What's stunning about this year's crop of endorsers is the torrent of venom, mendacity and absurdity that spills from their mouths and pens.

The anti-Israeli factions in the world love to demonize the Israeli people, depicting them only as murderers and child killers, conveniently leaving out the good.

There’s a wonderful Israeli-based organization called SAVE A CHILD’S HEART, whose sole mission is

“to improve the quality of pediatric cardiac care for children from developing countries who suffer from heart disease and to create centers of competence in these countries. SACH is totally dedicated to the idea that every child deserves the best medical treatment available, regardless of the child’s nationality, religion, color, gender or financial situation.”

SACH is motivated by the age-old Jewish tradition of Tikkun Olam – repairing the world. By mending the hearts of children, regardless of their origin, SACH is contributing to a better and more peaceful future for all of our children.

The video below shows Israeli and Palestinian doctors coming together to save a Palestinian baby’s life:

If the Israelis were as heartless as some would like to portray them, they would never offer humanitarian aid (in the form of emergency health care) to Palestinians. They would simply refuse to treat them. Since the beginning of the current battle against Hamas, Israeli doctors have treated at least 12 Palestinians too wounded for Gazan hospitals to help. Rather than being flown to neighbouring Arab hospitals, they were sent to Tel Aviv.

Then there are the Israelis with long standing ties to Palestinians, who have gone out of their way to help their friends in times of need.

Dudi Doron, a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Azza

“...used to employ more than a dozen Palestinians from Gaza.

But gradually, the economic links have been reduced. After Israel dismantled settlements and army bases in Gaza, it stopped giving entry permits, save for Gazans in need of medical treatment. When Hamas took control of Gaza, Israel reduced the operations of commercial crossings, allowing in only humanitarian aid.

“Now they’re living off of flour and olives,” says Dudi Doron, a Kfar Azza resident who keeps in regular contact with Mohammed, a laborer from the Gaza city of Khan Younis who worked on the kibbutz for 20 years but now is unemployed.

Though Mohammed calls from an Israeli cellphone given to him by Mr. Doron, the Khan Younis resident is hard to reach because of patchy networks.

About three months ago, Doron wired 4,000 shekels ($1,080) to a Gaza bank to help Mohammed’s family make ends meet. But Doron still supports Israel’s policy of stopping fuel supplies.”

It’s time for people to see the other side of the story.

Many Jewish charities around the world raise hundreds of millions of
dollars annually to operate hospitals where all are treated, Jew or Palestinian, for free.

 

Two ads shown below, click on the image for an enlarged version. The top ad is an anti- Catholic ad the New York Times ran and the one below that is basically the same ad, but the words "Catholic Church" were replaced with the word "Islam," and "liberal and nominal Catholics" was replaced with "moderate Muslims", etc... simple changes to reflect the target audience but kept to the format of the anti-Catholic ad, and the New York Times refused to run it at this time.

Apologists sometimes claim that Muhammad himself would be against killing anyone in defense of his own honor - unfortunately for them, he actually had the chance.

we know that intolerance within the Muslim world extends far beyond the membership of “extremist” groups. Recent events in Afghanistan demonstrate, yet again, that ordinary Afghans grow far more incensed when a copy of the Qur’an gets defaced than when their own children are accidentally killed by our bombs—or intentionally murdered. I doubt there is a more ominous skewing of priorities to be found in this world.
Should people be free to draw cartoons of the Prophet? There must be at least 300 million Muslims spread over a hundred countries who think that a person should be put to death for doing so. (This is based on every poll assessing Muslim opinion I have seen over the past ten years.) Should Ayaan Hirsi Ali be killed for her apostasy? Millions of Muslim women would applaud her murder (to say nothing of Muslim men). These attitudes must change. The moral high ground here is clear, and we are standing on it.

Sudanese Christians who have barely a month to leave the north or risk being treated as foreigners are starting to move, but Christian leaders are concerned that the 8 April deadline set by Islamic-majority Sudan is unrealistic.

Rev. Franklin Graham — son of Billy Graham — would not say if President Obama is a Christian during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday, insisting that “I cannot answer that question for anybody.” Franklin claimed that the President began attending Church to bolster his political career and is a Muslim under Islamic law. “Islam sees him as a son of Islam because his father was a Muslim, his grandfather was a Muslim, great grandfather was a Mulsim and so under Islamic law, the Muslim world sees Barack Obama as a Muslim,” Graham said, before explaining that he could not rule out the possibility that Obama may secretly be Muslim. “I can’t say categorically [that Obama is not a Muslim] because Islam has gotten a free pass under Obama,” he said.

The visibly shocked Morning Joe crew pressed Graham further and discovered that he was far more willing to accept the other presidential candidates’ personal testaments.

TPM:

Rick Santorum spokesperson Alice Stewart slipped up on MSNBC Monday afternoon when talking about President Obama's environmental policies. Instead, she called them Obama's "radical Islamic policies." Watch the video:................

The New York Police Department monitored Muslim college students far more broadly than previously known, at schools far beyond the city limits, including the Ivy League colleges of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, The Associated Press has learned.

Police talked with local authorities about professors 300 miles away in Buffalo and even sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip, where he recorded students' names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed.

Detectives trawled Muslim student websites every day and, although professors and students had not been accused of any wrongdoing, their names were recorded in reports prepared for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote in her Newsweek article, that there is a “conspiracy of silence” over mass religious persecution of Christians in Muslim nations. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm. 

It is more than a conspiracy of silence. It is a conspiracy of political and media apathy. There is no political or journalistic will to continually publicize and condemn religious persecution by extremist Muslims or Islamic dictatorships. 

This silence and apathy create an implied consent for religious persecution.

The American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was dealt a blow last year when several organizations withdrew over the inclusion of a gay conservative group, GOProud, on its roster of sponsors. Having officially banished all gays who so much as make a peep about their rights, however, the annual right-wing shindig is back in business and conservative as all get-out, featuring representatives of a dizzying array of anti-gay, anti-tax, anti-abortion and anti-Muslim organizations, including hate group leaders like Pamela Geller of Stop Islamization of American (SIOA) and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (FRC).

Peace is at the heart of Neve Shalom.

Long before universities starting granting graduate degrees in peacemaking and diplomacy, a handful of Israeli families -- three Jewish and one Arab - devised their own path to a better future for their children.

Together they founded a new intentional community in 1979, based on trust and shared values.

That's just it, too. The claims of “war on religion” seem to always come when a move by the administration, a court, or legislature has granted more rights and protections to those who are not straight, male and usually white. When white evangelicals and Catholics claim that Obama's declaring a war on religion, they mean on their religion. They're evoking the same xenophobia as the demands for the birth certificate, as the claims that Obama is a Muslim. The insinuation is that the president isn't American, isn't like them, and thus is to be feared, hated, or simply voted out of office.

We've collected five examples  of the GOP and religious-right leaders claiming their rights are being infringed when the government tells them they can no longer use their beliefs as an excuse to discriminate against others.

    Consider, then address specific arguments and ideas put forth by others, intelligently, rather than taking the easy route and attacking them personally. A "personal attack" is defined as directly or indirectly insulting another user (or group of users), oftentimes by name-calling, labeling, making sweeping generalizations or putting words into their mouth.Examples    •    "You are a racist..."    •    "Your ideas are idiotic..."    •    "[insert political affiliation]s are stupid."Warning that "all comments with name calling will be deleted. Comments with party names altered to insults (teabaggers, libtards, repukes) will be deleted."Name calling as :Obozo, moron, Obumbo ect. will also be deleted.  Use The Governor, Rick Perry, Perry, The President, Barrack Obama, Obama.
    The topic is not whether the seed is good or bad or even my opinion or "logic".

