Council Picks for 5/9/06

Every week, the Watcher's Council nominate two posts each, one from the Council members and one from outside for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week’s Council nominations is here



Dr. Sanity: CDS - CHRISTIANITY DERANGEMENT SYNDROME
In which the Doctor examines how the sensitive toes of every conceivable group are respected..except for Christianity.

She also examines the way people constant express fear and loathing of Christianity but lean over backwards to put a positive spin on Islam..which in Pat's words, wherever it exists is trying to impose a theocracy. Yes, I know, there are exceptions, but they are rare and go against the central tenets of the faith, which mandates sharia as the sole arbiter of everything...a reality many people don't realize but would do well to wake up to. Good job, Dr.

2. The Glittering Eye : Annotations on the Cole kerfuffle
Dave talks about the Chris Hitchens/Juan Cole cage match. My take on this issue is here. Amazing that anyone takes Juan Cole seriously as a scholar of anything!

3.Done With Mirrors: White House rules- Callimachus weighs in on the White House's disregard for law and contrasts Bush's approach with Lincoln's.
4. The Education Wonks: Leet: The Secret Online Kids Code provides a handy dandy guide to Internet acronyms and lingo as used by kids. Kinda fun.

5. The Strata-Sphere: The 2006 Elections: Kadima IIAJ compares the current dissatisfaction with Congress and the direction the two major parties are going in with the situation that led to the Kadima Party of Israel. I don't agree with his conclusion entirely , because the parliamentary system is different and the reality on the ground in Israel is different than here. I DO think that a possible third party COULD emerge, but not from the same impulses..and in any event, I hope that if it does emerge that it is NOTHING whatever like Kadima...which will be history by the next Israeli election, when the Israeli people wake up to the fact they have an existential war on their hands. Interesting read with AJ as always..

6. The Paper of Broken Record : New World Man Matt takes apart the New York Times coverage over their coverage of the recent Zarqawi tape (and the bloopers version).
7. Gates of Vienna: Are the Kurds a Steam Valve? Dymphna strikes again with a great piece on the history of the Kurds and their role in Middle Eastern politics today....at one point, she speculates they might have Jewish DNA - who knew??
8. ShrinkWrapped: The Singularity & the 12th Imam: Part IVThe Shrinkster examines the link between millennialism and increased information processing..and the backlash against progress. Fascinating, as always

9. Rhymes With Right: An American shame Greg takes issue with the contrast between the official diplomatic visit of the leader of the PRC. Welcome to realpolitik, I guess...
10. Right Wing Nut House : THE INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY OF THE OPEN BORDERS CROWDRick takes on the open borders crowd and does it well


11. J O S H U A P U N D I T: Ahmadinejad's letter..a call to Da'wa
Ok ok..here I go upsetting people again. In terms of caliphate Islam, Ahamadinejad's 18 page screed has a very different meaning than the Main Stream Media's take on it. And remember, Iran and the Council of Guardians see it this way, not the way the Washington Post or the NYT does,I try toprovide an analysis of why this letter is much more important than we perceive.

12. The Sundries Shack:A Gitmo backpedal? Jimmie Bise argues for shutting down Club Gitmo. I'll go along with it..provided we've squeezed all the intel possible out of these creatures and some quick military tribunals, followed by summary executions and a pigsin burial shroud for the guilty are prepared.

Ahmadinejad's letter..a call to Da'wa

Well, I finally managed to locate a translation of Ahmadinejad's letter to Dubbya. You can read it here.

It's important in a different sense than the media is giving it credit for.

Taken on the one hand, it can simply be considered a long rambling screed on history, religion and politics. It talks about how `democracy has failed' criticizes Bush for invading Afghanistan and Iraq, for his handling of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, accused the media of spreading lies about the Iraq war and railed against the United States for its support of Israel. It doesn't particularly mention Iran's nukes, except obliquely by asking why "any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime."

Nice touch, given Israel's unpopularity in the EU.

But then comes the more important and revealing parts, towards the end.....

Ahmadinejad enjoins the president to be `more Christian'...but at the end of the letter says " Do you not think that if all of us come to believe in and abide by these principles, that is, monotheism, worship of God, justice, respect for the dignity of man, belief in the Last Day, we can overcome the present problems of the world – that are the result of disobedience to the Almighty and the teachings of prophets – and improve our performance? Do you not think that belief in these principles promotes and guarantees peace, friendship and justice? Do you not think that the aforementioned written or unwritten principles are universally respected? Will you not accept this invitation? That is, a genuine return to the teachings of prophets, to monotheism and justice, to preserve human dignity and obedience to the Almighty and His prophets? Mr President, History tells us that repressive and cruel governments do not survive....

"Whether we like it or not, the world is gravitating towards faith in (Islam) and... and the will of Allah will prevail over all things.”

[note: the translator renders this as `faith in the Almighty' and `the will of God', respectively]

This is, as I read it an invitation to da'wa, a call to accept voluntarily accept Islam and its dominance. In one of the well known Hadith, Mohammed commands his followers to issue this call before going to war.

"Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war…When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them….If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya . If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them. " (Sahih Muslim 4294)

[the Jizya is tribute from non-Muslims paid to Muslims-Qur’an 9:29]

Given Ahamadinejad and the Supreme Council's ideology, this is well within their framework of reference, and an essential component of a jihad.

The White House's initial reaction has been cool.

"This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort" said Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State.

However, the letter did accomplish something for Ahmadinejad..just the fact of his sending it has sent tremors through those who would appease the Iranian regime and imagine they are buying peace. As David Horowitz recorded in his book `Unholy Alliance' the Angry Left has been aligned with Ahmadinejad's positions for some time.

Will we resist? Or will we see President Bush coming down the steps of Air Force One with an umbrella in his hand, talking about `peace in our time'?

Stay tuned....

Dennis Prager : `The war we are fighting needs a more accurate name'

There's a psychological term called `category error' , which refers to the inability to solve a problem due to mislabeling the problem.

That's why I've always referred to this as the War on Jihad rather than `the war on terror.' Here, in a superb piece titled `The War We are Fighting needs a more accurate name', commentator Dennis Prager voices that very same opinion:

"To understand what Americans are fighting, it is necessary to first understand that we are not fighting a "War on Terror." We are no more fighting a "War on Terror" than we fought a "War on Kamikazes" in World War II. Of course we had to stop Kamikaze attacks, the suicide crashing by Japanese pilots of airplanes into American war ships. But we were fighting Japanese fascism and imperialism.

The same holds true today. We are fighting Islamic fascism and imperialism (though surely not all Muslims).

The parallels are almost as extensive as any historic parallels of two different phenomena can be. The fascist Japanese regime aimed to subjugate much of the world, Asia in particular, and it used whatever violence it could think of without any moral constraints. The fascist element within Islam wishes to subjugate the entire world using whatever violence it can think of without any moral constraints..."

read the rest here

(And a muchas gracias to Joe Gringo)

Palestinians: The beast continues to eat itself

Tension continues between Hamas and Fatah in the Palestinin Authority.

Yesterday, three gunmen were killed in a shootout in Khan Younis, Gaza when groups from each faction were apparently egaged in the process of exchanging hostages.

According to Hamas, Fatah started the shooting, gunning down one of its members.After which Hamas shot down two Fatah members in the street.

Today, the action was near a house in downtown Gaza where Fatah gangleader Samir Masharawi was cribbing.

Fatah says Masharawi's bodyguards and Hamas gunmen fired at each other. Hamas says that Masharawi's bodyguards kidnapped three members of Hamas's military wing, and the greenhats then went to the house to free them.

AFter the initial shootings, dozens of `soldiers' from both sides streamed into the area and began a major gun fight. According to Fatah,at least eight people were wounded, including five children who were caught in the crossfire while trying to get to school - IF you believe Fatah.

