Cardboard Khomeini causes controversy; Tehranians Tee-heeing

What are they thinking.  Creepy doesn't even begin to explain this one.

All I can say is, this is Islam.


From the BBC Feb 3

Cardboard cut-out Ayatollah Khomeini tours Tehran

The "2-D" Ayatollah arrives in Tehran

As the countdown to the 33rd anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution gets under way, a cardboard cut-out version of the revolution's founder has gone on a tour of the capital city, Tehran.

The idea was to re-enact the first moments of Ayatollah Khomeini's arrival back in the country after exile in Paris.

But within a short time jokes about the cut-out began circulating on social networking sites.

More talk, less results in latest Israel/Refugee talks

No progress in talks between Jews and refugees, Ban ki-Moon demands more concessions from Israel and the merry-go-round keeps spinning.  There is only one solution to the stalemate; eliminate Hamas and the PA, rebuild the area by forcing Jordan to give the land that was originally promised to the refugees in 1947 to the few million needing a home, and let Israel live in peace.  There you go, problem solved, everyone has their land and we can get back to worrying about our next paychecks.


From the Sydney Morning Herald Feb 3 by Ruth Pollard

All talk, no action as Israel's settlements

Discussions in Jordan between Israel and the Palestinians ran into familiar roadblocks.

They were, analysts noted, an exercise in diplomatic futility.

Another five sessions of talks between Israel and the Palestinians have ended without any progress. Another deadline has passed.

Both sides fronted the media, separately, each time flanked by the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, to outline the now familiar roadblocks to peace.

Sidestepping questions on Israel's continuing settlement construction and its failure to submit concrete proposals to the talks, the Israeli President, Shimon Peres, said, ''We must move forward as quickly as possible with serious, in-depth negotiations that will focus on security and borders and be held far from the limelight.''

The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, reiterated demands that Israel freeze its settlement construction and negotiate a two-state solution based on 1967 borders.

Formal peace talks have been stalled for more than three years now. With the carnage in Syria and Iran's nuclear program dominating the agenda in the Middle East, few had held out hope that a visit from the UN head would achieve much following the negative statements that emerged at the conclusion of last week's talks.

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Iran: Christian convert sentenced to two years in prison

Her crime?  Not just converting to Christianity, whch in and of itself would normally garner the death penalty, but also of "collaboration with foreign-dependent groups, broad anti-Islamic propaganda, deceiving citizens by formation of what is called a house church, Insulting sacred figures and action against national security."

Sounds like a very dangerous woman, ans she is, to the patriarchal religion of Muhammad known as Islam.

From Mohabat News January 29

Iranian Christian convert sentenced to two years in prison

A Christian convert whom security authorities arrested in her home was sentenced to two years in prison by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

According to reports sent by reporters of Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News, Ms. Leila Mohammadi, a Christian convert who resided east of Tehran, was sentenced to two years of imprisonment after enduring 5 months of uncertainty in notorious Evin prison.

Her trial was held on 18 January in Revolutionary Court in Moalem street where she was charged with "collaboration with foreign-dependent groups, broad anti-Islamic propaganda, deceiving citizens by formation of what is called a house church, Insulting sacred figures and action against national security." However she was acquitted of collaboration with foreign-dependent groups because the judge believed she had done that unintentionally. For the other charges she was sentenced to two years in prison and the ruling was delivered to her.

After the verdict was issued knowledgeable sources reported that her attorney announced that the case was sent to the high court of Tehran province to be reviewed.

Leila Mohammadi, was arrested after a number of security agents raided her home on 30 July, 2011 at 10:30 P.M. in Kianshahr town, east of Tehran. The agents thoroughly searched her house and also confiscated some of her belongings.

Ms. Mohammadi was taken to Horr custody center which belongs to the Iranian police forces. From there, she was transferred to Evin prison. On 28 December 2011, she was released on a bail of 150,000 USD after 74 days in harsh conditions in solitary confinement in Evin prison.

