Egypt - 220 detained in Abbassiya, including 14 female protesters, 18 journalists assaulted, injured or arrested in Cairo, including one female Belgian photojournalist.

                   Abbassiya demonstration, May 4, 2012 – photo Amanda Mustard for Bikya Masr


Egypt - 220 detained in Abbassiya, including 14 female protesters, 18 journalists assaulted, injured or arrested in Cairo, including one female Belgian photojournalist.(BM).The Egyptian military arrested around 220 people, including journalists and media persons, following the forced evacuation of the Abbassiya sit-in on Friday. Among the detained are 14 women and 8 journalists, reported the Legal Front to Defend Egypt’s protesters. The non-profit legal front reported that the military prosecutor investigating the detainees harassed lawyers and refused to let them enter the prosecutor’s office initially. They asked for “special permission” to give legal assistance to the arrested protesters. One woman lawyer said she was told, “women are not allowed in the prosecutor office after 5 pm.” 14 out of the 15 women arrested were handed 15 days in prison pending investigation. The women were taken to the Qantarah female detention on Saturday. At least 18 journalists have been assaulted, injured, or arrested in the past three days while covering clashes between protesters and thugs and uniformed military personnel in front of the defense ministry in the neighborhood of Abbassiya in Cairo. The report comes from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “Authorities cannot stand by while journalists are being beaten–at times so viciously that their lives are put at risk,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “We call on the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to identify the attackers and bring them to justice immediately, as well as to release journalists in custody. Journalists must be allowed to carry out their work without threat of physical assault or arrest.” Intense clashes in front of the defense ministry between protesters on the one hand and armed thugs and uniformed military personnel on the other began on Wednesday with at least 11 people killed and hundreds injured, according to news reports. The demonstrations began as a sit-in protesting the exclusion of presidential candidate, Abu Ismail, a hard-line Salafist. Other groups soon joined. The protests were largely in response to the deaths in Wednesday’s clashes, news reports said. The military stepped in today to clear protesters out of Abbassiya Square; the demonstrators were met not only by uniformed personnel but also unidentified thugs with guns and batons, firing birdshot, live ammunition and assaulting hundreds of people. Mohamed Raafat was the most badly injured.
A reporter for the news website Masrawy, he was beaten and pelted with birdshot by three unidentified armed men who noticed him filming them as they were assaulting protesters on Wednesday in Abbassiya, his employer reported. The three men confiscated his camera and continued to beat the journalist for one hour, Raafat said in a phone interview from his hospital bed on privately owned satellite broadcaster ONTV. Rafaat was severely beaten, as shown in several graphic photographs of him published on Masrawy’s website after his assault. Raafat sustained multiple injuries to his head, back, face, and the rest of his body, he said. The journalist was taken to the hospital and received 25 stitches in his head, he saidin the interview.
Today, Abd al-Rahman Yousef, a photographer for the independent news site Hoqook, was taking pictures of the clashes when an unidentified man approached him with a knife and cut part of his ear off, his employer reported. Yousef has been unable to reach a hospital due to the military surrounding the square and preventing anyone from getting out, the report said. Ahmed Ramadan and Islam Abu al-Ezz, both working for the independent daily Al-Badil, were arrested today while covering the clashes in Abbassiya, according to the newspaper. The two journalists were assaulted and captured by unidentified thugs and handed over to the military, the report said. The two journalists were taken in a military vehicle to the military prosecutor’s office, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Khaled el-Balshy, posted on his Twitter account. A crew of seven cameramen and correspondents from the satellite broadcaster Misr25 — Ahmed Lotfy, Hassan Khodry, Ahmed Fadl, Musaab Hamid, Ahmed Abd al-Alim, Mohamed Rabie, and Mohamed Amin — was arrested today while covering the clashes, the broadcaster reported on the air. Abd al-Alim told Misr25 that he and about 70 other people who were being transported in a vehicle by security forces were being viciously beaten, the broadcaster said.
Virgine Nyugen, a Belgian photojournalist for the English-language daily Egypt Independent, was injured in the face while covering clashes in Abbassiya today and taken to Ein Shams hospital for treatment, according to news reports. Military forces entered the hospital and arrested her and took her to a state security office, multiple local journalists reported from their Twitter accounts. She was questioned briefly and released three hours later, according to the same sources. Mohamed al-Shami, a journalist from the Arabic-language sister publication Al-Masry Al-Youm, was also arrested, Abeer Saadi, an Egyptian Journalists Syndicate board member, told Al-Badil. Abd al-Rahman Musharaf, a reporter for Egypt’s newest daily, Al-Watan, was arrested and beaten today by military police while covering the clashes in Abbassiya and remains in custody, his employer reported. Three other Al-Watan journalists covering the clashes — Mohamed Kamel, Ahmed Abdu, and Ahmed Bahnasi — were rushed to the hospital suffering the effects of tear gas, the newspaper reported.Read the full story here and here.

Muslims revive old pilgrimage route via Jerusalem

Muslims revive old pilgrimage route via Jerusalem.(AA).After decades of avoiding an ancient pilgrimage route, Muslims are visiting Jerusalem to pray at Islam’s third-holiest site, the revered Al-Aqsa mosque. In doing so, they find themselves caught in a disagreement between some leading Muslim clerics, who oppose such pilgrimages, and Palestinian leaders who encourage them as evidence of the city’s Muslim credentials. Palestinians say the only Arab visitors have been officials from Arab countries that have peace treaties with Israel. Recent trips here by a top Egyptian cleric and a Jordanian prince sparked angry backlashes in their home countries. 
The vast majority of the pilgrims are from non-Arab countries like South Africa, Malaysia and India, where the stigma of visiting Israeli-controlled areas isn’t as powerful. “Jerusalem is a beautiful place,” said Ali Akbar, 51, a Shiite Muslim who was visiting recently with a group of 40 pilgrims from Mumbai, India. “All Muslims should try to come to Jerusalem and pray and seek the blessings of Allah, the almighty,” Akbar said. Muslim pilgrims began trickling back beginning 2008 as violence petered out.
Palestinian tour guides, hotel operators and religious officials also attribute the increasing numbers to easier travel and the rising of Muslim middle classes in Asia and Western countries that can now afford tickets to the Holy Land. While Islam’s birthplace is in the Arabian Peninsula, Jerusalem is intimately tied with Islam’s beginnings. For centuries, Muslim pilgrims visited Jerusalem while on their way to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, now in Saudi Arabia as many believe that visiting Jerusalem deepens the sanctity of their pilgrimage. But that pilgrimage route was abruptly halted after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967. East Jerusalem is home to the hilltop compound housing both Al-Aqsa and the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site. As a result, many Muslims believe visiting the mosque would amount to the recognition of Israel’s claim to the area and be inappropriate when Israel prevents many Palestinians from entering. Those sentiments have recently softened somewhat, and an estimated 2,000 people have come over the past year. That’s a tiny percentage of the roughly 3 million visitors to Jerusalem annually, mostly Jews and Christian pilgrims - but still a sharp contrast to the almost total absence of Muslim pilgrims here for many decades. In February, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Muslims to visit Jerusalem. Abbas said it would underscore the city’s importance to the Islamic world and bolster Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem, which they seek as their capital. “The flow of crowds and congestion in (Jerusalem’s) streets and holy sites will strengthen the steadfastness of its citizens,” Abbas said.Hmmmm.........Read the full story here.



 Video: The role of Jerusalem in Islam.


 

'Genocide' cartoon in French school shocks Turkish students

'Genocide' cartoon in French school shocks Turkish students.(HD).Two Turkish students in a French school have reacted after a cartoon depicting a Turk carrying a basket full of skulls with the words "Armenian Genocide" written on its side was shown in class. The incident occurred at the College Anatole France high school in the city of Montbéliard in France's Comte region. A teacher displayed a cartoon during a geography and history class and asked students: "What do you understand from this cartoon? Why can Turkey not join the EU according to this cartoon?" The cartoon depicted a mountain with the EU flag erected at its peak. Three stereotypical caricatures of Balkan peoples were drawn climbing the mountain. At the very bottom of the mountain was a "peasant" Turkish man struggling to get up from the ground with a very large basket on his back. The basket was filled with human skulls with the word "Turkey" written on it and the words "Armenian Genocide" above. Behind the Turkish character, a slender man with "France" written over his head was shown adding a skull to the already-full basket.Turkish students Muhammed Ali Erki, 17, and İsmail Erdal, 14, said they were shocked to see the cartoon. Erki reportedly asked his teacher, "We did not commit genocide, yet you accuse us of it. What do you think about Algerians?" “You are right but this cartoon is not my idea, I need to give this class as part of the curriculum,” the teacher said in reply. Erdal said he understood from the cartoon that "the French do not want to see Turkey in the EU." The students said they had not been able to concentrate on their classes after seeing the cartoon and added that were especially saddened to see North African students making fun of Turkey and Turks. The families of the students notified the anti-racism COJEP International foundation. COJEP President Ali Gedikoğlu said they would bring the cartoon to the attention of the authorities in France and file a complaint with the French Education Ministry to have the cartoon removed from the curriculum.Hmmmm.....Erdogan:"Muslims don't commit Genocide".........More pictures and info on the 'Non Excistant' Armenian Genocide here, warning contains violent graphic images.Read the full story here.

Shaima Alawadi Cover-up for HONOR KILLING? Court papers shed new light on death of Iraqi woman in U.S.

