$9 Million Lawsuit against Airline That Removed Sikh, Muslim Passengers.

Shan Anand

$9 Million Lawsuit against Airline That Removed Sikh, Muslim Passengers. (NDtv).

A Sikh man along with his four friends were kicked out from an American Airlines flight allegedly because their appearance made the captain uneasy, claims a $9 million lawsuit against the airline.

Shan Anand, a Sikh, along with three other friends, were ordered off the Toronto -New York flight from last month based upon their perceived race, colour and ethnicity, according to a CNN report.

Mr Anand's other friends - a Bangladeshi Muslim and an Arab Muslim - were identified only by their initials WH and MK.

Mr Anand and his friend Faimul Alam switched seats with strangers after boarding, so they could sit next to WH and MK.

Several minutes later, a white woman flight attendant asked WH to get off the plane, according to the lawsuit, which was filed yesterday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

When they asked the flight crew why they were being removed, the flight attendant told them to exit "peacefully" and "demanded" they return to the gate and await further directions, the lawsuit said.

"It basically made me feel like a criminal," WH said, adding: "It was like I was put on a pedestal where everyone is pointing at you. I was frightened that they were frightened."

It was only after the plane took off that an airline agent told the men "they could not board because the crew members, and specifically the captain, felt uneasy and uncomfortable with their presence on the flight and as such, refused to fly unless they were removed from the flight," the report said.

The flight took off, leaving the four men behind. "They said it was protocol," Mr Anand said.

Mariam Baouardy Saint to be, was nearly murdered by Muslim, only lived three years in Palestine.

Sister Mariam Baouardy Saint to be,  was nearly murdered for refusing a marriage proposal, only lived three years in Palestine. (WIKI).


Mariam Baouardy, O.C.D. (5 January 1846 – 26 August 1878), was a Discalced Carmelite nun of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. Born to Greek Catholic parents from Syria and Lebanon,[1] she was a mystic, who experienced the stigmata, and has been beatified by the Roman Catholic Church.

She was born on 5 January 1846 (the eve of Epiphany) in the village of I'billin, the region of Southern Syria in the Ottoman Empire, now in Israel, to Giries (George) Baouardy and his wife, Mariam Chahine, both of Damascene ancestry.

Baouardy's parents both died from an illness in 1848, only a few days apart. The siblings were then each taken in by relatives on different sides of her family living in different villages, she being taken in by her father's brother who lived in the same village. The brother and sister would never see one another again. She was raised in a loving home in comfortable circumstances. As a child she had a marked spirit of religious fervor, choosing, for example, to fast at the age of five.

When Baouardy was eight, her uncle and his wife moved to Alexandria, Egypt, to improve their situation. Five years later, in 1858 when she was aged 13, in keeping with tradition, she was engaged by her uncle to his wife's brother, who lived in Cairo. The night before the wedding, she had a religious experience in which she felt called not to marry and to offer her life to God. Upon being told this the following morning, her uncle flew into a rage and beat her severely. Despite this, and the subsequent ill treatment she began to experience from her uncle, she stayed firm in her decision.

Nonetheless, Baouardy felt depressed and alone. She wrote her brother, then living in Nazareth, asking him to visit her. The young male servant she asked to deliver the letter drew out of her the cause for her sadness. Upon learning of this, he attempted to woo her for himself, inviting her to convert to Islam. She rejected his proposal, which caused the young man to fly into a rage, in which he drew a knife and cut her throat. He then dumped her body in a nearby alley.

Baouardy then experienced what she was convinced was a miracle. As she related later, a "nun dressed in blue" picked up her body and stitched her wounds, caring for her in some grotto which she could never identify. Her voice was effected for the rest of her life as a result of the cut, which a French doctor later measured as being 10 cm. (nearly 4 inches) wide. After being cared for by this mysterious figure for a month, she recovered enough to leave and find work as a domestic servant in the home of an Arab Christian family in the city. She would give most of the little money she earned to the poor on the streets.

After a year, Baourardy decided to try to meet her brother and traveled by caravan to Jerusalem. There she felt inspired to make a vow of perpetual virginity at the Holy Sepulchre. She then took a boat in Jaffa with the intention of heading to Acre. Due to poor weather, however, the boat had to stop at Beirut. Taking this as a sign from God, she disembarked and found work as a maid. After working there she suddenly became blind, a condition that lasted for 40 days, just as suddenly recovering her vision. Not long after that, she had a serious fall which seemed to leave her for dead. Her employer cared for her for a month until she revived, completely healed.

In May 1863 a generous patron made it possible for Baouardy to move to Marseille, France, where she became the cook for an Arab family. While there, she felt called to enter a religious order. Rejected by the first groups to which she sought admission, in May 1865 she was accepted as a postulant by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, who had communities in the Holy Land and already had several Palestinian candidates. It was at this point that she received the stigmata of Christ.

During the last month of this period of candidacy, the Mistress of novices, who had drawn Baouardy's life story from her, was replaced by Mother Veronica of the Passion. After two years as a postulant, Baouardy was up for a vote by the community regarding her admission to the congregation. To her shock and dismay, she was rejected by the Sisters who were charged with making the decision.

At that point, Mother Veronica had just received permission to transfer to the Discalced Carmelite monastery at Pau to prepare for her forming a new congregation of Religious Sisters serving in India, the Sisters of the Apostolic Carmel. She invited Baouardy to go with her, writing to the prioress of that community and recommending that they accept the young Arab woman. The prioress accepted Mother Veronica's advice and, in June 1867, both women went together to Puy, where they received the Carmelite religious habit and Baourdy was given the religious name of Mary of Jesus Crucified.

In 1870, Mariam went with the first group of Carmelite Apostolic Sisters to Mangalore, India. She served there for two years before returning to Pau. It was there she made her profession of solemn vows as a member of the Order. After returning to Pau for three years before returning to help found the first in Palestine. In September 1875 she helped to found a new monastery in Bethlehem, the first of the Order in that region, where she lived until her death. During her whole life, she experienced periods or religious ecstasy frequently throughout the day.

In April 1878 Mariam played an important role in the identification of the Biblical Emmaus thanks to a private revelation. She died on 26 August 1878 in Bethlehem, from a cancer which had developed in her bones as a result of the fall she had while working in the monastery, which led to gangrene that spread to her lungs.Hmmm......So The 'Palestinian' Saint lived THREE years in Palestine.

Guess what? French Muslims More Likely To Espouse Antisemitic Views.

Guess what? French Muslims More Likely To Espouse Antisemitic Views.(FW).

New surveys conducted in France suggested that Frenchmen of Muslim origin were far likelier to espouse anti-Semitic views than the general population.

In the two surveys, which were conducted in recent months, 74 percent of respondents who self-identified as observant Muslims agreed with the statement that Jews have too much influence on French economics, compared to 25 percent in the general population.

The assertion that Jews control the media received an approval rating of 23 percent in the general population group and 70 percent among practicing Muslims.

The surveys were released Sunday at the fifth annual national convention in Paris of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities and organizations. A total of 1,580 people older than 16 were polled after Sept. 25 by the IFOP polling company and the Foundation for Political Innovation.

In the first survey, 1,005 respondents from the general population answered a series of questions about their attitudes toward Jews. Their answers were compared with responses several days later to the same questions by 575 people who said they were either Muslim or were born to a Muslim family.

Among the general population, 32 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that “Jews use to their own benefit their status as victims of the Nazi genocide” compared to 56 percent of respondents from the Muslim group and among those who voted for the far-right National Front party in 2012.

Among voters for the Front de Gauche far-left party, the assertion had a 51 percent approval rating.
The existence of “an international Zionist conspiracy” was endorsed by 16 percent of the general population and by 44 percent of Muslim respondents. 

The same figure among Front de Gauche voters called Zionism “a racist ideology” compared to 23 percent in the general population.

In the general population group, 46 percent of respondents endorsed the description of Zionism as “an ideology that proclaims the right of the Jews to have their own country on their ancestors’ land.” Hmmm.....Same thing go's for the rest of 'Eurabia'.

Chinese Authorities ban Uyghur public religious activities during the holy month of Ramadan.

Chinese Authorities ban Uyghur public religious activities during the holy month of Ramadan.(RFA).Chinese authorities in the troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang have imposed curbs on the public observance of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan among the region's Uyghur ethnic minority, an exile group said on Monday. The government, which earlier this month stepped up security around the sensitive anniversary of the 2009 ethnic violence between the Uyghurs and the Han Chinese that killed nearly 200 people, has banned any public religious activities by the region's Muslims, according to a spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress. "They have set up Ramadan stability groups in every official department and organization, and they have to select people to serve on them," spokesman Dilxat Raxit said. "Officials from these departments have to go and stay in mosques, so as to carry out personal surveillance work in all localities." The Muslim holy month devoted to dawn-to-dusk fasting, prayers and good deeds culminates with the three-day holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Meanwhile, teachers and professors, members of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and other civil servants in Xinjiang are barred from fasting during this year's Ramadan, which began Thursday and ends on Aug. 18, according to Raxit. "They will be stationed in the mosques round-the-clock during Ramadan," he said. "They will carry out both technological surveillance and personal surveillance."Hmmmm........"Yes We Can?"Read the full story here.

Video - Daylight: The Story of Obama and Israel.

IQ:

America's Muslim President.By. "al Rassooli".
Even if one listens to the first five minutes one will come to the conclusion that:

1. Obama is a closeted Muslim.
2. His understanding of the REAL Muslim mindset is negligible.
3. He knows even less about how the Arabs think.
4. He has no understanding or true knowledge of the history of the Jews.
5. He has betrayed each and every friend of the USA among the Arabs.
6. He commands no respect among Muslims (my field of expertise).
7. He has caused more damage to America Economically, Politically and Militarily than any president including Carter.
8. In summation, if he is re elected, it will be the end of America and freedom all over the world. 
9. Anyone disagreeing with my analysis I would appreciate your comments."al Rassooli" ..