If this all sounds like the gang war sequences from the `Godfather'...well, that's pretty much what it is. A gang war over turf, money, power and patronage.

In spite of the sob stories being promulgated in the media about how broke the Palestinian Authority is, both sides are managing to spend tidy sums on beefing up armmaments and buying loyalty from the various Palestinian clans and gang families.
Smuggling to Gaza via Egypt is going on completely unhindered, in spite of all those wondeful security agreements brokered by US Secretary of State Condi Rice between Egypt, the Palestinians and Israel.

Of course, the truth of the matter is that the Palestinians aren't really broke at all. Hardly. They merely choose not to spend their ill-gotten gains on their own people.

And if lil' ol' Freedom Fighter can suss this out, why can't the Main Stream Media?

The latest nonsense being pushed by various Arab countries and the EU is to set up a fund to pay the inflated payroll of the Palestinian Authority through Abbas
..as though the millions of dollars given to Abbas before Hamas took over did anything to stop Palestinian attacks against Israel or advance the so-called `peace process' one iota.

`Palestine' has received more money since Oslo than any other developing nation in history. And the money has gone almost exclusively to personally enriching the various Palestinian `leaders' or for arms and explosives to fight the War Against the Jews.

It's time the plug was pulled...and to me, that includes getting rid of UNRWA.

Let the Arab nations who are so concerned about the plight of the Palestinians use some of their petro-billions to help alleviate a refugee problem they were responsible for creating in the first place.

If `Palestine' is really a cohesive, legitimate nation, they will survive. And perhaps, just perhaps, less of that free flowing donor aid largesse might force the new government to actually spend money to take care of its people, for a change.

Iraqi PM says close to forming a government

Iraq's new Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said today that the main stumbling blocks to forming a cabinet had been overcome, that Iraq is close to formation of new cabinet and that he expects to present the new government to Parliament for approval by the end of the week.

According to al-Maliki, representatives of the political parties had agreed on candidates for all the main ministries. He didn't elaborate on who would get the key ministries of interior, which controls police, and defense, which runs the army.

The US and britain have finally wised up and are insisting that those posts go to people without ties to sectarian militias..in other words, not in Iran's pocket.

"The direction we took, and which was agreed upon by the political groups, was that the two who will occupy these posts be independent and unaffiliated with a party or a militia," he said at a news conference.

Good news, if it's true. Maliki, a Shia, appears to be doing a great deal to calm the situation,particularly in addressing Sunni concerns about the death squads operating
from the Shia Mahdi Army and the Badr Force...both backed by Iran.

Again, I'm cautiously optomistic.

Good news from Australia...they're out and about!

Todd Russell hugs his family








The two miners who were trapped in a kennel sized cage almost 3,000 feet underground two weeks ago are free again..and Australians are ecstatic about it.

Hundreds of well-wishers gathered at the mine entrance erupted in cheers when Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34, walked out of the Beaconsfield Gold Mine in Tasmania early Tuesday and punched the air, freed by rescue crews drilling around-the-clock by hand.

The miners bear-hugged family and friends before clambering into two ambulances, still laughing and joking. Before going, they removed their identity tags from the wall outside the elevator--a standard safety measure carried out by all miners when they finish a shift. Unbelievable.

"I am amazed at their condition," said mine manager Matthew Gill.

TV networks cut live to the news from all over Australia, and the men have become national heroes...not only because the drama rivited Australia but becauase of the two men's spirits and courage under excrutiating conditions.

"I just want to say how relieved and elated the whole country is and what a huge tribute this is, the way everybody has pulled together," Prime Minister John Howard told Australian television's Nine Network.

Webb and Russell were buried after a small earthquake April 25 trapped the safety cage they were working in under tons of rock.

Their fellow miner Larry Knight, 44, was killed, and Tuesday's rescue came hours before Knight's family planned to hold his funeral. Gill said the two survivors made a point of saying they wanted to attend the services for their workmate.

Teams of specialist miners bored through more than 45 feet of hard rock over the past week with a giant drilling machine to reach the men. But cutting the final sections of the escape tunnel was slow and difficult; the rescuers had to use hand tools to avoid causing a cave-in.

For 300 hours, the two miners had huddled in the 4-foot-tall cage, too short to stand up in, until rescuers broke through the last crust of rock, five times harder than concrete, to reach them. Towards the end, the two trapped miners began helping the rescuers out by drilling from their side.

The two ambulances drove the men, both sporting beards, slowly out the mine gates, with the doors open so crowds could see them. Hundreds of townsfolk lined the streets, clapping and cheering as the vehicles passed by on the way to a local hospital.

After the miners had left Beaconsfield hundreds of locals packed the local pub for an early morning celebration...I guess opening hours were advanced a bit!

Webb and Russell survived because a huge slab of rock landed on their safety cage, forming a roof that kept them from being crushed.

For five days they lived on a single cereal bar and water they licked from rocks, until rescue crews with thermal heat sensors detected them April 30 ands realized they were alive .The rescue team forced a narrow pipe through a hole drilled through the rock and pushed through supplies including water, vitamins and fresh clothing.

Comforts such as iPods, an inflatable mattress, egg and chicken sandwiches and even ice pops followed.

Throughout the rescue, the good spirits of the miners, both married with three children, amazed those struggling to reach them. During the rescue work, when no one was sure how it all would end up, the miners kept things loose for themselves and the rescue team with a constant stream of jokes and quips...and not a trace of whinging.

One man asked for a newspaper so he could start scanning the classifieds for another job. Another said that once freed, he wants the ambulance to stop at McDonald's on the way to the hospital.

Congratulations to Webb and Russel on pulling through in such fine form. Australia is right to be proud of your courage and grit in adversity. Hey, we all should be..everybody loves a hero.

Bush nominates General Michael Hayden as new CIA head

It appears the pundits were right on this one, as President Bush nominated Air Force General Michael Hayden to head the Central Intelligence Agency.

In naming Hayden on Monday, President Bush noted that he knows the intelligence community "from the ground up - he's been both a provider and a consumer of intelligence."

The confirmation hearings are expected to be difficult, partisan and contentious.

Here's a sample:

"I'm very troubled by the nomination because he is one of the main supporters representing Donald Rumsfeld who helped to put in place the programs of spying on Americans and has been one of the biggest defenders of it," the Associated Press quotes Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as saying Monday.

That's funny, Senator. I was `troubled' by your recent nomination, considering your views and your background.

For more on Hayden, go here.

That `Munich Moment'..Ahmadinejad sends Bush a letter

This could be the beginning of the `Munich moment' I've been expecting...a phoney arrangement that allows the Iranians a couple of years to beef up their military and their nuclear arsenal while providing the illusion of `peace in our time'.

Iran's President Ahamadinejad has reportedly sent US President George Bush a letter via the Swiss Embassy in Teheran. No info on the contents yet, but Iranian spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said that Ahmadinejad proposes "new solutions for getting out of international problems and the current fragile situation of the world".

Elham didn't elaborate.

This is the first letter from an Iranian president to a US leader since the Iranian revolution in 1979.

Another reason why we fight

This is the story of the last moments of Atwar Bahjat, a well-known Iraq T.V. reporter, who was murdered in Samarra in February. Apparently, the video just surfaced on this.

Warning: This is going to be fairly graphic.

Bahjat, a reporter from al-Aribiya was kidnapped after making live broadcasts from the edge of her native city of Samarra on the day the Golden Mosque was blown up. Apparently she had enraged the Shi’ite militias during her coverage of the bombing of the Samarra mosque by showing the interior minister, Bayan Jabr, ordering Iraqi police to release two Iranians they had arrested.