Shaima Alawadi Cover-up for HONOR KILLING? Court papers shed new light on death of Iraqi woman in U.S.(AlArabiya)The family of a slain Iraqi-American woman flew to Iraq with her body just days after police sought a court order to search their house, cars and electronic devices for clues in the case that generated international outrage amid speculation that her beating death might have been a hate crime. The husband and two of Shaima Alawadi’s five children arrived in Iraq last week; four days after detectives submitted an 11-page search warrant affidavit asking for permission to conduct a broader search of the crime scene. The court papers say detectives discovered a suspicious text message sent from a cell phone belonging to Alawadi’s 17-year-old daughter. The message read: “The detective will find out tell them cnt talk.”
In addition, the records say Alawadi wanted to get a divorce and move to Texas, and the daughter was distraught about a pending arranged marriage with a cousin. The killing of the 32-year-old Alawadi drew international attention after her daughter, Fatima Alhimidi, told reporters she found a note by her mother’s unconscious body that read: “Go back to your country, you terrorist.” Police have not named any suspects. Lt. Mark Coit, an El Cajon police spokesman, said Friday the department would not comment on the case. The affidavit was supposed to be sealed and was mistakenly released to the media by San Diego County Superior Court, the court acknowledged in a statement. 
While the court papers provide insight into the different leads police are pursuing, searches of the home, cars and phone records don’t necessarily mean a family member is a suspect, said Paul Pfingst, a former San Diego County district attorney who is now a defense lawyer. Police are trying to determine who received the text message sent from Alhimidi’s cell phone while the teen was being interviewed by detectives, according to the affidavit. 
The family also told police another hate note was left at their home weeks before the attack, but they did not keep it or file a report with authorities. Police found a torn, handwritten note at the crime scene, court papers indicate, but forensic analysis found it was a copy. Police have not revealed what it said but asked the judge for permission to search for the original, as well as other notes with “hate-crime related content” and any paper stock that matches the paper on which the note was written. The court papers detailed several relationship issues in the family. In November, Fatima Alhimidi jumped from her mother’s moving car and possibly broke her arm after she was discovered by police in a car with a 21-year-old man, the records show. Alhimidi said, “‘I love you, Mom,’ opened the vehicle door and jumped out while the vehicle was doing approximately 35 mph,” the documents said. “Police were informed by paramedics and hospital staff that Fatima Alhimidi said she was being forced to marry her cousin and did not want to do so, (so) she jumped out of the vehicle.”The family took Alawadi’s body from the U.S. to the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, on March 31 on a plane sent by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Two of her five children and her husband are still there, Mohebi said.Read the full story here.

Video - Former Egyptian Diplomat Gamal Bayoumi, Secretary-General of Arab Investors Union, Defends Peace with Israel: It Allowed Us 40 Years of Building up Egypt's Economic Power

Gamal Bayoumi : My position with regard to Iran is based on two things. One is that Iran has been hostile to the Egyptian peace process throughout. Iran has not just expressed its opposition, but has acted to destroy it.

Interviewer : Peace process with whom? With Israel?

Gamal Bayoumi : Yes, ma'am. With Israel. Egypt initiated the peace with Israel.

Interviewer : But this was years ago...

Gamal Bayoumi : This is something that annoys me. You weren't around in 1979.

Interviewer : What happened in those discussions?

Gamal Bayoumi : When, in 1979, Anwar Sadat returned from Washington, millions came out to welcome him. Today, people pretend that they were heroes, who opposed it. By no means. The accords ended 50 years of conflict, and since then, we have had 40 years of building up Egypt's economic power. We may not have accomplished all our aspirations, but we are much, much better off than we were in 1970, 1980, or 1990.

In 2002, the Arab summit in Beirut ratified the Egyptian peace initiative, which became the initiative of Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah, who is the Saudi king today. It was embraced as the Arab world's position - land in return for peace. That is what Egypt did - it restored all its national lands in return for peace.

Interviewer : So why didn't Egypt rectify its relations with the countries that had opposed peace?

Gamal Bayoumi : Iran is a different story. To this day, Iran is opposed to this initiative.

Interviewer : Why is there no [Egyptian] embassy there?

Gamal Bayoumi : I will tell you why. [Egypt] is trying to ease the confrontation, but when Iran names a street in Tehran "The Martyr Khaled Istambouli Street," after Sadat's assassin, what are we supposed to do? When Egyptian diplomacy went into action and we talked to them, they said they would change the street name. To what? To "Martyr Street." Come on. This is in addition to the bombs they plant here and there.

Interviewer : Is this sufficient reason to cut off ties with Iran? When [Egypt] halts the trade, the diplomatic ties...

Gamal Bayoumi : No, the trade between the countries is just fine.

Interviewer : Then tell me, Sir, what the extent of the Egyptian-Iranian trade is.

Gamal Bayoumi : There are investments, there is trade, and everything. I don't remember the figures, and don't want to misquote them. But I can say with confidence that there is trade, and the Egyptian Bank is active there... They are proposing to come and invest here. The main Arab reason [for the tension] - and there is some contradiction in the Egyptian position in this case - is that Iran is occupying Arab lands.

Interviewer : Which are part of the UAE...

Gamal Bayoumi : Israel is not occupying Egyptian lands.

Interviewer : But if the UAE itself, whose islands are occupied, maintains good relations with Iran, should Egypt be holier than the Pope?

Gamal Bayoumi : Iran must renounce this policy, and say that it is willing to negotiate. These are UAE islands, which are in UAE territorial waters, yet Iran insists that it will not negotiate.Source: Memri.

Video - UK Muslims verbally abuse Brittons

Everyone world-wide, should watch this 4.36 min video, filmed by a very brave young English girl when she returned to her home town of Luton, near London, England.
The Western world has a very serious problem arising - and it's arising with alarming speed! Politicians are ignoring it! (With the notable exception of Geert Wilders!)
Set your sound to 40% and prepare to be shocked! Read the comments underneath - they are correct when they say "if the whites march, they are outnumbered by police - yet none are visible here!" Why not?

Belgistan? Sharia Showdown Looms in Brussels.

Belgistan? Sharia Showdown Looms in Brussels.(CBN).BRUSSELS and ANTWERP -- Brussels is the capital of Europe. But some are now calling it the Muslim capital of Europe.
The graffiti on a building in Belgium says it all: "Welcome to 'Belgistan." Muslims are still a minority in Belgium, but in the capital of Brussels, they're already the largest religious group, comprising one-quarter of the city's population.
In less than 20 years they're expected to be the majority. Imran was completely open with CBN News, saying Islam and Sharia law are inseparable, and that democracy is evil.
"Sharia is Islam, to be clear," he said. "There is no difference between Islam and Sharia, it's just a name."
"Democracy is the opposite of Sharia and Islam," he said. "We believe Allah is the legislator. Allah makes the laws. He decides what is allowed and what is forbidden."
CBN News asked Imran about self-described "democratic Muslims" who are against the extreme parts of Sharia law. "That's really funny when I hear someone say I was speaking to a 'democratic Muslim,'" he replied. "It's the same thing as saying I was speaking to Christian Jew, or a Jewish Muslim or something like that. It's impossible.""How could you meet a Jewish Muslim or a Christian Jew?" he continued. "And the Muslim who says he's against Sharia, he's not a Muslim. It's impossible."
Hmmmm......The Belgian Constitution guarantees equality for all Belgians, equality for men and women is guaranteed.It's high time the Belgian parliamentarians start doing their job, cause Sharia guarantees non of these!Somehow they forgot the oath they took to uphold the Belgian laws.Read the full story here.

" Islamofauxbia " - Saudi Grand Mufti Calls for "Destruction of All Churches in Region"

                                       St. Mary's Roman Catholic church in Doha, Qatar.

Saudi Grand Mufti Calls for "Destruction of All Churches in Region".(MEForum).by Raymond Ibrahim.Jihad Watch.
According to several Arabic news sources, last Monday, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, declared that it is "necessary to destroy all the churches of the region."
The Grand Mufti made his assertion in response to a question posed by a delegation from Kuwait: a Kuwaiti parliament member recently called for the "removal" of churches (he later "clarified" by saying he merely meant that no churches should be built in Kuwait), and the delegation wanted to confirm Sharia's position on churches.
Accordingly, the Grand Mufti "stressed that Kuwait was a part of the Arabian Peninsula, and therefore it is necessary to destroy all churches in it."
As with many grand muftis before him, the Sheikh based his proclamation on the famous tradition, or hadith, wherein the prophet of Islam declared on his deathbed that "There are not to be two religions in the [Arabian] Peninsula," which has always been interpreted to mean that only Islam can be practiced in the region.
While the facts of this account speak for themselves, consider further:
Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah is not just some random Muslim hating on churches. He is the Grand Mufti of the nation that brought Islam to the world.
Moreover, he is the President of the Supreme Council of Ulema [Islamic scholars] and Chairman of the Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing of Fatwas. Accordingly, when it comes to what Islam teaches, his words are immensely authoritative.
Considering the hysteria that besets the West whenever non-authoritative individuals offend Islam—for instance, a fringe, unknown pastor—imagine what would happen if a Christian counterpart to the Grand Mufti, say the Pope, were to declare that all mosques in Italy must be destroyed; imagine the nonstop Western media frenzy that would erupt, all the shrill screams of "intolerance" and "bigot," demands for apologies if not resignation, nonstop handwringing by sensitive politicians, and worse.
Yet the Grand Mufti—the highest Islamic law authority of our "friend-and-ally" Saudi Arabia—gets a free pass when he incites Muslims to destroy churches, not that any extra incitement is needed (nary a month goes by without several churches being bombed and destroyed throughout the Islamic world). In fact, at the time of this writing, I have not seen this story, already some three days old, translated on any English news source, though "newsworthy" stories are often translated in mere hours.
Likewise, consider the significance of the Grand Mufti's rationale for destroying churches: it is simply based on a hadith.
But when non-Muslims evoke hadiths—this one or the countless others that incite violence and intolerance against the "infidel"—they are accused of being "Islamophobes," of intentionally slandering and misrepresenting Islam, of being obstacles on the road to "dialogue," and so forth.
Which leads to perhaps the most important point: Islam's teachings are so easily ascertained; there is no mystery in determining what is "right" and "wrong" in Islam. The Grand Mufti based his fatwa on a canonical hadith, which Muslims and (informed) non-Muslims know is part of Islam's sources of jurisprudence (or usul al-fiqh).
And yet the West—with all its institutions of higher learning, including governmental agencies dealing with cultural and religious questions—is still thoroughly "confused" as to what Islam teaches.
All of this is nothing short of a scandal—a reminder of just how deep the mainstream media, academia, and most politicians have their collective heads thrust in the sand.
Meanwhile, here is the latest piece of evidence of just how bad churches have it in the Muslim world, for those who care to know.

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

Video - Egyptian Presidential Candidate Abd Al-Mun'im Abu Al-Futuh: "If the US Wants to Cut Off Its Aid to Egypt, We Will Cut Off Its Interests in Egypt"

Abd Al-Mun'im Abu Al-Futuh : We will not maintain relations with anyone who harms the interests of Egypt. Relations must be to the benefit of Egypt. Of course, if we maintain relations that benefit Egypt, the other side also…

Interviewer : What is your position with regard to the US aid?

Abd Al-Mun'im Abu Al-Futuh : The US aid is not really aid. The US gives Egypt money in return for its interests in Egypt. If the US wants to cut off its aid to Egypt, we will cut off its interests in Egypt. That's it – tit for tat. That is an international principle – interests in return for interests. Diplomatic relations are not a charity organization. The US has not opened a charity organization out of sympathy for the Egyptian people, giving us 1.2 billion dollars every year. No, its aid is for the sake of its interests.

