Family saved from a witch's spell found in their bathroom

Islam believes in magic and spells so when anything goes wrong with an individual or a family, they first think they have been the victim of a magic spell. Naturally they look for the witch, and in this case it turns out to be the former maid of the household. When authorities found the spell they succeeded in defusing it, thus ending the families curse.

Is it any wonder that Islam is still stuck in the 7th century?

From Emirates 24/7 November 1

Family saved from magic spell

Saudi Arabia’s religious police saved a family that had suffered from psychological and health problems because of a magic spell cast by their housemaid before departing from the Gulf Kingdom.

In a report from the capital Riyadh, a newspaper said the family plunged into endless problems just after the departure of their Asian maid. But its members restored normal life once the spell was found and neutralized by experts.

The spell was wrapped in a small old piece of paper carrying unreadable language and hidden inside a deserted bathroom adjoining their house, the Arabic language daily Sabq said.

“When the spell was found, the family realized that it was he cause of all their sudden troubles,” the paper said.

It quoted relatives as saying the spell had prompted the wife of the elder son to abandon him and live with her parents while the mother started to suffer from trances and nightmares. Another son suddenly had mental problems.

The paper said the family took the spell to the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which has an anti-magic section.

Where the members of the commission waved some amulets, recited some mumbo-jumbo, maybe even used blood and feathers to dispel the curse. What a wonderful culture that enshrines magic in their legal codes.

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"... 62% wanted some form of Shariah law in Canada, 15% of them saying it should be mandatory for all Muslims."

Oh, Canada!

From CNews November 1 by Kris Sims

Strong support for Shariah in Canada

A newly released survey suggests a large number of Muslims living in Canada will not disown Al-Qaida.

The study, conducted by the MacDonald Laurier Institute, found 65% of Muslims questioned said they would “repudiate absolutely” the terrorist organization, while 35% would not do so.

“From a security perspective, it is difficult to know if a 65% rate of repudiation (of Al-Qaida) is re-assuring or a 35% failure to repudiate troubling,” wrote study authors Christian Leuprecht, associate professor of the Royal Military College of Canada and Conrad Winn, Carleton University professor and president of COMPAS, a public opinion research firm.

“The most radical political views tended to be expressed by relatively secular people, often equipped with higher education in the social sciences, while devout Muslims were sometimes the most articulate advocates for Canada and democracy.” According to the Ottawa based think tank, only a small minority of Muslim newcomers to Canada reject Hamas, Hezbollah, or the Iranian regime.

The survey, which was released Tuesday, found 62% wanted some form of Shariah law in Canada, 15% of them saying it should be mandatory for all Muslims.

The report also states support for extremism is just as high among Muslims born in Canada, or other Western countries, as it is among those hailing from oppressive dictatorships.

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The Muslim Brotherhood and the Obama Administration take us on the road to perdition

Dr. Essam Abdullah understands all too well the dangers of the Islamization of the Middle East, and explains it below.

From Accuracy in Media October 31 by Dr. Essam Abdullah

Where are the Muslim Brotherhood and the Obama Administration Taking America?

Disturbing reports are coming out of Washington, D.C.

These reports reveal the depth of the below-the-surface coordination between the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian regime and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Jordan. This bloc of regimes and organizations is now becoming the greatest Islamist radical lobby ever to penetrate and infiltrate the White House, Congress, the State Department and the main decision making centers of the US government. All of this is happening at a time when the US government is going through its most strategically dangerous period in modern times because of its need to confront the Iranian Mullahs regime, which is expanding in the Middle East, as well as penetrating the United States, via powerful and influential allies.

It looks like the near future will uncover many surprises after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, as we realize more and more that the popular revolts in the Arab world – and the Obama Administration’s position towards them – were determined by political battles between various pressure groups in Washington. Moreover, pressures by these lobbying groups have left an impact on the region’s events, the last of which was the canceling of the visit of Maronite Patriarch Rahi to Washington. A number of Arab and Western news agencies have leaked that one of “those who sought to cancel this visit was Dalia Mujahid, a top advisor on Islamic and Arab affairs at the State Department, who is of Egyptian origin. And that”, said the reports, “came at the request of the high command of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, who wish to see the US Administration support the Islamist Sunni current.”

