ASIA TIMES: Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the definitive presence of traditional Shi'ite Islam, has warned that he "no longer has power to save Iraq from civil war", and has withdrawn from politics (see Iraq loses its voice of reason, Asia Times Online, September 6). Ayatollah al-Sistani and the end of Islam by SpenglerMark Alexander
ASIA TIMES: DAMASCUS - The saddest news coming from Iraq is the decision of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to cease all political activity and restrict himself to his religious duties in Shi'ite Islam. He said this weekend: "I will not be a political leader anymore. I am only happy to receive questions about religious matters." Iraq loses its voice of reason by Sami Moubayed
Thursday, September 07, 2006
CHURCH OF ENGLAND NEWSPAPER: THE BRITISH media needs to be more balanced in its coverage of Islam, according to members of Christian-Muslim dialogue groups. On the fifth anniversary of the atrocities of 9/11 in New York, suspicion of Islam in the UK is higher than ever, as shown in a recent YouGov poll in which 53 per cent of respondents felt they thought Islam was a threat to Western liberal democracy. Media is warned over its coverage of Islam by Ed BeavanMark Alexander
FORBES: Iran's hard-line president urged students Tuesday to push for a purge of liberal and secular university teachers, another sign of his determination to strengthen Islamic fundamentalism in the country.Mark Alexander
With his call echoing the rhetoric of the nation's 1979 Islamic revolution, Ahmadinejad appears determined to remake Iran by reviving the fundamentalist goals pursued under the republic's late founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Iran Head Wants Liberal Teachers Ousted
TOWNHALL.COM: The month of September brings not only the fifth anniversary of the horrific terror attacks of 2001, but also marks the passage of 67 years since the beginning of World War II. An accurate, unflinching recollection of that incomparably destructive conflagration remains indispensable in understanding some of the key issues of the bloody conflicts of our own time. In particular, the course of World War II demonstrates the complete folly of the currently trendy notion that a just war somehow must qualify as “proportional.” Why seek "proportional" warfare? by Michael MedvedMark Alexander
GULF NEWS: Washington: US President George W. Bush vowed on Tuesday to prevent Al Qaida from setting up a violent, radical Islamic empire based in Iraq, which he said was Osama Bin Laden's ultimate goal.Mark Alexander
Bush said Al Qaida's vision was to create a "unified totalitarian Islamic state that can confront and eventually destroy the free world."
Bin Laden has declared Iraq "the capital of the caliphate," said Bush, who has often faced criticism for trying to tie Iraq into the broader "war on terrorism. Bush warns of Al Qaida plan for 'Caliphate' based in Iraq
BARNABUS FUND: Once there were tens. Then there were hundreds. Now Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard’s Anti-Terrorist Branch, speaks of thousands of militant British Muslims, indoctrinated and radicalised in British mosques and madrassas.Mark Alexander
This is not, primarily, because of the influence of a handful of a few “preachers of hate”. Islamic extremism has spread in Britain thanks to a particular brand of multiculturalism encouraged by this Government. And until ministers tackle it - especially the influence of Muslim faith schools - all their new efforts to build cohesion will come to very little.
The context goes far beyond Britain. Contemporary Islam has burst out of its colonial restraints. Once colonialism removed power, jihad and territorial control from Islam, it was left a benign force focusing on prayer and good deeds. But contemporary Islam has reverted back to early Islam, with all its theological rage against the non-Muslim world. Issues like Iraq and Afghanistan have become valves for expressing this anger and hatred against Britain and the West. THE SCHOOLS THAT DIVIDE THE NATION by DR PATRICK SOOKHDEO
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
NIS NEWS BULLETIN: THE HAGUE, 07/09/06 - The Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) will present a controversial report on Islam to European Commission vice president Franco Frattini next week. Released in the Netherlands in April, it was criticised by both the Lower House and Foreign Minister Bot. EU Discusses Controversial Dutch Report On islamMark Alexander
The beheaded body of a Sudanese newspaper editor has been found on the outskirts of the capital, Khartoum. Kidnapped Sudan editor beheadedMark Alexander