Interviewer : Did you say that you recognize Israel, and that Palestine must recognize it as well?

Abd Al-Mun'im Abu Al-Futuh : I have not recognized Israel to this day, and will not recognize Israel. My refusal, as an Egyptian, to recognize it is part of what I believe in. I will not lie to the Egyptian people. But my refusal to recognize Israel does not mean, in any way, that I will impose my view upon the Egyptian parliament or upon the Egyptian people, or that I will impose what I believe in at the expense of Egypt's interests. Source: Memri.

National Committee of GMJ Urges Massive Participation in March 30 Rally.

                           Getting Islamic public opinion ready for the March on Jerusalem.


National Committee of GMJ Urges Massive Participation in March 30 Rally.Tehran - The national committee of the Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ) in its first press release in Gaza Strip called for strong participation in the upcoming civil resistance movement for the freedom of Jerusalem.In the statement issued in the official website of the movement (gm2j.com), the committee said, " The national committee of the GMJ in Gaza Strip calls the Palestinian people, Islamic and national factions, our organizations, Islamic and Arabic people, and the liberals of the world to be ready to participate effectively with our rally on the 63rd anniversary of Palestine's land day, 30th March."
"We will do this in order to send a strong message to our Zionist enemy that we as the Palestinians people cleats will protect our holy mosque and holy sites with all valuable and precious means that we have, and we will keep our constants especially Jerusalem and Al Aqsa mosque," it added.
Earlier, a large number of renowned figures from across the world voiced their support for the upcoming Global March to Jerusalem due to take place on March 30th, 2012.
The Global March to Jerusalem will take place on Friday 30th March 2012 where hundreds of committees and campaigns all over the six continents will participate in order to highlight the suffering the people of Jerusalem are going through as a result of the occupation's Zionist and racist practices. The slogan of the March will be "Peoples of the world demand the freedom for Jerusalem… People of the world demand to end the occupation of Palestine".Read the full 'story' here.


What is Islam's connection to Jerusalem?





Jerusalem How Important is it to Muslims?(DanielPipes).With final-status talks between Israel and the Palestinians underway, Jerusalem is finally in play. At base, the argument here consists of an argument between Jews and Moslems over who has the older, better documented, and deeper ties to the Holy City.
A cursory review of the facts shows that there is not much of a contest.
Jerusalem has a unique importance to Jews. It has a unique place in Jewish law and a pervasive presence in the Jewish religion. Jews pray toward Jerusalem, mourn the destruction of their Temple there, and wishfully repeat the phrase "Next year in Jerusalem." It is the only capital of the Jewish state, ancient or modern.
In contrast, Jerusalem has a distinctly secondary place for Moslems. It is not once mentioned in the Koran or in the liturgy. The Prophet Mohammed never went to the city, nor did he have ties to it. Jerusalem never has served as the capital of any polity, and has never been an Islamic cultural center.
Rather, Mecca is the "Jerusalem" of Islam. That is where Moslems believe that Abraham nearly sacrificed Ishmael; where Mohammed lived most of his life; and where the key events of Islam took place. Moslems pray in its direction five times each day and it is where non-Moslems are forbidden to set foot.
Jerusalem being of minor importance to Islam, why do Moslems nowadays insist that the city is more important to them than to Jews? The answer has to do with politics. Moslems take religious interest in Jerusalem when it serves practical interests. When those concerns lapse, so does the standing of Jerusalem. This pattern has recurred at least five times over 14 centuries.
The Prophet. When Mohammed sought to convert the Jews in the 620s C.E., he adopted several Jewish-style practices - a Yom Kippur-like fast, a synagogue-like place of worship, kosher-style food restrictions - and also tachanun-like prayers while facing Jerusalem. But when most Jews rejected Mohammed's overtures, the Koran changed the prayer direction to Mecca and Jerusalem lost importance for Moslems.
The Umayyad Dynasty. Jerusalem regained stature a few decades later when rulers of the Umayyad dynasty sought ways to enhance the importance of their territories. One way was by building two monumental religious structures in Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock in 691 and Al-Aqsa Mosque in 715.
Then the Umayyads did something tricky: The Koran states that God took Mohammed "by night from the sacred mosque in Mecca to the furthest (al-aqsa) place of worship." When this passage was revealed (about 621), "furthest place of worship" was a turn of phrase, not a specific place. Decades later, the Umayyads built a mosque in Jerusalem and called it Al-Aqsa. Moslems since then understand the passage about the "furthest place of worship" as referring to Jerusalem.
But when the Umayyads fell in 750, Jerusalem lapsed into near obscurity.Read the full story here, more here on the up coming event on March 14th.

Canadian World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) Muslim youth group tied to al-Qaeda stripped of charitable status.

Canadian World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) Muslim youth group tied to al-Qaeda stripped of charitable status.(TIP).The Canadian branch of a terrorist-tied Saudi student organization has lost its charitable status, Canada's National Post reports. An audit of the organization cited numerous breaches of standards as well as extensive links to al-Qaida funding organizations around the world.
The director of Canada's charity review board sent a warning letter to the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) Canada last summer, citing concerns that it "support[s] the goals and operations of its parent organization, located in Saudi Arabia, which has been alleged to support terrorism."
Information about WAMY's alleged terrorist funding and extremist education materials has been around for years.
In 2003 testimony submitted to the 9/11 Commission, Investigative Project on Terrorism Executive Director Steven Emerson said that WAMY actively linked itself to several jihadi fronts through educational programs, funding, and other forms of material support.
The group's American branch incorporated in Falls Church, Virginia in 1992 by Osama bin Laden's brother, Abdullah bin Laden. FBI agents raided that office in 2004.
WAMY invited Hamas political head Khaled Mishaal as a featured guest for its 2002 "Muslim Youth and Globalization" conference in Riyadh, and provided the organization with millions in funding during the last intifada. The Pakistani branch offered training and fighters for the jihads against Soviet Afghanistan, as well as Kashmir, a province disputed by India and Pakistan. Members were also trained to fight in Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, and the southern Philippines.
It also produced educational materials extolling jihad and preaching violence against Jews and other infidels, which were used by branches across 6 continents. Another WAMY document, "Military Lessons in the Jihad Against the Tyrants," was found in the possession of a participant in the first World Trade Center bombings and in the London apartment of embassy bomber Khalid al-Fawwaz. The document states that an Islamic global state will not be formed through peaceful means, but "through the written words and the gun, through the word and the bullet."
Under the heading of “Adverse Reporting on WAMY and its Affiliates,” the Canadian government audit cites testimony by counter-terrorism consultants before a U.S. Senate committee that says bin Laden identified three Muslim charities, including WAMY, as the “primary sources of al-Qaeda financial and fundraising activity” back in 1993.
In 2003, counter-terrorism officials in the U.S. said the WAMY organization there had been founded by bin Laden’s nephew Abdullah. Canada’s branch, which had an office in Mississauga, Ont., was operating under the supervision of the U.S. wing, according to the group’s own literature.
Toronto charity lawyer Mark Blumberg applauded the CRA for its thoroughness when it comes to auditing charities and revoking their status, if need be, but he says more can be done to prevent mismanagement of charities with respect to terrorism ties or money laundering.Hmmmm......For sure PM Harper is no Obama when it comes to dealing with Islamic extremists in the country.Read the full story here.

Iran 'Orchestrating' Global March to Jerusalem on March 30.

Iran 'Orchestrating' Global March to Jerusalem on March 30.(Fars).Tehran - The Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ) is a groundbreaking new initiative that is organizing non-violent civil resistance on 30th March 2012 in Palestine and the four neighboring countries: Egypt, Lebanon Jordan and Syria.
The GMJ is comprised of a diverse coalition of Palestinian, Arab and international activists who are united in the struggle to liberate the holy city of Jerusalem (the city of Peace) from illegal Zionist occupation.
The peaceful marchers will demand freedom for Jerusalem and its people. Our aim is to end the Zionist policies of Apartheid, ethnic cleansing and Judaization, which all harm the people, land and sanctity of Jerusalem. Judaization has involved the unrestricted expansion and funding of illegal Israeli settlements, the continued dispossession and demolition of Palestinian property, and the construction of a Separation Wall surrounding the city, all of which have changed the demographics of the holy city from a Palestinian to a Jewish majority. Global participation in the march will confirm to the world that these policies and practices of the racist state of Israel against Jerusalem and its people are a crime not only against Palestinians but against all humanity.

The march will unite the efforts of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and all citizens of conscience in the world to put an end to Israel's disregard for international law through the continuing occupation of Jerusalem and the rest of Palestinian land.

While the GMJ is made up of grassroots movements in each participating country, the march is centralized through an International Central Committee, consisting of 42 elected regional delegates. National delegates will appoint 15 members for the International Executive Committee and recruit hundreds of dignitaries and luminaries for the International Advisory Board.

The plan is to organize massive marches towards Jerusalem, or to the nearest point possible according to the circumstances of each country, in Palestine (the 1948 seizures, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) and the four neighboring countries: Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. Internationals will participate in land caravans or fly directly to one of the main sites for the march. In addition, mass protests will be organized in front of Israeli embassies in the capitals of different countries, or in the main public squares in the big cities of the world.

By organizing the March and its preceding and parallel activities organizers aim to highlight the cause of Jerusalem (the City of Peace) which is considered the key to peace and war in the region and the world. The march will confirm that the policies and practices of the racist Zionist state of Israel against Jerusalem and its people are a crime not only against Palestinians but against all humanity.
The march will unite the efforts of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and all citizens of conscience in the world to put an end to Israel's disregard for international law through the continuing occupation of Jerusalem and the rest of Palestinian land.

There are at least 100 key international figures worldwide adopting the idea, supporting and signing a document of principles governing the Global March to Jerusalem. This document was adopted at the founding meeting in Amman on 12th December, 2011. Among the prominent, well known figures who sign the document of principle an Advisory Board will be formed. The names of the Advisory Board along with all organizations supporting the GMJ will be announced in all literature to emphasize the international support for the march.

"We aim to make this march a turning point in the nature of the confrontation, with the occupation having to face millions of protesters and demonstrators demanding Freedom for Palestine and its capitol Jerusalem. We will make a renewed true effort towards ending the occupation through peaceful national movements inspired firstly by our convictions, secondly by the justice of our cause, and thirdly by the spirit of the Arab spring revolutions and the determination of young people who were able to overthrow dictatorships," the organizers' website said.