She was noted for her balanced reporting,and her background-half Shia, half Sunni- gave her a unique insight into both camps. Now that this film of her death has surfaced, there can be no illusions about how she died. Or of the evil nature of the people that killed her.


This account was written by a friend of hers that saw the film:

"Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.

We now know that it was not that swift for Bahjat. First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but particularly so for a pious Muslim who concealed her hair, arms and legs from men other than her father and brother.

Then her arms were bound behind her back. A golden locket in the shape of Iraq that became her glittering trademark in front of the television cameras must have been removed at some point — it is nowhere to be seen in the grainy film, which was made by someone who pointed a mobile phone at her as she lay on a patch of earth in mortal terror.

By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.

A large man dressed in military fatigues, boots and cap approaches from behind and covers her mouth with his left hand. In his right hand, he clutches a large knife with a black handle and an 8in blade. He proceeds to cut her throat from the middle, slicing from side to side.

Her cries — “Ah, ah, ah” — can be heard above the “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.

Even then, there is no quick release for Bahjat. Her executioner suddenly stands up, his job only half done. A second man in a dark T-shirt and camouflage trousers places his right khaki boot on her abdomen and pushes down hard eight times, forcing a rush of blood from her wounds as she moves her head from right to left.

Only now does the executioner return to finish the job. He hacks off her head and drops it to the ground, then picks it up again and perches it on her bare chest so that it faces the film-maker in a grotesque parody of one of her pieces to camera."

There are some other details of Bahjat's death. She had nine electric drill holes in her right arm and 10 in her left. And the drill had also been applied to her legs, her navel and her right eye. Hopefully, these mutilations were done after her death.

The electric drill is said to be a favorite torture implement for the Iranian-backed Badr militia.

She was only 30 years old.

When I read or hear about something like this, I remember that Islamic evil victimizes Muslims more than anyone else, and it baffles me that the entire Muslim world doesn't come forward and condemn this kind of barbarity..not only with mere statements but by actively outing and destroying the jihadis in their midst. I call on them once more, difficult as it is, to choose sides in this war and to make that stand...for this is a war on them, as well as on the rest of us.

This is just another reason why we must fight the pure evil this kind of murder represents. That's what it's about. And that's why we must win. The consequences for losing this war are simply unimaginable.

This is what happens when evil remains unchallenged. We need to remember that.

Hat tip to the Mudville Gazette

New CIA director?

He hasn't been nominated yet, but the scuttlebutt is on that Bush's new pick to head the CIA will be Air Force General Michael Hayden, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte's top deputy.

This has some legs, given that the CIA is now subordinate to Intel Czar Negroponte and that friction between he and Goss may have played a role in the latter getting his walking papers.

Hayden ran the super-secret NSA from 1999 until last year, when he signed on as Negroponte's deputy.

This would be key, from Negroponte's point of view, in that there would be no problems or questons in the chain of command.

Whoever is the next CIA director faces an uphill battle. The agency has lost a lot of its prestige, top people, and credibility since the reorganization of the intelligence services based on the 9/11 Commission recommendations.

Senate confirmation is likely to be a difficult for Hayden. He's seen as a staunch defender of the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program, which he says has been used only to try to capture Al Qaeda-related terrorists, and lawmakers' questions about it can be expected to be partisan and hostile.

Saudi and Gulf Arab leaders line up with Moscow and Beijing against sanctions for Iran as situation continues to heat up

The Gulf Cooperation Council- GCC met in an urgent session in Riyadh yesterday, and added its two cents to the Iran nukes controversy.

Usually these are low key affairs but this time the emirs of Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the UAE were there, as well as our `friend' King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

They all joined in calling on Iran to `do more' to show the nuclear watchdog it was not seeking a nuclear bomb and provide guarantees that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes. The six leaders didn't mention asking Iran to halt uranium enrichment or obey the UN Security Council.

In other words, the GCC essentially linked up against the West and the US in not following the tough American-led line demanding a UN Security Council Section 7 resolution permitting sanctions or military action against Iran, and in favor of the Russian-Chinese position. The Saudis appear to have been the main force in uniting the GCC's position against the EU and the US.

Yes, Mr. President, that would be our `eternal friends' the Saudis.

For Iran's part, the Mullahs continue to turn up the heat. Today, Iran's majlis (parliament) threatened to pass legislation that would force Iran to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. of course, since Iran is by no means a democracy, this comes staright from the Supreme Council of Guardians and Khamanei.

Iran's president Ahmadinejad said, "If a signature on an international treaty causes the rights of a nation be violated, that nation will reconsider its decision and that treaty will be invalid," he told the state news agency.

He called threats of sanctions "meaningless" and vowed to "smash their (U.S.-backed) illegitimate resolutions against a wall."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said any U.N. resolution would be "completely illegal" and driven by politics.

"It's clear that any action by the U.N. Security Council will leave a negative impact on our cooperation with the IAEA," he said, adding that such action would "change the path of cooperation to confrontation."

Iran also said `no sale' to a proposal of direct talks with the US floated by the UN's Kofi Annan. No surpises there!

All that to the side, as I've said, look for a `Munich Moment' that deflates this confrontation, allows `peace in our time' and gives the Mullahs more time to build up their military and the their nuclear arsenal. I hope I'm wrong, but so far, Iran seems to be following Hitler's playbook to the letter.

Five British soldiers killed in Basra heliocopter crash,: mob cheers crash and attacks British troops

Members of the famous Black Watch in Basra


Five British soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash Saturday in Basra...apparently from an Iranian supplied `stinger' type ground to air missle. A mob cheered as the bodies were found in wreckage, pumping the air with their fists.

Iraqi fire-fighting crews rushed to the scene, accompanied by British troops looking to seal the area off while they recovered their dead and anything important from the helicopter. But they were met by a frenzied mob, which pelted them with stones and even set fire to two British armored cars and a Land Rover with molotov cocktails.

This little riot in what was formerly known as a `quiet' area was the direct handiwork of Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army. Armed militiamen from the Army were found throughout the crowd and fired on British troops, creating a crossfire in which four Iraqis were killed.

Shouts of "We are all soldiers of al-Sayed," a reference to Muqtada al-Sadr, and slogans for the Mahdi army, were screamed out from the crowd.

This attack was designed-obviously on the orders of Iran, who control Sadr and the Iranian equipped Mahdi Army-as a step in increasing the gap between the US and Britain, already widening in much of Blair's Labour Party and the rest of the Left. And it already is having an effect on the battered Blair regime.

Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn said: "This tragedy underlines the fact that the British and American occupation process in Iraq is not only deeply unpopular but is part of the problem and not of the solution. It demonstrates the need to set out a plan to pull British and American forces out and end this illegal occupation."

Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey also said the time had come for a withdrawal plan. He said,"What is needed is a clear exit strategy to establish the basis upon which British troops would be returned home."

Look for more Mahdi Army action against the Brits in Basra.

Australia's Cardinal Pell had a few things to say about Islam and the West

Indeed he did.

Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney made a speech yesterday entitled `Islam and the Western Democracies' which you can read in it's entirety here.

It's worth the effort to read it all, to say the least:

"September 11 was a wake-up call for me personally. I recognised that I had to know more about Islam.

In the aftermath of the attack one thing was perplexing. Many commentators and apparently the governments of the “Coalition of the Willing” were claiming that Islam was essentially peaceful, and that the terrorist attacks were an aberration. On the other hand one or two people I met, who had lived in Pakistan and suffered there, claimed to me that the Koran legitimised the killings of non-Muslims.

Although I had possessed a copy of the Koran for 30 years, I decided then to read this book for myself as a first step to adjudicating conflicting claims. And I recommend that you too read this sacred text of the Muslims, because the challenge of Islam will be with us for the remainder of our lives – at least.

