Iran: Clashes Within (With Addendum)

Excerpts from today's Washington Post story are below the fold:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared a "new beginning" for Iran late Saturday after he was declared victor in the presidential election, but as he spoke on national television violent demonstrations rolled through several areas of Tehran. Supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi burned dumpsters, threw stones and clashed with police in the worst rioting in Tehran in many years.

What new beginning is Ahmadinejad talking about? The same mullah-controlled thug will be at the helm of Iran. Supposedly, he had a landslide victory:

The Interior Ministry, controlled by Ahmadinejad, announced that he had been elected in the first round with 62.6 percent of the vote, compared with less than 34 percent for Mousavi, who was the leading challenger. Turnout was a record 86 percent of the 46.2 million eligible voters.

Oh, really? Check out this information about the 2005 election, which brought Ahmadinejad to power. Should we believe that this 2009 election was run with more integrity?

According to today's Washington Post:

Announcement of the results triggered protests throughout the day. Families lined the streets in the middle-class neighborhood of Saadat Abad, cheering on the demonstration and shouting, "Death to the dictator!"

[...]

Talks between Iran and the United States are still a possibility with Ahmadinejad at the helm. On several occasions, he has said he wants such talks. His oft-repeated verbal attacks on Israel are not expected to change.

So, no fresh start, really.

Meanwhile,

The White House released a two-sentence statement...

In Tehran, Mousavi's whereabouts were unknown. Reporters on their way to a news conference by the former candidate were stopped by security personnel, who said the meeting had been canceled. Several journalists were beaten.

[...]

"We are hopeful," Ahmadinejad said during his speech. "Now it's time to move on and continue to build our great Iran."

In essence, Ahmadinejad is speaking of change and hope. No wonder BHO cuts him so much slack.

With all this unrest over the election in Iran going on right now, BHO's weekly address was about healthcare reform, also the topic on the lead page of the White House web site. Not a word of support for the oppressed people of Iran. Does that community not matter to him?



ADDENDUM: More from Gateway Pundit.

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Blaming The Law For Criminality

First, we have Secretary of State Hillary Clinton casting blame for Mexican drug violence in the direction of the United States' "war" on drugs:

The United States is at least as responsible as Mexico for the violent drug wars that are roiling its southern neighbor because of an insatiable U.S. market for narcotics, the failure to stop weapons smuggling southward and a three-decade "war" on drugs that "has not worked," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday.

"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians," Clinton said.

"How could anyone conclude any differently? . . . I feel very strongly we have co-responsibility," she said....

Now comes the following:

American truck drivers operating near the U.S.-Mexico border are being warned of increasing violence among warring drug cartels and are being told to stay alert against attacks or hijackings.

"Violence amongst Mexican drug cartels in the border states, on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border, has exponentially increased in the past year," according to the alert from First Observer, a trucking security program funded by a Department of Homeland Security grant.

"Truck drivers carry a risk, as they are involved in operations that might interest these criminals," the alert said.

The alert cited the efforts of Mexican President Felipe Calderon to crack down on cross-border smuggling of drugs, which it says has hurt the cartels' operations.

"With these difficulties, the cartels' gangs have become more aggressive and dangerous with their tactics," the alert said. "Violent crimes have surged throughout border cities, and the violence that primarily occurred on the Mexican side has begun to spill into the United States."...

And the better approach is what, exactly?

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Anarchy South Of The Border

Postpone that upcoming vacation in Mexico or living in a border state until consulting the map:

From this March 18, 2009 article in the Washington Post:

...A [dark] picture was presented by Denise Dresser, a Princeton-educated professor of political science in Mexico City, who warned that recent U.S. assistance in fighting drug trafficking has had only mixed success. Cocaine traffickers now spend more than twice the attorney general's budget just for bribes; 450,000 citizens are involved in the drug trade....

"Mexico is becoming a country where lawlessness prevails, where more people died in drug-related violence last year than those killed in Iraq, where the government has been infiltrated by the mafias and cartels it has vowed to combat," Dresser said. "Although many believe that Obama's greatest foreign policy challenges lie in Pakistan or Iran or the Middle East, they may in fact be found in the immediate neighborhood."

[...]

"Unfortunately, in the past six months, we have noted a troubling increase in the number of grenades . . . seized from or used by drug traffickers, and we are concerned about the possibility of explosives-related violence spilling into U.S. border towns," the Justice Department said...

Newsbleat makes the following observation in a post dated March 18, 2009:

Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, who oversees U.S. military interests on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border as the head of Northern Command, told the US Senate: “The Mexican government is taking aggressive action to win. They are building momentum. I would not say they are losing,” Renuart said when asked if the Calderon government was winning or losing.

A bunch of drug pushers fighting the entire Mexican military and police force, drug cartels versus the entire combined might of the Mexican government, and our expert general would not say if the Mexican government was winning or losing.

“I would not say they are losing”. Talk about having your tongue stuck between your teeth and your cheek…

Meanwhile, the BHO administration is working on a "Mexico plan." We've already seen how some of BHO's other "plans" have worked out.

Well, he WANTED the job of President, and he got it. Now what?

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Musharraf Resigns

This morning's big story is the resignation of the president of Pakistan. I haven't included a link because the story is easily available on Internet news sites.


For good or ill, how will Musharraf's resignation affect world dynamics?