REUTERS FOUNDATION - ALERTNET: (New York, September 6, 2006) Saudi Arabia should immediately end its discrimination against its 100,000 Chadian residents, most of whom were born in the kingdom but are increasingly denied the rights to basic education and emergency healthcare, Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi Arabia's decision to target Chadian children for expulsion from school is arbitrary and discriminatory.Mark Alexander
For the past two years, the Saudi government has stopped renewing one- to two-year residency permits for all Chadians in Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch learned through telephone interviews with six Chadian nationals in and around Jeddah. Thus by the end of August, nearly all of the estimated 100,000 Chadian residents of Saudi Arabia will lack valid permits. The overwhelming majority of them were born in Saudi Arabia and have never lived in Chad; many have never even visited the African country. Under Saudi naturalization laws, it is nearly impossible for Chadians to acquire Saudi citizenship because they generally do not fulfill the educational and financial requirements. Saudi Arabia: Chadians Barred From Schools, Hospitals [Source: Human Rights Watch]
BBC: Israel says it will lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon on Thursday, at 1800 local time (1500 GMT). Israel to lift Lebanon blockadeMark Alexander
LE FIGARO: Le blocus aérien et maritime, imposé au Liban depuis le 13 juillet, sera levé à 17 heures, heure de Paris. Après le départ de l’armée israélienne, des navires français, grecs et italiens surveilleront les côtes libanaises. Israël lèvera son blocus sur le Liban jeudi
NZZ: Israel will seine See- und Luftblockade gegen den Libanon am Donnerstagabend aufheben. Wie das Büro von Ministerpräsident Olmert am Mittwoch mitteilte, soll die Uno-Friedenstruppe die bisher von israelischen Soldaten besetzten Kommandopositionen am Flughafen Beirut sowie vor den Seehäfen übernehmen. Israel kündigt Aufhebung der Blockade an
EL MUNDO: EL CAIRO.- Un comunicado difundido por la oficina del primer ministro israelí, Ehud Olmert, confirma que Israel levantará el bloqueo impuesto en el Líbano y cederá el control de los puertos, aeropuertos y otros puntos de entrada a las fuerzas internacionales el jueves a las 17.00 (hora española). Israel asegura que levantará el bloqueo al Líbano el jueves por la tarde
CORRIERE DELLA SERA: GERUSALEMME - Israele ha comunicato la revoca per giovedì alle 18 (ora locale, le 17 in Italia) del blocco aereo e navale imposto da settimane sul Libano. L'annuncio è stato dato dall'ufficio del primo ministro israeliano. La notizia giunge dopo l'ultimatum lanciato dal ministro degli esteri libanese, Fawzi Salloukh, che aveva annunciato l'intenzione di Beirut di forzare il blocco aereo e navale imposto da Israele alla scadenza delle 48 ore annunciate dal Segretario dell'Onu Kofi Annan. Israele annuncia la fine del blocco
TheAge.com in Australia reports that anti-Semitism is on the rise across university campuses in the country. Grahame Leonard, the president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, says July had the most anti-Semitic incidents - no fewer than 141 - since records began in 1945. Never before had there been more than some 90. The July attacks included phone calls, hate e-mails and graffiti, as well as violent incidents - with the big jump being on campuses in Victoria. Anti-Semitic Hate Wave Rolls Across Britain and Australia by Hillel FendelMark Alexander
BBC: President George W Bush has compared Osama Bin Laden to Lenin and Hitler in a speech to US military officers.Mark Alexander
"Underestimating the words of evil and ambitious men is a terrible mistake," he said as he quoted extensively from Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures.
He said the world had ignored the writings of Lenin and Hitler "and paid a terrible price" - adding the world must not to do the same with al-Qaeda. Bush compares Bin Laden to Hitler
This is a very interesting video clip. The discussion takes place in Arabic, but it has English subtitles. The discussion is on the problem of female circumcision in the Islamic world:
Mark AlexanderVideo courtesy of YOU TUBE
I should like to remind my visitors that where name-calling and other forms of hate speech are used in comments, they will be deleted forthwith. This form of writing is neither acceptable nor appropriate.
All people regardless of creed, or of no creed at all, are welcome to take part in the discussions. But please leave name-calling out of your comments. It is primitive and totally unacceptable.
I repeat: Where inappropriate language is found, the comments will be deleted.