A website with close ties to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has outlined why it would be acceptable to kill all Jews and annihilate Israel.Conservative site Alef has published a doctrine detailing why the destruction of the nation and the slaughter of all its people would be legally and morally justified.It warned that the chance to remove the 'corrupting material' of Israel must not be lost - and that it would only take nine minutes to wipe it out.And it said it was a 'jurisprudential justification' for Iran's Islamic government to then take the helm.The article, written by Khamenei's strategy specialist Alireza Forghani, is now being run on most state-owned conservative sites, indicating it has the regime's support.

Gunmen in Nigeria on Friday opened fire on friends and relatives gathered to mourn the deaths of three Christians killed on Thursday, leaving up to 20 more people dead.

With the growing popularity of Ron Paul and his libertarian agenda some libertarian’s think that their basic concept of the supremacy of the individual over the needs of the commons is somehow taking hold in the wider electorate. During this time it’s important to remember that those subscribing to the libertarian philosophy are a small minority in this country and are so because most people believe in the concept of a greater good. And for good reason, as a philosophy libertarianism is spiritually bankrupt.

‘I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.‘ – 1 Corinthians 10:23-24

The Buddha described the path of wisdom as ‘the middle path’ and taught about moderation in all aspects of life. Hinduism speaks of a middle path of salvation based on the principles of holistic growth in body, mind and spirit.

The Bible talks about temperate behavior between the things that are permissible and the things that are beneficial. Islam promotes ‘wasatiyyah’, the persuasion that the best of works are those done in moderation. 

All of the world's great spiritual teachings are united on the idea of "the middle path" being the road to salvation. Our faiths emphasize the middle path in personal growth and social harmony; in the holistic growth of mind, body and spirit, in our conduct and in our dealings with one another.

‘Avoiding both these extremes, the Perfect One has realized the Middle Path; it gives vision, gives knowledge, and leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment …‘ – Buddha

The middle path must become the way today in a world that is rapidly globalizing and a country that is rapidly diversifying - we simply have no other choice because the challenges of dealing with diversity will be most felt in all areas of our lives - in businesses, in education and in how we govern ourselves. To be successful policies that affect the nation as a whole must benefit the nation as a whole. Given this reality it goes without saying that any decision made must consider the diverse values and needs of those involved - and that is all of us. The good of the whole of must prevail over the desires of the individual.

In a changing nation where we can no longer overlook diversity we have to be wise enough to consider the needs of those of differing values, their needs and their hopes for themselves and their offspring. In today’s diverse society, unity in diversity is essential for the health of our nation.

In economics and politics justice demands policies that favor that which promotes the most common good. To solve the problems born from economic disparity it doesn’t take the extreme measures of nationalizing wealth or taking the wealth of one person to resolve the poverty of another. Instead it takes a moderate path that combines three elements: 1) the fostering of affirmative action that benefits the most people; 2) the fair redistribution of wealth; and 3) the shared value of working hard to increase the nation’s per capita income and building a modern infrastructure that benefits the country as a whole.

The goal must be the expansion of the economic and societal pie and inclusion of the most in the political process so that poverty can be alleviated without taking away the wealth of others. Selfishness and greed must be replaced with the concept that the larger the pie the healthier the society and that the more there is to share the more there is for each of us.

People have become disgusted with what the world has to offer and they are running away from it. Libertarianism in this reality is spiritually bankrupt. It offers none of the solutions required of a modern, diverse society that requires that all of us work together to benefit the most people to promote justice for all and increase the size of the pie that we all share.

With his slash-and-burn style, he described the United States as Israel’s “Shabbos goy… the non-Jew who is paid a trifling fee to turn out the lights or turn on the stove, or whatever else is needful to get around the more annoying regulations of the Sabbath. How the old buzzard must cackle when he sees the gentiles actually volunteering a bribe to do the lowly work! And lowly it is,” wrote Hitchens, “involving the tearing-up of international law and U.N. resolutions and election promises, and the further dispossession and eviction of a people to whom we gave our word…. [We] will most certainly be made to regret it. For now, though, the shame.”
He rhetorically asked Israelis, in Slate: “Without God on your side, what the hell are you doing in the greater Jerusalem area in the first place?”

I watched a segment on Rock Center tonight about this group, and found it to be very fascinating...AND inspiring!

"The Muslims Are Coming" are a group of Muslim American comedians who are touring the country in an effort to dispel myths many Americans have about Muslims, and to extend the hand of friendship using comedy.

Here are a few links with more information about this group...

http://themuslimsarecoming.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Muslims-Are-Coming/124443050979659?sk=wall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGHXIXMVhLI

Romney said radical, violent Islamists pose a threat to Americans and others around the world. However, he said, “they take a very different view of Islam than the Muslims I know.”

And everyone wants to pretend the imposition of Sharia that is following each revolution won't be a problem, and could even be an improvement. After all, there's promise after promise of "moderate" Islamic governance. One consistent trait that betrays the outwardly friendly face of the revolutions is the antisemitic rhetoric that has accompanied them. "Praise Arab Spring, Except for Anti-Semitism," by Jeffrey Goldberg for Bloomberg, November 29:
The bravery of the youth of Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Libya can’t be denied. It isn’t pepper spray that they’ve been facing. Nor can the idealism of the Arab Spring be denied. The people of the Middle East are finally awakening to the promise of liberty.

There is another truth, however, that shouldn’t be denied. The desire of Arabs to be free of their spiteful and pitiless dictators is sometimes expressed in grotesquely anti-Jewish terms.

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 documented 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 its 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

It seems that an investigation has been sparked by Muslim “outrage” against a Catholic university (called Catholic University) for being, well, Catholic. Evidently Muslim students feel their human rights have been violated by not getting special digs on campus, minus Catholic imagery, to do their daily prayers on college grounds.

Let’s see, what can I compare this situation to? Hmmm. Dig deep, Doug, dig deep. Channel your inner Dennis Miller. I’ve got it! That’s like going to Hooters and being offended at all the bodacious hooters bouncing about. People don’t go to Hooters for their chicken wings; it’s called Hooters. Hoot-ers. Hooters. Geez, people. What the heck did you expect, students? It’s called Catholic University for a reason.

A George Washington University law professor who filed a human rights complaint against Catholic University this summer when it eliminated coed dorm floors has filed a second complaint against the school, saying the rights of Muslim students are being violated.

The fear campaign has succeeded in meeting the investors’ objective of increasing the unfavorable view of Islam, in America.  The increased fear/hatred of Islam in America has increased to disturbing levels, as reflected in a Study by the Center for America Congress.   The Southern Poverty Law Center’s analysis offers similar conclusions.

There are real consequences that stem from this decade long hate campaign, be it bombings, as occurred in Jacksonville Florida in 2010, the increase in hate crimes directed at Muslims, or just your run of the mill effort by so called advocates of liberty to suppress constitutionally guaranteed rights.

It comes as no surprise then that several of the GOP’s presidential candidates speak the language of fear and disinformation that was so carefully cultivated over the past decade.  The long term conditioning is what makes it possible for some people to accept what would be otherwise unacceptable.   This is what makes it possible and acceptable in some circles for Herman Cain to make the following statement:

Irshad Manji,  progressive Muslim and Islamic reformer speaks out on the Palestinian bid for statehood in the U.N. (Video is from 2/26/2011).

The first thing to say, when reviewing the question of what America should do about those of its citizens who advocate the murder of random numbers of its civilians, is that it is flat-out astonishing to see the debate being conducted at all. Faced with jeering, sniggering, vicious saboteurs who hide from the daylight and pop up on blogs and cheap CDs, calmly awarding religious permission for the capricious taking of life, what do we imagine Vladimir Putin would do? Or the police and security forces of the People’s Republic of China? Or Israel or Saudi Arabia? To ask the question is to answer it.

CAIRO (AP) — On her first day to school, 15-year-old Christian student Ferial Habib was stopped at the doorstep of her new high school with clear instructions: either put on a headscarf or no school this year.

Habib refused. While most Muslim women in Egypt wear the headscarf, Christians do not, and the move by administrators to force a Christian student to don it was unprecedented. For the next two weeks, Habib reported to school in the southern Egyptian village of Sheik Fadl every day in her uniform, without the head covering, only to be turned back by teachers.