Especially now that the nations have realized the magical effect of the people's will to make the impossible possible. The advancing slogan, "the people demand," has proved to be more effective than armies and weapons.

What is the structure and who is behind this project?

How will the march towards Jerusalem take place?

1. Massive marches will be organized from Asia, Africa and Europe to and in neighboring countries to Palestine (Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon) and towards Jerusalem or to the nearest point possible according to the circumstances of each country and through coordination between all groups and institutions of civil society taking part in the march, in coordination with the official and national bodies concerned. These marches will be composed mainly of the people of each country and thousands of international solidarity participants traveling to these countries specifically to join the marches.

2. Massive marches organized in Palestine (the 1948 seizures, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) towards Jerusalem or to the nearest point to it. Palestinian people from all factions and institutions will participate alongside international solidarity activists who are able to enter Palestine.

3. Mass protests to be organized in front of Israeli embassies in the capitals of different countries.

4. Mass demonstrations and protests to be organized in the main public squares in the big cities of the world, including the Arab and Muslim capitals and large cities, which can be initiated from the main mosques and churches in each city, where appropriate.

5. Transcontinental Rallies to be organized, from Europe, Africa and Asia, according to the conditions and possibilities of each region.

Hmmmm.......As the Saudi King Abdullah said "We must cut of the head of the Snake".Read the full 'story' here.

MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation updated: Taiwan 5.4 ; Papua New guinea 5.3 ; Japan 5.2 and Turkey 4.9 !More info here.

• Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog.Here.

• Boehner: 'Great concerns' Obama is exceeding Constitution.(TheHill).By Justin Sink. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that he has "great concerns" that President Obama might be exceeding his constitutional authority in ordering his administration to adjust regulations surrounding "underwater" mortgages and student loans, saying, "this idea that you are just going to go around the Congress is ... almost laughable.""I thought we were a nation of laws and that our country was governed by our Constitution," Boehner said Thursday on the "Laura Ingraham Show."The Speaker went on to caution that Republicans in Congress were keeping "a very close eye on the administration to make sure they are following the law and following the Constitution."Obama announced a series of programs this week that would enable those with mortgage or student loan debt to refinance to more favorable terms and repayment plans. The administration says such action was necessary after Republicans blocked the president's jobs plan proposal to stimulate the economy."We can't wait for Congress to do their job, so they won't act, I will. I told my administration, we're going to look every single day to see what we can do without Congress," Obama told students Wednesday at the University of Colorado-Denver.But Boehner said that "committees of jurisdiction" in the House would be examining the proposals "to make sure that the president isn't exceeding his authority."Ingraham then asked Boehner how he would respond if he believed that Obama was, in fact, acting outside what he is entitled to do under the law."We've got an appropriations process that's under control here where we have the ability to limit their use of funds to try to bring this administration to heel," Boehner said.The Speaker also accused the president of "giving up" on the country, echoing the theme of Republican attacks blasting Obama for saying that the country had "gotten soft.""There is nothing that has disappointed me more over the last eight weeks than to watch the President of the United States basically give up on the economy, and give up on the American people, decide he's going to quit governing, and spend his entire next 14 months campaigning," Boehner said.The lead Republican went on to say that the president should try to find more areas of agreement between the two parties. That notion has been one of contention, with the president maintaining that his jobs proposal consisted entirely of ideas previously supported by Republicans."If the president is serious, he ought to be up here working with us to find common ground to solve the issues that the American people want us to solve," Boehner said.Hmmmm......."Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty". ~ Plato.Read the full story here.

• Obama uses ‘Occupy Wall Street’ language in weekly address, still charges $35.000 a plate to dine with him.(Dailycaller).President Barack Obama and Occupy Wall Street are speaking the same language.In his weekly address to the nation, Obama cited an economic report showing that the middle class has lost ground to “the top one percent.”“The average income for the top one percent of Americans has risen almost seven times faster than the income of the average middle class family,” he said. “And this has happened during a period where the cost of everything from health care to college has skyrocketed.”Obama explained that Americans should not spite the wealthy, but that prosperity should be available to all classes.“Now, in this country, we don’t begrudge anyone wealth or success — we encourage it. We celebrate it,” he said. “But America is better off when everyone has had the chance to get ahead — not just those at the top of the income scale. The more Americans who prosper, the more America prospers.”White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, at his Friday briefing, tried to tie the “Occupy” movement’s frustration to the administration’s counterparts in Congress.“The President has said that he understands people’s frustrations,” Carney said. “He understands that those frustrations are felt very broadly by the American people — at least those frustrations that have to do with the fact that the economy isn’t strong enough, the fact that unemployment is too high, and the fact that Washington is dysfunctional because of obstructionism by Republicans in Congress.”The Daily Caller has recently reported on progressive politicians seeking to co-opt the movement and how their efforts have mostly been futile, due to the protesters’ diversity of demands. Whether the White House can carry the protests into voting booth results remains to be seen.Hmmm.....I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes. ~ Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776.Read the full story here.

• Google glitch suggests "Romney can't win".(CBSNews).It appears that Google's mysterious search algorithm has been making a suggestion that Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney may not appreciate.When a Google user types the phrase "Romney can win" into the search engine, its spell check function responds with the message, "Did you mean: Romney can't win?" Slate first stumbled upon the curious result and notes that no other GOP candidate is the victim of this Google glitch. What exactly is behind the spell check suggestion will remain a mystery -- more than 200 variables go into the Google search algorithm, which ranks search results and produces spell check suggestions. Google, for its part, insist it's nothing personal against Romney -- just a flaw in the system."Our spellcheck feature is automated, and while no algorithm is perfect, we're always working to improve our search quality," a Google spokesperson told Hotsheet. "Last year, we launched roughly 500 improvements to our search algorithm."The search results show a number of articles speculating on Romney's chances in the presidential contest. Some top results include the MSNBC blog post "Why Romney can't win in 2012" and a Fox News article entitled, "Christie: Romney 'Can Win This Election. We Cannot Have Another Four Years of Barack Obama'."While the exact variables that led to this result are unknown, one lesson the results underline is that an ideal online media presence can't be purchased.Romney spent nearly $900,000 -- more than any other GOP candidate -- on online ad and digital media from April through September of this year, the interactive marketing news site ClickZ reports. Rep. Michele Bachmann spent the next-largest sum at close to $400,000.Investing in Google ads wouldn't impact Google's search results -- its ads appear separately, either on the side or above search results.Still, there are ways to generate online buzz that may or may not influence Google's search results. For instance, ClickZ points out that Herman Cain has produced multiple, quirky web videos. While multiple videos have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, Cain hit the jackpot with a recent bizarre video featuring his campaign manager Mark Block, which has won him significant mainstream media attention. Cain reported to the Federal Elections Commission paying the firm Little Bonanza Productions $175,000 for web video production in recent months.While Romney has managed to maintain the support of around 20 percent of Republican voters, he has been unable to establish himself as the clear frontrunner. The latest CBS News/ New York Times poll shows Cain leading Romney nationally, 25 percent to 21 percent respectively.Hmmm........Now who on Obama's side would have the know how to 'influence' the voting results?Read the full story here.

• ‘Suspended Election Revolution’ by Barry and the Obamunists; Does it Play?(GulagBound).Presented for you now, an exercise in considering the incredible: that Barack Obama, et. conspiratorial al. would plan to suspend elections in an orchestrated national emergency, perhaps a false flag operation blamed on his opposition.I do not say this will happen, nor am I selling the idea. The point is, this should be scrutinized and in principle when such things are fully sounded out, their probability — that is, the opportunity for them, lessens. And the objective in this: with an open mind, to gain the situational awareness necessary to keep from being duped by normality bias (what we are accustomed to, what we think we know) and by agitprop.“Forewarned is forearmed.” If you would embark upon such a war-gaming journey of the mind, we suggest six initial steps, given below.Read the full story here.

• Another 'Solyndra Hydra' emerges- Energy Department-Backed Company Under SEC Investigation.(Heritage).In its push to get electric vehicles on the road, the Obama administration has partnered with a company in dire financial straits that is also under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for insider trading.San Francisco-based green technology company ECOtality received roughly $115 million in two separate Energy Department grants to build 14,000 electric vehicle charging stations in 18 cities. President Obama cited ECOtality in last year’s State of the Union address as a success story of his stimulus law. Ted Karner, president and CEO of ECOtality subsidiary eTec (now called ECOtality North America) watched from the crowd as the First Lady’s guest.Energy Secretary Steven Chu boasted that his department was “working very closely [with eTec] to get EVs on the road.”But the administration’s poster child for its electric vehicle project is riddled with financial and legal problems. According to ECOtality’s 10Q filing from the second quarter of this year, the SEC opened an investigation into allegations of insider trading.On October 28, 2010, we and our ECOtality North America subsidiary, as well as certain individuals, received subpoenas from the SEC, pursuant to a formal Private Order of Investigation, in connection with a fact-finding inquiry as to trading in shares of our common stock from the period between August 1, 2008 and August 31, 2009.The “certain individuals” under investigation are not public record, and the SEC said it could not provide the names of people involved in an ongoing investigation. ECOtality likewise declined to comment. But as the form notes, both ECOtality and its subsidiary – in addition to the unnamed individuals – are targets of the investigation.In addition to its legal troubles, ECOtality’s financial health is tenuous. In the first six months of 2011, the company reported a net loss of more than $12 million, according to its 10Q. More than half of its income during that period came from its Energy Department grants.ECOtality attributes its increasing losses (they increased by about $3 million from the previous year) to “the ramp up of activity and associated costs incurred under the DOE Contract in 2011.” The electric vehicle project for which ECOtality received federal money is behind schedule, according to Karner. As of last month, only about 3,000 electric vehicle charging units had been installed. Karner said the company would be requesting an extension of the program to accommodate the slow pace of production.The extension of the company’s work on the EV project raises concerns about its financial health, given the large costs apparently associated with the project and its lack of other sources of income.The wisdom of large government expenditures on electric vehicles is itself a dubious policy, as Heritage’s Nick Loris pointed out:

It should not be the focus of the Department of Energy to work to get EVs on the road. The world petroleum market is a multi-trillion one. That should be enough incentive for innovators, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to get EVs on the road because if they make economic sense they’ll capture part of that market share and make billions. The economic reality is that PHEVs are not ready for primetime, and the best indicator for when they will be is when the government stops using taxpayer dollars to subsidize their production and consumption.Read the full story here.

