"Mommy blows up with toddler — this has got to be a new low for militant Islam," by Jonathan Kay for the National Post, April 28:

Having spent this morning catching up on my weekend reading, I came across this Page 4 article from Friday's New York Times. Here's the lead paragraph: "BAGHDAD — At least 80 people died and 120 others were injured Thursday in three bombings, one by a female suicide bomber in Baghdad who, Iraqi officials said, held a young child’s hand as she set off her explosives among a group of women and children receiving emergency food aid."

 

Even putting aside our baseline revulsion at terrorism, there are three especially hideous things that jump out from this:

1) A mother deliberately taking her (presumed) child with her as she immolates herself. For all the hundreds of suicide bombings that Iraq has already witnessed, this has got to be a first.

2) This was a line for food aid. Islamists have gone from attacking U.S. soldiers, to attacking Iraqi soldiers, to attacking police stations, to attacking the religious ceremonies of rival sects — on down the line of nihilism until, now, they are reduced to blowing up hungry people seeking sustenance.

3) This hideous crime was played on page four of The New York Times. And a quick scan of other media suggests it got similar B-rate treatment elsewhere. This sort of act would have been worth a worldwide banner headline a decade ago. But now, it's just another demented Islamist senselessly slaughtering fellow Muslims. With her kid. Yawn.

Says a lot about the world we live in, doesn't it?

"Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews and Pagans..." (Qur'an 5:82)

"Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews." -- Sahih Muslim 6985

"Gang on Trial For Torturing French Jew to Death," from Reuters.

PARIS (Reuters) - A self-proclaimed "gang of barbarians" accused of kidnapping a young Jewish man in a Paris suburb, torturing him for 24 days and killing him went on trial Wednesday.

The death of Ilan Halimi, 23, in 2006 horrified France and came to symbolize a rise in anti-Semitic violence in its poor, multi-ethnic suburbs.

The leader of the "barbarians," Youssouf Fofana, smirked at Halimi's relatives and shouted "Allahu akbar!" ("God is Greatest!" in Arabic) at them as he entered the courtroom.

Bearded and wearing a white tracksuit, Fofana gave his identity during formal questioning by the judge as "Arabs African revolt barbarian salafist army."

The 28-year-old said he was born on February 13, 2006, in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, the date and place of Halimi's death.

During his time in detention, Fofana, a young French man of Ivorian origin, has bombarded the magistrates investigating the case with letters full of anti-Semitic insults....

Here is Geert's acceptance speech for the Freedom Award he was given by the Florida Security Council in Miami on April 27:

Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me and thank you US border police for allowing me to enter this country. These are dramatic times. Europe might be very well on its way to destruction. We are now witnessing the largest influx in human history. This is endangering our heritage, our freedom, our prosperity and our culture. I wish I had come to a place they call the sunshine state with better news, but it would be unwise to deny the situation is gloomy.

It might take a while to have you understand the situation we are in now. Maybe you as Americans still think of Europe as a place with great culture, and a profound way of looking at things. Maybe you see immigration as something that is inherently good for a country, as it contributed so much to the United States.

The Europe you know from a tourist visit or from the story of your grandparents is on the verge of collapsing. We are now witnessing profound changes that will forever alter Europe’s destiny and might send the continent in what Ronald Reagan once called ‘a thousand years of darkness’.

The take-over of Europe is part of the global fight of Islam for world domination. Islam is not a religion. It is a political ideology. Islam’s heart lies in the Koran. The Koran is a book that calls for hatred, violence, murder, terrorism, war and submission. The Koran calls upon Muslims to kill non-Muslims. The Koran describes Jews as monkeys and pigs. Churchill compared the Koran to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

The core of the problem with the Koran is twofold. First, the commands in the Koran are not limited by place or time, they apply for all time, to all Muslims. Second, the Koran is Allah’s personal word. That leaves no room for interpretation. Therefore, there is no such thing as a moderate Islam. Of course, there are many moderate Muslims, but there is no moderate Islam. As the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan once put it, “There is no moderate Islam, Islam is Islam.”

