Pakistan blocks Twitter over contentious material.

Pakistan blocks Twitter over contentious material.(Yahoo).Islamabad(AP) — Pakistan blocked the social networking website Twitter on Sunday because it refused to remove material considered offensive to Islam, said one of the country's top telecommunications officials. The material was promoting a competition on Facebook to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, said Mohammad Yaseen, chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication's Authority. Many Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favorable ones, as blasphemous. Yaseen said Facebook agreed to address Pakistan's concerns about the competition, but officials have failed to get Twitter to do the same. "We have been negotiating with them until last night, but they did not agree to remove the stuff, so we had to block it," said Yaseen. Instructions to block the site came from Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology, said Yaseen. "The ministry officials are still trying to make them (Twitter) agree, and once they remove that stuff, the site will be unblocked," said Yaseen.Officials from Twitter and Facebook were not immediately available for comment. A top court in Pakistan ordered a ban on Facebook in 2010 amid anger over a similar competition. The ban was lifted about two weeks later, after Facebook blocked the particular page in Pakistan. The Pakistani government said at the time that it would continue to monitor other major websites for anti-Islamic links and content. The 2010 Facebook controversy sparked a handful of protests across Pakistan, many by student members of radical Islamic groups. Some of the protesters carried signs advocating holy war against the website for allowing the page. It also sparked a good deal of soul-searching, especially among commentators, who questioned why Pakistanis could not be entrusted to decide for themselves whether or not to look at a website. Some observers noted that Pakistan had gone further than several other Muslim countries by banning Facebook, and said it showed the rise of conservative Islam in the country.Hmmmm......Turkey's 'guest' at the NATO top.....can't wait to see Turkey block twitter as well.Read the full story here.

Video - Latma - The new and improved La Marseillaise."Liberté, égalité, fraternité,".

 HT: IsraelMatzav.

Uncovering Early Islam.

Uncovering Early Islam.By Daniel Pipes.
National Review Online
May 16, 2012.

The year 1880 saw the publication of a book that ranks as the single most important study of Islam ever. Written in German by a young Jewish Hungarian scholar, Ignaz Goldziher, and bearing the nondescript title Muslim Studies (Muhammedanische Studien), it argued that the hadith, the vast body of sayings and actions attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, lacked historical validity. Rather than provide reliable details about Muhammad's life, Goldziher established, the hadith emerged from debates two or three centuries later about the nature of Islam.
(That is like today's Americans debating the Constitution's much-disputed Second Amendment, concerning the right to bear arms, by claiming newly discovered oral transmissions going back to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Obviously, their quotations would inform us not what was said 225 years ago but about current views.)

Portrait of Ignaz Goldziher.

Since Goldziher's day, scholars have been actively pursuing his approach, deepening and developing it into an full-scale account of early Islamic history, one which disputes nearly every detail of Muhammad's life as conventionally understood - born in 570 A.D., first revelation in 610, flight to Medina in 622, death in 632. But this revisionist history has remained a virtual secret among specialists. For example, Patricia Crone and Michael Cook, authors of the synoptic Hagarism (Cambridge University Press, 1977), deliberately wrote obliquely, thereby hiding their message.

Cover of Hagarism.

Now, however, two scholars have separately ended this secrecy: Tom Holland with In the Shadow of the Sword (Doubleday) and Robert Spencer with Did Muhammad Exist? (ISI). As their titles suggest, Spencer is the bolder author and so my focus here.

In a well-written, sober, and clear account, he begins by demonstrating the inconsistencies and mysteries in the conventional account concerning Muhammad's life, the Koran, and early Islam. For example, whereas the Koran insists that Muhammad did not perform miracles, the hadith ascribe him thaumaturgic powers - multiplying food, healing the injured, drawing water from the ground and sky, and even sending lightening from his pickax. Which is it? Hadith claim Mecca was a great trading city but, strangely, the historical record reveals it as no such thing.
The Christian quality of early Islam is no less strange, specifically "traces of a Christian text underlying the Qur'an." Properly understood, these traces elucidate otherwise incomprehensible passages. Conventionally read, verse 19:24 has Mary nonsensically hearing, as she gives birth to Jesus, "Do not be sad, your Lord has placed a rivulet beneath you." Revisionists transform this into the sensible (and piously Christian), "Do not be sad, your Lord has made your delivery legitimate." Puzzling verses about the "Night of Power" commemorating Muhammad's first revelation make sense when understood as describing Christmas. Chapter 97 of the Koran, astonishingly, invites readers to a Eucharist.

Cover of Did Muhammad Exist.

Building on this Christian base, revisionists postulate a radically new account of early Islam. Noting that coins and inscriptions from the seventh century mention neither Muhammad, the Koran, nor Islam, they conclude that the new religion did not appear until about 70 years after Muhammad's supposed death. Spencer finds that "the first decades of the Arab conquest show the conquerors holding not to Islam as we know it but to a vague creed [Hagarism, focused on Abraham and Ishmael] with ties to some form of Christianity and Judaism." In very brief: "the Muhammad of Islamic tradition did not exist, or if he did, he was substantially different from how that tradition portrays him" – namely an Anti-Trinitarian Christian rebel leader in Arabia.

Only about 700 A.D., when the rulers of a now-vast Arabian empire felt the need for a unifying political theology, did they cobble together the Islamic religion. The key figure in this enterprise appears to have been the brutal governor of Iraq, Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. No wonder, writes Spencer, that Islam is "such a profoundly political religion" with uniquely prominent martial and imperial qualities. No wonder it conflicts with modern mores.
The revisionist account is no idle academic exercise but, as when Judaism and Christianity encountered the Higher Criticism 150 years ago, a deep, unsettling challenge to faith. It will likely leave Islam a less literal and doctrinaire religion with particularly beneficial implications in the case of Islam, still mired in doctrines of supremacism and misogyny. Applause, then for plans to translate Did Muhammad Exist? into major Muslim languages and to make it available gratis on the Internet. May the revolution begin.

Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org) is president of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. © 2012 All rights reserved by Daniel Pipes.

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Belgian MP Filip Dewinter: "We Need to Organise Resistance Against Islamisation".

                                     "Freedom or Islam? - Dare to Choose"


Belgian MP Filip Dewinter: "We Need to Organise Resistance Against Islamisation".(IVE).Filip Dewinter, the leader of Vlaams Belang in Antwerp, has been a member of parliament since 13 December 1987. He is currently the head of the group in the Flemish parliament and a senator. Filip Dewinter is also the European president of the association “Cities Against Islamisation”. The Vérités Bruxelloises [True Brusselites] wanted to know more.

Vérités Bruxelloises: You once said you were an a islamophobe and you would declare yourself as such. Do you still maintain that?

Filip Dewinter: You’re quoting my book Inch’ Allah, the Islamisation of Europe where I write that Islamophobia is the duty of every person. Yes, indeed. Islam makes me afraid. Islam is a religion of conquest and totalitarianism and wants to dominate the entire world. It is naive to take Islam as a religion like the others. Islam is, first of all, a dangerous political ideology. In my view, therefore, Islam is genuinely to be feared.