Citizen Enemies: Anwar al-Awlaki granted  religious permission to shoot at will.

By Christopher Hitchens

Posted Monday, Oct. 3, 2011, at 1:49 PM ET

Probably because it mainly provides the kind of short-term cinematic satisfaction that characterizes the Hellfire terminus, the flashy ending of al-Qaida’s main media star has only led to the reopening of some pressing questions about the nature of the jihadi menace. It has also forced us to confront the idea of words as weapons, and the relationship between ideas and actions, in a world of conscienceless criminal violence that operates without employing any code or precedent of its own.

To phrase the essence of the problem succinctly, you are perhaps more likely, as a reader of this column, to be blown up at work or play, or on the way to work or play, by a “homegrown” or “lone-wolf” or “self-starter” fanatic using whatever explosive or incendiary tools may lie to hand, than you are to die at the hands of al-Qaida or the Shabab or any of their shifting surrogates. In the same way, it is at least as likely that a local operative will emerge from the American suburbs to commit one random and unpredictable act as it is that—as sometimes has happened—a fanatic will leave our shores and take himself to Somalia or Yemen or Afghanistan. And so we have the figures of Maj. Nidal Hasan, unsheathing his weapon at Fort Hood to yell “God Is Great!” or Faisal Shahzad rigging his SUV to explode in Times Square or, at one more remove, Farouk Abdulmutallab stuffing his underwear with combustibles and (rather too easily, given his record) boarding a flight to Detroit.

It doesn’t seem strictly accurate to use the “lone wolf” designation in all these cases, because a potent influence on the loner can be a homegrown counselor or adviser, who speaks the vernacular and has also lived in “the belly of the beast.” In the recent past, Anwar al-Awlaki has been the classic and most successful instance. His evolving contact with Hasan, for example, seemingly walking him through all of the stages that lead up to the granting of religious permission to shoot at will, was quite systematic. There were times when Awlaki was working under our very noses, propagandizing in Virginia and elsewhere from the context of an existing mosque (and so far getting into the swing of things that he attracted FBI notice by transporting ladies of the night across state lines, which is how we might have come to know him).

But he had not himself, at that stage, fully pupated himself into a committed Salafi jihadist. So now we have the phenomenon of an American citizen, able to whisper directly into the ears of people living here, but until recently being able to do so from a geographical location where our laws cannot reach him. There is no precedent, however remote, for a legal and moral challenge of this kind, let alone for a political or military one.

Since this dilemma will be with us for some time, may I recommend a recent booklet that offers the most background to the emergence of this fascinating and frustrating enemy. Called As American as Apple Pie: How Anwar al Awlaki Became the Face of Western Jihad, it is published by the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence. (Its author, I should proudly make haste to add, is my son.) The booklet explores the tradition of English-speaking Salafi agitators working in the West, a tradition that is longer and more ramified than many people think, but I find myself more absorbed by the aspect represented by the late Samir Khan, a Pakistani-American who until he died in the same Hellfire attack was the editor of Awlaki’s glossy magazine Inspire. Some will remember this unique online publication for its jeering, upbeat reports on the extreme cheapness of the print-cartridge bombs that were loaded from Yemen onto planes bound for our shores (the manufacturer of these bullets may also have died in the same attack), or the upbeat cover story on how to make bombs on your own mama’s kitchen table. While other martyrdom tactics were being used on faraway battlefields, said Khan not long ago, and even while Osama Bin Laden was being removed from the chessboard, the idea of homegrown attacks on U.S. soil was moving “into fifth gear.”

In a rhetorical way, this mirrors Bin Laden’s obsessive distinction between operations against India, say, or Iraq, and spectacular assaults on “the far enemy” or the prestige and security of the United States. To his last days, he argued even with his own lieutenants for a renewal of the second type of warfare. But it also raises a much less grand image: that of the pathetic amateur and misfit who can commit perhaps one limited act of vicious spite against his neighbors or co-workers or even passers-by.

I think it is important to watch for symptoms of sheer degeneracy like this—picknose wannabe murderers lurking in their parents’ basement—because there is evidence that such things (like the use of small children to carry suicide bombs) arouse revulsion even among those who otherwise wish us ill. It also dramatically reduces the caliber of recruit. On the other hand, and too little remarked, such tactics do something that is worth the price of a good deal of high explosive. They annihilate trust and confidence. Do you really want, next to you at boot camp, a man who prostrates himself five times a day? Should one say anything about the man with the beard in the next seat? Is a mosque in town the next development you truly welcome in the spirit of “inclusiveness” and “diversity”?

Slow and sidelong cultural erosions of this kind can do incalculable harm. And they can also be horribly and cheaply self-replicating: Some people will “overreact” to a specter of Islamism however slight, and this will offend the man who is only trying to meet his prayer obligations, and then a whole machinery of supposed grievance and redress clanks into action. Meanwhile, those who orchestrate this little carnival of mayhem and social corrosion are able to do so from areas that are beyond our legal jurisdiction but within our military reach, and to taunt us while doing so.

As we engage with the horrible idea that our government claims the right to add its own citizens to a death list that is compiled by methods and standards unknown, we must concede that no government on earth faces such a temptation to invoke what I suppose we could call a doctrine of pre-emptive self-defense. Those who share my alarm at the prospect of this, and of the ways in which it could be abused, are under a heavy obligation to say what they would do instead.

From Slate: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2011/10/anwar_al_awlaki_when_is_it_acceptable_to_kill_a_u_s_citizen_susp.single.html

And people say Muslims don't speak out against extremism. Congrats to the Pakistani scholar as well!
Read this article and then read the comments. Why are people so negative towards an anti-extremism protest?

a fundamental question: are those who carry out acts of violence in the name of a religion true followers of that religion, or not? A new survey from Public Religion Research Institute, and a new joint report by PRRI and the Brookings Institution, reveals that Americans literally apply a double standard when answering this question, depending on whether the perpetrator is Christian or Muslim. More than 8-in-10 (83 percent) Americans say that those who commit violence in the name of Christianity are not truly Christian. On the other hand, less than half (48 percent) of Americans extend this same principle to Muslims and say that those who commit violence in the name of Islam are not truly Muslim.

One way of quantifying the double standard is to evaluate the percentage point difference between a group’s willingness to affirm the religious identity of self-proclaimed Christian perpetrators vs. self-proclaimed Muslim perpetrators. This double standard gap is, not surprisingly, most pronounced among those who self-identify as Christian, but different Christian groups employ stronger double standards than others. For example, among white evangelical Protestants, the gap is a staggering 47 percentage points: only 10 percent of evangelicals believe that a self-identified Christian perpetrators are really Christian, compared to 57 percent who believe that self-identified Muslim perpetrators are truly Muslim.

The double standard gap for other Christian groups is also large but significantly lower than the gap among white evangelical Protestants: 27 points each for Catholics and white mainline Protestants, and 23 points for black Protestants. Non-Christian religiously affiliated Americans-a composite group that includes Muslims along with Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and other minority religions-has the most consistent approach to these questions, with a double standard gap of only 14 points.

The double standard gap also differs by political party affiliation. The double standard gap is 45 points for both Republicans and Americans who identify with the Tea Party movement, nearly double the size of the gap among Independents (25 points) and Democrats (23 points). 

[...]

The full report, jointly released by PRRI and the Brookings Institution, along with the topline questionnaire and methodology, can be found here.

We met General and Christian crusader Jerry Boykin, the former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, early in the beginning of the Bush era, putting down other gods as false gods, naming our enemy in Iraq not as Saddam Hussein but as Satan himself, and claiming that Bush was not elected by the people but chosen by God. Boykin makes George S. Patton look calm, cool, and collected. Oh, and George S. Patton was entirely sane.