• Obama's DHS quietly dropped the term “war on terror.” Janet Napolitano even went so far as to say that she preferred to refer not to acts of “terrorism” but to “man-caused disasters.”
• Obama named Los Angeles Times columnist Rosa Brooks as an adviser to the undersecretary of Defense for policy; Brooks is venomously anti-Israel and once wrote that al-Qaeda was “little more than an obscure group of extremist thugs,” and that the Bush Administration had only imagined that it was a “vast global threat.”
• Obama has tabbed Harold Koh to become the legal adviser for the State Department. Koh has said that he had no objection to Sharia being applied to “an appropriate case” in the United States.
• Obama invited the head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a 56-nation body that has declared its intention to compel the United Nations to criminalize all criticism of Islam, to the White House.
• Obama has declared his determination to open negotiations with “moderate elements” of the Taliban, despite the fact that no such people have ever been found.
• Obama has declared his determination to close Guantanamo, despite the fact that over 60 former Gitmo detainees have returned to the jihad.

The Obama administration has asked Congress to amend U.S. law to enable the Palestinians to receive federal aid even if it forms a unity coalition with Hamas, the L.A. Times reported on Monday.

Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' forces in a bloody 2007 coup, has been deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. and therefore cannot not legally receive U.S. government aid.

The U.S. has presented an $830.4-billion emergency spending bill, comprising funding for its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would also allocate $840 million to the Palestinian Authority and for reconstruction in the Gaza Strip following Israel's three-week offensive there earlier this year.

Because none of the Gaza aid can legally reach Hamas, it will be difficult to ensure its delivery to the coastal territory.

The U.S. has refused to grant aid to Hamas unless the group agrees to recognize Israel, renounce violence and agreeing to follow past accords secured between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The administration's request for the minor changes to aid measures is unlikely to come into fruition, as no concrete plans are yet underway for a Palestinian unity government. Reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah have been ongoing, but have so far yielded no results.

Still, the move has stirred controversy among pro-Israel U.S. officials, according to the L.A. Times.

Republican Representative Mark Steven Kirk told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a House hearing last week that the proposal was tantamount to supporting a government with "only has a few Nazis in it," the L.A. Times said....

Sharia on the march in Pakistan. "Taliban Seize District Near Islamabad," by Zahid Hussain for Associated Press, April 22 (thanks to jihadwatch)

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's Taliban have seized control of another district in the country's northwest just 70 miles from the capital after consolidating their hold on the Swat valley following a peace deal with the government, according to local government officials and residents.

The latest Taliban advance into the Buner district has spurred fears that the controversial accord, which allowed the militants to enforce Sharia law in Swat, has emboldened them to expand their influence.

No kidding, really?

Militants have been moving into Buner since the Swat peace deal was signed in February. But starting Tuesday night they seized control of the entire district, which has a population of more than one million people, local government officials and residents said. Heavily-armed militants, streaming in from Swat, occupied government offices and set up their own checkposts. Terrified residents fled their homes.

Dozens of hooded fighters carrying rocket launchers and machine guns ransacked the offices of international aid and development agencies working in the district and took away their vehicles. Some employees of the agencies were also briefly taken hostage. The militants set up their headquarters in Buner town after driving out government officials.

The Taliban have banned music and television and stopped women from entering into a popular shrine of a Muslim saint. They are also using mosques to invite local youth to join them. [...]

Not that mosques could play any role in turning young Muslims toward jihad violence and Islamic supremacism.

The development came after Sufi Mohammed, a radical cleric who played a central role in signing the peace accord called his followers to continue their struggle for the enforcement of Islamic rule in the entire North West Frontier Province.

Addressing a large crowd in Mingora, the main town in Swat on Sunday, Mr. Mohammed declared that there was no room for democracy in Islam. "The Western democracy is infidels and should be rejected by Muslims," he said....

Sufi Mohammed must be an Islamophobe as well.

Ready for dialogue

"Egyptian-born US Muslim to advise White House," by Marwa Awad for Al-Arabiya, April 21.

CAIRO - The first Muslim woman appointed to a position in President Barack Obama’s administration met with lawmakers Monday and discussed her role on an interfaith advisory board the new administration hopes will broaden dialogue and understanding.

 

Dalia Mogahed’s dimpled smile shined from under her hijab, the Muslim headscarf, as she addressed senate staff and think tanks at a meeting organized by the Congressional Muslims Staffers Association to discuss American Muslim public opinion in the wake of a recent survey.