Also very noticeable at this point is the growing domination of Islamist forces around the Mediterranean: the victory of the Nahda Islamist Party in Tunisia, the declaration by (TNC Chairman) Mustafa Abdeljalil that Libya is an Islamist state and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. These developments wouldn’t have happened without the approval of the United States. A document published in Washington indicated that Egypt will face more violence and tensions while moving to the Pakistani, rather than the Turkish, model. Egypt will be ruled by an opportunistic bourgeoisie and a regime declaring itself Islamist, and it will be backed by a military institution. The military will be used by the Islamists to maintain power but the armed forces, the parliament, the regime and the constitution will all become Islamist.

In return, the Maronite Patriarch is denied a visit to Washington, Coptic Christian churches are destroyed in Egypt, and Coptic demonstrators are massacred at Maspero in Cairo by the Egyptian military, demonstrating that the goal is to suppress Christians in the Middle East, who are – as Patriarch Rahi said – paying a high price for the revolts of the Arab Spring. Rahi expressed his concerns about the fate of Syrian and Lebanese Christians and sees, as does the world, the flight of millions of Iraqi and Middle Eastern Christians from their homelands as a result of events in Iraq, and the methodic persecution against the Copts. The Christians of Egypt aren’t only facing suppression and ethnic cleansing but a form of genocide.

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Muhammad's newspaper goes up in flames, Jews blamed

Well, it could happen! The French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was firebombed by the religion of peace after they published their latest weekly satire where Muhammad was editor-in-chief. As we know you cannot insult Muslims in any way, especially with cartoons and satire. One message the office received said " "You keep abusing Islam's almighty Prophet with disgusting and

disgraceful cartoons using excuses of freedom of speech."Be God's curse upon you!"

Of course, its the freedom of speech, dummy. Freedom to kill you if I don't like what you publish.

From The Telegraph November 2 by Henry Samuel

French satirical newspaper firebombed after prophet Mohammed announcement

The offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo have been destroyed by a petrol bomb, a day after it named the Prophet Mohammed as its “editor-in-chief” for this week’s issue.

The fiercely anti-clerical magazine said the move, which included renaming the publication “Sharia Hebdo”, was intended to "celebrate" the victory of Islamist party Ennhada in Tunisia's election.

Charlie Hedbo's editor-in-chief, known as Charb, told France Info radio: "We no longer have a newspaper. All our equipment has been destroyed or has melted."

No injuries have been reported

A single Molotov cocktail was thrown at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris’s 20th arrondissement at around 1am. The ensuing fire was rapidly put out, but a large amount of material in the office was destroyed, police said.

“We cannot, today, put together a paper,” said Charb. “But we will do everything possible to do one next week. Whatever happens, we’ll do it. There is no question of giving in,” he said, adding that the magazine is filing a legal complaint against persons unkown.

According to Europe 1 radio, police are searching for two suspects seen near the scene.

Charlie Hebdo's website has also been hacked with a message in English and Turkish cursing the magazine.

The message said: "You keep abusing Islam's almighty Prophet with disgusting and disgraceful cartoons using excuses of freedom of speech.

"Be God's curse upon you!"

Editor Charb said the attackers could not even have read the offending magazine.

"The arsonists haven't read this paper, nobody knows what's in the paper except those who buy it this morning. People are reacting violently to a paper without knowing anything of its contents, that's what's most abhorrent and stupid," he told BFM TV.

The publication, historically famous for pillorying Catholic clericalism, was criticised by Muslims in 2007 after reprinting the Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammad that caused outrage around the Islamic world.

Charb said the magazine had received “quite a few letters of protest, threats, insults” on Twitter and Facebook before the attack, but not as many as in 2007.

Ennahda won the most seats in Tunisia's October elections and is now trying to form a coalition caretaker government.It has promised to work with more liberal parties, and respect gender equality.

"To fittingly celebrate the victory of the Islamist Ennahda party in Tunisia... Charlie Hebdo has asked Mohammed to be the special editor-in-chief of its next issue", the magazine said in a statement.

"The prophet of Islam didn't have to be asked twice and we thank him for it," the statement said.

The cover of this week’s issue, out on Wednesday, shows Mohammed saying: "100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter".

It also includes an editorial by the Prophet entitled Halal Aperitif and a women's supplement called Madam Sharia.

Behind the humour, the editorial’s message is serious: “No religion is compatible with democracy from the moment a political party representing it wants to take power in the name of God”.

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Christians vs Egypt; not a pretty outcome

Raymond Ibrahim explains why Egypt is killing Christians and the media's silence on the atrocities.

