Next to what is going down in Egypt now (and what we can expect from an Egypt under the Muslim Brotherhood), Mubarak is looking more and more like a cross between Ataturk and Schweitzer.
Egypt's Christians Outraged By Court Ruling (AINA)
The verdict passed by the Minya Criminal Court on May 21 convicting 12 Copts to life imprisonment while acquitting eight accused Muslims in the same case, known as Abu Qurqas sedition, has caused widespread anger among the Copts. Georges Wahib of United Copts, who attended the court session, said that when judge Abdel Fattah Ahmed al-Sughayar pronounced the verdict at the court yesterday "there was complete silence, as it came as a shock to everyone, then cries of grief and wailing could be heard from the Coptic families with shouts of we are innocent, while the Muslim side broke out into jubilation and shouts of Allahu Akbar."
All prisoners were taken to the basement, and the court itself was surrounded by hundreds of military police. For security the court session was transferred to Beni Suef from Minya Criminal Court.
The events of the case started on April 18, 2011 over a speed hump built in front of the residence of a wealthy Coptic lawyer, Alaa Reda Roushdi, which a minibus driver claimed was damaging cars. The fight that broke out led to the death of 2 Muslims, injury to 4 Copts, and the destruction and looting of Coptic-owned homes and businesses (AINA 4-26-2011).
Many rights groups criticized the verdict as being "unbelievable" and "extremely harsh" towards the Copts. All the Muslims defendants, "who torched at least 56 Coptic homes, as well as businesses and barns, were acquitted," said Wagdi Halfa, defense attorney of the Coptic victims, in an interview aired yesterday by Coptic TV Channel. He expressed his incomprehension at how Coptic lawyer Alaa Reda Roushdi, who was not even in Abou Qorqas during the events, and then kept under house arrest by the police for another three days, could get life imprisonment.
Adel Roushdi, younger brother of Alaa Roushdi said during the same TV interview that the Islamists wanted to get rid of his brother because of the parliamentary elections, where his brother was sure to win. He accused the police chief in Abou Qorqas of planning the whole episode.
Dr. Naguib Gabriel, president of the Egyptian Union Human Rights Organization, said that one should not keep silent over the continuing harsh verdicts against the Copts. He called upon the military council to stop the implementation of this ruling and to order a re-trial of the case in an ordinary court in another district. He said "where is the conscience and faith of the judge in connection with the torching of Christian homes and shops by Muslims, as reported by the police?" He also questioned the reason for having the case in front of an Emergency State Security court, where no appeal is allowed, while the charges were murder, attempted murder, congregation and carrying of firearms.
Michael Monier, an American-Egyptian activist and head of Life Party, described the verdict as racist and unjust, adding that "it also shows that the Egyptian judiciary takes its orders from higher authorities."
The European Union of Coptic Organizations for Human Rights (EUCOHR) issued a statement yesterday that it will not keep silent about the injustice in this case, and that it is calling for an urgent meeting with members of the European Parliament in Brussels to explain the tragedy of Copts in Egypt . They called upon the governing Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to use its constitutional powers to nullify this verdict and present the defendants to another court, where the rule of law and human rights are honored.
Read the rest.
VOTE here! Yeah, baby.
UPDATE: Yikes! Atlasians have crashed their server. lml. They should be up and running again soon. Chill and then .......vote :)
More "moderates" misunderstanding Islam and sharia. Actually, no. More "moderates" actually understanding Islam and sharia; it's why they joined with the jihadists and sharia enforcers. Timbuktu, the historic trading centre and seat of Tuareg learning, now lies in the disputed territory, to be known as Azawad, which is almost the size of France. Buh bye, Timbuktu.
Mali, "once a beacon for democratic stability in West Africa," has fallen to Islam under a world bereft of the righteous leadership of a muscular America. The poisonous fruits of a poisonous post-American president. Every "moderate" Muslim country that had made any progress in freedom and individual rights is sliding back under the impossible chokehold of Islam and the sharia. From Turkey to Morocco, Algeria to Jordan ....... the immutable code of subjugation and oppression is smothering any hope of reform and progress that had been made in the twentieth (the American) century.
Islamists declare north Mali an independent state governed by sharia Telegraph
Mali moved a step closer to being broken in two on Sunday when al-Qaeda-linked Islamists and Tuareg rebels declared the nation's north an independent country to be ruled according to sharia law.
Fighters from the Islamist group Ansar Dine Photo: AP
The announcement, from Ansar Dine and the Tuareg MNLA group, came as the country's interim president remained in a Paris hotel recovering from an assault in his private office last week.
Diplomats and Mali's neighbours fear that the country, once a beacon for democratic stability in West Africa, is poised to plunge further into crisis following a coup two months ago.
The "declaration of independence" for the northern half of Mali, Africa's sixth-largest country, came late on Saturday.
Timbuktu, the history trading centre and seat of Tuareg learning, now lies in the disputed territory, to be known as Azawad, which is almost the size of France.