Can Islam and the Western democracies live together peacefully? What of Islamic minorities in Western countries? Views on this question range from näive optimism to bleakest pessimism. {..}

... In my own reading of the Koran, I began to note down invocations to violence. There are so many of them, however, that I abandoned this exercise after 50 or 60 or 70 pages {....}

The predominant grammatical form in which jihad is used in the Koran carries the sense of fighting or waging war. A different form of the verb in Arabic means “striving” or “struggling”, and English translations sometimes use this form as a way of euphemistically rendering the Koran’s incitements to war against unbelievers[6]. But in any case, the so-called “verses of the sword” (sura 95 and 936)[7], coming as they do in what scholars generally believe to be one of the last suras revealed to Muhammad[8], are taken to abrogate a large number of earlier verses on the subject (over 140, according to one radical website[9]). The suggestion that jihad is primarily a matter of spiritual striving is also contemptuously rejected by some Islamic writers on the subject. One writer warns that “the temptation to reinterpret both text and history to suit ‘politically correct’ requirements is the first trap to be avoided”, before going on to complain that “there are some Muslims today, for instance, who will convert jihad into a holy bath rather than a holy war, as if it is nothing more than an injunction to cleanse yourself from within”[10].

The history of relations between Muslims on the one hand and Christians and Jews on the other does not always offer reasons for optimism in the way that some people easily assume. The claims of Muslim tolerance of Christian and Jewish minorities are largely mythical, as the history of Islamic conquest and domination in the Middle East, the Iberian peninsula and the Balkans makes abundantly clear. In the territory of modern-day Spain and Portugal, which was ruled by Muslims from 716 and not finally cleared of Muslim rule until the surrender of Granada in 1491 (although over half the peninsula had been reclaimed by 1150, and all of the peninsula except the region surrounding Granada by 1300), Christians and Jews were tolerated only as dhimmis[14], subject to punitive taxation, legal discrimination, and a range of minor and major humiliations. If a dhimmi harmed a Muslim, his entire community would forfeit protection and be freely subject to pillage, enslavement and murder. Harsh reprisals, including mutilations, deportations and crucifixions, were imposed on Christians who appealed for help to the Christian kings or who were suspected of having converted to Islam opportunistically. Raiding parties were sent out several times every year against the Spanish kingdoms in the north, and also against France and Italy, for loot and slaves....."

It is both unusual and refreshing to see a public figure address this issue with such candor and clarity.

Needless to say,the fit hit the shan after the Cardinal's remarks.

Of course, Australia's own anti-Jihad PM John Howard stood by Cardinal Pell's remarks and his right to make them..what a leader the Ozzies have for themselves!

Howard said he knew for a fact that Cardinal Pell has been "a strong proponent of good relations between Christianity and Islam".

"I think any kind of analysis that somebody makes from his position, and he brings a great intellect to the analysis he makes ... I'm quite sure he is not trying to be unhelpful."

Congrats to both Cardinal Pell and PM Howard. They are ahead of the curve, definitely.

EU and Arabs push for `humanitarian' aid to the Palestinians

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Today, the European Commission put out a proposal to provide `humanitarian' aid to the Palestinian Authority, using President Mahmoud Abbas's office to supposedly circumvent the Hamas government.

The EU has frozen direct aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, but the April 27 document says the commission intends to provide assistance to bolster Abbas as a go-between.

"With current or even substantially increased levels of funding, the EU will not be able to stave off a crisis but might be able to avert or delay a collapse," the document says.

No mention, of course of the supposedly broke Palestinians and Abbas and company dipping into the $1.4 billion Palestine Investment Fund.

Of course, back of it are the Arabs, namely Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. They have been pushing the so-caled `Quartet' to find ways to get funds to the Palestinian Authority and circumvent the U.S.-led aid ban on Hamas that they say could cause a "humanitarian crisis." Of course, one doesn't see these Arab nations offering to take in the `Palestinians' as a `sacrifice for peace' or offering them any land. Only the Israeli govenrment appears to be stupid enough to fall for that nonsense.

Speaking in Brussels, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the EU would seek the backing of the United States and other members of the international peacekeeping "Quartet" for a mechanism to "control and deliver" funds to the Palestinians.

"We do hope there is a chance for a common agreement on this principle," she told a news briefing. She also announced that the EU was considering releasing a new package of 34 million euros ($43 million US) in `humanitarian' aid.

While the Bush Administration hasn't signed on to this nonsense yet, they have agreed to finance an expansion of Abbas's presidential guard, Force 17, with the EU also providing some of the funds for training and equipment. Haven't we been down this road before?

Get a clue please , Europeans and Mr. President..these people are NOT your friends. And they have signified as much constantly, and that includes the results of the last election, a hallmark in `Arab democracy.'

Every dollar given to these people frees up a dollar for use in terrorism. That's the main focus of the Palestinians, like it or not. And that includes Abbas.

Stop preaching a `war on terror' on the one hand and funding it with the other. And as far as the `Palestinians' go, they made their choice.

And choices have consequences. Isn't that what democracy is all about?

CIA Chief Porter Goss resigns

US CIA Chief Porter Goss has abruptly resigned today.

Goss, a former CIA agent had served for only 20 months, starting his tenure on August 10, 2004 with a mandate to shake up the CIA after huge intelligence lapses over the September 11 attacks. His management style reportedly drew heavy criticism from the CIA's rank and file, relying heavily on his former congressional staff and failing to make friends and influence people within the agency itself.

The recent leaks by CIA personnel like Mary O. McCarthy who was fired last month might also have been a factor.

Perhaps President Bush decided to try and find someone who would be more successful at tgetting the agency rank and file on the administration's side, or at least exercise more control over leaks.

Yee Haw!! It's Derby Day tommorow!

Ain't nothin' in this world like a good horse race. The fine piece of G-d's handiwork you see pictured above is Brother Derek, my pick to win. He has six wins in eight starts, and runs the half-mile in a blazing 49.20 seconds. Weather's been dry so far this week, but it rained in Louisville Sunday and there still might be a little mud on the track.

I won't be in Kentucky this year, so I'll miss Derby Day.(For those foreign fans of JoshuaPundit, Derby Day in Louisville is a major party) But I plan on settling back with some homemade mint juleps and waiting for my money to come galloping home..LOL!

Hey, I won last year!

Like I said, there's nothing like a good horse race.

Zarqawi in new comedy movie!

`let me help you, commander...no, no, that's the safety..'


Hey, if al Qaeda warlord Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ever gets tired of ordering chopping off the heads of bound captives or ordering the murder of women and children, and he avoids a US hellfire missle up the behind, he has a real future in comedy.

Hoo boy!

The marines just missed clipping his wings for good the other day when they raided some hovel in South Baghdad he was cribbing at, but they did find the unedited version of his last video that aired on Jihad TV. And released the juicier bits to the world press.

In one scene, wardrobe screwed up, and Zarqawi is shown wearing a pair of New Balance tennis shoes instead of combat boots. Later, he changes into combat boots but this time it's the props and pyro department that screwed up...ol' Zarqawi has trouble firing his automatic rifle, than finally gets off a few shots and the gun jams..after which Zarqawi is shown asking his buds in Arabic `how you work this thing anyhow?'

Even funnier is a scene where Zarqawi's buds grab the heated barrel of a machine gun and burn their hands..yowch!

Seriously, this kind of ridicule is exactly how we should be fighting this war in the first place. When you're dealing with a dysfunctional honor/shame culture, ridicule and shame is a powerful weapon..which is why I felt that the White Houses' reaction to the college hazing type stunts in Abu Ghreib was all wrong.

Remember the boggarts in Harry Potter, who could assume the shape of your worst fears? The way that they were combatted and made harmless was by uttering a charm `ridikulous', making them assume a ludicrous image and destroying their ability to terrorize.

