MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• The volatile Lybian situation live streams here.

Live Blog Libya - Al Jazeera. here.

• PA seeking to remove Hamas from US, EU terror lists.The Palestinian Authority is working toward removing Hamas from the US and EU list of terror organizations so as to pave the way for the Islamist movement to join a Palestinian unity government, PA negotiator Nabil Sha’ath revealed on Monday.Sha’ath, who was speaking to reporters after meeting in Cairo with Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa, said he raised the issue with a number of governments during a recent tour of EU capitals.“This is a question that every Palestinian and Arab should be asking,” he stressed. “My fear is that Hamas’s calculations about the Arab revolts are different than ours. We see that these revolutions’ main demand is unity and support for Palestinian rights.”Sha’ath, a former PA foreign minister, said that a Fatah-Hamas reconciliation would embolden Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.The Quartet, Palmor said, clearly laid down the three conditions Hamas needed to abide by in order to gain recognition: recognizing Israel, forswearing terrorism and accepting previous agreements.“Hamas has consistently rejected this platform to join the political process,” Palmor said. “A solution has been on the table for years, but Hamas still prefers to be the problem.”Hmmmm......Why do i suddenly think that 'the peacemaker in chief' will go for it ?Read the full story here.

• Car bomb rocks east Pakistan city.At least 20 people killed after car bomb explodes at gas station in Faisalabad, a key textile hub in Punjab province.At least 20 people have been killed in a car bomb explosion outside a gas station in the eastern Pakistani city of Faisalabad.The bomb went off on Tuesday in a neighbourhood full of government buildings including police offices, and it severely damaged an office of Pakistan's state-run airline as well as a local gas station.More than 100 people were wounded in the explosion, and many remain trapped under the rubble, authorities said."It was a car bomb blast. The explosive was planted in a car. We are investigating whether a suicide bomber was involved or not," police chief Aftab Cheema told the AFP news agency.Pakistani television stations showed piles of bricks and chunks of twisted metal from cars, strewn across the wrecked gas station.Our correspondent said security forces are searching for clues behind the blast and have cordoned off the gas station area."The police are saying that this was indeed a bomb. They have no evidence that this was a suicide attack. But they say the device appears to have been planted in a vehicle close to that compressed natural gas station and therefore the explosion wreaked havoc, because the pump itself blew up," he said."There was quite a bit of opposition to the fact that this station should not have been there in the first place, but the station was allowed to function in a highly sensitive area."And there was of course apprehension that in case of an accident, it would pose a threat, so the target [was] obviously very carefully chosen."Hmmmm......Now who would do this?Read the full story here.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Libyan rep is UN expert on mercenaries.Remember Muammar Gadhafi's representative to the United Nations 'Human Rights Council,' Najjat al-Hajjaji, who got a little surprise from UN Watch in the videos here? Well, now we have a story about Hajjaji herself: It seems that she's the UN expert on the use of mercenaries. This is from a press release I received via email from UN Watch. With the Libyan regime deploying hired guns to massacre its own people, the UN Human Rights Council was urged today to fire Najat Al-Hajjaji, a long-time mouthpiece of Col. Muammar Qaddafi, from her post as a council investigator on human rights violations by mercenaries.“Every day she stays with the UN Human Rights Council is an insult to the victims of Qaddafi’s murderous regime,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights group that initiated the successful campaign to suspend Libya as a member of the 47-nation council.Hmmmm.......The 'wolf' guarding the sheep?Read the full story here.

