Western Sharia - Andrew C. McCarthy. Ismail Belghar, a 36-year-old Muslim man living in Australia, assaulted, abducted, and nearly killed his sister-in-law. The victim, a 25-year-old Moroccan named Canan Kokden, had dared to take her older sister, Mrs. B, to the beach without Belghar’s permission. This heinous effrontery was amplified, Belghar later recounted for police, when Mrs. B thereupon “displayed her body,” sustaining the shoulder sunburn that tipped him off. To Australians, this may have been, well, just a day at the beach. For Belghar, though, it was an “abhorrent” offense against sharia, Islam’s legal code and comprehensive societal framework. The telltale burn is also starting to show on the West’s shoulders, our courts of law. Innately, Islam is not moderate — just ask Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, who rejects as “ugly and offensive” the very term “moderate Islam.”
Enter the jurist assigned to the case, the pitch-perfectly named Ronald Solomon. Cities in U.S. and Europe increase security at synagogues following France school shooting. March 19, 2012: Police officers gather at the site of a shooting in Toulouse, southwestern France.AP Police departments across the nation and around the world have beefed up security at synagogues following shootings at Jewish sites in France.
Washington, D.C.; San Francisco and New York dispatched extra patrols to locations where Jews may gather, though law enforcement officials stressed there were no specific threats. New York had security details at more than 50 locations following the killings of four people at a school in Toulouse, France. Those shootings were done by a gunman on a motor scooter, and came after a similar assailant killed three French soldiers in the region. “We have to be concerned about what happens overseas.
We have a significant Jewish population in this city, and we have to take that into account,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said on Monday. Security was ramped up in the nation's capital, though officials declined to give details. French official: Islamists planned to kidnap judge. PARIS -- Preliminary charges are being filed against 13 Islamist radicals in France, a prosecutor announced Tuesday, saying some had been calling for Muslim Shariah law in the country, doing weapons training and even planning to kidnap a judge. Prosecutor Francois Molins told a news conference the Forsane Alizza group, or Knights of Pride, did physical training in parks and forests, collected weapons and preached hate and violence on their Internet site, showing clips of late Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden.
The site was shut down after authorities banned Forsane Alizza in March. The 13 -- among 17 suspects detained in police raids last week -- faced preliminary charges of criminal association linked to a terrorist network, a sweeping charge with a maximum 10-year prison term that is used in France to ensure a full investigation of terror suspects. Nine of the 13 are being jailed, Molins said. Charges of acquiring, transporting and detention of arms also were issued. Muslims Making Atheists - Dennis Prager. Here in Sydney, Australia, where I’ve been lecturing for a week, I may have had one Australian-born waitress or waiter, and one Australian-born taxi driver.
As is my wont, I have been asking all my waiters, waitresses, and taxi drivers where they were born and, whenever possible, having some discussion about their native country. I say “whenever possible” because, unlike in the United States, where taxi drivers, whether foreign- or American-born, are known for being talkative, in Sydney, apparently, the influence of the famous British reserve is still very much in evidence.
I ask a driver where he was born, he responds, and the discussion is pretty much ended. But the waiters and waitresses have been quite willing to talk, and one of these discussions was of particular interest. After attending a performance of Puccini’s Turandot at the magnificent Sydney Opera House, my wife and I dined at a nearby Italian restaurant overlooking the harbor. I asked Shakila if she was Muslim. Afghans Resume Protests Over Koran Burnings. KABUL, Afghanistan – Protesters threw rocks at police, government buildings and a U.N. office in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, kicking off a fifth day of riots sparked by the burning of Korans at a U.S. base, officials said.
At least 25 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since Tuesday, when it first emerged that Korans and religious materials had been thrown into a fire pit used to burn garbage at Bagram Air Field, a large U.S. base north of Kabul. President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials apologized and said it was a terrible mistake, but the incident has sent thousands to the streets in this deeply religious country. Hundreds of demonstrators staged peaceful protests in Nangarhar, Logar and Paktia provinces, but ones in Laghman and Kunduz provinces turned violent. Sarjang said there were gunmen among the protesters, but the police did not fire their weapons into the crowd or into the air because they did not want to further incite the mob.
Mitchell Silber: The Iranian Threat to New York City. The Muslim-American Muddle > Publications > National Affairs. A decade after 9/11, America has reached a political and intellectual stalemate regarding the Muslims in its midst. Many Americans continue to fear their Muslim neighbors and fellow citizens, if not as potential terrorists then as terrorist sympathizers — or, more generally, as the bearers of an alien culture shared by America's enemies. Stoking these fears are a handful of zealous investigative journalists and bloggers who recycle a body of facts about the Islamist origins of most Muslim leaders and of virtually all major American Muslim organizations. Largely taken from the federal government's successful prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation, a Hamas front group, this evidence is incontrovertible — yet its implications are far from clear. As critics repeat and re-examine them, the facts take on a frozen-in-time quality, like artifacts of political archeology never put into any wider context.
