MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• For US Muslims, a 9/11 Anniversary Like No Other.American Muslims are boosting security at mosques, seeking help from leaders of other faiths and airing ads underscoring their loyalty to the United States — all ahead of a 9/11 anniversary they fear could bring more trouble for their communities.Their goal is not only to protect Muslims, but also to prevent them from retaliating if provoked. One Sept. 11 protest in New York against the proposed mosque near ground zero is expected to feature Geert Wilders, the aggressively anti-Islam Dutch lawmaker. The same day in Gainesville, Fla., the Dove World Outreach Center plans to burn copies of the Quran.On Sept. 11 in Chicago, Zeenat Rahman, a 34-year-old native of the city, will visit a local nursing home with Muslim and non-Muslim friends to spend time with residents and help serve a meal.Hmm i presume halal only?I hope all bloggers will mention the number of Islamic attacks on 9/11 compared to the rest of the other religions on that day!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Tehran pays Taliban for every US casualty.Intelligence sources in Afghanistan, senior Taliban officials tell Sunday Times about training camps built by Iran for terror activists, money they receive for their 'achievements' - $1,000 for each soldier and $6,000 for each vehicle.At least five Iranian companies are sending money to the Islamist terror group in Afghanistan in order to fund the fighting against Western powers, led by the United States, according to a Sunday Times report, which quoted Taliban sources.Afghani intelligence and Taliban officials told how the money is transferred from Iranian straw-men companies to Afghani rebels. Intelligence officials in the West believe the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps the driving force behind these companies.Hmmm no wonder they need "New" banks.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Japanese journalist kidnapped five months ago is freed by his Taliban captors... because he is 'a fellow Muslim'.Tsuneoka's captors apparently decided to release him because he is a fellow Muslim, Kyodo said.According to his personal website, Tsuneoka converted to the religion in 2000 while in Moscow.Hopes for his release grew over the weekend after two new messages in English suddenly emerged on his Twitter account.He assured his followers that he was alive and in jail in Kunduz. It was not clear how or why the messages were sent.Hmmmm i'm sure he'll write a very positive story about the Taliban in near future?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Reflections on a hijab-wearing Iranian feminist and how she touched my life.I had mixed feelings about the Council of Ex-Muslims, as they're strong advocates of women's human rights, but also exhibit anti-Muslim bias. But I decided to accept the invitation, since many of the group's founders are involved in Iranian women's issues and I was working, at the time, on a report for WLUML on the contemporary Iranian women's movement.At the event, a number of the panelists talked about how the label "Muslim"had been forced upon them — either because their families were Muslim or because they lived in Muslim-majority countries. Many now considered themselves secular humanists, and told harrowing stories of the abuse they had suffered in the name of Islam.The audience was filled with human-rights advocates, journalists, and friends of the panelists. One individual, however, stood out — the only hijab-wearing woman in the audience. She stood in the back, occasionally scribbling notes on her legal pad.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Move over Shrek, for Japan's aquatic ogre.And you thought Shrek liked hanging out only in his swamp. Turns out there's a fish that greatly resembles the green ogre swimming off the coast of Japan.A buzzy video shot by a scuba diver made its way to WYFF-TV in Greenville, S.C. The station explains that this particular fish is an Asian sheepshead wrasse, and it is relatively common. What's less common is that this particular fish, estimated to be about 30 years old, bears a startling resemblance to the grouchy ogre. The head, the chin, the beady eyes - it's all there. Alas, no sign of Donkey or Fiona.Read ans see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Egypt's Mohamed ElBaradei alleges 'smear campaign'.Former UN chief nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei has accused Egypt's government of being behind a smear campaign targeting his family.A government-run newspaper had said the ElBaradeis were accused of being atheists and having a daughter married to a non-Muslim.Mr ElBaradei said this was how "the regime" responded to reformers.He has been seen as a potential presidential candidate in Egypt, a Muslim-majority state.Speculation is high about who may replace Hosni Mubarak, the country's 82-year-old president, who is known to be unwell but has no obvious successor after nearly 30 years in office.Read the full story here and here.Click here for comments.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Obama administration decided to continue aid to Lebanese Armed Forces?Lebanese newspaper an-Nahar reported on Saturday that the Obama administration has decided to continue providing military assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces. Diplomatic sources revealed that the American administration has decided to continue its military aid to the Lebanese army, reported the daily An Nahar Saturday.Silly me. I thought it was Howard Berman (D-Cal) and Nita Lowey (D-NY) who had blocked aid to the LAF. So how can the Obama administration unblock it?Read the rest of the story here.Click here for comments.

