Swedish Media Circles The Wagons: “Freedom of Expression is Not Dictated by Fundamentalists, Nor by Governments-“

Swedish media rallies around threatened cartoonist

* Euro anti-dhimmitude, and a courageous showing from Lars Vilks. An update on this story. From AFP via DW

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STOCKHOLM — The Swedish media rallied Sunday behind a cartoonist whose depiction of the Islamic prophet as a dog earned him death threats from Al Qaeda in Iraq, as Swedish companies braced for a backlash.


Cartoonist Lars Vilks said he was ready to die after extremists in Iraq offered $150,000 to anyone who slit his throat, or $100,000 for his murder by other means.

“We must not give in,” he was quoted as saying in the Dagens Nyheter daily that republished the cartoon in small format Sunday.

“I’m starting to grow old. I could die at any time – it’s not a catastrophe,” he said.

The group calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq, otherwise known as Al Qaeda in Iraq, also put $50,000 on the head of Ulf Johansson, editor in chief of the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper that published the caricature.

Swedish media condemned the threats, issued through the Internet Saturday in the form of a statement in the name of the group’s purported leader, Sheikh Abu Omar Al Baghdadi.

“We live in a country where freedom of expression is not dictated by fundamentalists, nor by governments,” wrote Dagens Nyheter chief editor Thorbjorn Larsson in an editorial.

* Right. Freedom is not free. We’re all good enjoying the freedom our ancestors fought for. But how good are we defending it? Now where is the rest of the Euro-dhimmi’s and the MSM?

*

Dennis Prager:  How the Left perverted journalism, education and the courts

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Whether one is on the left or right, it cannot be denied that the left has had an enormous impact on the major institutions of American society — specifically journalism, education and the judiciary.

In every poll I have seen, liberals overwhelm conservatives in academia, including the teachers’ colleges, which are quite far left, and in journalism. And few deny the leftward tilt of the Supreme Court for most of the last 40 years.

The question, then, is not whether the left has had such an impact, but why.

I learned a major part of the answer years ago in Idaho where I was the moderator of a panel of judges — including a past California Supreme Court justice — and lawyers connected to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. I asked the panel members to give their view of the role of judges. The response of the liberal former California Supreme Court justice opened my eyes to the left’s view of virtually everything in society.

He said that the purpose of a California Supreme Court justice, and for that matter, every judge, is to fight economic inequality and racism in society.

I responded that I thought the one purpose of a judge was to render justice in the courtroom.

I might as well have responded in biblical Hebrew (that’s where I got the idea of a judge’s role anyway): He and the other liberals on the panel reacted as if I had offered a new and original notion of judges’ roles.

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England: Agents of the Caliphate, Meet Miss Muddassar Arani

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Muslim terrorist defence lawyers

She specialises in the defence of Muslims accused of terror-related crimes. Among her most notorious clients are Abu Hamza al-Masri, the cleric convicted of incitement to murder. Dhiren Barot, sentenced to life for conspiracy to commit large-scale murder scale in the US and Britain. Three of the failed suicide bombers of 21 September 2005, plus Farid Hilali, a terror suspect wanted in Spain who, in a recorded telephone conversation shortly before September 11th 2001, told someone with links to one of the 9/11 hijackers: “We have entered the area of aviation’ and ‘have slit the bird’s throat.”

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Hamza

Link
Last year the Law firm which Miss Arani formed made over £1 million in legal aid fees alone (not bad for a 1 woman operation) defending the likes of those above terrorists, terrorists which I should add should be accorded ‘Prisoner of War’ status according to Miss Muddassar Arani
.
However it appears that Miss Arani may be soon be in court again not as the defending lawyer but as the defendant. It seems that she has taken her loyalty to the cause just a step too far in that;

a) She has been caught trying to bribe one of the terrorists convicted of the failed London bombing in 2005 to silence when he crossed sides and gave evidence against his fellow jihadists
b) Get the same terrorist to drop his solicitor and get her to represent him so that she could keep closer tabs on him.
Surprised? Not really this is the woman who is on record of quoting the following to the British Media.

*
“There is clearly a war that is taking place against Islam. That is why our people have to wake up and realise that one day it will be them and not others that this is happening to. Once we learn to forget our differences and speak with one voice and realise that we all are viewed as Muslims, we will be able to win this war that is taking place against us Muslims. We have to wake up to the fact that this is only the beginning of the war.”


I wonder if Miss Arani will be afforded POW status when she gets sent down. Or will she be afforded bitch status by her cell mate who will ensure she gets sent down.

* Gitmo is nice this time of year. How about it, Mrs Jihad..? There are some vacant rooms and free halal burgers…

*

Luise Arbour: A Candidate For Gitmo?

* The slime from the UN:

Are they all on the take or are they just stupid? Or both?

* If looks could kill:

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U.N. High Commissioner for Human Muslim Rights Louise Arbour.

Arbour said on Monday that bigotry and prejudice, especially in regard to Muslims, were common in Europe and called on governments to tackle the issue.

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Last week many of us puked when we saw the hijabbed Luise hang out with the genocidal mullah’s and their psychopath Fuehrer Ahmad-in-jihad in Teheran.

(Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

* Luise Arbour needs a mirror or a burka. Actually both.

By Robert Evans

U.N. rights chief sees bigotry in Europe on Islam

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said on Monday that bigotry and prejudice, especially in regard to Muslims, were common in Europe and called on governments to tackle the issue.

The remarks from the former Canadian Supreme Court judge, which came in the wake of similar charges issued last week by a U.N. rights investigator, were quickly challenged by a leading global non-religious grouping.

The report by investigator Doudou Diene of Senegal documented what he called an alarming rise in intolerance, and in particular Islamophobia, in European countries, and Arbour said, “I have no reason not to share his concerns.”

Europeans “are shocked at times when it is pointed out that bigotry, prejudice and stereotyping is still sometimes very present in their attitude to others,” she said.

Diene’s work, she declared, highlighted “a challenge for Western countries that needs to be addressed.”

Roy Brown, past president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) which groups non-religious organizations around the globe said Arbour was “just plain wrong.”

“The little regrettable hostility that does exist among indigenous Europeans has not arisen in a vacuum, but as a reaction to Islamic extremism — demonization of Jews, infidels and homosexuals and contempt for Western culture,” said Brown, the IHEU’s representative at the U.N.’s Human Rights Council.

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* How about taking Doudou with you, Luise? You might enjoy sharing a cell in Gitmo. And please don’t leave Koffi behind, take him along also…

Diene’s report said Islamophobia and equating Islam with terrorism created a climate favoring racial and religious hate.

But it also criticized Islamic states for their treatment of non-Muslim minorities and for refusing to recognize the right of people born into Islam to change their religion.

Diene pointed to the recent appearance of a cartoon in a provincial Swedish newspaper that governments of Islamic countries say offended their religion as an example of abuse of the right of free speech to sow suspicion of Muslims.

He also hit out at Switzerland over perceived anti-immigrant campaigning by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP/UDC).

European countries in the Council responded in low-key to his “Islamophobia” charges.

* Revolting how our world is being perverted by these unelected, corrupt advocates for the caliphate.

*

Rant of the day:

Envy, a sense of entitlement, envy, a conviction that every good thing in life is theirs by right, envy, that poverty and inequality should be inversely proportionate to degree of submission to Allah, envy, that repayment in kind–however disproportionate in degree–is the remedy to perceived injustices, envy, rancor, and hate–is there anything else essential to this message that I didn’t catch on to?

Posted by: John C at September 17, 2007 10:30 AM

I don’t think so; you covered it all. Such a typical rant from these primordial savages; one minute they are pathetic, helpless victims of Western hegemony, then they morph into intrepid holy warriors on a mission for allah. If allah is so great, why does he need these hyperbolic cowards to cajole their brainwashed minions into doing his bidding? These pathetic bastards are blinded by envy and determined to reduce the civilized world to a sewer like the one they inhabit. What islam prevents or prohibits them from achieving and possessing cannot be enjoyed by the infidels. Simple as that.

Posted by: Susanp

*

Fitzgerald: Arbour Day In The Committee Room, Or, Every Little Breeze Seems To Whisper Louise 

GENEVA (Reuters) – United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said on Monday that bigotry and prejudice, especially in regard to Muslims, were common in Europe and called on governments to tackle the issue. — from this news item


The assumptions, the skewed knowledge, the mental set, the entire world view, of Louise Arbour, of all the louise-arbours of this world, need to be anatomized, spread out on a table, or possibly held up for close inspection. How did she arrive at her views, and at her position? What is it that went into her formation? Did she study history? Has she studied Islam? Has she bethought herself, and wondered if, just possibly, she had a duty to study Islam, and a duty to study the history of Islamic conquest and subjugation of non-Muslims — Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, and others — in time and space? Or should she remain content with the bland assumptions of Bush and Blair, that because the word one commonly uses for Islam is “religion,” then therefore, Islam is entitled to automatic respect, without more thought, because “religion” is a good thing?

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Denmark: Copenhagen mosque served as a recruitment centre for radical Islamists

* Nothing new really.

 Mosque: Incubator and HQ for Islamic Terror

Mosques are not simply ‘places of worship’- they are indoctrination and propaganda -centers for hatred and conspiracy theories,  bastions of plotting and convenient weapon storage as we have seen in Iraq (and in London and many other places.)

The minarets are great spots for snipers, Turkey’s PM Erdogan calls them ‘rocket launchers’- and foolish Western governments are still not taking any action to monitor the hate-speeches and the  incitement from the middle eastern mullah’s, muftis and imams  who have somehow, (how exactly?) infiltrated the Dar-al- harb, and now sit deeply entrenched behind enemy lines, from which they bite their time for the jihad, which must come, inevitably, either by out- breeding (demographics) or by unrestrained immigration from Islamic countries, because all the world belongs to Allah, and no infidel government has a right to rule over the soldiers of Allah with man-made laws…

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Police keep eye on mosque 

A  number of high-profile cases involving terrorist plots have raised suspicions that a Copenhagen mosque served as a recruitment centre for radical Islamists

Last week’s arrest of eight men suspected of planning a terrorist action have brought renewed attention to a mosque located on Heimdalsgade in Copenhagen’s northwest neighbourhood.