Mark Alexander
Islam is deeply anti-woman. Islam is the fundamental cause of the repression of Muslim women and remains the major obstacle to the evolution of their position. Islam has always considered women as creatures inferior in every way: physically, intellectually, and morally. This negative vision is divinely sanctioned in the Koran, corroborated by the hadiths, and perpetuated by the commentaries of the theologians, the custodians of Muslim dogma and ignorance.Mark Alexander
Far better for these intellectuals to abandon the religious argument, to reject these sacred texts, and have recourse to reason alone. They should turn instead to human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted on December 10, 1948, by the General Assembly of the United Nations in Paris and ratified by most Muslim countries) at no point has recourse to a religious argument. These rights are based on natural rights, which any adult human being capable of choice has. They are rights that human beings have simply because they are human beings. Human reason or rationality is the ultimate arbiter of rights - human rights, the rights of women. Islam's Shame, Lifting the Veil of Tears by Ibn Warraq
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: BERLIN Public elementary schools in a southern German state will begin offering classes on Islam, and an education official in Baden-Wuerttemberg described the program as part of an effort to better integrate Muslims, many of whom are immigrants. German state to teach Islam in public schoolsMark Alexander
In American al Qaeda operative Adam Gadahn’s convert to Islam-or-die message to America released last Saturday, he extends a special invitation to the President, as well as to Daniel Pipes, Michael Scheuer, Steve Emerson -- and me:
If the Zionist crusader missionaries of hate and counter-Islam consultants like Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, Michael Scheuer, Steven Emerson, and yes, even the crusader-in-chief George W. Bush were to abandon their unbelief and repent and enter into the light of Islam and turn their swords against the enemies of God, it would be accepted of them and they would be our brothers in Islam. And we send a special invitation to all of you fighting Bush’s crusader pipe dream in Afghanistan, Iraq, and wherever else W. has sent you to die. Al Qaeda Operative Invites Me to Islam by Robert SpencerMark Alexander
EUOBSERVER / STRASBOURG - Turkey should recognize the Armenian genocide as a condition for its EU accession, MEPs argue in a highly critical report adopted by a broad majority in Strasbourg on Monday (4 September).Mark Alexander
The parliamentarians in the foreign affairs committee strongly criticised Turkey's slow pace on reforms and urged clear progress in solving the Cyprus issue. MEPs back Armenia genocide clause in Turkey report by Lucia Kubosova
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: COPENHAGEN — Nine people who had acquired materials to make explosives and were suspected of plotting a terror attack in Denmark were arrested Tuesday, intelligence officials said. Denmark arrests nine in terror sweep by Jan M. OlsenMark Alexander
Monday, September 04, 2006
Ingrid Mattson, a Canadian convert to Islam, is new president of ISNA. Photo courtesy of BBC
BBC: The sessions at the Islamic Society of North America's annual convention had a little something for everyone. Some people came to ask questions about Islamic banking, others wanted tips on Muslim dating. N American Muslims debate role in society by Ian BrimacombeMark Alexander
Dear AdamIn the Name of Jesus, the Truly Compassionate, the Truly Merciful!
This weekend, I had the dubious pleasure of watching you rant and rave about the beauty of Islam on video, inviting the Americans to convert to Islam. You berated Western culture and civilization, and had the audacity to tell people that the only route to Paradise (Heaven) lay in conversion to “the one true faith” – Islam.
You went on and on about the beauty of Islam, and you went on and on about the wonderful characteristics of your prophet, the prophet Muhammad. It was sickening to hear you ranting on about that prophet and his ‘religion, the 'death cult' that is Islam.
I observed you very closely. You look like and Arab, talk like an Arab, dress like an Arab, and use an Arab’s gestures. Even your hand movements and your gesticulations were redolent of an Arab! Yet you had the audacity to tell us that Islam is NOT an Arabo-centric religion! If this is the case, then why do you have to dress like an Arab, and behave like one, too?
You went on to speak of the ignorance of the Kufaar (the infidels) of the faith that is Islam. Have you never asked yourself the opposite question? Why are Arabs so ill-informed about the religion of Christianity? They keep on calling Christians polytheists, simply because they believe in the Trinity. You guys just can’t get your heads around it, can you? The Trinity, I mean. Yes, the Trinity is but ONE God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But that’s beyond your limited comprehension, isn’t it?
It’s as if you guys were arrested in your development! Piaget, the specialist in child development, spoke of FOUR stages of development: the Sensori-motor stage; the Pre-operational stage; the Concrete operational stage; and the Formal operational stage.
The Formal operational stage - 11-15 years - distinguishes itself in the child's ability to relate to ideas.I realize full well that it might be difficult for you to think in the abstract. It is difficult for many Muslim Arabs to do so. After all, Arabs are taught to think in terms of the literal and the concrete. But do try to make the quantum leap forward to being able to think in abstract terms, please. The safety of the world depends on it!
You see, Adam, it is really quite simple. The body has three parts: the mind, the body, the spirit. Similarly, the Godhead also has three parts: God the Father; God the Son; God the Holy Spirit. My body is ONE, despite its three parts; similarly, the Godhead is also ONE, despite its three parts.
I really wish you guys down there would begin to understand abstract ideas. You must find life rather hard without the ability to understand them. In a few words, it means that you are challenged! Mentally challenged!