V.B.: You founded and you are the president of the association “Cities against Islamisation”. Where are you with that? What initiatives have you taken? Have you had successes?

FDW: “Cities Against Islamisation” (CAI) is a partnership organisation of political parties, associations and individuals with the goal of taking specific action against the Islamisation of Europe. In recent years, CAI has carried out actions opposing the construction of new mega-mosques in Cologne, Milan, Paris, Antwerp and Berlin. It is imperative to work together at the European level if we want to push back Islam. Islam is spreading across all of Europe. We need to organise the resistance. CAI wants to coordinate things. I’ll give you an example: a few weeks ago, we were able to prevent a Hizb ut-Tahrir in Hasselt, thanks to information we provided to the Austrian branch of CAI. If Islam is organised globally, we need to at least give a European structure to the anti-jihad movement.

V.B.: The Islamophobes are accused of racism. I know Islam isn’t a race but for some people, is there not a base of racism beneath the islamophobia?

FDW: Criticising Islam is no different from criticising an ideology or political doctrine. If you can criticise liberalism, communism or nationalism, it must always be possible to criticise Islam. I repeat: before anything Islam is a political ideology, rather than a religion. But even if Islam was only a religion it should still be allowed to criticise it. People who criticise Islam are called racist in an attempt to shut them up.

V.B.: In your view is Islam compatible with democracy and our western values (and also universal ones)?

FDW: No, Islam and democracy are not compatible. Islam is the antithesis of democratic. Why? From the simple fact that Islam is a theocracy. All truth comes from Allah. The Muslim must submit the democratic laws of a country to the will of Allah - inch’ Allah-, as described by Mohammed in the Koran. Islam is not compatible with our western values either. Religious freedom, the separation of the church and state, freedom of expression, equality of expression, equality of the sexes… are values Islam doesn’t believe in. Islam therefore constitutes a grave menace to our standards and values, our way of life.

V.B.: Do you think that Islam can evolve? Indeed, we often hear talk of an “Enlightened Islam”. Do you think that’s serious?

FDW: This “Enlightened Islam” is an invention of progressive and leftist Europeans who embrace Islam through their multiculturalism. Anyone who believes in an “Enlightened Islam” is naive and hasn’t understood Islam at all. An Islam called enlightened would no longer have anything to do with Islam itself. Others hope that by means of subsidies, official recognition, setting up schools for imams and all sorts of concessions to Islam a kind of “Euro Islam” will be created. Let’s not delude ourselves. The only result of a policy of pampering Islam will be the creation of a true pillar of Islam which will not be a “Euro-Islam” but an Islamic and islamised Europe.

V.B.: Is not the principal force of Islam in Europe the ignorance of the citizens? They place Islam at the same level as other religions because they do not know the exact nature of the Islamic religion, but also the political project of world domination. To fight against Islamisation, do we not need to inform citizens about the reality of Islam? An American author said that we needed to “get out of our small cultural boxes”. How can we succeed in doing that and succeed in “enlightening” our European compatriots about the reality of Islam?

FDW: Quite simply, in our struggle against Islamisation, a raising of consciousness and a spread of awareness are essential. We need to expose the true nature of Islam. You would think that everyone has forgotten that, already twice before, Islam tried to seize hold of Europe. Thanks to the major military victories of Poitiers (732) and Vienna (1683), each time we succeeded in repulsing Islam, driving it back to its place, which is to say on the other side of the Mediterranean. Islam wants to make itself master of Europe again, no longer by military means, but by immigration invasion. CAI wants to spread information about the true face of Islam via publications, conferences and the internet http://www.citiesagainstislamisation.org/). For example there is a free brochure “Survival guide in an Islamic society” where in ten lessons I explain the consequences that a European living in an Islamised district might have to endure.

V.B.: What specific measures do you advocate to fight against the Islamisation of Europe? Do you think that an evolution, particularly of European governments, towards a less “favourable” view of Islam is possible?
FDW: First of all, European governments must get rid of their naivety and recognise the true nature of Islam. We must dare to say that Islam has no place on European soil. In other words, recognising and subsidising Islam, constructing mosques and minarets and Koranic schools is stupid and even dangerous. Many politicians collaborate with Islam for electoral reasons. This collaboration with Islam is going to blow up in our faces one day. Islam is trying to set up its pillar. The mosques in our large cities are the bridgeheads, the advance guards of the Islamic army whose sole objective is to sweep down on us without mercy.

V.B.: Your colleague, the senator Anke Van dermeersch, on behalf of the CAI created the association “Women against Islamisation” [multilingual site]. What are its aims?

FDW: Women are the first victims of Islamisation, as proved by the daily reality in many Muslim countries. Islam discriminates against and humiliates women. The women is subordinate to the man and is largely deprived of rights within Islam. It’s simple: Allah doesn’t like women. In Islam, women are disposable, without rights. It’s precisely for that reason that we need to warn and mobilise women. They will be the first ones affected by Islamisation.
With “Women against Islamisation”, we are conducting a major campaign on the theme “Islam or freedom, dare to choose”. This campaign is on display in the “burka-bikini” image, which my daughter appears in. This emblematic image, as well as the book “Neither prostitute, nor Slave” which Anke Van dermeersch has just published, should inspire debate about the rights of women in Islam.

V.B.: Mr Dewinter, we thank you for this interview and wish you lots of courage in your noble struggle.Read the full story here.

Muslim Persecution of Christians: March, 2012

Muslim Persecution of Christians: March, 2012.(MEF).By Raymond Ibrahim.Gatestone Institute. April 25, 2012.

The war on Christianity and its adherents rages on in the Muslim world. In March alone, Saudi Arabia's highest Islamic law authority decreed that churches in the region must be destroyed; jihadis in Nigeria said they "are going to put into action new efforts to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women"; American teachers in the Middle East were murdered for talking about Christianity; churches were banned or bombed, and nuns terrorized by knife-wielding Muslim mobs. Christians continue to be attacked, arrested, imprisoned, and killed for allegedly "blaspheming" Islam's prophet Muhammad; former Muslims continue to be attacked, arrested, imprisoned, and killed for converting to Christianity.
To understand why all this persecution is virtually unknown in the West, consider the mainstream media's well-documented biases: also in March alone, the New York Times ran a virulently anti-Catholic ad, but refused to publish a near identical ad directed at Islam; the BBC admitted it will mock Jesus but never Muhammad; and U.S. sitcoms were exposed for bashing Christianity, but never Islam.
Is it any wonder, then, that this same mainstream media ignores or at best whitewashes the nonstop persecution of Christians under Islam? Exposing such ugly truths would undermine their narrative of Islam as the "religion of peace."
Categorized by theme, March's batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed in alphabetical order by country, not severity:

