MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• HT:BigPeace.Top Islamic Scholars Say Jews and Christians Know Islam Is True, Purposely Removed Muhammad from the Bible.Muslim spokesmen and Islamic apologists in the West love to trot out the “shared Judeo-Christian-Islamic heritage and values” line, insinuating that Muslims worship the same God as Jews and Christians, and also revere their prophets and scriptures. For example, Dr. John Esposito, director of the Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown, asserted in his 1992 book Islam and the Straight Path that “Media images of Islam have often obscured the fact that Muslims, Jews and Christians share much in common. … Like Jews and Christians, Muslims worship the God of Abraham and Moses, [and] believe in God’s revelation and prophets…” Statements like these are carefully crafted to assuage Jewish and Christian misgivings about some of Islam’s violent and intolerant teachings. Unfortunately these statements have no basis in Islamic doctrine. When high-ranking Islamic clerics speak candidly on these same topics in Arabic, when they don’t think the West is listening, an entirely different picture emerges.it’s hard to give any credence to those who speak soothing words about the “shared Judeo-Christian-Islamic heritage.” But more importantly, it is precisely this anti-Jewish and anti-Christian attitude in Islam that provides the atmosphere in which Jews and Christians can be persecuted and killed by Muslims for the slightest offenses (and even imaginary ones), as we’re seeing currently in Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, and even ‘moderate’ Indonesia.Hmmmmm........."The Truth shall set you free".Read the full story here.

• Palestinians call for UN vote Friday on a resolution condemning Israeli settlements.The Palestinians are calling for a U.N. Security Council vote Friday on a resolution condemning Israeli settlements.Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer, announced the move late Wednesday after it was approved in a closed-door meeting of the 22-member Arab Group, which rejected a compromise proposal by the United States.Diplomats said the United States had proposed a weaker Security Council statement, promised to include language sought by the Palestinians in the next communique of the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers and to support a council visit to the Middle East.Friday's vote puts the Obama administration in a difficult position because a veto would anger the Palestinians and its many supporters while an abstention would anger the Israelis.Hmmmmm......Lets see what "They don't trust me because of my middle name does"?Read the full story here.

• HT:Debka.Two Iranian warships transit Suez for Syria, tighten siege on Israel.Twenty-four hours after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the Egyptian upheaval had no military connotations for Israel, the Iranian frigate Alvand and cruiser Kharg transited the Suez Canal on their way to Syria Wednesday night, Feb. 16. Their passage was termed "a provocation" by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. In Beirut, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah said he was looking forward to Israel going to war on Lebanon because then his men would capture Galilee.debkafile's military sources report that Iran is rapidly seizing the fall of the Mubarak regime in Cairo and the Saudi King Abdullah's falling-out with President Barack Obama as an opportunity not to be missed for establishing a foothold along the Suez Canal and access to the Mediterranean for six gains:

1. To cut off, even partially, the US military and naval Persian Gulf forces from their main route for supplies and reinforcements.
2. To establish an Iranian military-naval grip on the Suez Canal, through which 40 percent of the world's maritime freights pass every day.
3. To bring an Iranian military presence close enough to menace the Egyptian heartland of Cairo and the Nile Delta and squeeze it into joining the radical Iranian-Syrian-Iraqi-Turkish alliance.
4. To thread a contiguous Iranian military-naval line from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea through the Suez Canal and the Gaza Strip and up to the ports of Lebanon, where Hizballah has already seized power and toppled the pro-West government.
5. To eventually sever the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, annex it to the Gaza Strip and establish a large Hamas-ruled Palestinian state athwart the Mediterranean, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea.By comparison, a Fatah-led Palestinian state on the West Bank within the American orbit be politically and strategically inferior.
6. To tighten the naval and military siege on Israel.Hmmmm......The glove has been thrown down,will Israel pick it up?The consequences could be enormous.Read the full story here.