Having THREE parts does not mean that God is three; rather, it means that God is One, but with three parts! Now surely that is not too difficult to understand, is it? Try getting your head around the concept. You might be surprised just how easy it is to understand, once you get the hang of abstract ideas!
You stated in the video that God (I think you meant Allah) describes the ignorance of unbelievers throughout the Qur’an, for they neither think nor understand. Well, it’s a funny thing, but we unbelievers think the same about you folks. To us, it is so obvious that you people don’t use the grey matter God has given you! I mean, how far have you ignorant people come in the past 1400 years?
If the Qur’an is made up of the inimitable words of Allah, then why on earth is the Qur’an replete with grammatical errors? Surely God knows His grammar, doesn’t He? And by the way, what is so inimitable about the Qur’an? Why, even I could write a sentence like the ones I have read in the Qur’an. But perhaps I wouldn’t be able to copy the grammatical mistakes. That, I grant you.
In that long, drawn out video, you accuse Christianity of being “anthropomorphic”. That means to say, ladies and gentlemen, that one attributes human qualities or form to God. Now that really is a big word to use for Adam. After all, he hasn’t reached the abstract phase of life yet. Good one, Adam!
Adam, please hear me out, will you? If Christians attribute human form or characteristics to God, then it is nothing more than symbolism. Man is limited in his comprehension. He has to have something to pin his ideas to. That’s all! I wouldn’t read too much into this if I were you.
It was interesting to note that you guys reject man-made governments and man-made laws. Now we have it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. So this obviously means that Westerners can expect nothing from Muslims who live in the West. They, too, will disobey man-made laws, and man-made governments, because the laws are not based on the Shari’ah. How sick you guys are! We allow you to come and live in civilized countries, but at the first opportunity, you kick your hosts in the teeth. Do you really think that your co-religionists deserve to be allowed to stay here in the West? ‘Cause I don’t. If you can’t respect our laws, then you guys have no business being here. Period! You go find countries where you can obey the primitive laws of the Qur’an and your prophet!
One thing I must agree with you on, however: Your dislike of ‘interfaith dialogue’. There is no place for interfaith dialogue with you guys. It’s a waste of time. In fact, I even wrote an essay recently, entitled, You ‘interfaith’ if you want to. This gentleman is not for ‘interfaithing’! I think you might enjoy reading it, Adam. It will show you that not all Westerners think alike; and it will show you, too, that many of us also think that it is a waste of time to engage in dialogue with blockheads.
You went on to state that democracy does not equal freedom. Indeed, you showed nothing but contempt for the concept of democracy. So, my friend, stay there, exactly where you are and live in slavery, in slavery to your god, Allah. Worship the Ka’aba, that stone edifice which you believe is the ‘house of god’. May you find peace and fulfillment in your prayers. But please, please, don’t bring your barbaric practices here to the West. We don’t want them. Further, we don’t need them. It should be obvious to you – but it is probably not – that the West has got along very nicely without you guys for many, many centuries now. We haven’t needed you to show us the way at all. In fact, were you not to be so blind, then you would see that the West has surpassed the Islamic world: in ideas, in material goods, in medicine, in art, in music, in everything. You guys are so, so backward. If you really are Allah’s chosen people, then why has he kept you from achieving success in this life? Why? Answer me that simple question, please?
You see, Adam, the fact remains that you Muslims think about one thing, and one thing only: your religion. There are only twenty-four hours in a day. Every minute you spend thinking about Islam is one minute less you can spend thinking about achievement and worldly success.
You say that God recognizes no separation of religion and state. Speak for your god, will you? My God does. He makes a big separation between the two. That’s why my world – the West – is so civilized, and your world is not. Where there is no separation between religion and state, then everything becomes the business of the state, even being critical of religion. Hence you get people being beheaded for the minor crime of renouncing their faith.
You asked the West to convert to Islam. Well, I dare say that you will get a few crackpots (both Americans and other Westerners) here and there converting to your backward faith. But the vast majority will have more sense. Then you went on to say that if we don’t wish to convert, then we should keep our poison to ourselves. Now, Adam, you’re speaking some sense at last! I go along with that. But there is ONE proviso: You keep your poison to yourselves, too! We don’t want Islam here in the West, no more than you want Christianity there in the East.
You said that “Christianity is a hollow shell of a religion”. You went on to say that “Pauline Christianity” is the worst form of Christianity of all, because you said it was unbelievable. Well, as I said before, maybe there’s a stage of development missing there somewhere – the abstract stage.
