The British press is under a gag order not to reveal the name of al Qaeda’s main fundraiser and go between in Britain. The man, identified only as “G”, was one of five who had successfully challenged in the British High Court the government’s powers to freeze terrorist suspects assets.
[…]
This will probably come as a shock to no one, but since the British press won’t reveal “G’s” name yet give every possible hint as to his identity, here it is: G is MOHAMMED AL GHABRA.
Much more at the link.
Seven ancient synagogues in the Iranian capital, Tehran, have been destroyed by local authorities.
The synagogues were in the Oudlajan suburb of Tehran, where many Iranian Jews used to live. “These buildings, which were part of our cultural, artistic and architectural heritage were burnt to the ground,” said Ahmad Mohit Tabatabaii, the director of the International Council of Museums’ (ICOM) office in Tehran.
“With the excuse of renovating this ancient quarter, they are erasing a part of our history,” said Tabatabaii.
I recently received a message from someone who helps distribute our books in Britain: “Can you please let us know if there are any references to Saudis and terrorist[s] in the book. We are just concerned that this book could potentially create libel lawsuits as it could offend Saudis living in England … “
Read it all.
…the MCC is disappointed that the OHRC has become the virtual organ of Canada’s Islamist organizations and that it has taken sides in the bitter struggle within Canada’s Muslim community where sharia-supporting Islamists are pitted against liberal and secular Muslims.
In a statement, the President of the MCC, Farzana Hassan said, the OHRC decision had the finger prints of its pro-Islamist commissioners who have close association with the Canadian Islamic Congress. It is not just the commissioners, but we have reason to believe that there are staff on the OHRC that support sharia law and endorse the CIC’s positions.
Because the Palestinians love their children, too.
And back up at Liveleak;
On the 28th of March LiveLeak.com was left with no other choice but to remove the film “fitna” from our servers following serious threats to our staff and their families. Since that time we have worked constantly on upgrading all security measures thus offering better protection for our staff and families. With these measures in place we have decided to once more make this video live on our site. We will not be pressured into censoring material which is legal and within our rules. We apologise for the removal and the delay in getting it back, but when you run a website you don’t consider that some people would be insecure enough to threaten our lives simply because they do not like the content of a video we neither produced nor endorsed but merely hosted.
Nick Packwood says this is the way to do it. Agreed.
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“Mark Steyn is full of crap“. – Norwegian imam Mullah Krekar*
Update 2 – Darcey is hosting Fitna on his own server, and Flea is providing torrent links.
“If you quote the Koran. If you do so in the name of freedom of speech. You will be threatened with death. The press will collude with the enemy.”
When I can figure out how to set it up, I’ll host another here.
Statement from Liveleak on the removal of Fitna
Because “multiculturalism” means “more pavilions at Folkfest”…
In anticipation of this, a number of sources have already saved and rehosted the film, so it won’t be hard to find.
Background info.
Because they just can’t help themselves. – Addressing the European parliament, the Grand Mufti of Syria told his audience that “If there is unrest, bloodshed and violence after the broadcast of the Koran film, Wilders will be responsible.”
A million views at Liveleak already (and nearly two million of the Dutch version) and they’ve issued a statement. Via Hotair – “They’re obviously willing to go to the mat to keep this online.”
Michael van der Galien chronicles the astonishing efforts to stop the film from being seen in the Netherlands. “I disagree with your opinion that Islam is violent, but I will fight to the death to prevent you from inciting them”. Or something like that.
Bucking the trend towards body count journalism, some “grim statistics” remain less newsworthy than others (via Gateway Pundit).
Pakistan is not only among the countries with the highest incidence of terrorism but it also tops the list of suicide bombings, leaving Afghanistan and Iraq behind during the first three months of 2008.
During this period, Pakistan experienced eighteen suicide attacks in which more than 250 people died. Whereas in both war-ridden countries, Afghanistan and Iraq, had a fewer number of suicide attacks.
The battleground has shifted. But unlike the Iraqis, the Pakistanis seem more easily “awakened” and there’s news of welcome mats being yanked – providing you can find it.
The alleged militant group familiarly known as “Taliban” was declared “out of Islam” by 73 different sects of Muslims through an edict (Fatwa) circulated in parts of the narrow tribal strip of Darra Adamkhel.
The edict in Urdu language was circulated on behalf of Mufti Zainul Aabideen on Friday night. The one page edict focuses on Talibans’s terrorists’ acts in the area, particularly slaughtering of human beings and suicide attacks.