Among these challenges, the most salient is the loyalty of Muslim Americans. Ayaan Hirsi Ali:The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World.
David Rivkin and Charles Stimson: Obama and the Hezbollah Terrorist. Obama's Turkish Alliance. WASHINGTON -- They are unlikely partners: a cool and unflappable American president, and a proud, sometimes hot-tempered Turkish prime minister. But they have developed a working relationship that is one of the most important but least discussed developments shaping this season of change in the Arab world. If you're looking for factors that can keep the Arab Awakening from turning into a nightmare, this American-Turkish partnership is mildly reassuring.
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have worked closely to manage events in Egypt, Libya, Syria and, increasingly, Iran. They have talked by phone 13 times this year, according to the White House. The two didn't start off as friends, but became so after a blunt conversation last year in Toronto. The relationship that emerged exemplifies Obama's basic formulation of "mutual respect and mutual interest. " Obama and Erdogan had a showdown later that month at the G-20 summit in Toronto.
Do Crosses at Catholic University Violate “Human Rights” of Muslims? The Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights confirmed that it is investigating allegations that Catholic University violated the human rights of Muslim students by not allowing them to form a Muslim student group and by not providing them rooms without Christian symbols for their daily prayers. The investigation alleges that Muslim students “must perform their prayers surrounded by symbols of Catholicism – e.g., a wooden crucifix, paintings of Jesus, pictures of priests and theologians which many Muslim students find inappropriate.” A spokesperson for the Office of Human Rights told Fox News they had received a 60-page complaint against the private university.
The investigation, they said, could take as long a six months. The complaint was filed by John Banzhaf, an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School. Banzhaf has been involved in previous litigation against the school involving the same-sex residence halls. Jose Pimentel: New York City terror plot to attack NYPD, returning U.S. soldiers foiled. Jose Pimentel, an American citizen from the Dominican Republic, arrested27-year-old ordered held without bail following his arraignment on SundaySuspect was inspired by radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and online magazineIt included an article called 'How to build a bomb in the kitchen of your mom'Pimentel wanted to change his name to Osama Hussein after his 'heroes'Allegedly targeting police, government officials and troops returning home By Thomas Durante and Mark Duell Updated: 23:24 GMT, 21 November 2011 A tearful Catholic mother has apologised for her ‘lone wolf’ Muslim militant son who was arrested in New York when allegedly just one hour away from completing a homemade pipe bomb.
Carmen Sosa, 56, mother of U.S. citizen Jose Pimentel, 27, who was born in the Dominican Republic and is a follower of late Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, said she is ‘disappointed’ with his actions. Scroll down for video 'I want to apologise to the city of New York. Carmen Sosa NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. Saudi women with attractive eyes may be forced to cover them up, if resolution is passed. Islamic state fears effect of 'tempting' eyes on menSays it 'has the right' to issue repressive edictWomen must already cover their hair and wear full-length black cloak By Mail Foreign Service Updated: 01:50 GMT, 19 November 2011 Women with attractive eyes may be forced to cover them up under Saudi Arabia's latest repressive measure, it was reported yesterday. The ultra-conservative Islamic state has said it has the right to stop women revealing 'tempting' eyes in public.
A spokesperson for Saudi Arabia's Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Sheikh Motlab al Nabet, said a proposal to enshrine the measure in law has been tabled. 'Tempting' eyes: Muslim women could be forced to cover up even their eyes if a 'right' of the Saudi state is enforced Women in Saudi Arabia already have to wear a long black cloak, called an abaya, cover their hair and, in some regions, conceal their faces while in public.
The Libyan Revolution: Democracy or ‘Purity of Islam’? - John Rosenthal. The Region: Islamists in power; w... JPost - Opinion - Columnists. The New York Times has run an op-ed entitled, ‘The Overblown Islamist Threat.’ Big surprise: There’s no Islamist threat! They’re all moderates! Just like in 1979 Iran or in Turkey more recently. Do you think we might see an oped in The New York Times entitled, ‘The Islamist Threat is Very Real?’ Of course not. But the real surprise is the author’s identity. How has Jordan handled the Islamists? Otherwise, Muasher and his friends would be shot or on trial; Jordan would stumble into a disastrous war with Israel, and the country turned into a ferociously repressive dictatorship. Like George Costanza in Seinfeld, everything Muasher says in the article is the opposite of reality. The Islamist victory in Tunisia, he writes, has “reinforced the conventional wisdom that Islamists will be the biggest beneficiaries of the Arab Spring.”