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Another Under-Reported Story

This time in Jakarta, Indonesia (via Infidel Bloggers Alliance):

07/28/2008 13:52

Muslims storm Protestant school in Jakarta, injuring 265 students

Over the week-end Muslim fanatics target a Christian school in the capital’s east side. Police evacuate the institute to protect students. Hundreds of police agents are now guarding it to prevent further violence.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Police evacuated the Christian Theological Arastamar Institute (STT SETIA) which is located in an eastern district of the Indonesian capital after it suffered damages during clashes between Christians and Muslims over the week-end. At least 1,500 students were moved to nearby police headquarters and a local Christian-based political party. The situation remains critical and further violence between opposite factions cannot be ruled out.

“The school foundation urged us to intervene to protect people,” said East Jakarta District Police Chief Senior Superintendent. “For this reason we moved everyone out.”

Last night hundreds of residents from the village of Kampung Pulo had taken up arms threatening to storm the school after being instigated by an imam at a local mosque who claimed that a bunch of Christian gangsters were coming to “protect” the school after it was attacked on Saturday by a Muslim mob, causing damage to the building and hurting hundreds.

In an attempt to solve the problem East Jakarta District Chief Murdani held a close door meeting with the warring parties to discuss the issue. At the same time though, he said that police would conduct a thorough investigation and check if the school’s legal status was in order and that it respected all building regulations. In case of violations he would issue orders to demolish the unlawful structures.

At present hundreds of agents are guarding the school and have orders to stop any act of violence and disarm people.

The Arastamar High School for Theology and Biblical Studies, locally known as STT SETIA, was established by Rev Mathew Mangentang in 1987.

The SST SETIA has more than 29 branches school across the country. In Jakarta alone it has thousands of students, including 265 who were injured in latest clashes.

Tensions between Christians and Muslims flared up on Saturday following rumours that a SETIA student had stolen a motorcycle that belonged to a Muslim from a neighbouring village.

Senny Manafe, a spokesperson for the school, rejected the accusation, claiming instead that the attacks were triggered by a trivial incident. In an attempt to chase a mouse in the street, a student threw a slipper against a house owned by a local Muslim. Outraged by the deed, the latter kicked and punched the student as people gathered drawn by the rumour that a Christian student had tried to steal the Muslim’s motorbike.

“Many students suffered various injuries to the head. Others were burnt by Molotov cocktails,” Manafe said.

The violence and charges against SETIA are the work of Risman Hadi, chairman of Muslim Brotherhood Forum of Kampung Pulo Village, who in the past opposed the opening and continued existence of the Christian institute.

[source]

What are the media waiting for? Another Beslan?

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Failed Public Diplomacy

Photo credit
After a little over two years, Karen Hughes is bidding good-bye to her position as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy. According to this source, the position with the intention of repairing the United States' image in the Middle East. The reaction in the Middle East, however, was cool within just a month of her having taken the position at State. This item in the November 7, 2007 edition of the Washington Post indicates that the reaction became downright freezing cold over the course of some two years (emphases mine):

As part of her swan song, outgoing State Department public diplomacy chief Karen Hughes is off for speeches yesterday [November 6] in London to the International Public Relations Association annual meeting and today [November 7] in Austria at the Salzburg Global Seminar, "Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women in Politics and Business."

While most U.S. analysts gave mixed reviews to her two-year stint, some folks in the Mideast were less charitable. Much less charitable.

Hughes, wrote Rami G. Khouri, a widely respected columnist in Lebanon's Daily Star, "should apologize for subjecting her own country, and we who were the objects of her mission, to what can only be described as a monumental and insulting hoax."

Khouri said Hughes "never understood that her brand of moralizing and arrogant cultural cheerleading -- 'Go, Muslims, go! . . . You can be modern and democratic if you really try!' -- was part of the problem, not part of the solution." Hughes "failed miserably and totally," he said, but "she never really had a chance," given U.S. policies, and she ended up "playing the fool on the global stage that increasingly came to see her as a strange combination of a comedy and horror show rolled into one."

Well, you can't please everyone.

Now, I can't say that I'm a fan of Ms. Hughes, who has, in my view, at times played the dhimmi. For example, in 2005, she addressed the annual conference of the Islamic Society of North America, an organization which propagates Wahhabism. Nevertheless, the perennial Muslim cry of "Apologize! You've insulted us" is growing old. And is it really so insulting to encourage modernization and democratization? I suppose so, if one doesn't desire to be modern or democratic.

In a November 5, 2007 essay "Karen Hughes and Halloween," from which some of the above came, Rami G. Kouri states the following (emphases mine):

BOSTON -- I could not help but notice that Karen Hughes announced her resignation as US public diplomacy chief last Wednesday -- on Halloween day -- here in the United States. This was an apt moment for her to hit the airwaves: when monsters, ghosts, goblins and witches roam the land for the night, then disappear for another year, all in a make-believe fantasyland that enchants us briefly, and frightens us occasionally, but that we never take seriously.

Her resignation has been greeted in the American press as reflecting mixed results in her two years as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy -- with progress on institutionally raising the profile of her office in Washington, but no real achievements in improving America's image abroad. That is too kind, in my view, and misses the point of her professional and official calamity.