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New book by Ibn Warraq

"Why the West is Best" sums it up nicely.  This one is next on my list to read.  Make it yours, too.


From Crisis Magazine Feb 2 by Robert Spencer

Why the West is Best: A Muslim Apostate’s Defense of Liberal Democracy. 

One principal reason why the Islamic jihad is advancing with such confidence around the world today is because its chief competitor, the West, has lost its nerve. The iron and unquestionable dogma ofmulticulturalism has eaten away at its self-confidence and left only a relativism that walks to the brink of excusing genocide. Instead of defending its principles of liberal democracy and attempting to convince the Islamic world of their virtue and utility, the U.S. and Europe appear to stand for no principle more noble or compelling than majority rule. If, in any given country, a regime takes power dedicated to implementing a vision for society that is absolutely opposed to basic notions of human dignity and human rights, that’s fine with Washington and Brussels, as long as the majority voted for it.

And so the U.S. intervened military in Iraq and Afghanistan only to oversee the adoption of constitutions in both countries that enshrine Sharia as the highest law of the land. This was tantamount to tacit U.S. approval for stonings, amputations, restrictions on the freedom of speech and freedom of conscience, and the institutionalized discrimination against women and non-Muslims, since all of this is mandated under Sharia. Anything else, particularly any defense of the humane values of Judeo-Christian and/or Catholic civilization such as was once mounted against the Communist bloc on Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America, would have been seen as ethnocentric and parochial.

But now a man of the East who came to the West as a youth and gradually realized that it stood for a vision of the human person and human society that far surpassed anything in his native culture has written a courageous and insightful new book that shows that the West can and should stand for more than mere head-counting, and above all, should stand up for itself: Ibn Warraq’s Why the West is Best: A Muslim Apostate’s Defense of Liberal Democracy.

Ibn Warraq is a Pakistani ex-Muslim who writes under a pseudonym as a consequence of Islam’s death penalty for apostasy – and because his previous books have roused the ire of Islamic hardliners. His 1995 manifesto, Why I Am Not A Muslim, was a searing criticism of the brittleness, brutality, and barbarism of Islamic culture; he followed that with a series of scholarly collections that struck at the very foundations of Islamic faith, including The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, What the Koran Really Says, and The Origins of the Koran. His work, however, is not just about what he rejects, but what he accepts: his defense of the West and its values began with the brilliant Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said’s Orientalism and now continues with Why the West is Best.

Ibn Warraq writes with an unusual depth, elegance and breadth of erudition, enhanced by an extraordinarily perceptive eye; thus one of the most remarkable and winning chapters of a book that is remarkable and winning throughout is its first, an examination of how daily life in New York City, even in these anxious days, manifests some of Western civilization’s finest qualities: efficiency and sense of responsibility; a love for humanity and its best manifestations, such as music, humor, and intellectual curiosity; a genuine multiculturalism, and above all, a living respect for freedom. “The multifarious interests of free men and women,” he observes, “are mirrored in the extraordinary number of activities available for the enthusiast, the curious, the intellectually and culturally alert….New York stands as a concrete definition of Western civilization in its energy and creativity, its air of unlimited possibility.”

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Sudan: attack on U.S. funded Bible school

No injuries, but lots of fear.  Everyone got out safely but the building was  reduces to rubble.  Education, especially of girls is forbidden; the female is supposed to guard the family honor by staying home and acting as the jihad breeder for the next generation of haters.  North Sudan is Islamic, the newly created South Sudan is Christian and everyone knew there would be problems.  Here they are, now what is to be done?

Any suggestions from those in the peanut gallery?  Didn't think so.


From The Washington Post Feb 3

Sudan bombs US-funded Bible school, forcing students, teachers to flee; US condemns attack

NAIROBI, Kenya — Sudan’s military bombed a Bible school built by a U.S. Christian aid group, prompting students and teachers at the school to run for their lives in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan state.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations condemned the attack.

Pictures obtained by The Associated Press on Friday showed that two stone school buildings were demolished in the attack. No one was hurt or killed despite the fact school was in session.