Apostasy, Blasphemy, and Proselytism: Death and Prison

Egypt: A Christian man accused of insulting Islam's prophet Muhammad was sentenced to six years in prison. Though "defamation of religion" is a misdemeanor under Egyptian law, punishable by a prison sentence of one month to three years, the judge doubled the sentence to appease Muslims, including an angry 2,500-strong mob that terrorized the courtroom, demanding death for the Christian. Likewise, an "anti-Christianization course" by an organization that is "specializing in the resistance to Christianity"—so Muslims are not "throw[n] under the feet of the Cross"—was initiated; according to an instructor, "Reoccurring attempts at the university in Aswan to convert Muslims to Christianity or provoke them with misleading information was the drive behind the course."
India: A young woman was attacked and kicked out of her home "for daring to give thanks for healing in Christ's name" in a predominantly Muslim village; "her parents helped Islamic extremists to beat her nearly unconscious." In a village where "hard-line Muslims have threatened to kill the 25 families who initially showed interest in Christ, leaving only five frightened Christian families," the woman was attacked when returning from church, called "pagan, among other verbal abuse." The mob also harassed and threatened the Christian woman who "lured" her to convert to Christianity.
Iran: In a rare crackdown on a concentrated area, authorities arrested 12 more converts to Christianity living in Isfahan, the country's third largest city, in what is seen as a tactic to discourage Muslims from attending official churches. Among the latest known Christian converts detained in the Isfahan area is a man who was reportedly taken into custody on March 2 while returning home from his work: "Security authorities raided his home and seized him without explanation."
Iraq: An American teacher was shot to death by an 18-year-old student at a private Christian academy. He "was a devout Christian who frequently praised Christianity and prayed in the classroom, and his friends in Washington said his evangelism is what motivated him to teach in Iraq." According to students, "Mr. Jeremiah's hands were still folded in prayer when he fell"; others say a day before the shooting "a heated discussion" broke out "during which the pupil threatened to kill the teacher because of conflicting religious views." In an interview, the father of the pupil condemned Christian evangelists, portraying them as "more dangerous than al-Qaeda."
Malaysia: After religious police raided a Methodist church event due to "fears that Muslims were being converted," Muslim officials created a seminar called "Strengthening the faith, the dangers of liberalism and pluralism and the threat of Christianity towards Muslims." Due to criticism of the title, a lawmaker said the reference to Christianity would be removed, but the seminar's content would remain unchanged: "The seminar is part of the right of Muslims to defend the faith of its practitioners from any action which may lead to apostasy. It is our responsibility."
Pakistan: A Muslim mob attacked a 60-year-old Christian woman who had converted to Islam, only to reconvert back to Christianity six months later: she "was tortured—her head shaved—and paraded through the streets, garlanded with shoes." Soon after, she received more threats of "dire consequences" from Islamic clerics, fleeing the region with her family. Likewise, a 26-year-old Christian woman, mother to a five-month-old girl, was falsely accused of "blaspheming" Muhammad and arrested. A few days prior, some of her relatives who converted to Islam pressured her also to do likewise: "She refused, telling them that she was satisfied with Christianity and did not want to convert," and was arrested of blasphemy soon thereafter.
Yemen: Al-Qaeda gunmen fatally shot an American teacher. The terror network's affiliate in Yemen issued a message saying, "This operation comes as a response to the campaign of Christian proselytizing that the West has launched against Muslims," calling the teacher "one of the biggest American proselytizers." He was shot eight times on a Sunday.

Church Attacks

Bethlehem: One week after the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority told an audience of Evangelicals that his government respected the rights of its Christian minorities, the PA declared a Baptist Church illegal, adding that birth, wedding, and death certificates from the church are no longer valid. A pastor notes that "animosity towards the Christian minority in areas controlled by the PA continues to get increasingly worse. People are always telling [Christians], 'Convert to Islam. Convert to Islam. It's the true and right religion.'"
Egypt: Some 1500 Muslims—several armed with swords and knives and shouting Islamic slogans—terrorized the Notre Dame Language School in Upper Egypt, in response to calls from local mosques falsely claiming the private school was building a church: "Two nuns were besieged in the school's guesthouse for some eight hours by a murderous mob threatening to burn them alive"; one nun suffered a "major nervous breakdown requiring hospitalization… The entire property was ransacked and looted. The next day the Muslims returned and terrorized the children. Consequently, school attendance has dropped by at least one third."
Iran: The Armenian Evangelical Church in Tehran is the latest church to be ordered to cease holding Persian service on Fridays. The officers serving the notice threatened church officials, saying that "if the order is ignored, the church building will be bombed 'as happens in Iraq every day.'" As another report summarizes, "Christians and Churches in the Islamic Republic of Iran are now banned from preaching the Gospel to non-Christians, holding Persian language services, teaching and distributing the Bible, or holding Christian classes."
Iraq: Though Kirkuk's church was recently restored after an earlier bomb attack that killed a 13-year-old Christian boy, the "reopening celebration was but a brief respite in the ongoing suffering of Iraq's Christian community, signaled by two further attacks": Another church in Baghdad was bombed, killing two guards and wounding five, and the body of a Christian was "found riddled with bullets in Mosul. He had been shot nine times at close range. The freelance photographer had been kidnapped four days earlier. Iraqi Christians are often targeted by kidnappers for ransom."
Kenya: A band of Muslims launched a grenade attack on a crowd of 150 Christians attending an outdoor church meeting, killing two and wounding more than 30. "Human-rights groups say that the Muslim attackers were hyped into action by a militant Muslim preacher holding an alternate rally only 900 feet from the Christian gathering. Further reports say that the Muslim preachers were slandering Christianity and that members of the Christian group could hear the Muslim speakers."
Nigeria: A Boko Haram suicide car bomber attacked a Catholic church, killing at least 10 people. The bomb detonated as worshippers attended Mass at St. Finbar's Catholic Church in Jos, a city where thousands of Christians have died in the last decade as a result of Boko Haram's jihad, and where another church was attacked, killing three, less than two weeks earlier.
Saudi Arabia: the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, one of the Islamic world's highest religious authorities, declared that it is "necessary to destroy all the churches of the region." He made his assertion in response to a question posed by a delegation from Kuwait, where a parliament member recently called for the "removal" of all churches: the delegation wanted to confirm Sharia's position on churches with the Grand Mufti, who "stressed that Kuwait was a part of the Arabian Peninsula, and therefore it is necessary to destroy all churches in it," basing his verdict on a saying (or hadith) of Muhammad.
Sudan: Sudanese aerial strikes were aimed at church buildings in various regions. Churches in the Nuba Mountains are holding worship services very early in the morning and late in the evening to avoid aerial bombardments intentionally targeting their churches. The Khartoum regime is "doing everything possible to make sure they get rid of Christianity from the Nuba Mountains—churches and church schools are the targets of both the Sudanese Armed Forces and its militias," said an aid worker.