Muslim suspect in arson attack on Brussels Shi'ite mosque in which imam died gives three different Identities.

Muslim suspect in arson attack on Brussels Shi'ite mosque in which imam died gives three different Identities.The Brussels Mosque is the most important center for Shi'ites in Belgium it had been threatened before in 2007 by Salafists.The 46-year old imam Abdallah Dadou, father of four children suffocated while trying to extinguish the flames.All the indications are that the perpetrator was another Muslim. He made Salafists remarks while smashing things up inside the mosque with an axe, before setting it on fire. During his interview three different identities were specified by him.These are now being further investigated. He's a thirty-something at the beginning of the hearing announced that he is a Muslim.
As one of the most islamified cities in Europe, Brussels is a powder keg. It's very easy to imagine how Muslims could go rioting and burning tonight if they believed this was an "islamophobic" attack. They're less likely to react that way if they know it's another Muslim. But, following their politically correct rules, the journalists and police won't give them that information.The attacker was shouting anti-Shiite Salafist slogans about the conflict in Syria.
The suspect entered the Mosque wearing a backpack, on different spots he poored petrol, and produced a knife and axe which he used to threaten bystanders.Eventually the bystanders managed to overpower him and lock him up while waiting for the police to arrive. There were also two men lightly wounded in the fight to overpower the suspect.Isabelle Praile of the Muslim Executive, herself a Shiite, told RTBF that the Rida mosque, the biggest mosque in Brussels, has been guarded by the police for years after threats by SalafistsRead the full story here.(GoogleTranslated).More here.HT:IVE

Obama: "Son of Islam"?........Or Not?

Obama: "Son of Islam"?......Or Not?(SG).By Raymond Ibrahim.

According to Sharia law, if one's father is Muslim, one automatically becomes Muslim. "Most of the Muslims I know (me included) can't seem to accept that Obama is not a Muslim."

Many in the media are indignant with Reverend Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Invited on "Morning Joe" last Tuesday to discuss Christian persecution, Graham was asked whether he thought President Barack Obama was Christian or not.
Although Graham concluded that Obama "has said he is a Christian, so I just have to assume that he is," he appeared skeptical, suggesting Obama's policies disagreed with Christian principles, thus earning the full ire of much of the fourth estate.
Graham, however, was absolutely right to say that, "under Islamic law, the Muslim world sees Barack Obama as a Muslim, as a son of Islam": according to Sharia law [Islamic religious law, which regulates all parts of a Muslim's life], if one's father is Muslim, one automatically becomes Muslim. The reason behind last week's church attack in Egypt, when thousands of Muslims tried to torch a church and kill its pastor, is that a Christian girl fled from her father after he converted to Islam: she did not want to be Muslim, and was rumored to be hiding in the church. This is not the first time in recent months that churches have been attacked on similar rumors.
In short, Sharia law's position is that anyone born to a Muslim father is a Muslim—with the death penalty should they seek to apostatize: the 34-year-old Iranian pastor sentenced to death simply for converting to Christianity is just the most visible example.
Because of this automatic passage of religion from father to son, and because Obama attended a madrassa (Muslim religious school during his youth in Indonesia), many Muslims are convinced that Obama is a "secret" Muslim. In a Forbes article, "My Muslim President Obama: Why members of the faith see him as one of the flock ," writer Asma Gull Hasan elaborates:

[S]ince Election Day, I have been part of more and more conversations with Muslims in which it was either offhandedly agreed that Obama is Muslim or enthusiastically blurted out. In commenting on our new president, "I have to support my fellow Muslim brother," would slip out of my mouth before I had a chance to think twice. "Well, I know he's not really Muslim," I would quickly add. But if the person I was talking to was Muslim, they would say, "yes he is." …. Most of the Muslims I know (me included) can't seem to accept that Obama is not Muslim. Of the few Muslims I polled who said that Obama is not Muslim, even they conceded that he had ties to Islam…. The rationalistic, Western side of me knows that Obama has denied being Muslim, that his father was non-practicing, that he doesn't attend a mosque. Many Muslims simply say back, "my father's not a strict Muslim either, and I haven't been to a mosque in years." Obama even told The New York Times he could recite the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, which the vast majority of Muslims, I would guess, do not know well enough to recite.

Read the entire article, which is more eye-opening than the author probably intended.Read the full story here.

Hmmm.......Was President Obama Baptised or not ? Is he a Christian ?

Anyway Obama himself writes that he was only baptised in his mid 20's !
Nobody, except Obama knows if his conversion to Christianity is real or not. Although some reports and even Obama have referred to a "baptism", there doesn't appear to be any record of a baptism.
Chicago-based journalist, broadcaster and critic Andy Martin, when asked about Obama's baptism, wrote, "I have never been able to obtain any evidence that he was baptized, although I asked for those records."

It seems that Obama's conversion occurred when he answered one of Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright's altar calls by walking down the aisle of Trinity Church to make a formal commitment of his faith.

Cathleen Falsani, religion columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, writes, "He (Obama) described his conversion experience in his mid-20s, how he walked the aisle at Trinity United Church of Christ one Sunday in a public affirmation of his private change of heart."I came to Christianity through the black church tradition where the line between evangelical and non-evangelical is completely blurred. Nobody knows exactly what it means."
Falsani warns us that Obama’s walking the aisle at Trinity is poles apart from what Christians commonly refer to as being "saved, transformed or washed in the blood."
In other words, it’s not to be confused with what Jesus called being "born again." As Mr. Obama himself explains, "It wasn’t an epiphany … but just a moment to certify or publicly affirm a growing faith in me."
Unlike traditional Christianity, which Mr. Obama bemoans for its "call to evangelize and proselytize," the good senator’s faith is strictly a personal and private affair. Although he has no qualms about parading it in public in hopes of bolstering his political career, he would never dream of preaching it to others in hopes of converting them to Christ.
At the core of Obama's faith -- whether lapsed Muslim, new Christian or some mixture of the two -- is African nativism and Obama's having pledged allegiance to the Black Value System raises political issues of its own.
The phrase, “having been baptized,” is apparently based on Obama’s claim about being baptized. Our major media haven’t questioned the claim.

Miller went on to say, “His baptism presents its own problems. The senior pastor at Trinity at the time of Obama’s baptism was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the preacher who was seen damning America on cable TV…”

Notice the formulation, “at the time of Obama’s baptism.” She carefully does not say that Wright performed the baptism. In fact, there’s no evidence it was a baptism in the traditional sense that it was performed by Wright or anybody else. It looks like Obama walked down the aisle and made a profession of faith. That is not a Christian baptism.

The Canada Free Press published a very interesting article in February by Madeline Brooks, who asked, “Where is the baptism certificate? We do not see one because there was no baptism. That central part of Christianity was not required at Obama’s former church, the Trinity United Church of Christ, during the years Obama attended…”
She cites the research of a pastor, Usama Dakdok, who had called Obama’s church to ask about membership:
“Do I have to be baptized to join the church?” asked Pastor Dakdok. “No, you don’t,” was the answer. “You can be a member without being baptized.”
“And what exactly is required to become a member?” The answer: “You attend two Sunday school classes in a row about membership, and then you walk the aisle.”
The phrase, “having been baptized,” is apparently based on Obama’s claim about being baptized. Our major media haven’t questioned the claim.I'm sure any Islamic scholar will agree that "attending two Sunday school classes in a row about membership, and then you walking the aisle" doesn't mean renouncing your Islamic Faith!
Instead of concentrating on his so called Islamic past we should concentrate on his so called Christian past !Read the full story here

Hezbollah-Iranian assassination plot against Barak foiled in Singapore.

Hezbollah-Iranian assassination plot against Barak foiled in Singapore.(JPost).A plot to assassinate Defense Minister Ehud Barak was foiled by Singaporean authorities in cooperation with the Mossad, during his visit to the island country earlier this week, according to a Kuwaiti newspaper report.
The report in Al Jarida, claimed that three members of a Hezbollah-Iranian terror cell were arrested by Singapore’s security agencies.The information on the plot was obtained by the Mossad which passed it on to Singapore prior to Barak’s visit there earlier this week. The Israeli defense minister was in Singapore to attend the annual Air Show and for talks with local officials.
According to the report, the Hezbollah-Iranian cell was in possession of accurate information on Barak’s schedule during his three-day visit to Singapore and that it had planned to try and assassinate him at his hotel.Barak is currently in Japan on a four day visit and is scheduled to return to Israel on Monday.News of the assassination plot comes as Israeli security agencies are on high alert overseas following a spate of bombing attacks against Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia and amid concern that the Iranian cells apprehended in Bangkok was plotting to assassinate Israel’s ambassador to Thailand.On Wednesday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda warned Barak against attacking Iran during a meeting they held in Tokyo.
During the meeting, Noda told Barak that military action would be dangerous and could escalate the current standoff between Iran and the West, a Japanese news agency reported.Hmmmm....Iran’s Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi said that Iran would give a "definitive response" to the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist."God willing, we will give a definitive response to these actions and all of them, Americans, British and Mossad and all those cooperating with them, God willing they will see the definitive and heavy response of the Islamic Republic of Iran,"
Read the full story here.

NYC Police and Muslim cabbies face off over their illegal actions.

Wow........ Thirty tickets in a week , i hope they were not exhausted after such an 'superhuman' effort.

HT:Tundratabloids.

MFS - The Other News

                       Afternoon  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - June 09. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - June 09. Here (Al-Jazeera). 