Initial reports found that two brothers with Pakistani background suspected in the case attended the mosque, bolstering claims the centre serves as a recruitment facility for radical Islamists.

Several of the suspects involved in the first case initiated under Denmark’s new anti-terror laws, the Glostrup case, were known to attend the mosque. The radical Muslim, Said Mansour, who was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in April was also known to act as a mentor for many young Muslims attending the mosque.

According to Lene Kühle, a religion scholar at Aarhus University, the mosque is known for being inaccessible to the media and where women are denied entry. In contrast to other mosques, it attracts younger Muslims – especially Danish converts – and is one of the only ones who have allowed the radical organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir influence.

That’s why it’s not such a coincidence that it has been mentioned so many times in connection with suspicions about terror,’ she told daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende.

According to a source close to the suspects arrested last week, the two Pakistani brothers had contact with Abu Ahmed, a radical cleric who once taught at the mosque.

The mosque has gone to efforts to disassociate itself from the cases involving suspected terrorist plots, however. After arrests were made in the Glostrup case in November
2005, the mosque opened its doors to journalists.

A leading figure in Copenhagen’s Muslim community, Khalid Al-subeihi, also denied that that the mosque has a link to radical groups.

‘I think it was a coincidence that the mosque is connected to the terror cases,’ Al-subeihi told Berlingske Tidende newspaper. ‘There aren’t any activities for young people at the mosque. It’s more the older generation that goes there.’

* Another bold faced lie from the imam Al-Subeihi: Young people go that mosque in large numbers, for indoctrination as we can see here:

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“American Beslan- Jihad Boom”

* Glenn Beck is onto it, but will it prevent the attack?

Lots more on Atlas Shrugs and on Jihad Watch

*

“Religion of Peace” Death Threats of the Day: “You Will Soon Be Raped & Die, Gonna Blow You Up” on the Debbie Schlussel Blog

— michael b mikeb1968@hotmail.com wrote:
From: “michael b” mikeb1968@hotmail.com
To: dschlussel@yahoo.com
Subject: YES I LOVE HEZBOLLAH…AND FUCK YOU..
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:34:47 -0400

HEY WHITE BTICH JEW.FUCK YOU.HEZBOLAAH IS AWSOME.WE WILL NEVER DIE BITCH.WERE GONNA BLOW YOU UP.

Link

*

Dearbornistan government at work: Covering up for the AK-47 jihadi suspect

From Michelle Malkin

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“My American Jihad”- a Leb-Hezbollah Medical Student on the Jihad Warpath

They don’t call it Dearbornistan for nothing.

On Tuesday, a nation honored those whose lives were lost during the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. But four days prior to the anniversary of the deadly terrorist attacks, a Wayne State medical student had city officials hoping that the event would not be marred by more bloodshed.


Houssein Zorkot, 26, was arrested Sept. 8 after he was observed wielding an AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifle in Hemlock Park, a popular destination for many Dearborn residents.


Zorkot, who is of Lebanese descent, was arraigned Tuesday in 19th District Court — the same day city officials sent out a press release about an event that had happened four days prior, and one day after the Press & Guide had contacted city officials seeking comment.


According to Dearborn Mayor “Jack” O“Reilly, Jr., the release of information about the case was delayed until after Zarkot’s arraignment and late in the day that marked the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. City officials feared that announcing the arrest of an armed Arabic man so close to anniversary of the attack would stir anti-Muslim sentiments and fan the flames of terrorism.


”We didn’t want this to become more than it is,“ O’Reilly said. ”There are certain things that the media latches onto, and this would have turned into a story about terrorism. That’s not the kind of tone we want to set.”


Charles Johnson calls it “really bad craziness.” Yep.

*

The New Age Citizen notes a recent infusion of Muslim special interest money into Dearborn’s coffers, just follow the money…

*

Quote of the day:

This quote, attributed to Alexander Tytler in 1787 (but maybe just an internet creation), explains why Americans should not mock Europeans. The only difference between US and the EU is that Europe is ten years ahead of us. 

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The Islamic presence makes a soft landing less likely.

‘We must not offend those who want to kill us because that will make them want to kill us’

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Multi-Culti-Diversity’: The Real Suicide Bomb

* Just ONE reminder what happens when our mortal enemy gets into a position of power to censor the news:

“The Muslim owner of the France Soir newspaper has fired the Paris newspaper’s editor for publishing controversial cartoons making fun of Islam.”

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* If it wasn’t for the blog’s, you’d think it never happened. The newspapers who carried the story at the time have all taken it down.


Palestinian Authority celebrates 9-11 terror attacks

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True Islam: Keep looking, you came to the right place!


Ever since the relationships between the Occident and the Orient have been soured by 9/11, Muslims and islamapologists occasionally mention “True Islam”. And “True Islam”, ladies and gentlemen, well, it certainly must be something fantastic and awe-inspiring. People go all misty-eyed and gooey just talking about it. How sad it is, they say, that we, dumb frightened westerners, fail to appreciate the beauty of True Islam. No way those terrorist attacks have anything to do with True Islam
.

