Guess who's speaking at the local mosque

Nope, guess again

Unless you live in a rural area, there is probably a mosque (or more than one) in your town, and most people -- including local law enforcement officials -- regard them in much the same way as they do the local churches: with complete indifference. It is generally considered to be in the worst possible taste to suggest that possibly, just possibly, it might be worth checking into the local mosque's sources of funding, and what they're teaching there. As a Las Vegas city councilor exclaimed when some people objected to a proposal to build a mosque right beyond the fence of the international airport, "What's the big deal? It's just a church!"

But imagine what the outcry would be if your local church sponsored speakers like these:

Dayton, Ohio: According to Patrick Poole of Central Ohioans Against Terrorism, Khalid Yasin will be lecturing at Sinclair Community College in Dayton on May 16, sponsored by Dayton’s Masjid-at-Taqwa. Who is Khalid Yasin? Patrick Poole tells us this about him:

For example, consider some of his stated positions:

* Yasin says that the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks.
* Yasin claims that AIDS was invented at a US government lab and spread by Western governments through UN agencies and Christian missionaries.
* Yasin advocates for the death penalty for homosexuality.
* Yasin justified the terrorist bombings in Bali because of years of Western oppression.
* Yasin says that the Quran permits wife-beating [cf. Qur'an 4:34] and that equal rights for women is a “delusion” and “foolishness”.
* Yasin calls the beliefs of Christians and Jews “filth”. [cf. Qur'an 9:28]
* Yasin says that Muslims cannot have non-Muslim friends. [cf. Qur'an 5:51]
* Yasin rejects any separation between Islam and the state and openly advocates for the reestablishment of the caliphate. [cf. Qur'an 24:55]
* Yasin visited Jemaah Islamiah terrorist leader Abu Bakar Bashir in prison.
* Yasin has lectured with Hizb-ut-Tahrir hatemonger Omar Bakri Mohammed, who was banned from the UK in 2006.
* Yasin was in Saudi Arabia on 9/11 soliciting support from the Al-Qaeda front Al-Haramain Foundation, which was designated a terrorist organization in 2004 by the US government, to help finance his Islamic Broadcasting Company.

There is much, more about him at Central Ohioans Against Terrorism.

Manchester, New Hampshire: The Islamic Society of Greater Manchester (thanks to M.) on May 4 held a fundraiser for its new mosque, featuring Imam Siraj Wahhaj.

Siraj Wahhaj is a big star on the American Muslim speaker circuit. In 1991, he was the first Islamic cleric to give an invocation to the U.S. Congress. However, he has also warned that the United States will fall unless it “accepts the Islamic agenda.” He has lamented that “if only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.” In the early 1990s he sponsored talks by Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman in mosques in New York City and New Jersey; Rahman was later convicted for conspiring to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993, and Wahhaj was designated a “potential unindicted co-conspirator.”

Just days before Wahhaj appeared, on April 30 the Islamic Society of Manchester brought in Ingrid Mattson of the Islamic Society of North America.

The Islamic Society of North America was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation jihad terror charity case last summer. Also, it was named in a 1991 Muslim Brotherhood memorandum as one of the organizations pursuing in the United States "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

Now imagine if the local Catholic parish featured a speaker who said that the beliefs of Jews and Muslims were "filth" and that homosexuals should be killed, or a speaker who said that Constitutional law should be replaced by religious law, or who was a representative of an organization that was an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror funding case, and was named as part of an effort to destroy Western civilization in a memo from the group spearheading that effort. If any of that were happening in your local parish, do you think you'd only be hearing about it here?

MILF ready for war

"Arroyo will leave the presidency with blood on her hands." True to the constant practice of Islamic groups, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front indulges in finger-pointing rather than introspection, and blames the government for the breakdown of peace talks. Nothing it has done gives it any responsibility for anything. "Muslim guerrillas blame Philippine president for stalled talks, say they're ready for war," from The Associated Press (thanks to Twostellas):

MANILA, Philippines: Muslim guerrillas said Sunday they're ready for war and accused the Philippine government of abandoning Malaysian-brokered peace talks by refusing to honor earlier accords.

Malaysia has complained about a lack of progress in the talks it has brokered between the two sides and withdrew 28 of its cease-fire monitors from the south Saturday in the first serious fallout from the impasse.

U.S. and Philippine officials hope a peace pact between the Manila government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has an estimated 11,000 fighters, can transform parts of the south into flourishing economic hubs instead of battlefields and safe harbors for al-Qaida-linked militants.

The talks hit a snag in December when rebel negotiators walked out to protest government insistence that earlier piecemeal agreements by both sides in more than three years of negotiations should conform with the Philippine Constitution.

