without allowing ourselves to get involved in an uncontrollable escalation of violence,” government spokeswoman Miri Eisin told AFP.

Five rockets were launched on Wednesday, with three landing inside Israel causing damage but no injuries.

Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement that is the senior partner in the Palestinian coalition cabinet, claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement.

“Israel will defend its nationals, but is a responsible state that wants to spare innocent victims among the Palestinians,” Eisin said. “Hamas will not dictate our actions and we will operate in a measured fashion.”

Defence Minister Amir Peretz, a resident of the town of Sderot that has borne the brunt of the fire, said Israel will react “severely.”

More… 

Hamas militants kill 6 Fatah bodyguards 

By SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Hamas gunmen fatally shot six bodyguards from the rival Fatah movement Wednesday and mistakenly ambushed a jeep carrying their own fighters, killing five of them, in the bloodiest day of Palestinian infighting since violence erupted in the Gaza Strip four days ago.

Palestinian gunmen march during the funeral of security force officers loyal to the Fatah Movement that were killed during an attack by Hamas militants, in Deir Al Balah , in the central Gaza Strip

Militants from the hardline Islamist group also fired barrages of rockets at Israeli towns, an apparent attempt to draw Israel into the internal Palestinian conflict that has sent the coastal territory spiraling into chaos.

The streets of central Gaza City echoed with the rattle of gunfire, and were empty except for gunmen in black ski masks. Terrified residents huddled in dark homes after electricity to some downtown neighborhoods was cut off by a downed power line.

At midday Wednesday, policemen from the Fatah-allied Preventive Security organization arrested five Hamas men and were driving them through Gaza City when the vehicle was ambushed by Hamas fighters, Preventive Security officials told The Associated Press. Five of the Hamas men were killed, along with two Fatah men, they said. The exact circumstances of the incident were not immediately clear.

Hamas radio reported that a Hamas man was killed in another clash, and a nurse traveling in an ambulance was shot in the head after being caught in the crossfire, hospital officials said. Her family said she was brain dead and being kept alive by a respirator.

In four days of fighting, 41 people have been killed and dozens more have been injured. The majority of the fatalities have been from Fatah.

More…