Quite the contrary: True Islam shows all of us the way to paradise on earth. True Islam is a beacon of love, tolerance and respect! True Islam will provide the final solution to end world hunger. True Islam will prove to be an effective medicine against cancer, AIDS, angst and nasal infections, yes, True Islam will make men want to fall into each others arms, and weep tears of joy. We could talk about it for hours on end! Oh, how we wish to make it clear to you what heavenly bliss you’re missing out on, only because you seem eager to make such a childish fuss about a few accidental bombings. Why won’t you accept that True Islam has nothing to do with all that? And then they shake their heads in utter disappointment and disbelief…

Read more..

<

> *>

The EU Wants to Increase Muslim Immigration and Internet Censorship

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A few months ago, the EU’s Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini worried about what to do with illegal immigration. To no-one’s surprise, he appears to have settled for surrendering and making it legal. The skilled glossocrat Frattini has already banned the use of the phrase Islamic terrorism: “You cannot use the term ‘Islamic terrorism,'” he insisted. “People who commit suicide attacks or criminal activities on behalf of religion, Islamic religion or other religion, they abuse the name of this religion.” He now thinks we shouldn’t use the word “immigration,” either, we should talk about “mobility.” Moreover, the “Asian” and “African” immigrants in this case generally come from the predominantly Muslim countries of North Africa and the Middle East, with some additional ones from Pakistan and similar nations. The EU has thus decided to flood Europe with tens of millions of Muslims, at the same time as peaceful Europeans demonstrating against the Islamization of Europe were brutally harassed by the police in the EU capital of Brussels.

* A nasty piece of work, this Franco Frattini. Read more..

*

* Fitzgerald has an idea that will work much better for US:

Those who supply the local defenders of the faith, who conduct those ever-expanding campaigns of Da’wa and outright propaganda for Islam, will be removed from our societies, and since it is impossible to detect the genuine and permanent “moderate” from the other kind, and since Islam “itself is not moderate,” we would be fools — as a truth-telling Iraqi Muslimin this country said himself (presumablyMuslim-for-identification-purposes-only Muslim)-– not to expel any of those who identify themselves as believing in 9.29, and 5.51, and all the rest of the Qur’anic passages, and also the hadith, that taken together, and understood as Muslims for 1350 years have understood them, declare a state of permanent war between Believers and Infidels.

We would be complete fools not to undertake, merely because we are all now Acolytes of the Church of Latter-Day Total Tolerance Even For Those Who Wish Us Ill, these minimal acts of self-defense and civilizational survival.

*

Quote of the day:

For the orthodox, Islamic philosophy was a contradiction in terms, and Islamic science futile


– Ibn Warraq, pg 2 of Why I am Not A Muslim

Police tell threatened Swedish artist to leave home

Cartoon Rage Continues

Ericsson, Ikea & Volvo threatened:

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – A Swedish artist threatened with death over his drawing of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad has been told by police he is no longer safe living at home.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, offered up to $150,000 on Saturday for the murder of artist Lars Vilks for drawing the head of the Prophet on the body of a dog.

“I can’t live here,”
Vilks told Reuters by phone. “SAPO (Sweden’s security service) have judged that it (the threat) is very serious.”

He was allowed to go home and collect some things but it may be a long time before he is able to return again, he said.

“We have had contact with him (Vilks) and together with him are taking the decisions that are necessary,” a police spokesman said.

In an audiotape posted on the Internet, Baghdadi offered a lower bounty for the death of the editor of daily Nerikes Allehanda, which published the drawing last month in what it called a defense of free speech.

Top Swedish firms such as truck maker Volvo, mobile network builder Ericsson and retailer Ikea were also threatened unless an apology was forthcoming for the drawing.

The threats against Vilks and the newspaper mirror a crisis in Denmark last year.

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Cartoons published in a Danish paper and reprinted around the world sparked riots in the Middle East, Asia and Africa in which at least 50 people died, and attacks against Danish embassies and a boycott of Danish goods.

* That silence you hear is emanating from the leftist freedom of speech crowd.

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Today’s Cartoon

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Treason by the Main Stream Media Exposed Once Again:

Al Reuters reported:

Cartoons published in a Danish paper and reprinted around the world sparked riots in the Middle East, Asia and Africa in which at least 50 people died, and attacks against Danish embassies and a boycott of Danish goods.

*
Well, Reuters, to be accurate, those 50+ people didn’t just die, they were killed. By people outraged over drawings but apparently not so outraged at murder. Just saying “people died” when

witnesses said Christians were poured with petrol and burnt

is willfully covering for the monsters.


And it wasn’t merely 50+, it was closer to 150.

And it wasn’t just Danish embassies. Any western country, it would seem, would do. An Italian embassy and a British embassey were attacked.

But besides messing up on all the facts, you were on the right track.

Terror must be normal part of life: al-Qaeda

From correspondents in Dubai |the Australian

AL-Qaeda called on Islamists to sow terror in the West to create a climate of fear, in a third video marking the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, which was posted on the internet today.