Although Turkey has always been an 'ally' of Israel (in spite of recent ups and downs with the ruling AKP ) the Turkish state, albeit secular, has had a rocky relationship with its 'dhimmi' minorities. Now, however, in an AP report carried by Israel Hayom, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in favour of the restitution of confiscated communal property to Jews and Christians. If Turkey still wants to be admitted to the EU, it had better comply

The Pew Center has a new 136-page report out about Muslim Americans. The report's title, "Muslim Americans: No Signs of Growth in Alienation or Support for Extremism" makes Pew's perspective clear, and seems directed at some conservatives who suggest that all Muslims and Muslim Americans are potential terrorists. Or professors and physicists. But mostly terrorists.

The survey shows Muslim Americans as being distinctly anti-terror, with 48% of them saying U.S. Muslim leaders "have not done enough" to speak out against Islamic extremists. Only 1% of those surveyed said there was "often" a justifiable excuse for using violence to defend Islam, and only 5% had a favorable view of Al Qaeda.

When war broke out in Europe again, and Jewish lives were in danger, Benghabrit used the mosque as a hiding place, issuing each person with a fake certificate of Muslim identity. One North African Jew named Albert Assouline who had escaped from a German prison camp, wrote of his experience hiding in the mosque, “No fewer than 1,732 resistance fighters found refuge in its underground caverns.

These included Muslim escapees but also Christians and Jews. The latter were by far the most numerous.” Accounts differ on the number of those saved, yet it remains a shining story of human solidarity.

Muslim Americans are now more optimistic about their lives than any other major American faith group as their economic well-being improves and they feel more politically enfranchised.

Pollsters noted in particular the rapid surge in positive sentiment among Muslim Americans. The percentage of Muslims who were "thriving" grew by 19 points since 2008, double that of any other major faith group.

While anti-Muslim advocates like Frank Gaffney, Rep. Allen West (R-FL) and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) have been outspoken advocates of the theory that radical Islamists are infiltrating the U.S., a poll released today by the Abu Dhabi Gallup center shows that American Muslims are the religious group in America most likely to reject violence against civilians.

The monster who slaughtered at least 76 innocent victims in Norway was animated by the same blend of paranoia, xenophobia and alienation that fuels anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States. Yes, it could happen here.

One could argue that it already did, in Oklahoma City. The difference is that Timothy McVeigh's apocalyptic anger was diffuse and non-specific. Anders Behring Breivik — who has acknowledged detonating a powerful fertilizer bomb in central Oslo and then killing scores of teenagers and young adults on a nearby resort island — was focused like a laser beam on what he saw as the "threat" posed by Islam.

Christian Terrorism and Islamophobia: by   Sam Harris

At certain points near the extremity of human evil it becomes difficult, and perhaps pointless, to make ethical distinctions. However, I cannot shake the feeling that detonating a large bomb in the center of a peaceful city with the intent of killing vast numbers of innocent people was the lesser of Anders Behring Breivik’s transgressions last week. It seems to me that it required greater malice, and even less humanity, to have intended this atrocity to be a mere diversion, so that he could then commit nearly one hundred separate murders on the tiny Island of Utoya later in the day.

And just when one thought the human mind could grow no more depraved, one learns details like the following:

After killing several people on one part of the island, he went to the other, and, dressed in his police uniform, calmly convinced the children huddled there that he meant to save them. When they emerged into the open, he fired again and again. (“For Young Campers, Island Turned Into Fatal Trap.” The New York Times, July 23, 2011)

Other unsettling facts will surely surface in the coming weeks. Some might even be vaguely exculpatory. Is Breivik mentally ill? Judging from his behavior, it is difficult to imagine a definition of “sanity” that could contain him.

It has been widely reported that Breivik is a “Christian fundamentalist.” Having read parts of his 1500-page manifesto (2083: A European Declaration of Independence), I must say that I have my doubts. These do not appear to be the ruminations of an especially committed Christian:

 

I’m not going to pretend I’m a very religious person as that would be a lie. I’ve always been very pragmatic and influenced by my secular surroundings and environment. In the past, I remember I used to think;

“Religion is a crutch for weak people. What is the point in believing in a higher power if you have confidence in yourself!? Pathetic.”

Perhaps this is true for many cases. Religion is a crutch for many weak people and many embrace religion for self serving reasons as a source for drawing mental strength (to feed their weak emotional state f example during illness, death, poverty etc.). Since I am not a hypocrite, I’ll say directly that this is my agenda as well. However, I have not yet felt the need to ask God for strength, yet… But I’m pretty sure I will pray to God as I’m rushing through my city, guns blazing, with 100 armed system protectors pursuing me with the intention to stop and/or kill. I know there is a 80%+ chance I am going to die during the operation as I have no intention to surrender to them until I have completed all three primary objectives AND the bonus mission. When I initiate (providing I haven’t been apprehended before then), there is a 70% chance that I will complete the first objective, 40% for the second, 20% for the third and less than 5% chance that I will be able to complete the bonus mission. It is likely that I will pray to God for strength at one point during that operation, as I think most people in that situation would….If praying will act as an additional mental boost/soothing it is the pragmatical thing to do. I guess I will find out… If there is a God I will be allowed to enter heaven as all other martyrs for the Church in the past. (p. 1344)

As I have only read parts of this document, I cannot say whether signs of a deeper religious motive appear elsewhere in it. Nevertheless, the above passages would seem to undermine any claim that Breivik is a Christian fundamentalist in the usual sense. What cannot be doubted, however, is that Breivik’s explicit goal was to punish European liberals for their timidity in the face of Islam.

I have written a fair amount about the threat that Islam poses to open societies, but I am happy to say that Breivik appears never to have heard of me. He has, however, digested the opinions of many writers who share my general concerns—Theodore Dalrymple, Robert D. Kaplan, Lee Harris, Ibn Warraq, Bernard Lewis, Andrew Bostom, Robert Spencer, Walid Shoebat, Daniel Pipes, Bat Ye’or, Mark Steyn, Samuel Huntington, et al. He even singles out my friend and colleague Ayaan Hirsi Ali for special praise, repeatedly quoting a blogger who thinks she deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. With a friend like Breivik, one will never want for enemies.

One can only hope that the horror and outrage provoked by Breivik’s behavior will temper the growing enthusiasm for right-wing, racist nationalism in Europe. However, one now fears the swing of another pendulum: We are bound to hear a lot of deluded talk about the dangers of “Islamophobia” and about the need to address the threat of “terrorism” in purely generic terms.

The emergence of “Christian” terrorism in Europe does absolutely nothing to diminish or simplify the problem of Islam—its repression of women, its hostility toward free speech, and its all-too-facile and frequent resort to threats and violence. Islam remains the most retrograde and ill-behaved religion on earth. And the final irony of Breivik’s despicable life is that he has made that truth even more difficult to speak about.

By Sam Harris / The blog

The ban would be the latest restriction from authorities in Chechnya, where shops can only sell alcohol during a small morning time frame, restaurants and cafes are shut during the Ramadan fasting month, and women must wear headscarves in state buildings

Prague, July 7 (CTK) - Retired politician Milos Zeman, Czech prime minister in 1998-2002, faces a criminal complaint over the statements on Islam he made in June at an international conference on Europe.

"The enemy is the anti-civilisation spreading from North Africa to Indonesia. Two billion people live in it and it is financed partly from oil sales and partly from drug sales," Czech news servers quoted Zeman as saying about Islam at the recent conference.

Zeman said Thursday Muslims believe in the Koran like Nazis believed in racial supremacy and anti-semitism and communists in class struggle and dictatorship of the proletariat.

"The largest-ever gathering of Muslim and Jewish students and young professionals will kick off in Kiev next week. Seventy young Jewish and Muslim leaders from 25 countries want to demonstrate that a new generation of Muslims and Jews can overcome decades of mutual fear and demonization and build a brighter future for both communities, according to the organizers."

Hassan Nasrallah is in trouble. This time the troubles of the Secretary General of Hezbollah, which were hitherto the source of his strength, are not coming from Israel, or from the sectarian politics of Lebanon. Seyyed Hassan's troubles, which this time around are the harbingers of his undoing as an outdated fighter, are coming from, of all places, the Arab Spring. 