From the start, Karen Hughes’ office and mission -- not her personally -- were a political catastrophe in all respects. She should not simply resign. If she were a real diplomat and a true American, with honesty and courage to match her Texan bravado, she should apologize for subjecting her own country, and we who were the objects of her mission, to what can only be described as a monumental and insulting hoax.

She will not apologize, of course. So the next best thing is for those whom she leaves behind in Washington -- a credibility-shattered and intellectually depleted bureaucracy -- to undertake the patriotic mission that she always refused to do: to analyze honestly why the United States is universally criticized and increasingly widely feared as a dangerous menace around the world, and to determine what can be done to turn this situation by adopting better policies, rather than subjecting the world to deceitful political hucksters and naïve storytellers.

Her office had no appreciable impact on improving global perceptions of the United States, and in some situations made things worse, especially when she and some of her colleagues spoke to audiences in the Middle East with a combination of political condescension, cultural arrogance, and aggressive moralizing. I had the chance to see her perform in person a few times, and it was always a painful experience. Those left behind in her wake should analyze the last two years honestly, and come up with policies and strategies that shed the sort of racism, fantasy communication, and self-delusional political and moral evasion of responsibility that the hapless Hughes and her colleagues practiced with a gusto that was matched by their obvious irrelevance and failure.

I am harsh on her and her work because it reflects the absolute worst in American political culture and America's engagement with the world. What she has done in her two years as public diplomacy chief is not only ineffective and probably counter-productive; it is also very un-American. She rejected the honesty, humility and realism that define the values of most Americans, and instead opted to live in a dream world in which America was perfect, and foreigners who thought badly of it needed to be lectured about American values and policies.

The core, devastating flaw in her entire mission was to completely separate the world's critical views of the US government from the conduct of American foreign policy itself. She assumed that the problem was that foreigners misunderstood American values or foreign policy goals -- but she never tried to understand Arab-Muslims in the same way she asked them to understand her country and its policies.

She never understood that her brand of moralizing and arrogant cultural cheerleading -- “Go, Muslims, go! Reach for the sky! You can be modern and democratic, if you really try!” -- was part of the problem, not part of the solution. She failed to grasp that she was handicapped from the start by trying to make us love a country whose pro-Israeli, pro-Arab autocrats foreign policy -- and now the Iraq fiasco -- has devastated our lands and cultures for nearly half a century.

By any standards, she failed miserably and totally -- but to be fair to her, she never really had a chance, given the enormous handicap of her country's foreign policy in the Middle East. We should criticize her personally only for accepting to be part of this charade, and playing the fool on a global stage that increasingly came to see her as a strange combination of a comedy and horror show rolled into one. We should instead remind Americans that this is a moment for them to reconsider this whole silly episode, stop wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on vacuous public diplomacy programs, and stop insulting several billion people around the world who do not need any prompting to enjoy American values, education, business, technology, sports, and other offerings -- including Halloween night, with its bags of Tootsie-Rolls, and the fantasy of defeated wicked witches -- who get on their brooms and disappear into the night sky, to reappear only in our future nightmares.

I can certainly dish out barbs with my blunt manner of speaking, but I find the above essay by Mr. Kouri over the top. In any case, Ms. Hughes seems not have won the hearts and minds of those to whom she reached out.

Perhaps Ms. Hughes should have heeded the advice of some of her friends, who had cautioned her about being assigned "Mission Impossible."

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Demographic Change In China?

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

Photo credit
Excerpt from "Chasing the Chinese Dream: A Growing Number of the World's Emigrants Are Heading East, Rather Than West, in Search of Safety, Tolerance and Opportunity", an article in the October 21, 2007 edition of the Washington Post:

...In Yiwu, a city in the eastern province of Zhejiang that is the home of the world's largest wholesale market, "Exotic Street" lights up at night with stands filled with smoking kebabs, colorful hookahs and strong sugared tea for the almost exclusively Arab clientele.

Communist China's first attempt to make friends with outsiders and encourage cultural exchange came during the 1960s and '70s, as part of a campaign for ideological leadership in the developing world. China sought to spread socialism and unite the farmers of the world.

Today, its efforts to woo developing countries are driven by more calculated, strategic goals, most notably its need to secure long-term contracts for oil, gas and minerals to fuel its booming economy.

As part of this campaign, China has sought to portray itself as more open to Islam than other non-Muslim nations.

Over the past 20 years, the government has gradually allowed its own Muslim minority to rebuild institutions that were devastated by state-sponsored attacks on Islam during the Cultural Revolution. Islamic schools have opened, and scholars of Islam are being encouraged to go abroad to pursue their studies. Unlike Christians, China's estimated 20 million Muslims are considered an ethnic minority, a status that confers certain protections and privileges.

"In America, for people with my religion there can be a lot of problems," said Adamou Salissou, 25, from Niger. "The image they have of Muslims is that they are terrorists. Chinese don't have a problem with religion. They think, 'It's your religion and it's okay.' "

With funds from a Chinese government scholarship, Salissou is pursuing a master's degree in biochemistry and molecular biology at Xiamen University in Fujian province, where a community of Arab traders thrived in the 7th and 8th centuries. Salissou's brother Nour Mahamane, 23, joined him this fall and is studying for a master's degree in petrochemistry in Shanghai.

Mosques in areas such as Yiwu, where foreigners are concentrated, have been given more freedom than some others, which are under strict state control. Officials at the mosque here estimate that more than 20,000 Muslim immigrants, about 1,000 of them from Iraq, have settled in the area over the past five years....