• Abu Rdeina slams Ahmadinejad: Who Forged Elections, Doesnt Represent Our Irani Friends.In response to the attacks made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the Palestinian leadership after the Washington meetings, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for the Presidency, said 'he who does not represent the Iranian people, who forged elections and who suppresses the Iranian people and stole the authority, is not entitled to talk about Palestine, or the President of Palestine."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Western Withdrawal Date Brings Old Debate On Islamic Law Into Focus.Nine years after the toppling of their hard-line regime, the Taliban are making a comeback in rural Afghanistan with their harsh system of justice and strict social controls.In Qarabagh, a district in Afghanistan's central Ghazni Province, the Taliban have forced the closure of all girl schools and banned sports, music, and dancing. Women are barred from employment and forced to wear the all-encompassing burqa, while men are ordered to cover their heads, too. Public schools for boys were kept open only after dramatically increasing Islamic lessons.The Taliban push for implementing Shari'a law has sparked a debate about whether the Western withdrawal from Afghanistan -- set to begin in July 2011 -- and Kabul's drive for reconciliation with the Taliban will encourage conservative Islamic clerics and hard-line Islamists, including the moderate elements of the Taliban, to push for the implementation of a harsh justice system that would directly contradict the human-rights guarantees enshrined in the current Afghan Constitution.Read the full story here.My take on it all the coalition soldiers that were killed and wounded are being betrayed by the leaders of Afghanistan at this moment everything was in vain!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Iran hangs five for "anti-revolutionary" activities.Iran hanged five people accused of "anti-revolutionary" acts, including "moharebe" or waging war against God, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday."The five, including one woman, were hanged inside Tehran's Evin prison on Sunday morning ... They confessed carrying out deadly terrorist operations in the country in the past years," IRNA said.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• The Corleons of Kandahar are Doomed to Fail Afghanistan.President Karzai met with tribal leaders hoping for their support in his rift with Washington. Instead, his meetings were a total disaster with tribal leaders demonstrating a clear lack of confidence in, not only his policies but his personal leadership as well. With accusations of personal failings, from a possible drug habit, to rigged elections and close relations with narcotics operations, followed by erratic behavior culminating in threats to “join the Taliban,” President Karzai couldn’t be facing worse challenges. However, the story of the Karzai disaster starts long before his current problems.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• UC Irvine upholds suspension of Muslim group, bans it for one quarter.The group must complete 100 hours of community service before applying for reinstatement. A yearlong ban had been urged. The penalty stems from the disruption of the Israeli ambassador's speech.The group has maintained that it did not organize the protest, though several of its officers and members participated in the protest, in which Oren was repeatedly interrupted as he spoke.The e-mails, which the school said it obtained anonymously, showed that the Muslim Student Union "planned, orchestrated and coordinated" the protest, school administrators had said in the previous suspension letter.Read the rest of the story here.Click here for comments.

• San Francisco Covers-UP, Protects Unlicensed, Uninsured, Possible Undocumented Latina Involved in Accident; Police Say: “No Charges Will be Filed” for Seriously Injuring Five People!Five hospitalized after SUV plows into crowd “An unlicensed, uninsured 24-year-old woman driving a Ford Explorer careened through a group of people waiting for a bus in Visitacion Valley on Tuesday morning, sending people to the hospital with serious injuries. Two of the victims were in critical condition Tuesday afternoon, with the others said to be seriously injured. The driver of the SUV was uninjured in the crash.Here is another accident by unlicensed, uninsured and possibly undocumented alien, who sent five people to the hospital, with very costly and serious injuries.The city of San Francisco wants to protect her from the Feds and there are no charges being filed. “She remained at the scene, spoke to officers and was cooperating,” Andraychak said. “I don’t know if we are [pressing charges.]” And no charges being pressed, because she’s an illegal alien, that’s got to take the cake of all cakes!Read the full story here.Click here for comments. 