Zarqawi and his pals aren't quite so simple to take care of (if only), but an important part in winning this war involves exactly that - destroying their ability to terrorize, their image as `romantic freedom fighters'...and thus depriving them of one of their chief weapons.

These people deserve humiliation and ridicule..at the very least, before an immediate and painful death.

Watcher's Council results for 5/5/06

The Council has spoken. Complete results can be seen here:

In first place, and well deserved is Dympna at the excellent site Gates of Vienna: The Last Boat Out of Liverpool. Congrats, Dymphna!

In second place New World Man scores with : You're-being-mean-to-me liberalism- good one, that!

For non-council posts the winner was Villainous Company: Can America Still Win Wars? an examination of our national will as compared to our forefathers.

Second place honors went to American Digest's Of a Fire in a Field, a fascinating revisiting of the days after 9/11 and a pesonal review of `United 93'

Hearty kudos to all the winners!

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem..."

Well, we knew it was coming. According to Fox News, Israel's new Prime minister Ehud Olmert plans to split Jerusalem - just like the Likud and Avigdor Lieberman said he would.

AP interviewed Kadima functionary Otniel Schneller, described as an `architect' of the plan who said that his blueprint would give most of Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods to the Palestinians while keeping the predominantly Jewish areas for Israel.

"Those same neighborhoods will, in my assessment, be central to the makeup of the Palestinian capital … al-Quds," Schneller said, calling Jerusalem by its Arabic name(what an idiot, to do that with the AP quoting him) . "We will not divide Jerusalem, we will share it."

In other words, instead of moving non-Israeli Arabs out of Jerusalem, let's make part of the capitol Jew-free and give our genocidal enemies a closer target! Let's bring Hamas and the rest of the den of rattlers even closer to the Jewish nation!

Under this brilliant plan, Jerusalem's Old City, its holy shrines and the adjacent neighborhoods, would become a "special region with special understandings," but remain under Israeli sovereignty, said Schneller.

As if the Palestinians would ever respect or agree to this? As if the Palestinians will ever be willing to share anything with the Jews?

You would have thought that the Israelis would have learned something from Gaza...and all the other retreats before that.

This makes me so mad I could spit. Especially when I think of the Israeli soldiers that died to make Jerusalem a united Jewish capitol again.

The Israelis voted for Olmert and Kadima, and now they have got him.

Olmert and the rest of his crew have no right to give away any part of Israel and especially not Jerusalem. And they will live to regret it if they do.

Sicilian Cage Match: Cole versus Hitchens

This is better than Mexican wrestling. All it needs is the proper arena setting
and some fancy outfits.

To those who don't know, Juan Cole is a notoriously hard Left College `professor' and poseur at MSU who is noted as an apologist for Islamic terrorism..which of course is the fault of the Evil BushCo United States. Hitchens is a noted journalist, a formerly well respected leftist who had a few second thoughts after 9/11, and wasn't embarrased to say so. Which,of course, has earned him some particularly rancid personal attacks from his old pals on the Left.

The Left hates apostates. Almost as much as Muslims do.

Recently Hitchens took Cole to task for the singular stupidity of insisting that Ahmadinejad of Iran never said anything about wiping Israel off the face of the map, and that Iran would never attack Israel. As part of the article, Hitchens somehow obtained an e-mail of Cole's that underlines this inanity and called Cole's self-proclaimed mastery of Farsi and all things Iranian into question. As Hitchens aptly titled it `The Cole Report: On Iran, he distorts, you decide.'

Cole went berserk, to say the least. In his over the top reply, rather than actually reply to Hitchen's points Cole went for the jugular, accusing Hitchens of being a drunk, a hacker, etc. and even including some throwback sixties rhetoric:

All the warmongers in Washington, including Hitchens, if he falls into that camp, should get this through their heads. Americans are not fighting any more wars in the Middle East against toothless third rate powers. So sit down and shut up.

One, two, three, four! We don't want your stinking war!

We are not going to see any more US troops come home in body bags at Dover for the sake of some Cheney affiliate grabbing the petroleum in Iran's Ahvaz fields....

Hitchens has for some time had a very serious and debilitating drinking problem. He once showed up drunk to a talk I gave and heckled me. I can only imagine that he was deep in his cups when he wrote, or had some far Rightwing think tank write, his current piece of yellow journalism....

In another place, Cole compared the election of Iran's Ahmadinejad to `the dirty tricks George Bush used to get elected'!

Yes, America..this is a college professor who's teaching your young on the taxpayer's dime....cue the `Twilight Zone' theme.

Had Cole left well enough alone or even simply posted something remotely appropriate in reply, he would have been better off. Of course, the ludicrous attack by Cole brought out the pitbull in Hitchens, who came roaring back with an interview on Hugh Hewitt's program.. a superb example of the sublime art of ridicule that had to have left some bloody bruises:

CH:Well, some of your listeners may know of Professor Cole of the University of Michigan. He is acclaimed, at least by himself, expert on matters Shiia, particularly, and he also says he's fluent in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. And for all I know, he is. But he's 10th rate, and he's a sordid apologist for Islamist terrorism, and for Islamist terrorist regimes. And I've been on his case for a while. But he recently wrote in a blog conversation group he takes part in, that Ahmadinejead had never said that about wiping Israel off the face of the Earth, and neither had his role model, Ayatollah Khomeini. They'd never said it. It was a sort of slander. So I thought well, this isn't going to take me very long. And I have a lot of Iranian friends who, alas for them, can't live in their own country anymore, because of the hideous tyranny there, and who hate people who make excuses for their regime, as they should. And with their help, I was able to show very easily what I had long known, that Khomeini's statement that Israel must be completely destroyed has been a canonical statement in Iran for a long time. Ahmadinejead was only repeating it. He probably was a bit surprised at how much attention it got, given how commonplace the thought is to him. But that it is nothing but a lie to say that this is not a statement from the Iranian theocrats, and it also suggests very strongly, which is the fun bit, that Professor Juan Cole does not know what he is talking about, in any language.

HH: (laughing)

CH: His English is, by the way, very poor. I can't believe his Persian is excellent, because his English is lousy. {...}

Yowwch. It gets better, but I'll let you enjoy the rest here.....

I by no means agree with Hitchens on every thing he's written, but he certainly is right about Cole.

Poor Juan Cole. If he wasn't such an anti-American, ignorant pissant, I'd actually feel a little sorry for somebody battling so far out of their intellectual weight class.

Peggy Noonan on the Moussaoui verdict `They should have killed him'

"This is what Moussaoui did: He was in jail on a visa violation in August 2001. He knew of the upcoming attacks. In fact, he had taken flight lessons to take part in them. He told no one what was coming. He lied to the FBI so the attacks could go forward. He pled guilty last year to conspiring with al Qaeda; at his trial he bragged to the court that he had intended to be on the fifth aircraft, which was supposed to destroy the White House.

He knew the trigger was about to be pulled. He knew innocent people had been targeted, and were about to meet gruesome, unjust deaths.

He could have stopped it. He did nothing. And so 2,700 people died.

This is what the jury announced yesterday. They did not doubt Moussaoui was guilty of conspiracy. They did not doubt his own testimony as to his guilt. They did not think he was incapable of telling right from wrong. They did not find him insane. They did believe, however, that he had had an unstable childhood, that his father was abusive and then abandoning, and that as a child, in his native France, he'd suffered the trauma of being exposed to racial slurs.

As I listened to the court officer read the jury's conclusions yesterday I thought: This isn't a decision, it's a non sequitur."


Read the whole piece here

UN security Council given Iran resolution

Well...it's happened, for what it's worth. The UN Security Council was given an Iran Resolution today by Britain, France and Germany, backed by the US.