• Despite openness pledge, President Obama pursues leakers.The Obama administration, which famously pledged to be the most transparent in American history, is pursuing an unexpectedly aggressive legal offensive against federal workers who leak secret information to expose wrongdoing, highlight national security threats or pursue a personal agenda. In just over two years since President Barack Obama took office, prosecutors have filed criminal charges in five separate cases involving unauthorized distribution of classified national security information to the media. And the government is now mulling what would be the most high-profile case of them all - prosecuting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. That’s a sharp break from recent history, when the U.S. government brought such cases on three occasions in roughly 40 years. The government insists it’s only pursuing individuals who act with reckless disregard for national security, and that it has an obligation to protect the nation’s most sensitive secrets from being revealed. Anyone seeking to expose malfeasance has ample opportunity to do so through proper channels, government lawyers say. But legal experts and good-government advocates say the hard-line approach to leaks has a chilling effect on whistleblowers, who fear harsh legal reprisals if they dare to speak up. Not only that, these advocates say, it runs counter to Obama’s pledges of openness by making it a crime to shine a light on the inner workings of government – especially when there are measures that could protect the nation’s interests without hauling journalists into court and government officials off to jail.Jesselyn Radack, a former Justice Department attorney now with the Government Accountability Project, said it’s “very destructive and damaging to be going after people for leaks that embarrass the government.” The policy, she said, is “a disturbing one particularly from a president who got elected pledging openness and transparency — and someone who also got elected thanks to a lot of [Bush-era] scandals that were revealed by whistleblowers.”Still, leak prosecutions brought under Obama amount to “almost twice as many as all previous presidents put together,” noted Daniel Ellsberg, who changed history and helped set a legal precedent when he handed the Pentagon’s top-secret assessment of the Vietnam War to New York Times reporters four decades ago. “The campaign here against whistleblowers is actually unprecedented in legal terms.”Hmmmm......What i say and what i do are two different things altogether.Wherever freedom of speech disappears,shortly after freedom itself disappears,welcome to dictatorship.Read the full story here.

• HT:Aina.Christian Copts in Egypt Protest Muslim Attacks.Thousands of Christians, joined by many Muslims, have been staging sit-in since March 5 in front of the Egyptian TV building on the Nile Corniche in Cairo, protesting the attack on the church in the village of Soul and the inaction of the Egyptian armed forces in preventing the Muslims from torching and demolishing the church and terrorizing the Christian Copts and forcing them to evacuate the village.The church, which has been completely demolished, has been used by Muslims to pray there to humiliate the Copts said the protesters.The protesters were joined by 15 priests, including priests from the demolished St. Mina and St. George's church in Soul, Atfif in Hewan, 30 kilometers from Cairo, blocked the path to the main October and May 15 bridges. Some of the Coptic youth lay in the middle of the roads to prevent cars from passing, which brought traffic in this busy area of Cairo to a stand still for hours.The demonstrators accused government officials of complicity and silence to the exposure of Copts to violence and looting and demanded the recovery of their church, which was razed and taken over Muslims while under the sight of the Egyptian army. They held banners and chanted "We want our rights" and "Demolish our churches or our homes, the Coptic voice will not abate."Father Filopareer Gamil of Giza Coptic Dioceses read the Coptic demands on behalf of protesters. "Since yesterday (March 5) we have been crying out in vain to the armed forces to issue a