Ryan Boyette, a former aid worker who lives in Sudan and is now leading a team of 15 citizen journalists, spoke to a teacher at the site of Wednesday’s attack in the Nuba Mountains. The teacher, Zachariah Boulus, told Boyette that he couldn’t find his wife and children after the attack because everyone ran into the mountains for safety.

Boyette said that two of eight bombs dropped hit the school.

The Heiban Bible College was built by Samaritan’s Purse, a North Carolina-based aid group. Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham said the attack was carried out by the Sudanese Air Force.

Yes, that Franklin Graham.

“Please pray for the safety of believers, and that God would intervene,” Graham said.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said she was outraged by what she called a “heinous” bombing.

Islam is good at heinous.

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Kuwait: Islamists win big, take 36 of 50 seats

But don't worry, Islam is THE religion of peace and brotherhood where everybody is equal in Allah's eyes.  Kuwait should stay democratic because we all know Islam promotes peaceful coexistence with everybody.

Almost everybody, except Jews, Christians, Methodists, Baptists, Calvinists, Buddhists, Hindus, Druids, Pagans, Protestants, Copts, Ahmadis. Sufis, Zoroastrians, Jainss, Taoists, Promise Keepers, Krishna devotees, Animists, Polytheists, Catholics, Scientologists, agnostics, Satan worshippers, Seventh Day Adventists, Christian Scientists, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Wiccans.


From Google Feb 3

Islamist-led opposition wins majority in Kuwait

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait's Islamist-led opposition has won a landslide majority in Kuwait's snap polls by securing 34 seats in the 50-member parliament, officials results released on Friday showed.

Sunni Islamists took 23 seats compared with just nine in the dissolved parliament, while liberals were the big losers, winning only two places against five previously.

No women were elected, with the four female MPs of the previous parliament all losing their seats.

Voters punished pro-government MPs, reducing them to a small minority, especially 13 former MPs who were questioned by the public prosecutor over corruption charges.

The opposition scored strongly in the two tribal-dominated constituencies, winning 18 of the 20 available seats. Kuwait is divided into five electoral districts, with each electing 10 lawmakers.

Minority Shiites who form about 30 percent of the native population saw their representation reduced to seven MPs from nine, with four of them from Islamist groups.

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Look who's not laughing now

After a 40 year career making people laugh, Adel Imam is now in jail, convicted of "insulting Islam."  It is telling that he was never bothered while Mubarak was in power, it is only after the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists grabbed the reins of power that Adel is arrested and convicted.  He will have to pay a $170US fine and serve 3 months behind bars.  He is made to suffer because of what he says, and his condemnation and imprisonment is courtesy of the religion of the perpetually insulted.


From The Jerusalem Post Feb 2

Egyptian film star sentenced for insulting Islam

CAIRO - The Arab world's most famous comic actor, Adel Imam, has received a three-month jail sentence for insulting Islam in films and plays, a court document showed on Thursday.

Imam, who has frequently poked fun at authorities and politicians of all colors during a 40-year career, has one month to appeal the sentence and will remain out of jail until the appeal process is concluded.

The sentence Wednesday evening came weeks after Islamists swept most seats in a parliamentary election. The case was brought by Asran Mansour, a lawyer with ties to Islamist groups, and had languished in court for months, judicial sources said.

Mansour accused the actor of offending Islam and its symbols, including beards and the Jilbab, a loose-fitting garment worn by some Muslims, the Egyptian news portal Ahramonline reported.

Among films and plays targeted by the lawyer were the movie "Morgan Ahmed Morgan" and the play "Al-Zaeem" ("The Leader"), the report said.

Imam was also handed a fine of 1,000 Egyptian pounds ($170) in absentia, the court document showed. He could not immediately be reached for comment.

"Threatening Iran and attacking Iran will harm America ... Sanctions will not have any impact on our determination to continue our nuclear course ..."

They said it.