In a statement on their Web site, the rebels accused President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's administration of "deliberately reverting to war after it consistently refused to honor and abide by the 49 consensus points" on the issue of ancestral domain — the size of a territory that could be administered by minority Muslims.

"This is a tragic decision," said Muhammad Ameen, who heads a rebel secretariat. "Arroyo will leave the presidency with blood on her hands."

"We do not like war, war is a menace to everyone, but ... those who want peace to prevail must prepare for war," Ameen said.

Chief government negotiator Rodolfo Garcia said the government would not abandon the talks, and the military has given assurances it will respect the negotiations....

Israeli Leftist discovers jihad

In "From Dove to Hawk" in Newsweek, May 8 (thanks to Paul Green), controversial Israeli historian Benny Morris finally notices that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not about land, but is fueled by a religious imperative:

...Con­trary to current historiographic discourse I believe there is such a thing as the Truth—what, why and how things happened—and I've always sought it in my research. If I've since come to a much bleaker opinion about the possibility of reconciliation be­tween Jews and Palestinians—many would now call me a hawk—it is also because of that research.

During the 1990s, as the Oslo peace process gained momentum, I was cautious­ly optimistic about the prospects for peace. But at the same time I was scouring the just opened archives of the Haganah and the IDF. Studying the roots of the Arab-Is­raeli conflict—in particular the pronounce­ments and positions of the Palestinian leadership from the 1920s on—left me chilled. Their rejection of any compromise, whether a partition of Palestine between its Jewish and Arab inhabitants or the cre­ation of a binational state with political parity between the two communities, was deep-seated, consensual and consistent.

Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Palestinian na­tional movement during the 1930s and 1940s, insisted throughout on a single Muslim Arab state in all of Palestine. The Palestinian Arab "street" chanted "Idbah al-Yahud" (slaughter the Jews) both during the 1936-1939 revolt against the British and in 1947, when Arab militias launched a campaign to destroy the Yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine. Husseini led both campaigns.

So when Yasir Arafat rejected Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's two-state proposals at Camp David in July 2000, and then President Clinton's sweetened offer the follow­ing December, my surprise was not exces­sive. Nor was I astounded by the spectacle of masses of suicide bombers launched, with Arafat's blessing, against Israel's shop­ping malls, buses and restaurants in the second intifada, which erupted in Septem­ber 2000. Each suicide bomber seemed to be a microcosm of what Palestine's Arabs had in mind for Israel as a whole. Arafat's rejectionism and, after his death, the election of Hamas to dominance in the Pales­tinian national movement, persuaded me that no two-state solution was in the offing and that the Palestinians, as a people, were bent, as they had been throughout their history, on "recovering" all of Palestine.

[...]

It has become clear to me that from its start the struggle against the Zionist enterprise wasn't merely a national conflict between two peoples over a piece of territory but also a religious crusade against an infidel usurper. As early as Dec. 2, 1947, four days after the passage of the partition resolution, the scholars of Al Azhar University proclaimed a "worldwide jihad in defense of Arab Palestine" and de­clared that it was the duty of every Muslim to take part.

[...]

For all its economic, political, scientific and cultural achievements and military prowess, Israel, at 60, remains profoundly insecure—for there can be no real security for the Jewish state, surrounded by a surg­ing sea of Muslims, in the absence of peace.

U.S. soldiers learning Arabic at Wahhabist Islamic Saudi Academy

Just when you thought the world couldn't possibly get crazier, yes, it's the Islamic Saudi Academy about which the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom expressed "significant concerns" that the school was promoting, according to Cinnamon Stillwell, "a brand of religious intolerance that could prove a danger to the United States."

Cinnamon has the details.

New York Times presents Islamic supremacist as moderate non-zealot

Altered Face? Really?

The New York Times, true to the New Duranty Times moniker Hugh Fitzgerald has given it, has run a gushing profile of Ali Ardekani, the young Muslim filmmaker who made "Who Hijacked Islam?," (linked in the picture above) among other shorts designed to stir up righteous indignation against the venomous Islamophobes who misrepresent Islam as anything other than a Religion of Peace. "Who Hijacked Islam?," as you can see, is a herky-jerky, hectoring, eye-rubbing affair, but it has been wildly popular -- and now the Times has anointed Ardekani as the alternative to the "bloodthirsty zealots" and defensive bowers-and-scrapers who supposedly dominate the public image of Islam in the West. (Which of those two categories do high-profile, ubiquitous Muslim spokesmen such as Ibrahim Hooper and Edina Lekovic fit into? But I digress.)