From RaymondIbrahim.com October 31

Egypt's Massacre of Christians
What the Media Does Not Want You To Know

Western media coverage of the recent massacre of Coptic Christians in Cairo, Egypt—in which the military killed dozens of Christians and injured some 300—was, as discussed earlier, deplorable. It merely repeated the false propaganda of the complicit state-run media, without checking facts. Since then, further proofs of the lies and brutality surrounding the massacre have emerged; they are compiled in the following report which consists of facts and videos from Arabic sources—many of which have not appeared in the Western media.

This report documents: 1) the activities of the Supreme Military Council of Egypt and de facto ruler; 2) the lies and duplicitous tactics of both the Military Council and its media mouthpiece, Egyptian TV; and 3) the anti-Christian sentiment pervading all aspects of this incident.

The Egyptian Military

Along with a new report by Magdi Khalil asserting that the day before the planned march, a "death squad" of snipers hid atop buildings and shot at protesters, armored vehicles intentionally chased after and ran over protesters, killing and mutilating many:

• Here is perhaps the clearest video; it shows a high-speed armored vehicle willfully plowing over unsuspecting Christian demonstrators.
• This video shows another armored vehicle chasing protesters, and a soldier opening fire into the fleeing crowds.
• This video shows high-speed armored cars running amok in the middle of the crowds, including chasing protesters on the curb, as well as soldiers beating protesters.
• As for eyewitness testimonies attesting to the brutality of the massacre, they are many, and includeMuslims.

The Tactics of the Military Council ( or "War is Deceit")

After the incident and notwithstanding crushing evidence, Egypt's Military Council held a news conference wherein senior official, Mahmoud Hegazy, spun lie after lie: he stated that the military would "never, never" run over civilians; that the very idea was "impossible, impossible!" and "Shame on those who accuse the Egyptian military of such things!... Never has our military run over a single person, not even when combating the Enemy [Israel]."

Hegazy portrayed the Christian protesters as the aggressors, attacking and killing "honorable" soldiers. To prove his point, he showed an image of a protester on top of a stalled armored vehicle, throwing a rock at the soldier inside, and a video of a military vehicle—that he claimed was hijacked by a protester—driving wildly into the crowd.

Hegazy's deceit lies in the fact that the "hijacked" vehicle running amok, and the one stalled and attacked by a protester, were one and the same vehicle: Al Dalil revealed that both vehicles had the same identification number. In other words, when the vehicle in which a soldier was chasing and running over protesters finally stalled, the protesters then attacked it. Egypt's leaders willfully manipulated the footage to exonerate themselves and portray the Copts as violent aggressors.

Several eye-witnesses, including Muslims, further stated that, to hide the "evidence," they saw soldiers hurling the mutilated bodies of those run over into the nearby Nile River. Likewise, among the slain, a dead Muslim soldier, whom the military said was killed by protesters, was actually killed by friendly-fire—although there areindications that he may have died elsewhere, and his corpse thrown among the dead for show.

As Copts have long suspected, the "thugs" (al-baltagiyya) who always appear in protests attacking Christians seem to be men whom the military uses to create an excuse to open fire and exercise brutality. Muslim eyewitnesses say they saw the thugs coming with State Security: Al Dalil showed a video clip of a soldier exposed dressed as a civilian, interspersed among Coptic protesters, and other videos showing the thugs cooperating with the military.

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Death toll rises in Baghdad bombing

As we prepare to leave Iraq the intensity of jihad attacks will increase. I said this last year and now it passes without notice. The more things change the more they remain the same.

From Taiwan News October 29

Death toll in Baghdad's twin bombings rises to 32

Iraqi police and health officials say the death toll of a twin bombing in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad has risen to 32.

The two blasts, which took place Thursday evening at a music store, wounded 71 other people, the officials said. A second bomb exploded minutes after the first, targeting rescue workers and onlookers.

Violence in Iraq is increasing with the approach of the end of the year deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw.

The officials said Friday that some of the more seriously wounded died overnight. Wounded were taken to numerous hospitals, they said, and it took time to get an accurate death toll.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Two police officials said the first explosion, at a music store shortly after 7 p.m., killed two people. The second bomb struck four minutes later, as rescue workers and others rushed to the scene, the officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Thirty-six people were wounded in the attack, according to a medic at Imam Hussein hospital.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Many Iraqis fear violence will increase when the U.S. troops leave the country, and insurgents have for months sought to exploit continued instability and security gaps that Iraqi forces have been unable to close.