From ZeeNews Feb 4

Threatening us will harm America, warns Iran
Tehran: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday Iran would retaliate over Western-backed oil sanctions and any threat of attack, after US defense secretary Leon Panetta was cited as saying he feared a possible Israeli strike as early as April. 

Khamenei's defiant speech to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution was the first direct response to tighter sanctions imposed by the West in recent weeks to force Tehran to abandon a nuclear programme it says has purely peaceful ends. 

"Threatening Iran and attacking Iran will harm America ... Sanctions will not have any impact on our determination to continue our nuclear course ... In response to threats of oil embargo and war, we have our own threats to impose at the right time," Khamenei told worshippers in a speech broadcast live on state television. 

"I have no fear of saying that we will back and help any nation or group that wants to confront and fight against the Zionist regime (Israel)." 

US media reports said US defense secretary Panetta believed there was a growing possibility Israel would attack Iran as early as April to stop it building a nuclear bomb. 



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200,000 messages of love pointed at Israel

This is the total number from all of Israel's enemies.  This number does not incllude nuclear missiles from Iran...yet.  How would you like to live with 200,000 missiles pointed at you every day, never knowing which ones will be launched, which ones will kill indiscriminately.The terror continues, courtesy Islam and it's requirement to destroy Israel and the Jews.


From Haaretz Feb 2 by Amos Harel

Some 200,000 missiles aimed consistently at Israel, top IDF officer says

About 200,000 missiles are aimed at Israel at any given time, a top Israel Defense Forces officer said on Thursday, adding that Iran's ability to obtain nuclear weapons was solely dependent on the will of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The remarks by Military Intelligence Chief Major General Aviv Kochavi came after IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said on Wednesday that the threats facing Israel have increased and intensified in recent years due to regional instability.

Speaking to the Herzliya Conference, Gantz said that Iran's nuclear program is a "global problem and a regional problem," adding that Tehran's attempts to acquire nuclear weapons must continue to be disrupted.

On Thursday, Kochavi, speaking at the opening session of the Herzliya Conference's closing day, spoke of the growing threats Israel was facing: "a more hostile, more Islamic, more sensitive Middle East, one more attune to public sentiment, less controlled by the regimes, and less susceptible to international influence."

The chief of military intelligence then indicated that about 200,000 missiles were aimed at Israel at any given time, adding, however, that "Israel's military deterrence is intact."

Referring to Israel's concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions, Kochavi presented a relatively tame estimation of a possible timeline en route to an Iranian atomic bomb, saying that the project depended more on the will of Iran's Supreme Leader than on any technological advancement.

"If Khamenei issues a command to achieve a first nuclear explosive device, we estimate it would take another year before that's achieved," the top IDF official said, adding that "if he asks to translate that ability to obtain a nuclear warhead, that would take another year or two."

Kochavi also reiterated the IDF estimate that Iran is in possession of more than 4 tons of low-grade enriched uranium as well as almost 100 kilograms of uranium enriched at 20%.

That is enough of an enrichment level, and quantity to make one, maybe two low yield nuclear weapons. Enough to destroy Tel-Aviv or another Israeli city.

"If those are enriched more, to a 90% level, that would be enough for 4 atomic bombs," the IDF officer said.

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Christians not welcome in the land of the two holy places; Ethiopian Christians the be deported

Despite their words, Saudi Arabia tolerates no other religions outside of Islam.  If no one was watching, these Ethiopian Christians would have had their heads removed long before now.  The only tolerance in Islam is that of the intolerant.


From the BBC January 31

Ethiopian Christians to be deported from Saudi Arabia

Some 35 Ethiopian Christians face deportation from Saudi Arabia for "illicit mingling", the global rights body Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

Police arrested the group - including 29 women - after raiding a prayer meeting in the second city of Jeddah.

The women were subjected to strip searches and the men beaten and called "unbelievers", according to HRW.

In 2006, the Saudi government promised to stop interfering with private worship by non-Muslims.

In other words, when did you stop beating your wife?