In addition, Muasher claims “Islamists are unlikely to take over new governments in the Arab world.” Uninterested? Really? But here’s my favorite bit. Maybe so. The Ally From Hell - Magazine. Pakistan lies. It hosted Osama bin Laden (knowingly or not). Its government is barely functional. It hates the democracy next door. It is home to both radical jihadists and a large and growing nuclear arsenal (which it fears the U.S. will seize). Its intelligence service sponsors terrorists who attack American troops. With a friend like this, who needs enemies? Peshawar, northwest Pakistan, February 8, 2011: Set ablaze by roadside bombs, oil trucks bearing fuel for NATO forces burn, as bystanders react. Shortly after American Navy SEALs raided the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in May and killed Osama bin Laden, General Ashfaq Kayani, the Pakistani chief of army staff, spoke with Khalid Kidwai, the retired lieutenant general in charge of securing Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
This article, the product of dozens of interviews over the course of six months, is a joint project of The Atlantic and National Journal. Some American intelligence experts question Pakistan’s nuclear vigilance.
Islamism Fills the Vacuum Left by Socialism. The message that "we will see" is not what readers turn to pundits for; yet it has to be said before proceeding to general observations on the advance of Islamism through the "Arab Spring. " Everything I know about the world tells me that what looks like good news often proves lethally bad; and sometimes vice versa. On balance, pessimists place much safer bets. We have now had the first open general election in Tunisia, in recorded history, won fairly decisively by what the media describe as the "moderate Islamist" party, Ennahda.
Tunisia is where the Arab Spring started, and where it shows most hope. This is largely because the outgoing dictatorship of Zine el Abidine was itself "moderate" by regional standards, and agreed to be ousted with the minimum of fuss. It was among the more humane Third World dictatorships. This is because those who participated in it seem chiefly to have occupied themselves in making money. The Rise of Moderate Islam. As we wait for the Salafi leader Kamal Habib at the Cairo Journalists' Union, a sudden panic comes over me. I've just noticed that my translator, Shahira Amin, an Egyptian journalist, is wearing a sleeveless top and that her hair is uncovered.
In my experience, Salafis, adherents of a very strict school of Islam, take a dim view of such displays of femininity. I recall a time in Baghdad when a Salafi preacher cursed me for bringing a female photographer to our interview, and an occasion in the Jordanian city of Salt when another Salafi leaped from his chair and thwacked his teenage daughter on the arm when she accidentally entered the room without covering her face from my infidel eyes. I've heard reports that Habib is not the hard-liner he was in the 1970s, when he co-founded the radical Egyptian Islamic Jihad, or the 1980s, when he was jailed in connection with the assassination of President Anwar Sadat.
But I fear he may draw the line at a sleeveless top. I needn't have worried.
Utilities Company Seeks To Evict Ground Zero Mosque Unless Developer Pays Up. Proposed location of mosque near Ground Zero in New York City.Fox News/Rob Ginnane Con Ed has given the Ground Zero mosque an ultimatum: Pay the $1.7 million you owe in back rent, or we’ll terminate your lease and take back our property. Con Ed and mosque developer Park51 have an unusual, uneasy alliance, sharing ownership of a site slated to be one of the most controversial projects in city history. The utility owns a former substation on the western half of the property, at 51 Park Place, and the mosque developers own a five-story building on the eastern half. The buildings were connected years ago and used to house a Burlington Coat Factory store. Park51, which leases the substation from Con Ed, wants the two buildings so it can knock both down and build a $100 million, 15-story community center.
But the plan hit a major obstacle in August when Con Ed raised the rent from $2,750 a month, a rate set in 1972, to $47,437 a month, retroactive to July 31, 2008, The Post has learned. State Media Reports Iranian Pastor Facing Execution For Rape, Not Religion. Despite Anti-Terrorism Success, Obama’s 2012 Hopes Still Tied To Economy. Ending al-Qaeda - Carl Ciovacco, Howard Gambrill Clark & James Van de Velde - The American Interest Magazine. The Americanization of Islamism - Mohamed Nimer - The American Interest Magazine. History, Hardliners, and Humility - Andrew C. McCarthy. Israel Apologizes For Deaths Of Egyptian Troops In Shootout With Militants | FoxNews.com. Syria Blocks Turkey's Ascent. The Inside Story of America's Favorite Terrorist Group. What did we expect from the Arab Spring?
Abbas’ Vision of an Ethnically Cleansed Palestinian State. Church bells not allowed in Dearborn, MI? (video) Muslims Attack Christian Village in Egypt -- 1 Murdered, Homes Looted and Torched. CNN Puts On Its Own Booking Executive to Explain Ramadan and Islamophobia. BBC is less anti-Catholic under Muslim head of religion, says Ann Widdecombe A Jihad by Muslim Women Against Violence. The War in Hipstamatic - An FP Photo Essay. Fear of a Muslim America. To Fight Radical Islam, U.S. Wants Muslim Allies. Pakistan IJT influence: Pakistan Islamist student group IJT said to terrorize campuses. Is Islam Compatible with Capitalism? by Guy Sorman, City Journal Summer 2011. Does Islam Stand Against Science? - The Chronicle Review.