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From Minneapolis to Mogadishu

Last year, 20 young Somali males from the St. Paul/Minneapolis area disappeared and then reappeared in Somalia. Abdisalan Hussein Ali is the latest victim for Allah, blowing himself up last week for the sake of 72 "doe-eyed" virgins. How many more Muslim men from America will we find fighting in the way of Allah in far-off lands, and more importantly when will they begin here?

From MSNBC October 31

Suicide bomber in Somali attack was reportedly from Minneapolis

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A man who blew himself up in an attack in the Somali capital on Saturday reportedly grew up in Minneapolis and was known by the FBI as one of 20 Somali Americans to have joined an al-Qaida-linked militant group.

Abdisalan Hussein Ali, 22, was suspected of being a member of al-Shabab, the FBI told msnbc.com.

Kyle Loven, the FBI's chief division counsel for Minneapolis, said Ali was a subject of "Operation Rhino," an ongoing investigation into Somali youth traveling from the U.S. to Somalia to fight for al-Shabab.

Loven could not confirm whether Ali was indeed the bomber but told msnbc.com that the FBI was

"awaiting results from DNA checks at this point."

Al-Shabab posted an audiotape that they said was made by Ali before he blew himself up during an attack Saturday on an African Union base in Mogadishu that left at least 10 people dead.

The FBI could not confirm whether the audiotape was authentic but was investigating its credibility.

A spokesman for the Somali affairs unit at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi told msnbc.com that they had seen reports alleging that one of the bombers was an American citizen."We have not been able to verify those reports," Matt Goshko said.

In the tape, the young man, who would be at least the fourth American to become a suicide bomber in Somalia, urges other young people to not "just chill all day" and instead fight nonbelievers around the world.

The website Somalimemo.net(website not in English), often used by the al-Shabab militia, said the Somali-American bomber had emigrated to the U.S. when he was two years old.

'Bullethead'

There were conflicting reports of his name, with some sources naming the bomber as Abdisalan Taqabalahullaah and Cabdi Salaam al-Muhajir.

But a Somali diplomat at the United Nations said the youth's friends and family listened to the recording and identified him as Abdisalan Hussein Ali, The New York Times reported.

"They all say it is him," Omar Jamal, the diplomat, told The Times.

According to The Minneapolis Star Tribune, he graduated from Edison High School and attended the University of Minnesota, where he was a pre-med student, The Times reported. He disappeared in 2008.

The Star Tribune reported that Ali's nickname was "Bullethead," and that during high school he liked to lift weights and that he sold shoes to help support his family.

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Jews in Tunisia not hopeful after Islamists win election

Do the remaining Jews in Tunisia know something about Islam that we don't? Or are they just a bunch of raving and racist Islamophobes?

From AFP/Google October 31 by Mariette La Roux

Tunisia's Jews 'discouraged' after Islamic party win

LA GOULETTE, Tunisia — Gilles Jacob Lellouche, a member of Tunisia's small Jewish minority, shrugs as he contemplates the future under a government run by the Islamic party that swept the country's first free polls.

"We will wait and see," he said about fears that minority freedoms may be under threat.

Lellouche smokes one cigarette after the other on the front porch of the kosher restaurant he owns in Tunis' port suburb of La Goulette, where many Jews live, discouraged by the secular left's splintered election showing.

"The people have spoken, and they have chosen that (Islamist Ennahda) party," he told AFP. His left index finger still sports the mark of pride of Tunisians who voted in Sunday's historic polls -- a fading blue ink stain.

Lellouche was the sole candidate of Jewish origin out of more than 10,000 registered in Sunday's vote for a new assembly that will rewrite the constitution -- the first-ever in Tunisia not to have a pre-determined result. He stood for the Popular Republican Union, which won one seat that went to another candidate.

The businessman takes comfort in the fact that the Islamist party did not obtain an outright majority.

"Tunisians are not ready to open the doors to a new dictatorship having just left behind another. But we have to be vigilant," he said.

Asked if people in the Jewish community were positive about a future under Ennahda, he replied: "They are not negative. There is a substantial difference ..."

Optimism vs pessimism.

Tunisia has one of the Arab world's largest Jewish minorities, estimated at 1,500 people out of a total population of more than 10 million.