The Arab Spring, the transnational uprising of masses of millions of people from Morocco to Oman, from Syria to Yemen, is making the aging warrior redundant - his habitually eloquent tongue now stuttering for words. Two years ago, he thought he got away with rejecting the democratic uprising in Iran (whose brutal ruling regime is his principle patron and financier), as a plot by the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. And he did - aided and abetted by the moral and intellectual sclerosis of a segment of Arab intellectuals who thought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Islamic theocracy were the vanguard of "resistance" to US/Israel imperialism in the region and thus should be spared from criticism. And then Tunisia happened, and Egypt, and Libya, and Bahrain, and Yemen - and then, Hassan Nasrallah and Ali Khamenei's nightmare, Syria happened. It is a sad scene to see a once mighty warrior being bypassed by the force of history, and all he can do is to fumble clumsily to reveal he has not learned the art of aging gracefully

ASTANA – It’s creepy, actually, the thought of sitting in the same building with today’s incarnation of evil, with a man who, if he just could, would love to incinerate me and mine and all that is dear to me. It is foul, actually, knowing you are sharing air space with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The mind runs wild in this type of scenario – with Ahmadinejad, on the first floor of the shimmering blue Palace of Independence in the Kazakhstan capital, being politely received by leaders representing more than half of humanity, and you sequestered in the media center one floor above, and a thousand security guards away.

A Kuwaiti woman who is called an “activist” and former candidate to the Kuwaiti parliament, spoke to the Kuwait Times about the establishment of a new law permitting men to buy and sell non-Muslim girls, captured in jihad, as sexual slaves in order to protect Muslim men against seductive sexual immorality. The Arabic Al Arabiya had more details on what that woman, Salwa al-Mutairi, is advocating:

Ms. Mutairi who was nice enough to put the minimum age of 15 for slave girls, Christian Jews or other, to be sold. She demanded the immediate establishment of slave agencies just like agencies for maids, where the slave girls will earn a whopping 50 Kuwaiti Dinar monthly and in return will cook, clean, take care of the kids and be the slave of the wife during the day. But her job does not end there; at night, whenever Mutairi is not in the mood, then her husband will not stray too far away from the house, since it is halal (kosher) for the husband to have sex with the slave girls without any marriage or unnecessary paper to satisfy his sexual pleasures. Better do it at home under the watchful eyes of the wife and kids only for 50 Dinars. Wow, what a deal!

For most Americans and those reading this, the nation of Malaysia–the country I call home–is likely nothing more but a mysterious, distant, small and relatively unimportant land. Some of you might be familiar with Malaysia’s carefully cultivated public image of being some sort of harmonious multicultural tropical paradise, which is recycled endlessly in 30-second-long television spots both here and overseas.

But for anyone who may be trying to come to grips with the grim reality that is Islam, Malaysia may be one of the most important places on the planet. That’s because anyone who still, despite all the evidence, feels that there really is a moderate, progressive, tolerant and peaceful Islam, need look no further than Malaysia. Once you do, you’ll be thoroughly disabused of this notion.

On May 1, Mohammad-Javad Larijani — head of the human rights council in Iran’s judiciary — participated in a conference where he offered his analysis regarding Iranian penal laws, which he claims are being attacked and criticized by international human rights organizations.

He said that retaliation, the cutting off of hands and feet, the removal of a “defendant’s” eye, and even stoning were a very real part of Iranian judicial law:

The problem is that these Westerners go on and on about their own laws. The interpretation of laws in Iran is based on Islam and our constitution. We have made concessions to some of the international demands, but we have our own laws and we will carry them out as interpreted.

A teenage Muslim girl was stoned to death under 'Sharia law' after taking part in a beauty contest in Ukraine.

Katya Koren, 19, was found dead in a village in the Crimea region near her home.

Friends said she liked wearing fashionable clothes and had come seventh in a beauty contest.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392454/Muslim-girl-Katya-Koren-19-stoned-death-beauty-contest-Ukraine.html#ixzz1NvSIN4iJ

The jizya is a tax that infidels (non-Muslims) must pay in order not to be brutalized by Allah's chosen.

Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold forbidden that which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.  Qur'an 9:29

It is basically a protection racket.  Think Mafia run by religious zealots.  In this case, as President Obama sees it, in order not to suffer terrible disruption ("a deepening spiral of division") by justifiably irate Muslims, the U.S. must pay up.  It is part of the Obama Doctrine: billions for tribute but not one more cent for defense.

Oh, it’s just another case of “Islamophobia” and “racism” that’s being under-reported by the media. 

The New York Times reported “Secret Desert Force Set Up by Blackwater’s Founder” and “Protesters Killed in Clashes With Israel” and “I.M.F. Chief’s Arrest Creates Confusion in French Politics” prominently on the front page on Sunday. 

But they buried a real news story. 

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the federal government is charging two South Florida imams with conspiracy in a plot to raise money for the Pakistani Taliban whose aim was to "murder, maim and kidnap."

They arrested six in the plot on Saturday. 

If one were really cynical, it might be tempting to say: let the Islamists try to run the show and prove to the world that they are not up to the job. But as Iran has demonstrated, that would be irresponsible and cruel because it would condemn countless people to be used up in an experiment in failure. Moreover, theocratic systems do not blame themselves when their countries slide into civil war, poverty, and stagnation. Instead, they blame the machinations of Jews and Crusaders and export their uneducated but brainwashed young zealots to spread violence elsewhere.

As Palestinians mark 'Nakba Day,' history shows Jews were dispossessed of all their assets too after escaping Arab countries between 1944-1964

Between the years 1944 and 1964, some 700,000 Jews moved in the opposite direction, from Arab countries to Israel – and they too were dispossessed of nearly their entire property.

Osama bin Laden’s many victims include, first and foremost, those who died on Sept. 11, 2001, and their grieving families, the soldiers sent to war and the loved ones they left behind, and a new generation forced to grow up in a more polarized and paranoid world. For all of them, bin Laden’s death must bring a sense of relief, of justice finally served.

But his victims also include millions of American Muslims — or Americans suspected of being Muslims — for whom the al-Qaeda leader’s death means something different: the chance to finally reclaim our faith and our identity.

After receiving $20 billion in U.S. aid over the past decade, Pakistan is unmistakably America’s worst “ally,” having committed the ultimate betrayal: Hiding Osama Bin Laden. Now, Pakistan is angrily protesting the raid that killed him, refusing to give access to 11 of those arrested in his compound and is supporting terrorists likely to try to avenge his death. Pakistan is not an ally worth defending as President Obama did in his address to the country; it is an enemy worth punishing.

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri Richard Callahan visited the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis last night to address the fears and frustrations of Muslim Americans who worry they are being racially profiled and wiretapped -- and to assure them that the Missouri Legislature's attempts to ban Sharia law from being considered in state courts here could face Constitutional challenges.[...]

"The Department of Justice has a good history of challenging laws passed by state legislatures," he said. "If some laws are passed, I think you will see challenges by the federal government on the constitutionality of them."



What does it take to make Islam bashers mend their ways? Why don’t these folks come to their senses and see Islam as a religion of peace and praise the God of Abraham for continuing his beneficence on humanity by sending Muhammad to guide and humanize us?
 
Why is it that some people keep criticizing a religion that has nearly 1.5 billion followers throughout the world? Now, if this faith was indeed what its detractors claim it is, wouldn’t these masses of people see through it and dump it?
 
Didn’t our very own President go around the Muslim heartland and sing the praises of Islam at every stop? Didn’t he bow with great deference to the King of Islam in Saudi Arabia? Didn’t he proudly proclaim Islam as the faith of his dear and near kindred? Didn’t he, time and again, tell us that Islam is indeed the religion of peace? Didn’t he with his captivating oratory skills cite passages from the Quran to show how reverent he was toward this religion? Didn’t he appoint a raft of “devoted” Muslims to sensitive and high posts in government?