I liked your modern turn of phrase “you’ll go to the hell-fire directly, without passing ‘go’”. Gosh, Adam, I am impressed! Are you showing us that your religion allows you even to play ‘Monopoly’? Can you really engage in diversions like that? Is this allowed?
I found it particularly interesting that you described the ‘American Dream’ as “debt, debauchery, and doubt”. Well, Adam, I've got news for you. This might have been your own, personal experience of the ‘American Dream’. But for many it is not. In a free country such as America, YOU can choose what the ‘American Dream’ means to YOU. If you want to get yourself into debt, then you can do so. If you want a debauched life, then you can have one. If you want to choose doubt over faith, then you can choose that, too. I guess what you're saying in so many words is this: You were not mature enough to handle the ‘American Dream’. I’ll grant you that not all people are mature enough to be able to do so.
Then you went on to say that “eternal happiness” is better than the fleeting delights of this world. Well, Adam, now you are guilty of judging the world by your own Islamic yardstick. There are plenty of people out there who believe that this life is the only life they have. After all, who has been to Paradise and returned?
You know, one of the problems with you folks is this: You haven’t learned to live and let live. You believe that your own truths and verities are applicable to all. But they are not.
If you go on in your way, my friend, the Islamic world will find itself embroiled in a world war in no time at all. The free world has been here before. It has already been in the position of having to rid the world of tyranny, and not so many years ago. Your ‘religion’ is tyrannical. If you don’t start playing its tyrannical side down, then we shall all have to suffer the consequences of a world war sooner than we might wish or imagine.
Respectfully
Mark Alexander
In this 'MUST VIEW' video, an Arab secularist, Wafa Sultan, tells Muslims some home truths.
Mark Alexander
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia executed on Monday an Iraqi man convicted of trafficking hashish in the strict Muslim kingdom, the official Saudi news agency said. Saudi Arabia executes Iraqi for drug dealingMark Alexander
When will people start to realize that Islam and democracy are totally incompatible? It's that simple! Clear thinking is what is needed, not all this academic hooey.
America's misreading of the Arab world—and our current misadventure in Iraq—may have really begun in 1950. That was the year a young University of London historian named Bernard Lewis visited Turkey for the first time. Lewis, who is today an imposing, white-haired sage known as the “doyen of Middle Eastern studies” in America (as a New York Times reviewer once called him), was then on a sabbatical. Granted access to the Imperial Ottoman archives—the first Westerner allowed in—Lewis recalled that he felt “rather like a child turned loose in a toy shop, or like an intruder in Ali Baba's cave.” But what Lewis saw happening outside his study window was just as exciting, he later wrote. There in Istanbul, in the heart of what once was a Muslim empire, a Western-style democracy was being born. Bernard Lewis Revisited: What if Islam isn't an obstacle to democracy in the Middle East but the secret to achieving it? by Michael Hirsh (Senior Editor of Newsweek)Mark Alexander
THE TIMES: PERSIAN PROVERBS have a particularly poetic quality to them. Among my personal favourites are: “The wise man sits on the hole in his carpet”; “You can’t pick up two melons with one hand”; and “When fortune turns against you, even jelly breaks your teeth.” Profound.Mark Alexander
Another local maxim appears to capture the outside world’s response to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. It is akin to an ancient remark: “A gentle hand may lead an elephant by a hair.” For that is clearly the approach that Kofi Annan, on behalf of the United Nations, and Javier Solana, for the European Union, are adopting. Mr Annan was in Tehran this weekend to meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the firebrand Iranian President, and ask him politely if he would mind suspending the enrichment of uranium as the UN Security Council has demanded. Señor Solana is due to see Ali Larijana, nominally Iran’s chief negotiator on these issues, this week to explore once again whether formal negotiations can start on a new package of “economic and other incentives” that might allow Iran to do what UN Resolution 1696 has sought under the threat of sanctions. What a shambles over Iran by Tim Hames
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Mark Alexander
THE SUNDAY TIMES: FAR-RIGHT extremists have adopted the tactics of Islamic jihadists by posting videos on the internet in which they threaten to behead British Muslims.Mark Alexander
The films show balaclava-clad white British men brandishing guns, knives and clubs, calling on all Muslims to leave the United Kingdom or be killed. One appears to be a soldier who has served in the Gulf.