Dhimmitude

[General Abuse, Debasement, and Suppression of non-Muslims as "Tolerated" Citizens]

Denmark: In a Muslim ghetto in Copenhagen, a refugee from Africa had his door kicked-in several times and was threatened by a group of "youths" who accused him of being "both black and Christian," and tried to extort money from him. Police said they could not guarantee his safety, and he was eventually found in tears living in the streets.
Egypt: In Minya province, Christian families are "living in terror" since Salafis threatened to kidnap any Christian girl not wearing the hijab; parents are keeping their daughters indoors, missing school. Likewise, a Christian boy was abducted, his kidnappers demanding a large ransom from his family. And a court in Edfu sentenced the pastor of a church that was torched by Muslims to six months in prison for violating the height of the church building, further ordering the removal of the excess height. The church had received a license and was still under construction when it was torched by a Muslim mob in September.
Iran: After complaints about the display of Christmas trees and Santa Clauses in the streets of Tehran during the Christmas season, an official warned that the municipality will begin to seize such symbols: "Building facades in Tehran should be controlled by the municipality and the display of such symbols should not be allowed."
Iraq: Christians are running out of havens as rising security concerns and economic hardship cause them to leave the places of refuge they had found in the country's Kurdish north. The sort of attacks that initiated a mass exodus of Christians from Baghdad and Mosul are increasingly occurring in the autonomous region of Kurdistan, which once "welcomed Christians and was relatively safe." A Christian who fled there from Mosul seven years ago after retrieving his son from kidnappers said it is like history "repeating itself."
Nigeria: The Islamist organization Boko Haram declared "war" on Christians, saying it aims to "annihilate the entire Christian community living in the northern parts of the country." According to a spokesman, "We will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won't be able to stay." Along with constant church bombings—most recently on Easter, killing nearly 50—one of the groups new strategies is "to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women."
Pakistan: Two Christian hospital employees were abducted by "Islamic extremists": "Such cases are on the rise, as banned Islamist groups and other criminal gangs are turning to kidnappings for ransom in order to survive and procure weapons and ammunition," said a senior investigator, adding that most Islamist groups believe that Christian NGOs are involved in evangelizing "under the guise of charity," giving more incentive to abuse them.
Sudan: Over half a million people, mostly Christian and originally from South Sudan, have been stripped of citizenship in response to the South's secession, and forced to relocate: "Sudanese Christians who have barely a month to leave the north or risk being treated as foreigners are starting to move, but Christian leaders are concerned that the 8 April deadline set by Islamic-majority Sudan is unrealistic. 'We are very concerned. Moving is not easy ... people have children in school. They have homes ... It is almost impossible,' said a Catholic bishop."
Syria: The nation where many Iraqi Christians fled to as a haven is slowly becoming like Iraq, as thousands of Syrian Christians continue to flee to nearby Lebanon. "Al-Faruq Battalion, which is affiliated with the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA), is imposing jizya (an extra tax imposed on non-Muslims living under Muslim rule) on Christians in Homs Governorate" and "armed men … threaten to kidnap or kill them or members of their families if they refuse to "pay Islamic taxes"—precisely what has been taking place in next door Iraq.
Turkey: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom named Turkey—formerly hailed for its freedoms—as "one of the world's worst violators of religious freedom," due to its treatment of Christian and other minority groups. The report said that restrictions on non-Muslim communities, such as limiting their right to train clergy and own places of worship, "have led to their decline, and in some cases, their virtual disappearance," further noting "an increased number of attacks, ranging from harassment and vandalism to death threats, against Protestant churches and individuals in 2011 compared to 2010."

About this Series

Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching epidemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:

1. Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
2. Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.

Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (tribute); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed "dhimmis" (barely tolerated citizens); and simple violence and murder. Oftentimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to India in the east, and throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.

Video - Robert Spencer on Michael Coren's show: "Investigating the origins of Islam."

Video - Denying Terror - Barack Obama is wearing rosy glasses when he says the war on terror is over.

Ezra Levant - Jeffrey Addicott looks at how Barack Obama is wearing rosy glasses when he says the war on terror is over.
Hmmm........Does this mean that they will close Guantanamo prison and release the prisoners?

Terror suspect, Abu Hamza, can be extradited to the U.S.

Terror suspect, Abu Hamza, can be extradited to the U.S.(AlArabiya).Europe’s human rights court has ruled that it would be legal for Britain to extradite an Egyptian-born radical Islamist cleric and five other terror suspects to the United States. The European Court of Human Rights ruling Tuesday in the cases of Mustafa Kamal Mustafa — also known as Abu Hamza al-Masri — and five others centered on tough U.S. detention policies. The court found “there would be no violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights” if the six were extradited, but allowed a three-month stay for an appeal. Masri, a one-eyed, hook-handed hardliner, is wanted in the United States for a raft of alleged terrorist offenses, including trying to set up an al-Qaeda training camp in rural Oregon. He is currently serving seven years in prison at Britain’s Belmarsh prison. The hook-handed preacher Abu Hamza and the other suspects could be sent to the U.S. to face trial after they lost today their appeals against extradition. Egyptian-born Abu Hamza is wanted in America on 11 charges including taking 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998, promoting violent jihad in Afghanistan in 2001 and conspiring to set up a jihad training camp. Hamza was jailed for seven years in February 2006 for preaching hate and inciting murder at Finsbury Park Mosque in North London. His sentence has now been served but he could face life sentence behind bars in the U.S.. Abu Hamza was granted British citizenship in 1986. The American authorities have described him as a “terrorist facilitator with a global reach”. Read the full story here.

Israel braces for another 'flytilla'

Israel braces for another 'flytilla'.(YNet).Is a second fly-in underway? Hundreds, possibly thousands, of foreign pro-Palestinian activists are set to arrive in Israel via the Ben Gurion International Airport on Sunday ahead of trip to Palestinian Authority. The measure is perceived as having volatile potential, and police sources said Monday that security forces are gearing to stop the activists at the airport should they cause a public disturbance – something authorities believe is very likely.The "flytilla," titled the "Welcome to Palestine 2012" campaign, is expected to consist of activists from the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand who plan to go to Bethlehem, before travelling to other Palestinian cities.
Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, who will coordinate the government's efforts vis-à-vis the fly-in, has already held several meetings on the matter, as well as a survey of the airport.Aharonovitch's team consists of officials from the police, the Immigration authority, the Israel Aviation Authority and various other branches in the defense establishment. Sunday, which will see the end of the Passover break in Israel, is considered one of the busiest days in Ben Gurion Airport. Aharonovitch stressed that airport security, which will be reinforced, has been instructed to exercise restraint while maintaining order.
Israel's efforts to stop the first "flytilla," in July 2011, were somewhat successful, as many European nations stopped the activists from boarding their flights. Jerusalem sources said that those who will arrive in Israel will not be granted entry and will be deported.The fly-in's organizers said that unlike last year, European airlines are not expected to blacklist activists. Dr. Mazin Qumsieh, one of the organizers, said that some 1,500 people are expected to arrive in Israel as part of the "flytilla," adding that some may arrive before Sunday."The airlines won't obey an Israeli demand to blacklist activists this time… After last year's events, some groups sued the airlines. 
"I don't know how Israel plans to deal with this, but what would it look like of it deports 1,500 people?" he said. Qumsieh stressed that the activists have been instructed to tell the truth about their reason for traveling to Israel. The Palestinian Authority, he added, is aware that even if the activists arrive in Israel – they will be promptly deported. The Palestinians are aware of the fact the regardless of the fly-in's end result, they are likely to have the upper hand – PR wise.But Qumsieh insisted that is not the "flytilla's" goal: "We're not trying to make Israel look bad. I want Israel to let them in. "Israel shouldn’t isolate us from the international community," he concluded. "I hope Israel does the right thing." Hmmm.....Israel should let them in and then put them promtly on a no - fly list, let them enjoy Palestinian 'hospitality'.Read the full story here.