According to Dar el Dekra (House of Memory, in Arabic), an organisation for the preservation of the Jewish heritage in Tunisia, their presence dates back 2,000 years -- mainly on the island of Djerba in the Gulf of Gabes.

They numbered in the tens of thousands until World War II, after which many left for Israel, established as a state in 1948, and France, the colonial power until 1956.

Lellouche noted that Tunisia has a long history of "inter-community conviviality" and said he believed Islam to be a "tolerant" religion.

But in March, two months after the toppling of dictator Zine el Abidine Ben whom the West regarded as a bastion against Islamisation, a group of Muslim men assailed Jews outside the Tunis synagogue, the biggest among only a handful in the country. "Begone the Jews, the army of Mohammed is back!" they shouted.

The interim government condemned the attacks.

The following month, the Israeli government made funding available to help Tunisian Jews move to Israel, citing "the worsening of ... society's attitude toward the Jewish community" since Ben Ali's ouster.

"If something happens that frightens the population we will arrive at the same result we did after 23 years of Ben Ali-ism, that is to say another revolution," said Lellouche.

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A Spoiled Culture

The "Palestinians" are now full members of the UN Cultural and Educational Agency (UNESCO). My question is; what culture? Certainly not like Roman culture, with its egalitarian ethos and senate, not like European culture of civilized restraint and grand homes nor the American culture of self-sufficiency and gritty independence. The "Palestinians" are a culture of stagnation, non-productivity, recreated history, violent murder, unending hatred, racism and intolerance based in Islamic doctrine and tenets. If this is the type of culture UNESCO is embracing, we are doomed.

From AP/Yahoo October 31 by Sarah DiLorenzo

Palestine becomes member of UN cultural body

PARIS (AP) — Palestine became a full member of the U.N. cultural and educational agency Monday, in a highly divisive move that the United States and other opponents say could harm renewed Mideast peace efforts.

U.S. lawmakers had threatened to withhold roughly $80 million in annual funding to UNESCO if it approved Palestinian membership. The United States provides about 22 percent of UNESCO's funding.

Huge cheers went up in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization after delegates approved the membership in a vote of 107-14 with 52 abstentions. Eighty-one votes were needed for approval in a hall with 173 UNESCO member delegations present.

"Long Live Palestine!" shouted one delegate, in French, at the unusually tense and dramatic meeting of UNESCO's General Conference.

While the vote has large symbolic meaning, the issue of borders of an eventual Palestinian state, security troubles and other disputes that have thwarted Middle East peace for decades remain unresolved.

Palestinian officials are seeking full membership in the United Nations, but that effort is still under examination and the U.S. has said it will veto it unless there is a peace deal with Israel. Given that, the Palestinians separately sought membership at Paris-based UNESCO and other U.N. bodies.

Monday's vote is definitive. The membership formally takes effect when Palestine signs UNESCO's founding charter.

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Esposito expose'

A favorite of mine in the Islamic apologist world of leftist ideals is John Esposito of Georgetown University. Head of their Middle East studies department he is also a prime mover in the "America is bad" crowd and has without fail condemned Israel and Christians for the violence in the Middle East. If you have never heard of Esposito, or want to know more, this article is a great reference to the influence Esposito and his handlers, the royal family of Saudi Arabia have here in the US. Read it sitting down.

From Crisis Magazine November 1 by Robert Spencer

Georgetown's Catholic Apologist for Islam

(...)At Fox, Alwaleed has Murdoch; at Georgetown, he has John L. Esposito. Esposito is the director of the ACMCU, a professor of religion and international affairs at Georgetown, and one of the most prominent scholars of Islam and the Middle East in the nation; the Wall Street Journal once hailed him as “America’s foremost authority and interpreter of Islam.” He is the author of numerous popular books on Islam, and, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, has been “called upon often to brief government agencies about Islam, including the State Department, FBI, CIA, Homeland Security and various branches of the military.”

Esposito reportedly spent ten years in a monastery, is still identified as a Catholic, and is frequently invited to address Catholic audiences. However, emblematic of the doubtful orthodoxy, or even of the doubtful Christianity, of the perspective he brings to the Alwaleed Center was an extraordinarily curious remark he made shortly after September 11, 2001: Esposito said that he was “pleasantly surprised” that after the attacks the rate of conversions to Islam in America had not fallen off, but had actually increased.