statement to protect our rights and our homes." Coptic Demands are mainly for the church to be rebuilt on the same location and same dimensions (now an empty plot of land,) as well as the torched affiliated community services building; Christians to be allowed from immediate effect to pray again there even in a tent until the new church has been built; to secure the return of more than 7000 Copts who were terrorized and forcibly displaced from the village; compensation for all Copts affected by the incident; prosecution of the perpetrators and inciters of the church attack.To pacify the Copts, Field Marshall Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, issued a statement that the torched church would be rebuilt by Easter, at the expense of the army.Father Yosha, the priest who was inside the Church, escaped the fire which destroyed the church, along with three deacons who were with him, through the roof of the burning church, leaping to the roof of the neighboring house, owned by Muslims, who helped and protected him from being assaulted by the mob as he left.The village residents, priests and the Bishop appealed in vain to the armed forces, stationed only 7 km away from Soul in the village of Borombol to intervene. In an interview with Freecopts, Bishop Theodosius, Bishop of Giza, said "We called the commanders of the army in charge of the region of Helwan and Borombol, and the leaders of the national security. They subsequently sent the army. When the army arrived at the village of Soul, it fired in the air and the Muslim mob dispersed. However, about half-an-hour later, the mob reassembled and began to burn the church in presence of the army. The army sent a fire truck that extinguished the fire, but thereafter the army began to protect the Muslims who were destroying the church. Meanwhile, the army prevented the Christians from reaching the church, when they attempted to extinguish the fire and end the destruction of their church. Thus, the Muslims were allowed to destroy the church under the protection of the Egyptian army."A delegation of priests met on Sunday midnight with Prime Minister Dr. Essam Sharaf in his home, who promised to contact Field Marshall Tantawi on Monday morning to make sure that his promises regarding the torched church will be kept.Hmmmmm........Off course no word from the defender of the oppressed,the selfconfessed 'Christian'.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:DougRoss.Photographic Proof that the President's National Security Advisor is Right: 'Many Different Faiths' Really Do Turn to Terrorism.At first blush, the statement by President Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor, Denis McDonough, seems like just another bizarre bit of propaganda.Denis McDonough, Obama's Deputy National Security Advisor, who said that members of many different religions "succumb to terrorist ideologies." McDonough said this in an address given on March 6 at the Islamic ADAMS Center in Sterling, Virginia.With his remarks at the headquarters of this Muslim organization, McDonough proved that he simply refuses to recognize reality concerning radical Islam and is even willing to minimize that threat by pretending that all religions contain "terrorists.""For example," McDonough said, "we know there are many different reasons why individuals -- from many different faiths -- succumb to terrorist ideologies."Obviously this is an idiotic contention. No Christians are perpetrating acts of terror throughout the world. No Hindus are blowing up trains in Spain. No Jews are fostering suicide bombings in England or the United States. No Buddhists have flown jetliners into high-rise buildings. Islam is responsible for the bulk of the world's acts of terror. To use such rhetorical conventions is dangerous because it disarms us from the real threat.McDonough and Obama both show that they are dangerously uneducated in the dangers of radical Islam. This speech certainly proves that Obama and his minions simply don't get it. They don't get it at all.Hmmmm....."The Twin Towers were not brought down on 9/11 by Jews screaming 'Mazle Tov'!Neighter were it Amish in their horse drawn buggies who attacked the USS Cole.Read the full story here.More here.