The group was arrested in a private home as they gathered to pray during the run-up to Christmas, celebrated by Ethiopian Orthodox Christians on 7 January.

HRW spoke to a man and two women by telephone from the prisons where they are being held.

They say they have been charged with mixing with unmarried persons of the opposite sex - even though HRW says Saudi Arabia has no law defining "illicit mingling".

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CAIR wins again

Pressure from that bastion of civil rights, CAIR has caused a prominent Islamic critic, retired Lieutenant General William G. “Jerry” Boykin to back out of a prayer breakfast at West Point.  Evidentally the good general has been on CAIR's bad side for a while; he has been criticizing Islam by saying the war on "terror" is a war against Satan.  Maybe if he had said it was the fault of the Jinn the fallout would not have been so bad.


The general is out, thanks to the bullying tactics at CAIR.  I sympathize with the general, CAIR did the same thing to me.




From The Daily Caller January 31 by Caroline May


CAIR pressures retired general, critic of Islam, to back out of West Point event

The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced Monday night that it had successfully prevented retired Lieutenant General William G. “Jerry” Boykin from speaking at an upcoming prayer breakfast at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

“We welcome Mr. Boykin’s withdrawal from this event and hope that the speaker who replaces him will offer cadets a spiritual message that promotes tolerance and mutual understanding,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad in a statement.

Oh, you mean like Islam does?

West Point initially balked at the calls to remove Boykin — a former military intelligence officer — from the event.

Lt. Col. Sherri Reed of West Point told The Associated Press that cadets are “purposefully exposed to different perspectives and cultures.”

“The National Prayer Breakfast Service will be pluralistic with Christians, Jewish, and Muslim cadets participating,” Reed said. “We are comfortable and confident that what retired Lt. Gen. Boykin will share about prayer, soldier care and selfless service, will be in keeping with the broad range of ideas normally considered by our cadets.”

Boykin backed out of the event on his own volition, according to a report from Fox News.

The retired lieutenant general has been on CAIR’s radar for casting Islam in a poor light, specifically in speeches in which he analogizing the War on Terror to a war against Satan.

CAIR and the group VoteVets.org pushed hard for a retraction of Boykin’s invitation to the event due to his “Islamophobic” views.

Boykin is not Islamophobic, he is sick of Islamic hegemony, ill at the slow but steady advancement of sharia; he is, in other words, Islamonauseous.

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Allah fearing Uzbekistanian, givin asylom by the US and UN, relocated to Colorado, arrested on "terrorism" charges

Devout jihadists may be a small percentage of Muslims overall, but this case illustrates the question; how do we know?  Colorado may be the latest mocation where jihadists are populating, are they in your town and you don't know it?

With no clear and defined parameters or vetting process, the enemies of both ordinary Muslims, and the world in general, will continue to be wreak havoc unimpeded.  Why not just release the Taliban at Gitmo, while you're at it?  Oh wait...


From ABC January 31

US, UN Helped Colo. Man Now Accused of Terrorism

A man from Uzbekistan that the United States and the United Nations helped relocate to Colorado now faces a terrorism charge.

Jamshid Muhtorov opposed his home country's dictator following a 2005 massacre, endured a brutal detention, and saw his sister arrested on a false murder charge. The 35-year-old fled his country by night dressed as a woman, and the U.S. and the U.N. helped bring him to Aurora in 2007.

Now, he's accused of providing material support and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic Jihad Union. The violent group opposes the Uzbek government and has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Authorities arrested Muhtorov in Chicago on Jan. 21, the Denver Post reported Tuesday.

Federal authorities say the Islamic Jihad Union has claimed responsibility for attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan, including a March 2008 suicide attack on a U.S. base. The group is also blamed for carrying out simultaneous suicide bombings of the U.S. and Israeli embassies and a prosecutor's office in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

"It is a crime, and has been a crime for many years, to provide material support for a designated terrorist organization, the IJU," said Dean Boyd, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington. "Our job is to enforce the law."