• Yemen Live Blog - June 09 . Here. (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 4.8 ! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 129.Source : Here .

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

• Europe - Latest official Situation Update on E-Coli epidemic 47- Source.

• Video - HDN exclusive: Hospital footage shows injured protesters in Syria.(HurriyetDaily).WARNING: This footage contains graphic content that might not be suitable for children or sensitive people.This video was obtained by the Hürriyet Daily News from a Syrian who took refuge in Turkey, escaping from the turmoil in the neighboring country. The Daily News was unable to verify the authenticity of the video.Read the full story here.

• Obama regime making a mockery out of Congress?(BigPeace).Obama Administration Shrouding Our Role In Libya.Yesterday, NATO aircraft pounded the Libyan capital Tripoli in what has been reported to have been the heaviest bombing of Tripoli since the initiation of western airstrikes in March. Reuters reported that the city was struck “several times an hour” as opposed to “at most a few times a day” in the past. Already over the weekend, NATO announced that it was carrying out “intensive and sustained” strikes on Tripoli. Were American aircraft involved in the assault?According to a report in the French daily Libération, France and Great Britain have each been carrying out 25% of the “offensive” flight missions in the NATO bombing campaign. Who is carrying out the remaining 50%? Only a handful of other NATO countries are known to be participating in the air campaign and none of them have anything like the military capacity of the United States. It is hard to imagine that NATO could undertake “intensive and sustained” strikes on Tripoli without American involvement.Already on April 13 – this is to say two weeks after the so-called “handover” of the Libya mission to NATO – the Pentagon quietly admitted that American aircraft were still attacking Libyan targets. Overall, the US was reported to be assuming some 35% of flight missions at the time, including reconnaissance and refueling missions. This means that US forces minimally constituted the logistical backbone of the air campaign.President Obama has refused to comply with the War Powers Act and seek congressional authorization for the Libyan campaign. The administration has attempted to justify this stance by claiming that American forces are merely serving a limited “support” role. Should not the American media and members of congress be demanding to know in just what this “support” consists?Hmmm......Dictatorship or Democracy...last chance in 2012!Read the full story here.

• Related - Time Running Out in Libya?(Cato).By John Samples.Even defenders of broad presidential prerogatives are starting to conclude that Obama’s war in Libya violates the original legal justification for it offered by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in the Department of Justice.Briefly put, the OLC said the Libyan war was not a war because the operation would be limited as to means, objectives, and duration. Thus, the OLC argued, neither the Constitution nor the War Powers Resolution constrained the president’s prerogatives.The objective has changed from protecting civilians to regime change. The war itself has gone on now for as long as the unauthorized war in Kosovo in 1999. Jack Goldsmith concludes: “as the days drag on, and as our deep involvement persists, it becomes harder and harder to represent that this mission is limited in nature, duration, and scope.”Hmmmm.......Dictatorship or democracy?Read the full story here.

• Hallelujah the 'Messiah' will speak!White House says it will answer Congress on Libya.(Msnbc).The White House now says it will respond to detailed questions on the U.S. mission in Libya within a two-week deadline set by the House in a resolution approved last week.Aides to President Barack Obama had previously brushed off the non-binding resolution, calling it unhelpful and unnecessary. The White House suggested earlier this week it had no plans to formally respond to the questions posed in the measure because officials were already providing details in dozens of briefings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.While officials maintain that those briefings are sufficient, the White House now says it will also respond specifically to the questions in the resolution, which was sponsored by House Speaker John Boehner."We will answer the questions in that resolution within the time frame that he specifies," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday.The deadline for providing answers on the operation's objective, its costs and its impact on the nation's two other wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is June 17.Carney said the White House decision to directly respond to the House resolution is "in the spirit that we have answered questions that members have had in the past." He would not say how the White House would go about providing its response.The House resolution calls on the president to send Congress a detailed written report with answers to more than 20 questions. The resolution also chastised Obama for failing to provide a "compelling rationale" for the Libyan mission. Forty-five Democrats joined the Republican majority in passing the measure.Hmmmm.....Don't be all excited, he'll make again a mockery out of Congress,frankly speaking they deserve it for their lack of 'guts'.Read the full story here.

• Pentagon: Cost Of Obama’s Time-Limited, Scope-Limited, Kinetic Military Action In Libya Soars To $750 Million.(WZ).US military operations in Libya are on course to cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than the Pentagon estimated, according to figures obtained by the Financial Times.Robert Gates, the outgoing secretary of defence, said last month that the Pentagon expected to spend “somewhere in the ball park of $750m” in the 2011 fiscal year as part of efforts to protect the Libyan people.But according to a Pentagon memo which includes a detailed update on the progress and pace of operations, by mid-May US operations in Libya had cost $664m, a figure confirmed by the Department of Defence.The document, entitled the “United States Contribution to Operation Unified Protector’’, adds that US costs are running at a rate of about $2m a day or $60m a month. The memo has been circulating on Capitol Hill since last week. The DoD declined to comment on the increased costs of the operation.Hmmmm......Costly to stand with your Muslim Brothers,i'm sure Al-Qaida will refund the US in Natura.Read the full story here.

• Are these people for real?Video - Napolitano: Screening Muslim Males Under 35, Not Good Common Sense.(BarracudaBrigade).Hmmmm.....Yup statistics show the average terrorist is an middle aged Italian decent woman.Read and see the full story here.

• Russia - Muslim priests to give spiritual guidance to servicemen.(RT).Muslim muftis will soon be sent to the Russian Army for spiritual guidance of Muslim servicemen, according to Russia’s Supreme Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin. Currently, only Orthodox priests are present among Army staff.In an interview to the Echo of Moscow radio station, the Supreme Mufti said that the Russian Muslim University has launched a special course for priests who will work in the Army.Soon, around a dozen Muslim priests will start their jobs in various military units. But this is only the beginning as more will follow. The work in the Army requires some special skills so this category of clergy should have specific training, Tadzhuddin explained.“We think that retired officers could take special-purpose courses in the Russian Muslim University,” he said. “We should send to the Army those people who understand its specifics. At the same time, they should be able to make their spiritual contribution.”He added that heads of regional spiritual centers have already started attracting people.Talgat Tadzhuddin also said that those priests and their activities will be controlled by Russia’s Interconfessional Council. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s public relations, said on Wednesday that it is a common world practice to send representatives of major religions to the Army. He observed that the Church is now renewing the practice of assigning staff spiritual counselors to the military. He added that around 1,000 Orthodox priests have been working in the Army as volunteers.Deputy head of the State Duma Committee for Defense Yury Savenko told Echo of Moscow that representatives of the main confessions in the Army can reduce the number of interethnic and inter-religious conflicts.Islam is the second largest religion after Orthodox Christianity in Russia, with around 8 million believers. Most of them are concentrated in the North Caucasus, the republics of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Western Siberia and also Moscow.Hmmmm.......Estimated total population of Russia :141,896,685.A minority dictating a huge majority.How things changed since Stalin's days ?Read the full story here.

• Hamas Says “Nothing Will Prevent Them” From Joining New Government With US-Funded Palestinian Authority.(Haaretz).Hamas will participate in any future Palestinian government, a senior official from the Islamist group said Thursday, refuting press reports that it might opt not to take part in a future administration.“Nothing would prevent us” from participating in any government after new elections, Salah al-Bardaweel, a high-ranking Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip told the German Press Agency DPA.The comments came after earlier media reports Thursday that Hamas might exclude itself from a future government – even if it won in elections – if that helped such a government to avoid international isolation.“This is totally incorrect and totally untrue,” said al- Bardaweel, arguing that the reports were intended to isolate Hamas politically and diplomatically.Hamas in April agreed to a reconciliation with the secular Fatah, the other major Palestinian bloc, after years of a sometimes bloody stand-off between the two, clearing the way for the two to form a unity government.But Hamas’ participation in any future government could turn into a diplomatic stumbling block for any Palestinian government, as Hamas’ refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist and its refusal to honor past Israeli-Palestinian agreements keeps entities like the United States and the European Union from recognizing it.Hmmmm.....Will the Obama regime 'out' itselves and openly fund a terrorist organisation,against the will of Congress?Read the full story here.

• Did Anthony Weiner, a Jew, convert to Islam to marry a Muslim?(BNI).Omar Abu-Namous is the imam of the Islamic Cultural Center in New York and he is encouraging Huma Abedin – a practicing Muslim – to stand by her husband, New York congressman Anthony Weiner. Why would this imam support Anthony Weiner, who was raised Jewish, in a marriage with a practicing Muslim woman?EVERY ISLAMIC SCHOLAR agrees that it is forbidden for a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim. Former Muslim Walid Shoebat has translated the Arabic declarations relative to the validity of the marriage between Weiner and Abedin last year. One such publication Shoebat translated was the Al-Marsid newspaper, which reported on the Weiner/Abedin marriage specifically:Dr. Anwar Shoeb of the faculty of Islamic law in Kuwait declared that the marriage between Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin is null and void, considering it adultery as confirmed in the Sharia position, prohibiting the marriage of a Muslim woman to a non-Muslim, regardless of whether he is a Jew or a Christian. In this case, he assured the invalidity of the marriage certificate between them.Abu-Namous is in direct opposition to his Islamic superiors? Why? Huma Abedin was raised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In 2007, the New York Observer wrote (in an article no longer available but cross-posted at FreeRepublic.com) that her mother is a professor in Saudi Arabia and that her father was an Islamic scholar before his death.Weiner was raised Jewish but admitted to growing up in a non-religious household. If Abedin remains a practicing Muslim and her religion forbids her from marrying a non-Muslim, isn’t she failing to practice Islam? Wouldn’t that be the case unless Weiner converted to Islam? The New York Times reported that Weiner “sometimes fasts with her (Abedin) during Ramadan.” This would indicate that the congressman is more amenable to practicing Islam than Abedin is to practicing Judaism.Did Abedin reject Weiner because he was not Muslim? Why is a New York imam with ties to the ISNA and Feisal Abdul Rauf defending a non-Muslim male with a Muslim female?Perhaps there is a more important question that needs to be answered. Did a secular Jewish man convert to Islam or did his (still) practicing Muslim wife abandon her religion by marrying him?Read the full story here.