"Real Saudi housewives" - Saudi woman sentenced to 50 lashes, for swearing at her friend in text message.

                                                            Woman flogged in Iran.


"Real Saudi housewives"- Saudi woman sentenced to 50 lashes, for swearing at her friend in text message.(E24/7).A Saudi court sentenced a local woman to 50 lashes for swearing at her friend following an argument, a newspaper reported on Monday. The two Saudi women, aged 33 and 31 years, had decided to go out with their children for a week end night but differed on where to go. “An argument ensued and the two women decided to split…one of them later sent a text to her friend's mobile phone swearing at her,” Kabar daily said. “The other woman went to court and showed the judge the message…although that woman said she was joking, the court ordered her lashed 50 times.” Kabar said the court gave the sentenced woman the right to appeal the verdict.Hmmmm........."Real Saudi housewives".Read the full story here.

Muslim advertisement stating “There is no god but Allah” has started a vigorous debate amongst Toronto transit riders.

Muslim advertisement stating “There is no god but Allah” has started a vigorous debate amongst Toronto transit riders.(Sun). TORONTO - A Muslim advertisement stating “There is no god but Allah” has started a vigorous debate amongst TTC riders and sparked a review from the Toronto Transit Commission Advertising Commission Group. After five complaints were made, a working group including Councillor Karen Stintz has decided to allow the advertisement to remain in the Kennedy subway station. “The decision to reject or accept an ad isn’t decided by whether someone takes offence to it or not,” said TTC spokesman Brad Ross. “It doesn’t violate the Human Rights Code. We can’t reject an ad because it espouses one view on religion.”
According to the Islam Info Centre, the ad -- posted in January -- is aimed at raising religious awareness. “The main purpose of posting it was to raise awareness of Islam,” said Mohammad Obaidullah, of the centre. They have not received any complaints directly. In fact, he said they have been receiving many more visitors inquiring about the religion. Obaidullah said the ad is not intended to be offensive. “Of course our aim is never to convert people. They have the choice to accept it or reject it.” But many disagree.
Charles McVety, president of the Canada Family Action Coalition, said it is offensive to all non-Muslims. “Recognize that in a public space, this is an offensive ad to all non-Muslims,” he said. “It’s saying all other faiths are illegitimate.” Tarek Fatah, founder of the Canadian Muslim Congress, does not agree with the ad, either. “This is what is called the declaration of belief. It basically reads ‘There is no god but God,’” he said. But the Muslim group translated part of the text into English, and left “Allah,” an Islam word for god, as is. “It looks as if they’re putting God against Allah and it’s very devious and dangerous to do this,” said Fatah. “It obviously offends people to whom it seems it’s an insult to their beliefs in their God. It’s saying your god is not the right god, mine is.” Fatah said he does not understand why this would be posted in a public space.“I don’t think such advertisements have place in the public transit system where there are multiple faiths,” he said. “It seems to me they’re saying ‘You have to notice us.’ It’s marking out their territory.” McVety said his concern is not where the ad is placed, but the privileges these Muslims are receiving. “I think we must have free speech not only in public spaces but also in government spaces,” he said. “Christians are not allowed to put up such an ad in any government space; they are repeatedly rejected.” McVety called Muslims a “super class of citizens” who receive better treatment than any other religion. “We must have equal treatment of equal people under the law, not different classes that have different privileges,” he said.Read the full story here.

Rev. Terry Jones calls for worldwide Koran burning if imprisoned Iranian pastor isn't freed.

Rev. Terry Jones calls for worldwide Koran burning if imprisoned Iranian pastor isn't freed.(DN).With the twin spires of the Islamic Center of America in the background, the Rev. Terry Jones praised Christianity and condemned Islam, calling it “of the devil.” “Mohammad was a liar, a pedophile and a false prophet,” Jones said. “I believe that as a Christian.
But as an American who believes in the constitution I believe they have the right to practice their beliefs under the freedom of religion.” Jones — who is on his fourth trip to Dearborn to preach about the dangers of Islam and its agenda of imposing Sharia law on America — also called for a worldwide burning of the Koran on April 28 if an imprisoned pastor in Iran isn’t freed from a death sentence after converting from Islam to Christianity. “I’m asking the imam of the Islamic Center here in Dearborn to work with me to free Minister Youcef,” said Jones, of Youcef Nadarkhani, currently facing death for preaching Christianity in Iran. “If he isn’t freed, I will ask the world to burn the Koran in protest starting at 5 p.m. on April 28th in Gainesville, Fla.” 
At least 30 of Jones’ supporters — some of them openly carrying weapons on their belts as did Jones — shouted an occasional “amen” or “preach it” as Jones spoke. The controversial pastor denied accusations that he is a racist. “Not true,” he said. “Islam is a religion, not a race. I am not a racist.” Jones said that not all Muslims are radicals. “I believe the majority of the people who attend this mosque behind me believe in the constitution,” Jones said.There were no arrests made at the demonstration, according to Dearborn police. "I came back to Dearborn to say what I tried to say the first time I was here," Jones said. "I was banned for three years, but we won that case so now I'm back to talk about the First Amendment. To talk about the appeasement of Muslims by the states and by many universities. "If you look at any government that is under Islamic rule you find no freedom of speech, or religion or for freedom for women." Read the full story here.

Exposed: The Christian Era in the Middle East is Over.