In one film a man tells Muslims to “go home” or risk being burnt alive. He threatens: “I’ll cut your head off,” and claims to have “comrades” across Britain who have “had enough”. White extremists use terror videos to threaten Muslims
THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE: In Iraq, the world’s only superpower finds itself mired in a conflict that it cannot win. History’s mightiest military has been unable to defeat an enemy force of perhaps 20,000 to 30,000 insurgents equipped with post-World War II vintage assault rifles and anti-tank weapons. The Islamic Way of War: Muslims have stopped fighting on Western terms - and have started winning by Andrew J. BacevichMark Alexander
THE SUNDAY TIMES: THREATENED by a potentially nuclear-armed Tehran, Israel is preparing for a possible war with both Iran and Syria, according to Israeli political and military sources.Mark Alexander
The conflict with Hezbollah has led to a strategic rethink in Israel. A key conclusion is that too much attention has been paid to Palestinian militants in Gaza and the West Bank instead of the two biggest state sponsors of terrorism in the region, who pose a far greater danger to Israel’s existence, defence insiders say.
“The challenge from Iran and Syria is now top of the Israeli defence agenda, higher than the Palestinian one,” said an Israeli defence source. Shortly before the war in Lebanon Major-General Eliezer Shkedi, the commander of the air force, was placed in charge of the “Iranian front”, a new position in the Israeli Defence Forces. His job will be to command any future strikes on Iran and Syria. Israel plans for war with Iran and Syria by Uzi Mahnaimi and Sarah Baxter
Highly-paid fools all! Patience indeed, Mr Annan! Appeasement is what I call it! Appeasement reminiscent of the 1930's!
Photo couretesy of NZZ
Im Atomstreit mit dem Iran glaubt Uno-Generalsekretär Kofi Annan nicht an die Wirksamkeit von Sanktionen. Nach Gesprächen mit dem iranischen Aussenminister Manuchehr Mottaki und Chefunterhändler Ali Larijani will sich Annan am Sonntag mit dem Staatspräsidenten Mahmud Ahmedinejad treffen. Sanktionen sind laut Annan nicht das richtige MittelMark Alexander
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Photo courtesy of the BBC
Al-Qaeda has urged non-Muslims - especially in the US - to convert to Islam, according to a new videotape.Mark Alexander
The call is made by a man identified on the film as "Azzam the American", a convert also known as Adam Gadahn who is wanted for questioning by the FBI.
He says ignorance of Islam leads Westerners to accept wars waged by their governments and Israel against Muslim countries. Al-Qaeda calls on US to convert
Palestinian terrorists who held two Fox News journalists hostage for almost two weeks threatened in an online message to abduct non-Muslims visiting the Palestinian territories and kill them unless their demands were met. Fox News kidnappers vow to target 'infidels'Mark Alexander
THE TIMES: MI5 and the police are monitoring thousands of Muslims suspected of being terrorists or their supporters, Britain’s most senior terrorist investigator disclosed yesterday.Mark Alexander
Counter-terrorism experts are also concerned that the threat is no longer only being imported from abroad, as Britain becomes a breeding and training ground for the extremists. Thousands of Muslim suspects on the terror watchlist by Stewart Tendler
Watch BBC video of the arrests in London last night
BBC: Armed police have arrested 14 men following anti-terror raids in London, including 12 arrests at a restaurant in the Borough area. 14 held in terror police swoopMark Alexander
Friday, September 01, 2006
”The war we fight today is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st Century. Despite their [the various “terrorist” groups'] differences, these groups form the outline of a single movement, a worldwide network of radicals that use terror to kill those who stand in the way of their totalitarian ideology. And the unifying feature of this movement, the link that spans sectarian divisions and local grievances, is the rigid conviction that free societies are a threat to their twisted view of Islam.” - President Bush
President Bush’s foreign policy with regard to “Islamic terrorists” has no foundation. It is like the house built on sand! If President Bush really thinks that this war against “Islamic terrorists” is going to be won by ignoring the cause of the problem we face, then he is deluding himself.
No war was ever won without identifying the enemy. A doctor cannot effect a cure for a sick man if he doesn’t identify the disease. He cannot beat the disease simply by treating the symptoms. In order for the doctor to beat the disease, he must first identify the disease itself. Similarly, if we are to win this war, we have to identify the root cause of the problems we face. We must ask ourselves where is all this hatred stemming from? What is at the root of the problem?
One has to be either ignorant, stupid, foolish, or just plain obstinate not to see that the root cause of our problems with “terrorists” is Islam itself. These are “Islamic terrorists”, and they are fired by their religion, Islam, to take over the rest of the world, and Islamize it. These “Islamic terrorists” are actually jihadis, and they are out to turn the “House of War”, or Dar ul Harb, into the “House of Islam”, or Dar ul Islam.