"The two movements have created the transitional council of the Islamic state of Azawad," the groups, which have been controlling the area for the past two months, said in their "protocol agreement".
"We are all in favour of the independence of Azawad ... We all accept Islam as the religion," they said, adding that Islam would also be the main source of law.
In Gao, a major town in the north where leaders of the two movements have been holding talks, the sealing of the deal was greeted by the sound of guns being fired into the air.
The rebel army is made up largely of Tuaregs, Saharan tribespeople who have been battling for independence from southern Mali since the nation's independence from France in 1960.
Malian mercenaries returning from Libya after the death of Col Gaddafi strengthened the MNLA's leadership, swelled its infantry ranks and boosted its arsenal.
The rebels' lightning advance across Mali's north was launched as middle-ranking officers from the national army staged a coup in Bamako on March 22, creating chaos in the capital, far to the south.
Islamist fighters, grouped together as Ansar Dine, which has links to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, then took the chance of the power vacuum also to seize territory.
The country's interim administration immediately rejected the independence declaration.
The ongoing violent jihad in Southern Thailand has been well-documented at Atlas (and criminally ignored by the media). The jihad is moving north. According to the Thai news media, residents of a northern Thailand town are protesting a monster mosque right next to a Buddhist temple, where it will dominate the smaller structure. Out of the 6,000 residents in the general Ban Pong Namron area, only 20 are Muslims. The chant of the Buddhist Monks will be drowned out by the nails-on-a chalkboard Muslim call to prayer.
everyone we spoke with is terrified that the building of a proposed large mosque will start the all-too-familiar pattern of increasing Muslim presence and demands for accommodation and concessions, to be followed by violence when the Muslim population reaches a certain level.
This has been the pattern in Southern Thailand as Islam expanded north from the Malaysian border areas. The town residents have no cause to believe that circumstances will be any different here in the North: they fear that eventually there will be Muslim violence against Buddhists if the Muslim population gains sufficient strength. Whether this takes five or twenty years is not the point, the residents believe that recent Thai history confirms the violence will eventually happen as the Muslim population grows. Five thousand dead in the South and thousands more wounded or maimed probably wouldn't disagree.
It's not just Thailand. This is the Islamic pattern everywhere there is Muslim immigration. Go here for more on that.
North Thailand Buddhists protest mosque construction. Government may abort project (thanks to RV in Thailand)
Stealth Jihad in Northern Thailand
"The residents of the north Thailand town of Ban Pohn Namron are fighting the same battle that Americans fought over the 9-11 Mosque in New York CIty. The proposed mosque isn't necessary, and both sides know that its construction would be an important symbol of Islamic power and intentions. The community's successful rejection of the mosque would similarly be an important symbol and victory in the battle against Islamic supremacy."
Yesterday on our way to the Myanmar (Burma) border crossing we stopped for lunch near Ban Pong Namron (Mae Chedi Mai) and it was an eye-opener to talk with some of the residents. Without exception, everyone we spoke with is terrified that the building of a proposed large mosque will start the all-too-familiar pattern of increasing Muslim presence and demands for accommodation and concessions, to be followed by violence when the Muslim population reaches a certain level.
This has been the pattern in Southern Thailand as Islam expanded north from the Malaysian border areas. The town residents have no cause to believe that circumstances will be any different here in the North: they fear that eventually there will be Muslim violence against Buddhists if the Muslim population gains sufficient strength. Whether this takes five or twenty years is not the point, the residents believe that recent Thai history confirms the violence will eventually happen as the Muslim population grows. Five thousand dead in the South and thousands more wounded or maimed probably wouldn't disagree.
According to the Thai news media, out of the 6,000 residents in the general Ban Pong Namron area, only 20 are Muslims. The Muslims say they want to build a large mosque not to serve their own needs, but to service Muslim travellers on the highway who the Muslims say number 200,000 per year. The 200,000 figure seems to have been pulled out of a hat without any independent confirmation, yet the national news media print the number as if it is a verified fact. Similarly no news media asks where the money to build is coming from. The words "Saudi Arabia" kept coming up in conversations with residents and whether this is the source of the funding or not, it is what people are talking about. According to one of my relatives on the Muslim side of my family, most Thai Imams have been to Saudi Arabia for training at one time or another. Our cousin has been three times.
The Buddhist residents we spoke with say this is not really about the Muslim travellers, it is about building a major mosque to attract and encourage Muslim immigration into an area where Islam has no current presence to speak of. The Muslims want the big mosque to be placed right next to a Buddhist temple where it will dominate the smaller structure visually and impact the surrounding community and daily temple life of Buddhists.
To hear Buddhist monks chanting quietly in the morning is to experience the essence of Thailand's national character. That disappears when mosques typically broadcast calls to prayer over loudspeakers five times a day.