• The Beginning of the Panic.(DailyWealth).In the next few weeks, our country will enter a period without precedence in our experience.On June 30, the Federal Reserve has pledged to cease buying U.S. Treasury bonds. This is the second time since the financial crisis it has intervened in the Treasury market in a major way. The program of buying new Treasury issues has been dubbed "quantitative easing II" (QE2).We'd wager not one in 1,000 Americans has any idea (or at least any real understanding) of what has been going on in the market for U.S. Treasury bonds since the financial crisis. For the last nine months, the Fed has been printing up new dollars and buying huge amounts of newly issued debt from the U.S. Treasury – $600 billion of bonds. And these purchases followed a $1.75 trillion program of quantitative easing that ran from March 2009 to March 2010.It is no exaggeration to say that a printing press has kept our economy going for the last two years. But what will happen when the printing stops?While we honestly don't know, we're going to speculate that, in the short term, the U.S. dollar will rally and commodities will suffer a serious correction. We will see a dramatic slowdown in the rate of monetary inflation. People will think prices will stop going up. Economic activity will begin to decline. Fear will lead a lot of investors to "go to cash." That means buying short-term U.S. Treasury bonds because they're the most liquid, most frequently traded form of cash.As this process unfolds, we expect to see another global panic. Especially if Bernanke's decision to stop the presses coincides with a Republican political gambit – refusing to raise the debt ceiling, which could cause a default on U.S. Treasury bonds.Whether the debt ceiling is raised or not, it's only a matter of time before the Fed will have to turn on the presses again. And when "QE3" begins, it will send our creditors an unmistakable message: You will never be repaid in anything other than massively devalued paper.All around the world, more and more central banks are selling dollars and buying gold. They're doing so because they can plainly see America's credit has become unreliable and the value of the dollar is likely to decline.If you think you might be trading in something other than U.S. dollars in the future, you might not want to be holding U.S. dollars. You might want to be holding that currency.And if you can't hold that currency, consider holding gold.Good investing,Porter.Read the full story here.
• Related video - Must see! WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PRESENTATION IS CONTROVERSIAL AND MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME AUDIENCES. Viewer discretion is advised.Read and see the full story here.

• Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, or EHEC - 'A Totally New Disease Pattern'.(Spiegel).Doctors Shaken By Outbreak's Neurological Devastation.The patient at the Hamburg-Eilbek Hospital describes to doctors how she first had diarrhea, and then grew progressively weaker to the point where she could no longer eat and barely make it to the toilet. When blood appeared in her stool, she became terrified. The young woman at the hospital's intensive-care unit in the northern German port city suspects that lettuce was responsible for putting her in this deadly situation. She then breaks out in tears, completely distraught.

Thanks to several dialysis procedures, she will most likely survive her case of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a particularly aggressive complication related to the enterohaemorrhagic E. coli, or EHEC, that has appeared in more than one-quarter of the patients infected by the bacteria. So far, around 2,800 people have been infected in the dramatic outbreak of this rare strain of E. Coli, with at least 722 contracting HUS and 29 dead so far in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The number of new cases has diminished this week, but the outbreak has left doctors pondering serious questions about the new epidemic. Rolf Stahl, a nephrologist at Hamburg's University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf, explains that, "Neurologists are being confronted with a totally new disease pattern." Never before has an EHEC germ been as aggressive -- and many consider this to be a new epidemic.And although the majority will survive, some patients will have lasting and serious health problems. "A considerable number of the patients will permanently lose their kidney function and will be dependent on dialysis for the rest of their lives," says Stahl.Although the number of infections is slowing, no single treatment has been found that can be effective for the majority of patients. And that leaves people asking what will hapen the next time this super strain of E. coli infects a large number of people. Indeed, O104:H4 is giving the medical world a feeling of powerlessness it hasn't felt in a long time. Wertheimer compares it to the AIDS outbreak in the 1980s. "In the era of antibiotics, we suddenly had an infection that we couldn't treat. That was a shock."As in the AIDS epidemic, microorganisms are recapturing terrain once again, and doing so in a perfidious manner. The EHEC bacteria produce even more of their toxin when they die off. If antibiotics were used against the bacteria, the toxin would literally flood the body.And what of the appealing view of mankind triumphing over the infectious diseases of medieval times? A myth, says Wertheimer.Hmmmm.....A candidate for ' biological warfare'?Read the full story here. 

• Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Democrats to Form ‘Perfect Slavery to Allah Party’.(BigPeace).Dr. Mohamed Badi, Chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood, now best described as The “Perfect Slavery to Allah” (hurriyya), or “Zabibah Party” (see discoloration from repeated prayer-induced skin trauma on his forehead) From Ikhwan Web:

Egypt’s largest political opposition the Muslim Brotherhood, has confirmed that it is preparing to establish a political party calling it the Freedom and Justice Party, or Horeya and Adala.”

Horeya or Hurriyya, Arabic for “freedom,” and the uniquely Western concept of freedom are completely at odds. Hurriyya “freedom” — as Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) the lionized “Greatest Sufi Master”, expressed it — “being perfect slavery.” And this conception is not merely confined to the Sufis’ perhaps metaphorical understanding of the relationship between Allah the “master” and his human “slaves.”

The late American scholar of Islam, Franz Rosenthal (d. 2003) analyzed the larger context of hurriyya in Muslim society. He notes the historical absence of hurriyya as “…a fundamental political concept that could have served as a rallying cry for great causes.”

An individual Muslim

…was expected to consider subordination of his own freedom to the beliefs, morality and customs of the group as the only proper course of behavior…

 Thus politically, Rosenthal concludes,

…the individual was not expected to exercise any free choice as to how he wished to be governed…In general, …governmental authority admitted of no participation of the individual as such, who therefore did not possess any real freedom vis-a-vis it.

Bernard Lewis, in his analysis of hurriyya for the venerated Brill Encyclopedia of Islam, discusses this concept in the latter phases of the Ottoman Empire, through the contemporary era. After highlighting a few “cautious” or “conservative” (Lewis’ characterization) reformers and their writings, Lewis maintains,

…there is still no idea that the subjects have any right to share in the formation or conduct of government—to political freedom, or citizenship, in the sense which underlies the development of political thought in the West. While conservative reformers talked of freedom under law, and some Muslim rulers even experimented with councils and assemblies government was in fact becoming more and not less arbitrary….

Lewis also makes the important point that Western colonialism ameliorated this chronic situation:

During the period of British and French domination, individual freedom was never much of an issue. Though often limited and sometimes suspended, it was on the whole more extensive and better protected than either before or after.

And Lewis concludes with a stunning observation, when viewed in light of the present travails of the so-called “Arab Spring,” and throughout the Muslim world, delusively optimistic assessments notwithstanding:

In the final revulsion against the West, Western democracy too was rejected as a fraud and a delusion, of no value to Muslims.Lastly, the pronounced prayer bump or “zabibah” on Mr. Badie’s forehead is pathogonomomic reminder of Islam’s Manichaen nature as described in Koran 48:29, and its mainstream understanding (Koranic commentary or “tafsir”):

[Pickthall translation] Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And those with him are hard against the disbelievers and merciful among themselves. Thou (O Muhammad) seest them bowing and falling prostrate (in worship), seeking bounty from Allah and (His) acceptance. The mark of them is on their foreheads from the traces of prostration.

Tafsir on this verse from Maariful Quran, pp. 104-105: The first quality of the Companions mentioned here is that they are hard against the unbelievers, and merciful to one another. It was proven time and again that they were harsh against the unbelievers. They sacrificed all their ethnic and tribal relations for the sake of Islam. This was especially demonstrated on the occasion of Hudaibiyah….In a Hadith recorded by Bukhari, the Holy Prophet has said, “He who loves for the sake of Allah and hates for the sake of Allah has attained the highest degree of faith”Hmmmm.....The 'People' the Obama regime supports with Billions of tax payer Dollars!Read the full story here.

• Christian girl being sexually abused to make her convert to Islam.(Very graphic video).Read and see the full story here.‏

• The Sultan of Istancool.(Spiegel)One supporter of the Turkish prime minister says that he admires how the irascible Erdogan now manages to keep his temper under control. At the same time, it is interesting that the man is unwilling to be quoted on the record. It offers a small insight into a serious liability in Erdogan's Turkey: Its leader has a problem with authority. He can't get enough of it.The premier, says Sedat Ergin, the head of the Ankara office of the Turkish daily newspaper Hürriyet for many years, entered his first term eight years ago with great caution. He took stock of his adversaries in the army, the economy and the press, says Ergin, but he also treated them with respect. "He was decisive in advancing his policies, but he also exercised restraint," he says. According to Ergin, this changed after Erdogan's second election victory in 2007. "That was when he started using the power of the state more indiscriminately."

Ergin knows what he's talking about. The more critical newspapers were in their reporting on the government, the more sharply did the prime minister's office, the Basbakanlik, strike back. A cartoonist who took the liberty of portraying the prime minister as a cat found himself facing charges in court. The same thing happened soon afterwards to another cartoonist, who had drawn Erdogan as a blood-sucking tick on the back of a respectable citizen, as a comment on the government's taxation policies.The Dogan Group, which owns the secular Hürriyet and the Turkish division of the US news broadcaster CNN, was particularly hard-hit. In 2009, a dozen tax inspectors descended on the company. When they were finished with their audit, Dogan was slapped with an order to pay the government the equivalent of €2.2 billion ($3.2 billion)."That's the problem with Erdogan," says Ergin. "He is using the power of the state more and more arbitrarily to promote his political interests. There is no one left to keep him in check."