These jihadis don't have any “twisted view of Islam” at all! In fact, they have a very good understanding of their religion, and they intend to live by its tenets. YOU, Mr President, have a “twisted” view of Islam, not the jihadis! They know what they are doing, but do you know what you are doing? That is the question YOU need to ask YOURSELF!
What is happening in the world today is nothing much different from what has been happening in the world for the past 1400 years. Muslims have been busy Islamizing the world for about that long. But, of course, there have been quiet spells, because they haven’t always had the money to finance the jihad as they have today. When people are forced, through poverty, to dwell in tents as Bedouins, they have their next meal to think about; so they fight, if at all, amongst themselves. These days, however, they are awash with petrodollars; so they have plenty of money, billions in fact, to finance their jihadi activities. And, Mr President, you need look no further than your big chums in Saudi Arabia for evidence of the petrodollars being used around the world to finance and propagate their particularly pernicious brand of Islam – Wahhabism. Yet you continue to insist on cozying up to the Saudis, insisting that they are your friends and allies.
Then, on the other side of the Persian Gulf, we have the Iranians. They, too, are awash with cash to finance their Shiite version of Islam throughout the world. We have them financing such jihadi organizations as Hizbullah. And the Syrians help the Iranians along.
So we have a fight on a grand scale for supremacy in the world – Sunni and Shiite Islam. We in the West are allowing both forms of Islam to be propagated here at home, in the form of mosques (where hatred of the infidel and anti-Semitism are propagated), in the form of propagation centres proper, in the form of madrassahs, in the form of university chairs in what were once respectable Western universities, thus shutting up professors and getting them on side. The list goes on. Yet YOU, Mr President, insist that the version of Islam the jihadis are working hard to propagate throughout the world is a “twisted” one.
When you speak like this, you make yourself sound foolish, very foolish indeed. It also makes one think that people at the very top in government are being paid off by their Saudi masters for speaking highly of a faith that is out to destroy the West, destroy democracy, and destroy freedom.
When did you last read a history book, Mr President? Have you ever read anything about the crusades? Have you ever read anything about al-Andalus, and how it took the Spanish centuries to rid Spain of Islamic influence? Do you have any idea of what is really going on? Or are you just being shut up by your Saudi masters because you and your henchmen such as Cheney are in their pay?
Something sinister is going on here in the West! Something rotten!
You have talked so much about bringing democracy to the Middle East. Forget it! Middle Easterners, by and large, don’t want Western democracy. This is obvious to all but the blind. What they want is to follow the Islamic path, they want Islamic theocracy. So what you need to do is not spend your energy and the resources of the West on a vain attempt to bring democracy to them; rather you should be diverting your energy and the West’s resources to ensuring that Muslims don’t manage to bring their anti-democratic, pro-Islamic theocratic ideas here to the West! That is our real danger, Mr President. Keep Islam out of the West as far as is humanly possible! Stunt its growth here! Reverse any trends you can!
Islam has entered the West and has put down roots here. Sadly! They did the same in Egypt and Syria and Libya centuries ago. And look what happened to those countries! They are now Islamic. The same will happen to the West, because leaders like you steadfastly refuse either to see or to understand what is happening under our very noses.
Your speech to the military veterans in Salt Lake City was a tame one. It lacks conviction; so it is certainly not convincing. Further, until and unless you change your tired, worn-out tune, until you stop making lame excuses for the very belligerent religion of Islam, you will never win this war, and you will never carry the people, either in the US, Europe, Australasia, or any other part of the free world, with you. You are wasting your time. You have hyped up Iraq, probably to save your own face; but Iraq was never the real problem, Islam was, is, and ever will be.
No, Mr President, the jihadis do not have a “twisted” version of their faith, YOU do! When will you ever learn? Simply put, Mr President, and as the Democratic Party's one-time strategist, James Carville, might have said: It’s the religion, Stupid!
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
BBC: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has overtaken US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as the world's most powerful woman, says Forbes magazine. Merkel trumps Rice on power listMark Alexander
BBC: International donors have pledged $500m (£262m) of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territories, well above the UN's target figure of $330m.Mark Alexander
The pledge came at a conference in Sweden after UN aid chief Jan Egeland called Gaza a "ticking time bomb".