The residents fear that their community has been targeted for the establishment of a Muslim settlement outpost with all that means. They are determined to convince the provincial government to reject the proposed mosque, and so far it looks like the residents' protests might be successful. The battle is still being fought and as with similar situations in North America, the Thai national news media is tip-toeing all around the real issues at the heart of this 'controversy' while the Muslims are playing the victim and human rights cards. The local news media is being a little more forthright as you can see in the linked articles.
The Chiang Rai provincial Islamic Committee says that Buddhists and Muslims in the North have been living together without any signs of religious conflict and the mosque won't change anything. Locals counter that with only 20 Muslims in a town of 6,000 Buddhists, the Muslims are on their best behaviour. They point to the South Thailand experience as to what happens to other religions when the Muslim population gathers sufficient strength.
(Reference earlier Atlas Shrugs story 'Jihad in Thailand. Muslims murder last Buddhist in South Thailand town, kill five soldiers responding.')
Surprisingly, in many ways the people and the community of Ban Pong Namron are reminiscent of so many similar places and people I've seen in the American midwest. Once you venture off the main drag where the gas stations, tractor repair shop and farm supply stores are, there's not much to see except fields, crops and cattle. A farm house might be made of bamboo or bare concrete, but it will still have a new Chevy pickup truck or New Holland tractor sitting in the yard. Just like in the USA, a farmer's equipment comes first before the house.
During the week the farmers sell their crops to the local wholesalers and buy what they need in town. On Friday and Saturday nights their sons and daughters put on their best and try to find some romance or adventure on main street under the watchful eyes of cautious, yet understanding, parents and older siblings. The popular music here is called 'Up Country' and once you get past the language difference, it sounds very much like a blend of what I heard on KRNY last time I drove through Kearney, Nebraska. Strange how that can be a half a world away.
Ban Pong Namron is above all a good and safe place to live and raise a family in Thailand. Both in physical distance and peace and security you can't get much further away in Thailand from the Muslim terrorism that is inundating four provinces some 2,000 kilometres to the South.
Ban Pong Namron is only a sleepy little farm town in Northern Thailand, but as you see by the attached news articles, Thais are paying increasing attention to what is happening here. People are making a stand against Islamic expansion.
The opposition to the big mosque is not driven by religious intolerance, for the Thai Buddhists are among the most tolerant and welcoming people on earth. (The country is 96% Buddhist, but Bangkok puts up a Nativity Scene with baby Jesus every Christmas. There are synagogues in four major cities, and Buddhist Thais happily celebrate Hindu, Sikh and Muslim holidays with their neighbours. Any excuse for a party.)
The opposition to the construction of a major mosque in Ban Pohn Namron is driven by fear: fear of seeing their Buddhist religion and culture come under attack, fear of intimidation and violence, and most of all fear of losing their lands as so many Buddhist farmers have in the South as they are forced to choose between their farms and their personal safety.
The residents of the north Thailand town of Ban Pohn Namron are fighting the same battle that Americans fought over the 9-11 Mosque in New York CIty. The proposed mosque isn't necessary, and both sides know that its construction would be an important symbol of Islamic power and intentions. The community's successful rejection of the mosque is similarly an important symbol and victory in the battle against Islamic supremacy.
Here are some news stories in the Thai English press:
http://www.chiangraitimes.com/news/7150.html
Chiang Rai Times: Chiang Rai Locals Fear Impact of New Mosque May 15, 2012
CHIANGRAI TIMES – An ongoing protest against the construction of a mosque in the midst of a Buddhist community looks set to succeed in aborting the project. Attempts to settle the dispute between local Buddhists and Muslims in Ban Pong Namron of tambon Mae Jedi Mai in Wiang Pa Pao district have had little impact amid accusations that officials are wilting under pressure from the area’s Buddhist majority.
Local Buddhists turned out in a mass protest against the mosque project on April 24 at the district office.
Since then Chiang Rai Governor Thanin Supasaen has ordered officials from the Public Works and Town and Country Planning office to inspect the project, raising allegations that local authorities have decided to seek “flaws” as an excuse to scrap the project instead of attempting to resolve the conflict.
Muslims blame Buddhist pressure for stalling construction, Sangha at Wiang Pa asking Muslim at Chiang Ria NOT build mosque in this area
“From land acquisition to the mosque design and asking for a construction permit, we’ve followed every legal step,” said Kamon Thomyawit, senior adviser to the coordinating committee for non-governmental organisations for the southern border provinces.
“But because people protest against it, state agencies are trying to persuade us to stop building,” he claimed. The construction of the mosque was initiated by Muslims who raised the funds to build a religious venue in Wiang Pa Pao district.
The site is expected to serve many of the 200,000 Muslims who pass through the area while travelling between Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.
There are about 20 Muslims in Ban Pong Namron, but protesters are worried about the 200,000 who are expected to travel along the route every year. Many Muslims from the South have invested in rubber plantations in the upper North, particularly Chiang Rai, they said.