In a Good Friday showdown, Chief Judge Mark Somers of Michigan's 19th District Court saved countless lives from Muslim rioters by torching the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Somers, a Methodist, figuratively stood in the doorway of the Islamic Center of America, the continent's largest mosque, to shield it from a planned protest by Dr. Terry JonesTerry Jones, Qur'an-burning pastor of a charismatic Christian church in Gainesville, Florida.

The ICA, which bills itself as "more than a place of worship but an Institution and a beacon for Islam in North America," is located in Dearborn, a third of whose 98,000 inhabitants are Muslims. Naturally this attracted Pastor Jones like a bee to honey for a demonstration against jihad, Sharia, and other tenets of radical Islamism.

TPM:
"Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MI) -- one of two Muslims currently serving in Congress -- went on Sean Hannity's show Wednesday night to discuss the controversy surrounding last month's Muslim "radicalization" hearings by Rep. Peter King, and the results were predictably charged.

Hannity began by asking Ellison if he thinks the government should "investigate" groups like the Nation Of Islam. Ellison replied: "I think we should investigate people where there's probable cause to believe they have committed a crime."

................................................."

A Detroit prosecutor has filed a petition in district court to stop a Florida fundamentalist Christian preacher, who recently caused riots in Afghanistan after he burned a Koran, from holding a rally outside a large Michigan mosque.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said the threat of violence was too great to allow Terry Jones to hold the planned gathering on Friday near the Islamic Center of America -- the largest U.S. mosque -- in the heavily Muslim Detroit suburb of Dearborn.

A man who burned a copy of the Koran in Carlisle city centre has been jailed for 70 days.

Andrew Ryan, 32, of Summerhill, off London Road, was accompanied to Carlisle Magistrates' Court by supporters carrying a St George's Cross flag who were chanting "We love you England".

Ryan had pleaded guilty to religiously aggravated harrassment and theft of the Koran holy book from Carlisle Library at an earlier hearing.

The move comes after an American Christian group burnt the Koran on March 20.

More than 20 people, including United Nations staff, have been murdered in Afghanistan by Muslims angry about the incident.

Huddersfield South president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association Fatihul Haq said: "Both actions deserve condemnation and both were perpetrated by a tiny minority of extremists who in no way represent the true teachings of the faith they claim to support.

Today's guest on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman was Quratulain Bakteari, founder and director of the Institute for Development Studies and Practices headquartered in Quetta, Pakistan. When Amy asked if Quratulain expected a rise in suicide bombings in her country, she replied, "Yes, they will increase. What else does a young boy who has seen his family finished and everybody gone have to live for? There is nothing left for the people to live for if their near and dear ones are gone. They want to get back at the killer."

If we honestly asked what Jesus would do about Islam, it's obvious that his solution wouldn't be war. He might even apply the Golden Rule. So far, President Obama has been more Christian than his predecessor, not by applying Christian principles but by treating Muslims with common humanity, tolerance, and understanding. These uprisings are part of a global phenomenon, the rise of the dispossessed. People don't emerge from political repression as model citizens, much less saints. They are angry and resentful, so they lash out. They have been deprived for generations of education, so they follow demagogues. They know little of the world beyond what religion tells them, so they see others through the lens of religion.

We have a reactionary wing in this country that shares the same traits, but they have much less excuse. They haven't been oppressed, and for the most part every benefit of prosperity and education has been available to them.

No..wait. So the burning of the church building on the Italian island of Lampedusa we reported earlier in the week was no isolated incident. Muslims have learned that, when in the West and not getting what they want; a riot or two, the odd fire (preferably both) – especially when topped off with a little police baiting and 'Allahu Akbar!'-ing; will usually produce the desired effect. This pays even higher dividends this when there's a camera crew around.

One of the more striking things about the current anti-sharia craze is how often state legislators who introduce anti-sharia bills can't answer basic questions about Islamic law or why they see it as a threat.

In Alabama, for example, when the state senator who sponsored an anti-sharia bill was asked by a reporter to simply define sharia, he responded: "I don't have my file in front of me." In Florida, anti-sharia bill sponsors couldn't name a single case where Islamic or international law had been used in a troubling way in U.S. courts. When, on Wednesday, I interviewed a Nebraska state senator behind a similar bill, I asked him about what cases were causes of concern to him. He responded: "I'm not in my office to look them up."

How could all these legislators be so uninformed about their own bills? A big part of the reason is that most of them did not actually write the legislation in question. Rather, many of the anti-sharia bills being considered around the country are either based on or directly copied from model legislation created by an obscure far-right Arizona attorney and activist named David Yerushalmi.

TPM:
"Conservative radio host Bryan Fischer on Wednesday doubled down on his "Muslims have no first amendment rights" comments from last month, this time arguing that the United States should "restrict immigration from Islamic countries."

........................."

To know why Islam is a mortal danger one must not only consider the Koran but also the character of Muhammad, who conceived the Koran and the entirety of Islam.
The Koran is not just a book. Muslims believe that Allah himself wrote it and that it was dictated to Muhammad in the original version, the Umm al-Kitab, which is kept on a table in heaven. Consequently one cannot argue with the contents. Who would dare to disagree with what Allah himself has written? This explains much of Muhammadan behaviour, from the violence of jihad to the hatred and persecution of Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims and apostates. What we in the West regard as abnormal, is perfectly normal for Islam.

Two articles:

Pastor Terry Jones defiant after his Koran-burning led to 2 UN staffers being beheaded and 5 more murdered

Florida pastor Terry Jones has refused to apologise for burning the Koran as violence over the stunt spreads across Afghanistan - after up to 20 UN workers were killed by a mob yesterday.

Indeed the head of the Dove World Outreach Center, the man whom many hold responsible for instigating the wave of protests, remained defiant over his decision to hold the Koran burning - saying it was time for 'Islam to be held accountable'.

Terry Jones defiant despite murders in Afghanistan over Koran burning

Nor does it seem Jones is going to be put off from further activities. When he backed down from his Qur'an burning last year, Jones was put off by appeals from some of the most powerful people in the world, including the Pope, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and General David Petraeus.

In January, the home office announced Jones had been barred from entering the UK "for the public good". A planned visit in order to address the English Defence League, revealed by the Observer in December, was shelved after the far-right group withdrew its invitation.

Jones subsequently lambasted the British government for its "unfair" decision.

Now he seems determined to continue with more actions, despite the murders they have helped spark.

On Good Friday, Jones and a local group calling itself The Order of the Dragon will protest outside the Islamic Centre of America in Dearborn, Michigan. Local Muslim and Christian church leaders want Jones to stay away.

So far, even in the light of recent events, Jones shows no signs he will do so. In his statement he voiced not a hint of backing down and a staggering lack of self-awareness. "Muslim dominated countries can no longer be allowed to spread their hate against Christians and minorities," Jones stated.

Eight United Nations workers have been killed, and as many as 13 other people are feared dead after a violent rampage in northern Afghanistan by demonstrators protesting over the burning of a Koran at a church in Florida in the US.

The victims of the worst-ever attack on UN personnel in Afghanistan -- two of whom were beheaded -- included four guards from Nepal, and civilian staff from Norway, Sweden and Romania. It was also confirmed that five residents were killed.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Dreyfus Intermediate School sixth-grader was arrested today on felony hate-crime charges.

The 12-year-old boy and an accomplice — who is being sought — allegedly assaulted a female classmate about noon in the Stapleton school.

The 12-year-old reportedly demanded to know if she is Muslim and attempted to pull off her headscarf, a law enforcement source told the Advance

In many ways, the hearing led by Senate Democrats on Tuesday was the dramatic antithesis of one House Republicans held earlier this month on homegrown Islamic radicalism.

Instead of gavel-banging, decorum prevailed. Sobering statistics stood in for emotional anecdotes, and laughter, not sobs, resounded in the committee room. While an audience packed the gallery, the dais was empty save for the six senators who came and went.