The Second Vatican Council states “the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims: these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day” (Lumen Gentium, 16). It also says that “the Church has also a high regard for the Muslims” and calls upon Muslims and Christians to make “a sincere effort” to “achieve mutual understanding” (Nostra Aetate, 3). It does not exempt Muslims from the Church’s duty to preach the Gospel to all nations (Matthew 28:19-20) and to “proclaim without fail, Christ who is the way, the truth and the life” (Nostra Aetate, 2). The call to hold individual Muslims in “high regard” does not conceivably justify encouraging or taking pleasure in conversions to Islam, even for liberal Catholic academics.

While cheering conversions to Islam, Esposito has downplayed persecution of Christians in Muslim countries. Journalist Cinnamon Stillwell reports that when speaking in Stanford in 2008, Esposito did not welcome questions about that persecution: “When asked about the well-documented violence againstChristians in Iraq and the persecution of Christians throughout the Muslim world, Esposito resorted at first to obfuscation and then bullying. After trying to chalk up the violence merely to ‘primitive’ behavior, he cut off one young woman angrily, telling her that it was ‘an absurd question.’” Esposito, according to Stillwell, claimed that “all religions produce violence,” and offered up “a litany of talking points in which he compared random and universally condemned acts of violence among Christians and Jews to the routine and often sanctioned bloodshed emanating from the Muslim world.”

During his Stanford talk Esposito displayed a deep hostility toward Christianity: “He referenced the Crusades three times in the first ten minutes, each in the false context of acts of purely Christian aggression. In a relativistic attempt to paint all religions as equally problematic, Esposito compared Islamic terrorists to ‘Christian militants,’ and referred repeatedly to ‘Christians blowing up abortion clinics’ and the ‘Christian Right.’” He didn’t mention that the handful of abortion clinic bombers were universally condemned by all Christian authorities, while the thousands of Islamic jihadists who have perpetrated attacks worldwide in the name of Islam since 9/11 generally enjoy the blessing of Muslim clerics.

Esposito generally tends to blame Christians for friction between Muslims and Christians. In his 2002 bookWhat Everybody Needs to Know about Islam (Oxford University Press), he acknowledges that “Muslim-Christian relations have deteriorated,” and lays the responsibility for that deterioration squarely at the feet of Evangelical Christian leaders in the U.S. – and Jews: “The creation of the state of Israel has contributed to the deterioration of relations and the Christian fundamentalists like Robertson, Graham and Falwell have been the source of intolerance, persecution, violence and terrorism.”

Meanwhile, Esposito has praised one of the most notable of those clerics who exhort their people to violence. He has called Muslim Brotherhood Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who advocates suicide bombings, a champion of a “reformist interpretation of Islam and its relationship to democracy, pluralism and human rights.” An indication of Qaradawi’s firm commitment to “democracy, pluralism and human rights” came in January 2009, when during a Friday sermon broadcast on Al-Jazeera, he prayed that Allah would kill all the Jews: “Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people. Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one.” He also declared: “Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by [Adolf] Hitler.”

To be sure, Esposito’s endorsement of Qaradawi may have been based on incomplete knowledge, although Qaradawi has made his positions abundantly clear in over a hundred books and an enormously popular television show on Al-Jazeera. The same cannot be said, however, of Esposito’s association with the unsavory Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which he has called a “phenomenal organization.” Esposito has spoken at CAIR fundraisers in order, he explained, to “show solidarity not only with the Holy Land Fund [that is, the Holy Land Foundation], but also with CAIR.” The Holy Land Foundation was shut down and prosecuted for funneling money to the jihad terror group Hamas, which once boasted on its website about its murders of civilians in pizza parlors and on buses; the Justice Department named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.

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ACLU; Don't target Muslims, they are not the problem, the problem is Islamophobia

It is bigoted to think Muslims are in any way responsible for attacks across the globe, you Islamophobe! The usual excuses are given for the hatered against us, and the usual solutions are posited. Claiming that it is FBI training materials done by "bigots" that are the problem, the solution is to rid our military of the capability to use drone aircraft against jihadists.

I know, WTF?

From KSL.com October 30 by Steve Fidel

ACLU deputy sees national security extremes becoming entrenched

WEST VALLEY CITY —The deputy legal director for the ACLU believes post-9/11 security policies specifically target Muslims, and that the intelligence community has taken training cues from bigots, not experts.