The project’s supporters have so far listened to protesters but, Mr Kamon said, “Their reasons are not sound”. He said the group cites worries over divisions in the local community and a threat to security if the mosque is built. “So where do we find social justice?” He believes the problem exists because “the other side is greater in numbers”.
Many villagers in the neighbourhood are worried by the violence in the Muslim-dominated provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat in the far South, and wonder about how an influx of Muslims might affect their lives, said protest leader Bunnak Chomtham, chairman of the Noi-Nan Wiang Pa Pao group.
The protesters distributed leaflets opposing the project to residents in Wiang Pa Pao district and asked Buddhists to support their movement.
Ban Pong Namron villager Khemaphat Saengmani insisted the villagers do not oppose other religions, including Islam. He only wants the construction site to be relocated because it is adjacent to a Buddhist temple.
The role of authorities in dealing with the issue has come under criticism so far. They are suspected of bowing to the pressure of the Buddhist protesters.
Protesters have vowed to expel all provincial officials who are found to support the mosque’s construction. District chief Choetchai Phibunwutthikun attempted but failed to help the two sides settle differences, and referred the problem to the Chiang Rai governor.
However, Chiang Rai Islamic Committee chairman Rachan Ruchiphan is still optimistic about the issue.
He believes the quarrel between the local Buddhists and Muslims can be solved through sensible dialogue.
Buddhists and Muslims in the North have been living together so far without any signs of religious conflict, he noted.
Authorities need to look into the problem more thoroughly in order to find any “hidden causes” that have led to fierce protests, Mr Rachan added
http://www.chiangraitimes.com/news/7337.html
Chiang Rai Times: Villagers in Chiang Rai want Public Consultations over Building of New Mosque May 25, 2012
Buddhist locals in three northern provinces yesterday resumed rallies calling for public consultations before plans to build a mosque in Chiang Rai’s Wiang Pa Pao district go ahead.
About 400 protesters from Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Lamphun gathered at Ban Pong Namron of Tambon Mae Jedi Mai, where the proposed mosque would be built.
Buddhist pressure for stalling construction, Sangha at Wiang Pa asking Muslim at Chiang Ria NOT build mosque in this area
They said the mosque project must be stalled until residents in the neighbourhood have aired their views on the structure.
“This is not a protest, but it is a demonstration of our demand for public consultation,” said protest leader Phanom Surichaem, chairman of a teacher group in Wiang Pa Pao.
Some residents wary of the violence in the Muslim-dominated deep South fear for their security if the mosque is built, Mr Phanom said.
The people behind the project expect the mosque to serve 200,000 Muslims who travel regularly between Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai provinces.
Many Muslims from the South are now conducting business with rubber plantations in northern provinces.
The influx of such a large number of Muslims has worried the Buddhist villagers who fear their lifestyle will be affected.
However, supporters of the mosque insist their project meets all legal requirements set by authorities and should be allowed to go ahead.
Monk Sathit Thirapanyo, of the northern monk network from Lampang, said he agreed with the idea of holding public consultations to find a solution to the dispute.
Protesters last month gathered at the Wiang Pa Pao district office to speak out against the mosque project.
It's a sign of the times that we must rejoice when rational common-sensical decisions are made. I mean, really. Of course, surveillance of those who wish to destroy Western civilization is mandatory.
Over 45 Islamic plots have been thwarted since 911, and close to 200 Muslims have been arrested in thwarted jihad plots. New York is the number one target. So of course the most effective counter jihad law enforcement org in the world, the NYPD, would come under fire by Muslim Brotherhood groups in America.
No constitutional protections were contravened.
This was an attempt to intimidate the NYPD into dropping all efforts to stop jihad terror plots.
 Another setback for the merry pranksters of Hamas-linked CAIRDespite the best efforts of Hamas-linked CAIR's Honest Ibe Hooper and Nihad Awad, it is still legal for Americans to defend themselves against Islamic jihad. At least so far.
"NYPD Muslim surveillance legal, New Jersey officials say," from the Associated Press, May 26:
TRENTON, N.J. – New York City police did not violate New Jersey laws when they conducted surveillance of Muslim businesses, mosques and student groups, Gov. Chris Christie's administration said Thursday following a three-month review, a finding that angered Muslim leaders who had sought a clampdown on the cross-border police operations.
The conclusion by Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa, a Christie appointee asked by the governor to look into the spying, means New Jersey Muslims have no state recourse to stop the New York Police Department from infiltrating student groups, videotaping mosque-goers or collecting their license plate numbers as they pray.
Such operations were part of a widespread NYPD program to collect intelligence on Muslim communities both inside New York and beyond. Undercover officers and informants eavesdropped in Muslim cafes and monitored sermons, even when there was no evidence of a crime. The result was that many innocent business owners, students and others were cataloged in police files.
The interstate surveillance efforts, revealed by The Associated Press earlier this year, angered many Muslims and New Jersey officials. Some, like Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the state's top FBI official, criticized the tactics. Others, like Christie, focused more on the fact that the NYPD didn't tell New Jersey exactly what it was up to.