• HT:Memri.Video :Pakistani Actress Veena Malik Defies Mullah Accusing Her of Immoral Behavior on an Indian Reality TV Show, and States: Mullahs Are Raping Children in Mosques.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:Memri.'Abbas: It Is Time for the Palestinian State to Become a UN Member.PA President Mahmoud 'Abbas called to grant Palestine the status of a permanent UN member this September, as an independent state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. He added that, by that date, he also hoped to see the completion of the infrastructure for the Palestinian state.Hmmmmm......"When crows wear Stiletto pumps"Read the full story here.

• Something rotten about the state of press freedom in Turkey.Apropos of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, we don’t know if something is still rotten in the state of Denmark, but it certainly is in Turkey as far as press freedom is concerned. The latest spate of arrests of well-known, respected journalists, for ostensibly being “members of the Ergenekon terrorist group,” has even the president of the Republic, Abdullah Gül, “concerned.”And so he should be because - as he told daily Milliyet’s Fikret Bila over the weekend - the present state of affairs relating to the media and journalists in this country is not just bothering the public conscience, but also “harming Turkey’s image, which everyone has come to appreciate.”Gül was naturally referring to the fact that many reforms have been made in Turkey in the name of democracy, a fact that is also the reason behind why Turkey is being pointed to as a “model” for countries such as Egypt as they try to democratize. All of this had, as Gül suggests, increased the country’s international profile in a positive manner.But that situation now faces the risk of changing rapidly since Turkey is once again under international scrutiny for trying to prevent journalists from doing their job, and for incarcerating those who report about things unfavorable to the government or the authorities.The prosecutor in charge of the investigation into the “Ergenekon terrorist group,” which is supposed to have conspired to overthrow the government by illegal means, argued in a written statement on Sunday that the journalists arrested last week - who by the way include Nedim Şener, an internationally renowned and awarded investigative reporter from Milliyet - were taken in not for what they wrote, but for their illegal activities.He refused, however, to say what these illegal activities were, indicating instead that this was classified information. Those in the government-friendly media, who have clearly sold their sense of solidarity with their colleagues, as well as their professional commitment to the freedom of the press, down the river in an effort to propagandize for the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, are trying now to stand behind the prosecutor and the government.But genuine journalists, who are more interested in carrying on with their jobs rather than being a spokesperson for this or that political or ideological group, are extremely doubtful about this claim of the prosecutor’s, given that even the president of the Republic is “concerned” about the latest developments. It appears from their strong reactions that international press organizations are also doubtful about the claims against the arrested journalists.If, however, the government wanted it could introduce bills that prevent the incarceration of journalists for what they write or for the information they gather in pursuing their jobs. Instead it prefers to watch the arrest of journalists it does not like, even if it says it is not directly behind these arrests.Neither does the AKP administration appear to be too concerned about the illegality of some of the methods of the prosecutor in going after journalists. It transpires now, for example, that Nedim Şener’s phone was tapped for nearly two years, and that his private conversations listened to. But this kind of phone tapping is illegal under Turkey’s current laws. Neither the prosecutor’s office, nor the minister for justice, nor for that matter Prime Minister Erdoğan himself appear too bothered about this fact.There is indeed something rotten in the state of Turkey and one just has to look at how press freedoms are being treated now to understand this. At this rate, let alone Turkey being a model for Egypt, or any other country for that matter, it is could very well be that Egypt will become a model for Turkey in terms of freedom of the press.Hmmmmm.......Or Turkey who takes Iran as a 'role model'?Read the full story here.

• £50 insult to Britain's war dead: Veteran's fury as poppy burner enjoying a life on benefits gets paltry fine and mocks soldiers.As a British citizen, Emdadur Choudhury enjoys benefits including a free council flat and almost £800 a month state handouts.Yesterday he laughed at justice as he was handed a paltry £50 fine for setting light to poppies on Remembrance Day and yelling ‘British soldiers burn in hell’.After hearing his penalty, which outraged war veterans, the 26-year-old father of two declared: ‘I don’t have any respect for British soldiers, and if they lose a limb or two in Afghanistan then they deserve it. You expect me to feel sorry for them? Of course I don’t.’ Choudhury, from Bethnal Green, East London, was found guilty of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour by District Judge Howard Riddle, following a one-day trial last month.The maximum fine possible was £1,000, plus legal costs, and Judge Riddle said he had no doubt Choudhury had set out to shock and offend. Yet he fined him only £50, plus a £15 victim surcharge. Although Choudhury sneered that he would have been fined more than £50 for a parking offence, he is refusing to pay. However the bill will be picked up by his ‘good friend’ Anjem Choudary, the notorious firebrand preacher.Asked if he would do it again, he replied laughing: ‘You’ll have to find out next time, won’t you? The only reason I even got a fine is cos it’s politically motivated. I would have got a bigger fine for a parking ticket than this.‘It’s my freedom of speech and I’m exercising that. I’m being persecuted for it. This fine, I will wear it as a badge on my shoulder. I did it for Allah. I did it to raise awareness that these so-called soldiers are the criminals. They are the ones who should be tried for war crimes.’Sinisterly he promised that he had ‘2,000 youths who will follow me and do whatever I tell them – you don’t want another Afghanistan here do you? We want Sharia law in this country, and Inshallah [God willing] we will get it’.Shaun Rusling, of the National Gulf War Veterans and Families Association, said: ‘I think the British people would be disgusted with the sentence handed out. Remembrance Day is very special for those in the Armed Forces, when we remember those who have lost their lives for freedom and fighting for their country.Hmmmm......"Brittain the country where parking offences are punished harsher then insulting their veterans"Defenders of England From Richard Lion heart to Sir Winston Churchull must be turning in their graves.Read the full story here.

