Don Singleton

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Woman fails in bid to renounce Islam

New Straits Times reported <>A 24-year-old Muslim woman yesterday failed in her application to renounce Islam on the grounds that she did not practise the religion and was never given religious education. Syariah High Court judge Jasri @ Nasip Matjakir said the applicant did not submit any concrete evidence that she was no longer a Muslim in action, behaviour or deed that could expel her from Islam.

She said that she did not "practise" the religion. Is the lack of that action insufficient? Are other Muslims that do not practice the religion still forced to remain muslims?

... Jasri, in his judgment, said although the Federal Constitution did state that every individual deserved to choose his or her religion, it did not give authority to the syariah court to allow Muslims to renounce their religion. "The court can only decide whether one’s action is permissible according to Muslim laws.

So the Federal Constitution is not the highest law in the country?

"The reasons given by the applicant are based on fear of punishment which is against the teachings of Islam. Is fear a good enough reason? "The court finds the reasons given are weak and not one that can be used as permissible to murtad (leave Islam)."

Fear is weak? What about the fact that Surah 2:256 says “There is no compulsion in religion”, Surah 16:82 says “Then, if they turn away, your duty (O Muhammad) is only to convey (the Message) in a clear way.”, Surah 42:48 says “But if they turn away (from Islam). We have not sent you as a Hafiz (watcher, protector) over them (to take care of their deeds and to recompense them). Your duty is to convey (the Message)…”, and Surah 88:21-22 says “And so, (O Prophet!) exhort them, your task is only to exhort; you cannot compel them to believe.”

Hope you can swim

I saw this on another blog and thought I would check and see if it is true for every start and stop place. It apparently is. Someone at Google Maps has a sense of humor. Here I asked for the route from London, England to my house, and in step 37 they have "Swim across the Atlantic Ocean 3,462 mi". I hope you are a good swimmer if you decide to do this.

Gaddafi says only Islam a universal religion

Yahoo! News reported Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Friday that it was a mistake to believe that Christianity was a universal faith alongside Islam.

Christianity is a universal faith OVER Islam. Christianity is based on the Son of God, not just an Arab "Prophet" that tried to hijack the Jewish and Christian faiths, and then turned against them and urged Arabs to kill Jews and Christians, and anyone else, to take over other countries by force.

"There are serious mistakes -- among them the one saying that Jesus came as a messenger for other people other than the sons of Israel," he told a mass prayer meeting in Niger. "Christianity is not a faith for people in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Other people who are not sons of Israel have nothing to do with that religion," he said at the prayer meeting, held to mark the birth of the prophet Mohammed.

This just shows how ignorant Gaddafi is of Christianity. According to Mark 16:15 Jesus said to "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."

Gaddafi, who is seeking to expand his influence in Africa, said his arguments came from the Koran.

He should not rely on the lies in the Koran; he should read the Bible

He led similar prayers last year in Mali. "It is a mistake that another religion exists alongside Islam. There is only one religion which is Islam after Mohammed," he said in the sermon, which was broadcast live on Libyan state television. "All those believers who do not follow Islam are losers," he added. "We are here to correct the mistakes in the light of the teachings of the Koran."

You should not trust the holy book of one faith to properly describe another faith.

Gaddafi also said it was a mistake to believe that Jesus had been crucified and killed. "It is not correct to say that. Another man resembling Jesus was crucified in his place."

And how did Muhammad come to that conclusion, living over 700 years after Christ was crucified?

Libya grants financial aid to Islamic communities in Africa and elsewhere to build mosques, Islamic schools and facilities. Libyan state television often shows Gaddafi meeting groups of African men or women telling him they converted to Islam. The mass prayers, chaired by Gaddafi, came a day after Arab leaders wrapped up a summit in Saudi Arabia. Libya was the only Arab state to shun the gathering. "Libya has turned its back on the Arabs ... Libya is an African nation.

If Gaddafi had read the Koran like he claims to he would realize that it seeks to expand the power of the Arabs he rejects. Muslims even claim you are not really reading the Koran unless you read it in Arabic. He should try reading the Bible. Here he can read it in over 50 versions and 35 languages, including Arabic.

As for Arabs, may God keep them happy and far away," Gaddafi has said to explain his boycott of the summit.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Don't confuse terrorism with Islam, says EU

Telegraph reported The European Union has drawn up guidelines advising government spokesmen to refrain from linking Islam and terrorism in their statements. Brussels officials have confirmed the existence of a classified handbook which offers "non-offensive" phrases to use when announcing anti-terrorist operations or dealing with terrorist attacks.