Palestinians have been living on restricted aid since Hamas's election victory, and until now the UN had struggled to reach its target. Donors pledge Palestinians $500m
New York - A Sharia’h Advisory Board has been formed by Anchor Finance Group, LLC, New York (Anchor Finance Group), which will provide guidance to Anchor Finance Group in its North American and overseas Sharia’h-compliant financing activities. AFG, with an established base in North American Muslim communities, is poised to position itself as the leading financial services provider in the region. Sharia'h Advisory Board formed by Anchor Finance Group, LLC, New YorkMark Alexander
NRO: Hezbollah’s black-clad legions goose-step and stiff-arm salute in parade, apparently eager to convey both the zeal and militarism of their religious fascism. Meanwhile, consider Hezbollah’s “spiritual” head, Hassan Nasrallah — the current celebrity of an unhinged Western media that tried to reinvent the man’s own self-confessed defeat as a victory. Long before he hid in the Iranian embassy Nasrallah was on record boasting: “The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win because they love life and we love death.”Mark Alexander
Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad trumps that Hitlerian nihilism by reassuring the poor, maltreated Germans that there was no real Holocaust. Perhaps he is concerned that greater credit might still go to Hitler for Round One than to the mullahs for their hoped-for Round Two, in which the promise is to “wipe” Israel off the map.
The only surprise about the edition of Hitler’s Mein Kampf that has become a best seller in Middle Eastern bookstores is its emboldened title translated as “Jihadi” — as in “My Jihad” — confirming in ironic fashion the “moderate” Islamic claim that Jihad just means “struggle,” as in an “inner struggle” — as in a Kampf perhaps. The Waiting Game: Do we really need further convincing of the threat we face? by Victor Davis Hanson
The world does indeed need to understand the genuine Islam, Mr Ahmadinejad: It needs to understand what Islam has always meant: conquering the world by the sword!
IRNA: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Thursday night that the world is thirsty for understanding core of genuine Islam. World thirsty for genuine Islam: PresidentMark Alexander
Is it me, or does someone else see the similarities between the photograph of a one Khattab as provided by Le Figaro, and the Jewish convert, Khattab, in the video underneath, as provided by YOU TUBE. To me, they seem remarkably alike. I would be interested to receive your comments.
LE FIGARO: LE DÉMANTÈLEMENT d'un réseau terroriste met depuis plusieurs semaines l'appareil sécuritaire marocain en émoi. Selon Rabat, les membres du groupe baptisé Ansar el-Mahdi avaient prévu de lancer une vague d'attentats de grande ampleur avec à la clé des attaques contre des ministères et des diplomates étrangers. Entendu la semaine dernière par une commission parlementaire, le ministre de l'Intérieur, Chakib Benmoussa, a affirmé que les djihadistes mis hors état de nuire préparaient des opérations contre des cibles sensibles, des intérêts étrangers et des personnalités marocaines. Intervenant aux côtés de son ministre délégué Fouad Ali el-Himma, l'homme de confiance du roi, le ministre a précisé que les membres de l'organisation islamiste disposaient de «quantités de matières servant à fabriquer des explosifs beaucoup plus importantes que celles saisies lors des attentats terroristes du 16 mai 2003 à Casablanca». Et avant-hier, la police a précisé que les membres du réseau avaient prévu de capturer des responsables politiques de l'Union socialiste des forces populaires (USFP) dont le ministre des Finances, Fathallah Oualalou, et le ministre de l'Aménagement du territoire, Mohammed el-Yazghi. Vaste complot terroriste déjoué au Maroc
Mark Alexander
YNET NEWS: The wooden puppet in Carlo Collodi's classic book that wanted to become a real boy was blessed with many interesting features and never ceased to amaze his father, but it now turns out he was also MuslimMark Alexander
In a new version of the book, that was released in Turkey, Pinocchio turns to his father and emotionally announces: "In the name of Allah, give me some bread." Along with dozens of other books that were included in a list recommended by the Turkish Ministry of Education, "Pinocchio" was forced to become Muslim. Pinocchio converts to Islam? by Natasha Mozgovia
THE TIMES: KEN LIVINGSTONE has accused Trevor Phillips, Britain’s race equality chief, of becoming so right wing that he could “join the BNP”.Mark Alexander
The bitter attack, made during a live radio interview, was immediately denounced by the Tories as disgraceful, and led to calls for an apology. It follows the furore caused by Mr Livingstone, the Mayor of London, when he compared a Jewish journalist to a Nazi concentration camp guard.
Mr Livingstone made the BNP gibe after Mr Phillips, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality, made a speech in which he said that mass immigration was changing the face of Britain, and that the costs of it could no longer be ignored. In a series of controversial statements, Mr Phillips has also criticised multiculturalism, said that Muslims who want Sharia (Muslim law) should leave Britain and that Britain is “sleepwalking to segregation” between its ethnic communities. Race chief could be in the BNP, says Livingstone by Anthony Browne
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