The camel's nose in the tent. China is not welcoming these Muslim immigrants with open arms, however:

...But there are limits to China's welcome.

It's nearly impossible for foreigners who don't have Chinese ancestry to obtain citizenship, and like anywhere else, China has had its share of racial misunderstandings and clashes with foreigners....

The article concludes as follows:

In Yiwu, there was anger in the Iraqi community after an Iraqi man, Mostafa Ahmed Alazawi, was found dead in his rented home on March 30. His family wanted him to be buried in China and applied to the city for a piece of land. The city ruled that foreigners could not be buried in China, forcing the family to ship the body back to Iraq. The decision fueled outrage among the Iraqis. Through a friend, the family declined to be interviewed.

Anwar said that despite the tensions he's happier to be in China than elsewhere in the world.

"My brother lived in the Netherlands for nine years," he said. "There, if you are a foreigner, you are below them. When he came to China, everything was different. Here, if you are a foreigner, you are treated better than Chinese."

You can read the entire WaPo article HERE.

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Cozying Up

Excerpt from this article in the October 17, 2007 edition of the Washington Times (emphases mine):

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday warned against a U.S. military strike against Iran and invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to make a precedent-setting visit to Moscow — dealing another blow to U.S. hopes of isolating the regime in Tehran.

Mr. Putin issued the invitation on the sidelines of a summit in Tehran of the five nations bordering the Caspian Sea.

His trip to the Iranian capital was the first by a Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin visited there in 1943 to participate in an Allied conference to plan for a postwar world.

In a final declaration, the Caspian nations backed Mr. Putin's call, saying "under no circumstances will they allow [the use of their] territories by third countries to launch aggression or other military action against any of the member states."

The participants also backed the rights of signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty — which includes Iran — to develop peaceful nuclear energy....

A bit more detail from this article in the Washington Post (emphases mine):

Putin has said there is no evidence that Iran's nuclear program has a military dimension, but the Kremlin nonetheless has delayed construction of a nuclear power plant in Iran, ostensibly because of a financial dispute. Many analysts here say the Kremlin was angered by Iran's unwillingness to accept a Russian proposal to enrich uranium, on Russian soil, for Iran's needs.

Putin refused to say if the plant could begin operation before he leaves office next year.

"I only gave promises to my mom when I was a small boy," Putin told Iranian reporters. "At the same time, we are not going to renounce our obligations."

Ahmadinejad and the mullahs of Iran have their own agenda. Putin has his as well. Where will this Russia-Iran alliance lead the rest of the world? It seems to me that the world just became a more dangerous place.

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Damage Control

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

From this article in the July 14, 2007 edition of the Washington Post:

...[I]n recent days, the government has gone on the offensive. It is issuing almost daily statements saying how much it is doing to improve food and consumer safety. On July 3, it reported it was stepping up anti-corruption efforts. On July 4, it said it would ban firms that advertise medical claims that have not been approved by the government. On July 5 it said it was working on the country's first food recall system....

Not here in the United States. In China.

Faced with mounting international concern over the safety of some of the products it exports, the Chinese government --often perceived as defensive and clumsy in how it handles public relations -- is firing back.

In Washington, China has put together a team of lobbyists who have been practically living on Capitol Hill for the past few weeks. In Beijing, the government has taken the unusual step of seeking advice from outsiders, including public relations powerhouses Ogilvy and Edelman, about how to get positive messages out to Chinese and American consumers.

The result has been an aggressive campaign to save the ""Made in China" label by presenting an alternate view on consumer safety and globalization. The message is that China isn't the only country that has had problems with the products it exports. China, as government officials have been pointing out in recent days, rejects U.S. imports at a rate that is just a little less than the 1 percent of Chinese products rejected by the United States.

"China feels it is getting beaten up for things that are happening on a reciprocal basis to them," said Scott Kronick, head of Ogilvy's China practice.

At the same time, the Chinese government is trying to show that it is taking seriously recent recalls by making examples of individuals and companies that allegedly contributed to the problems. The recalls have included pet food laced with an industrial chemical, toys coated with lead paint, defective tires and toothpaste made with toxic chemicals.

According to this recent article in Time Magazine, concerns about catfish and seafood have now arisen:

Joey Tatum runs a Mississippi-delta eatery where catfish is king--and its origin clear. U.S. FARM RAISED, the menu of Fat Baby's proclaims. "There's no Chinese catfish in my restaurant," Tatum says. "Everyone knows they're not safe."

That's up to the FDA to decide, and over the years, its border inspectors have rejected tons of tainted catfish from China and closely monitored shipments by chronic offenders. Last month Mississippi officials decided to test Chinese catfish to see how good those controls are and found them wanting. Most grocery-store samples contained residues of two antibiotics that are banned for use in aquaculture in the U.S. but widely used in China. The catfish was ordered off store shelves.

These holes in the safety net are alarming public-health experts. China is the No. 1 exporter of seafood to the U.S.-- $2 billion worth last year--and has a troubling rate of violations. In 2006 nearly two-thirds of the seafood shipments that were turned back from U.S. ports because of residues of FDA-nonapproved drugs came from China, reported Food & Water Watch. The residues included malachite green, which kills fungus on fish--and causes tumors in lab rats.
The FDA is stepping up inspections of Chinese seafood. Still, only 5% of the 55,000 shipments last year were examined. Don Kraemer, the FDA's deputy director for food safety, acknowledged that border controls are not "completely airtight. But we've got a credible effort here to keep the products that would be of concern out of the country."