We certainly would not want to offend people that blow people up just to show they disapprove of something.

Banned terms are said to include "jihad", "Islamic" or "fundamentalist".

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and a fundamentalist Islamic jihadist by any other name would still kill indescriminately.

The word "jihad" is to be avoided altogether, according to some sources, because for Muslims the word can mean a personal struggle to live a moral life.

Tell that to the jihadists that are killing people. And tell the Muslims faced with an internal struggle to lead a moral life to criticize terrorist acts when the people that commit them say they are doing it because the Qur'an tells them to do so.

One alternative, suggested publicly last year, is for the term "Islamic terrorism" to be replaced by "terrorists who abusively invoke Islam".

Why use five words when two says it all.

An EU official said that the secret guidebook, or, "common lexicon", is aimed at preventing the distortion of the Muslim faith and the alienation of Muslims in Europe. "The common lexicon includes guidance on a number of frequently used terms where lack of care by EU and member states' spokespeople may give rise to misunderstandings," he said. "Careful usage of certain terms is not about empty political correctness

We hope that they will kill us last if we are nice to them.

but stems from astute awareness of the EU's interests in the fight against terrorism.

Jawa Report blogged Since we cannot use the terms "Islamic fundamentalists", or "jihadis", what exactly are we going to call the Islamic fundametalist jihadis? Oh, yeah: "French youth".

Hot Air blogged In the name of human rights, we’re getting a sharia-based speech code rammed down our throats on a global scale. Is it just me, or the 21st Century shaping up to suck mightily?

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

"Youth" riot

Yahoo! News Riot police firing tear gas and brandishing batons clashed Tuesday with bands of youths who shattered windows and looted shops at a major Paris train station, and officials said seven people were arrested.

Nowhere in the article do they identify the religion of the "youths". Wanta guess?

Officers and police dogs charged at groups of marauding youths, some of them wearing hoods, who mingled with commuters and travelers at the Gare du Nord — one of Paris' most important transport hubs.

Accept peace plan or face war

Telegraph reported The "lords of war" will decide Israel's future if it rejects a blueprint for peace crafted by the entire Arab world, Saudi Arabia's veteran foreign minister warned yesterday. As leaders began gathering in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for today's summit of the Arab League, Prince Saud al-Faisal told The Daily Telegraph that the Middle East risks perpetual conflict if the peace plan fails.

Perpetual conflict is what they have right now. They even pulled all of the Israeli settlers out of Gaza and turned over greenhouses that employed many Arabs, to see if the Palestinians would set up a peaceful state, and found the greenhouses used as terror bases with which to attack Israel.

Under this Saudi-drafted proposal, every Arab country would formally recognise Israel in return for a withdrawal from all the land captured in the war of 1967.

Whoopee. If Israel goes back to borders that are harder to defend against, they will be recognized by every Arab Country. Will those Arab countries all live in peace with Israel, or just recognize where they are, and attack like in 1967?

Why did they do it

This is a humorous clip from the 1/2 Hour News Hour but reminds me of many news reports in which we are just told that "youths" did something, or a crazy individual did something, and leaving out the important piece of information that he was a Muslim. This certainly does not mean that all Muslims do these things, but when one does do them we deserve to know who they were. For example this report of "youths of Arab and African origin". Were they Arab and African Methodists, or Arab and African Secular Humanists?

Monday, March 26, 2007

This is baaaaaad

the Mail reported Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs. The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.

This is baaaaaad

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Charter School Effort Gets $65 Million Lift

WaPo reported The charter school movement, begun 16 years ago as an alternative to struggling public schools, will today make its strongest claim on mainstream American education when a national group announces the most successful fundraising campaign in the movement's history -- $65 million to create 42 schools in Houston.

Wonderful news, particularly for parents in Houston

The money, which comes from some of the nation's foremost donors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, would make the Knowledge Is Power Program the largest charter school organization in the country. KIPP, which runs three schools in Washington, has produced some of the highest test scores among publicly funded schools in the District and has made significant gains in the math and reading achievement of low-income students in most of its 52 schools across the country.