"The key idea of the council is to tap into the energy and wisdom of religious organisations and leaders who focus on faith groups to solve common problems "
Dalia Mogahed, White House advisor

The Egyptian-born American who heads the Gallup American Center for Muslim Studies a non-governmental research center providing data-driven analysis on the views of Muslim populations around the world, became the first Muslim veiled woman to be appointed to a position in the White House.

"I am very honored to be given this opportunity to serve my country in this way," Mogahed, who will be Obama's window into the Muslim American community, told AlArabiya.net....
(Jihadwatch)

March 22nd, 2009 by Andrew Bostom

"Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory.”

An unfamiliar name to most people,  this remarkable woman defied the Nazis and saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto. As a health worker, she sneaked the children out between 1942 and 1943 to safe hiding places and found non-Jewish families to adopt them.

[...]In a speech to Turkey's Parliament, the president said, "The United States is not and never will be at war with Islam." It was a noble sentiment. Such a unilateral declaration may soothe many, but there is a central question that comes from Obama's declaration of conscientious objection: What if Islamic extremism is at war with America, Europe and Israel and everyone who stands in the way of its attempt at supremacy in religion and politics?www.dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2009/04/10/calt10.ART_ART_04-10-09_A9_J5DGS2M.html

A chemist who contaminated food and wine in Gloucestershire supermarkets with his own urine and faeces has been sent to prison for nine years.

Sahnoun Daifallah, 42, of Bibury Road, Gloucester, was found guilty of four counts of contaminating goods at four businesses in May 2008.

Judge Carol Hagen said at the hearing in March that she found him to be "a potentially very dangerous man".

Daifallah, who defended himself, had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Bristol Crown Court had heard the Algerian-born chemist sprayed the mixture in the Air Balloon Pub, in Birdlip, near Cheltenham on 14 and 16 May....

He then moved on to the Waterstones bookstore in Cirencester, Tesco in Quedgley and Morrisons in Abbeydale....

When police searched his house they found stockpiles of the mixture and plans to spread it in other cities including Bristol and Birmingham.

Daifallah, who had fantasies about biological weapons to cause public alarm, was also found guilty of having an offensive weapon, namely a catapult with marbles.

Judge Carol Hagen sentenced him to concurrent sentences of three years, five years and two of nine years for the contamination offences and 12 months for possession of a weapon.

She added she had wanted to jail him indefinitely but the law would not allow her to.

"Your actions showed a callous disregard for public safety and you caused considerable alarm and anxiety," she said....

“We will convey,” said Barack Obama to the Turkish Parliament Monday, “our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my own country.”

Undeniably the Islamic faith has done a great deal to shape the world – a statement that makes no value judgment about exactly how it has shaped the world. It has formed the dominant culture in what is known as the Islamic world for centuries. But what on earth could Obama mean when he says that Islam has also “done so much” to shape his own country?frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx

AMERICA “ENRICHED” BY ISLAM
By Paul L. Williams, Ph.D. with Michael Travis

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick was photographed entering Downing Street carrying a briefing note headed SECRET, on which details of an undercover operation against a suspected Al-Qaeda cell could clearly be seen.

The document set out the strategy for for the operation, an investigation into a suspected cell based in the north west of England and allegedly plotting an attack in the UK, including details of suspects and how the police intended to arrest them. [...] www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/5127110/Ten-arrested-amid-anti-terror-blunder.html

"If such a plot was carried out, it would almost certainly have been Britain's worst terrorist attack, with the potential to cause more deaths than the suicide attacks of July 7, 2005, when 52 people were murdered." Telegraph

Rock Peters - 4/8/2009

President Barack Obama and his Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napalitano have scrapped the terms "war on terror" and "terrorist attacks." The new hygienic, sterilized language and "politically correct" term being introduced by the Obama administration for the 'war on terror" is now "Overseas Contingency Operations". In place of "terrorist attacks" the politically correct term is "Man Caused Disasters." Let's not offend murderers, al-Qaeda and the Muslim terrorists that attacked us! This will make us safer, no doubt.