• U.S. government unveils staggering $223bn deficit for February - the largest one-month shortfall in history.The federal government has revealed a whopping $223billion deficit for February – the largest monthly budget shortfall in U.S. history.The staggering one-month figure dwarfs even the most sweeping cuts being debated on Capitol Hill.And critics claimed it underlined just how out of control government spending has become in the aftermath of the recession.The monthly deficit tops last February’s record of $220.9billion and marks the 29th consecutive month the government has run in the red.It is also nearly four times as large as the spending cuts Republicans passed in the House of Representatives and more than 30 times the $6billion cuts suggested by Democrats in the Senate.If a budget deal isn’t agreed within the next two weeks, the White House and Congress will have to approve another short term measure or face the prospect of a partial government shutdown.'We are only seven months away from the end of this fiscal year, and we don't have a budget, which is kind of ridiculous,’ said the President’s new chief-of-staff William Daley.But he added: ‘I'm very optimistic that there will not be a shutdown,' insisting the two sides were already about halfway towards a deal.Hmmmm....How about this for a deal : Congress impeaches this walking,talking doomsday machine?Read the full story here.

• 'I thought I was going to die': Muslim documentary film maker 'racially abused and beaten' after wandering into house party.A film-maker shooting a documentary about the treatment of Arabs in the U.S. claims he was attacked and called racial epithets after he wandered uninvited into a house party, and police are treating the case as a hate crime after officers found him with a bloody face.Usama Alshaibi claimed he was repeatedly punched and kicked by four men after he arrived at the party in the early hours of Sunday in Fairfield, an Iowa city of about 9,500 residents where he moved with his wife last year. The 41-year-old, who was born in Baghdad but grew up in Iowa City, said the men called him an epithet used to refer to Arabs as well as 'Osama bin Laden' and assaulted him before he managed to escape.Alshaibi is producing a film called American Arab for Chicago-based Kartemquin Films about discrimination against Arabs in the U.S. and there had been some suspicions that the 'attack' was a publicity stunt.'This isn't how I would promote my film,' Alshaibi said. 'I thought I was going to die.'A Fairfield police report says a video store manager called police to report a man in his parking lot crying and screaming at 12:19am on Sunday. Police found Alshaibi bleeding from his forehead and nose, with some scratches on his hands as if he had fallen to the ground. Alshaibi said he went to the hospital later on Sunday, was treated and released.Fairfield Police Chief Julie Harvey said yesterday that officers believe Alshaibi's claims are credible because he was clearly assaulted, and they continue to search for the alleged assailants. She said Alshaibi has been unable to pinpoint the home where the assault allegedly occurred because he was intoxicated when he arrived and disoriented when he left.Hmmmm......Chicago......the homebase of Obama,and come to think of it are Muslims not forbidden to drink?Read the full 'story' here.More on Alshaibi here.Of course he also blogs.

• Scores dead in south Sudan clashes.Increasing violence comes as the south prepares to declare independence from the north in July.More than 50 people have been killed in two days of clashes between rebel groups and soldiers in south Sudan's Upper Nile state, an army spokesman said.Philip Aguer, spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), said on Monday that militia forces loyal.to the rebel leader George Athor clashed with military forces, killing 56 people.Aguer did not specify which side the deaths were on.The fighting comes just four months before the region is due to become independent.The south is expected to secede on July 9 after southerners overwhelmingly voted to declare independence from the north in a January referendum – a vote promised in a 2005 peace accord that ended decades of civil war between north and south.But a wave of mass killings in recent weeks has raised fears for the stability of Sudan's oil-producing south and the contested Abyei border region.Aguer repeated accusations that Sudan's northern government was arming rebel groups to try and disrupt the region ahead of its split and keep control of its oil.He said the rebel group was linked to the area's Shilluk tribe based near the village of Owach."They have received new weapons. We suspect they all acted in co-ordination with Khartoum ... I think things are going to continue escalating," he said.However, Sudan's dominant National Congress Party (NCP) in the north denied having any involvement.Rabie Abdelati, an NCP party official, said on Monday: "If we really wanted to go back to war, we would not have signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (the 2005 accord) or accepted the referendum."We are hoping for a strong south after secession. If the south is not stable the north will not be stable."Hmmmm......."Islam the religion of Peace".Read the full story here.