• Egyptian Cleric Sa'd Arafat: Islam Permits Wife Beating Only When She Refuses to Have Sex with Her Husband.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Just Out: TIME Magazine’s Latest Blood Libel About Israel. The cover story is titled “Why Israel Doesn’t Care About Peace” and is illustrated by a large Jewish star composed of daisies. Yes, daises—as in “counting daisies, don’t have a care in the world.”You can read the full story here.I for one had it with Time this magazine won't be read anymore by yours truly and i hope the world will speak up against their ways!Click here for comments.

• Video:Hamas TV Cartoon Depicts Koran-Based Story of Jews Being Transformed into Apes.Ok Darwin had it all wrong,some species evolve backwards it seems?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Amid religious crackdown, some Iran academics hope to one day 'approach' 20th century.Iran's education system was already ailing, but now the supreme leader is ushering in a plan that aims to raise the students' religiosity and curb the consumer culture.Hmmm perhaps Israel can help them back to the Stone Age?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Venezuela's Jews turn to Chavez over state media's anti-Semitism .Verbal, written attacks in Venezuelan media include hints that Jews are damaging the country's economy, along the lines of the 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'."This anti-Semitism is troubling us all and it needs to cease immediately," said David Bittan Obadia, deputy chairman of the Jewish community of Venezuela Friday. "We are not saying this is the government policy; however, [the government] is capable of putting a stop to the phenomenon. It has the tools. We will be very direct and adamant in the things we will tell President Chavez."I guess his friendship with Ahmadinejad will account for some of this anti -Semitism.Read the full story here.Clik here to comment.

• Iran Sentences Woman Condemned to Death by Stoning to 99 Lashes After a Picture of Her Without a Hijab Appeared in British Paper.Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, has also been sentenced to 99 lashes for a photo published of her without a headscarf, according to her son. In an interview published on the website of the French magazine La Regle du Jeu and the blog Dentelles et Tchador, Mohammadi-Ashtiani's son Sajjad said they learned of the new punishment from released inmates.The photo "... is certainly not that of my mother," said Sajjad.It seems again that truth is a very rare item in Islamic Iran.Read the whole story here and here.Click for comments here.

• It Begs the Question.All Men Are CREATED Equal.Right off the bat I will admit publicly that, unlike the Obamanation, I am NOT an internationally recognized scholar when it comes to The Declaration of Independence. Nor do I vacation on Martha’s Vineyard….. but I digress. All that said, there is a portion of the Declaration that either is missed by scholars or intentionally misinterpreted by today’s pundits — especially those on the Left — and that needs to be brought to your attention.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Afghan Officials Seek to Shore Up Bank.KABUL, Afghanistan — In a bid to fend off the threat of a nationwide financial crisis, the Afghan government scrambled to come up with the funds to bail out Afghanistan’s largest bank on Saturday after lines of frantic depositors mobbed the bank for a third day.Details of the deal were still being worked out on Saturday by the Central Bank of Afghanistan with technical assistance from the United States Treasury Department, Afghan and American officials said. But American officials said no United States funds were involved in the bailout.Read the full story here.Click here to comment.

• Growing Islamic finance should diversify, regulate: Analysts.Diversification into new countries will reduce risk of exposure and utilise full potential.Islamic finance, which prohibits charging interest, is set to double in size in five years, but the $1-trillion industry must diversify and regulate to realise its full potential, analysts and economic reports say.Diversification into new territories is also necessary to reduce the risk of exposure and utilise their full potential, they add.Islamic law not only forbids charging or paying interest, but also bans speculation and investment in sectors deemed haram (prohibited), such as pornography, gambling, arms, alcohol and pork products.Read the full story here.Click here to comment.