Obama and Napolitano are quite obviously out of their minds. If these mental cases were in power during WW II they would not call Hitler's "Third Reich" Nazism they would refer to Nazism as "Asserting German Pride."

If in the Obama administration the "war in terror" is now "Overseas Contingency Operations" and "terror attacks" are to be called "man made disasters" then I motion that we should now call:

Genocide and the "Jewish Holocaust" - "unnecessary mass death."

Rape should politely be referred to as, "unsolicited rough sex from an undesirable partner"

Rapists must not be offended and will henceforth be known as,"Unwanted lovers."

Burglars should be called, "unwanted house guests."

Shoplifters, "non paying customers"

Stolen goods, "un purchased items."

Stealing, "Borrowing without asking"

Murder should be called, "Abruptly ending another person's life."

Forgery is now "signing someone else's name."

Buying illegal drugs should be referred to as "Purchasing un-prescribed medicine."

Drug dealers should be "unlicensed pharmacists."

And last but not least Pedophilia shall now be known as, "A Predilection, Preference, Desire and Fondness for little children" - just like Mohammad had.

For an illegal alien is an "undocumented worker" and the war on Muslim terrorism is "Overseas Contingency Operations", then all of the above are not jokes but make perfect sense.

Truly, Liberalism is an extreme psychological disorder and a dangerous mental illness.

 Dubai, 8 April (AKI) - Jihadist users of Al-Qaeda linked websites have been rejoicing at the devastating earthquake that hit Italy's central Abruzzo region on Monday, describing it as a "divine punishment" for "the enemies of Islam". The earthquake killed over 260 people, injured hundreds more and destroyed thousands of buildings, leaving 20,000 homeless.

And of course they are using Ashura to gin up Islamic Jew hatred

 

Our friends the SAUDIS: Muslims hold knives during the Shi'ite Ashura religious festival in Qatif

PAKISTAN: A Muslim performs self-flagellation during the religious Ashura procession in Karachi January 8, 2009. Ashura falls on the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram to commemorate the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the pro moe (propeller beanie be upon him).


INDIA: Muslims beat their chests with small blades during an Ashura procession in New Delhi, India

 

IRAN: Children attend an Ashura religious festival near the city of Ardabil, northwest of Tehran 

 

TURKEY: A Muslim girl stands near her mother during an Ashura procession in Istanbul

 

IRAQ: Muslims  take part in a religious procession of Ashura in Najaf, south of Baghdad 
 

IRAQ: A baby boy during a reenactment of the death of Imam Hussein in the holy city Karbala

 

 

 

QATIF

 

IRAN: Iranian man re-enacts a scene from the 7th century battle of Kerbala during the Ashura religious festival in Ardabil,

 

LEBANON: Ashoura day held by Hezbollah, in the suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon

 

 

MUSLIM CHILD ABUSE:  Lebanese Muslim young girl, cries as a man cuts her forehead with a razor - no happy meals for this little girl.

 

 

AFGHANISTAN: Afghan Muslims flagellate themselves with knives during the Ashura procession in Kabul

 


BAHRAIN: Bahraini men rhythmically beating their chests in mourning lead a horse at the head of a Shiite religious procession over symbolic Israeli and American flags.

 

Islamic Jew hatred: The shadow of a Bahraini mourner flagellating himself with a chain whip is seen Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, in Muharraq, Bahrain, as he passes a blood-splattered Israeli flag drawn on the pavement for Muslim participants to walk on.

 

ASHURA: Lebanese Hezbollah supporters gather to listen to the speech of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah during Ashoura day.

 

SEIG NASRALLAH!

 

Muslim woman, holds her daughter wears a head band with Arabic words read:'Oh, Zeinab,' (Zeinab is the sister of Imam Hussein) reacts as she listens to the death story of Imam Hussein. Yeah right, that's why this slave woman is crying.

And that includes, of course, any honest examination of how jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings to make recruits. So not only does this herald the death of free speech, but it also leaves us mute and defenseless before the advancing global jihad.

"UN body OKs call to curb religious criticism," by Frank Jordans for AP, March 26.

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.'s top human-rights body approved a proposal backed by Muslims nations Thursday urging the passage of laws around the world protecting religion from criticism.