In response, Chiesa launched what he described as a fact-finding review. That review concluded that the NYPD's operations violated no state laws, either civil or criminal....
Chiesa, the governor's former chief counsel and a longtime confidante, outlined the state's findings in closed-door meetings Thursday afternoon with Muslim leaders.
"We remain committed to striking the appropriate balance of ensuring the safety of our citizens through vigilance in fighting terrorism, while not undermining the public's confidence in how we approach that mission," Chiesa said in a written statement.
Muslim leaders said they were told that every instance of NYPD activity in New Jersey had been justified by a lead, but that the attorney general would not provide any details on the nature of any of those leads, saying the fact-finding was ongoing.
They said that they did not find the assertion credible and that their efforts to maintain communication between the community and law enforcement would be hurt by the findings that the NYPD had done nothing wrong — and could keep doing what they have been doing.
"It was basically an, 'FYI, good Thursday afternoon, let it die in the media before the Memorial Day weekend,'" said Mohamed El-Filali, executive director of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, across the Hudson River from New York. If the surveillance of every mosque, burger joint and barbershop targeted was justified, he asked, why were no arrests made?
Aref Assaf of the American Arab Forum said the attorney general made them feel like second-class citizens.
"I said to him it's not only insulting, it's offensive to our sense of justice, that you bring us to Trenton to tell us that you accept as legal and valid the actions of the NYPD, and I will not be surprised if you're issuing an order informing your law enforcement officials that they too can spy on American Muslisms [sic] because if it's legal for NYPD, than it must be legal for NJ to do the same."
The Muslim leaders said they would consider all legal options, including renewed appeals for action by the U.S. Justice Department. A federal civil rights lawsuit has also been considered....
The NYPD has long maintained that its operations were lawful and necessary to keep the city safe. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the NYPD can gather intelligence anywhere in the country it wants and is not required to tell local authorities. NYPD lawyers say they are not bound by jurisdictional lines because they are just collecting intelligence, not making arrests or otherwise acting as police.
Told of New Jersey's findings, Bloomberg's spokesman, Marc La Vorgna, said in a statement: "We've said it time and again, NYPD has kept the city safe and they conduct their work legally."
The attorney general said a directive he issued requires all New Jersey law enforcement agencies to notify the New Jersey State Police Counter-Terrorism Bureau and the Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness if they hear of outside departments working in New Jersey. The state agencies will then coordinate with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, of which the NYPD is a member.
Chiesa said he is also establishing a Muslim outreach committee....
Oh, good. That will solve everything.
Not!
The Facebook Caliphate - Mark Steyn at his best:
So how’s that old Arab Spring going? You remember — the “Facebook Revolution.” As I write, they’re counting the votes in Egypt’s presidential election, so by the time you read this the pecking order may have changed somewhat. But currently in first place is the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi, who in an inspiring stump speech before the students of Cairo University the other night told them, “Death in the name of Allah is our goal.”
Like!
In second place is the military’s man Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister and a man who in a recent television interview said that “unfortunately the revolution succeeded.”
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In third place is moderate Islamist Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, a 9/11 Truther endorsed by the terrorist organization al-Gama’a al-Islamiya. He’s a “moderate” because he thinks Egyptian Christians should be allowed to run for the presidency, although they shouldn’t be allowed to win.
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As I said, this thrilling race is by no means over, and one would not rule out an eventual third-place finish by a rival beacon of progress such as Amr Moussa, the longtime Arab League flack and former Mubarak foreign minister. So what happened to all those candidates embodying the spirit of Egypt’s modern progressive democratic youth movement that all those Western media rubes were cooing over in Tahrir Square a year ago? How are they doing in Egypt’s first free presidential election?
You have 0 friends!
I don’t know about you, but I have the feeling that Messrs. Morsi, Shafiq, and Abolfotoh are not spending much time on Facebook, or even on Twitter. Indeed, for a “social-media revolution,” the principal beneficiaries seem to be remarkably antisocial: Liberated from the grip of Mubarak the new Egypt is a land where the Israeli embassy gets attacked and ransacked, Christians get killed and their churches burned to the ground, female reporters for the Western media are sexually assaulted in broad daylight, and for the rest of the gals a woman’s place is in the clitoridectomy clinic. In the course of the election campaign, the Muslim Brotherhood has cast off the veil of modernity and moderation that so beguiled the U.S. State Department and the New York Times: Khairat el-Shater, the deputy leader, now says that “the Koran is our Constitution” and that Mubarak-era laws permitting, for example, women to seek divorce should be revised. As the TV cleric Safwat Hegazy told thousands of supporters at a Brotherhood rally in the Nile Delta, “We are seeing the dream of the Islamic Caliphate coming true.”
Thus, the Facebook Revolution one year on. Status: It’s not that complicated. Since the founding of the Kingdom of Egypt in 1922, the country has spent the last nine decades getting worse. Mubarak’s kleptocracy was worse than Farouk’s ramshackle kingdom, and the new Egypt will be worse still.