But the most striking change was the second hearing's focus: Crimes committed against American Muslims, not by them.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he convened Tuesday's hearing because of rising Islamophobia, manifested by Quran burnings, hate speech and restrictions on mosque construction.

And though he did not mention him by name, Durbin twice criticized House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., who convened the earlier hearing on the "radicalization" of American Muslims.

The premise of King's hearing was that American Muslims do not cooperate with law enforcement probes into violent members of their community.

"We should all agree that it is wrong to blame an entire community for the wrongdoing of a few," said Durbin. "Guilt by association is not the American way."

Islamabad (AsiaNews) - Two believers killed, churches attacked, copies of the Bible burned: the Christian community in Pakistan is once again the victim of violence by Islamic fundamentalists, who have targeted places of worship in the country. The extremist violence was triggered by the insane act - repeatedly condemned by Christians in Pakistan and India – of the pastor Wayne Sapp, who last March 20, in Florida burned a Koran under the supervision of the evangelical preacher Terry Jones. The escalating violence has raised alarm over the fate of Asia Bibi, a symbol of the abuses committed in the name of the blasphemy law. The bishop of Islamabad / Rawalpindi defines the US pastor a "fanatic" who encourages followers to a "violent ideology", the consequences of which have an impact "on innocent Christians" across the world.

A Muslim group has asked to use the empty churches in France for Muslims to pray in, solving (at the expense of Christians) the traffic problems caused by Muslims who pray in the streets. Fr. Khalial Samir Samir, an expert scholar of Islam, reflects on the embarrassing proposal, calling for Islam in Europe to become more "European" and less "Arab".

Not all shame honor cultures are the same yet they are key to understanding how people handle aggression, rage, violence and trauma. As psychoanalysts we are exploring the differences between Japanese stoicism and Arab aggression. In hearing and watching news reports during the tragic event of the earthquake/tsunami/radiation disaster and the recent uprising in Libya and the slaughter at Itamar, we cannot help but notice how both groups respond to disaster.

More simply stated, it becomes a matter of tolerance versus intolerance. The chaos, violence and hysteria we see in a large sector of the Arab revolution stands in sharp contrast to the stoicism and ability to cope among Japanese.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday found 69 percent of Americans would be "okay" with a mosque in their area while 28 percent would not.

But there are big differences depending on where you live. Half of rural Southerners say they disapprove of a mosque in their neighborhood, while 42 percent say they would be "okay" with it. That rises to roughly three-quarters among those who live in cities and suburbs.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, anti-mosque activity across the country, ranging from vandalism to lawsuits, has occurred in 21 states over the past five years.

I always thought the best illustration of "chutzpah" was that of the boy who kills his parents and then pleads with the court for mercy, on the grounds that he is an orphan.

But given that that is only a hypothetical example, we now have a better illustration of chutzpah because this one is true.

Witnessing the Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's large-scale killings of Libyan civilians, the Arab League begged us, the Europeans and the Security Council to militarily intervene on behalf of the Libyan people.

So, despite the fact that America is rather weary of fighting Muslim mass murderers, is militarily overstretched and has a devastating national debt, America said yes. We are the most decent country on Earth, and even a liberal-left Democrat in the White House feels the moral pull of America's legacy, values and unparalleled strength.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Terry Jones, the controversial Florida pastor who did not go through with his 'Burn a Quran Day' on last year's 9/11 anniversary, oversaw the burning of the holy book of Islam this weekend.

The burning was carried out by pastor Wayne Sapp under the supervision of Terry Jones, who last September drew sweeping condemnation over his plan to ignite a pile of Korans on the anniversary of September 11, 2001 attacks.

Sunday's event was presented as a trial of the book in which the Koran was found "guilty" and "executed."

The jury deliberated for about eight minutes. The book, which had been soaking for an hour in kerosene, was put in a metal tray in the center of the church, and Sapp started the fire with a barbecue lighter.

The book burned for around 10 minutes while some onlookers posed for photos.

Cartoongate, which took place September 2005 following publication in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten of 12 editorial cartoons depicting Mohammed, marked a great watershed: the start of the Western world's conditioning.
Cartoongate ushered in a new standard of behavior that has had a chilling effect on free speech and expression when it comes to all things Muslim. The aftermath of the Mohammed cartoons incident established Muslims as a uniquely protected group to be effectively shielded from all critique and ridicule. Noteworthy is that this new Muslims-only standard mirrors the Islamic doctrine of shariah that confers superior legal and political status for Muslims in parallel with a subservient status -- dhimmitude -- for non-Muslims. Today, the West all too easily and habitually gives up freedom of speech by avoiding even the merest shadow of negativity when it comes to Muslims and, thus, imposing on itself dhimmitude and enabling our sworn enemies.

I left Libya over 42 years ago when the mobs were roaming the streets. They were not chanting for democracy or yearning for freedom they were looking for Jews. I am a Libyan Jew. I have now lived in the Bay Area for forty years. The upheavals sweeping Libya open old wounds. Violent political culture has often been part of Libyan society, especially towards its Jews.

More than 80 percent of all convictions tied to international terrorist groups and homegrown terrorism since 9/11 involve defendants driven by a radical Islamist agenda, a review of Department of Justice statistics shows.

Though Muslims represent about 1 percent of the American population, they constitute defendants in 186 of the 228 cases DOJ lists.

Fine, let's talk about Islam and terrorism.

Maybe we all can learn something rather than stumble along as religious illiterates.

I'm one -- when it comes to Islam. As a kid I got a Bible in third grade and we had the musings of a Methodist minister around us all the time -- but never a Quran or an imam.

For a long time in America, you didn't have to know about Islam. As a nation, we lean to the Christian side of the aisle and we have long propped up our limited knowledge of other faiths on the fence post of the First Amendment, which says in this country you have a right to believe what you want, even in ignorance.

But our ignorance and our shaken commitment to freedom of religion are now biting us hard.

A conservative commentator recently made headlines by claiming 10 percent of all of the world's Muslims are terrorists. An amazing claim, considering that equals 150 million terrorists and if each were to pull off an attack killing just 40 people, they could exterminate all non-Muslim life on earth.

Either they're not all that dedicated to terrorism, or the claim is utter insanity.

Well, if there's one thing everyone thinks of when they hear "Cracked.com" it's "friend of Islam." Which is why we feel compelled to clarify a few misconceptions for our readers. Also, there is no way this article will ever come back to haunt us in any way.

Every morning at his Murfreesboro middle school, 14-year-old Salim Sbenaty honors his country by pledging allegiance to the flag.

But Thursday, while he was taking his English exam, lawmakers on Capitol Hill were examining extremists within his religion - Islam.

"We're not some crazy radicals," Salim said. "We're regular people - we're like the average Joes."

This is a video of Rep. Keith Ellison speaking at the Congressional hearings regarding Muslim Americans.

Tomorrow New York Republican Rep. Peter King will open his Homeland Security Committee hearings on the question of whether or not Muslim-Americans are doing enough to help safeguard the nation from terrorism. The hearings have been pilloried as an exercise in attention-grabbing ethnic-baiting and scapegoating and as an essentially unfair government-sanctioned exercise in Islamophobia. After all, what ethnic group in America is doing enough to safeguard the nation from terrorism? Could any group — much less a loosely affiliated ethnic or religious group– do enough to safeguard the nation from terrorism? King has responded to such criticism by doubling down. He has rearranged the committee schedule to ratchet up its partisan circus quality and he has dismissed his own past as an unabashed supporter of the terrorist Irish Republican Army.

House Minority Leader Eric Cantor defended the hearings, making them sound like a friendly extended hand from Capitol Hill to American Muslims.

Much of the Mideast unrest has to do with the extreme poverty endemic to the region. Sadly, the tendency is still to blame the West and turn to false Islamist prophets for solutions.

Witness the popular return of Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi. The exiled Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader recently gave a rousing speech in Cairo in which he called on Egyptians and other Muslims to rid themselves of secular regimes and build Islamic theocracies.

He assured the masses that Allah would reward them for rejecting Western individualism and materialism.