In 2008, a group of former senior military leaders were put on trial for allegedly plotting to overthrow the Erdogan regime in its early years. The so-called Ergenekon trial, named, like the group of conspirators, after the mythical ancestral home of the Turks in Central Asia, had a cathartic effect on the people. For the first time, the previously untouchable officers were facing charges in a court of law.But the longer the trial dragged on, the wider the government cast its net, arresting professors, civil servants, attorneys and journalists opposed to the regime. In March, the astonished nation realized that what had been an important trial had turned into a vehicle with which the regime was eliminating its influential critics. That was when the police arrested and filed terrorism charges against investigative reporter Ahmet Sik, the journalist who had been one of the first to report on the Ergenekon group's alleged plans to overthrow the government, but then also looked at the pro-government Islamist network. Sik, along with 67 other journalists and dozens of professors, is still in prison today.In his self-aggrandizement, the premier who introduced historic change to Turkey, could become a growing liability for his country. His critics say that there is now little difference between Erdogan and Russia's strongman, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Of course, Russia hasn't applied for EU membership, but Turkey has. The prime minister's power trip is now backfiring on the Turks, increasing opposition to Turkey joining the bloc.

"This man is dangerous," says Celal Sengör, 56, a renowned seismologist. He experienced firsthand how the AKP intervenes in the autonomy of academia. In 2009, Sengör, the dean of Istanbul Technical University who holds a critical stance toward Islam, was told that he was being let go -- without any explanation or dismissal procedure. It was only the intervention of the president of the International Academy of Science that saved him from losing his job. Since then, Sengör has been even more disillusioned than he was before. "Europe shouldn't be naïve," he says. "Turkey simply isn't ready to be a true democracy."

• People like Sengör, who belong to Turkey's urban elite, are shocked when they open their morning newspapers to read horror stories from the provinces: of religious fanatics who sprayed acid onto the exposed legs of schoolgirls in Mersin; of a young woman near Malatya who was buried alive because she allegedly had a boyfriend; and of the rapes of two sisters in Siirt by almost 100 men.The brutality with which women are treated is as old as Turkey itself, and the previous regimes failed just as miserably when it came to protecting the victims. But between 2002 and 2009, the number of violent acts and so-called honor killings rose from 66 to 953. A woman dies every day, say human rights activists. The AKP argues that the figures are so high because more murders are now being reported and documented.Sociologist Binnaz Toprak acknowledges this as a possibility, but she also has another explanation: "The pressure to behave devoutly, to pray regularly, to fast and not to drink alcohol, has gone up. Society has become more conservative." A climate has developed in which women are no longer seen on the streets after dark outside the big cities, a climate in which some feel emboldened to interpret verses of the Koran in a misogynistic way.Toprak's analysis confirms the suspicions of secular Turks and skeptical Europeans that a broad segment of Turkish society espouses a view of the world and of women that is incompatible with that of the West. This casts a dark shadow over Turkey as an EU candidate.It's more likely that the Europeans and the Turks will continue to spend years talking at cross-purposes, but without expressing the two truths that everyone knows by now: that Europe doesn't want Turkey -- and that soon Turkey will no longer need Europe.Hmmmm......Keep the "Sultan and Teacher" Erdogan out of the European Union.Read the full story here.

• Syrian Website: Turkish Fighters Operating Against Syrian Security Forces.A Syrian website reports that in clashes in the Jisr Al-Shughur region in northern Syria, bordering the Turkish province of Alexandretta, 4,000 Turks are also participating, and so far some 200 of them have been captured by Syrian security forces. 'It was reported that the Syrian army was concentrating many forces in the region, anticipating a lengthy conflict, and that many residents had fled.Read the full story here.

• Iranian Website: Ahmadinejad Visit To Armenia Prevented Due To Ban On Entourage Members.The Iranian website Fararu said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Armenia, set for June 6, had been suddenly cancelled due to Iranian authorities' ban on leaving the country for two members of his entourage. Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi,senior advisor to Ahmadinejad, staid that the visit had been postponed for technical reasons, but it is thought that the matter is connected to the rift between Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Ahmadinejad.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - June 04. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - June 04. Here (Al-Jazeera). 

• Yemen Live Blog - June 04 . Here. (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 4.8  ! activity in Turkey.More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 128.Source : Here .

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

• Europe - Latest official Situation Update on E-Coli epidemic. Situation Update No. 33
  On 04.06.2011 at 04:10 GMT+2
  
  Europe's severe outbreak of Escherichia coli bacterial infections worsened further as more people succumbed to the lethal strain in Germany and around Europe. Total reported cases in Germany reached 1,733, with 520 of those resulting in severe complications that can lead to kidney failure, according to the Robert Koch Institute, a research body funded by the German Health Ministry. Cases have been reported in at least 11 other European countries. Meanwhile, there were four suspected cases in the U.S., said Chris Braden, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's director of food-borne, waterborne and environmental diseases. He said all the cases involved people who had recently traveled to Germany. The Spanish, Portuguese and German governments said on Friday that they would request EU aid for farmers affected by the outbreak, which is costing farmers millions of euros as mountains of vegetables sit rotting and uneaten. The source of the outbreak still hasn't been found, and authorities continue to warn against eating raw lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. So far, 18 people have died from the strain, which is the deadliest outbreak of E. coli in modern history.
  Source.

• Erdogan admids in electronic eavesdropping on a political party ahead of Turkish vote.(Arabnews).ISTANBUL: Evidence of electronic eavesdropping on a political party just over a week before an election has given opposition leaders ammunition to question the state of Turkey’s democracy under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.Controversy flared around Erdogan after he said earlier this week that opposition parties were ganging up to stop his AK party winning more seats in the Kurdish southeast, and that a recording would be released to prove it.“I think the voice recordings will be published today or tomorrow,” Erdogan said in a televised campaign speech in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Wednesday.The recordings were released on Thursday.The frank admission of foreknowledge stunned some political commentators in a country where many people avoid talking on the telephone about politics for fear that someone is listening in.“I was frozen for a moment when I heard him say this on television,” Murat Yetkin wrote in Radikal newspaper on Friday.“The prime minister was announcing a recording of a conversation between two members of another political party and was saying it would be released on the internet soon,” Yetkin said in a column that drew parallels with the Watergate scandal that brought down US President Richard Nixon in 1974.Campaigning for re-election on June 12, and assured of a victory, according to opinion polls, Erdogan has promoted himself as a champion of democracy, and is planning to rewrite the constitution during his third consecutive term in office.Critics accuse his religiously conservative party of having a secret Islamic agenda, an accusation which it rejects.The recording at the center of the row allegedly caught two members of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) discussing plans for strategic voting by BDP supporters to help a rival nationalist party stop the AK winning more seats in the Elazig constituency.The BDP is regularly accused of links to Kurdish militants fighting in a separatist insurgency.The leader of the center-left main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) seized on the recording to attack what he called “a wiretapping government” and Erdogan.“He knows about all the tapes. He knows about all of them, watches them before they’re released, then announces them to the public,” CHP chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu said during an election rally in Bartin, near the Black Sea, on Thursday.“You are the prime minister. How can you face the people and tell them an illegal recording is being released?” he asked.One of the BDP officials, whose voice was said to have been recorded, insisted there had been no such conversation and the tape was a fake created by intelligence agents working for Erdogan.“We don’t know what to call this country now, a dictatorship, a rule of hypocrisy, or fraud? The prime minister orders the producing of fake documents, tapes,” Gultan Kisanak said on Kurdish channel Roj TV on Thursday evening.The far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has accused the AK and its backers of using dirty tricks after the release last month of videos online showing MHP politicians in “sex videos” with women who were not their wives.Erdogan denied that his party had anything to do with the scandal that forced the resignation of 10 MHP leaders.Hmmmmm.......Welcome to Turkey.....Iranian style.Read the full story here.

• 'What are you waiting for': U.S. born Al-Qaeda spokesman calls on Americans to 'buy guns and start shooting people'.(DailyMail).In a chilling new video, U.S. born Al-Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn calls on American Muslims to buy weapons from gun shows and carry out random, lone-wolf attacks.The video, called 'Do Not Rely on Others, Take the Task Upon Yourself', was produced by al Qaeda's as Sahab media team and shows 32-year-old Gadahn speaking alongside old clips of Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama Bin laden.The proposed switch in tactics from organised bombings to lone-wolf style attacks will worry the security services who find tracking individuals much harder than uncovering pre-planned plots.In a calm voice, California-native Gadahn tells Muslims it is easy to get weapons from gun shows and carry out random attacks.He said: 'America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. 'You can go down to a gun show at the local convention centre and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle, without a background check, and most likely without having to show an identification card.'In one section of the video the logos of Exxon, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America are shown as possible targets.Gadahn then goes on to give encouraging words for any would be terrorists.He continues: 'Getting to these criminals isn't as hard as you might think.'I mean we've seen how a woman knocked the Pope to the floor during Christmas mass, and how Italian leader Berlusconi's face was smashed during a public appearance.'So it's just a matter of entrusting the matter to Allah and choosing the right place, the right time, and the right method.'Target major institutions and public figures. 'Do Not Rely on Others, Take the Task Upon Yourself.'What are you waiting for?Hmmmm.....'Misunderstander' of the religion of peace?Read and see the full story here.