Betsy Newmark blogged Generations of students have entered school and left, failed by our schools. Now a system has come along that helps some of those students and critics gripe that they aren't helping everyone. They would prefer to struggle along with one failed program after another while more generations of students are failed by their schools. These schools are taking their public money, adding in private donations and providing an excellent education for some kids. Yes, those kids are lucky to get there and we wish that all students could go to such schools. But until that happens, should we deny these students at the KIPP Academies their opportunities because we want to hold them hostage in the regular public schools in the hopes that their presence will help other students.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Colorado Woman Sues To Hold Web Crawlers To Contracts

InformationWeek reported The Internet Archive, which spiders the Internet to copy Web sites for posterity (unless site owners opt out), is being sued by Colorado resident and Web site owner Suzanne Shell for conversion, civil theft, breach of contract, and violations of the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations act and the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act.

Shell is an idiot. If she does not want her site spidered, all she has to do is include a metatag that tells spiders not to index the page, and not to follow links within it.

Shell's site states, "IF YOU COPY OR DISTRIBUTE ANYTHING ON THIS WEB SITE, YOU ARE ENTERING INTO A CONTRACT," at the bottom of the main page, and refers readers to a more detailed copyright notice and agreement. Her suit asserts that the Internet Archive's programmatic visitation of her site constitutes acceptance of her terms, despite the obvious inability of a Web crawler to understand those terms and the absence of a robots.txt file to warn crawlers away.

Proof the left is insane

Bret Stephens wrote in OpinionJournal Since coming to office nearly seven years ago, Mr. Livingstone has become a symbol of the marriage of the European left and the Islamist right..... More mysterious, however, at least as a matter of ideology, has been the dalliance of the progressive left with the (Islamic) political right. Self-styled progressives, after all, have spent the past four decades championing the very freedoms that Islam most opposes: sexual and reproductive freedoms, gay rights, freedom from religion, pornography and various forms of artistic transgression, pacifism and so on. For those who hold this form of politics dear, any long-term alliance with Islamic politics ultimately becomes an ideological, if not a political, suicide pact.

Precisely. The same is true for the Democrats in this country. They are so mad at Bush that they ignore the much greater risk that Radical Islam proposes, and if Islam prevails, Conservative Christains will certainly be hurt, because they will have to live as Dhimmis under Islam and pay a steep tax, but the Secular Progressives will be in far worse shape. They support Gay Marriage, while Muslims not only will not let gays marry, they kill them, by beheading, hanging, throwing off buildings, or other ways. Dems support abortion on demand, while Muslims stone or give 100 lashes to people for having sex outside of marriage.

One cannot, after all, champion the cause of universal liberation in alliance with a movement that at its core stands for submission.... But the stakes today are different. At question for Europeans is not the prevailing view of a distant country. The question is the shaping of their own. Europe's liberal democrats were able, sometimes with outside help, to preserve their values in the face of an outside threat. Whether they can resist the temptations of Islamosocialism remains to be seen.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

A More Islamic Islam

Geneive Abdo wrote on WaPo A small group of self-proclaimed secular Muslims from North America and elsewhere gathered in St. Petersburg recently for what they billed as a new global movement to correct the assumed wrongs of Islam and call for an Islamic Reformation.

It needs one, to bring the 7th century religion into the 21st century.

Across the state in Fort Lauderdale, Muslim leaders from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Washington-based advocacy group whose members the "secular" Muslims claim are radicals, denounced any notion of a Reformation as another attempt by the West to impose its history and philosophy on the Islamic world.

They prefer the 7th century approach.

The self-proclaimed secularists represent only a small minority of Muslims. The views among religious Muslims from CAIR more closely reflect the views of the majority, not only in the United States but worldwide. Yet Western media, governments and neoconservative pundits pay more attention to the secular minority.

Actually we are keeping an eye on the radical ones as well, to make sure they do not succeed.

White House Opposes D.C. Vote

WaPo reported The White House declared its opposition yesterday to a bill that would give the District its first full seat in the House of Representatives, saying it is unconstitutional, and a key Senate supporter said such concerns could kill the measure. "The Constitution specifies that only 'the people of the several states' elect representatives to the House," said White House spokesman Alex Conant. "And D.C. is not a state."

Precise;y. DC should only be the land where people work. With the exception of the White House the land where people live should be given back to Virfinia or Maryland, whichever turned it over to become a part of DC

Public school bondage

Rocky Mountain News reports The state of Utah has just passed a landmark educational voucher program under which every family, depending on its income, will be reimbursed between $500 and $3,000 per child for annual tuition paid to the private school of their choice.

Fantastic news. I am not wild about making it a function of income; I think that each family should be able to get whatever amount of money the state has allocated per child for the public school system, and that parents should be able to direct that money to the public, private, or religious school of their choice. But this is certainly good news.