Exposed: The Christian Era in the Middle East is Over.(INN).
Arab Christianity joined evil forces to buy temporary security. Israel has become the only safe haven for Christians in the Middle East, Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, wrote in a recent op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal. “As 800,000 Jews were once expelled from Arab countries, so are Christians being forced from lands they've inhabited for centuries”, Ambassador Oren stated, comparing the expulsion of Jews after the establishment of the state of Israel with the Arab countries’ current treatment of their Christian minorities. The numbers are telling.
Today there is only one Middle Eastern country where the number of Christians has grown: Israel. As documented in the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, the Christian community that numbered 34,000 people in 1949 is now 163,000-strong, and will reach 187,000 in 2020.
In the rest of the Middle East, the drive for Islamic purity is going to banish all traces of pre-Islamic pasts. When the Islamists will have prevailed, the Middle East will be completely green, the colour of Islam. Therefore, it is time for Christians to recognize Israel’s survival as critical and vital also for them. Instead, Arab Christians chose to react to Ambassador Oren by embracing Islam and demonizing the Jews. “
As Christian leaders in Palestine, we were appalled by the baseless allegations you published in the Wall Street Journal”, says one letter signed by many Arab Christian personalities published in the Palestinian media outlets. “Your attempt to blame the difficult reality that Palestinian Christians face on Palestinian Muslims is a shameful manipulation of the facts intended to mask the damage that Israel has done to our community. The Israeli occupation is the primary reason why so many members of the oldest Christian communities in the world have left the holy land, Palestine. Our reality is one of occupation, oppression and loss”. The letter is signed by Palestinian ministries, activists, priests and mayors and members of the PLO. Arab Christianity is near its extinction everywhere. “Christianity in Iraq could be eradicated in our lifetime, partially as a result of the US troop withdrawal”, declared Leonard Leo, chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. 
In Egypt, 100,000 Christians already have left the country - after Hosni Mubarak’s fall last year. The Egyptian Union of Human Rights is denouncing this “mass exodus”.
Even more dramatic is the collapse of Christian Arab society following Israel’s handing over of large parts of Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority. Christians have suffered the most from the mafia-style rule of Yasser Arafat’s kleptocracy. Christian sites and cemeteries were desecrated by Muslims. Slogans like “Islam will win” and “First the Saturday people, then the Sunday People” have been painted on walls, and PLO flags were draped over Jesus crosses. 
Ramallah was 90% Christian before the 1948 War of Independence and Bethlehem was 80% Christian. Today Ramallah is a large Islamic city and Bethlehem’s Christians are near extinction.
Given their common status as minorities within an overwhelmingly Islamic region, you might expect Christian Arabs to find common cause with Jews and Israel. But the traditional hatred of Eastern Christianity for Judaism, combined with the futile hopes for assimilation within the Arab world, have closed off that option. As the letter clearly shows, Arab Christians are lost to Islam. This unavoidable historical process has been explained by the pioneer Bat Ye’or, the most important historian of the “dhimmitude”. Many Palestinian terrorists came from the Christian community. George Habash, who has been dubbed “the godfather of Middle East terrorism”, was a Greek Orthodox Christian who sang in his church choir as a boy back in the town of Lydda. 
His background was almost identical to that of his best friend, Wadia Haddad, the No. 2 in the PFLP and the operational genius and passionate proponent of the group’s terrorist acts. For years after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the public face of that nation’s diplomacy was deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, who was born with the distinctly Christian name of Michael Yuhanna. British author, William Dalrymple, suggests that by the 1990s, five out of Hafiz al Asad’s seven closest advisors were Christian. Today, the suave symbol of the Palestinian cause in the West is a Christian, Hanan Ashrawi, who signed the letter against Oren. Coptic Christians were prominent in the pioneering nationalist anti-Israel Wafd Party of Egypt in the 1920s. From the 1930s, Arab Christians were deeply influenced by the fascist and ultra-nationalist models they could see in Europe, and they formed their own parties in this mold. One of the first was the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, founded by the Christian Antun Saadeh, who preached the establishment of a Great Syrian empire covering not just modern-day Syria but also Judea, Samaria, Lebanon, Cyprus, and other stretches of the Near East. In 1940, another Christian thinker launched what would be a still more influential variety of pan-Arabism, namely the Movement for Arab Renaissance (Ba’th). The key founder was Michel Aflaq, who had been educated at the Sorbonne. The most prominent Palestinian intellectual in the world was a Christian, Edward Said (it was in Nazareth, in fact, that Said’s mother was born; his grandfather founded the city’s first Baptist church).
The use of the term “nakba” for the Israeli War of Independence was an innovation of Constantin Zureiq, the intellectual father of Arab nationalism. George Antonious’ book “The Arab Awakening” is one of the earliest intellectual expressions of Palestinian Arab resentment about Zionism. Antonious was far from alone as a Christian Arab who saw his future with the aspirations of the Muslim majority in the Arab world. You also have the case of Azmi Bishara, the Arab MK who betrayed the State of Israel, who comes from a middle-class Christian family from Nazareth.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, the Christian movements of General Michel Aoun and Sleiman Frangieh are allied with Hizbullah.Christians have also been part of municipal councils headed by Hamas. Now that the Nasserite mixture of socialism and secularism is outclassed by Islamist fury, Christians are vanishing from their cradle. Arab Christians are paying the anti-Israel appeasing choice: they feed the Islamic crocodile hoping it will eat them last. Nonetheless, the Islamic tiger is devouring the Christian lamb. Indeed, the Christian era in the Middle East is coming to an end.
After Arab nationalism failed to eliminate Israel, Arab Christianity and the Vatican are now building a Palestinian identity hostile to Israel and the Jews. The Christian criminalization of Zionism, which Arab Churches made a basic condition for “Muslim-Christian rapprochement”, grants the elimination of the Jewish State priority over defending the rights of their own beleaguered communities. As was the case of the European Christians in World War II, Arab Christianity is now pursuing a joint cause with evil forces to buy temporary security. They will be responsable for their own destruction.
When in 1991, the first Iraqi Scuds hit the Tel Aviv area, Palestinians in Judea and Samaria and Gaza, in defiance of the curfew, mounted rooftops and joyfully chanted: “Saddam, Saddam, ya habib, oodroob oodroob Tel Abib” (“Saddam, Saddam, you darling, hit Tel Aviv over and over again”). A few rocket attacks later, a paraphrased version of that ditty spread around: “Saddam, Saddam, our boss, go ahead and hit the Cross”. Arab Christians have been Islamicized. Supported by the Vatican and the Orthodox Churches, they choose the war against the Jews. They will be paid back with their own extinction. Hmmm.......Unknown to them, they are heading for eternal judgment, they think they are coming to make war against God, but they are being gathered for judgment.~ Isaiah 13:6-8.
Read the full story here.

Courtroom Terror

Courtroom Terror.(MiddleEastForum).By Raymond Ibrahim.Gatestone Institute April 5, 2012.Apologists often try to explain away Islamic terrorism as a byproduct of something else. The usual argument is that, because Muslims are politically, socially, or militarily weak—the archetypal example often given is Israel vis-à-vis the Palestinians—they have no choice but to resort to terror to strike at their stronger adversaries. In other words, they resort to terrorism simply to even the odds—hence the argument that terrorism is the "weapon of the weak."
Though this narrative is widely accepted, it is demonstrably false. Consider the following account that took place a couple of weeks ago in Muslim-majority Egypt:

More than 300 Muslim lawyers inside and outside a courthouse in the southern Egyptian province of Assuit today [3/16] prevented defense lawyer Ahmad Sayed Gabali, who is representing the Christian, Makarem Diab, from going into court. Mr. Diab was found guilty of "Insulting the Muslim Prophet" and was scheduled today for a hearing on his appeal. Attorney Dr. Naguib Gabriell, head of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights Organization, said there was "terror in the Assiut Court today." He added that he was on his way to court when he was advised that Muslim lawyers have issued death threats to any Christian lawyers who attend the court session. "Makram Diab was assaulted by Muslim lawyers during his transfer from the courtroom and security failed to protect him." Peter Sarwat, a Coptic lawyer, said that Muslim lawyers representing the plaintiffs prevented the defense team from entering court: "They said no Muslim will defend a Christian. It was agreed that Christian lawyers would take over and two Coptic lawyers volunteered, but the Muslims decided later that even Christians would not defend him." Sarwat said the Muslim lawyers wanted to assault the chief judge but he managed to leave the court via a rear door [emphasis added].