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Muhammad: Believe it or else..!

*

* Remember: Al Qaeda members are ‘good Muslims’- they take the Islamic scriptures seriously and will kill and die to emulate their ‘prophet’ Muhammad, a 7th century caravan raider, slave trader, torturer, genocidal mass-murderer, a misogynistic polygamist, child molester, arsonist and megalomanic warlord who invented ‘Allah’- his alter ego, in order to deceive his followers.

* Once again: The AQ-boyz are good Muslims, they follow the Koran and the sunnah, wherein it is written:

Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah and your enemies…” (Qur’an 8:60) 

*

Called “reasons and motives for the attacks on New York and Washington,” the video features a montage of images of the burning World Trade Centre towers and scenes from Islamist training camps.

“We must take Islamist terrorism to Western countries so that it becomes a normal part of life like natural disasters,” a voiceover says.

“In that way, we will have acts of mass extermination in which people will feel that their affluence also brings death… and we will have created a balance of deterrence between us and them,” the unidentified voice adds.

* In other words: Islam can only survive if people remain stupid and poor and in he grip of the Mullah’s and imams…

The new video also includes clips from old voice recordings of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his Egyptian deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as a short video clip of Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid, also known as Sheikh Said, the group’s commander in Afghanistan.

Al-Qaeda already released a videotape and an audiotape featuring bin Laden earlier this month to mark the sixth anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3000 people in the US.

A third release had been trailed by al-Qaeda’s media arm, As-Sahab. In the event the new video was issued in the name of al-Tanzem, prompting suggestions the network has launched a new media arm.

*

The Victims of 9/11

From Saudi Arabia’s ArabNews, republished in Britain by Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, this is how the Arab world sees the September 11 attacks—when they aren’t celebrating.20070911arabnews-1.jpg

Yes. And Japan was the victim of Pearl Harbour…

Interesting comments on LGF

*

A remarkable comment from Jihad Watch:

In the UK, say, 10 years ago one of our best stand-up comics, Jasper Carrot (semi-retired now) did a routine were he had a conversation with a Christian. The dialogue was the Christian asked “Why did he always laugh at Christians why didn’t he have a go at the Muslims? The simple answer he gave himself was, “Because they will kill me!” It was incredible that in an auditorium with 5-6000 people who had been laughing up uproariously until then you could have heard a pin drop. I have never seen a professional performer in such a hole and I forget how he stopped digging. I would say there were very few Muslims in the audience but suddenly the silence was deafening.

That is how frightened people are in the UK even before 9/11

How did they do it? Just like this:

No, I have no idea how they did it, but they did it damned well, sez Charles from LGF:

 An Englishman responds to the caveman’s ‘invitation to Islam’-

Pat Condell is a British comedian 

Iran loses faith in clerics

Change elusive in rigid society

By Kim Barker

Tribune foreign correspondent

QOM, Iran

No Mo Moderates, Only Radicals:

The mob shouted for his blood. They called him a traitor; they yelled, “Death to Montazeri.”

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The target of their wrath? The Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri.

Once, he was heir apparent to the ruler of the country, an Iranian equivalent to Thomas Jefferson, an Islamic revolutionary who helped topple the dreaded Shah of Iran. Now, though, his fall from grace seemed complete. Outside his home, an unruly crowd of hundreds had branded him a heretic.

As Montazeri, partially deaf, prayed in a room behind his office, he barely heard bricks shattering the windows. But his family members were scared. They ran from the cleric to the chaos outside and back, trying to shield Montazeri from harm.

Eventually, the police took action on that day in 1997, spraying the mob with tear gas. The aging cleric and his family escaped harm. But they would endure years of punishment, house arrest, prison and harassment.

Montazeri’s crime was simple: He had publicly criticized his one-time allies, the clerics who run the country, for abandoning human rights and freedom as the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“The shah is gone,” Montazeri said in a recent interview. “But a clergy has replaced him.”

On one level, the story of Hussein Ali Montazeri is a powerful drama of life, death and resurrection in one of the world’s most rigid societies. Critics say he is naive, manipulated by the people around him and bitter after falling out of favor with the government. But at 82, Montazeri has survived years of intellectual apartheid to rise again in the eyes of the Islamic world. Today he is considered one of the top two Shiite clerics worldwide and is a powerful voice for moderation in Iran.

His story also shows the ups and downs of the struggle over Islam in a nation where large numbers of people yearn for the economic and political freedoms practiced in the secular West, often viewed as an icon of immorality by the conservative clerics of Iran.

In thick, black-rimmed glasses, a white skullcap, cardigan sweater and long robe, Montazeri hardly fits the image of a rebel. His hands shake. He often sits on a heating pad. He suffers from diabetes, but he hides chocolates in a desk drawer. He speaks in singsong sentences that trail off in a wheeze.

But Montazeri is at the heart of a battle over Iran’s fate–one that could hint at the future in the Middle East, where radicals from Iraq to the Gaza Strip want an Islamic revolution like the one that happened in Iran 25 years ago.

On one side are the powerful clerics who rule Iran and thwart the most modest reforms.