• Nasrallah - 'Hezbollah will conquer Galilee if there is war'. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday that he is ready for another war with Israel, AFP reported."I tell the fighters of the resistance that one day they might be asked to liberate the Galilee," Nasrallah said at a "Resistance Martyrs Day" ceremony."The Israelis are afraid," Nasrallah said. "I want to assure you and tell the Israelis that they should be careful because the blood of Imad Mugniyeh will not go to waste.""Gantz came to visit the Lebanon border - welcome," Nasrallah said, referring to the new IDF chief of staff. "He is the one that was defeated and pulled IDF troops out of Lebanon. You have a completely weak chief of staff."The Hezbollah leader also discussed Israel's reactions to the protests across the Middle East, citing Defense Minister Ehud Barak's assessment that the Middle East is "changing in front of our eyes."Nasrallah added that Israel is no longer as confident as it once was.He explained that the Middle East's main problem is "the existence of Israel...that killed and slaughtered, confiscated the lands and kicked people put, with sponsorship from the West.""Israel is the one that expanded toward Lebanon and Syria," Nasrallah said.Speaking to US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Nasrallah said that "justice means that property should be returned to its owners. In light of such justice, there will be stability in the region. However, searching for justice through peace talks cannot achieve peace."Nasrallah also lamented the relationship between the US and Israel, saying "the US categorizes you in the 'axis of evil' if you are against Israel. When an Arab or Islamic system does not give in [to the US] it becomes isolated." He expressed admiration for the Iranian revolution, that "kicked the Americans out and severed relations with Israel."Hmmmm.....The result of the Obama presidency of bowing and bashing allies.The weak are never respected in the Middle East!Read the full story here.

• Respect MAJORITY rights: Judges throw out appeal by Muslim men who hurled abuse at soldiers' welcome home parade.The focus on minority rights 'should not result in overlooking the rights of the majority' when it comes to freedom of speech, the High Court said today.Two judges were rejecting appeals by five Muslim men who staged a protest as British soldiers who had recently returned from Afghanistan paraded through Luton.They ruled that the protests, which included accusing the troops of being 'rapists, murderers and baby killers', went well beyond 'legitimate expressions of protest'.The five men demonstrated against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as the Second Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment, known as the Poachers, made its way through the city on March 10 2009.They were all convicted of public order offences by Luton Magistrates' Court.Jalal Ahmed, 22, Munim Abdul, 29, Yousaf Bashir, 30, Shajjadar Choudhury, 32, and Ziaur Rahman, 33, all from Luton, were found guilty of using threatening, abusive or insulting words likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.The men had appealed to the High Court in London, arguing that they had been legitimately exercising their Article 10 rights to freedom of expression and to protest under the European Convention on Human Rights.Rejecting their appeal, Lord Justice Gross said today: 'There was all the difference in the world between expressing the view that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were illegal or immoral and that British forces should not be engaged in them and the abusive and insulting chants of the appellants.'In a ruling which will provide guidance for future similar cases, the judge said: To attend a parade of this nature and to shout that this country's soldiers were 'murderers', 'baby killers', 'rapists all of you' who would or should 'burn in hell' gave rise to a very clear threat to public order.'The judge said it was the good fortune of the five, 'most probably attributable to skilful policing', that there was no serious outbreak of violence.Hmmmmm..........Lets see if the judges will keep following the majority rule?Read the full story here.

• CMS Official Confirms That Four States Have Been Granted ObamaCare Waivers.An Obama administration official on Wednesday confirmed that four states -- including Florida, Tennessee and Ohio -- have been granted waivers from the regulatory requirements of the national health care law.Steve Larsen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, confirmed the news under questioning from Rep. Cliff Stearns at an oversight hearing for the House Energy and Commerce committee.According to Larsen, the waivers have been granted to states that have programs allowing or requiring the kind of limited medical coverage plans that would otherwise be prohibited by ObamaCare. He said the waivers are good for one year and would not neccesarily apply to all plans in the states outside the state-based programs.While he said there was also a fourth state that was granted a waiver, he could not recall off the top of his head which state.Hmmmm.......Why not give a waiver to all 50 states and get it burried?Read the full story here.