And unlike the era where Japanese Americans were detained in camps during World War II, he sees detainment, surveillance and other infringement policies staying in the extreme in the decade following 9/11 becoming "the new normal."

"While President Obama uses the rhetoric of human rights, his administration is continuing to become more entrenched," said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director for the ACLU and director of the ACLU's Center for Democracy, which houses the agency's work on national security; human rights; and speech, privacy and technology.

Jaffer spoke Saturday night at the Islamic Society of Greater Salt Lake's Khadeeja Islamic Center.

He urged Muslims to vote and participate in public events, including demonstrations, but said they should not band together as Muslim or Arabic-sponsored groups to oppose government or societal injustices. "Choose something less selfish" rather than representing a Muslim bloc. "You have to think of other people's rights" as well, he said.

Good luck with that, Jaffer.

Jaffer credited the Obama administration for releasing memos that discussed and sanctioned torture among detainees in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp after 9/11, but suggested President Obama spent considerable political capital in doing that, setting him at odds with the CIA specifically and the intelligence community as a whole.

He suggested presidents' effect on human rights issues, in the arena of national security, can be limited by the fact a successful president may be in office eight years, but the mindset moves on a different track within the CIA and FBI, where careers can last 30 years.

He said Muslims have balked at careers in the United States' intelligence community because training materials have labeled Islam as incompatible with democracy. He believes FBI training materials for at least the past decade have drawn on the expertise of bigots, not individuals with expertise in Middle East culture. "And I suspect the CIA's training materials are worse."

Islam is incompatible with democracy, it is obvious when reading the Qur'an, hadiths or sunna. Muslims individually may not practice a pure form of Islam, that in no way removes the hatred and vitriol that Muslim clerics uphold as right when defining Islam.

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In Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute

From Richard Goldstone...yes that Richard Goldstone of the "Goldstone Report" comes this article. There are points to dispute but overall it is a scathing indictment of the "Demonize Israel" crowd and it shows their dishonesty with crystal clarity. I know many here in my town who have used the report to bolster their beliefs in the evilness of Jews and the hatred from Israel towards non-Jews, it will be interesting to hear how they spin this one. No matter what is said in the positive about Israel, their detractors and enemies will, at least for the time being be unable to use the Goldstone Report as a bludgeon for furthering their hate.

From The New York Times October 31 by Richard Goldstone

Israel and the Apartheid Slander

THE Palestinian Authority’s request for full United Nations membership has put hope for any two-state solution under increasing pressure. The need for reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians has never been greater. So it is important to separate legitimate criticism of Israel from assaults that aim to isolate, demonize and delegitimize it.

One particularly pernicious and enduring canard that is surfacing again is that Israel pursues “apartheid” policies. In Cape Town starting on Saturday, a London-based nongovernmental organization called the Russell Tribunal on Palestine will hold a “hearing” on whether Israel is guilty of the crime of apartheid. It is not a “tribunal.” The “evidence” is going to be one-sided and the members of the “jury” are critics whose harsh views of Israel are well known.

While “apartheid” can have broader meaning, its use is meant to evoke the situation in pre-1994 South Africa. It is an unfair and inaccurate slander against Israel, calculated to retard rather than advance peace negotiations.

I know all too well the cruelty of South Africa’s abhorrent apartheid system, under which human beings characterized as black had no rights to vote, hold political office, use “white” toilets or beaches, marry whites, live in whites-only areas or even be there without a “pass.” Blacks critically injured in car accidents were left to bleed to death if there was no “black” ambulance to rush them to a “black” hospital. “White” hospitals were prohibited from saving their lives.

In assessing the accusation that Israel pursues apartheid policies, which are by definition primarily about race or ethnicity, it is important first to distinguish between the situations in Israel, where Arabs are citizens, and in West Bank areas that remain under Israeli control in the absence of a peace agreement.

In Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute: “Inhumane acts ... committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.” Israeli Arabs — 20 percent of Israel’s population — vote, have political parties and representatives in the Knesset and occupy positions of acclaim, including on its Supreme Court. Arab patients lie alongside Jewish patients in Israeli hospitals, receiving identical treatment.

To be sure, there is more de facto separation between Jewish and Arab populations than Israelis should accept. Much of it is chosen by the communities themselves. Some results from discrimination. But it is not apartheid, which consciously enshrines separation as an ideal. In Israel, equal rights are the law...

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