Aggressive exporters aren't easily daunted, though. The FDA, for example, strictly limits imports of puffer fish, which can contain a deadly toxin if processed improperly. After two Chicagoans got sick last month from eating what they thought was monkfish, the FDA began investigating whether a Chinese exporter had tried to sneak in puffer fish by labeling it monkfish.

Continuing now with the Washington Post article:

The [Chinese] government has played up the fact that Zheng Xiaoyu, country's former chief food and drug regulator, was executed this week and that 180 factories that put industrial chemicals into food have been shut down.

The approach represents a radical shift from how China has disseminated information in the past. Since the Communist Party rose to power in 1949, the job of propaganda offices has been largely to promote such slogans as "Serve the People" and "It is Good to Have Just One Child," which were written on chalkboards on almost every block.

Now the propaganda offices are being pushed to respond to breaking news and criticism from foreign governments and consumers half a world away.

[...]

Dan Harris, a U.S.-based attorney who runs a popular China law blog and represents small to mid-sized companies doing business with China,...predicted it would take years, if not decades, to undo the damage done to the reputation of Chinese manufacturers in recent months. "My view is that no matter what they say they are going to do and no matter how much they want to do it, the problem is so massive and so deep-seated that I think it's going to take huge amounts of money and a very long time for it to be cleaned up," he said.

What folly it has been for the United States to expect quality-control from a Communist nation! How many more products and exports from China will turn out to pose a danger to consumers?

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UK Infiltration

Just how infiltrated is the UK? Take a look at the following map (Click on the image to enlarge it):



Now take a look at an interpretation, contributed by one of my operatives (Click on the image to enlarge it):

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Olympics Mega-Mosque Linked To Recent UK Bomb Plots

Received via email from Councillor Alan Craig:

For Immediate Release

Olympics mega-mosque linked to London and Glasgow car bomb plots

Arrested suspects radicalised by mosque promoters Tablighi Jamaat

“Government must ban construction of mega-mosque” says Cllr Alan Craig

Newham councillor Alan Craig today called on the government to formally ban the construction of a massive mosque on a site less than a mile from the main 2012 Olympic stadium at Stratford, east London.

Reports that Tablighi Jamaat - the fundamentalist Islamic sect who propose to build the mosque as their international headquarters - are directly responsible for radicalising two of the London and Glasgow car bomb suspects has added to suspicions that the sect are not the peaceable group they claim to be.

“The dangerous truth about Tablighi Jamaat is coming out. We must watch the gap between what they say and what they do,” said Cllr Craig, leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance group on Newham Council, who lives with his young family a mile from the mosque site. ”It will be a horrendous security nightmare if they are allowed to build this large mosque so close to the Olympics.”

In the last few days friends and neighbours of Kafeel and Saheel Ahmed in Bangalore, India, have told how the brothers changed dramatically a few years ago when they joined Tablighi Jamaat. They were reportedly barred from the local mosque because they insisted on praying in the prescribed Tablighi manner. Kafeel is now in a critical condition in Glasgow Royal Infirmary with 92% burns following the failed attempt to blow up a flaming Jeep at Glasgow Airport last Saturday. Saheel remains under arrest in Paddington Green police station.

Furthermore it is also significant that a number of suspects arrested in connection with last August’s Atlantic airline terror plot too were followers of Tablighi Jammat. Friends and families of Assad Sarwar and Waheed Zuman have spoken publicly about how Tablighi Jamaat changed the two men and radicalised their religious commitment prior to their alleged involvement in the planned atrocity.

7/7 suicide bombers Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer are reckoned to have attended Tablighi Jamaat’s European headquarters mosque in Dewsbury, west Yorkshire, where Tanweer also attended Tabligh’s madrassa or Islamic school. And Richard “Shoe bomber” Reid worshipped at a Tablighi mosque.

“Tablighi Jamaat radicalises and dehumanises Muslim young men,” said Alan Craig. “They have a growing and ominous track record as further young men follow Tabligh teaching about Islam and then go on to plan horrendous atrocities.”

Cllr Craig also demonstrated the radicalising effect of Tablighi Jamaat by pointing to a Muslim publication that highlights the dramatic impact of Tablighi teaching on individuals and families. See Islamic Research Foundation International webpage:

“Tablighi Jamaat is large, powerful, ambitious, secretive and apparently well-funded,” said Alan Craig. “They have deliberately stayed below the radar screen for too long. They must be now fully investigated by the government. And they must be banned from building their mega-mosque.”

- Ends -

A mosque linked to radicalization? Surprise, surprise! NOT!

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Roasting Children

[Hat-tip to The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler for the first link in this posting]

The following excerpt from one of Michael Yon's reports indicates the kind of enemy the West, indeed all civilized cultures, is facing:

...The official reported that on a couple of occasions in Baqubah, al Qaeda invited to lunch families they wanted to convert to their way of thinking. In each instance, the family had a boy, he said, who was about 11 years old. As LT David Wallach interpreted the man’s words, I saw Wallach go blank and silent. He stopped interpreting for a moment. I asked Wallach, “What did he say?” Wallach said that at these luncheons, the families were sat down to eat. And then their boy was brought in with his mouth stuffed. The boy had been baked. Al Qaeda served the boy to his family....