• Hundreds of Libyan protesters demanding removal of Gaddafi clash with riot police in fresh Arab uprising.Hundreds of demonstrators demanding change in Libya and the overthrow of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi clashed with police and security forces today as protests continued to sweep through the Middle East.At least 38 people are said to have been hurt as protesters armed with stones and petrol bombs fought with police, who fired rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas in the city of Benghazi, 600 miles east of the Libyan capital Tripoli.The protests are the worst so far to hit a country that has been ruled unchallenged for 40-years by Colonel Gaddafi - and sparked immediate orchestrated counter demonstrations by government supporters.As in the uprisings that toppled long-time autocratic rulers in two countries flanking Libya - Egypt and Tunisia - Libyan activists are using social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter to rally people in their homeland and have called for a 'major protest' tomorrow. But in a clear warning, a senior Libyan official said the authorities would 'not allow' a small group of people to 'play with the security of Libya.'While small compared with those that have seen neighbouring leaders toppled, observers said the Benghazi protests were 'significant' because they represented the first challenge to the hardline Tripoli administration.Hmmmm.......It seems this policy of "Outreach to Muslims" is really bearing fruits now.He's been so obsessed with his Peaceplan for Israel and Palestine that the rest of the Middle East is blowing up in his face.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Iranian Official: Obedience To Khamenei Growing In Bahrain.Bahraini Ayatollah 'Issa Qassem, the representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Bahrain, said that the current storm of unrest in Bahrain will not be calmed. On behalf of the demonstrators, he demanded the release of political prisoners and the "burning" of corruption, and that citizenship not be given to foreigners. He added that the rejection of these demands would harm the government.Mohammad Hassan Rahimian, Khamenei's representative in the Martyrs Institute in Iran, said that Khamenei's status in the world will become stronger, and that half of the MPs in Bahrain conduct themselves according to his rulings. In response to the Bahrain events and the deaths of two demonstrators, yesterday Bahraini King Hamed bin 'Issa Aal Khalifa appointed the deputy prime minister to establish a commission to investigate the events.Read the full story here.

• US envoy's tough talk draws tough response from Turkish officials.The new U.S. envoy to Ankara, who criticized Turkey late Tuesday for detaining journalists while saying it supports freedom of speech, has been slammed by ruling party officials for “interfering” in domestic affairs.“Ambassadors cannot interfere in domestic issues. They have limits,” Hüseyin Çelik, the deputy leader and spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, told reporters Wednesday. “Whether this is the U.S. or the Russian ambassador, they have to adhere to the limits."“Journalists are being detained on the one hand, while addresses about freedom of speech are given on the other. We do not understand this, so we ask you,” Ricciardone said, adding that he does “not have full knowledge of the details,” but is “following the process closely.”The offices of Oda TV and the homes of its owner, the well-known journalist Soner Yalçın, and several staff members were raided Monday by Istanbul police based on suspected links to the alleged Ergenekon gang, which is accused of planning to topple the government by staging a coup, initially by spreading chaos and mayhem.“Turkey wants a free press. Turkish people want a critical press even if it is a dissident one. The opposition parties and the government say they support freedom of the press,” Ricciardone. “The Turkish people’s opinion is important. Freedom of the press and freedom of speech are vital for Turkey, the United States and the people of this region.”Deputy AKP leader Çelik also criticized the journalists’ decision to pose such questions to a foreign ambassador. “We have this habit: We ask in-season and out-of-season questions. And when we get a reply, we ask others why he or she has spoken this way,” he said. “OK, but why do you ask questions? I mean, why do you ask questions to irrelevant people?”The country’s main opposition, however, expressed approval of Ricciardone’s statement on press freedom. “The mission of the envoys is to closely follow the developments in the countries they are appointed to and inform their governments. If need be, the ambassadors also express openly their opinions. Is it possible for him not to make any observations when these things are happening?” Osman Korutürk, deputy leader of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Wednesday.Saying the U.S. envoy’s observation is shared by ambassadors from other countries as well, Korutürk added: “We are a candidate country to the European Union. It’s very normal for the ambassadors of EU countries and other countries to speak about deficiencies in terms of democracy and human rights.”Hmmmmm......."I mean, why do you ask questions to irrelevant people?"Does this even sound as a NATO ally?Calling the US Embassador "irrelevant people"?Sounds more and more like Iran talking.Get Turkey out of NATO NOW !Read the full story here.