The report goes on to explain how Muslim lawyers and activists went to court to defend Diab's right to a fair trial only to be assaulted by other Muslim lawyers: "They were assaulting us in a beastly and strange way just because we went there to defend a citizen who happened to be a Christian," said one of the lawyers, adding that exiting the court required security intervention: "We left court in a security vehicle which took us to Security headquarters, otherwise, we don't know what the outcome would have been for us."
More details include eyewitnesses reporting that the Muslim lawyers were "armed with clubs." Several, including reporters, were injured in the ensuing melee, and human rights groups were "forced out of the courtroom by the Muslims."
Was the condemned Christian's attorney right to categorize this incident as "terrorism"? According to Dictionary.com, the primary definition of terrorism is "the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes." In other words, terrorism is not just limited to 9/11-type strikes, but involves intimidating, bullying, threatening, etc.—precisely what happened at this courthouse trial.
Some more key points to keep in mind:

• Those making the death threats, physically assaulting others with clubs, and otherwise engaging in terrorist behavior were "more than 300 Muslim lawyers"; not jihadis or fugitives hiding out in caves, but lawyers.
• The entire issue revolves around something that, by Western standards of freedom, would be a non-issue to start with: insulting a "holy" figure, Islam's Prophet Muhammad. In a Western court of law, the Christian "blasphemer" would not even be tried, but rather the terrorist "lawyers."
• The attacks on fellow Muslim lawyers who merely sought to represent the condemned Christian is in keeping with Islam's doctrines of loyalty and disloyalty, which command Muslims always to side with fellow Muslims, while having enmity for non-Muslim infidels—certainly those perceived to have insulted their prophet.

The ultimate lesson emerging from this shameful fiasco is one of sheer predictability. Anyone familiar with the doings of the Islamic world—its history, its doctrines—cannot be surprised at any of the above: rage and violence in response to a non-Muslim insulting the prophet; rage and violence toward Muslim members of a legal system for trying to represent an "infidel"—these are quite standard, with ample precedent, regardless of whether the enraged Muslims are suit-and-tie wearing lawyers, or kalashnikov-toting jihadis.
Contrary to popular belief, then, and as this episode clearly shows, Islamic terrorism is not a byproduct of "weakness," but rather the typical approach to those who transgress the bounds of Sharia. Whether one man "blaspheming" Muhammad in a Muslim-majority nation (as in this example) or whether an entire nation existing on land perceived to be Islam's (as in the case of Israel)—terror is never far behind for those transgressing the bounds of Sharia.

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Arizona Legislature Passes Sweeping Electronic Speech Censorship Bill.

Arizona Legislature Passes Sweeping Electronic Speech Censorship Bill.(cbldf.org).By Charles Brownstein.Yesterday, the Arizona legislature passed Arizona House Bill 2549, which would update the state’s telephone harassment law to apply to the Internet and other electronic communications. The bill is sweepingly broad, and would make it a crime to communicate via electronic means speech that is intended to “annoy,” “offend,” “harass” or “terrify,” as well as certain sexual speech. Because the bill is not limited to one-to-one communications, H.B. 2549 would apply to the Internet as a whole, thus criminalizing all manner of writing, cartoons, and other protected material the state finds offensive or annoying. The Bill is currently on Governor Jan Brewer’s desk awaiting her decision on whether to veto or sign the bill.

Media Coalition, a trade association protecting the First Amendment rights of content industries, whose membership includes CBLDF, has been active in opposing the bill. On March 14, Media Coalition sent a memo to the Senate Rules Committee regarding constitutional infirmities in H.B. 2549. Yesterday they sent a letter to Governor Brewer urging her to veto the bill.
That letter outlines the constitutional deficiencies in the bill:

H.B. 2549 would make it a crime to use any electronic or digital device to communicate using obscene, lewd or profane language or to suggest a lewd or lascivious act if done with intent to “annoy,” “offend,” “harass” or “terrify.” The legislation offers no definitions for “annoy,” “offend,” “harass” or “terrify.” “Electronic or digital device” is defined only as any wired or wireless communication device and multimedia storage device. “Lewd” and “profane” are not defined in the statute or by reference. “Lewd” is generally understood to mean lusty or sexual in nature and “profane” is generally defined as disrespectful or irreverent about religion or religious practices.
Government may criminalize speech that rises to the level of harassment and many states have laws that do so, but this legislation takes a law meant to address irritating phone calls and applies it to communication on web sites, blogs, listserves and other Internet communication. H.B. 2549 is not limited to a one to one conversation between two specific people. The communication does not need to be repetitive or even unwanted. There is no requirement that the recipient or subject of the speech actually feel offended, annoyed or scared. Nor does the legislation make clear that the communication must be intended to offend or annoy the reader, the subject or even any specific person.
Speech protected by the First Amendment is often intended to offend, annoy or scare but could be prosecuted under this law. A Danish newspaper posted pictures of Muhammad that were intended to be offensive to make a point about religious tolerance. If a Muslim in Arizona considers the images profane and is offended, the paper could be prosecuted. Some Arizona residents may consider Rush Limbaugh’s recent comments about a Georgetown law student lewd. He could be prosecuted if he intended his comments to be offensive. Similarly, much general content available in the media uses racy or profane language and is intended to offend, annoy or even terrify. Bill Maher’s stand up routines and Jon Stewart’s nightly comedy program, Ann Coulter’s books criticizing liberals and Christopher Hitchens’ expressing his disdain for religion, Stephen King’s novels or the Halloween films all could be subject to this legislation. Even common taunting about sports between rival fans done online is frequently meant to offend or annoy and is often done using salty and profane language.
While protecting people from harassment is a worthy goal, legislators cannot do so by criminalizing speech protected by the Constitution. All speech is presumptively protected by the First Amendment against content-based regulation, subject only to specific historic exceptions.
If passed, the law could create vulnerabilities for cartoonists and publishers who publish material online intended to shock, satirize, and criticize. Beyond the example of the Mohammad cartoons listed in the Media Coalition letter, the taboo-pushing work of cartoonists like R. Crumb, Johnny Ryan, and Ivan Brunetti would potentially be vulnerable to prosecution, as could incendiary works such as Frank Miller’s Holy Terror and Dave Sim’s Cerebus. Similarly, the culture of message boards, within and beyond comics, would be imperiled. With more titles released digitally each week, and an extremely active online ecosystem of professional and fan exchange, laws like this one are extremely worrisome for the creators, publishers, and readers of comics.Read the full story here.

