Don Singleton: 2007-06-10

Friday, June 15, 2007

What Really Happened in the Middle East

Robert Spencer blogged The David Horowitz Freedom Center is releasing a 10-minute flash video, What Really Happened In The Middle East, that restores reality to the Israeli-Arab conflict, as a fifty-year war by Arab Muslims to reverse what they refer to as the “Nahkba” – the catastrophe of Israel’s birth as a nation. "'What Really Happened In The Middle East' restores the historical record and shows why the war against Israel is a central front in the Islamic jihad against the West,” says David Horowitz, founder and president of the Freedom Center.

Do you believe there ever was a country called Palestine? Do you believe that Israel is occupying Palestinean lands? Do you believe that the Arabs really want peace? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you need to click here and learn the truth.

“It is our goal to deliver this message to millions of Americans over the Internet so that they can be better equipped to defend themselves in the war that radical Islam is waging against them." You can view the video here.

Takeover by Hamas

WaPo reported Five years ago this month, President Bush stood in the Rose Garden and laid out a vision for the Middle East that included Israel and a state called Palestine living together in peace. "I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror," the president declared.

That would be wonderful to see. but it would require leaders not compromised by terror.

The takeover this week of the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group dedicated to the elimination of Israel demonstrates how much that vision has failed to materialize, in part because of actions taken by the administration. The United States championed Israel's departure from the Gaza Strip as a first step toward peace and then pressed both Israelis and Palestinians to schedule legislative elections, which Hamas unexpectedly won. Now Hamas is the unchallenged power in Gaza. After his reelection in 2004, Bush said he would use his "political capital" to help create a Palestinian state by the end of his second term. In his final 18 months as president, he faces the prospect of a shattered Palestinian Authority, a radical Islamic state on Israel's border and increasingly dwindling options to turn the tide against Hamas and create a functioning Palestinian state. "The two-state vision is dead. It really is," said Edward G. Abington Jr., a former State Department official who was once an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Actually we now have two states - Gaza and the West Bank, and they are at war with each other. The question is whether
Fatah will be able to wipe out Hamas and then make peace with Israel,
Whether Hamas will wipe out Fatah in the West Bank as well, thus prompting Israel to destroy both areas and take over all the land west of the Jordan, as it should have gotten in the first place, or
whether Fatah and Hamas will just keep on killing each other and showing the rest of the world how warped and uncivilized these Islamoterrorists are.

NY Post reported Israel's disengagement from Gaza, completed 22 months ago, has succeeded. It was a demonstration project of a sort - an experiment in Palestinian self-rule. If the management of Gaza had gone well, there would have been a Palestinian state within three years, tops. OK, now speak these three words to yourself: a Palestinian state. Finished? Good. So are the words. They won't be coming out of anybody's mouth again for a very, very long time - at least not in any meaningful way. Someone asked Benjamin Franklin what America got out of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. His reply: "A republic - if you can keep it." So it was with Gaza in August 2005. The Palestinians got a "homeland, if you can keep it." What they got instead was hell on earth. What they got was two brutally murderous gangs, Fatah and Hamas, competing for power by throwing people off the roofs of buildings and slaughtering rivals in front of their wives and children.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Libby

Well we will now see whether Bush has any cojones. The judge has ruled that Libby must go to jail while his case is being appealed. Everyone knows that Bush was going to pardon him when he left office, but will he risk the press jumping on him to go ahead and do it now. The press is going to complain no matter what he does, and the left is not going to give him any credit for allowing Libby to be sent to jail. They are so upset that Bush, Cheney, and Rove are not going too that they will never be happy. But conservatives expect Bush to pardon Libby, and after his pressing so hard for an immigration bill most conservatives hate, he damn well better "grow a pair" and pardon Libby now, or his support is going to fall below the 19% that Senator Reid has.

Angelina Jolie's version of Freedom of Press

FOXNews reported Angelina Jolie's true colors came out Wednesday as she promoted a film about freedom of the press and then tried to censor all her interviews.

But with Jolie, the press is free to do whatever she wants them to do, just not whatever they want to do.