This will now give parents of modest means options that the well-to-do have long enjoyed. Their school-age children will no longer be a captive audience. Parents will be empowered as educational consumers, giving them choices and leverage consumers enjoy in all other spheres of our market economy. They'll be free to choose the educational model they believe best fits the unique needs of their children, and will be freed from the bureaucracy and politics of government-delivered education.

Wonderful.

Predictably, the educratic establishment is in full counterattack. The Utah teachers' union has launched a campaign to repeal the new law. If that fails, they'll try their luck in court. Their resistance is bred of desperation.

Absolutely. They know that the product they offer can't stand the competition.

First, the union's survival is at stake. Under a voucher system, education is still publicly financed through taxpayer dollars. That doesn't change. But what does is the union's monopoly to deliver publicly funded education exclusively in government schools. Under a voucher system, competition would bloom.

And parents would be free to choose to send their child whereever they want.

Second, there's the ideological opposition to competition and free choice in education. The educratic establishment - from administrators, to the teachers' colleges that staff the schools, to the unions that run them and the school boards they elect - is liberal to its core.

And the only way to get more liberals is to brainwash the children.

They covet their power to set the agenda, to dictate subject matter and educational techniques, to influence impressionable young minds and mold the next generation of liberal activists. They've turned their government schools into laboratories for social engineering, downgrading basic academics and old-fashioned notions of American exceptionalism, patriotism and individualism in favor of collectivism, political correctness, diversity, environmentalism, feminism, and delusional self-esteem. They have a death grip on these schools that they're loath to release.

Which is exactly why it must be done.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Jihadists to be freed

Gulfnews reported Saudi Arabia said that 90 per cent of those who have been detained for holding "deviant thoughts" have reformed and announced their repentance.

So jihadists will be freed, if they just say I am sorry.

.... But authorities emphasised that they would not set free those militants arrested for taking part in terrorist attacks across the country.

That is as long as they were threatening sites outside of the Kingdom. But if they were attacking Saudia Arabia, they will continue to be held.

Extremists Trying to Sign Up to Be School Bus Drivers

FOXNews reported The Associated Press reports that members of the unnamed extremist groups have succeeded in gaining the drivers licenses, but a Department of Homeland Security official told FOX News that "at this time there is no evidence that any of these individuals have got these jobs, or got hold of school buses."

That is nice. What are you doing to make sure they don't get such jobs?

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko adds, speaking with FOXNews.com: "There is no plot. There is no threat. And parents and children can feel perfectly safe."

Just as long as their bus driver does not shout Allahu Akbar.

The Department of Homeland Security official said the bulletin was sent to state and local law enforcement officials, and "some school districts have reported an increased number of foreign nationals seeking school bus driver positions and a number of other unusual events."

But no one should worry. They are just sending out this notice so that when a School Bus is hijacked and the kids are killed, they can say well we warned everyone.

Phony Fraud Charges???

NYT reported In its fumbling attempts to explain the purge of United States attorneys, the Bush administration has argued that the fired prosecutors were not aggressive enough about addressing voter fraud. It is a phony argument; there is no evidence that any of them ignored real instances of voter fraud.

Maybe the reason there is no evidence is that the attorneys refused to investigate the complaints.

But more than that, it is a window on what may be a major reason for some of the firings. In partisan Republican circles, the pursuit of voter fraud is code for suppressing the votes of minorities and poor people. By resisting pressure to crack down on “fraud,” the fired United States attorneys actually appear to have been standing up for the integrity of the election system.

Do "minorities and poor people" have some sort of right to vote multiple times?

John McKay, one of the fired attorneys, says he was pressured by Republicans to bring voter fraud charges after the 2004 Washington governor’s race, which a Democrat, Christine Gregoire, won after two recounts. Republicans were trying to overturn an election result they did not like, but Mr. McKay refused to go along. “There was no evidence,” he said, “and I am not going to drag innocent people in front of a grand jury.”

The purpose of the grand jury is to determine whether there is evidence or not.

Later, when he interviewed with Harriet Miers, then the White House counsel, for a federal judgeship that he ultimately did not get, he says, he was asked to explain “criticism that I mishandled the 2004 governor’s election.”

What was the answer?

Mr. McKay is not the only one of the federal attorneys who may have been brought down for refusing to pursue dubious voter fraud cases. Before David Iglesias of New Mexico was fired, prominent New Mexico Republicans reportedly complained repeatedly to Karl Rove about Mr. Iglesias’s failure to indict Democrats for voter fraud. The White House said that last October, just weeks before Mr. McKay and most of the others were fired, President Bush complained that United States attorneys were not pursuing voter fraud aggressively enough.