• HT:NDTV.503 women publicly flogged in Bangladesh.Dhaka: A demand to prohibit the Muslim clergy from issuing fatwa is gathering momentum in Bangladesh as 503 women have been subjected to public flogging since the year 2000.The issuing of religious edicts has not yet been banned. The high court declared it illegal in 2001; speakers said at a roundtable titled "No more fatwa" here Sunday. Speakers urged the government to make issuance of fatwa a punishable offence since 503 women have fallen victim to it. "Fatwa means legal opinion. Only court can give legal opinions. The man who announces fatwa has no legal authority to do it," Justice Mohammad Gholam Rabbani said referring to the judgment he passed in 2001."Fatwa should be made punishable as it goes against the existing law of our country," he was quoted as saying by The Daily Star. Largest selling Bengali language daily Prothom Alo arranged the roundtable following last month's death of a teenage girl from Shariatpur near here, who was raped by a neighbour and then whipped a 100 times after a fatwa was issued.She could not take more than about 80 lashes and fell unconscious, eyewitnesses told media. She died a day later in hospital.The case caused a national outcry after it was found that the police and the hospital colluded with the family of the alleged rapist to deny that there was any wrongdoing.The Dhaka High Court has ordered reopening of the case and multiple probes against the police and the hospital authorities.Bangladesh Mahila Parishad President Ayesha Khanam said the incident of the teenager who was whipped to death brings the social system, state machinery and performance of law enforcers into question.Hmmmm.......Imam Rauf "Sharia is the same as the US constitution".Read the full story here.

• Egyptian youth group: Halt gas shipments to Israel.April 6 youth movement says if military doesn't meet our demands, "we'll be on the street again"; says army still loyal to Mubarak. Among the group's demands - one that breaks with the stated policy of the military government - was the halting of natural gas shipments to Israel, citing what it called Israel's mistreatment of Palestinians, according to the report.The youth movement, along with 10 other democracy activist groups, was scheduled to meet with Egypt's ruling Armed Forces Supreme Council later in the day, USA Today reported.Tarek el-Khouly said that his group met with the military earlier in the week but did not make any demands at that time, according to the report. Because it has since become disillusioned with the pace of change taking place in Egypt, Khouly said, they will now make formal demands in the meeting.Speaking of the military commanders running Egypt's temporary government, he said: "At the end of the day, they're [deposed Egyptian president Hosni] Mubarak's appointees and loyal to him. The proof is he's still in Sharm e-Sheikh under their protection." Previewing one of April 6's demands, he added, "We want him held accountable," USA Today reported.Among its other demands, Khouly said that a transitional and technocratic civilian government must be immediately appointed, and restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of association and forming political parties be lifted without delay, according to the report.Hmmmmm......Democracy?Read the full story here.