[…]
It is for the first time that a religious scholar declared “Taliban” as being “out of Islam.” The edict said that all the acts of Taliban are against the basic norms of Islam and humanity. “Even the Taliban leaders are considering themselves and their directives as superior to true Islamic principles and directives as ordained by Almighty Allah,” the edict said.
With all the professional ink spilled in complaint over Taliban “insurgents” operating from the safety of tribal areas of Pakistan. a home turf reversal of fortunes for the ministry of headchoppers should count for some coverage, yes?
Well, no.
In the eyes of western media, setbacks only happen to our own. Besides, it’s March again, and their duties lie elsewhere. Surely, the much-awaited 2007 spring offensive is just around the corner.
“I asked myself how it was possible that those who, like me, sincerely and boldly called for a “moderate Islam,” assuming the responsibility of exposing themselves in the first person in denouncing Islamic extremism and terrorism, ended up being sentenced to death in the name of Islam on the basis of the Quran. I was forced to see that, beyond the contingency of the phenomenon of Islamic extremism and terrorism that has appeared on a global level, the root of evil is inherent in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictive.”
How do you say “irony” in Farsi?
The Al-Qaeda media braintrust’s latest production incorporates images of Spartan spears drenched in the blood of Persians.
(h/t to the sharp-eyed Knight.)
More on this broad strata “faith hate” incident;
Canon Michael Ainsworth, 57, was kicked and punched in the head as one of the attackers screamed “f***ing priest”.
He was left lying on the ground with deep cuts, bruising and two black eyes.
The attack took place in the early evening after Canon Ainsworth politely asked three Asian youths who had gathered in the churchyard to quieten down.
Another group of youths intervened to protect him and they helped him into the rectory as the attackers fled.
The incident happened outside St George-in-the-East Church in Wapping, East London.
It has regularly had windows smashed by youths – who on one occasion shouted: “This should not be a church, this should be a mosque.”
With a story like this you just have to know this emanates from our favorite, always entertaining Kingdom.
At least this story has a happy ending, the nurse is now back in South Africa:
Noach had been working as a clinical coordinator at King Abdulaziz Medical City here and allegedly had submitted a report exposing various irregularities at a hospital clinic, implicating top hospital executives and workers.
The woman was reportedly accused of performing black magic, a charge in Saudi Arabia can lead to arrest and punishment.
I’m sure the black magic charges had nothing to do with exposing irregularities, whatever they were. This being Saudi Arabia we’re not told anything about those.
“By Asians do you mean white Russian Asians from the Russian far east ? Chinese Asians ? Japanese Asians.”
h/t Maz2
From the comments at the Belmont Club, in response to news that the EU is withdrawing from northern Kosovo;
If the Clash of Civilizations occurring along Islamic fault lines is indeed the defining civilizational issue of the 21st Century then recognizing the extra legal independence of Kosovo is a major bonehead move.
Ultimately, the clash is between a world view that makes men Allah’s non-thinking automatons and women but 1/2 a man, and a world view that has raised the standard of living of billions of people to heights not imaginable even a few generations ago.
Ideas mean something. Every confrontational success or failure validates the ideas of one side or the other in a zero sum game. What do we benefit by handing a victory of any kind to Islam? There are many arguments that could be made about the vicitmhood of the Kosovors but the creation from nothing of a new Islamic state in Europe is the real story. How many times have we heard of the necessity to fight jihadism on many levels? How is shooting Taliban in Afghansitan while surrendering at the state creation level a good thing?
I couldn’t begin to count the number of posts I’ve read (and have written) about how the real danger to Western Civ is the loss of moral direction in the West – if only the Europeans, in particular, would take a moment to reflect on their Judeo-Christian heritage they would find the philosophical footing to stand up for themselves and push jihadism off the continent.
Well, those Europeans do exist in places called Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria, Armenia, Serbia, and in Russia too. Christendom – believe it or not is a word and concept still in use in the Orthodox countries. Christianity is very much alive in Central Europe and is very much a part of daily life despite the generational attempt of the Communists to bury it forever.
Life is rougher around the edges of the Islamic fault lines, and this where the Orthodox countries live. Politics are raw. Elected leaders can be thugs. Liberty can have the half life of a quantum particle. So what? I’ve paid up my touchy-feely dues and have turned in that membership card.
The Brits doll out to Muslim polygamists about $10,000 per wife. The Serbs put their own bodies on the line to build a wall against Muslim encroachment. We should be extending our palm to the people who have fought this fight for 700 years, and not be clucking in righteous judgment while giving them the back of our hand.
