MFS -The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• ANALYSIS-Sharia law threatens Moscow control in Muslim Chechnya.Aspects of sharia law imposed in Muslim Chechnya in recent months are inching the republic closer to autonomy and posing a renewed threat to Kremlin control, analysts say.Earlier this month Chechnya's spiritual leader successfully ordered the shutting down of all eateries during the holy month of Ramadan. Separately, many women said they had been harassed by men for not wearing headscarves in what some of the assailants said were instructions from religious authorities.The Ramadan orders followed words of praise from Kadyrov who told state TV he was grateful to attackers who targeted women with paintball pellets in June for not wearing headscarves.Read the full story here.

• Rev. Jeremiah Wright: Obama Muslim myth believers 'psychopaths'.The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President Barack Obama's controversial former pastor, referred to people who wrongly believe Obama is Muslim as "psychopaths" during a fiery sermon Sunday in Arkansas.Read the full story here.

• Undercurrents below the Ground Zero mosque.Overall, the message that emerges from this discourse can hardly be missed: When Muslim grievance is at question,America is the culprit.I have been trying hard to find an explanation for the intense controversy surrounding the Cordoba Initiative, whereby 71 percent of Americans object to the proposed project of building a mosque next to Ground Zero.I cannot agree with the theory that such broad resistance represents Islamophobic sentiments, nor that it is a product of a “rightwing” smear campaign against one imam or another.Americans are neither bigots nor gullible.Deep sensitivity to the families of 9/11 victims was cited as yet another explanation, but this too does not answer the core question.Read the rest of the story here.

• Mosque owes big  224G tax.The mosque developers are tax deadbeats.Sharif El-Gamal, the leading organizer behind the mosque and community center near Ground Zero, owes $224,270.77 in back property tax on the site, city records show.El-Gamal's company, 45 Park Place Partners, failed to pay its half-yearly bills in January and July, according to the city Finance Department.The delinquency is a possible violation of El-Gamal's lease with Con Edison, which owns half of the proposed building site on Park Place. El-Gamal owns the other half but must pay taxes on the entire parcel.Read the full story here. 

• More millions of displaced people in Sindh as military confirms killing of volunteers.The Indus River broke its banks today near Thatta. Two more weeks of rain are expected. "The floods seem determined to outrun our efforts,” UN says. Three humanitarian workers are abducted and killed; others are wounded. Taliban want to take aid and redistribute in order to gain support.“Foreign aid workers were working in Mingora and surrounding areas. On 23 August, they were returning to their base when a group of Taliban attacked their van, injuring five or six people, and abducting three foreigners,” said Atif-ur-Rehman, district co-ordination officer. The bodies of the three volunteers were recovered only in the morning of 25 August.Read the full story here.

• 2 families attacked in Qalandiya after losing their way.Two Israeli couples, their kids accidentally enter refugee camp, get pelted with stones by locals. 'We already said our last prayers,' one passenger says. Palestinian gas station worker eventually helps them find way out.Two Israeli families accidentally entered the Qalandiya refugee camp and were pelted with stones on Saturday. "We already said our last prayers," one of the passengers said. They eventually found their way out with the help of a Palestinian gas station worker.Read the full story here.

• The Age of Apostasy.So it was with some interest that I heard a human rights activist say that Maher El-Gohary’s daughter sought President Obama’s help to get the her conversion recognized before she became an adult in order to avoid liability for a more severe punishment for apostasy if she officially changed religion later. After all, if President Obama is so hot on the right to build a mosque near Ground Zero he might be expected to sympathize with a 16-year-old who just wanted to become a Christian because his “commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable.” Of course her request was ignored. The reality is that presidents are too busy to help obscure Egyptian families, although they are not too busy to attend Ramadan dinners to endorse $100 million mosques. Justice under politics is like that.Read the full story here,with video. 