• Palestinians storm Gaza border closed again by Egypt.(Al-Arabia).Dozens of Palestinian protesters in Gaza on Saturday stormed the iron gate of a border crossing with Egypt shut for the first time since it reopened late last month, Hamas border officials and witnesses said.Palestinian border officials said three buses filled with 180 passengers had waited several hours to cross the border at Rafah, the Hamas Islamist-ruled territory's gateway to Egypt, and some of those waiting responded by forcing the gate open."We have not been notified of any reason for the closure, passengers are angry," one of the officials told Reuters.Ayub Abu Shaa, head of the Hamas police unit at Rafah, said phone calls to the Egyptian side went unanswered and a crowd of hundreds of Palestinians seeking to cross to Egypt were faced with a locked gate.According to a security source in Egypt, the crossing remained closed for works which were to have been completed on Friday and efforts were underway to allow through Palestinian buses.Egypt reopened the Rafah crossing, the only way in and out of Gaza that is not controlled by Israel, last month after it had been largely shut since June 2006 when Israel imposed a blockade after militants snatched an Israeli soldier.The Israeli blockade was tightened a year later when the Islamist movement Hamas seized control of the territory, with Egypt cooperating by tightly restricting movement through Rafah.Egypt's decision to permanently reopen Rafah came more than three months after former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak resigned following 18 days of massive street protests against his rule.The sudden closure came a day after Lebanon barred its residents from approaching the border with Israel on Sunday, when the Palestinians mark 44 years since the seizure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War.Palestinians in Lebanon and other Arab states neighboring Israel have said they plan to march on the Jewish state's borders to mark the anniversary.Read the full story here.More here .

• Taitz v. Astrue: Judge Lamberth Gives Orly the Green Light To Go After Obama's Social Security Number Reserved for Connecticut Applicants!?Two new orders issued in the FOIA lawsuit against Social Security Administrations Micheal Astrue regarding Obama's social security number reserved for Connecticut applicants. According to the first order atty Taitz has 14 days to refile her First Amended Complaint. The Defendants'(SSA) filed a Motion to Strike Plaintiff's(Taitz) Complaint, First Amended Complaint and attached exhibits. On June 1 Chief Judge Royce Lamberth granted that motion in part and denied it in part. According to the order attorney Orly Taitz must redact the SS#'s in her complaint and refile it.The order reads: ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO STRIKE PLAINTIFF’S COMPLAINT, FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT, AND ATTACHED EXHIBITS This court, having considered Defendants’ Motion to Strike Plaintiff’s Complaint, First Amended Complaint, and attached exhibits, It is hereby ORDERED that Defendants’ motion is GRANTED, in part and DENIED in part. Plaintiff’s Complaint, First Amended Complaint, and all attached exhibits shall be removed from the public record and filed under seal. Plaintiff is directed to refile those documents with properly redacted social-security numbers on the public record within 14 days of this date.SO ORDERED, this 1st day of June 2011. - Stamped Order embedded below...Second order issued by Judge Lamberth is the Scheduling Order, also embedded below...Via atty Taitz: Did White House counsel, Robert Bauer, get an early warning of the order by Judge Lamberth on June 1st, which prompted his resignation on June 2nd???Chief judge of the U. S. district court in the District of Columbia, Royce Lamberth, issued his scheduling order on June 1st. What is important, that it says, that the FOIA cases are exempt from the initial meet and confer, which means that there is no need for Rule 26 conference, so the discovery is on, which means, that the deposition of the White House Counsel regarding Obama’s fraudulent use of the Connecticut Social Security number 042-68-4425 and his use of the forged birth certificate, can go on. Robert Bauer could get deposed. Typically the White House gets an early warning of what is going on in courts, particularly in the DC courts. I wonder, if the White House Counsel Robert Bauer got information from one of the clerks, that the case will go on, which prompted his resignation the next day, on June the second. The clerks held on to this order and filed the June 1 order by judge Lamberth 2 days later, on June the 3rd. I got this information via PACER only a few minutes ago, even though I am the plaintiff on the case..Hmmmmm.......The obot lawyers are very nervous about what has taken place.Read the full story here.

• Literature for SF's anti-circumcision measure stars "monster" rabbis and blonde superheroes.(SFGate).San Francisco's anti-circumcision measure will be decided by voters in November, but the literature for the movement aims to sway them with some disturbing images -- including dark, evil-looking rabbis and a blonde superhero saving babies from their clutches.The measure, supported by self-described "intactivists," would make circumcision performed on anyone under 18 a misdemeanor, even if it is done for religious purposes.It would be punishable by a $1000 fine, or up to a year in jail.But that's not the half of it: check out the eye-opening "Foreskin Man,'' the comic book for this anti-circumcision movement that uses images critics are calling blatantly anti-Semitic.It was reported this week by Chronicle comrade and op-ed columnist Debra J. Saunders.Saunders interviewed Matthew Hess, author of the upcoming anti-circumcision referendum this week. His website, mgmbill.org -- which pushes "a bill to end male genital mutilation in the United States" --also pushes his literature and merchandise starring "Foreskin Man," shown here at right.The star cover image of his comic book shows a dark, bearded rabbi looming over a naked baby laying on a pool table, as a superheo appears ready to save the child.Saunders asked Hess if his comic is anti-Semitic. His answer: "A lot of people have said that, but we're not trying to be anti-Semitic. We're trying to be pro-human rights."He told her the "next issue will deal with a different kind of circumcision."Meantime, Hess is pushing his political effort with other dark, threatening images of Jewish characters.His "Foreskin Man" card set being sold through Cafe Press feautures the terrifying-looking "Monster Mohel."The astounding description of a person qualified to perform the Jewish rite of circumcision:"Nothing excites Monster Mohel more than cutting into the infantile penile flesh of an eight day old boy."Of course, there is a real political debate going on here: supporters of a ban on circumcision say that it's an unnecessary and outdated practice. Opponents of a ban note that centuries of religious practice support it, and vow to mount legal challenges.However the voters of San Francisco decide, the incendiary literature at use to support this measure is sure to add fuel to the fire.Hmmmm.....it's just anti-semitic.Read the full story here.

• Treasury Continues To Dip Into Retirement Accounts, Prepares To "Take Out" $66 Billion Chunk To Make Room For New Bond Issuance.(ZeroHedge).Today, very quietly, the Treasury released its latest refunding announcement, in which it disclosed it would issue another $66 billion in 3, 10 and 30 Year notes next week. The irony of course is that the US is and continues to be at its debt ceiling limit (or just $25 million short of it), at a total of $14,293,975 million. Furthermore, as was also disclosed by the Treasury, this gross issuance will also be the net amount added in marketable debt, as upon settlement on June 15, there will be no redemptions of maturing bonds. Which simply means that the continued "disinvesting" (which is merely a polite word for plundering) from intragovernmental debt, also known as retirement accounts, is about to kick into high gear. As a reminder, the only solution that Geithner currently has to run the government, at least until August 2 when even this runs out, is to slowly drain the debt in non-marketable accounts, in the form of Suspension of G-Fund and ESF reinvestments, as well as the Redemption and suspension of of CSRDF Investments, measure which when combined will provide a short-term buffer of $232 billion. Yet for all practical purposes, what is happening is that retirement accounts are now being seriously plundered, and if the unthinkable were to happen, and the debt ceiling would not rise, not only would the US be in technical default, but various retirement funds, which already are underfunded, would find themselves even more severely in the Red. As the chart below shows, the total amount of intragovernmental debt currently outstanding, has dropped to levels last seen in early April, even as total debt has continued its steadfast move higher. The scary thing is that by the time August 2 rolls around, the current total of $4.608 trillion in various Trust Funds, will drop to well about $4.4 trillion, or an implicit 6% underfunding in 2 months merely to keep the bloated government operating for a few more months. Read and see the full story here.

• NATO launches helicopter strikes in Libya.(Al-Jazeera).  Attack helicopters used for the first time, as opposition fighters advance towards the capital Tripoli.NATO has for the first time used attack helicopters in Libya, striking military vehicles, military equipment and forces backing embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi, the military alliance has announced.British and French attack helicopters were used to strike inside the country overnight on Saturday, hitting targets in the oil port of Brega."Attack helicopters under NATO command were used for the first time on 4 June 2011 in military operations over Libya as part of Operation Unified Protector," NATO said in a statement."This was the first operational mission flown by British Army Apaches at sea," said Liam Fox, the British Secretary of State for Defence."The additional capabilities now being employed by NATO further reinforces the UK's enduring commitment and NATO's determination to... ensure that the people of Libya are free to determine their own future," he added.Military analysts say attack helicopters will allow more precise strikes against pro-Gaddafi forces hiding in built-up areas than the high-flying jets used so far, while reducing the risk of civilian casualties.But on Saturday, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, warned that the NATO operation in Libya was "sliding towards" a land campaign, the RIA Novosti news agency reported."We know that France and Britain intend to use military helicopters. We have given our view of NATO's actions," Lavrov said."We consider that what is going on is either consciously or unconsciously sliding towards a land operation. That would be very deplorable," he added."We think our Western partners understand that the events in Libya are taking an undesirable turn, but the decisions that have been taken are continuing by momentum."France was contributing four Tiger attack helicopters for the NATO operation while Britain offered four Apaches, officials said, adding that the helicopters were being prepared to fly over sea and desert conditions.Read the full story here.