• Oval Office rug gets history wrong.A mistake has been made in the Oval Office makeover that goes beyond the beige.President Obama's new presidential rug seemed beyond reproach, with quotations from Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. woven along its curved edge."The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." According media reports, this quote keeping Obama company on his wheat-colored carpet is from King.Except it's not a King quote.The words belong to a long-gone Bostonian champion of social progress. His roots in the republic ran so deep that his grandfather commanded the Minutemen at the Battle of Lexington.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• BP Gulf well "secured," awaiting final kill: U.S.BP Plc's ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well is secure with no threat of spewing crude again, the top U.S. official overseeing the spill response said on Saturday."We basically have secured this well," retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said. "We have essentially eliminated the threat of discharge from the well at this point."A cap atop failed blowout preventer equipment on the Macondo well had sealed in all oil flow since July 15. On Friday, BP replaced the failed equipment with a new giant stack of valves and pipes.Once the new blowout preventer is tested, BP can resume drilling a relief well that will bore into the Macondo well and pump in mud and cement to plug it for good."We should be ready to move forward with the relief well sometime next week," Allen said.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Ottoman princess to bring Jermaine Jackson to İstanbul for charity project.İstanbul had a royal visit last week. Princess Nilüfer Cem Sultan visited the city as a guest of internationally famous fashion designer Atıl Kutoğlu -- to attend his İstanbul Fashion Week show.The association plans to hold the fund-raising ball at Yıldız Palace in İstanbul. Jermaine Jackson will contribute a performance at the ball, which is expected to take place in around two months and which Nilüfer Sultan hopes will raise $200,000.The money will go towards the project’s expenses, including the salaries of nannies who can speak Hebrew and Arabic. Initially 20 children – 10 Palestinian and 10 Jewish – will take part in the three-month program.The princess also noted that she will attend another US meeting in September where she expects to meet US President Barack Obama and his wife Michele Obama, in an event at the Turkish Embassy in Washington.That will be a change for the President and his wife after meeting all these Christians these last months?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• U.S. to temper stance on Afghan corruption.U.S. commanders in southern Afghanistan are adopting a strategy that increasingly places the priority on fighting the Taliban even if that means tolerating some corruption.Military officials in the region have concluded that the Taliban's insurgency is the most pressing threat to stability in some areas and that a sweeping effort to drive out corruption could create chaos and a governance vacuum that the Taliban could exploit."There are areas where you need strong leadership, and some of those leaders are not entirely pure," said a senior defense official. "But they can help us be more effective in going after the primary threat, which is the Taliban."Nice if you believe this.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Islam has taken over Europe and is fully intent on conquering America. Islam has slowly gained momentum in America, notably since 9/11, using freedom of religion as a weapon of war to literally take over American city streets.In an attempt to warn America, Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) reporter Dale Hurd met with Parisian “Maxime Lepante,” (an alias to protect the Parisian’s identity from Islamic threats) who secretly filmed the Islamic conquest of France, exposing it so it can be prevented in America. Lepante’s video reveals over-crowded Paris streets with thousands of Muslims on their knees praying, stopping traffic, and making it impossible for pedestrians to enter places of business. The video is a dire presage for Americans facing invasion by dominant subjugation in the streets of New York City.Islamization Takes Over the Streets of Europe: is America Next?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• What are Chinese troops doing in Kashmir?Delhi wants China to keep out of Kashmiri affairs, but it should focus on a deal that sees troops all on sides withdrawing.The claim that more than 7,000 Chinese troops have been handed "de facto control" of Gilgit-Baltistan, a northern part of Kashmir, by Islamabad, has set alarm bells ringing in Delhi. India – which, like its nuclear-armed rival Pakistan, claims the entire state – has long been worried that the People's Liberation Army was working on roads and railway projects in the Karakoram mountains.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Eugene Robinson Accidentally Exposes the Left’s Lack of Respect for American Voters.Not only does Robinson serve as a prime example of the Left‘s lack of respect and appreciation for middle America, he’s also a great example of its arrogance. Leftists truly believe, in their hearts, that they are better than you are. They know what’s best for you, even if you don’t. They know how you should live your life, even if you disagree. They are smart, you are stupid (and bigoted).Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Sexual harassment at workplace remains serious problem in Turkey.Despite laws that were introduced to improve the rights of women in the face of incidences of sexual harassment, the frequency of sexual harassment cases in the workplace shows that it is still a problem that needs to be addressed more comprehensively due to weaknesses in relevant laws, women’s rights activists say.“No one is interested about the thoughts or education of women. What draws attention is a woman’s body,” she complains. She also underlines that many woman who are exposed to sexual harassment in the workplace remain silent and do not complain about the assailants. “Why? Because even women ask about the victim, ‘What did she do to provoke him?’ And so women remain silent, fearing that they will be accused. Although women have begun to raise their voices in such cases, there is widespread silence on the matter,” she said.Women rights and Islam?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.