• Gibson Guitar Targeted as the Lacey Act Falls Flat in Nashville.(Heritage).In recent months, the U.S. government has dispatched heavily armed federal law enforcement officers to raid Gibson Guitar factories—American guitar factories!—in Tennessee for violations of the Lacey Act, a federal statute that makes it a crime to import some tropical hardwoods in violation of foreign laws.Condemning this “overreach” by the feds, Gibson chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, reported that “armed people came in our factory…evacuated our employees, then seized half a million dollars of our goods without any charges having been filed.” In total, U.S. government agents have seized more than $1 million of rosewood, ebony, and finished guitars from Gibson factories in Memphis and Nashville in raids in 2009 and August 2011, Juszkiewicz said.Welcome to 21st-century green protectionism, Obama Administration–style.And apparently not just protectionism but green cronyism is afoot, too, since other reports indicate that the Obama Administration is enforcing the Lacey Act in an arbitrary and selective manner.John Hinderaker reports on the Powerline blog that “Juszkiewicz is a Republican donor, while the CEO of one of his principal competitors, C. F. Martin and Company, is a Democratic donor.” Martin reportedly uses the same wood, but Justice Department hasn’t raided them, leading to speculation that the Obama Administration is sending a warning to Republican businessmen that they had better not oppose his re-election lest they face criminal investigations.Hmmmm..............."Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty". ~ Plato.Read the full story here.

• Communist Bloc Military Updates: The Bear and the Dragon: Putin, Patrushev visit Beijing to promote 10-year-old alliance; Russian, Red Chinese generals hold “strategic consultations,” plan combined naval drill for 2012, following four joint “Peace Mission” exercises.(OUTITW).- One week after Putin’s trip to Red China, Nikolai Patrushev, Russian Security Council Secretary and past chief of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB/KGB), attended the sixth round of the China-Russia Strategic Security Talks. There, in Beijing, State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Patrushev agreed to “comprehensively implement” the agreement Russia and China reached when President Hu Jintao visited Moscow earlier this year. Patrushev also conferred with the PRC’s Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu. Together, they agreed to “increase personnel exchanges, strengthen security cooperation on large-scale events and promote professional law-enforcement training.”On October 19 and 20, the General Staffs of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and the Russian Federation Armed Forces held their 14th round of “strategic consultations.” The consultation was co-chaired by Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of general staff of the PLA, and Zarudniski, deputy chief of general staff of the Russian armed forces and director of the Operation Department of the General Staff Headquarters (GSH). “The two sides,” reports the PLA Daily, “had an in-depth exchange of views and reached broad consensus on such issues as the current regional and international security situation and the cooperation between the two militaries of China and Russia.”This high-level military consultation between the two communist powers follows PLA Chief of the General Staff Chen Bingde’s official visit to Moscow in August. “China stands ready to work with Russia to further advance military ties, which will help promote strategic cooperation and is conducive to peace and stability in the region and the world,” Chen said during a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Anatoli Serdyukov. Chen also met Nikolai Makarov, chief of the Russian General Staff, who expressed hope in conducting joint navy drills with China in 2012. “Russia attaches great importance to communication and cooperation with the Chinese military,” enthused Makarov, adding: “The relationship with China is one of Russia’s top priorities.” According to state-run Voice of Russia, the PLA delegation inspected a motorized infantry brigade in a suburb of Moscow; the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet, based in Murmansk, including Russia’s sole aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which is a sister ship to the Soviet-era carrier Varyag, which the PLA Navy upgraded and recently commissioned as its first; and K-317 Pantera nuclear-powered submarine. China and Russia have held four “Peace Mission” exercises since 2005.Meanwhile, the PLA is building alliances with armed forces in other countries, such as in Europe and various states in Latin America. On October 23, Guo Boxiong, Vice Chairman of China’s Central Military Commission began official goodwill visits to Cuba, Columbia and Peru. Guo was invited by the General Staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, Columbia’s Defense Ministry and Peru’s Defense Ministry. Cuba, of course, is a single-party communist dictatorship, Peruvians recently elected a pro-Chavez/Castro left-nationalist to the presidency, while Colombia has been wracked by a Marxist insurgency since the 1960s.The PRC is also enhancing military cooperation with the former People’s Republic of Poland, now ostensibly ruled by a center-right government with no obvious attachment to the old communist regime. On October 21, Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie welcomed Zbigniew Glowienka, commander of the Land Forces of the Polish Armed Forces, to Beijing, pledging to “deepen exchanges and pragmatic cooperation with the Polish army.” Liang noted that the two countries have “experienced good momentum in the development of bilateral military relations,” referring to “frequent high-level visits, successful exchange programs and expanding professional communication and cooperation.”This past summer 80 PLA Air Force paratroopers were deployed to Belarus, which is “next door” to Poland, for a joint “anti-terrorism drill” with their counterparts in that former Soviet republic. Belarus’ “ex”-communist dictator, President Alexander Lukashenko, has also gratefully received a US$1 billion loan from the PRC, a favour that Beijing is also extending to the cash-strapped European Union. The AFP news agency reports: “China has agreed to invest in Europe’s bail-out fund, two senior EU diplomats told AFP today. ‘China is in,’ said one of new plans to boost the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) with a spin-off investment vehicle to be used to prop up debt-laden nations.” The same source continues: “The diplomats gave no indication as to the scale of China’s likely investment, although an EU official said EFSF chief executive Klaus Regling would leave for Beijing on Thursday [October 27], after the [EU’s emergency financial] summit.”It would seem that the Butchers of Beijing—with a grim nod toward the massacre in Tiananmen Square 22 years ago—are anxious to introduce both communist cash and PLA soldiers into debt-stricken Europe without raising any alarms.In the light of the Soviet strategic deception plan, military cooperation between the former Soviet republics appears more and more like an attempt to resurrect some aspects of the unified command behind the Soviet Armed Forces. For example, following the Russian-Belarusian Union Shield 2011 exercise this past September, state-run Itar-Tass quotes Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying:  The military exercises at the Ashuluk firing range are unique [in] that a multilayer air defence system was created and tested. This air defence system is made up of modern combat systems: S-400, S-300, Tor, Pantsir and Buk. Under the scenario of the exercises, cruise missiles, airplanes and ballistic targets of the mockup enemy [meaning NATO] were seeking to break through this multilayer air defence system. Amid strong radioelectronic jams all attacks were rebuffed thanks to qualified actions of the combat teams. The air defence system created at the military exercises may turn into a prototype of a future joint CSTO air defence system.Following Russia’s “agreement” to abide by the terms of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), Kazakhstan’s “ex”-communist President Nursultan Nazarbayev has obediently lifted a moratorium on test launches of Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. According to Vladimir Popovkin, chief of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the ban was imposed in 2009 in line with the Kazakh government’s (ill-conceived?) plans to make Baikonur an entirely commercial space launch facility. “Now that the ban has been lifted we will [test] launch an ICBM [from Baikonur] in November,” Popovkin told Russian lawmakers on Friday.The Russian-Kazakh agreement, which was first signed in 1994 and then renewed in 2004, extends Russia’s use of the facilities at the Baikonur, rented out an annual fee of US$115 million, has been extended to 2050. In addition to space launches, Russia frequently used Baikonur facilities to test performance characteristics and service life of its ballistic missiles. The last launch prior to the moratorium was carried out in October 2008 and involved an RS-18 (NATO designation SS-19 Stiletto) ICBM with a range exceeding 9,600 km (6,000 miles).The US State Department reported this past week that Washington currently deploys 300 more ICBMs, SLBMs, and ALCMs than Russia. New START, which entered into force in February, commits the USA and Russia to reducing and limiting the number of deployed and non-deployed strategic offensive arms to agreed aggregate numbers.Hmmm.....Time to 'refresh' my knowledge of Russian, and start a Chinese Mandarin course?Read the full story here.

• China Reshuffles the deckchairs of the EU-SS Titanic.(NYTimes).SHANGHAI — China reshuffled the leadership of three of its financial regulatory agencies on Saturday, one of the first steps in what is expected to be a major leadership change at the top of the Communist Party next year. With a new generation of leaders set to take control of the country in 2012, the Communist Party was widely expected to replace its top banking and financial regulators as several of them neared retirement age. Several of those changes, which were announced Saturday, come at a time of strong economic growth in China but continuing worries about soaring inflation, a depressed stock market and concerns that heavy lending by China’s biggest banks following the 2008 financial crisis is likely to lead to a huge number of nonperforming loans over the next three to five years. To strengthen its controls, the Communist Party on Saturday appointed Shang Fulin, 60, as the new chairman of the powerful China Banking Regulatory Commission, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Mr. Shang had been the head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. He replaced Liu Mingkang, 65, who had served as the nation’s top banking regulator since March 2003. He had reached retirement age. Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Construction Bank — one of China’s four big state-owned banks — was named to replace Mr. Shang as the nation’s top securities regulator. Mr. Guo, 55, has led China Construction Bank since 2005, when the bank was listed in Hong Kong in one of the biggest initial public offerings in history. Xiang Junbo, 54, resigned on Saturday as head of one of China’s other big state-owned banks, the Agricultural Bank of China. He was named Saturday as the chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, replacing Wu Dingfu. The three men named Saturday are longtime government bureaucrats. They were appointed by the Communist Party Central Committee’s Organization Department.Read the full story here.