Jolie is touting press freedom these days, playing the widow of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in a new movie called "A Mighty Heart." But Jolie turns out to be a mighty hypocrite when it comes to her own freedom of the press. Her lawyer required all journalists to sign a contract before talking to her, and Jolie instructed publicists at first to ban FOX News from the red carpet of her premiere.... Reporters were asked to agree to "not ask Ms. Jolie any questions regarding her personal relationships. In the event Interviewer does ask Ms. Jolie any questions regarding her personal relationships, Ms. Jolie will have the right to immediately terminate the interview and leave."

She is always free to not answer a question she does not want to answer, or to walk out, but the press should be free to report that she walked out and why.

The agreement also required that "the interview may only be used to promote the Picture. In no event may Interviewer or Media Outlet be entitled to run all or any portion of the interview in connection with any other story.

In other words she is willing to talk to mere press people as long as it will help her make money, but they can't use it for anything else, like reporting the news.

... The interview will not be used in a manner that is disparaging, demeaning, or derogatory to Ms. Jolie." If that wasn't enough, Jolie also requires that if any of these things happen, "the tape of the interview will not be released to Interviewer."

How are they going to run the story if they don't have the tape.

Such a violation, the signatory thus agrees, would "cause Jolie irreparable harm" and make it possible for her to sue the interviewer and seek a restraining order.

And who would be stupid enough to sign such an agreement.

Brian blogged Liberal hypocrites, I tell ya’. They bitch and moan about freedom of the press, but it quite literally scares the crap out of them when they have to face it head-on, doesn’t it?

Fox News scares the hell out of them because for the first time since television was created, there’s a media outlet that isn’t the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party.

Kim Priestap blogged A Hollywood star acting like the world revolves around her? Say it isn't so!

Gaius blogged Welcome to the land of Jolie, where she may preach at will, but you will remain silent. Now that this story is out, Jolie is in for a lot of derogatory comments. She has earned them.

Don Surber blogged Don’t write angry. That’s the first rule of blogging or writing columns and editorials. I am very close to breaking that rule in regards to Angelina Jolie’s desecration of the memory of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was tortured and beheaded by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Karachi, Pakistan on Feb. 1, 2002. Miss Jolie stars in a movie about Pearl’s wife. In promoting the movie, Miss Jolie wants to control what reporters write about her — and who reports.

CQ blogged I actually have some sympathy for celebrities and their issues with the media. Jolie and others put up with a lot of hounding and stalking from the tabloids, and exercising some controls over the boundaries of the interview doesn't seem unreasonable. Jolie doesn't have to answer any questions she deems out of bounds, and her criteria is entirely her business.

However, demanding that her answers never get used in any other context, and threatening reporters with restraining orders is not just unreasonable, but outright intimidation. It goes against the entire mission of Reporters Without Borders, and indeed against the notion of freedom of the press. I wonder if Jolie or her Hollywood friends would be as sanguine about these demands had they come from George Bush or Rudy Giuliani. Somehow, I think they'd be the first to demand a rush to the barricades.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Iran moves to execute porn stars

CNN reported Iran's parliament on Wednesday voted in favor of a bill that could lead to the death penalty for persons convicted of working in the production of pornographic movies.

The left totally ignores the threat of Islamists, ye Europe is in danger of becoming majority Muslim in another generation. I don't know about there, but here in the US the left receives a lot of its support from gays (who are executed in Islamic countries), the abortion industry (adultry and premarital six is ounished by stoning to death), and noe most of Hollywood would be subject to the death penalty.

With a 148-5 vote in favor and four abstentions, lawmakers present at the Wednesday session of the 290-seat parliament approved that "producers of pornographic works and main elements in their production are considered corrupter of the world and could be sentenced to punishment as corrupter of the world." The term, "corrupter of the world" is taken from the Quran, the Muslims' holy book, and ranks among the highest on the scale of an individual's criminal offenses. Under Iran's Islamic Penal Code, it carries a death penalty. The "main elements" referred to in the draft include producers, directors, cameramen and actors involved in making a pornographic video. The bill also envisages convictions ranging from one year imprisonment to a death sentence for the main distributors of the movies and also producers of Web sites in which the pornographic works appear. Besides videos, the bill covers all electronic visual material, such as DVDs and CDs. Other material, such as porn magazines and books, are already banned under Iranian law.