• Obama’s Failure in Sudan.When President Obama was seeking the White House, he criticized Republicans for not doing enough on Darfur and insisted that he would make Sudan a priority.Yet these days, Mr. Obama is presiding over an incoherent, contradictory and apparently failing Sudan policy. There is a growing risk that Sudan will be the site of the world’s bloodiest war in 2011, and perhaps a new round of genocide as well. This isn’t America’s fault, but neither are we using all of our leverage to avert it.There are plenty of bogus reasons for criticizing Mr. Obama’s foreign policy, but this is a legitimate one. And in a place like Sudan, American diplomatic malpractice could lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths.Read the full story here. 

• How can any American not approve of Glenn Beck's rally?In Beck's own words, the 'Restoring Honor' event was non-partisan. It would simply be about Americans, all kinds of Americans, expressing a desire to stand strong with our founding principles. All of us should be able to relate in 'faith, hope, and charity' as we look to 'divine providence' for guidance.Full story here.

• Fears of new Mohammed crisis.Jyllands-Postens culture editor is to release a new book including a page containing a reprint of controversial caricatures.A leading U.S. terrorism expert has warned of renewed tensions between the Muslim world and Denmark in connection with plans by Jyllands-Postens Culture Editor Flemming Rose to release a book in which caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed are reprinted.In his ‘The tyranny of silence’ Rose studies the 12 controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, which were first published in Jyllands-Posten in 2005.Full story here.

• HT:IslaminEurope.Brussels: Serbs vs. Muslims.Brussels: Serbs vs. MuslimsIn fights before and after the Anderlecht - Partizan Belgrade Champions League qualifications match, two fans of the Serbian champion were seriously injured . The fans challenged a group of immigrant youths next to the Brussels South stations. Two Serbians were badly injured. One of them is in intensive care at Saint Peter's Hospital and his life is in danger. According to the latest reports, he is brain-dead.Full story here.

• Obama: Iraq begins and ends with I, I, I.If his weekly address is any indication, the American electorate will have to wait for some other opportunity for its Chief Executive to show a little class. Try to count all of the self-references as Obama sprains his shoulder through overly enthusiastic backpatting:Total mentions of Bush: zero. Total mentions of victory: zero. Total mentions of “I” in speech: six, including the three in the excerpt above.Full story here. 

• Video:LaRouche Supporter With Obama/Hitler Sign Roughed Up By Security at Alaska State Fair. As odious as some political messages are, one doubts the founding fathers' vision of free speech and assembly is exemplified by the actions of the private security guards in this video. The first three minutes show the attempts that were made to peacefully expel the man with the sign showing President Obama with a Hitler mustache.

• Diana West: Islam outlaws all the things that allow Bloomberg to tolerate it."We are Americans, each with an equal right to worship and pray where we choose," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said this week. "There is nowhere in the five boroughs that is off limits to any religion."Our founding documents guarantee that - and not just in the five boroughs.But the unprecedented furor over plans for a mosque complex at ground zero tells us there is a coalescing sense that Islam is more than a "mere" religion as non-Muslims conceive of "religion." It is becoming clear to people, despite the gag of political correctness, that there's a reason "Islam" means "submission."Read the rest of the story here.

• Exclusive Transcript: Al Sharpton's 'I Have a Scheme' Speech, Keynote Address of the 8/28 'Restoring Dishonor' Counter Protest.Cub Reporter Biff Spackle files this report from Al Sharpton's 'Restoring Dishonor' counter-protest in Washington, DC.Full story here.

• Examiner Editorial: Think the economy is bad? Worse is coming.Economic prospects continue to grow gloomier as the Commerce Department on Friday revised the second-quarter growth rate substantially downward from the initial estimate of 2.4 percent to a mere 1.6 percent. Just to stay on an even keel in terms of job creation, the growth rate needs to be at least 3 percent. It has averaged only 2.9 percent for the past four quarters. Virtually every key economic indicator is pointing in either the wrong direction or is barely leaning to the positive side.Read the full story here.