Reminiscent of the ancient Canaanites? Well, some Arabs proudly claim descent from those ancient Canaanites. Genetic testing substantiates that connection:

Genetic research using Y-chromosome haploid analysis has identified a Phoenician genetic marker (a so-to-speak "Canaanite gene") among modern Lebanese populations, including among Maronite Christians and Shiite Muslims, especially near the coast.[17] Initial findings show that the modern Lebanese gene pools comprise indigenous Canaanites, followed by immigration waves from Arabs, Crusader Europeans, and Seljuk Turks. The American University of Beirut launched the Phoenician genographic project to precisely map the genetic makeup of the Lebanese population and even the Mediterranean populations where ancient Canaanites colonized. A high-frequency of the Canaanite gene has even been detected in the Iberian Peninsula as well as in Malta, an island that Phoenicians colonized.

Consider the following, about the god Moloch, which the Canaanites (as well as some other tribes) worshipped:

...[R]eferences to Moloch use mlk only in the context of "passing children through fire lmlk", whatever is meant by lmlk, whether it means "to Moloch" or means something else. It has traditionally been understood to mean burning children alive to the god Moloch.

Only barbarians sacrifice children to fire. And that's what the enemy the civilized world is facing — barbarians, albeit often with modern weaponry and modern technology with which to spread their vile ideology.

[Additional details about the Canaanite religion ]

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The Dhimmitude Of Gordon Brown (With Addendum)

Article below:

BROWN: DON'T SAY TERRORISTS ARE MUSLIMS
Tuesday July 3, 2007

Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in ­connection with the ­terrorism crisis.

The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on terror” is to be dropped.

The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more “consensual” tone than existed under Tony Blair.

However, the change provoked claims last night that ministers are indulging in yet more political correctness.

The sudden shift in tone emerged in comments by Mr Brown and Ms Smith in the wake of the failed attacks in London and Glasgow.

Mr Brown’s spokesman acknowledged yesterday that ministers had been given specific guidelines to avoid inflammatory language.

“There is clearly a need to strike a consensual tone in relation to all communities across the UK,” the spokesman said. “It is important that the country remains united.”

He confirmed that the phrase “war on terror” – strongly associated with Mr Blair and US President George Bush – has been dropped.

Officials insist that no direct links with Muslim extremists have been publicly confirmed by police investigating the latest attempted terror attacks. Mr Brown himself did not refer to Muslims or Islam once in a BBC TV interview on Sunday.
Ms Smith also avoided any such reference in her statement to MPs yesterday.

She said: “Let us be clear – terrorists are criminals, whose victims come from all walks of life, communities and religions. Terrorists attack the values shared by all law-abiding citizens. As a Government, as communities, as individuals, we need to ensure that the message of the terrorists is rejected.”

Tory backbencher Philip Davies said: “I don’t know what purpose is served by this. I don’t think we need pussyfoot around when talking about terrorism.”

But former Tory homeland security spokesman Patrick Mercer said: “This is quite a smart idea. We know that the vast majority of Muslims are not involved in terrorism and we have to accept there are sensitivities about these matters.”

Source

This URL to see comments to the above article.

As DK Shideler said at the Vigilant Freedom/910 Group Blog, the UK has now embarked on a policy of "sycophantic drivel."

Addendum: Check our my friend Mustang's post on this same topic.

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The Danes Burn MTP In Effigy

Gates of Vienna has the video and story. CLICK HERE.

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How Civilized They Are! Not! (Addendum at the Bottom)

It's the cartoonifada and the Pope-ifada all over again. Take a look at this and the reaction on the part of Muslims around the world to the knighting of Salman Rushdie.

A few sample photos are posted below, but you just have to go to the above link to read and to see the details!
--------------------------






The full story. Worth your time.

If Muslims are going to be so enraged over cartoons and knighthood, just how are they going to fit into Western civilization? They aren't if they continue to push to dictate respected and time-honored aspects of Western life, including satire, knighthood, and freedom of speech. For more thoughts along those lines, read Mark Alexander's essay "Keep Your Powder Dry!..."

Addendum: From this source:

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A group of hardline Pakistani Muslim clerics said on Thursday they had bestowed a religious title on Osama bin Laden in response to a British knighthood for author Salman Rushdie.

The Pakistan Ulema Council gave bin Laden the title "Saifullah", or sword of Allah, in response to the knighthood awarded to Rushdie last week for services to literature....

[Hat-tip to Redneck's Revenge for this addendum]

Will infidels go rioting in the streets over Muslims' honoring of OBL? I doubt it.

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U.S. Aid To Saudi

The House has the right idea. Will the Senate and the President fall into line?
--------------------------------------
From this article:

WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Friday to prohibit any aid to Saudi Arabia as lawmakers accused the close ally of religious intolerance and bankrolling terrorist organizations.

The prohibition, reflecting persistent tensions with the kingdom after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, was attached to a foreign aid funding bill for next year that has not yet been debated by the Senate.

It also faces a veto threat from the White House because of an unrelated provision.

[...]

In the past three years, Congress has passed bills to stop the relatively small amount of U.S. aid to Saudi Arabia, only to see the Bush administration circumvent the prohibitions....