• Islamic Law Conquering the U.S. (RadicalIslam).By Clare M. Lopez.
  Previously, we looked at the spread of Islamic law - shariah - throughout Western civilization, with a focus on how Western Europe already is slipping under its influence. In this segment, the focus is on the United States (U.S.) and how shariah is establishing a presence in this country as well.In the U.S., the Muslim Brotherhood leads the offensive to insinuate Islamic law into American society. Established in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, the Brotherhood (or Ikhwan) is committed, just like al-Qa’eda, to re-establishment of the caliphate and global imposition of Islamic law. Its Creed is: “Allah is our objective, the Qur’an is our law, the Prophet is our leader, Jihad is our way, and death in the way of Allah is our highest aspiration.”Many of the Brotherhood’s internal documents have been made public, as during the 2008 Holy Land Foundation HAMAS terror funding trial in Dallas, Texas. From these documents, we know that nearly every single major Muslim organization in the U.S. is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood or one of its derivatives.Among these are CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations), the Fiqh Council of North America, ISNA (the Islamic Society of North America), ICNA (the Islamic Circle of North America), IIIT (the International Islamic Institute of Thought), MAS (the Muslim American Society), MSA (the Muslim Students Association), NAIT (the North American Islamic Trust), and hundreds of others. In myriad ways, these organizations work to insinuate shariah into American academia, courts, non-Muslim faith communities, government, military, the workplace, and society in general. On university campuses across North America, MSA students campaign for shariah-compliant gender segregation at gyms and swimming pools, hold “Nakba” Day events to commemorate the “catastrophe” of the 1948 founding of the State of Israel, and welcome speakers to campus who champion terrorist organizations like HAMAS and Hizballah and praise jihad as a means to spread shariah.According to a June 2011 study published by the Center for Security Policy, “Shariah Law and American State Courts: An Assessment of State Appellate Court Cases,” a total of 50 cases in 23 different states involved a “conflict of law” between shariah and American state law. The cases tell the story of Muslim American families, mostly Muslim women and children, who had turned to the U.S. courts to preserve their rights to equal protection and due process which are unavailable to them under shariah. While in most of these cases, American law eventually took precedence over shariah, in three cases of this relatively limited study, shariah was found to be applicable. The very fact that shariah was invoked in this many cases of a limited study sampling suggests that Islamic law already has made deep inroads into the American legal system. Across the diverse span of America’s faith communities, the influence of Islam is growing. “Interfaith Dialogue” has become the favorite expression of well-meaning but naïve enablers who strive to outdo one another with invitations for Ikhwan-affiliates to grace their halls with the soothing cadence of taqiyya* messages. Given how enamored many of these faithful are of the concept of “bridges,” it is doubtful any of them has ever read Sayyed Qutb’s “Milestones.” “The chasm between Islam and Jahiliyyah** is great, and a bridge is not be built across it so that the people of the two sides may mix with each other, but rather only so that the people of Jahiliyyah may come over to Islam.”The U.S. Treasury Department not only promotes Shariah Compliant Finance among American banking and finance companies, but with its 2008 bail-out of AIG, forced U.S. taxpayers to become unwittingly complicit in ownership of one of the largest commercial divisions in the country dedicated to shariah-compliant financial products. Not only is complete information about Islamic law withheld from the American shareholder, but advice from Boards of Muslim clerical advisors on how each company’s obligatory annual zakat*** tax is invested likewise is not fully transparent. According to shariah, all annual zakat tax must be invested in one or more of eight recipient categories: one of them is jihad. Shariah’s influence extends into the U.S. military. Bibles received in soldiers’ mail are confiscated in Afghanistan and Iraq. Non-Muslim troops are dissuaded from touching the Qur’an and ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) enforces special protective treatment for the Muslim book, in accordance with shariah. American military chaplains engage in outreach to Afghan Muslims, in order to demonstrate U.S. tolerance and diversity. To his enduring shame, Gen. David Petraeus expressed outrage at Pastor Terry Jones’ expression of his First Amendment rights to burn a personally-owned copy of the Qur’an in September 2010, saying it could “endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort here." Perhaps the General forgot to which Constitution he took his oath of service: the American one pledges him and all who serve in uniform to defend Pastor Terry Jones’ actions while the Afghan one, which is under shariah, would impose the death penalty. Islamic law has penetrated the inner reaches of the U.S. Intelligence Community: this final example can be seen in the U.S. government’s submission to shariah-compliant language codes. Whereas the 9/11 Commission Report, published in 2004, contains hundreds of references to Islam, jihad, and the enemy, official documents published after 2008 have scrubbed such words from the texts. The 2008 Department of Homeland Security publication, “Terminology to Define Terrorists” took its vocabulary suggestions from advisors linked to the Brotherhood. Likewise, the National Counterterrorism Center’s March 2008 guide “Words That Work and Words That Don’t” advised employees to avoid invoking Islam, labeling things “Muslim,” or using terms like “jihad” or “mujahedeen.” The 2009 FBI Counterterrorism Analytical Lexicon does not contain the words “Islam,” “Islamic,” or “Muslim” even once. And when the Obama administration published its official National Security Strategy in 2010, it went so far as to remove “Islamic extremist” from its pages. In effect, top levels of U.S. national security are now in compliance with Islamic law on slander.When the enemy is able to insinuate the practice and encouragement of alien foreign law into American society on this scale, the battle to remain free of shariah is far along.Glossary of Terms

*Taqiyya - Deceit or dissimulation sanctioned in Islam to protect the faith or individual believer but also a common tactic to mislead infidels as well.

**Jahiliyyah - Pre-Islamic pagan time that Sayyed Qutb applies to modern-day society as well.

 ***Zakat - Obligatory annual tax on all Muslims and shariah-compliant companies.Read the full story here.

• That's Going to be Some Order.(IPT).U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema made a pledge a year ago today.She would decide whether the criminal contempt case against Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operative Sami Al-Arian would be dismissed or go to trial. Prosecutors charged Al-Arian in 2008 after he repeatedly refused to speak to a federal grand jury investigating terror financing in Northern Virginia despite a subpoena and judges' orders. Al-Arian says he was absolved of complying with any subpoena in his 2006 plea agreement for conspiracy to provide services to the PIJ.There is nothing in Al-Arian's plea agreement alluding to anything close to his claim, prosecutors argue. And nothing was mentioned when he entered his plea before a federal magistrate in Tampa. The argument has been denied by appellate courts for the 4^th and 11^th circuits.Brinkema canceled a hearing on the matter at the 11^th hour last year. "The Court finds that a hearing on these issues is not necessary," she wrote. "The parties have fully briefed their positions and the Court is working on an opinion which addresses all relevant issues."That's funny, because Brinkema said something very similar in cancelling a hearing 18 months earlier: "Because the parties have fully briefed the facts and legal contentions raised in the defendant's Motion to Dismiss the Indictment and have previously argued similar issues before the Court, additional oral argument will not aid the decisional process … The Court will issue a written opinion on the motion in the near future."That was 919 days ago. The court has been silent.Al-Arian is confined to house arrest at the home of one of his children in Northern Virginia, either the victim of a misguided prosecution or as a man who got away with breaking the law.Brinkema clearly doesn't like the case, but can't dismiss it based on the merits. She has written twice that an order is coming. Given the time that has passed, it's fair to ask whether she ever intended to act. Is that the proper behavior for a federal judge?Read the full story here.

• UK Court Rules Islamist Raed Salah Can Be Deported.(IPT).An immigration tribunal in the UK ruled Tuesday that radical Islamist preacher Raed Salah should be deported from the country.Salah, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, was allowed in to the UK in late June for a speaking tour due to a glitch in the country's border security system. The Home Office already has placed a ban on him, finding that his presence would "not [be] conducive to the public good." Salah was arrested and jailed several days later.Salah contested the exclusion order and was released in late July after the High Court in London granted him conditional bail.Salah was charged by Israel in 2003 with funding Hamas, contact with a foreign agent and money laundering. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in 2005. Salah has also been on record for making anti-Semitic statements, including an article after 9/11 which claimed that Jews were warned not to go to work at the World Trade Center that day.Tuesday's court ruling cites Salah's ties to Hamas and anti-Semitic statements provided by the representatives of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, including a 2007 speech Salah delivered in Jerusalem invoking the anti-Semitic blood libel.The immigration tribunal hearing Salah's appeal concluded that "the Secretary of State was right to conclude that the words and actions" of Salah "do justify a conclusion that the Appellant's [Salah's] removal would be conducive to the public good." And, "We are satisfied that the Appellant has engaged in the unacceptable behavior of fostering hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK."The Home Office welcomed the decision of the court. "We will seek to deport him at the earliest opportunity," a spokesman said.Read  the full story here.

• Europe's rescue euphoria threatened as Portugal enters 'Grecian vortex'.(TheTelegraph).Monetary contraction in Portugal has intensified at an alarming pace and is mimicking the pattern seen in Greece before its economy spiralled out of control, raising concerns that the EU summit deal may soon washed over by fast-moving events. Data released by the European Central Bank show that real M1 deposits in Portugal have fallen at an annualised rate of 21pc over the past six months, buckling violently in September."Portugal appears to have entered a Grecian vortex and monetary trends have deteriorated sharply in Spain, with a decline of 8.4pc," said Simon Ward, from Henderson Global Investors. Mr Ward said the ECB must cut interest rates "immediately" and launch a full-scale blitz of quantitative easing of up to 10pc of eurozone GDP.The M1 data - cash and current accounts - is watched by experts as a leading indicator for the economy six months to a year ahead. It has been an accurate warning signal for each stage of the crisis since 2007.A mix of fiscal austerity and monetary tightening by the ECB earlier this year appear to have tipped the Iberian region into a downward slide. "The trends are less awful in Ireland and Italy, suggesting that both are rescuable if the ECB acts aggressively," said Mr Ward.A shrinking money supply is dangerous for countries with a high debt stock. Portugal’s public and private debt will reach 360pc of GDP by next year, far higher than in Greece.The EU deal was not designed to deal with such a threat. The working assumption is that Greece alone is the essential problem, and that other troubles are under control or caused by jittery markets.Officials hope that debt relief through private sector haircuts of 50pc will be enough for Greece claw its way back to viability, and that spillover effects can be contained by bank recapitalizations, raising core Tier 1 ratios to 9pc with €106bn of fresh capital.A boost in the €440bn bail-out fund (EFSF) to €1 trillion or more - by opaque means - will supposedly create a "firewall" to rebuild market confidence and stop contagion to the rest of Club Med.This rescue machinery may prove to be a Maginot Line if -- as many economists think -- the danger comes from within Portugal, Spain, and Italy. Like Greece, these countries have lost 30pc in labour competitiveness against Germany since the mid-1990s. That is the root of the EMU crisis. A toxic mix of fiscal tightening, higher debt costs, and now the threat of a eurozone recession risks tipping them over the edge. The hairshirt summit ignored this dimension of the crisis. Italy was ordered to cut further, balancing its budget by 2013. The mantra was "rigorous surveillance" of budgets and "discipline". There will be laws to enforce "balanced budgets", and EU officials will have extra powers to vet economic policy.This marks a step-change in the level of EU intrusion. Greece will be subject to a "monitoring capacity on the ground", implying a vice-regal EU presence calling the shots in Athens.German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the goal is to create a "stability union", not a fiscal union. There will be no joint bond issuance, no shared budgets, no debt pooling, and fiscal transfers. The elevation of EU commissioner Olli Rehn to post of economic tsar does not change this.Germany has dictated the agenda, vetoing calls to mobilize the ECB’s full firepower to halt the crisis. The Bundestag even ordered Mrs Merkel to insist on ECB withdrawal from existing bond purchases.Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the French leftist Front, said Europe is now marching to Germany’s drum and "headed for disaster", a view gaining ground across Europe’s Left.Albert Edwards from Société Générale said the ECB will have to act, over a German veto if necessary. "The increasingly frenzied attempts of eurozone governments to persuade financial markets that they can draw a line under this crisis will ultimately fail.""The impending threat of a euro break-up will force the ECB to begin printing money, very reluctantly joining the global QE party. The question is whether Germany will leave the eurozone in the face of such monetary debauchery," he said.Whether the EFSF alone is up to the job of containing the euro crisis may depend on how it is constructed. The apparent plan for "first loss" insurance on bonds concentrates risk, endangering the AAA rating of France and other creditor states that anchor the fund. "It is too complex and potentially dangerous," said RBS.Japanese investors who bought the first EFSF bonds this year under entirely different assumptions are facing big losses as the instrument loses market credibility. They are angry that the fund has metamorphosed into a high-risk monoline insurer. The fund will in any case cover only new issues of debt. This instantly degrades old debt. There will be abritrage between insured and insured countries. Market forces are being profoundly distorted.China may participate in a special purpose fund to buttress the EFSF, but only as a quid pro quo for industrial and trade concessions. French Green leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit said Europe was making a "dangerous mistake" by going cap in hand to Beijing.RBS said market euphoria is unlikely to last long. The precedent of de facto default in Greece - which the EU authorities once promised to prevent - will cause investors to "reprice" the sovereign debt of all vulnerable states. "The summit solves one problem by creating another. We expect the market to deteriorate and see the ECB as the only backstop," said the bank.Europe’s leaders are betting that a reduction of red tape and a radical shake-up of the labour markets will unleash growth in Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain, a decade hence. In the meantime, the governments of these near helpless countries must soldier on with perma-slump, and riot gear, and pray for a miracle.Read the full story here.More here.