On the other side, grass-roots reformers complain that the fight for an Islamic democracy actually led to an Islamic dictatorship, one that jails or even kills its critics, violates basic rights and distorts the tenets of Islam.

Led by senior clerics such as Montazeri and one-time foot soldiers of the revolution, they seek democratic reforms that would restore a respect for human rights and freedom. Some, such as Montazeri, believe that the country can be run through an Islamic system. But others believe that religion has no place in government. They want the clergy to return to the mosques. They want a true democracy.

“I don’t have any doubt it will come,” said Ibrahim Yazdi, the Islamic Republic’s first foreign minister, who now leads the country’s only secular-leaning political party.

The people of Iran are caught in the middle, chanting “Death to America” at Friday prayers then welcoming American visitors with fresh fruit. They adhere to strict Islamic codes in public but disappear behind closed doors to drink homemade vodka and watch MTV.

They live in a nation that is rich in oil but has a stagnant economy. Jobs are scarce, the air polluted, the press controlled and the politics repressive.

And in the ultimate irony of the Islamic Republic, the country is becoming less religious, not more.

Friday prayers

On a Friday in January, one of Iran’s top politicians stood on an outdoor stage at the University of Tehran, praising the Islamic Revolution to a crowd of thousands.

“This is a big achievement,” said Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran’s president from 1989 to 1997. “In today’s world, when many countries and people are against religion, we see a religion emerging capable of making a country run.”

This was no ordinary political stump speech. Rafsanjani was leading weekly Friday prayers, a blend of politics and religion, of pep rally and prayer, of love for Iran’s government and hate for the U.S. and Israel.

On one side of the audience, about 5,000 women sat on Persian carpets. Most wore chadors, sometimes using their teeth to hold the sheet-like coverings over their hair and bodies. They could not see Rafsanjani over the tall dividers separating them from about 15,000 men.

During Rafsanjani’s speech, the crowd responded with the same cheers of praise shouted since the revolution. “God is great,” they yelled. “Death to the United States.”

Iran is still a religious country, despite pushes for political reform. People in the crowd on Fridays embrace the revolution and all that has followed.

“Until the day we no longer have blood in our veins, we will say `Death to America,'” said Soraya Ghayoomi, before cheerfully handing an apple to an American.

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Australia: Griffith University A Hotbed Of Wahabism?

Richard Kerbaj | The Australian
Hat tip: Rosie

$1m Saudi gift to uni

UP to $1 million will be pumped by Saudi Arabia into an Australian university, sparking fears the money will skew its research and create sympathy for an extremist Muslim ideology espoused by al-Qai’da.

James Cook University’s Mervyn Bendle, a senior lecturer in the history of communication and terrorism, said Saudi Arabia would not provide funds to any Islamic initiative without wanting to propagate its own agenda and version of Islam.

“Historically, Saudi funding around the world has been used to promote Wahhabism,” he said.

“It would be naive to just accept on the surface that this is not the case as far as this money is concerned.”

Griffith Islamic Research Unit will also receive a “collection of Islamic books and other materials”, according to the university’s website.

But the director of Griffith’s key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance, Ross Homel, defended the Saudi grant the university received on August 23, saying it came with “no strings” attached.

* Right: “No strings attached”-are you really that naive, Mr. Homel?

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Read it all

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The pattern that repeats itself wherever Saudi money corrupts Western institutions of higher learning: Georgetown and Harvard received 20 million dollars each in order to muzzle any critique about the ‘Religion of Peace’ –

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Georgetown’s ‘enlightened’ John Esposito

You can get a taste of John Esposito’s obfuscating efforts here at the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Da’awa Centre for Christian-Muslim understanding

* Rest assured that you will hear nothing critical of Islam at Esposito’s Da’awa sessions, but you are likely to remain completely clueless or you might end up a good Muslim. ‘Understanding Islam’ in Georgetown means submission, in the true sense of the word.

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* Prince Alwaleed is the Saudi who tried to give Rudi Giuliani a 10-million dollar check after the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attacks on the WTC– if only he would address ‘Muslim grievances’- much to his credit Giuliani told the prince to shove it.

* Al Waleed is also the guy who owns a lot of America’s Caliphate News Network, he also owns: large holdings in the Four Seasons, Walt Disney, Citigroup etc. Yes, and of course 6 % of Fox News, which also cooks the news ever since, in order not to ‘offend Muslim sensitivities..’

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Back to Griffith in Queensland and the 8 million dollar Islamic studies centre

Here’s an article in the Courier Mail about this taxpayer funded suicidal lunacy:

Teaching Muslims moderation

By Lachlan Heywood

YOUNG Muslims will be taught Australian-friendly Islam under a Federal Government plan to stop them falling prey to extremists.

An approved Islamic curriculum will be rolled out by a consortium of universities, including Griffith University in Brisbane, to counter the teachings of Muslim firebrands who preach intolerance and hate.

The establishment of the $8 million national centre of excellence for Islamic studies comes amid outrage over comments by leading Australian Muslim clerics Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali and Sheik Feiz Mohammed.