At a certain level, there’s nothing very new about this. In the early stages of revolution, students are often on the front line, mainly because they’ve got nothing else to do all day. But by the time the strongman is being sworn in at the presidential palace they’re usually long gone from the scene, supplanted by harder and better-organized forces. Was it ever likely that Western “social media” would change this familiar trajectory?
There's more.
Thousands of Salafis in Tunisia: "Obama, We Are All Osama," "allah'u akbar!" (allah is greater)
Obama has repeatedly vowed to the Muslim world that the US is not at war with Islam. Indeed. But Islam is at war with the West. Not all Muslims, but a critical mass. Not all Germans were Nazis; what difference did that make?
Moderate Tunisia ........ as Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said to President Obama, there is no moderate Islam. There is no extreme Islam. Islam is Islam.
Earlier this week, I described a looming threat to the Republican party, the covert and overt Ron Paul putsch (read it here). James Lafferty, SIOA National Director and chairman of VAST (Virginia Anti-Sharia Task Force), files this report, exclusive to Atlas:
The Republican Party here in the battleground state of Virginia is getting a heaping dose of Ron Paul’s “delegate” strategy which includes stealth campaigns in the little-noticed interparty races for delegate to the Tampa national convention.
Conservative activists in other states recognize this as a template of Paul stealth campaigns in their communities.
In the past three months, particularly in Northern Virginia, Paul’s followers or “paulbots” have run for party offices without naming their candidate. Delegates for Romney or one of the others often included that identification in their introductions and speeches. But in phone banking on behalf of “Paulistas” no one volunteers who is the sponsor of the call and only begrudgingly admit to their affiliation with Paul when pressed hard.
When cornered, Paul operatives emphasize Paul’s small government and sound currency policies. But few are willing to discuss his isolationist views on foreign policy and none will discuss his dismissal of concerns about shariah in America and the safety of Israel except to bristle at the question.
The race for delegates are often what party leaders call “beauty contests” based more on personal relationships rather than policy considerations or political credentials.
Endorsements of the Paul delegate candidates come from various “conservative” groups which seem to spring up like mushrooms with websites but no phone numbers or names.
The Paul insurgents have had an open field because the Virginia GOP, like many other state political parties, is schletoric with the exception of the Ken Cuccinelli vote-growing machine.
And the matter is complicated by the GOP’s reliance on tea party groups to do much of the grassroots heavy-lifting. Paul supporters with tea party ties use their positions to push the stealth slate of Paul delegate candidates. Where the political landscape favors institutional party candidates , Paul tea party people promote actively the most inexperienced delegate candidates because they believe they will be “easily rolled and controlled” if Paul gets any traction in Tampa.
Their rationale is that even if Romney wins on the first ballot (which all but a few say is likely) a substantial Paul cadre of delegates will have a role in the VP selection and other major decisions on the future of the party.
If the unforeseen occurs, the Paul campaign wants to be prepared to seize the nomination and advance Paul initiatives like shuttering the IRS and imposing a gold standard.
Compared to the straight-shooter national image of Paul, the local vote-getting operations rely heavily on disguise and deception.
It always make sense when talking to a telephone pollster to ask “ who is paying for this poll?” but in this campaign cycle, it is important to know something about people who are asking you to vote for a specific person.
Paul and his followers have taken the old saying about “the illusion of power is power” to an extreme and are offering voters a shabbily-constructed illusion at a time when America has a desperate need for substantive leadership.
You go, girlfriend! No shame, no stifling hatred, no cloth coffin for me, fascist misogynists, sharia enforcers!
Have you noticed that every "moderate" Muslim country that had made any progress in freedom and individual rights is sliding back under the impossible chokehold of Islam and the sharia? From Turkey to Morocco, Algeria to Jordan ....... the immutable code of subjugation and oppression is smothering any hope of reform.
Christian Jordanian woman sues her Muslim employer WQOQ May 27
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - A Christian Jordanian woman said Sunday she is suing her Gulf Arab employer for arbitrary dismissal after she refused a new dress code forcing her to cover her head.
The incident is rare and could stir religious tensions in Jordan, a predominantly conservative Muslim nation whose Western-educated ruler - King Abdullah II - is perceived as a staunch supporter of moderate Islam and tolerance of other religions.
"We are not in Iran, we are in Jordan, and we must continue to enjoy personal and religious freedoms as stipulated by our constitution," said Vivian Salameh, 45, an assistant manager of corporate operations at the Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank since March 2010 until she was fired a week ago.
"I'm Christian. Why should I wear something not dictated by my religion?" she said in an interview.
Christians make up nearly 4 percent of the country's 6 million population.
Bank spokeswoman Eman Affaneh confirmed that Salameh was fired because "she refused to comply with the terms of her contract, which stipulates that all employees must respect management regulations and bank bylaws."