Read it all.

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Two Brits Speak Out About Islam

[Hat-tip to Brooke for the following videos]





Follow-up to the above video:




At his web site, UK blogger Lionheart posts about the situation in the United Kingdom. Excerpt from one of LionHeart's recent postings "The Horror of 21st Century Britain":

Within the gates of Great Britain we have an alien Islamic Kingdom who live completely contrary to British society who believe it is their duty to enforce Islam upon the land and people of this Country.

There are approximately 3 million Moslems living the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.

Within that 3 million there is an army of foot-soldiers who are conducting Jihad on a daily basis with Al Qaeda’s Afghani Heroin. There are gangs of Moslem rapists and murderers walking the streets terrorising our society. There is also an army of Al Qaeda trained terrorists from the training fields of Pakistan/Afghanistan and there are Islamic preachers all over the country who are preaching hate and holy war against us and our society to their British born Moslem audience.

MI5 have said that they are following between 3 to 4000 terrorists, 200 networks and 30 actual plots to kill innocent British civilians.

It does not take Einstein to work out that there is a considerable threat facing the innocent people of Great Britain and the very future of this Nation.

[...]

Our government, security services and the police are powerless to prevent this Nation wide Moslem army from conducting its daily destruction and degradation of Great Britain. The British people cannot say nor do anything through fear of imprisonment so we have to just sit back and watch the destruction of our country and children’s futures at the hands of this internal Islamic enemy....

Exaggeration? Before you decide, take a close look at LionHeart's site. He often has links to news articles in addition to his essays.

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Terrorist Attacks In The Philippines

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

Is this information making the news?------------------------

From this source:

Nine Dead in Philippine Bus Bombing

MANILA, Philippines, June 16--The death toll from a bus bombing in a southern Philippine town rose to nine Saturday, after three wounded people died in hospital
overnight, police said.

The blast Friday in Bansalan, Davao del Sur province, came about five minutes after a bomb went off inside a bus owned by the same company in another southern city, causing little damage and no injuries, AP reported.

At least 14 other people were wounded in the Bansalan blast.

Extortion appeared to be the likely motive since a group has been demanding 2 million pesos ($40,000) in “protection money“ from the People’s Transport Corp., which operates the buses, regional police director Chief Superintendent Andres Caro II said.

Last week, an explosion ripped through another bus and wounded 11 people in Matalam township in nearby Cotabato province.

The criminal group, however, could have links to al-Qaida-related terror cells responsible for other bombings in the country, Caro said.

"Protection money"? Would that be jizyah?

Jizyah is the extra tax imposed on non-Muslims (Dhimmis) who live under Muslim rule according to the Qur'an and hadith:

Qur'an 9:29

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 Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

Khalid bin Al-Waheed (Muslim General, 632AD)

"I call you to God and to Islam. If you respond to the call, then you are Muslims: You obtain the benefits they enjoy and take up the responsibilities they bear. If you refuse, then you must pay the jizyah. If you refuse the jizyah, I will bring against you tribes of people who are more eager for death than you are for life. We will then fight you until God decides between us and you." (Al Tabari, Volume XI)

Once a land is conquered by Islamic armies the ruler can impose a taxation on those non-Muslims who will not convert to Islam.

Jizyah is paid as a sign of submission and gives Dhimmis some legal protection in return. Dhimmis usually are not allowed to carry arms to protect themselves or serve in the army. If the conquered do not wish to pay or convert, their fate may very well be slavery (and possibly rape) or death.

The amount of the Jizyah tax and the way it was collected varied from time to time and from place to place, but when imposed, the forced payment of Jizyah greatly stimulated the conversion of non-Muslims into Islam....

More information about jizyah.

Dated June 16, 2007, the following is a travel warning from the United States Department of State:

This Travel Warning updates information on the security situation and reminds Americans of the risks of travel to the Philippines. Terrorist groups and radical insurgents continue to plan multiple attacks throughout the Philippines. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning for the Philippines dated March 23, 2005.

The Department of State urges American citizens to consider carefully the risks of travel to the Philippines and continues to warn against all but essential travel throughout the country in light of heightened threats to Westerners. The Department also continues to urge Americans who choose to travel to the Philippines to observe vigilant personal security precautions, and to remain aware of the continued potential for terrorist attacks, including those against U.S. citizens. Terrorist groups, including Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf Group, continue to plan multiple attacks throughout the Philippines, as do some radical insurgents who have broken away from Moro groups. Explosive devices have been placed in shopping malls, on public transportation, at airports and port facilities, in places of worship, and in other public areas resulting in numerous casualties and deaths. No area of the Philippines is immune from the possibility of a terrorist attack, although the southern island of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago are particularly affected. One of three bombs that exploded on February 14, 2005 was planted on a bus near an upscale commercial district of Makati, Metro Manila, killing four people. In December 2005, the U.S. Embassy closed its public services for two days in response to threat information. Travelers should be aware that since security has increased at official U.S. facilities, terrorists might seek softer targets. Such targets could include, but are not limited to, places where Americans and other Westerners might live, congregate, shop or visit, including hotels, beach resorts, clubs, restaurants, shopping centers, businesses, housing compounds, transportation systems, places of worship, schools, or public recreation events....