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The Griffith Islamic Studies Centre: Fox guarding the chicken coop?

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Taqiyya-Dr Mohamad Abdalla
Griffith Islamic Research Unit

* Islam in Brisbane

* Some of the excellent activities of the Islamic Research center can be found here

“Australian Government Funded Centre for Excellence in Islam campaigns for release of Glasgow suspect Dr Mohamad Haneef”-

* And here we found another case of blatant lying, obfuscation and taqiyya:

* The Cairns Fishwrap gobbles it up without questioning and goes proselytizing for the cult

* Winds of Jihad reported repeatedly on the shameless da’awa tactics of the peaceful ones

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* Remember: “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”
-Benjamin Franklin-

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Fitzgerald: Da’awa, Taqiyya, Tu Coque and whatever it takes…

A convert to Islam, Mahdi Bray is not one of those, like Ibrahim Hooper, who has attained national prominence. He is a tireless worker at the local level, however, and in his dual presentation of self, or presentation of dual selves, most instructive. Soft-spoken and smiling and all sweet reason, and with a comfortably American voice, when addressing Infidels, he becomes something quite different for Muslim audiences, where he has been known to chant-and-rant, as in his call of support for Hamas before a crowd in Washington, or whipping up a crowd to show up at a courtroom to mock the proceedings which involved charging a Muslim with plotting to kill the American President. He is also careful, at the local level, to carry out all those carefully-calibrated and well-publicized deeds of supposed charity – to earn Infidel goodwill – that are described as being so useful in the conduct of Da’wa at Muslim sites.

More

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Griffiths in the grip of Muselmania 

Visiting scholars

George Saliba
Tariq Asadullah Syed
Goolam Vahed

PhD scholars

Nader Alkhatib
Nada Ibrahim
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim
Tan Sri Dato’ Abdul Khalid Ibrahim
Melea Lewis
Mahmood Nathie
Halim Rane
Emad Soliman
Klodian Xhepaj

Islamophobia

* Hello children, in today’s indoctrination session we will paint a big pussy on your cheek and by doing that, we might cure you of a recently discovered disease  called ‘Islamophobia’ that doesn’t seem to go away no matter how much lipstick we use.

Please hold still and endure, it won’t hurt a bit!

Or else… !!?

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Looking at the causes and ways to tackle them
OIC Journal, Issue 1

If peace, harmony and equality are to prevail we should start by learning to better communicate with each other based on mutual respect, understanding and empathy of each other. Using such terms as “Islamic fascists”, “Muslim terrorists” and “Islamist fundamentalist extremists” do not help in fighting the so called “war on terrorism”.

On the contrary, such offensive, irresponsible and insensitive terms only serve to inflame resentment towards the US and instill a fear of Muslims in westerns’ mind.

Profiling ‘Asian looking’ people at airports and removing individuals with ‘Muslim sounding names’ from airplanes because they make others uncomfortable is a clear indication of a growing biased fear and suspicion of Muslims.

The publication and republication of cartoons in European media caricaturing the Prophet Mohammed in a way perceived by Muslims as deliberately insulting and defamatory but done, according to the publishers, in the name of freedom of the press, exposed a cultural divide that erupted into anger because of stereotyping.

The horrific, criminal and unjustified terrorist acts of 9/11 in New York and 7/7 in London violently expressed the frustration, disappointment and disillusion that are festering deep in the Muslims’ soul towards the aggressions and discriminations committed against them by the West.

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* Just read the above again and again. The chutzpah of these people is mind boggling.

* If your BS- detector didn’t explode by now you are beyond hope.

In this case you should perhaps consider joining these people here:

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Islamophobia Part 1

UN investigator: “Islamophobia” on the rise, especially in Europe

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Islamophobia Part 2

Not so fast, buster. The word “Islamophobia” is not an acceptable term for intelligent apprehensions over Islam.

Converts to Islam misunderstand their new religion, join Islamic jihad activities

* But not to worry: Jihad, as we all know, is nothing but ‘inner struggle’ – and since all misunderstanding comes from lack of education, all you have to do is let us educate you (and your children) so that the religion of Allah may guide you to the right path…

Spencer from JW:

Imagine! They enter Islam with open mind and open heart, and somehow they get the crazy idea that the Qur’an and Muhammad are commanding them to subjugate the infidel, by violence if necessary! What a crazy notion! One would think that Muslim groups in Europe and America would be anxious to head this off, and are instituting comprehensive programs to teach against Islamic supremacism and the jihad ideology in every madrasa and mosque in the West. Aren’t they? Mr. Hooper, care to comment on CAIR’s efforts in this direction?

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Fibbi Hooper

“Converts To Islam Move Up In Cells,” by Craig Whitlock for the Washington Post

BERLIN — Religious converts are playing an increasingly influential role in Islamic militant networks, having transformed themselves in recent years from curiosities to key players in terrorist cells in Europe, according to counterterrorism officials and analysts.
The arrests this month of two German converts to Islam — Fritz Gelowicz and Daniel Schneider — on suspicions that they were plotting to bomb American targets are just one example of terrorism cases in Europe in which converts to Islam have figured prominently.