The proposal by Pakistan had drawn strong criticism from free-speech campaigners and liberal democracies.

A simple majority of 23 members of the 47-nation Human Rights Council voted in favor of the resolution. Eleven mostly Western nations opposed it and 13 countries abstained.

 Cowards.

The resolution urges states to provide "protection against acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general."

It sounds good until you realize that "incitement to religious hatred" includes such acts as quoting the Qur'an passages that jihadists use to recruit and motivate terrorists.

"It is individuals who have rights and not religions," said Canadian diplomat Terry Cormier. Canada's criticism was echoed by European Union countries, all of which voted against the proposal.

That's good, and unexpected.

The council is dominated by Muslim and African countries. Muslim nations have argued that religions, in particular Islam, must be shielded from criticism in the media and other areas of public life. They cited cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as an example of unacceptable free speech.

"Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism," the resolution said.

 By Muslims. By Islamic jihadists. But it is not they who are targeted by this initiative.

A coalition of more than 100 secular and faith groups had called on governments to oppose the resolution, warning that it could lead to accusations of defamation among different faiths.

The United States did not vote on the resolution because it is not a member of the council. The Bush administration announced it was virtually giving up on the body and would participate in debates only if absolutely necessary because of the council's anti-Israel statements and its failure to act on abuses in Sudan and elsewhere.

 That will doubtess be reversed soon.

India, which normally votes along with the council's majority of developing nations, abstained in protest at the fact that Islam was the only religion specifically named as deserving protection.

India's Ambassador Gopinathan Achamkulangare said the resolution "inappropriately" linked religious criticism to racism.

The twice-acquitted Mostafa.

Faisal Mostafa has a Ph.D. in chemistry from Manchester Polytechnic. But -- but -- I thought poverty caused terrorism!
"Police swoop on British man accused of running arms factory 'orphanage' as deadly weapons cache is revealed," by Fay Schlesinger for the Daily Mail, March 26. From jihadwatch.

A British man accused of running an orphanage which was really a front for 
a terrorist training camp has been arrested by police in Bangladesh.

Dr Faisal Mostafa, who has twice been acquitted of bomb plots in the UK, was picked up in the capital city Dhaka.

Police said they had also arrested a man identified only as Badl, who is alleged to be his 'agent' in Bangladesh.

Captain Shafiul Alam, of the Rapid Action Battalion, said: 'They were both arrested yesterday.

'They are being charged with illegally keeping arms, explosives and ammunition, and with militancy and terrorism.'

Four people, a teacher and three caretakers, have already been arrested after explosives were seized at the orphanage, which is operated by British charity Green Crescent.

Mostafa ran the organisation, which provided humanitarian aid to families in Bangladesh and Pakistan....

Mostafa, who has a PhD in chemistry from Manchester Polytechnic, was known to security forces in Britain, having been cleared of conspiracy to cause explosions with intent to endanger life at Birmingham Crown Court in 2002.

Six years earlier, he had been cleared at Manchester Crown Court of involvement in a bomb plot campaign.

In July last year he was caught at Manchester Airport trying to board a plane to Bangladesh with a pistol and bullet parts in his luggage.

The father-of-three was given a suspended sentence. On Monday Bangladeshi security forces raided the orphanage Mostafa set up and the attached Muslim school on the remote island of Bhola in South Bangladesh.

Lieutenant Colonel Munir Haque, from the Rapid Action Battalion, said: 'We found small arms - about nine or 10 in total - plus equipment to make small arms, about 3,000 rounds of ammunition, two walkie-talkies, two remote control devices and four sets of army uniforms.

'We also found enough explosives and other equipment to make several hundred grenades. We found some ordinary Islamic books, but others that are in line with extremists like Bin Laden.'

He said there were 11 children between the ages of 7 and 8 at the compound.

K M Mamunur Rashid, another officer in the raid, said: 'It is a big Madrassa and we have so far gathered that this whole compound is being used for militant training.'

Mostafa's father, speaking from his home in Stockport, last night strongly denied that his son had any involvement in terrorism. The 73-year-old, who did not want to be named, said: 'This is all an exaggeration.

'He just wants to help children. He is a British citizen and has been in this country since 1969.'...