• 'US drone kills Ilyas Kashmiri Pakistan's al-Qaeda leader'.(Al-Jazeera).Ilyas Kashmiri, thought to be mastermind of several deadly attacks, reportedly killed in strike in South Waziristan.A suspected US drone attack in Pakistan has reportedly killed a senior al-Qaeda leader, thought to be linked to the deadly Mumbai attacks in 2008.Witnesses said Ilyas Kashmiri was one of several al-Qaeda fighters killed in South Waziristan on Friday night.The drone attack targeted a group of armed fighters 20km from South Waziristan's main city of Wana, an official told the BBC Urdu service.The official said the attack killed nine people and injured three others.Another official confirmed to Al Jazeera that one of those killed was indeed Kashmiri, although the Pakistani intelligence and security officials said they had no information about his death.A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, which has strong ties to al-Qaeda, denied the reports and said Kashmiri was still alive.Kashmiri was on a list of five dangerous al-Qaeda leaders that the US state department gave to the Pakistani government.Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said that while the drone strike had been confirmed, its victims had not yet been officially named."If he has indeed been killed in this drone strike than it certainly is a major development and a huge success for the US and the drone programme, which is deeply unpopular in Pakistan," Tyab said.More than 200 US drone attacks have occurred in Pakistan since 2008.Kashmiri was the chief of the Harkatul Jihad al-Islami (HJI), an organisation affiliated with al-Qaeda.He was a key suspect in the co-ordinated attacks on Mumbai that left more than 160 people dead and brought India and Pakistan - two nuclear rivals - close to another war.He is also widely believed to have masterminded last month's attack on a naval base in Karachi.This is not the first time Kashmiri has been suspected as the victim of a drone attack, as he was reported to have been similarly killed in September 2009.Read the full story here.

• US Aid To The Arab Spring Must Go To Democracy Groups Not To The Islamists.(BigPeace).President Obama’s grand plan to provide U.S. financial aid to emerging democracies in the Middle East, Egypt and Tunisia now, and possibly later a post-Saleh Yemen and post-Assad Syria, may be commendable but could bring catastrophic results.If the billions in foreign debt-to-be-forgiven or granted in cash to be invested will be used by democratic governments in the region to move their societies away from fundamentalism, radicalism and inequality toward secular, liberal democracy, then the financial support is commensurate with American ideals, the will of the American people and their elected leaders.If the aid will be used to fund programs instituted by the Islamists and their movements, old and new, then the Obama administration’s new Middle East initiative will cause greater injustice for the peoples of the region, and eventually produce greater conflicts for future American generations.President Obama’s speech and comments by his advisers attempted to liken the alleged “historic” aid package for the countries arising out of the Middle East revolts, to the Marshall Plan which helped many European countries cope with post-World War II economic stresses.The major difference then and now between Europe and the Middle East is that European societies had already experienced and were returning to democracy after a few years of fascism and most of the Arab world has no experience with liberal democracy and those societies that have arisen against authoritarianism are still threatened by jihadi fascism.A “Marshall Plan” for the Arab world should come after the defeat of that region’s version of fascism, not before. The aid should reward societies for defeating the Salafist and Khomeinist ideologies, not fund their ascendance.It was secular youth and minorities in Egypt who triggered the popular uprising. The Muslim Brotherhood, a movement dedicated to a theocratic regime and the elimination of liberal democracy, quickly — and with Washington’s stealthy backing — seized the revolution’s microphone, positioned itself at the center of the uprising, and branded itself as the “soul” and “future” of the movement, even though the Muslim Brotherhood did not make up more than 15 percent of the mass of demonstrators in Tahrir Square.Well organized and funded, the Ikhwan, will insert themselves into the electoral process as part of the youth majority. The Christian minority is disorganized and politically marginalized.In Washington, academics and advisers have convinced the Obama administration that a post-Gadhafi Libya, a post-Saleh Yemen, and eventually, a post-Assad Syria will make the Islamists the new U.S. partners in the region. Thus, Mr. Obama’s speech on future U.S. Middle East policy reflects an adaptation to these anticipated changes. The U.S. will recognize the Islamists and try to ingratiate them with a “Marshal Plan” to solidify their rule even if they only pay lip service to “representative democracy.”The Islamists’ voices are not the only ones seeking to be heard in the region. Other voices are speaking out against the alliance between the greatest democracy in history and the Islamists.Liberal voices of the Egyptian, Tunisian, and Syrian uprisings have been signaling an urgent SOS to the free world over the Arabic airwaves: “Do not abandon us for a pragmatic alliance with the Islamists.”An Egyptian youth made a very concerning comment on Al-Hurra television this week, revealing that the Obama administration has cut off all funding in support of liberal and democratic NGOs in the region: “How come the Islamists will be gratified with a huge Marshall Plan while those who want to build a true democratic Middle East are ignored? Is the Obama administration replacing old authoritarians with new ones, and with U.S. taxpayer dollars?”Hmmmm......"I will stand with my Radical Muslim Brothers"?Read the full story here.

• It's time to confront this taboo: First cousin marriages in Muslim communities are putting hundreds of children at risk.(DailyMail).The man wept as he told how his beautiful, dark-eyed child died in a hospital cot with medical tubes snaking from his frail body as nurses fought unsuccessfully to save him. Sick with pneumonia, the two-year-old gave up the battle for life.A rare tragedy, you might think, in modern Britain, with all the advances of medical science. But in the terraced streets of Bradford, Yorkshire, a child’s death is anything but rare. At the boy’s inquest, coroner Mark Hinchliffe said Hamza Rehman had died because his Pakistan-born parents (shopkeeper Abdul and housewife Rozina) are first cousins. Four years before, Hamza’s older sister, three-month-old Khadeja, had died of the same brain disorder which causes fits, sickness and chest infections. The couple had another baby born with equally devastating neurological problems.  A heartbroken Mr Rehman told the inquest that he and his wife were unsure whether to have any more children. The coroner expressed deep sympathy before saying that Hamza’s death should serve as a warning to others.He said: ‘This highlights a cultural and religious issue relating to first-cousin marriages and the potential risk to children that some medical experts say can result from such unions.’The coroner chose his words carefully, since he was addressing one of the most controversial — and taboo — subjects in multi-cultural Britain: marriage between cousins in the Muslim communities which has left hundreds, if not thousands, of children damaged or dead. This week, leading geneticist Professor Steve Jones, of University College London, warned that ‘inbreeding’ in Islamic communities was threatening the health of generations of children.This is not the first time the distressing issue has been raised. Ann Cryer, the Labour MP for nearby Keighley, has said that cousin marriages are medieval, harm children and are arranged in order to keep wealth and property within families.  ‘It is not fair to the children or to the NHS which has to treat them. If you go into a paediatric ward in Bradford or Keighley, you will find more than half the kids are from the Asian community,’ she said.Since Asians form only 20 to 30 per cent of the population, that figure is clearly disproportionate.Mrs Cryer recalled the case of a young girl in hospital who had to carry an oxygen tank on her back and breathe from a hole in the front of her neck.‘Her parents were warned by doctors not to have more children,’ she explained. ‘But when the husband returned again from Pakistan, his wife had given birth within months to another child with exactly the same condition.’Are the MP’s words, and those of Professor Jones, inflammatory or simply a truth that needs to be aired?Sadly, the facts speak for themselves. British Pakistanis, half of whom marry a first cousin (a figure that is universally agreed), are 13 times more likely to produce children with genetic disorders than the general population, according to Government-sponsored research. One in ten children from these cousin marriages either dies in infancy or develops a serious life-threatening disability.  While British Pakistanis account for three per cent of the births in this country, they are responsible for 33 per cent of the 15,000 to 20,000 children born each year with genetic defects. The vast majority of problems are caused by recessive gene disorders, according to London’s Genetic Interest Group, which advises affected families.The problem is most serious in Bradford. A recent survey of 1,100 pregnant women in the city showed that 70 per cent have husbands who are first cousins — a higher percentage than the average of 50 per cent among Pakistanis across the whole of Britain.It is no surprise therefore that more than six per cent of children in Bradford have health defects, with paediatric wards looking after countless children, including teenagers lying in nappies who are unable to speak and are fed through a tube. Meanwhile, the city’s special schools struggle to cope with huge numbers of pupils with learning difficulties. Bradford’s St Luke’s Hospital has seen an extraordinary rise in the number of different types of genetic disorders. Some are very rare and, hitherto, unknown in Britain. In a typical health authority area, the range of different types of genetic disorder total 25 a year. But in Bradford, 140 have been diagnosed, according to Dr Peter Corry, a consultant paediatrician at the hospital. Many are degenerative ailments which lead to a decline in the ability of the brain and spinal cord to function properly after a child is born, as in the case of Hamza and Khadeja. Their bodies weakened, and unable to fight off infections, they gradually faded away. The British Paediatric Surveillance Unit says eight per cent of all UK children born with this kind of neuro-degenerative condition come from Bradford, although the city has just one per cent of the UK’s population. Research into the city’s 9,000 disabled youngsters also revealed a ‘disproportionately high’ level of hearing and sight problems in Pakistani families. But Bradford is not alone. In Birmingham, which also has a big Pakistani community, the city’s Primary Care Trust estimates that one in ten of all children born to first cousins either dies in infancy or goes on to have a serious disability because of a recessive gene disorder.One young mother, calling herself by the Pakistani name of Shenzah, wrote recently: ‘I have a huge difficulty. I am married to a first cousin. My parents and my husband’s parents were also married to their first cousins. ‘Now I have one daughter with lots of defects and the doctor is sure it is due to these marriages.‘I was against marrying a first cousin because I believed it would cause genetic problems, but my family forced me. According to them, what the doctors say is all nonsense.‘I cannot understand why cousin marriages are not forbidden in Islam. The Koran doesn’t forbid it and this encourages people around me to disbelieve what the doctors say. ‘My daughter is not going to survive for long and the doctors are unable to find out what she is suffering from. ‘They are sure if I get pregnant again, the risk for the next baby will be the same.’She said she had two options: ‘One is to give up the idea of having any children, ever. The other is to get a divorce. Please, can anyone tell me what to do?’Read the full story here.