• HT:WashingtonMonthly.How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam.There aren’t nearly enough counterterrorism experts to instruct all of America’s police.So we got these guys instead.On a bright January morning in 2010, at Broward College in Davie, Florida, about sixty police officers and other frontline law enforcement officials gathered in a lecture hall for a course on combating terrorism in the Sunshine State. Some in plain clothes, others in uniform, they drifted in clutching Styrofoam cups of coffee, greeting acquaintances from previous statewide training sessions. The instructor, Sam Kharoba, an olive-skinned man wearing rimless glasses and an ill-fitting white dress shirt, stood apart at the front of the hall reviewing PowerPoint slides on his laptop. As he got under way, Kharoba described how, over the next three days, he would teach his audience the fundamentals of Islam. “We constantly hear statements,” Kharoba began, “that Islam is a religion of peace, and we constantly hear of jihadists who are trying to kill as many non-Muslims as they can.” Kharoba’s course would establish for his students that one of these narratives speaks to a deep truth about Islam, and the other is a calculated lie.Kharoba belongs to a growing profession, one that is ballooning on the spigot of federal and state dollars set aside for counterterrorism efforts since the attacks of September 11, 2001. He is a counterterrorism instructor to America’s beat cops, one of several hundred working the law enforcement training circuit. Some are employed by large security contractors; others, like Kharoba, are independent operators.Kharoba was born in Jordan, and he likes to intimate that members of his family are important tribal leaders. This lends a veneer of insider credibility to classroom remarks that might otherwise seem like off-color jokes. He showed the class some photographs taken in the Gaza Strip. “This is the Arab version of a line,” Kharoba told the students, gesturing to a photo of Palestinians rushing toward a passport agency. Then he showed a YouTube video of two uniformed men beating a nameless prisoner. “This is what Miranda rights are in the Arab world,” he said.“When you have a Muslim that wears a headband, regardless of color or insignia, basically what that is telling you is ‘I am willing to be a martyr.’” There were other signs, too. “From the perspective of operational security, there are two things I am always looking out for: a shaved body and moving lips,” he explained. “Some of the Pakistani hijackers shaved their whole bodies in a ritual of cleanliness. If their lips are moving, these guys are praying. As they are walking through an airport, every second they’re going to be praying.” America today is too politically correct to acknowledge the reality of Islamic fanaticism, Kharoba said. “Would Islam be tolerated if everyone knew its true message?” he asked the class. “From a Muslim perspective, do you want non-Muslims to know the truth about Islam?” “No!” came the audience reply. “So what do Muslims do?” Kharoba demanded. “Lie!” Kharoba strode forward to the front of the room, his voice slower now, more measured. “Islam is a highly violent radical religion that mandates that all of the earth must be Muslim.”Hmmmmm......."There can only be one".Read the full story here.

• Tarek Fatah: Some death threats don’t count.Has radical Islam covered up Canada's lady justice's ears as well?I had just woken from surgery when the first death threat arrived.“This is an open threat to Xaar Boy @Tarek Fatah,” read the first Twitter posting, with its vulgar Somali adjective. “I know where you live & and where your office is.”The sender signed herself as Mariama AnnaLitical and pictured herself wearing a purple hijab in the style of Toronto’s radical young Islamists. Other Twitter followers denounced the threat and urged that AnnaLitical be reported, even arrested. At one point she withdrew the warning, then repeated it later the same morning.“He was also the 1 to propose banning the Niqab in Quebec… (and he) supports homosexuality,” she wrote, reiterating again: “This is an open threat. I know where you live/work @TarekFatah.”Her fellow Islamists joined in, calling me a bad Muslim for opposing the hijab and supporting equality for gays. Other posters said I had brought the threats down onto myself.I contacted Toronto police. Within hours, two uniformed policemen from 51 Division came to interview me in hospital. However, barely one minute later, we were interrupted. Two men entered the room and told everybody else to leave. They did not identify themselves, but five minutes into what amounted to a two-hour interrogation, I realized they were police intelligence officers. One of them, I recognized by reputation – a Muslim officer who had shut down a previous investigation into a death threat against me in 2008, and another one against a partner in liberal Islam, Tahir Gora.I have since informed Toronto Police Services chair Alok Mukherjee and Police Chief Bill Blair. Mukerjee assured me he will look into the matter. Chief Blair has not replied.The Toronto police, in their wish to promote an image of diversity and outreach, have dedicated themselves to serving and protecting the the radical Islamist elements within our city. Meanwhile, Muslims like myself, who do their best to promote the equality and respect that the police claim to cherish, are left without legal protection when radicals explicitly and publicly threaten us with violence. In Toronto, anybody can issue an “open threat” against a man laying helpless in a hospital bed and be assured they will not face charges, so long as the person making the threat is a black Muslim woman wearing a hijab.I’m hopeful that the police may yet make the right decision, now that I have gone public with this disgrace. If not, I will know the city I love is lost.Hmmm.....I think PM Harper has a lot of work ahead if he wants to preserve Canada the way it was.Read the full story here.