What "honor" is there in this killing?

TimesOnline reported A gentle kiss on a South London street captured on a mobile telephone camera sealed Banaz Mahmod’s fate. When the photograph, taken by a member of the Kurdish community, was shown to Miss Mahmod’s uncle, Ari Mahmod, a family meeting was called where it was decided that the 20-year-old woman and her boyfriend, Rahmat Sulemani, must be murdered.

What gives a father and an uncle the right to say a girl deserves to be murdered?

From the viewpoint of her uncle, a prominent figure among South London’s Kurds, and her father, Mahmod Mahmod, she had already walked out of an arranged marriage and was now bringing further shame on the family.... When Banaz Mahmod was 17 she was married to a Kurdish man in the Midlands. It was imperative that the arranged marriage worked because two of Mahmod’s other daughters had ended their marriages. But the relationship was disastrous; she tried to hang herself and later told police that her husband had raped her. Risking her father’s wrath, she fled her husband and returned to the family home in Mitcham, South London.

She should have left her husband, but should not have gone back to her father.

She later met Mr Sulemani, an Iranian Kurd, and the pair soon fell in love. Because Mr Sulemani was not a strict Muslim and not from the Mirawaldy region, Miss Mahmod’s father ruled that she would never marry him. To enforce this point, she was taken to a Kurdish home in Sheffield and beaten for two weeks. On her return, the couple continued to meet in secret.

What gives them the authority to say she can't marry who she wants.

... In January last year, Mohamad Hama, 30, along with other Kurdish men, attempted to bundle Mr Sulemani into a car. As Mr Sulemani escaped, Hama shouted after him: “We are Muslim and Kurdish. We are not like the English where you can be boyfriend and girlfriend.”

If you are in Egland, you should be subject English laws, and so should the people that beat and then murdered you.

But a few days later, Miss Mahmod was dead.

Florida primary will not count

St Petersburg Times reported Sure, Florida is America's biggest political swing state. But don't expect the national Democratic Party to back off punishing Sunshine State Democrats for scheduling an early presidential primary. "Their primary essentially won't count, " Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said of Florida. "Anybody who campaigns in Florida is ineligible for delegates.".

Why don't these idiots just come up with a rotation schedule where 1/4 of the states have their primaries first, then next time a different 1/4 go first, and just rotate who gets to go first.

... Some Democrats worry that if their candidates don't campaign hard early on Republicans would have a big leg up toward winning Florida's 27 electoral votes.

ROF, LMAO

... Any state that violates the schedule set by the DNC loses half its delegates to the national nominating convention and any candidate who campaigns in that state will forfeit all delegates from that state.

Who is the boss? The state parties, or the National office?

By moving to Jan. 29, Dean told a New Hampshire student, Florida Democrats "essentially converted their primary to a straw poll."

Why should New Hampshire always be first?

Translation: National leaders of the "count every vote" party are refusing to count the votes of Florida, where the term "disenfranchised voters" became a rallying cry in 2000.

Minnesota Muslims in culture clash at airport

Reuters reported For Mahamed Jama, a Minnesota taxi driver, the Islamic restriction on drinking alcohol is a seamless rule for life. "He who carries alcohol, he who drinks and he who sells it are the same thing," he says. That belief could affect his livelihood.

Why. Just because a passenger has alcohol does not mean he has to drink it or that he sold it to the passenger.

The commission that runs the Minneapolis airports in May began enforcing a new policy allowing it to revoke the licenses of drivers who refuse to ferry passengers carrying alcohol -- something that has happened to 4,854 travelers trying to get a cab at Minneapolis International Airport in the last five years.

Robert Spencer blogged "They believe they have been forced into something against their faith, something against their religion." Ultimately that is going to have to be sorted out, and not just for Minneapolis cabbies. Is the U.S. going to accept Sharia provisions, or reject them? We cannot ignore the problem forever.

Taxis for women

Reuters.com reported For the comfort of Muslim women who do not wish to ride taxis with men, Dubai is now offering pink-coloured cabs with a female driver.

They could not do it in Saudia Arabia where women are not allowed to drive.