A spokesman for counter-terrorism think-tank Quilliam Foundation said: 'If Green Crescent has been involved in militant activity, this will reflect very poorly on the Charity Commission, particularly given that Mostafa, the head of the charity, had previously been put on trial twice for terrorist offences.

'Ineffectiveness by the Charity Commission in identifying and tackling extremist charities leads to the British taxpayer directly subsiding militancy.'

l(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, MARCH 13.
 On an electoral visit to the city of Adana, in the southern region of the Aegean, the Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, is thought to have grabbed the neck of young protestor, before leaving the unmistakable signs of deep finger nail scratches on his skin. The secular website 'Flash Haber' reports the news, which is part of the same group as Flash TV, and which published a profile shot of the boy, aged 13, whose initials M.S.O. were used to keep his identity secret, and who appears in the picture with his eyes blacked out. On his neck, below a typical Turkish student hair-style, red signs of long and deep nail-scratches are evident. Last Monday Erdogan was on a visit to Adana for the electoral campaign for the administrative consultations on March 29 when, as his vehicle moved through the streets in a convoy, the young boy crossed police barriers and shouted towards him, "God will punish you in the next elections." "I was immediately stopped by the escorting officers," the young boy recounted, who brought me before him. The prime minister put one hand on my neck and, pushing me roughly, scratched me with his nails asking me: 'Why did you shout those things?' I answered him, 'My father lost his job recently because of the economic crisis.' Then he let me go." Flash Haber reports that the boy's family has begun attempts to find a lawyer to charge the Prime Minister with mistreating a child: that is M.S.O.'s status in the secular laws of Turkey, even if, according to Islam, which is the at the basis of Erdogan's AKP Justice and Development party, the boy should already be deemed to be a "father of a family" and therefore essentially a man.(ANSAmed).

The most surprising thing about President Obama’s suggestion that America should perhaps reach out to moderate Taliban is undoubtedly the very expression “moderate Taliban.”

But President Obama is not the first person to imagine that there is such a thing. In April 2007, while on a visit to Kabul, the then chairman of the German Social Democratic party (SPD), Kurt Beck, suggested that it might be a good idea to hold talks with … “moderate Taliban.” [...]

[...] Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta was less so two years ago. The expression “moderate Taliban,” he told Germany’s NDR television, “is the invention of people who do not have a clue about Afghanistan.” Referring to Germany’s neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) and the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, of which Beck is governor, Spanta added that Beck’s suggestion to hold talks with “moderate” Taliban was about as appropriate “as if I would say from Afghanistan or Kabul that one should form a coalition in Rhineland-Palatinate with the NPD or with ‘moderate’ [members of the] NPD” (source: Die Welt)

Read it all at: pajamasmedia.com/blog/talking-to-the-taliban-—-obama-style/

This story demonstrates several trends in Muslim communities in Britain and elsewhere, especially in western Europe. First, there is both the lack of assimilation, and the complete lack of any intentions to assimilate, ever -- a problem enabled by lack of due diligence in accepting "refugees," and social welfare benefits extended without the firm expectation that the recipient becomes a productive part of society at some point. That combination is all but "Miracle-Gro" for a closed, parallel society with a sense of entitlement.
Another is the infusion of jihadist teachings into Muslim youth culture, which constitutes another large-scale "misunderstanding" of Islam's vaunted peaceful and tolerant teachings. Funny how that keeps happening. Moreover, note the widespread acceptance of sympathy in the broader community for Britain's would-be Taliban -- "Britaliban," if you will.
Lastly, in that vein, the article writer seems eager to emphasize the non-operational nature of the "youths" in this article. No, not every kid in the neighborhood with a football makes the NFL or even the college team. And not every kid in the neighborhood watching jihadist videos online will board a London train with visions of Islamic paradise dancing in his head. But it doesn't take many to create untold damage made all the more tragic by the missed opportunities to engage the ideology behind the attack.

"Jihad chic comes to London," by Sami Yousafzai for Newsweek, March 14:In the city's Muslim neighborhoods, an Afghan reporter finds a few too many uncomfortable reminders of home.