• HT:WestToTheWestWing.Churches into mosques, American style.At least two Protestant churches have recently opened their facilities to Muslim groups whose own buildings are either too small or under construction. From Fox News:Heartsong Church in Cordova, Tenn., let members of the Memphis Islamic Center hold Ramadan prayers there last September. And Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Va., allows the Islamic Circle of North America to hold regular Friday prayers in their building while their new mosque is being built.Diane Bechtol of Aldersgate says this is something Christians are called to do: Be neighborly and develop relationships – even [with] those who don’t share your beliefs.“I think it’s a tenet of our Christian faith, and that is that we extend hospitality to the stranger,” said Bechtol.This is so problematic on so many levels, it’s hard to even know where to begin.But leaving that consideration aside, ponder these very practical questions posed on the Epistoli blog:

1. Would Muslims allow Christians to hold services in their mosques? I doubt it. I couldn’t even get into the Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem last year, [because] I wasn’t a Muslim.

2. Why are Muslims around the world destroying Christian churches?

3. Would Democrats allow Republicans to use their campaign offices in the off-shifts during an election campaign?

4. Didn’t Jesus throw money-changers out of the temple? And they were only money-changers, not an organization that wants to conquer the world for its own religion and is prepared to destroy those that remain unbelievers.

Then, there’s the problem of who these particular Muslims are affiliated with, and what their agenda is.Mohamed Elsanousi, who, according to the Fox story, advocates Christian churches sharing their worship spaces with Muslims, is the National Community Outreach Director of none other than the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). You may recognize the ISNA as being one of the villains in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas-funding trial. According to the landmark report Shariah: The Threat to America, in the course of that trial,thanks to evidence of financial transactions between ISNA and Hamas that the government introduced, along with scores of MB [Muslim Brotherhood] documents, it became clear that the Islamic Society of North America directly supports Hamas and its operations. [emphasis added]Hmmmm....."I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; Do not have any other gods before me."Read the full story here.

• HT:TheDailyCaller.House Oversight Committee likely to investigate White House for treating non-union employees worse than unionized after GM bailout.Republican Reps. Mike Turner of Ohio and Dan Burton of Indiana are asking House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, California Republican, to dig into the Obama administration’s decision to cut more than 20,000 private-sector workers’ pensions and eliminate their health and life insurance plans during the General Motors (GM) bailout in 2009.A spokesman for Issa’s committee told The Daily Caller the committee “remains interested” and is “looking forward” to findings from an ongoing Government Accountability Office investigation, which is expected to come out within the next couple of months. What Turner and Burton are saying happened during the GM bailout is that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner decided to cut pensions for salaried non-union employees at Delphi, a GM spinoff, to expedite GM’s emergence from bankruptcy. The problem with that, according to the congressmen, is that Geithner decided to fully fund the pensions of union workers involved in the process – including workers associated with United Auto Workers, Steelworkers and the IUE-CWA.“This is a terrible injustice. This is a political decision, not a legal or financial decision,” Turner said in a phone interview with TheDC. “There were people who were penalized and people were chosen as winners and losers. The White House, the administration and the Auto Task Force (ATF) decided who were going to receive their pensions and who were not.”Bruce Gump, one of the workers who lost most of his pension and his health and life insurance plans, said what really disappoints him is how Geithner justified his decision. “Mr. Geithner justified that by saying in the press that there was no commercial necessity to do anything for those people,” Gump told TheDC. “So, to him, we were just ‘those people’ and he thought that commercial necessity was a justification to out certain groups.”Turner said he wants to know “what conference room in the administration were people sitting around the table deciding who was going to win and lose,” and expects to get another opportunity to question Geithner in a formal setting on how and why he made those decisions. Turner said he’s asked Geithner about it before in previous hearings, but was never able to get an answer out of him.Hmmmm.....A question of protecting your 'troops'?Read the full story here.