"Ladies Taxis" are the latest fad in the booming city, a business, tourism and commercial hub for more than 203 nationalities. "Our society is conservative and our women do not want to ride with men alone at night or when they arrive at the airport at two or three in the morning," Ammar Bin Tamim, director of Dubai Taxi, told Reuters.

Can't they trust the male Muslim drivers?

"We decided to operate this service after complaints from women who did not want to ride with men, especially at night.".... A policeman at the airport taxi stand directs women to hop into a pink cab, and men to the red-topped cars.

What if the men want to ride with a female driver?

Western women at the airport seemed at ease with the idea, following the directions with no surprise.

$65 million panrs

WaPo reported Before trial began yesterday in the case of the D.C. judge who sued his neighborhood dry cleaners after they lost his pants, the most extraordinary fact was Roy Pearson's demand for $65 million in damages.

Why has this stupid case made it to trial?

That was before Pearson, an administrative law judge, broke down while testifying about the emotional pain of having the cleaners give him the wrong pants.

He should be put in jail next to Paris Hilton; then he would have something to cry about.

... The "willful and malicious conduct" Pearson described consisted of this: In 2005, Pearson was starting his new job as a judge and therefore needed to start wearing suits again after a couple of years of unemployment. He brought five suits in for alterations because he'd put on 20 pounds and needed to have the pants let out. Four suits came back fine. One came back without the pants.

And it must have been his favorite pair.

Pearson says the Chung family -- Korean immigrants who came here from the charcoal factories of Seoul in 1992 and now own three cleaners, including the one a short walk from Pearson's place in the Fort Lincoln section of Northeast -- had no intention of living up to the sign in their shop that said "Satisfaction Guaranteed."

They should have said Satisfaction Guraranteed to reasonable people. Stupid judges excepted.

Therefore, Pearson said, he had no choice but to take on "the awesome responsibility" of suing the Chungs on behalf of every resident of the District of Columbia.

I wonder if they appreciate his "awesome effort."

Judge Judith Bartnoff went to remarkable lengths to try to keep Pearson moving along while disabusing him of the notion that he represented either the tens of thousands of people who have used Custom Cleaners or the half million people in Washington who might theoretically be at risk of being dissatisfied with the shop's service.

Really hating Rush

South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Rush Limbaugh has long been a thorn in the side of liberals, but now, because of him, some Democratic politicians don't even want to join with a local radio station to broadcast hurricane information.

Are you afraid some liberal might tune in to find out about an approaching hurricane, and learn something from Rush?

Radio station WIOD, AM 610, has been the official channel for emergency information from Broward County government for the past year. The County Commission, all Democrats, balked at renewing the deal Tuesday, unable to stomach the station also being home to Limbaugh's talk show. Commissioner Stacy Ritter said she did not want to support a station that's out of step with area politics.

If there are not a lot of conservatives in your area, I doubt the station would carry Rush.

Very good

A big tip of the hat to The Anchoress for telling readers to head over to this site (H/T Pianogirl) and see why art is important and why it matters. Stuck in our little gerbil cages (especially here in the ’sphere) and tucked into our own little worlds…stuff like this can lift us out of ourselves and bring wonder, amusement, awe…and perhaps an openness of mind.

Hamas claims control of northern Gaza

In writing on Jihad Watch about an item in Jerusalem Post (Hamas captures Fatah security headquarters, claims control of northern Gaza) Marisol makes a brilliant suggestion Someone should propose a "two-state solution" -- not with Israel, but between Hamas and Fatah. It would be instructively absurd, demonstrating that "sharing" land they feel absolutely entitled to will never be enough. If they can't share "Palestinian" land among themselves, how would they share with Israel in a two-state solution?

Mr. Wizard is gone

Los Angeles Times reported Don Herbert, who explained the wonderful world of science to millions of young baby boomers on television in the 1950s and '60s as "Mr. Wizard" and did the same for another generation of youngsters on the Nickelodeon cable TV channel in the 1980s, died Tuesday. He was 89.

I watched him when I was young. We need more programs like his.