In Copenhagen, a convert is among four defendants who went on trial this month for plotting to blow up political targets. In Sweden, a webmaster who changed his name from Ralf Wadman to Abu Usama el-Swede was arrested last year on suspicion of recruiting fighters on the Internet. In Britain, three converts — including the son of a British politician — are awaiting trial on charges of participating in last year’s transatlantic airline plot.

* Hmm, interesting: How come we haven’t heard anything about this ‘son of a British politician?’ Who is hiding what, exactly? Don’t you think this is a matter of public interest?

“The number of converts, it seems, is definitely on the rise,” said Michael Taarnby, a terrorism researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. “We’ve reached a point where I think al-Qaeda and other groups recognize the value of converts, not just from an operational viewpoint but from a cultural one as well.”

Religious converts are sometimes more prone to radicalization because of their zeal to prove their newfound faith, analysts said. They are also less likely to attract police scrutiny in Europe, where investigators often rely on outdated demographic profiles in terrorism cases.

* Yes, zeal is key, but new converts to Christianity, as zealous as they may be, don’t seem to be blowing anything up. Now, why is that?

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Iraq: That Sunni/Shiia Divide

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By Robert H Reid for AP via The Guardian:

BAGHDAD (AP) – An al-Qaida front group threatened to assassinate Sunni leaders who support American troops in Iraq as a Shiite bloc loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr defected Saturday from the Iraqi government’s parliament base.
The two developments cast doubt over prospects for political and military progress in Iraq as the U.S. Senate gears up for a debate next week on Democratic demands for deeper and faster troop cuts than President Bush plans.

The threat against Sunni leaders came from the ‘Islamic State of Iraq‘-, which claimed responsibility for the assassination Thursday of Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, the mastermind of the Sunni Arab revolt against al-Qaida in Anbar province. Bush met Abu Risha at a U.S. base in Anbar this month and praised his courage.

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Spencer’s comment:

Now while al-Qaeda may be the nastiest of the bunch right now, the idea that defeating them will at last liberate that huge reservoir of Islamic goodwill and cooperation currently only latent is, well, fantasy. If it’s not al-Qaeda it will be somebody else — unless they are forcibly repressed.

In an Islamic context, there are exactly two kinds of regimes possible: Islamic tyrannies and non-Islamic tyrannies. Either way, force is what holds the whole thing together. And don’t talk to me about Turkey. Turkey continually oscillates between full-blown Sharia and military dictatorship. Turkey is as secular as it is thanks to Gemal’s outright repression of Islam.

Force is invariably the key: the question is whether it is employed to repress or to abet Sharia, jihad, and general Islamic imperialism. The result the US administration ostensibly desires in Iraq — a competent, popular, Shia republic — might prove the worst of the possible outcomes. It would effectively turn Iraq into another Iran. Though US policy success in Iraq hardly seems likely. Small consolation.

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Fitzgerald comments on Turkey/Link

“Turkey continually oscillates between full-blown Sharia and military dictatorship.”
— from the article above

This is not true. The history of modern Turkey does not show it ever to have been forced to endure “full-blown Shari’a.” It would be more accurate to say that Kemal Ataturk was a despot, but an enlightened despot. He systematically constrained Islam. He helped to make possible the development of a secular class, but that same secular class, the class of intended beneficiaries of Ataturk’s measures collectively known as “Kemalism,” were insufficiently wary of Islam, or insufficiently grateful for what Kemalism had done for them, or both, to continue to push for ever more constraints. Nor did they push to expand their numbers as vigorously as they might have. They behaved, in fact, as Turkey’s geopolitical ally the United States behaved during the Cold War, with both the secular Turks and the American government assuming that Kemalism was there to stay, and would continue to inexorably transform Turkey.

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What turned out to be permanent, and a permanent threat to Turkey’s dominant secular class who controlled not just the army, but the universities and the judicial system, was not Kemalism, which needed to be constantly protected, but Islam. Islam is the force that keeps coming back, that cannot be kept down, like Rasputin.

And those who fill Western newspapers with contented reports on how the Islam in Turkey is so much better, so much in tune with the modern world (why, just look at those places, say Konya, where Islam and economic activity (it’s always about some bustling textile or candy factory) do not know, cannot know, what Turkish secularists now know.

In the past, it was the army that was seen as the protector of Kemalism, and several times the army seized power, but most temporarily, in order to re-establish a system threatened by Islam. It would be harder now, for Erdogan, following Erbakan, have been whittling away at the pillars of Kemalism — in the war on the Turkish rectors, and even, one suspects, infiltrating their own men, who are well-versed in the need for deception and for patience, into the army, perhaps even into the lower ranks of the officer corps.

Turkey does not “continually oscillate…” It has had, since the early 1920s, a system that has constrained Islam. For nearly half-a-century that system, put in place by a war hero and enlightened despot, continued, though his successors — Inonu, Menderes — added their own twists to, or turns away from Ataturk, who in the meantime, after his death, became the central figure in the cult of “the Turk” which was offered as an alternative to Islam, with Ataturk substitute, as a human form divine, for Muhammad.

Hugh