• Pro Israel MP Threatened By Muslims At London Mosque Meeting.(DocsTalk).MP Mike Freer 'threatened at mosque surgery'.An MP has described how he waited for police behind a locked door during a constituency surgery after he was threatened by a group of men. Mike Freer said it happened at North Finchley mosque in north London as he met constituents on Friday afternoon. Mr Freer said about 12 people forced their way inside, with one of them calling him a "Jewish homosexual pig". The trouble began after messages on the Muslims Against Crusades website urged supporters to target him, he said. Mr Freer said a message posted ahead of the incident on the group's website made reference to Labour MP Stephen Timms, who was stabbed while holding a surgery in east London last year.It warned the attack on Mr Timms should serve as a "piercing reminder" to politicians that "their presence is no longer welcome in any Muslim area". The Finchley and Golders Green MP, a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel, said there was a vocal demonstration outside the mosque as he began his surgery, but then a second group of people arrived and forced their way inside."One of them sat at a table where I was dealing with a constituent and was abusive," he said. The MP said he was then escorted by staff at the mosque to a locked part of the building until assistance arrived. Mr Freer said he only realised the potential danger he had been in when he was made aware of the website's reference to the attack on East Ham MP Mr Timms.The message also stated that "as a member of the Conservative Party", Mr Freer had "the blood of thousands of Muslims on his hands"."Had I seen the website beforehand, I suspect it might have been a bit more worrying," the MP said. Mr Freer, who played a prominent role in the campaign against Palestinian activist Sheikh Raed Salah's visit to the UK earlier in the year, said he would "continue to condemn all forms of religious intolerance"He added that he wanted Home Secretary Theresa May to monitor closely the actions of Muslims Against Crusades.A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Officers attended North Finchley Mosque at 4.10pm on Friday after a disturbance by protesters inside the building.Read the full story here.

• Today’s Guide for the Perplexed.(DocsTalk).By Dr. Yasser Dasmabebi. I have come to realize just how difficult it may be to decipher news about the Middle East, Islam, Israel, the Arab World, and all these powerful and explosive issues of our times for those who rely on such media stalwarts as The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the major television networks, cable news, etc. for their information. For example, how is a person to ascertain whether the slayer of a family is a terrorist or a militant or a gunman or an assailant or an activist or a freedom-fighter?So, purely as a public service, I have organized the following glossary of the most pertinent terms and expressions, as typically used in the above-mentioned news sources. I hope, insha’allah, the reader will find it helpful to unravel the Gordian Knot of language that is today?s (and yesterday?s and tomorrow?s) Middle East!Dr. Yasser Dasmabebi holds the Edward Said-Noam Chomsky Linguistics Chair at Abdul Abulbul Amir University in Cairo.A MUST READ here.

• Saudi prince offers $900,000 to Israeli soldier abductors.(YNet).Saudi Prince Khaled bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud declared Saturday he would give $900,000 to whoever abducts an Israeli soldier in order to be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners. In an interview with Saudi TV, bin Talal stressed that his offer was in response to a similar offer made by a Saudi cleric who earlier this week said he would give $100,000 to anyone who would kidnap an Israeli soldier."Al-Qarni offered $100,000 to whoever abducts (an Israeli soldier) and I say to him – I sympathize with you and am offering $900,000 to put the figure at $1 million," he said. Prince Khaled is the third son of Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi King's brother. Deputy Hamas Politburo Chief, Dr. Mousa Abu Marzouk declared Friday that the Shalit deal has strengthened the movement and that Gilad Shalit was an important pawn in Hamas hands. "The pawn has served its purpose. There is no doubt that the high number of prisoners released has strengthened the movement's position in Palestinian society as well as future trust in Hamas," Marzouk said in an interview with the London-published al-Hayat newspaper.And though he recognized that the prisoner swap deal with Israel increased Hamas' political prestige, Abu Marzouk noted that Hamas did not abduct Shalit in order to keep him as a pawn and stressed that Shalit's kidnapping was only meant to do one thing: Lead to the release of prisoners. "From the start Hamas separated the political aspect of the issue."Hmmmm........Going once, twice ...Sold!To the highest terrorist bidder?Read the full story here.

• Kurdish guerrillas denounced use of chemical weapons in air raids by Turkish army.(Firat).People’s Defence Forces press office HPG-BIM has reported that at least 24 guerrillas lost their lives as a result of severe clashes and air attacks where chemical weapons were used in Guze Reşê and Gunde Pîre areas of Çukurca district on October 22. The statement said that the 24 bodies at Malatya Forensic Medicine Institution are those of HPG guerrillas who lost their life in these clashes. HGP remarked that researches made had confirmed the usage of napalm bombs and chemical weapons during these clashes.The statement underlined that altogether there was a unit of a total of 35 guerrillas who were in the region during intensive air assaults, intensive chemical bombardment and clashes in Çukurca on 22-24 October. Contacts have been stopped since the bombing.HPG released the names of all of the 35 guerrillas in that unit, not being able to declare for sure who are those lying in Malatya.HPG ended the statement calling on all human rights organizations and democratic institutions and establishments to demand investigation into the usage of chemical weapons.Read the full story here.

• Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad:Western action against my country would cause an "earthquake" that would "burn the whole region".(TheTelegraph). In his first interview with a Western journalist since Syria's seven-month uprising began, President Assad told The Sunday Telegraph that intervention against his regime could cause "another Afghanistan".Western countries "are going to ratchet up the pressure, definitely," he said. "But Syria is different in every respect from Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen. The history is different. The politics is different."Syria is the hub now in this region. It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake … Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or tens of Afghanistans?"Any problem in Syria will burn the whole region. If the plan is to divide Syria, that is to divide the whole region."Thousands of anti-government demonstrators took to the streets in two Syrian cities on Friday to demand the imposition of a Libyan-style no-fly zone over the country. According to the United Nations, at least 3,000 civilians, including 187 children, have been killed during protests against the regime. Thousands more have been imprisoned. The government says 1,200 members of the security forces have also died.President Assad admitted that "many mistakes" had been made by his forces in the early part of the uprising, but insisted that only "terrorists" were now being targeted."We have very few police, only the army, who are trained to take on al-Qaeda," he said. "If you sent in your army to the streets, the same thing would happen. Now, we are only fighting terrorists. That's why the fighting is becoming much less."On Friday alone, however, opposition groups claimed that 40 people were killed by the regime, and government troops shelled a district of Homs, a centre of opposition.Seventeen soldiers also died in overnight clashes with suspected army deserters in the city, which foreign journalists are forbidden to enter.Syria was condemned yesterday by Arab League foreign ministers for its "continued killings of civilians".The number of protesters appeared to fall earlier this month, but has increased again after the death of Col Gaddafi gave opposition groups new heart. A general strike affected much of the southern part of the country.President Assad insisted that he had responded differently to the Arab Spring than other, deposed Arab leaders. "We didn't go down the road of stubborn government," he said. "Six days after [the protests began] I commenced reform. People were sceptical that the reforms were an opiate for the people, but when we started announcing the reforms, the problems started decreasing e_SLps This is when the tide started to turn. This is when people started supporting the government."Some Damascus-based opposition leaders say the reforms, which include laws ostensibly allowing demonstrations and political parties, are a start, but not enough. However, the leaders of the main protests say they are meaningless and President Assad must go."The problem with the government is that their dialogue is shallow and just a tool to gain time," said Kadri Jamil, of Kassioun, a Damascus-based opposition group. "They have to act to begin real dialogue because the security solution has failed. We have one to two months before we pass the point of no return."One Homs-based opposition activist said: "Killing people is not an act of reform. We aren't calling for economic or even political reform under Assad, but for the departure of this bloodstained president and free elections."President Assad said: "The pace of reform is not too slow. The vision needs to be mature. It would take only 15 seconds to sign a law, but if it doesn't fit your society, you'll have division … It's a very complicated society."He described the uprising as a "struggle between Islamism and pan-Arabism [secularism], adding: "We've been fighting the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1950s and we are still fighting with them."In interviews in Damascus, some without government minders, secular Syrians and members of the country's substantial Christian and Alawite minorities said they supported the Assad regime for fear of their positions under a new government. Those attending a large demonstration in support of the regime last Wednesday did not appear to be coerced, according to independent observers.However, interviews, even some with minders present, revealed widespread and vocal discontent over corruption and living standards.Hmmm....."We've been fighting the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1950s and we are still fighting with them".Read the full story here.