The worldwide jihad proceeds, and the mainstream media choose not to cover the events in detail, except for the occasional story such as this. Excerpt:

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines' chief negotiator with Muslim separatists has resigned and a new man has been chosen for the post, the government said on Saturday, raising doubts about the resumption of talks in Malaysia next month.

Silvestre Afable's resignation came at a time when the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were close to restarting talks on a proposed ancestral homeland for 3 million Muslims in the south of the country.

[...]

The government officials gave no reason for Afable's decision to quit the peace panel, where he has served since the two sides agreed to return to negotiations after hostilities erupted in February 2003.

But one of his colleagues on the panel told Reuters: "He was getting frustrated because he was not getting enough support from the president and from her security officials.

"He felt there were some people in the Cabinet who were not serious in finding a lasting solution to the Muslim rebellion in the south."

The government has been talking with Muslim rebels to end nearly 40 years of conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people and displaced 2 million in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country.

Talks over the size and wealth of a proposed Muslim homeland have been stalled since September 2006 although backroom negotiations continued, resulting in a breakthrough in December when Manila agreed to grant Muslims the right of self-determination.

We can see how well that bit of appeasement has worked.

[Hat-tip to Dinah Lord, who posted information about recent events in the Philippines, here and here]

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Another Genocide (By Default)

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

Photo credit
Caption: "Gonga Petro perches on a rock in the Yaeda Valley, where the Hadzabe still hunt with hand-hewn arrows."
The left is forever pointing out the evils of Western colonialism but, for the most part, is silent about the Arab extermination of African tribes.

Excerpt from this article, which appeared in the June 10, 2007 edition of the Washington Post:

YAEDA VALLEY, Tanzania -- One of the last remaining tribes of hunter-gatherers on the planet is on the verge of vanishing into the modern world.

The transition has been long underway, but members of the dwindling Hadzabe tribe, who now number fewer than 1,500, say it is being unduly hastened by a United Arab Emirates royal family, which plans to use the tribal hunting land as a personal safari playground.

The deal between the Tanzanian government and Tanzania UAE Safaris Ltd. leases nearly 2,500 square miles of this sprawling, yellow-green valley near the storied Serengeti Plain to members of the royal family, who chose it after a helicopter tour.

A Tanzanian official said that a nearby hunting area the family shared with relatives had become "too crowded" and that a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family "indicated that it was inconvenient" and requested his own parcel.

The official, Philip Marmo, called the Hadzabe "backwards" and said they would benefit from the school, roads and other projects the UAE company has offered as compensation.

But dozens of Hadzabe interviewed deep in the scruffy hills surrounding this valley said that while they are ready to modernize, slowly, they were not consulted on the deal, which is a direct threat to their way of life because it involves hunting.

While they have through 50,000 years survived the coming of agriculture, metal, guns, diseases, missionaries, poachers, anthropologists, students, gawking journalists, corrugated steel houses and encroaching pastoral tribes who often impersonate them for tourist money, the resilient Hadzabe, who still make fire with sticks, fear that the safari deal will be their undoing.

[...]

The Hadzabe are believed to be the second-oldest people on Earth, and they still hunt and gather as a way of life...

[...]

Government efforts over 40 years to forcibly integrate the Hadzabe into modern society have mostly failed. Instead, the Hadzabe seem to have preferred changing at their own pace, adopting bits of modern life over centuries.

A program to move families into a village of metal houses ended with Hadzabe fleeing to the bush after only a few days. "When it rains, those houses make a lot of noise," said Sarah Makungu, who tried them. "In fact, to be honest, we don't want to live in iron corrugated huts, but we would keep our plates and such in there."

The introduction of standard time has also come slowly. "What is the need for time?" Kaunda asked. "You wake up, you get honey. What do you need time for?"

Though some Hadzabe children attend primary and secondary boarding school in the valley, programs to build new schools and provide medical care and water have mostly benefited neighboring tribes and have lured more people to the overpopulated valley.

Missions to spread Christianity have also failed. "We just go to church as if we are pictures," one man said. "Our hearts and minds are not there."

Though the Hadzabe have managed to survive for millennia, Gonga and others said the UAE deal is particularly worrisome because it comes on top of the other pressures they are facing and because the newcomers will be hunting with the support of a government that seems hostile to the tribe's complaints.

"If we had been involved from the beginning, the issue could have been resolved mutually," Gonga said. "We need development, but when things are done this way, it gives us the feeling we are being cheated or used for other people's benefit."

He wondered why this tribe, the Arabs, did not seek his opinions....

Read the entire article.

What Gonga doesn't understand is that Arabs (i.e., Muslims) don't seek the opinions of others. After all, Muslims view themselves as Allah's chosen people and thus entitled to squash all others in their way or, as in this case, elected to take their pleasures wherever they find them.

Gonga and the Hadzabe are learning a very hard lesson, one which they won't be able to tell to their grandchildren if the UAE and Tanzania continue on the same path.

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Kosovo Now

Check out Elmer's Brother's posting. EB quotes from Jesse Petrilla's recent visit to Kosovo:

The entire region is an example of the catalyst that all Islamists are trying to create here in America. An all out war where in the end the Muslims have the majority, and the non-Muslims live in fear and dhimmitude. What happened there is the end result, 50 to 100 years ahead of where America is today, that is unless we take action to prevent it from occurring here.

Read it all!

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