"We are an Islamic establishment and the dress code is a reflection of our conservative Muslim traditions and values," she said.
Salameh says she had worked for Jordan's Industrial Development Bank for 25 years until it was acquired in 2010 by the Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank - an offshoot of the Dubai Islamic Bank based in the United Arab Emirates. In January 2011, the new management issued a new regulation stipulating a unified dress code for its workers, including waist-to-heel skirts and head covers for female employees.
Salameh accepted the uniform, but refused to wear the head cover on grounds that it violated her religious beliefs and since the contract she signed when she was hired did not oblige her to a dress code.
Affaneh, the spokeswoman, said the headcover "is a fashionable piece of white cloth that shows the hair line - like what women wear in the Gulf Arab countries."
"It's not a headscarf, covering all the hair," she added.
She and Salameh said that five other Christian women employees at the bank accepted wearing the headcover.
When Salameh refused the head cover, "no action was taken against me for nearly 17 months until two weeks ago, when I was suddenly given two notices, five days apart, warning me that I will lose my job if I don't wear the head cover," she said.
"When I stuck by my decision, I was verbally fired last Sunday," she said, adding that she filed a lawsuit against the bank.
The next legal step would be for the court to decide when it would hear the case.
Affaneh, the spokeswoman, says the bank has not been notified of the lawsuit.
"Her contract allows her to do what she wants," she said. She declined to discuss the matter further.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Dr. Babu Sseelan wrote me this:
This is what I saw in the Middle east. There is press censorship in all Islamic countries. All websites including all news from Israel is banned in all Islamic countries. Muslim Brotherhood may emerge as a strong force in all Islamic countries as a result of Arab Spring.
Dr. Suseelan will be addressing the World Congress on freedom in opposition to the sharia at the SION September 11, 2012 Freedom Congress, UN Plaza.
ARAB SPRING: AL TAQUIEA IN ACTION
Dr. Babu Suseelan
Recently I have traveled all over the Islamic Arab world. I have studied Islamic culture, their life style, Arab Spring, Islamic fervor, Jihad Terrorism, and political turmoil in the Islamic world. I have witnessed the rebellion of the Muslims against the hypocrisy of the brutal Islamic rulers and the estrangement from Islamic culture and the system of the Islamic rulers. Phony Western liberals, pseudo secularists and the gutless media call it Arab spring. But I think the present political turmoil in the Islamic Arab world is Al- Taquiea in action.
I have witnessed misery, distress, discrimination and agony of Muslims in the Middle East. The present generation of Muslims long for a new political existence. They are craving not for Islamic reformation or renaissance but of the wholeness of Islamic life. Again the revolutionaries have shown the world the deficiencies of the existing rulers, corruption, and industrial ugliness. The world has witnessed the political upheaval in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait.
In spite of rapid technological and digital development, Muslims cannot slough off their all exclusive, rigid and closed dogma. Mullahs and Islamic rulers brutally repress real freedom, democracy, pluralism, secularism, religious tolerance and the transcendental quest of Muslims. Although in many ways identical with the traditional revolution in the Islamic Arab world, the outcry this time was linked to a vague the leftist political expression of the bourgeois life style and corruption of the existing rulers. The political crisis we witness in the Islamic world is actually Al Taquiea in action. The political revolution is not for democracy, secularism, pluralism, coexistence, religious tolerance or for real democracy. The political revolution and mass killing is against the existing regimes. The political protest has frozen into a new Islamic orthodoxy. I have noticed that the political protest would have become much more pragmatic if the protesters were interested in reforming Islam, revisiting the Koran and cultural hostility against other religions.
I heard voices for Islam, speeches denigrating reason, hostility against democratic Israel, secularism, religious tolerance as they have made periodically in Islamic countries. Paradoxically, Muslims were highlighting their cultural grievances against Jews, Hindus, and Christians and against modern technology. Islamic countries have undergone revolution and social crisis before; Muslims were successful in changing regimes in Libya, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in the past decades. But unfortunately, the new regimes championed a new form Islamization. The new administration and the Islamic public took the notion that Islamic cultural factors alone are capable of overcoming their economic, political and social decline. To me, the so called Arab spring is a psychodrama, a projection of Islamic principles and its irrational ingredients in to politics. Muslim Brother Hood may gain more strength and they may propose Islamic idealism without accountability for solutions to their problems.
It is surprising that the educated have been moved by the Islamic ideology; it is strange that they continued to believe in it. They never understand that Islam is the root cause of hostility and terrorism. Even in this digital era, Arabs clung all the more desperately to the outdated Islamism. To them, the appeal of the Mullahs and their interpretation of Islam are immense. In turn, they emphasized that the appeal of Islam and admit the cultural rottenness and political irresponsibility of their rulers. They blame western technology, Israel and Jews for their social, political and economic problems. They fail to make social and political turmoil in Arab countries today to outdated Islamic practices. It may seem correct to make a connection between the political crisis and the ideas of Islamism.