His message resonated, judging from the million Muslims who jammed into Tahrir Square to hear Qaradawi, while thunderously chanting, "Allahu Akbar!"

A bill introduced Tuesday in the Alabama Senate would ban the use of Islamic law in Alabama courts.

The bill's sponsor said the measure was designed to protect future generations from erosion of the Constitution. One Birmingham area Muslim leader said the move was an effort to "demonize Islam and Muslims."

But no one — not even Sen. Gerald Allen, who sponsored the bill — can point to examples of Muslims trying to have Islamic law recognized in Alabama courts.

"It's not about what's happening right now," Allen, a Republican from Cottondale, said in a telephone interview. "I'm thinking about 10 years down the road, 20, 30, 40. Time has an effect on these things, and I'm thinking about the future."

Allen is the sole sponsor of SB 62, a bill that would ban Alabama courts from using Shariah law or international law in making legal decisions.

Last week, legislators in Tennessee introduced a radical bill that would make "material support" for Islamic law punishable by 15 years in prison. The proposal marks a dramatic new step in the conservative campaign against Muslim-Americans. If passed, critics say even seemingly benign activities like re-painting the exterior of a mosque or bringing food to a potluck could be classified as a felony.

The Tennessee bill, SB 1028, didn't come out of nowhere. Though it's the first of its kind, the bill is part of a wave of related measures that would ban state courts from enforcing Sharia law. (A court might refer to Sharia law in child custody or prisoner rights cases.) Since early 2010, such legislation has been considered in at least 15 states. And while fears of an impending caliphate are myriad on the far-right, the surge of legislation across the country is largely due to the work of one man: David Yerushalmi, an Arizona-based white supremacist who has previously called for a "war against Islam" and tried to criminalize adherence to the Muslim faith.

Yerushalmi, a lawyer, is the founder of the Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE), which has been called a "hate group" by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). His draft legislation served as the foundation for the Tennessee bill, and at least half a dozen other anti-Islam measures—including two bills that were signed into law last year in Louisiana and Tennessee.

The British radical Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary said on Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama must embrace Islam as a way of life or face the consequences of a trial under the Shariah Islamic court system.

Since completing his transition from international pariah to statesman, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi—the longest-serving leader in both Africa and the Arab world—has brought color and his own eccentric panache to the drab circuit of international summits and conferences. Drawing upon the influences of Lacroix, Liberace, Phil Spector (for hair), Snoopy, and Idi Amin, Libya's leader—now in his 60s—is simply the most unabashed dresser on the world stage. We pay homage to a sartorial genius of our time.

How to turn normal human beings into murderous and hateful psychopaths who blindly obey their totalitarian systems and its authorities suppressing and killing innocent people? In short: How to create a terrorist?

Violent and murderous political, ethnic and religious regimes have used the same effective methods throughout history all over the world. The procedure consists of two simple steps that are repeated again and again:

1) You force a person to repeat the system's doctrine again and again for months and years until he or she knows every word by heart and it pervades his or her whole way of thinking and it is the only truth they believe in.

2) You beat and scare the person (best if this is done randomly and severely), thus forcing him or her to become insensitive and unempathic in order to be able to bare the physical and psychological suffering and in order to increase feelings of anger, frustration and fear - feelings that are then directed against the system's enemies.

Various Articles and Videos:

Churches Open Doors to Muslim Worship - FOX News (Article with Video)

They see it as their Christian duty. But others disagree, saying it extends the hand of fellowship where it was never intended to go.

Two Protestant churches are taking some heat from critics for opening their church buildings to Muslims needing places to worship because their own facilities were either too small, or under construction.

Heartsong Church in Cordova, Tenn., let members of the Memphis Islamic Center hold Ramadan prayers there last September. And Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Va., allows the Islamic Circle of North America to hold regular Friday prayers in their building while their new mosque is being built.

Neighborly or Misguided: Fox News Debates Tolerance Of Muslims In Christian Church - MediaIte (Article and Video)

The debate over a small church in Tennessee allowing local Muslims to worship in their building while a nearby mosque was under construction, is continuing to generate controversy. On Fox News today, Steve Stone, Pastor at Heartsong Church explained why he thought the decision was right, while Dr. Alex McFarland echoed the recent sentiments of Mike Huckabee that such a seemingly hospitable gesture is, in their opinion, a horribly unchristian action.

The segment began with the question whether the church’s actions were “a neighborly thing to do, or sacrificing what is sacred?”

Mike Huckabee Infuriated By Christian Church Allowing Muslims To Pray There - MediaIte (Article and Video)

Devout Christian Mike Huckabee is having a hard time understanding the concept of charity. The former Arkansas governor and potential 2012 hopeful visited Fox and Friends to discuss a small church that had allowed Muslims to worship when mosques in the area proved too small or were under construction, something he considered shocking and the beginning of a slippery slope: “Should the church be rented out to show adult movies on the weekend?”

Huckabee was clearly incensed with the news that Muslims were worshipping in a church. “As much as I respect the autonomy of each local church, you just wonder, what are they thinking?” he told the Fox and Friends crew. “If the purpose of a church is to push forward the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then you have a muslim group that says that Jesus Christ and all the people that follow him are a bunch of infidels who should be essentially obliterated, I have a hard time understanding that.”

Churches Open Doors for Muslim Worship - FOX and Friends (Video)

Father Jonathan Morris weighs in on the controversy of churches opening their doors to allow Muslims to worship in the churches.

CBS international reporter Lara Logan is a well known public figure. And CBS and other media have accepted that she was brutally assaulted. However, Youtube and some Arab Websites are offering some further claimed shocking details not reported by the U.S. media and even some video about the extreme brutality of the attack on CBS reporter Lara Logan . Reportedly, some videos did show a crowd of about 200 or more men surround and separate Lara Logan from her security, and the crowd shouted "Jew, Jew!", and "American bitch!". Lara Logan is not Jewish or American, she's a South African native.

Why CBS kept mum for four days about the brutal sexual assault of network correspondent Lara Logan by a Tahrir Square mob on Feb. 11 we just don't know. Were news executives concerned that the bombshell news of the assault, which took place almost exactly as Hosni Mubarak was relinquishing all powers, would detract from the "jubilant" crowd's "democracy" drama?

The Middle East is on fire again, and crazy Muslims with funny names aren't helping things — Mahmoud, ElBaradei, al-Banna, Barack ...

The major new development is that NOW liberals want to get rid of a dictator in the Middle East! Where were they when we were taking out the guy with the rape rooms?

Remember? The one who had gassed his own people, invaded his neighbors and was desperately seeking weapons of mass destruction? The guy who emerged from a spider hole looking like Charlie Sheen after a three-day bender?

Liberals couldn't have been less interested in removing Saddam Hussein and building a democracy in Iraq. So it's really adorable seeing them get all choked up about democracy now. Say, as long as liberals are all gung-ho about getting rid of out-of-touch, overbearing dictators, how about we start with Janet Napolitano?

Why did they want to keep Saddam Hussein in power again? Yes, that's right — because he didn't have stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Their big argument was that Saddam was five long years away from developing them.

By my calculations, that means as of March 2008, Israel would have been gone and Saddam would have been in total control of the Middle East.

Thanks, liberals!

Given the images people see on TV, many conclude Afghanistan never made it out of the Middle Ages. But that is not the Afghanistan I remember. I grew up in Kabul in the 1950s and '60s. Stirred by the fact that news portrayals of the country's history didn't mesh with my own memories, I wanted to discover the truth."Remembering Afghanistan's hopeful past only makes its present misery seem more tragic. But it is important to know that disorder, terrorism, and violence against schools that educate girls are not inevitable. I want to show Afghanistan's youth of today how their parents and grandparents really lived."

In addition to endorsing author and anti-Muslim activist Joel Richardson's attempts to link Islam to the Antichrist, Glenn Beck also echoed Richardson's views linking Turkey to a purported future Islamic caliphate.

This is the movie that shows all about current Iranian regime and its goals