• The coptic question is a Function of Power.(CopticLiterature).By Dioscorus Boles. I have said on another occasion[i] that the Coptic Question in Egypt will not be solved by reducing Egypt’s high illiteracy rate. Egypt’s Muslims will need a cultural change that is not based on Islamic political theory and teachings but on modernity, and what it entails, in order that Egypt solves plenty of its socio-political problems, and on top of that its abuse of human rights in general, maltreatment of its women, and the appalling way it has dealt with its Coptic population. This cultural change, in the absence of an Egyptian Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as we have said, does not seem to be forthcoming any time soon. The thinking that the introduction of technical democracy into Egypt’s political system will solve Egypt’s huge problems is also a myth. The prospect of Egypt developing real democracy is extremely remote when it is severely disabled by high illiteracy and poverty rates and, most importantly, by its Islamic cultural underpinnings. Democracy, deprived of its most important elements, and understood as simple vote casting is only a prelude to majoritarianism, and will not lead to protection of the civil and political rights of all citizens. On the tactical level, it will merely act as Trojan horse for extreme parties to seize Troy, and destroy it from the inside, as the fascists in Germany had once done, and as the Islamists in the Middle East and North Africa are intent to do.

It is evident that the writer does not have much faith in the prospect of solving the long-lasting Coptic Question by reduction in the level of illiteracy in Egypt or the introduction of technical democracy into it. This is because Egypt’s culture, though often cleverly concealed at the surface level, is deeply anticoptic. Anticoptism is enshrined in traditional Islamic literature and maintained by Egypt’s Muslim religious establishment and rulers. This deeply-rooted desire for the Copts to be held under control and be deprived of their rights as equal citizens in a fair State is the only explanation for the prolongation of the Coptic ordeal into the 21st century. Why can’t Egypt treat its most original, and loyal, sons and daughters with respect and allow them to enjoy their cultural and individual rights? Why do we struggle to get our churches built or even repaired? Why are we excluded from all important positions and discriminated against in schools, universities and jobs? Why are we attacked in Upper Egypt, Cairo, Alexandria, and every corner of Egypt; our places of worship and properties looted; and our fellow-religionists beaten, maimed, murdered and even cowardly massacred by Egypt’s army and security forces? Why can’t Egypt produce a brave, progressive and visionary leader who ends with one big decision the suffering of fifteen million of its presumed citizens?

The answer, on one level, as we have seen, is to be found in Egypt’s convictions that are borrowed from the culture of its majority population. Egypt’s Muslim majority holds the Copts in bondage because their Islamic cultural underpinnings require them to do so; because they want to do so; because – and here lies the ultimate answer – they simply can.

The truth is that Egypt’s Coptic Question is a function of power. As I have already said, the Muslims of Egypt deny the Copts equal rights and dignity, on both theoretical and practical levels, because they simply can oppress the Copts. The Copts, being a minority and non-militant in mind and action, are in a weaker position, and that is why they are persecuted and discriminated against.The solution to the Coptic Question then must be sought in altering that balance of power. It must be realised that we have failed in solving our problem by persuasion, appeals, legal action, and displaying loyalty and support to Egypt’s various Muslim rulers – bad or good – in the hope that they might be induced to improve our lot. It is obvious that Egypt’s rulers, lacking in any real internal drive to protect the Copts and feeling no significant outside pressure on them to do so, are allowing the already appalling situation to continue to deteriorate.Nothing in the world of politics changes without pressure. This simple truth has been understood by all great peoples and nations who have fought like us for equal rights and freedoms, and have succeeded. Whether it was the Greeks in their 1821 Revolution against the oppressive Turks of the Ottoman Empire, or the American blacks in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, to take but a few examples, all have discovered that supplication and the bending of the knees only led to the prolongation of their suffering; that only with relentless pressure on oppressive systems was change achieved. The moral which we learn from the struggles of these great peoples is that we also need to apply pressure on the system that oppresses us in order to coerce it to change. The fact that it hasn’t changed yet, with what we have done so far, means that we have no enough power – that the pressure we have applied so far is not sufficient.The Copts must increase their power if they want to liberate themselves from the shackles of this devilish oppression that has, over thirteen hundred years, crushed their body and soul, as individuals and as nation. How they should do that, and what power I am talking about, has to wait for another occasion.

Note:

The writer has always made his position very clear when he talks about the Muslims of Egypt – he does not regard all of them the same. There are many good Muslims who are liberal in mind and would like to see Egypt converted to a modern state where all its citizens are regarded as equal, and not distinguished on the basis of religion, race or sex. However, it is not inaccurate to say that, judging from the persistence of the Coptic Problem, and its actual worsening in the recent years, that the majority of Egypt’s Muslims are supportive, one way or the other, passively or actively, of a the current quasi-dhimmitude system or even a return to a fully-fledged dhimmitude state. The writer would be the happiest person if one could prove to him that the majority of Egypt’s Muslims do not actually back any restrictions on the Copts’ civil and political rights; their individual and cultural rights. But then I would only be convinced by results.Read the full story here.

• 80% of Saudi Women Deficient in Vitamin D.(CrossroadsArabia).Here’s one that strikes me as more appropriate for the Annals of the Obvious than any great medical discovery.Saudi women, who spend their lives either indoors or, when outdoors, covered in head-to-toe black garments, suffer Vitamin D deficiencies. In humans, Vitamin D is manufactured by the body, but only when it is exposed to sunlight. Indoors or under an abaya, there’s not a whole lot of sunshine hitting Saudi women’s skin.Of course, it not just Saudi women who can contract the deficiency: last year, American actress Gwyneth Paltrow notoriously came down with osteopoena as a result of her own Vitamin D deficiency. Seekers of pallid complexions are indeed in danger.But no other population so systematically keeps women from sunlight as a matter of cultural preference. The lack of sunlight can be mitigated by Vitamin D supplements, but forcing people to pay for something that is available for free strikes me as, well, odd. Maybe some of the effort dedicated to solar energy might be spent on finding abayas that permit sunlight to be transmitted through them. There are such bathing suits and shirts available, so I would think it would be easy enough to cut that material differently.Dr Ahmad Al-Ali | Saudi Gazette. Jeddah – A Saudi doctor has warned that “Vitamin D Deficiency Syndrome” is threatening Saudi women and school girls in particular.Chairman of the Saudi Association for Endocrinology and Metabolism Dr Ataallah Al-Rehaili said that a study conducted by a team of specialists at King Saud University showed that 80 percent of Saudi female students suffered from vitamin D deficiency.This causes kidney and liver diseases and loss of hair in women, bone pain and muscle weakness, palpitations, sleeplessness, weak memory and general weakness. Yet even without symptoms, a lack of the vitamin can pose health risks.In a lecture delivered at the Riyadh Forum, he said that vitamin D deficiency was widespread in the Kingdom and the safest source of 90 percent of the vitamin was sunlight.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely Different!Eruptions Could Create New Island in the Canaries.(Spiegel).By Axel Bojanowski. It hasn't yet reached the surface, but residents of the Canary Islands have taken to the internet to suggest names for a potential new islet. There are already more than 500 suggestions. Favorites include "The Discovery," "Atlantis" and "The Best." Meanwhile Spanish newspapers are taking a different approach to the subject, debating who would take responsibility for the new territory.It's an underwater volcano off the coast of El Hierro, the southern-most Canary Island, which has caught the imagination of locals. For three weeks it has been spewing magma into the sea in the first volcanic eruptions on the Canary Islands for 40 years. The lava is already towering 100 meters above the seabed -- another 150 meters and it will protrude above the Atlantic Ocean, creating a new island. For Canarians, it's a welcome new attraction. Whether the eruption near the archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa will ever actually result in new land remains uncertain. But it's clear that the magma reservoir under El Hierro is simmering unchecked, constantly pouring out magma and causing the ground to shake several times a day. Since July, there have been more than 10,000 earthquakes -- mostly imperceptible -- on El Hierro. Volcanologists expect more eruptions, but they don't know where the lava will be released. Even small eruptions on land are possible. The volcanic activity will "probably last for some time," said the Mayor of El Hierro, Alpidio Armas.The effects of the underwater volcanic events are clearly visible: powerful eddies result from explosions in the deep. A sea of ash bigger than El Hierro itself is floating off the island, with gas bubbling up and dead fish scattered in the water. Politicians and scientists are offering daily advice on possible risks to the local population, but their understanding of events under the seabed is far from complete. "Recent volcanism in the Canary Islands is not well known," says a report in the "Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences" journal by researchers at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Barcelona, led by Rosa Sobradelo. Nonetheless, advice on the potential dangers is being dispensed by the authorities on El Hierro as well as in the rest of the Canary Islands.Scientists have stepped up their monitoring; there is even a submarine taking pictures of the ocean floor, showing the new undersea mountain, already 700 meters (2,300 feet) wide. A 150-meter (490-foot) crater can also be seen. There is also fissure three kilometers (two miles) long that is clearly gushing magma. To the south of El Hierro, the earthquakes suggest persistent outbursts of lava, according to the ITER research institute on Tenerife. They show a pattern that is typical for flowing liquid, a so-called harmonic volcanic tremor. Presumably, there are constant small eruptions on the ocean floor. But the lava usually clogs the fissure quickly after such eruptions, forcing further magma to seek new channels -- exactly what seems to be happening now.In recent days, however, some unsettling measurements have been recorded: The shaking has moved to the north. Because most of the earthquakes in that area have, up until now, occurred at depths of more than ten kilometers, an eruption is not expected in the area, the local authorities have said. The magma seems to be contained in the depths thus far.The risk of large, explosive eruptions in the Canary Islands, however, "should not be neglected," Sobradelo and her colleagues insist in their study. The frequency of their occurrence cannot currently be estimated. But even the most momentous outbursts of the past few centuries remained localised. In 1706, lava from the Pico del Teide volcano hit Tenerife, burying the port town of Garachio in the northwest of the island where massive black boulders now form the remnants of the lava flow. On Lanzarote, lava poured through villages in the north of the island from 1730 to 1740 and again in 1824. La Palma has experienced more than a hundred eruptions in the past 20,000 years; most recently in 1971 when a flow of lava ran into the sea. El Hierro is the youngest of the Canary Islands, appearing above the surface of the sea just over a million years ago. As such, it is likely its magma reservoir may still be very large; geologists suspect it is around ten kilometers below the seabed -- most of the tremors have occurred at this depth. The last confirmed eruption was in 550 BC, although there are also disputable reports of an event in 1793.Read the full story here.