It urges states to restrict nuclear trade with Iran and requires Tehran to halt enriching uranium or face "further measures," diplospeak for possible sanctions.

Russia and China immediately said they oppose the resolution, which demands that Iran halt nuclear research and development activities, and stop construction on a heavy-water nuclear reactor at Arak because it could be used to produce weapons-grade fuel. The resolution calls on governments to prevent the transfer to Iran of all "items, materials, goods and technology" that could be used to enrich or reprocess nuclear fuel or advance the Islamic state's missile programs.

The EU and US want the IAEA to report onIranian compliance with a deadline of two weeks to a month.

Iran has already said that it would not respond, and Russia and China, with oil and billions of dollars on the line are opposed to even an implied threat of sanctions.

The U.S. and EU say they'd like a vote before next Tuesday, May 9th.

"We are very skeptical about the sanctions. We think historically they have not been very useful," said Russia's new ambassador, Vitaly Churkin. "We hope that we can find a political and diplomatic solution." (`One that allows us to keep selling the mullahs the tools of the trade')

"I don't think this draft as it stands now will produce good results," said China's ambassador, Wang Guangya.(`And it might interfere with us buying all that oil')

"This resolution will not deal with sanctions," said U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton, "We expect that if Iran doesn't back away from their conduct, which constitutes a threat to international peace and security, that the council would be ready to take steps subsequently -- the first of which would be targeted sanctions, and we don't exclude that we would take other steps in connection with sanctions outside the council as well." (hmmmm)

Bush and German Chancellor Merkel are in DC tonight discussing all manner of things.

Bush weighed in on Iran at a press conference.

"The Iranians must understand that we won't fold, that our partnership is strong, that for the sake of world peace they should abandon their nuclear weapons ambitions," Bush told reporters.

Merkel praised the US and Germany's "very, very good relationship" and said she was "in total agreement" on Iran. I wonder, can she sell that to her people?

My take? Sanctions would never work, even if they were imposed...ask Saddam. Nor is any agreement with Iran ultimately verifiable or valid in Iran's eyes.Look for the mullahs and Ahmadinejad to come up with a phoney compromise to buy more time...a `Munich moment' as it were for `peace in our time'. That would suit all parties nicely, and defer things until another time.

I only hope nobody gets a picture of Bush coming out of an airplane with an umbrella.

On the other hand (hopefully) I'm wrong. people have misjudged President Bush before now, and he may have more steel and backbone than it appears.

Stay tuned...

Finally..justice for Sami al-Arian

Islamic Jihad's own American kingpin and the anti-America Left's posterboy got his today.

U.S. District Judge James Moody slappeda maximum 5 year sentence on Sami Al-Arian Monday calling the former university professor a "master manipulator'' who led a double life in the top ranks of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

al Arian had already made a plea bargain in which he agreed to be deported, and the prosecutors and defense lawyers recommended the minimum sentence.

But Judge Moody surprised everybody and ignored all that. He gave Al-Arian as much prison time as possible under the plea deal - 57 months, followed by deportation.

With credit for time served while awaiting trial, Al-Arian will spend about 18 months behind bars...and hopefully this terrorist creep will not be segregated from the general prison population.

Moody realized that al-Arian was a liar and an unrepentant terrorist with blood on his hands. And he had a few things to say to him.

Speaking about al-Arian's claim that he was collecting money for`widows and orphans'
Moody said, "Your only connection to orphans and widows is that you create them."

Echoing a government informant who testified at the trial, Moody told Al-Arian: "Your children attend the finest universities this country has to offer while you raise money to blow up the children of others.''

As the judge spoke, Al-Arian's three children, all graduate students sat there stone-faced.

The judge concluded by saying to Al-Arian by saying that "anyone with even the slightest bit of human compassion would be sickened'' by a double suicide bombing at Beit Lid, Israel, in January 1995 that killed 22 people. But, he said Al-Arian "saw it as an opportunity to solicit more money to carry out more bombings."

After the courtroom emptied, Moody signed an expedited order of removal for Al-Arian, which means he will be deported as soon as he completes his sentence.

Oh, and the photo? That's a picture of George and Laura Bush hanging out with the al-Arian family. Did they know about his views on Israel and his terrorist symphathies back then?

10 jihadis visit Allah as the hunt for Zarqawi revs up

al Qaeda Grand poobah Abu Musab al-Zarqawi might end up paying bigtime for his little foray on jihad TV. cbs4denver.com The hunt Intensifies For Al-Zarqawi is intensifying.





U.S. troops raided a suspected al Qaeda hideout yesterday, killing 10 terrorists and according to what CBS News correspondent David Martin reported, US forces were within 1,000 yards of al-Zarqawi.

More than 200 members of al-Zarqawi's network have been killed or captured in the last few weeks.And the good guys, led by Lt. Gen. Stan McChrystal are bringing in , several hundred paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne to join in the hunt.


Martin reported that under the command of McChrystal, the hunt for al-Zarqawi has now eclipsed in size the hunt for Osama bin Laden, which has been hampered by a lack of good intelligence and Pakistan's refusal to allow U.S. troops to operate in their border area. The assault on al-Zarqawi's network is being conducted by a secret unit known as Task Force 145, which is divided into four teams — three American and one British — which conduct raids virtually every night.

A little bit different than the impression we get from the MSM, no?

We'll be seeing you soon Zarqawi, inshallah. Rest in pieces.

Moussaoui Gets Life

The jury deadlocked and were unable to come to a unanimous verdict in the sentencing of al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui on Wednesday and decided he must spendlife in prison for his role in the attack on Sept. 11.

Moussaoui was not the least bit remorseful or repentant for his actions, and I personally would have preferred hangin' him high, followed by a pigskin burial(Wouldn't that have sent a message to the jihadis!!). But at least he won't get to be a jihad martyr.

And instead of getting the 72 virgins, ol' Zacarias is gonna end being the virgin...if you get my drift : )

Rot in hell, scumbag.

Today is Israel's 58th Birthday!

The week's Council Picks

Every week, the Watcher's Council nominate two posts each, one from the Council memebers and one from outside for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week’s Council nominations is here




Dr. Sanity: REPRESSION AND THE MIRROR OF INSIGHT
In which the Doctor explores the nature of repression and how what we repress provides insight and clarity. An awesome look at our inner nature, as always with Dr. Sanity..

2. The Glittering Eye: Reflecting the inner reality
Dave talks about the nature of elitism in politics, and wishes the Democratic party would abandon it. He illustartes it with an interesting comparision on the backgrounds of former presidents and candidates for the office, and includes Senators McCain and Clinton in his analysis..wish he'd included other presumptive candidates, but a good signpost and food for thought!

3.Done With Mirrors: Moral Courage 2-Czarrt! Callimachus contrasts the `moral courage' of Stephen Colbert, the comic who used his routine at the White House Press Corps event as a vehicle to diss Preident Bush and the moral courage of Dutch Liberal Party MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who had the courage to be critical of how Islam treats women and is under a death sentence Fatwa because of it.

A Dutch Appeals court even ordered her to vacate the high-security home she rents in The Hague her neighbours who complained her presence put their own safety at risk and that Hirsi Ali's presence meant they no longer felt safe in their own apartments! Well done, Calli..

4. The Education Wonks: California Senate Shocker: School Boycott Endorsed! - Thoughts And Ideas Freely Exchanged I'm starting to wonder if we still live in the USA here in California. Our ultra-Leftist Democratic state legislature seems ready to declare its allegiance to something else entirely.

5. The Strata-Sphere:Power Grab By Ultra-Liberal Delusionists AJ continues his discussion of leaking from another aspect. Like me, he is outraged by the idea of Dana Priest being honored for leaking classified informationwhen we're at war...but he also connected the dots to a simply wonderful Leftist group known as the CIP (Center of International Policy)run by Priest's husband..and which has CIA leaker Mary McCarthy as a member! Excellent read.