Bertrand Meunier / Tendance Floue for Newsweek

Memories Of A Distant Landscape: Images of daily life in South Asian neighborhoods

Jihad, Martyrdom, and the Torments of the Grave
 

Why do some Muslims become suicide bombers or “martyrs”? In fact, these two near antithetic words — on the one hand, broken, desperate suicides, on the other, heroic martyrs — intrinsically demonstrate the radically different epistemologies the average Westerner and Muslim will articulate their answer through. In other words, that Westerners consider them suicides while Muslims consider them martyrs in and of itself speaks volumes on motivation.

To the secular Western mind, such Muslims are simply frustrated: oppressed and depressed, and with nothing to lose, these Muslims (so the logic goes) end their suffering in the name of some “noble” cause — be it the “liberation of al-Aqsa” or the razing of U.S. skyscrapers. All their talk about Islam, “obligations,” or 72 dark-eyed virgins is but a cover for their true motivation: “revenge” on the one hand, escape from an oppressive existence on the other. Most recently, “shame” has been cited as another culprit: al-Qaeda has been raping and thereby shaming women — and men — into becoming “martyrs.”

Conversely, from a purely Muslim point of view, becoming a martyr is not only a guarantee to eternal paradise — which, if many secular Westerners deem “silly,” the devotees of Allah take very seriously — but a paradise that may appeal to some of man’s most libidinous desires. Thus, whereas the Christian heaven is purely spiritual — “they shall neither marry nor give into marriage” (Matthew 22:30) and not necessarily “enticing” — some Muslim accounts of paradise are downright hedonistic.

Scriptural references demonstrative of this are many. Consider Koran 36:55-56: “For the inhabitants of paradise on that day shall be engaged in joyous activities [shughlin fakihun] — they and their wives, reclined on raised cushions.” A number of the most authoritative exegetes, such as Ibn Kathir (see here), have interpreted “engaged in joyous activities” as meaning “they will be busy deflowering virgins.” (See also al-Jalalayn’s tafsir, where he concurs.)

That said, it is of course difficult to accept that any Muslim man would become a suicide bomber primarily because he wants to copulate in perpetuity — even if Islam’s prophet is on the record saying that men in heaven will have the sexual potency of 100 men (to better handle the countless maidens). Also, what about women, who have increasingly taken to becoming suicide bombers? Surely sex is not their motivation.

However, before concluding that Muslims become suicide bombers purely out of desperation, frustration, or shame, it should be borne in mind that, aside from the theological guarantee of a hedonistic paradise, there is yet another, antithetical reason that may subtly compel Muslims to seek martyrdom.

This is the little-known doctrine of ‘adhab al-qabr, or the “torments of the grave.” Anyone familiar with Islam’s texts has repeatedly come across this curious phrase; anyone who has listened to Muslim sermons has been severely warned against it. The torments of the grave are a very real doctrine that has the tendency to drive believers to despair — I have watched grown men and women on Arabic satellite relay the terror this doctrine has worked in their lives — making them eager to do whatever is necessary to avoid it.

Based on a close reading of Islam’s texts, the following account represents Sunni Islam’s standard teachings of after-death experiences:

First, the soul is said to return to the corpse while it is interred. As the pallbearers carry the body to the grave, its soul follows behind crying, “Oh my, wherever are they taking me?!” — all while the gaping grave moans, “I am the house of strangeness; I am the house of loneliness; I am the house of dust; I am the house of worms.”

After being laid to rest by the gravediggers, the dead “hear” the gravediggers as they walk away — implying, as the forthcoming torments suggest, and ulema maintain, that the dead experience “physical” sensations. (Perhaps this is why Muslims are in the habit of offering audible “greetings” to the dead — who “hear” — whenever they pass their graves?)

Every soul, once entombed along with its body, is tried by two angels. The hadith states: “His [the dead's] soul returns to his body; then two angels arrive and sit him up for questioning” — specifically, “Who is your lord, what is your religion, who is your prophet?” If he answers Allah, Islam, and Muhammad, respectively, he is granted paradise; if not, the torments begin...
Read it all at: pajamasmedia.com/blog/jihad-martyrdom-and-the-torments-of-the-grave/
 

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq's prime minister says U.S. troops will not be withdrawn from areas of the country that are not completely secure.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tells The Associated Press in an interview that he has informed President Barack Obama and other top U.S. officials that the Iraqi government must agree to any withdrawals "and must be linked to the security situation."