Herbert died at his home in Bell Canyon after a long battle with multiple myeloma, said Tom Nikosey, Herbert's son-in-law. A low-key, avuncular presence who wore a tie and white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, Herbert launched his weekly half-hour science show for children on NBC in 1951. Broadcast live from Chicago on Saturdays the first few years and then from New York City, "Watch Mr. Wizard" ran for 14 years.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Do away with public schools

Los Angeles Times Why have public schools at all? OK, cue the marching music. We need public schools because blah blah blah and yada yada yada. We could say blah is common culture and yada is the government's interest in promoting the general welfare. Or that children are the future. And a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Because we can't leave any child behind. The problem with all these bromides is that they leave out the simple fact that one of the surest ways to leave a kid "behind" is to hand him over to the government.

You got that right.

Americans want universal education, just as they want universally safe food. But nobody believes that the government should run 90% of the restaurants, farms and supermarkets. Why should it run 90% of the schools — particularly when it gets terrible results?

I agree completely.

Consider Washington, home of the nation's most devoted government-lovers and, ironically, the city with arguably the worst public schools in the country. Out of the 100 largest school districts, according to the Washington Post, D.C. ranks third in spending for each pupil — $12,979 — but last in spending on instruction. Fifty-six cents out of every dollar goes to administrators who, it's no secret, do a miserable job administrating, even though D.C. schools have been in a state of "reform" for nearly 40 years.

The only way for a poor person to get a good education for their child in DC is to be lucky enough to get a voucher.

In a blistering series, the Post has documented how badly the bureaucrats have run public education. More than half of the District of Columbia's kids spend their days in "persistently dangerous" schools, with an average of nine violent incidents a day in a system with 135 schools. "Principals reporting dangerous conditions or urgently needed repairs in their buildings wait, on average, 379 days … for the problems to be fixed," according to the Post. But hey, at least the kids are getting a lousy education. A mere 19 schools managed to get "proficient" scores or better for a majority of students on the district's Comprehensive Assessment Test.

A standard response to such criticisms is to say we don't spend enough on public education. But if money were the solution, wouldn't the district, which spends nearly $13,000 on every kid, rank near the top? If you think more money will fix the schools, make your checks out to "cash" and send them to me.

ROF, LMAO

Private, parochial and charter schools get better results. Parents know this. Applications for vouchers in the district dwarf the available supply, and home schooling has exploded.

Wife Beating in Islam

MEMRI TV reported Ahmad Al-Tayyeb: With regard to wife beating... In a nutshell, it appeared as part of a program to reform the wife. [According to the Koran], first "admonish them," [then] "sleep in separate beds, and beat them."

Qur'an 4:34 says Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.

Interviewer: I think we must stress that this pertains to a rebellious woman...

Oh, so they don't beat all women, just those that do something the husband does not like.

Ahmad Al-Tayyeb: Of course. It's not that anybody can start beating as he sees fit. [Westerners] who claim this talk about an Islam which is a figment of their imagination. They are villains because they know there's no such thing in Islam, and they want to pin this interpretation on it. Why? Because Islamic culture is the only culture that is spreading, and is viewed with fear by people of other cultures.

Cancer spreads, and we have chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery with which to treat it.

In any case... This method appeared as part of the treatment of a rebellious wife. I am faced with two options - either the family will be destroyed by divorce, or I can use means that may bring my wife, the mother of my children, back to her senses.

Would a woman whose husband beats her prefer divorce or to be beaten senseless?

The first means is admonishment. [...] The second means of treatment is "sleeping in separate beds." Why? Because this targets the honor... A lot could be said about this. The strength of a woman lies in her ability to seduce the man. The man is strong and can do whatever he wants,

Not in Western society

but the woman has a weapon of her own. This weapon can be targeted.

So because you fear a woman might seduce her husband into getting what she wants you want to disarm that ability.

Many women will come back to their senses, when they realize that this is what's involved. [...] By Allah, even if only one woman out of a million

a lot more than that are beaten.

can be reformed by light beatings... It's not really beating, it's more like punching.

Oh that is different. Why should a woman mind being punched? Or shoved or poked? As long as it isn't a beating, and as long as she was rebellious.

.. It's like shoving or poking her. That's what it is.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Hilton Calls Barbara Walters From Jail

ABC News reported I asked what happened in the jail that led to her being released or reassigned to her home. She said she had not been wailing, sobbing or screaming as had been described.

Does she also deny wailing, sobbing, or screaming in court?