The FBI said Muhtorov communicated with a contact with the IJU by email using code words, asking to be invited to the "wedding." He also told the contact that he was "ready for any task, even with the risk of dying," the FBI said.

Authorities said there was no evidence that Muhtorov planned any attacks within the U.S.

I feel so much better now.  Read it all

Alligator appeasement pt. 421

We allow the Taliban to open an "office" in Qatar to facilitate peace talks, now the Taliban held at Gitmo will be released, ostensibly in a show of good faith, of course.  There is, in the group considered for release, "...one has been accused in the massacre of thousands of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan,"


And this is the basket we place our hopes for peace in.  As the military adage goes, "Hope is not a tactic."


The alligator is feeding, and we get in at the end of the line, hoping it won't be hungry when we finally get to the front.  


Madness.




From AP January 31 by Kimberly Dozier and Anne Gearan


US confirms possible release of Taliban from Gitmo

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. intelligence officials acknowledged Tuesday that the United States may release several Afghan Taliban prisoners from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an incentive to bring the Taliban to peace talks.

Meanwhile, Afghan officials told The Associated Press that a plan to give Afghanistan a form of legal custody over the men if they are released satisfied their earlier objection to sending the prisoners to a third country.

Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper told Congress Tuesday that no decision had been made on whether to trade the five Taliban prisoners, now held at Guantanamo Bay as part of nascent peace talks with the Taliban. He and CIA Director David Petraeus did not dispute that the Obama administration is considering transferring the five to a third country.

U.S. officials and others had previously spoken only vaguely, and usually anonymously, about the proposal to send the prisoners to Qatar, a Persian Gulf country that has asserted a central role in framing talks that might end the 10-year war in Afghanistan. The lead U.S. negotiator trying to coax the Taliban into talks had also publicly acknowledged the possibility of a release, but said there was no final decision.

The prisoners proposed for transfer include some of the detainees brought to Guantanamo during the initial days and weeks of the U.S. invasion that toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan in 2001. At least one has been accused in the massacre of thousands of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan, according to U.S. and other assessments, but none are accused of directly killing Americans.

"I don't think anybody harbors any illusions about it, but I think the position is to at least explore 

the potential for negotiating with them as a part of this overall resolution of the situation in 

Afghanistan," Clapper said during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

The Obama administration has recently embraced the possibility of negotiation with the Taliban much more openly, saying that although they remain cautious they are also encouraged that the militants may be ready to bargain. Peace talks, if they come to pass, would include the elected Afghan government and, at least at the outset, representatives of the U.S. government. With nearly 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and a war and development budget in the billions of dollars, the U.S. remains the largest power broker in Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai supports a prisoner release as a means to build confidence among the Taliban militants that talks are worthwhile, but he had balked at the U.S.-backed plan to send them to Qatar instead of home to Afghanistan. That plan appeared to undercut his authority and offend Afghan sovereignty, Afghan officials said. Karzai yanked his ambassador from Qatar, saying Qatar had not kept him properly informed.

But recent discussions between Karzai and U.S. negotiators found a way around the Afghan objections, a senior Afghan diplomat and another official said. Speaking on condition of anonymity because the arrangement is still under discussion, the officials said Afghanistan could assume a sort of legal custody over the prisoners and then, with the prisoners' own consent, agree to consign them to house arrest in Qatar.

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Poverty does not beget jihad, jihad begets poverty

Al-Shabaab is the penultimate example of that statement.  By banning all aid to the impoverished, they effectively are murdering those that may become an opponent.  The remaining will do whatever Al-Shabaab proposes, just to survive into the next dawn.

The Red Cross is now banned in Somalia.  Natural famines are devastating, but man-made famine, in the form of Islam, is to be condemned by all peoples in no uncertain terms.

Anyone?  Hello?


From the BBC January 30

Somalia's al-Shabab militants ban Red Cross aid work

Somalia's al-Shabab militants have banned the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from operating in parts of the country it controls.