6. New World Man : You're-being-mean-to-me liberalismMatt reveals the truth behind a phoney Thomas Jefferson quote used ad nasuem to justify `protest'..and talks about the nature of dissent.

7. Gates of Vienna: The Last Boat Out of Liverpool I have to hand it to Dymphna. Not many of us have the courage to examine our parents this way in public, and the influence on our own makeup and attitudes.

8. ShrinkWrapped: Drugs, Sex, and Rock & Roll ... and Suicidality ... continued In the second part of a two part piece, Shrink talks about the legacy of the boomers..and attempts to analyze the malignant narcissism that permeates much of that generation....and uses Gram Parsons as an example. So many roads...

9. Rhymes With Right: 'Unconstitutional religious test'--what it is and what it ain't Bob Novak is taken to task for describing the 'Unconstitutional religious test' applied to LDS member Mitt Romney.

10. Right Wing Nut House : UNITED 93: A REVIEW- Rick reviews `United 93' and gives his take on the opinions expressed on the film. well done!


11. J O S H U A P U N D I T: The Qu'ran vs. Mein Kampf

Writer Orianna Fallaci received an amazing amount of heat for comparing the Qu'ran to Hitler's `Mein Kampf' (BTW, a bestseller in the Muslim world). I decided to do the same and came up with some unavoidable similarities, especially given the way Islam is practiced in much of the Muslim world. To my mind, it's intellectually dishonest to simply ignore that..and dangerous.

If Islam is going to be `reformed' and learn to play nicely with the rest of us, it is going to have to take an honest look at the jihadi mentality and at sharia, and make some changes. I link to several Islamic sites based here in the West like Irshad Manji's that say exactly that. And it is going to be Muslims themselves who alone can do it, most probably here in the West where they have the freedom to do so.

12. The Sundries Shack: Aw... who needs that amendment anyhow? Jimmie Bise smacks John McCain upside da head for McCain-Feigold and other follies in campaign finance reform.

The Qu'ran vs. Mein Kampf

This ought to stir things up a bit.

I've gotten a lot of e-mail on the Orianna Fallaci story I posted, in which the noted author compared the Qu'ran to Hitler's `Mein Kampf'. Just for posting this, I got the usual hysterical accusations of racism and bigotry from a whole raft of self-described `liberals' who have probably never read either book! Though I would certainly bet Fallaci has, given her record. Most of the apologists for the toleration of Islamic fascism happened to mention the Crusades and the Inquisition..both of which happened centuries ago, have no modern counterpart and killed a fraction as many people as 1500 years of jihad.

Fallaci made a simple and objective factual statement, easily proved or disproved. Since I've also read both books (and believe me, it wasn't easy going) I thought I'd examine this.

Let's rock'n roll, shall we?


Mein Kampf- States that Germans are the superior race of mankind and that Germany is destined to rule the world , and dominate all other races and nations.

Q'uran-States that Islam and Muslims are the superiors of mankind and that Islam is divinely mandated to rule the world and dominate all other races, creeds and nations.
****************************************************************
Mein Kampf-Says that the German State is to have control over every aspect of life. Says all individuals must submit to the State

The Q'uran-Says that Islam and Sharia is to have control over every aspect of life. Says all individuals must submit to Islam.
*************************************************************
Mein Kampf-Says that Germans have the duty to claim their divinely appointed place in the world by whatever means necessary. Puts loyalty to the Volk(the race)above all other ethical considerations.

The Q'uran-Says that Muslims have a duty to wage Jihad and to advance Islam's domination over the world (Dar Islam and Dar Harb) by any means necessary. Places loyalty to fellow Muslims(Umma)and Islam above all other ethical considerations.
**********************************************************************
Mein Kampf-Mandates that men are superior to women and that women's place should be limited to procreation, the kitchen and the home.

The Q'uran-Mandates that men are superior to women and that women's place should be limited to procreation, the kitchen and the home. (Admittedly, the Q'uran goes quite a bit farther than Mein Kamph on this topic)
********************************************************************
Mein Kampf-Says that homosexuals are `race traitors' and should be condemned to death. (Many, in fact were murdered in the concentration camps).

The Q'uran-Says homosexuals are unholy to Allah and should be condemned to death
**************************************************************************
Mein Kampf-Sets out a detailed model for world conquest, including rules for how conquered peoples are to be suppressed and dominated by the German race. States that the wealth, resources and property of subject peoples belongs to Germans by right and the right to life for subject peoples is dependent on Germans. States that non-Germans have no legal or civil rights.

The Q'uran-Sets out a detailed model for world conquest, including rules for how conquered peoples are to be suppressed and dominated by Muslims. States that the wealth, resources and property of subject peoples belongs to Muslims by right and the right to life for subject peoples is dependent onMuslims. States that non-Muslims have no legal or civil rights. (in truth, a lot of this has it's basis in the Hadith and the Sunna, but both derive essentially from what's in the Q'uran., along with all the other aspects of Sharia)
*******************************************************************
Mein Kampf-Divides the world into `German land' and enemy territory. States that land with Germans living in it or land that once had Germans ruling it rightfully belongs to Germany, and Germany is entitled to get it back by any means necessary.

The Q'uran-Divides the world into `Dar Islam' (Muslim ruled land) and enemy territory (Dar Harb). States that land with Muslims living in it or land that once had Muslims ruling it rightfully belongs to Dar Islam, and Muslims are entitled to get it back by any means
necessary.
*******************************************************************

Mein Kampf-Blames the Jews for society's ills and says that they will be exterminated.

The Q'uran-Blames the Jews for society's ills and says that they will be exterminated. (`On the day of Judgement the rocks and trees will call out `O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me! Come and slay him!’)
*************************************************
Whoopsie.

There are lots of other striking parallels, but I think you get the point.

Are all Muslims Nazis? Nah. But the Q'uran ain't your average religious scripture either. As I've said more than once,Islam is a political ideology hiding inside a religion.

Fortunately, there's more to it than that. Even Mein Kampf had a few positive bits (not many, I assure you!). It's all in how it's applied. I don't agree with Fallaci that there's no such thing as `moderate Islam'. But moderate Islam is a VERY selective reading of the Qu'ran and Hadith and frankly, not a majority position in the Islamic world. It involves a complete tossing away of the jihadi mentality, and as such is a minority position in Islam today.That's one reason why so few Muslims in America have denounced Islamic terrorism unequivically.

I'll take a further look at this and it's implications for the West in a future post.

Brokeback Diplomacy - China and Russia hold out against UN Sanctions

Abbas & Olmert to meet for peace talks...no, I'm serious!

We need a little levity from time to time.

According to none other than perennial appeasement jockey Shimon Peres, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to discuss peace proposals after Olmert gets back from Washington.

"If we can work with (Mr Abbas), let's work with him," Mr Peres said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. "Why not? He is an honourable man. He means peace."

Sure he does, Shimon. Abbas has meant peace since he took over the Palestinian Authority, right?

Of course, Peres doesn't explain the logic of having `peace ' talks with someone in charge of a government who doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist, let alone someone who has never found a terrorist worthy of imprisoning, let alone disarming!

And that was before Hamas took over.

Now, Abbas is irrelevant. I mean, if he couldn't enforce his peace agreement with the Israelis before, does anyone seriously think Abbas can do it now? Especially Olmert, who's supposed to be a `pragmatist'.

Maybe Peres is worried about his PalTel stocks going down. Now that Hamas is in charge, that cozy little monopoly on Palestinian telephone service Peres controls with his Palestinian Fatah partners might be in danger of a little competition...or maybe being ousted altogether.