"But," she said, "I was not eating or sleeping. I was severely depressed and felt as if I was in a cage.

You were in a cage. That is what jail is. And you were going to be there for 23 days.

I was not myself. It was a horrible experience." "How are you different?" I asked. "I'm not the same person I was," she said. "I used to act dumb. It was an act. I am 26 years old, and that act is no longer cute.

And were you not smart enough to realize that act was not cute?

It is not who I am, nor do I want to be that person for the young girls who looked up to me. I know now that I can make a difference, that I have the power to do that. I have been thinking that I want to do different things when I am out of here. I have become much more spiritual. God has given me this new chance."

He does that when you turn to Him. But He can tell when you are acting as someone you are not. So be careful.

I asked what kinds of things she might want to do. She said she would like to help in the fields of breast cancer — her grandmother had breast cancer — or multiple sclerosis.

Couldn't they tell the difference?

Her father's mother suffers from that disease. She thought she might get toy companies to build a kind of Paris Hilton playhouse, where sick children might come, and the toy companies could donate toys.

Would you get to play with them too?

She has had a person whom she described as a spiritual adviser who said, "My spirit or soul did not like the way I was being seen and that is why I was sent to jail."

Actually you were sent to jail for twice driving on a suspended license from when you were driving drunk, and for not respecting the court.

"God," she said, "has released me."

It is worse here in the US

Telegraph reported The curriculum in state schools in England has been stripped of its content and corrupted by political interference, according to a damning report by an influential, independent think-tank.

It is worse here in the US, with the Secular Humanists and the teacher's unions both working to destroy the schools.

It warns of the educational apartheid opening up between the experience of pupils in the state sector and those at independent schools, which have refused to reduce academic content to make way for fashionable causes.

The don't teach students to read and think for themselves, they tell them what to think. Just like in the madrassas, except in our schools you can't mention God.

... "The traditional subject areas have been hijacked to promote fashionable causes such as gender awareness, the environment and anti-racism, while teachers are expected to help to achieve the Government's social goals instead of imparting a body of academic knowledge to their students," it says.

And they should be teaching Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, and letting the students form their own social goals.

... Testing at the ages of seven, 11 and 14 places stress on pupils, teachers and parents, says the council, which wants a return to the previous system under which children did not sit any national exams until the end of compulsory schooling at the age of 16..

I disagree there. You don't want to wait until age 16 to find out they are not learning anything.

.. Teenagers studying for GCSEs are being asked to write about the September 11 atrocities using Arab media reports and speeches from Osama bin Laden as sources without balancing material from America, it reveals.

That may make since considering that if they don't wake up soon the entire country will be a majority Islamic country in another generation, and then everyone else will become a Dhimmi.

... The Department for Education defended the curriculum changes and accused the Civitas report of being "based on a profound misunderstanding of the national curriculum and modern teaching methods".

Actually they do understand the national curriculum, they just don't like it, or these new "modern teaching methods." And it is not something new. When my mother was in school she was in the School of Education, and the Dean called her in to chew her out about so many absences, and she said the did not cut class in the important classes, just in the education classes. He was not amused.

"It is insulting to the hard work of pupils and teachers to claim that the education system is just a political football to promote political or social goals," said a spokesman.

It may be insulting, but it is the truth.

Dr. Sanity blogged In the end, all totalitarian/collectivist idealogues have to deliberately and callously use and brainwash children. Whether it is Fidel and his communist indoctrination in Cuban schools or the mirror image of the Palestinian's using a Mickey Mouse look-alike to make little children comfortable with the idea of murdering Jews. Each has their own idea of "social justice", and they insure that their children's minds are never able to break out of the ideological box within which they have confined their respective societies.

Collectivists--either from the right or the left--could care less about the harm they do to the souls of the children who are used or brainwashed in such a manner. For them the individual, whether a child or adult, has no meaning except insofar as they can advance the ideology. A child's total worth is only equivalent to their willingness to be fodder for the good the "cause.".... The left's indoctrination of children today is really no different than what is going on in the madrassas of the Arab world.