• US Jews oppose circumcision ban. Jewish groups up in arms over an attempt to outlaw male circumcision in San Francisco by putting issue to a popular vote. 'It's a painful and irreversible surgery,' says self-described 'intactivist'.Jewish groups and others are up in arms over an attempt to outlaw male circumcision in San Francisco by putting the issue to a popular vote. Self-described "intactivist" Lloyd Schofield has been collecting signatures for a voter initiative that would criminalize infant circumcision in the Californian city.After two months of collecting names, he claims to be more than half way toward getting the 7,168 signatures he needs by late April to put the matter on the November ballot.Schofield and a growing community of anti-circumcision activists say that infants should not be forced to participate in what is essentially culturally accepted genital mutilation.They claim that the procedure can cause health risks and diminished sexual function and compare it to the clitoridectomies performed on girls in parts of Africa."This is a human rights issue," he said. "What you're doing is you're taking an infant and removing the most sensitive part of their body."Jewish organizations have pledged to fight the measure should it be placed on the ballot. Anti-Defamation League director Daniel Sandman called Schofield's effort discriminatory and misguided."This is hurtful and offensive to people in the community who consider this a coveted ritual," he said.If the ban is approved, those caught cutting the foreskins of infants and other minors would face up to a year in jail and up to $1,000 in fines.The ban would certainly face legal challenges, and could be found in violation of the First Amendment right to Freedom of Religion.San Francisco resident Mark Reiss, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home, is among a vocal community of circumcised men who say they struggle with the emotional and physical effects of circumcision.He runs a website that lists rabbis nationwide who will preside over a naming ritual similar to the one performed at Jewish circumcisions but with no cutting.Hmmmm......sounds to me that 'Herr' Mark Reiss should study the Torah a bit more or else he has serious memory problems?Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Indonesia: Human rights Watch Group to File Report on Ahmadi Killing to UN.HRWG to File Report on Ahmadi Killing to UN -"The meeting is scheduled to take place on 10th of March 2011"VIVAnews - Human Rights Working Group (HRWG) will be filing report on the brutal attacks against Ahmadi members in Cikeusik, Banten, to the UN Human Rights Council in no time."The Cikeusik case is a caution of dire problems which pose threat over freedom of religion and belief," said Executive Deputy Director of HRWG, Choirul Anam, today in Jakarta.HRWG also plans of filling in accounts on any acts of violence committed against Indonesia's Ahmadiyya since 2005. "Ahmadiyya suffer from more systematic acts of violence. If no efforts of prevention are made, we fear that more serious threats will be posed in the days to come," said Choirul Anam.Written reports and oral presentations will be brought before a session with special UN rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief. "The meeting is scheduled to take place on 10th of March 2011," he said.Granted that the report is ready, HRWG expects the International community will urge the Indonesian government to assure for protections over Ahmadi members.The Cikeusik attack was ignited on February 6, 2011, by hundreds of angry crowd toward a group of Ahmadis who were at that time gathering in the home of an Ahmadi cleric, Suparman. Three men were slaughtered during the assault and seven others were severely injured.Police have named 16 suspects from the case, one of which is a member of Ahmadi.Hmmmm......There can only be one?Read the full story here.

• HT:TranslatingJihad.Exclusive: Transcript of Qaradawi's Speech in Cairo.Here.

• HT:TranslatingJihad.Fatwa: "It Is Permissible to Have Sexual Intercourse with Prepubescent Girls"Here.