No, they don't hardly make `em like Peres any more. As the old Israeli political joke goes, no matter who you vote for you end up with Shimon Peres somewhere in the woodwork of government.

Un-freaking believable.

Al Qaeda strategist captured in Pakistan

Some good news on the jihad front, as it's been confirmed that a top Al Qaeda kingpin with a $5 million price on his hide was captured in Pakistan.

Mustafa Setmarian Nasar, who once wrote a 1,600-page autobiographical book on ways to attack Islam's enemies, has been flown out of the country after being interrogated by Pakistani and American intelligence.

Nobody knows where he was taken, but Club Gitmo may have a new guest.

Nasar had his fingers in terrorist jihad cells in Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and two European capitals.

Nasar, 47, a Syrian-Spanish national, was arrested last November in the Pakistani city of Quetta. Apparently it took a while to ID Nasar beyond any doubt.

Nasar was a former trainer at Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan who helped teach extremists to use poisons and chemicals before the U.S. invasion after 9/11.

He also has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which he joined backin Syria in the `80's.

Nasar was also noted as a prolific writer of jihadi propaganda, including a 1,600 page book released in 2004 titled The International Islamic Resistance Call. He lists Islam's enemies as ``Jews, Americans, British, Russian and any and all of the NATO countries, as well as any country that takes the position of oppressing Islam and Muslims. "

Good riddance.

Today is Remembrance Day in Israel

Today is the day that Israelis honor the memory of those members of the IDF who have fallen in wars to keep this little country free. It happens every year the day before Israeli Independence Day. Z"l.

Iran threatens Israel if America acts `evil'

Because to the Iranian mindset, America is controlled by the evil Jooos...just so you know.

al Reuters reported today thatIran threatened to attack Israel if US acts "evil" - Yahoo! News.

"We have announced that wherever America does something evil, the first place that we target will be Israel," ISNA quoted a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, Rear Admiral Mohammad-Ebrahim Dehqani, as saying on Tuesday.

In view of Ahmadinejad's remarks about wiping Israel off the map and destroying it `in one storm' Dehqani's remarks are pretty mainstream and straightforward.

Now here's a puzzler for you - let's look at the UN charter, Article 2, section 4:

"All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations."

I don't see any language in that paragraph that says `except Israel.' Anybody at the UN talking about sanctions or disciplinary action against Iran for violating the UN charter?









The article also talks about Iran steping up its enrichment program..and being confident that Russia and China, veto-wielding permanent Security Council members, would not back any punitive measures.

"The thing these two countries have officially told us and expressed in diplomatic negotiations is their opposition to sanctions and military attacks," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told Iran's Kayhan newspaper.

China and Russia both have huge commercial and energy interests in Iran, and Russia is also helping Iran build its atomic plant in Bushehr, as well as its secret plant with 55,000 centrifuges in Neyshabour.

Anyone at the UN interested in this bit of the UN charter?

Section 5: "All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action."


Think Russia and China plan to comply with this article ?

Can you hear the crickets chirping?

Sorry about the light blogging the last few days..personal stuff and a computer outage intervened!

Turkey aligns with Iran's Islamist bloc against the West

In a new signal of Turkey's alignment with the Islamist bloc, Turkish FM Abdullah Gul made it very clear that Turkey will not be drawn into any military operations against Iran.

According to the Dubai newspaper Al Bayan, Gul claimed that during her visit to Ankara last Tuesday, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice requested the use of the Incirlik air base for an American strike against Iranian nuclear installations.Gul says he turned her down flat.

Turkey has also reportedly turned down permission for the US to build a new air base in eastern Turkey between Lake Van and the Iranian border. From there, Iranian nuclear sites concentrated in Northern and Northwest Iran would have been in easy reach of US bombers..including Iran's top-secret site at Neyshabour.

On the other side of the coin, Turkey's relationship with Iran has blossomed sinced the current Islamist government took power. Turkey and Iran just completed a high level conference between Turkey’s Ambassador Hasano Turcan Turkoglu and Iran Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi to coordinate military and security cooperation Sunday in Teheran. (Hat tip to Willard @Crossfire War)

Both representatives trotted out the usual phrases about bi-lateral cooperation, with Iran's Pour-Mohammadi adding that increased bilateral ties would dissatisfy the Americans and Europeans.

A big point of conjuction between Turkey and Iran is, of course, the Kurds, whom both countries despise and whom both countries do not want to have any kind of autonomy. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration yielded to Turkish concerns on this matter when we invaded Iraq..why, I can't imagine, since Turkey obstructed our efforts there to the limits of its power. Turkeys'refusal to allow US troops to utilize our bases there and deploy a second front for the Iraq invasion delayed Saddam Hussein’s overthrow by at least six weeks, maybe more.

Platitudes about economic - industrial linkage, `bi-lateral relations' and generic 'security' concerns aside, it is obvious that from Pour-Mohammadi referral to their relationship displeasing the Americans and Europeans means that there are almost certainly military and strategic links now in place as well.

This would be a major coup for Iran if true, because it would provide a strategic buffer for a significant part of Iran's border, would break the NATO alliance and because of Turkey's strategic location next to the Balkans and the Caucasus - areas Turkey once ruled and may wish to dominate again. The Balkans have always been the Islamic route to European invasion by Islam, and there are already the well armed Muslim enclaves of Bosnia and Kossovo in the region, thanks to the West's military attacks on the Serbs and Western compliance with the ethnic cleansing of non-Muslims from these areas.

Turkey is probably figuring that the US will not go through with any military action against Iran at this time, because they see the Bush administration’s domestic situation as too shaky to undertake any effective military strike there. The Erdogan government may also be reading the MSM and see Bush's Republican party facing defeats in the mid-term elections in November. As a country with a parliamentary system, they may very well be misunderstanding the relationship between party and president. They see the US retreating in Iraq and its coalition of Sunni autocracies as increasingly vulnerable to the joint offensive of Iran, The Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda.

Egypt and Jordan..the new al Qaeda fronts

As I reported here, it appears that al Qaeda has left most of the day to day terrorist operations in Iraq to Iran, through Iran's control of a significant part of the Shiite political parties and the militias, especially Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

The new objective seems to be destabilizing key parts of the Sunni bloc put together by the Bush Administration...since it looks like the faith invested in `Arab Democracy' has proven to be a wee bit premature on Dubbya's part.

After the terrorist attacks on Dahab in Egyptian Sinai, the Egyptian security services have arrested numerous people connected with the terrorist attack, and the Egyptian military apparently hasattacked several al Qaeda strongholds deep in Sinai , including a large base located on Jebel Magharah, just southwest of El Arish. They are also reported to be raiding more new al Qaeda havens around St. Catherine’s monastery and Wadi Paran in the south.

Egypt's President Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah met over the weekend in Aqaba to discuss the implication of Zarqawi's stepped-up operations in Egypt, Sinai, Israel and Jordan.

They were briefed by their intelligence chiefs on al Qaeda's penetration into Egypt, it's linkup with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and the heavy recruitment by Zarqawi of Palestinians in Jordan and Gaza.

Last Friday, the Jerusalem Post reported that Zarqawi and company issued death warrants against five Fatah followers of Palestinian chairman Mahmoud Abbas: former interior minister and Gaza gang boss Muhammad Dahlan, former PA Information minister Yasser Abd Rabbo, the deputy chief of Gaza’s Preventive Security Service Samir Mashrawi, and Abu Ali Shihin, an old Arafat loyalist and gang boss in Rafah.

Significantly, the five were described in leaflets circulating throughout the Palestinian areas as `apostates to be sacrificed.'

While I personally wouldn't shed a tear to see any of these people pay a visit to Allah, the fact that al Qaeda had taken the side of Hamas in the ongoing Palestinian power struggle and feels comfortable enough to openly issue death threats is highly significant.