Video: Hamas Urges Women to Blow Themselves Up.

A Hamas legislator gave a fiery speech, urging women to blow themselves up for the sake of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque. Speaking before the Global March on Jerusalem, Mushri al-Masri addressed a score of Palestinian women in Gaza in a speech broadcast on Hamas Al Aqsa television and translated by the IDF on its website.His constant theme was to sacrifice Arab blood “for the Al Aqsa mosque,” which is on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. “The Hamas woman in Gaza, the Palestinian woman, says that our blood is a sacrifice for Al Aqsa mosque and that we will give Al Aqsa mosque blood and pave the road with body parts,” the Hamas legislator declared. He called on Gaza women to march towards Israel as part of “one message – that the Hamas’ compass and direction are clear; they are not vague or obscure. “ “Palestine, all of Palestine and Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem – its west before its east, Palestine with every grain of its earth with every particle is the property of the Palestinian people and the rifle of Al Kassam Brigades and the willingness of the Jihad warrior to fight for the sake of Allah and sacrifice her sons,” Al Masri continued. He called for “a struggle and a revolution that will say to this enemy, ‘You have no place on our land.’” The Global March took place on Friday with less than 50,000 demonstrators in Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon, far less than two million promised.Read and see the full story here.

Pakistani Christian playwright to present play on inhuman blasphemy law

Pakistani Christian playwright to present play on inhuman blasphemy law.(PCP).Islamabad: March 30, 2012. (PCP) A prominent Pakistani Christian playwright Adeel Salman will present a stage drama “295 C - A play about the inhuman 'Blasphemy Law' in Pakistan” 295 C is a play about the inhuman 'Blasphemy Law' in Pakistan. This law mainly targets minorities and so far Christians have been its prime victims. 
The law itself states that "295-C, Use of derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet. Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be punished with death..."
The play aims to create awareness about this inhuman law whose practice is constantly targeting the minorities. Adeel Salman is a playwright writer from Pakistan. He is the first Pakistani playwrighter who has written original plays in English for the Pakistani audience. His previous works include Ashbeel, The Unforgiven, Identity, Millie and Mo, Hope, One Blood etc. He is the recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship and is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College. He is the first Pakistani and first Pakistani Christian to have graduated with an MFA in Theater from Sarah Lawrence. 295-C is a work of fiction built around actual historical events. It focuses on the ‘Blasphemy Law’ in Pakistan. The law stands in clear violation of human rights as secured by the UN. 
In 1927, the British colonial rulers of the sub-continent made it a criminal offence to commit “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religious belief”. The law then did not discriminate between religions. The law was retained when Pakistan gained independence in 1947 under the rule of the country’s moderate founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Ten blasphemy cases were reportedly heard in court in the 58 years between 1927 and 1985. The death penalty for anyone found guilty of defaming Islam was introduced in 1986 and since then more than 4,000 cases have been handled. More than fifty percent of these were non-Muslims, who represent only 3% of the national population. No judicial execution for blasphemy has ever occurred in Pakistan, but more than eighty percent of those charged were murdered by the fundamentalist muslim majority.The most recent victim of this law’s brutality being Aasia bibi who was accused blasphemy in 2009. She has not been released despite international pressure and is in police custody where she is reported to be tortured and humiliated constantly. Her family lives in constant fear of their lives and has been attacked many times People supporting a victim of blasphemy law are also met with similar fate.At present the situation in Pakistan is extremely volatile. Anyone found guilty of blasphemy or supporting the decision to amend this law is met with dire threats to their life including the playwright himself.Read the full story here.

"Olympic Cyanide Games"? Plot Instructions Posted for London Games.

                                              Seize of a lethal dose of cyanide.

"Olympic Cyanide Games"? Plot Instructions Posted for London Games.(SUN).Exactly four months before the summer Olympic Games begin in London, officials are enacting security measures and trying to identify potential terrorist threats.The latest, uncovered by The Sun newspaper, involves mixing cyanide into hand cream. A Sun investigator saw a discussion on the idea after using a fake identity to gain access to a website frequented by radical Islamists, including "known links to six al—Qaeda terrorists."
One participant, identified as Abu Hija Ansari, posted instructions on how to mix the poison, including a warning that gloves are worn to protect the terrorists: "Through skin: 1 — cyanide, 2 — skin cream. Mix the ingredients. The skin cream will open the pores in the skin and speed up the absorption and effectiveness of the poison."
It's not clear how the hand cream would be distributed to large numbers of people attending the games. But others on the website praised the idea, including one woman who posted a logo of the Olympiad and wrote "It's time to prepare for the event, as once again they are interfering with innocent Muslims."
British security officials have not commented on the report. There are strong concerns, however, that the games will be targeted by terrorists, including sleeper cells already entrenched in London.
"Those who believe there is no terrorist threat are living in cloud cuckoo land," Bernard Jenkin, a Tory MP and chairman of the all-party homeland security group, said in response to the Sun report.Read the full story here.

CIA Counterterrorism Chief Is a Convert to Islam.

CIA Counterterrorism Chief Is a Convert to Islam.(WP).Is it wise to put a Muslim in charge of efforts to stop Muslim terrorists?This is a country where a Muslim can become a CIA chief. How intolerant and bigoted can we be?

WASHINGTON POST--For every cloud of smoke that follows a CIA drone strike in Pakistan, dozens of smaller plumes can be traced to a gaunt figure standing in a courtyard near the center of the agency’s Langley campus in Virginia.

The man with the nicotine habit is in his late 50s, with stubble on his face and the dark-suited wardrobe of an undertaker. As chief of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center for the past six years, he has functioned in a funereal capacity for al-Qaeda.

Roger, which is the first name of his cover identity, may be the most consequential but least visible national security official in Washington — the principal architect of the CIA’s drone campaign and the leader of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. In many ways, he has also been the driving force of the Obama administration’s embrace of targeted killing as a centerpiece of its counterterrorism efforts.
Colleagues describe Roger as a collection of contradictions. A chain-smoker who spends countless hours on a treadmill. Notoriously surly yet able to win over enough support from subordinates and bosses to hold on to his job. He presides over a campaign that has killed thousands of Islamist militants and angered millions of Muslims, but he is himself a convert to Islam. Hmmmm..........Obama: "We will hold sacred the beliefs held sacred by others."And which form of Islam is the "Right one"?And how about our beliefs?Read the full story here.

Can Islam be reformed? Robert Spencer, Zuhdi Jasser, Walid Shoebat

To watch the full program, and more programs Please go to www.abnsat.com

Jihad Exposed,
Samar Gorial
Can Islam be reformed?
Robert Spenser. Director, Jihad watch
Dr. Zuhdi Jassem,. President, American Islam for democracy
Walid Shoebat.