The Islamist group said the ICRC had falsely accused them of blocking aid and had been handing out unfit food.

Al-Shabab controls large parts of south and central Somalia, which is suffering its worst drought in decades.

The ICRC, one of the few aid agencies operating there, said it had not heard about the ban.

The agency had suspended food distribution earlier this month saying militants had blocked supply routes, but it was still providing emergency care and water programmes.

Al-Shabab had already halted the work of several aid agencies working in the famine-hit region, including some from the UN. It accused them of exaggerating the scale of the problems for political reasons, and trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

In a statement, it said the ICRC had "repeatedly betrayed the trust conferred on it by the local population and, in recent weeks, falsely accused the mujahideen [al-Shabab fighters] of hindering food distribution".

The group said 70% of food it had inspected in ICRC warehouses was unfit for human consumption, and that it had since destroyed nearly 2,000 tonnes of "expired" rations.

Somalia is said to be one of the world's most dangerous places for aid workers to operate. It has not had a functioning central government for more than 20 years and has been wracked by fighting between various militias.

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Jihad in...Macedonia?

Well, as Islam tells us, the entire world belongs to them, including those places we never remembered from geography class.  Now we can add Macedonia to the list of places Allah wants for himself.


From Google January 31

Church set on fire after carnival

An Orthodox Christian church famed for its valuable icons was set alight in southern Macedonia overnight amid religious tension between Christians and minority Muslims over a carnival in which Orthodox Christian men dressed as women in burkas and mocked the Koran.

Firefighters extinguished the fire on Monday night in the two century-old Sveti Nikola church, near the town of Struga. The church's roof was destroyed but its icons were not damaged, the fire service said.

Hours before the fire, Muslim leaders had appealed for calm among community members.

The January 13 Vevcani festival prompted angry, sometimes violent demonstrations by Muslims, who are nearly all ethnic Albanian and make up 33% of the country's 2.1 million population and accuse the majority of stoking hatred against them.

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Do they, or don't they, only their ummah knows for sure

What the Muslim Brotherhood is ding by going back and forth as to their intentions regarding Israel reminds me of the old Clairol commercial, where the question asked was "does she, or doesn't she?."  The Muslim Brotherhood has made its intentions clear, unfortunately we do not believe that they are a true threat, and as they go back and forth, saying Israel must be destroyed to their Muslim brethren, and to the West, Israel is a "friend" and no changes will be forthcoming, we waste time and the ability to defend ourselves.  The time will come when we will be faced with a dire choice; accept the Muslim Brotherhood as the jihadist group they are, and act accordingly, or keep up the pretense that they are a "moderate" Islamic group, while we watch more innocents die as sharia spreads throughout Egypt and the rest of the Middle East, finally settling in Israel.

As we accept the MB as a player in peace, we doom ourselves to a poker game where the buy-in is dhimmitude and "...they are humbled..."(9-29)


From Bikya Masr February 1

German FM: Brotherhood committed to peace with Israel

CAIRO: German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle renewed on Tuesday his support for more openness and respect towards the new democratic Islamic forces in Egypt.

He said in statements during a visit to Cairo, where he met with the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Prime Minister Kamal Ganzoury, Foreign Minister Amr Kamal, and the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Mohamed Morsi.

He described his meeting with Morsi as “encouraging” and said that the latter stated clearly his belief in pluralism, and stressed that the FJP party is committed to maintaining peace with Israel.

Westerwelle met on the second day of his visit to Egypt, with Tantawi, who emphasized his commitment to the roadmap towards democracy.

His visit also came as thousands of anti-military protesters continue to demonstrate in central Cairo, demanding an end to the military junta’s rule over the country.

Westerwelle will next visit Israel as a part of his Middle East tour and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday.

Tensions between Egypt and Israel have been tense in recent months following the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. The natural gas pipeline to Israel has been attacked 10 times since the uprising, and protesters attacked and raided the Israeli Embassy in Egypt in September following a cross-border raid by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed at least four Egyptian soldiers.