• Bibi to Nasrallah: Stay in your bunker.PM takes jab at Hezbollah leader, who earlier threatened to take over northern Israel in future war. 'Anyone who's hiding in a bunker should say in the bunker," Netanyahu says, expresses confidence in IDF.Israeli response to Hezbollah: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his speech Wednesday evening at the Conference of Presidents in Jerusalem to send a personal message to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, urging him to stay in his bunker. Earlier Wednesday, Nasrallah threatened to take over Israel's Galilee region in a future war, and also explicitly threatened to harm senior Israeli figures.While delivering his English-language speech to American Jewish leaders, Netanyahu switched to Hebrew, saying: "Anyone who's hiding in a bunker should stay in the bunker." "Nobody should doubt Israel's or our ability to defend ourselves," the prime minister added. "We have a powerful army. We want peace with all our neighbors, yet the IDF is prepared to powerfully defend Israel against all our enemies."Prime Minister Netanyahu stressed that the West is interested in seeing a free, democratic and peace-seeking Egypt that looks forward to the future. However, he warned that Iranian leaders wish to see another kind of Egypt, which tramples on human rights and is dominated by Tehran. "They don't want an Egypt that looks into the 21st Century, but rather, an Egypt that looks back to the 9th Century," he said.Hmmmmm......And what does Obama and Erdogan want?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Muqtada Al-Sadr In Military Uniform.The photograph was published by the Iraqi daily al-Jewar. Al-Sadr, the fiercest opponent of the U.S. presence in Iraq, the former head of the violent militia Jaysh al-Mahdi and the current head of the Sadrist movement, has confirmed in a handwritten letter to the newspaper that the photograph was indeed him. However, he offered no explanation for the switch from cleric's turban to a military uniform. Al-Sadr has been hinting recently that he may become the Nassrallah of Iraq.Hmmmmm.......A "Glimpse" of Things to come?Read and see the full story here.

• Jordan: Muslims demand ban on nightclubs.Group of 109 Jordanian scholars, clerics also want 'laws that fight all anti-Islamic acts'.Dozens of Muslim scholars are demanding the closure of nightclubs and discotheques in Jordan, saying such entertainment erodes the nation's morals.Jordan's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, has made such demands in the past. However, Wednesday's call was joined by dozens of independent clergymen, a sign that the idea is becoming more popular in Muslim circles. The appeal is not binding for Jordan's pro-Western government which says nightclubs and discos are necessary to maintain a flow of foreign tourists, a key source of revenue. "We demand the government close all nightclubs, which work under the pretext of promoting tourism," 109 clerics, among them a former cabinet minister, MPs, Islamist leaders, university professors and mosque preachers, said in the joint statement."We also demand the authorities combat prostitution and brothels, and introduce laws that fight all anti-Islamic and unethical acts which destroy our society," the statement said.Hmmmm..........Muslim brotherhood anyone?Read the full story here. 

• Another full scale assault on the Second Amendment.Bloomberg Launches Driving Campaign For Gun-Control Laws.New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, co-chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, appeared on "Good Morning America" Wednesday to announce a new campaign to raise national awareness regarding flaws the coalition of 550 U.S. mayors sees in the federal system of background checks for firearm purchases.Displaying a tally of the number of Americans killed with guns since January's Tucson, Ariz., shootings, the "National Drive to Fix Gun Checks" truck will spend two months driving across at least 25 states, Bloomberg said. That includes stops to meet with local leaders, law-enforcement officials and victims of gun violence -- the first in Newark on Wednesday afternoon at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, for an event hosted by Mayor Cory Booker."Every day, 34 Americans are murdered with guns, and most of them are purchased or possessed illegally," Bloomberg said in a statement on Wednesday. "It is time for Washington to take action: since the Tucson shooting more than 1,300 people have been killed with guns in the United States and that number continues to grow."The drive, which began Wednesday morning in New York City's Times Square, will be led by Omar Samaha, whose sister, Reema, was killed during the Virginia Tech shootings in April 2007. Samaha will join a handful of volunteers in collecting stories from people affected by gun violence, which will appear on the campaign's website.Read the full story here.

• Jordan justice minister: Israel enemy and terrorist state.Jordanian new Justice Minister Hussein Mjali Wednesday called Israel an "enemy and terrorist state" in an interview with Jordanian Arabic-news daily. Mjali joined protests in Jordan Monday demanding the release of Ahmed al-Daqamseh, a convicted terrorist who gunned downseven Israeli schoolgirls at Naharayim in 1997.Mjali commented that "Israel arrests and practices destruction on a daily basis, and it is obvious that Israel would issue a counter-position to our request that Ahmed al-Daqamish be released." Hmmmmm.....Muslim brotherhood anyone? Sold !....Jimmy Carter: “Muslim Brotherhood Nothing to be Afraid of”.Read the full story here.