Then he did the right thing by firing people that were not doing enough. After all, they serve "at the pleasure of the President, and if he is not pleased, they should go."

There is no evidence of rampant voter fraud in this country.

There certainly have been many examples of voter fraud. What about the fake voter registration forms submitted by the highly partisan ACORN group. What does it take before the NYT sees them as rampant. Do Republicans have to benefit, and is voter fraud that helps Dems O.K. with the NYT.

Rather, Republicans under Mr. Bush have used such allegations as an excuse to suppress the votes of Democratic-leaning groups. They have intimidated Native American voter registration campaigners in South Dakota with baseless charges of fraud. They have pushed through harsh voter ID bills in states like Georgia and Missouri, both blocked by the courts, that were designed to make it hard for people who lack drivers’ licenses — who are disproportionately poor, elderly or members of minorities — to vote.

You have to have a photo id to board a plane, or cash a check, or fill some prescriptions at the pharmacy counter, or rent a video at Blockbuster. And Georgia, at least, was willing to provide them for free to low income people, and have a van that drove to the neighborhoods to issue the cards.

Florida passed a law placing such onerous conditions on voter registration drives, which register many members of minorities and poor people, that the League of Women Voters of Florida suspended its registration work in the state.

Maybe that was because of the fake voter registration forms submitted by the highly partisan ACORN group.

Rick Moran blogged I guess thousands of fake voter registration forms submitted by the highly partisan ACORN as well as other frauds perpetrated by the usual suspects at the AFL-CIO, Moveon, and other liberal advocacy groups should be allowed into the system – at least according to the Times. We wouldn’t want to disturb the moronic notion that partisan Republicans use “code” to differentiate between real people and sock puppets who would be capable of voting 5, 10, or 20 times at different polling stations. Democrats never perpetrate these kinds of frauds – just ask the dead people in any Chicago cemetery and they’ll swear on their graves that such shenanigans never take place.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Great Global Warming Swindle

The UK’s Channel 4 called “The Great Global Warming Swindle” and it understandably has alarmists upset. That makes me happy. Perhaps if they scream enough about it, the MSM will mention what they are saying, and people may choose to examine both sides of the subject.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Obama urges compassion in Mideast

Des Moines Register reported Illinois Sen. Barack Obama on Sunday told a small group of Iowa Democrats that U.S. policy in the Middle East can be compassionate as well as tough - while he also provided these influential voices in the leadoff caucus state with an up-close view of him as a presidential candidate.

Obama told the Muscatine-area party activists that he supports relaxing restrictions on aid to the Palestinian people. He said they have suffered the most as a result of stalled peace efforts with Israel.

What about the Israeli citizens killed by rockets launched from two large synagogues in the Gaza settlements that they turned over to the Palestinians to see if they really deserved a state of their own, only to see those synagogues used as rocket launch sites, and the the high-tech greenhouses built by Israelis, that formerly provided employment for many Palestinians, have been looted, burned, and turned into cover for weapons smuggling tunnels.

"Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people," Obama said while on the final leg of his weekend trip to eastern Iowa.

"If we could get some movement among Palestinian leadership, what I'd like to see is a loosening up of some of the restrictions on providing aid directly to the Palestinian people," he added.

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas rejected on Monday criticism by al Qaeda's second-in-command and said it was still committed to Israel's destruction despite a ower-sharing deal with the Fatah faction. Is that what you mean by movement?

Sunday, March 11, 2007

The 'Surge' Is Succeeding

Robert Kagan wrorte in WaPo A front-page story in The Post last week suggested that the Bush administration has no backup plan in case the surge in Iraq doesn't work. I wonder if The Post and other newspapers have a backup plan in case it does.

And the Dems are wringing their hands trying to figure out how to pull us out and have a failure they can blame on Bush, all the time seeing that even their own member are seeing that the surge is working.

Leading journalists have been reporting for some time that the war was hopeless,

Which shows what little they know.

a fiasco that could not be salvaged by more troops and a new counterinsurgency strategy. The conventional wisdom in December held that sending more troops was politically impossible after the antiwar tenor of the midterm elections. It was practically impossible because the extra troops didn't exist. Even if the troops did exist, they could not make a difference. Four months later, the once insurmountable political opposition has been surmounted. The nonexistent troops are flowing into Iraq. And though it is still early and horrible acts of violence continue, there is substantial evidence that the new counterinsurgency strategy, backed by the infusion of new forces, is having a significant effect.

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