• Suddenly raising the debt ceiling just became a whole lot less important: China sells almost all of its U.S. Treasury Bills.(DougRoss).By that I mean, raising the debt ceiling becomes a lot less important when no one will loan you money. And China ditching our debt simply means that fewer and fewer investors are willing to front the spending-addicted Obama administration any dough.China has dropped 97 percent of its holdings in U.S. Treasury bills, decreasing its ownership of the short-term U.S. government securities from a peak of $210.4 billion in May 2009 to $5.69 billion in March 2011, the most recent month reported by the U.S. Treasury.Treasury bills are securities that mature in one year or less that are sold by the U.S. Treasury Department to fund the nation’s debt... Until October, the Chinese were generally making up for their decreasing holdings in Treasury bills by increasing their holdings of longer-term U.S. Treasury securities. Thus, until October, China’s overall holdings of U.S. debt continued to increase.Since October, however, China has also started to divest from longer-term U.S. Treasury securities. Thus, as reported by the Treasury Department, China’s ownership of the U.S. national debt has decreased in each of the last five months on record, including November, December, January, February and March.The hysteria generated by TurboTax Tim Geithner and the Democrats in Congress -- translating roughly to 'if you don't raise the debt ceiling, the four horsemen of the apocalypse will take a collective dump on the world economy' -- is utter bunk.While it is true Congress has never before refused to raise the debt ceiling, it has frequently taken its sweet time to do so. In 1985, Congress waited nearly three months after the debt limit was reached before authorizing a permanent increase. In 1995, 4 1/2 months passed between hitting the ceiling and congressional action. And in 2002, Congress delayed raising the debt ceiling for three months. In each case, the U.S. and the economy survived.... The people running this government are never going to deal with this untenable situation unless and until it becomes untenable for them. The only way that will happen is if Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling and forces the administration to prioritize payment of those obligations that must be paid to maintain our full faith and credit — for as Kevin and Veronique point out, this already perilous situation could be blown sky high if the interest rate we must pay to borrow spikes. Only when there is no way around it will we get serious consideration of what government should and should not do, and what kind of welfare state the public is willing to pay for.If we put it off, if we expand the credit card of a bankrupt Washington whose credit card needs to be cut to pieces right now, not only will our dire straits get worse. We won’t get to deal with them — we will be at the mercy of how they deal with us when the music finally stops.Read the full story here.

• Gülen movement’s US ride getting tougher.(HurriyetDaily).All eyes are focused on Turkey for yet another significant voting day, June 12. In Washington, lately, three questions occupy the minds of those who follow Turkey: First, they wonder whether the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, will be able to gain enough seats to write the Constitution by itself. Second, they wonder about the sex-scandal tapes, which wiped out a considerable number of high officials in the opposition National Movement Party, or MHP. And third, they want to know exactly what the Fethullah Gülen movement wants to do and what their ambitions and intentions are.While the first two questions can only be speculated upon, Gülen-U.S. relations are becoming more interesting as the days go by. Gülen, the leader of millions of Muslim followers based in Turkey, himself lives in the U.S., and many in the country’s media are well aware of who he is.The movement in Turkey has long since abandoned the policy of keeping equal distance from political parties. Especially during the constitutional referendum last September, members of the movement actively worked for the passage of the changes. The movement argued that it wasn’t politics they got involved with, it was a matter of principal; supporting the independence of the judiciary.  This time, though, it is a general election, and the movement’s media organs are openly supporting the AKP and doing so forcefully. Even olive branches offered by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the new leader of the main opposition party, CHP, to the movement on several occasions were turned down. In appearance, the CHP’s decision to put forward a few jailed Ergenekon suspects as candidates is the sticky point between the two. Having an ideological adversary like the CHP also works for Gülenists to show there is still more to be done in Turkey.In the U.S. though, the biggest criticism appears to be the ambiguity about the group’s structure. Its informal membership of millions of followers worldwide, rapid increase in the numbers of schools and how they are funded in U.S., and a vast variety of narratives about its real power in Turkey continue to pique the interests of Turkey watchers. Today, there is even confusion over what to call the followers of Fethullah Gülen; while Gülen refuses to describe it as a “movement,” and rejects any direct link; other prominent figures of the group have no problem calling it so.To Gülen’s credit, lack of transparency on the part of the movement, or as one U.S. investigative journalist called it, “evasiveness,” is not all reasonless, but merely the result of decade-long habit. The rigid secularism of the Turkish state since the beginning specifically targeted religiosity.The Gülen movement, which started in the early 1970s, had therefore plenty of reasons to go undercover to avoid the wrath of the Turkish military, which was supported by a coalition consisting of the bureaucracy, judiciary and media for decades.  Sophisticated strategies, which were designed by Gülen and leading figures of the movement, foresaw that violence, or civil disobedience was not the answer for the future of Muslims in Turkey. Pursuing the best education and one’s elevation in every state institution was the answer to changing the country from the bottom to the top. The movement still believes that the circumstances are not entirely changed and that the old reactionary mindset of Turkish secularism is there and alive; therefore, it is not time to come out into the public sphere with full disclosure.How the strategies that worked so well for the movement in Turkey can be translated into the U.S. is still an open-ended question. Obviously, the movement does not see the U.S. as an equal to Turkey; instead, the U.S. can be seen as the best market to prove that a pious Muslim can coexist and be perfectly happy in a Western democracy.In the last couple of months, especially since Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener’s arrest in Turkey, negative publicity against the movement seems to be gaining momentum in the U.S.“There is a great deal of interest and curiosity on the side of the U.S. media and unless questions about their closed structure and some other tax allegations are answered clearly, the U.S. media will not leave them alone,” said one U.S. Turkey observer in Washington. Arguing that hundreds of schools are being opened in more than two dozen U.S. states without any links or coordination of some sort, the movement fails to convince the U.S. media and the experts alike.The United States’ Anglo-Saxon tradition and tolerance make it rather easy to organize and become involved with any kind of religious sect, as long as it is peaceful. When U.S. journalists and authorities feel they are left in the dark about some of a movement’s other activities, they complain they can’t find any spokesperson for the movement to ask their question; understandably, the mood turns sour toward the movement.In addition to all of that, in recent times, some conservative Christian groups, who have considerable influence on conservative media and politicians, coupled with growing Islamophia in America, appear to be promising that the smooth ride the movement has so far enjoyed in the U.S. might get tougher.As the movement increases its visibility in U.S., the scrutiny on its activities is also inevitably increasing. The impression is that the movement is conscious about some of these shortcomings and is looking for ways to handle questions of transparency in the U.S. Only time will tell whether decades-old habits can be changed.Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christianity".Catholic Bishop Warns Islamists Forcing Christians From Nazareth.(VOA) – A senior Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land says the Christian community is in danger of dying out in Nazareth, an Israeli Arab city where Christians believe Jesus spent his youth. Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo says many of Nazareth’s minority Christians began emigrating more than a decade ago largely because of tensions with local Islamists who tried to build a mosque next to the city’s main church. Israel terminated the mosque project in 2003 and Nazareth has been calm ever since. But, Bishop Marcuzzo says several threats remain to one of the region’s oldest Christian communities, whose first church was built in the 5th century AD.Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo says the emigration of Christians from the Israeli Arab city of Nazareth is endangering the survival of the Christian community in a place of biblical importance to Christianity.The bishop says the main cause of that emigration is a campaign by Islamists to boost their political power in Nazareth at the expense of Christians and moderate Muslims.Tensions erupted in 1997 when Islamists set up a prayer tent near Nazareth’s Basilica of the Annunciation, located where Christians believe an angel told Mary she would give birth to Jesus.The Islamists’ goal was to establish a large, permanent mosque at the site, which houses a shrine to Shihab e-Din, a nephew of 12th century Muslim warrior Saladin. Christians in Nazareth and abroad objected, fearing such a mosque would block access to the Basilica and disrupt Christian services.Christian leaders lobbied for the site to be developed into a plaza for tourists. That idea angered some Islamists, who rioted in Nazareth on Easter Sunday in 1999, smashing Christian-owned cars and shops.“For us, that problem caused the reaction of many families who wanted to go away, because life became difficult here in Nazareth in those days, in those years,” stated Marcuzzo.Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christianity".Muslim Group Offends Some Christians With Jesus Advertisements.(CNSnews).“Jesus: A prophet of Islam” states the provocative tagline in a “public awareness” advertising campaign launched by a Muslim group in Australia’s largest city.The group, calling itself Mypeace, says its aim is to inform, not offend – but offend it has, with one Catholic bishop calling the assertion about Jesus “a direct assault on Christian beliefs.”Roadside billboards in the metropolitan Sydney area carry one of four simple slogans: “Jesus: A Prophet of Islam,” “Holy Qur’an: The Final Testament,” “Muhammad: Mercy to Mankind” and “Islam: Got Questions? Get Answers.”Each banner invites people to get in touch by phone or online, for literature and a free copy of the Qur’an. Mypeace says the ads will stay up for four weeks, and later this year will be run on scores of public buses in the city.One of the billboards featuring the Jesus slogan was vandalized a day after it was erected.Mypeace says its aim is to “address the many misconceptions on Islam, to educate fellow Australians on Islam, invite them to ask any questions that they may have.”Islamic awareness campaigns are not new, but the slogan referring to Jesus is causing a stir. Muslims and interfaith advocates sometimes invoke Jesus to assert some sort of commonality with Christians, implying that Muslims, too, “believe in Jesus.”But Muslims, and the Qur’an, deny the central Christian beliefs regarding Jesus – his divinity,crucifixion and resurrection.Hmmmm.....Jesus Christ is the son of God!Take it...or leave it.Period!Read the full story here.