Bookworm blogged If we’re not careful, just as our past was once England (and a fairly good legacy of freedom and democracy it gave us), soon our future will be England too, and that, sadly, is a very depressing though

Tim Worstall blogged I'm told that there is no online version of this report. You, err, have to actually buy it. Apparently the information contained is so important to the body politic that only those interested enough to forgo a few pints should have access to it.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Jihad Etiquette

NYT reported We were in a small house in Zarqa, Jordan, trying to interview two heavily bearded Islamic militants about their distribution of recruitment videos when one of us asked one too many questions. “He’s American?” one of the militants growled. “Let’s kidnap and kill him.” The room fell silent. But before anyone could act on this impulse, the rules of jihadi etiquette kicked in. You can’t just slaughter a visitor, militants are taught by sympathetic Islamic scholars. You need permission from whoever arranges the meeting. And in this case, the arranger who helped us to meet this pair declined to sign off. “He’s my guest,” Marwan Shehadeh, a Jordanian researcher, told the bearded men.

I bet the NYT thinks its reporters should get a free pass as well, but the Jihadis don't agree.

With Islamist violence brewing in various parts of the world, the set of rules that seek to guide and justify the killing that militants do is growing more complex.

This jihad etiquette is not written down, and for good reason. It varies as much in interpretation and practice as extremist groups vary in their goals. But the rules have some general themes that underlie actions ranging from the recent rash of suicide bombings in Algeria and Somalia, to the surge in beheadings and bombings by separatist Muslims in Thailand.

The more uncivilized you become, the faster you move to more uncivilized behavior

Some of these rules have deep roots in the Middle East, where, for example, the Egyptian Islamic scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi has argued it is fine to kill Israeli citizens because their compulsory military service means they are not truly civilians.

They don't have compulsory military service. The orthodox (most religious) are exempt.

The war in Iraq is reshaping the etiquette, too. Suicide bombers from radical Sunni and Shiite Muslim groups have long been called martyrs, a locution that avoids the Koran’s ban on killing oneself in favor of the honor it accords death in battle against infidels.

And they hope God honors their twisting His Words. It is interesting to note that the scholars that say it is ok don't do it themselves. They must not be sure.

Now some Sunni militants are urging the killing of Shiites, alleging that they are not true Muslims. If there seems to be no published playbook, there are informal rules, and these were gathered by interviewing militants and their leaders, Islamic clerics and scholars in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and England, along with government intelligence officials in the Middle East, Europe and the United States.

Fatwa forbids PA Muslims to emigrate

Jerusalem Post reported Alarmed by the growing number of Palestinians who are emigrating from the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Authority's mufti has issued a fatwa [religious decree] forbidding Muslims to leave.

Why would anyone want to be a Muslim. They kill you if you change faiths, and now they forbid you to leave an area where they stirred up violence, if you just want a peaceful land to live in.

Sources in the PA Foreign Ministry told The Jerusalem Post that some 10,000 Palestinians have filed requests to emigrate from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the year. They said the requests had been approved. "Every day we hear about hundreds of Palestinians who file requests for emigration with different consulates and diplomatic missions," the sources said. "According to our statistics, there are at least 45,000 emigration applications being reviewed by different countries." The sources said most of the applicants were young men seeking work abroad. They said the majority of them wanted to move to the US, EU and Canada.

Where they don't have nutcases firing rockets into the country next door, which may provoke a response that will accidently get you rather than the really guilty party

The number of Palestinians who wish to emigrate increased significantly after the second intifada broke out in September 2000. Figures published by a number of Palestinian groups show that 50,000 to 80,000 people emigrated in the first few years after the violence erupted.

Gee, Muslims that are more worried about their own lives, and those of their children, than for the pleasure of killing Joozzz, or sending their children to die in hopes that a Jew will be killed.

Robert Spencer blogged What? To the Great Satan and other infidel strongholds? Why not to Saudi Arabia? Iran?

Of course, among the people who want to emigrate to the West there are doubtless many who are not ideologues, who just want to get on with their lives. But they are trapped.

Michael P.F. van der Galiën blogged Dr. Nu’man Amr of Al-Quds University explained to the Jerusalem Post that so many people want to leave Palestine “the harsh economic situation and the high rate of unemployment.” Now, perhaps it’s just me but what about the, you know, civil war? Doesn’t that play a role at all?

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