As I see it the USA is again trading its goodwill with the Orthodox countries, which are at least in a position to help put the squeeze on Iran and limit long term Islamic influence in the Caspian Basin, for the illusion of goodwill with Islam which has a proven value of exactly zero. In 1999 Sandy Berger admitted that NATO was intervening “for the Muslims.” What did that goodwill get us?
On the more personal level many Serbs consider Kosovo the birthplace of their unique Serbian identity. One of Huntington’s intriguing thoughts was that you could more easily grasp the concepts behind the Clash of Civilizations by overlaying today’s maps with a political map of Central Europe in the 1500s. What we are doing today is kicking the Serbs, and indirectly the other Orthodox countries, in the teeth to expand the Islamic empire. How does that make sense? Do we say “poor little misunderstand Kosovors” and just watch them start (continue) tearing down 1,000 year old Christian monasteries?
More here – “the wet noodle of European non-nationhood”.
Rueing the day they threw their lot in with the BushCo War on Terror, I’ll wager.
Oh wait, they didn’t. It came to them;
RAE POH, Thailand – The tea shop is abandoned. Rubber plantations stand untended. Soldiers constantly patrol the one-lane road leading into this Muslim village.
Rae Poh was once designated a “green zone” village, one of more than 1,600 such islands of peace amid the violence that has torn Thailand’s southern tip since a Muslim insurgency erupted four years ago. Then, on Jan. 14, insurgents ambushed an army patrol about two kilometres away, killing all eight soldiers and beheading one of them.
Now Rae Poh is a “red zone” – one of some 320 loosely designated by the authorities as insurgent hotbeds and under virtual military siege.
Their number is up from 215 at the end of 2004, the first year of the insurgency, a dramatic example of the failures of a government hearts-and-minds campaign to quell an uprising that has taken more than 2,900 lives.
The insurgency worsened as the government of Thaksin Shinawatra adopted an iron-fist policy. The military leaders that overthrew him in 2006 tried a conciliatory approach, apologizing for Thaksin’s crackdown. But since December the violence has escalated. Now Thailand again has an elected government, and the insurgency is its big challenge.
Conciliation, indeed.
“Finally, consider this: Muslims are angrily at war with Buddhists in East Asia. Muslims are enraged with Animists in Africa. Of course, none of this approaches the sheer hatred that Muslims bear towards Hindus in the South Asia peninsula. And this foaming hatred blanches compared to the white-hot fury Muslims feel for the Christian American Crusaders. And this fury is but a candle to the incandescent, boiling, supernova of murder they feel toward the Jews.
Does anyone beside me detect a pattern here? You know, my Dad told me once, “Bill, if more than three people in your life are utter, total assholes, then maybe it’s you.” – Bill Whittle, Strength
David Warren;
I was not without sympathy for the “plight of the Kosovars,” however. Like virtually all journalists at that time, not of Serbian ethnicity, I fell for a great deal of typically Balkan propagandist rubbish that has since been quietly withdrawn.
My rule of thumb, on wars, is to fight them with your enemies, when absolutely necessary; but never with your friends, and in particular, never in order to create new enemies. True, as we all know from personal experience, sometimes your friends are more irritating than your enemies, and the temptation to bomb them is always there. It is a temptation that must be resisted, however.
Reporters Without Borders, of course, is outraged that a journalist–a journalist!–is being detained. After all, aren’t all journalist–journalists!–immune from any and all suspicion?
To be honest, this may be one time (finally) that Reporters Without Borders has something intelligent to say (maybe). I have Taliban phone numbers and plenty of Taliban propaganda on my computer. Granted, I’ve never actually given Zahidullah Mujahid or Qari Mohammad Yousuf a phone call, but still I have them. Our friends at the NEFA Foundation have. They certainly aren’t rooting for the Taliban.
I’m not a fan of media types doing interviews with the Taliban, but it’s common practice. AP, AFP, & Reuters routinely quote Qari Mohammed Yousef.
But it’s really the context of the contacts with the Taliban that matters in this case. If Ahmad served as a surrogate propagandist for the Taliban, then he’s a combatant and his detention is justified. Enemy propagandists are just that: enemies, and should be treated as such.
Having journalistic credentials is not some magical immunization from suspicion. There’s no reason why one cannot be a willing or tacit Taliban agent and be a member of the media.
Another problem would be if Ahmad not only called local Taliban commanders but actually met with them. By not disclosing the location of illegal enemy combatants who routinely commit war crimes, Ahmad would be assisting in the commission of those war crimes–journalistic credentials or not.
Being a witch is something to be discouraged.