Al-Maliki says that he does not want U.S. troops taken out of any area unless it is "considered 100 percent secure and under control." Otherwise, withdrawals will be postponed....

 

Circumcision is "obligatory" for "both men and women" -- so says a legal manual of the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence, 'Umdat al-Salik (e4.3). This school is dominant in Egypt, where 97% of women have suffered genital mutilation. The Hanbali school teaches, in contrast, that female genital mutilation is not obligatory, while noting that it is accepted Islamic practice; the Hanafi school calls it "a mere courtesy to the husband."

The NHS is to advertise free operations to reverse female circumcisions, with experts warning that each year more than 500 British girls have their genitals mutilated.

Despite having been outlawed in 1985, female circumcision is still practised in British African communities, in some cases on girls as young as 5. Police have been unable to bring a single prosecution even though they suspect that community elders are being flown from the Horn of Africa to carry out the procedures.

The advertisement will appear from next month on a Somali satellite TV station much viewed in Britain. It features Juliet Albert, a midwife who does the reverse operations, and promises, in English and Somali, confidentiality for victims of female genital mutilation.

The advertisement was expected to help to undermine demand for girls to be circumcised, and to popularise the reversal procedure, Ms Albert said. Thousands of such operations have been carried out at specialist clinics and hospitals around Britain and demand is growing slowly.

Female circumcision, which is done for various reasons, such as religious and cultural traditions, can cause severe health complications including infections and psychological problems. The procedure, predominantly carried out on girls aged between 5 and 12, can range from the removal of the clitoris to the removal of all the exterior parts of the vagina, which is then sewn up.

A study by the Foundation for Women’s Health, Research and Development (Forward), estimated that 66,000 women living in England and Wales had been circumcised, most before leaving their country of origin. The government-funded research also found that more than 7,000 girls were at a high risk of being subjected to genital mutilation in Britain.

Sarah McCulloch, of the Agency for Culture Change Management UK, said that every year more than 500 British girls were having circumcisions. “A lot of them are done in the UK, but some still travel overseas,” she said....

He's baaaack...

CAIRO (AP) — Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called Israel's offensive on Gaza a "holocaust" and blamed Arab leaders for not doing enough to stop the fighting in his latest audio recording aired on Al-Jazeera.

 

Bin Laden accused some Arab countries of "collaborating" with Israel on the offensive earlier this year that killed about 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza. He did not name any specific Arab countries in the brief audio recording played on Al-Jazeera Saturday.

The Arabic satellite network did not say how it obtained the recording, and the authenticity of the tape could not be verified.

It was the latest message from the terror leader since an audio message on Gaza in January. In that message, he urged Muslims to launch a jihad against Israel.

"Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" -- Muhammad

"My imam father came after me with an axe," by Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times, March 15.

We are all too familiar with the persecution of Christians in countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Yet sitting in front of me is a British woman whose life has been threatened in this country solely because she is a Christian. Indeed, so real is the threat that the book she has written about her experiences has had to appear under an assumed name.

The book is called The Imam’s Daughter because “Hannah Shah” is just that: the daughter of an imam in one of the tight-knit Deobandi Muslim Pakistani communities in the north of England. Her father emigrated to this country from rural Pakistan some time in the 1960s and is, apparently, a highly respected local figure.

He is also an incestuous child abuser, repeatedly raping his daughter from the age of five until she was 15, ostensibly as part of her punishment for being “disobedient”. At the age of 16 she fled her family to avoid the forced marriage they had planned for her in Pakistan. A much, much greater affront to “honour” in her family’s eyes, however, was the fact that she then became a Christian – an apostate. The Koran is explicit that apostasy is punishable by death; thus it was that her father the imam led a 40-strong gang – in the middle of a British city – to find and kill her.

"They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level (with them). So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back (to enmity) then take them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them.." -- Qur'an 4:89

Hannah Shah says her story is not unique – that there are many other girls in British Muslim families who are oppressed and married off against their will, or who have secretly become Christians but are too afraid to speak out.She wants their voices to be heard and for Britain, the land of her birth, to realise the hidden misery of these women....

Read it all.