It is a dangerous time in the Islamic world. Islamic world need sensible thinkers, social reformers and social leaders to speak up and finding support for Islamic reform and a social renaissance. The Islamic world is facing a dangerous period, as deep hatred against Jews and other non Muslims are encouraged. There is also a rush to wipe out Israel from the earth. Muslims all over the world should eliminate sectarian thinking, and hatred against non Muslims. Islam is not a political solution for all ills created by Muslims. Arab Muslims cannot or will not win by confrontation with Israel or the powerful west. The current state of social and political crisis has a great to deal with the west’s misunderstanding and ignorance of Islam. America and the west deal with Jihad terrorism as committed by certain disgruntled Muslims. Muslims want to create a Dar-Ul-Islam where there will be no more democracy or pluralism. Muslims want to impose Sharia law rather than educational reform, coexistence or reformation. Muslims rich or poor, educated or uneducated never reach for knowledge or ethics or social responsibility that may exceed their grasp. For Muslims, Islam is the final answer to all social-political-psychological problems. For Muslims, Islam is a closed and pure religion which needs no reformation or revision. Those who criticize Mullahs are called apostate and beheaded. Instead of reform they preach Islamic virtues of Islamic fighters and Jihad warriors.
It is important that western rulers, instead providing grants and military assistance must insist on educational change and Islamic reformation.
In the United Arab Emirates, I saw the marvels of western technology. Western technology and foreign professionals have elevated the standards of life of Muslims in UAE. Yet, people in UAE are confronted by a number of psycho-social-political problems. There is no democracy, pluralism, independent judiciary, secularism, religious tolerance in UAE. Indigenous Islamic population and foreign workers are confronted by number of problems and face discrimination and face stress, alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, divorce,, homicide, terrorism violence and other form of deviant crime Statistics and simple observation inform us that there is hardly an individual, family, group, or community that is untouched by the rules of the Sheiks and Sharia law in UAE. The Islamic rulers use modern technology and the media for sophisticated mans and manipulation including brutal Sharia judges to oppress the public into receptive, passive consumer of unwanted ideas of the Islamic rulers. Islamic dogma is used instead of democracy. People in all Islamic countries spend more time not for introspection and think critically and creatively. Mullahs and ruling Sheiks impose strict censorship. Any news critical of Islam and several websites are banned in UAE and all Islamic countries. For Muslims, ignorance of liberalism, democracy, empiricism and western thought is bliss.
There is growing tendency to find simplistic solution to issues in Islam. It is dangerous. The cultural pessimism and western technology have been recognized as an important factor by Muslims Brotherhood to propagate and converting Muslims for jihad. Failure to understand the deeply rooted Islamism in Arab culture will have disastrous consequences for the free world. Elite western political leaders and administrators are restrained from recognizing the root cause of social-political crisis the Islamic world. This aspect of the rise of jihad has been over looked by our liberal/Marxist educators and misunderstood by our political/intellectual leaders.
Oil money from Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries have made our intellectuals and academicians either abashed or apologetic. It is about time to speak against the brutal verses of Islam and facing up to Jihad terrorism. Or else we will face terrible dangers to our life, liberty and life style. It is hoped that the current political turmoil in Islamic countries may serve to put the era of ad hominem of tolerance, commerce and profit making behind us. With the weight of evidence of worldwide Jihad terrorism now clear, may be fake liberals and phony secularists will give up their addictive thinking and cognitive disorder. Free world must face Islamic reality, overcome denial and escapism. IF not, Islamism will destroy more lives, and will rob us our liberty and free thinking.
It is our duty, responsibility and obligation to preserve our freedom, protest peace by forcing Muslims to reform Islam.
Here's the thing: where are the fashion icons and fashionistas on this "women's issue"? Why isn't Anna (nuclear) Wintour on a campaign in the pages of Vogue railing against the sharia every month? This is their issue. Where are Grace Coddington, Glenda Bailey, Robbie Myers et al? Vacuous hypocrites, all.
 Iranian police in pursuit of their vision of the goodShould society be oriented toward freedom, or toward the good, as its highest value? In Iran, the regime has firmly opted for the latter, and beats women who get out of line. Sharia Alert from the Islamic Republic of Iran: "Flowers and beatings for women attending book fair + photo," from Mohabat News, May 23 (thanks to Lachlan):
According to the semi-official Fars news agency, women arriving at Tehran's 25th annual International Book Fair in the obligatory Islamic hejab were presented with flowers by the organisers. Meanwhile outside the entrance women deemed to be defying the regime's Islamic values by not dressing appropriately were beaten and dragged away by religious police.
Shahrzad -- After a photograph published on the internet showing officers dragging a woman towards a police van was quickly taken up by major international news agencies, the fair's organisers condemned such behaviour. Aftab News reported that director Bahman Dari had issued a statement dissociating his office from the beating and public humiliation of women. "We shall not tolerate the physical harassment of women on our territory, and will deal with those responsible."
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