Anyway, there is just one problem, as The Posthumous Luger has pointed out: Ardekani is not quite the benign Bill Cosby figure that Neil MacFarquhar and the Duranty Times suggest that he is. Instead, he appears to be an avowed Islamic supremacist, at least from the evidence of lyrics from the album 1924 by the now-disbanded rap group Soldiers of Allah. The name "1924" refers, of course, to the year the secular Turkish government abolished the caliphate, which is to modern jihadists the year all their troubles began, when the unity of the umma was broken. The group was founded by Ardekani and was connected to the jihadist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Some samples of the lyrics:

Standing together Kafirs worst nightmare Muslim united And not scared Following only Qur'an & and the Sunnah an Ummah who loves Allah More than this dunnyah

BRING BACK ISLAM
BRING BACK THE STATE

Put Khilafah back on the MAP
ITS TIME TO BRING ISLAM BACK

Even if all the kafirs got together...
They still couldn’t stop this Ummah!
We love Islam More than we love life

No more kufur system to be run
All of these belong to one land
Part of once mighty Islamic span
More than 52 nations we fall
One nation strong we stand tall
Waiting for the Ummah’s call
Once again and for all
Reestablish Islam to rule all

over a billion
But oh so weak
We need to rise up
And get back on our feet
We’ve been fooled too long
This what happens
When we let kafirs lead

The giant is in a slumber
Islam is complete
yet the Ummah looks up
to democracy for its needs
Defeated mentality
Left us in a gutter
The giant used to
Take care of the world
Now asks the kafirs to usher
Remember the battle of Bader [sic]
They doubted us from the start
Muslims had Islam
In their minds and their hearts
They know they fear us
Injecting poisons venom
so they tear us a part
This is just a reminder
Take it straight to the heart
Let us get back in the lead
Shake the giant to wake
Flourish and rejuvenate
Implement only Islam
to revive and renovate

An Ummah
who use to lead this world
Is now begging the kafir please
Have mercy
Can't you see?
They want us to Act like them
think like them and be like them
But we act based on Islam
Like Allah declared in the Quran
Because we know
Who is in command
Islam will have the upper hand

Huu…I thought we were one UMMAH
Look at us Now…

Jordan Arabia Iran
Egypt Indonesia Sudan
Tunisia Algeria Amman
Iraq Kashmir Philistine
Albania Bosnia Kurdistan
Spain Half France Hindustan
of
Somalia Lebanon Azerbaijan
Melesia Libya Kazakhstan
Bangladesh Chechnia Afghanistan
Turkey Cypress Pakistan
Kuwait .. Ch...explosion……..

Educate our minds with Islam
And Inshallah his disease of nationalism
Will disappear

NSA government agents
Classified information
Planning out their step by step covert operations
Working for the elite
duponts, rockefellers, and masons
Replaced our Muslim leaders
With U.S. and British Agents
Throwing the ones who call for revival of Islam
In prison cages
A hidden agenda with their affiliation
Occupying our land
with their false peace relations
Muslim land is under invasion
Using their puppets to cause deviation
Under FBI covert operations
Ummah has been segregated and separated
While our lands have been raided
By UN peacekeepers
Who are really peace-fakers
And mass-murderers and rapist
Too scared that Islam will be implemented
So they blow up buildings and blame us
Causing false accusations
Claiming we’re dangerous
Insha-Allah when the state is established
They won’t be able to tame us

Peace in the Middle East
Never was
And never will be
Until kufur regimes slap their head on the ground bowing down to Allah

The best nation ever to rise up from mankind [cf. Qur'an 3:110]
With political minds
Peacekeepers of old times
Politics, meant taking care of the people,
When Islam comes back to dominate, no sequels!

But you'll see none of this, of course, in the Times article: "Young Video Makers Try to Alter Islam’s Face," by Neil MacFarquhar in the New York Times, May 8 (thanks to The Posthumous Luger):

LOS ANGELES — When Ali Ardekani started fishing around on the Internet a couple of years ago for video blogs about Muslims, he did not like what he found: either the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims were depicted as bloodthirsty zealots, or they were offering defensive explanations as to why they were not.

“Arabic sounds foreign and scary — you don’t know what is going on,” Mr. Ardekani said in an interview at his small Sherman Oaks apartment, its walls decorated with Koranic verses. “Or they show a woman with the veil, who doesn’t speak, and it is assumed if she did speak she would say, ‘Help me!’ ”

So Mr. Ardekani, a 33-year-old Web designer, cast himself on his video blogs as Baba Ali, an outsize character with a serious religious message who both dissects and lampoons the lives of American Muslims.

Mr. Ardekani is among the most visible of a new wave of young American Muslim performers and filmmakers trying to change the public face of their religion. His most popular video posting — “Who Hijacked Islam?” — has garnered more than 350,000 hits on YouTube since July 2006. Of course the uphill battle such efforts face is reflected in the comments section. One viewer remarked darkly, “It’s Muslims that do the hijacking.”

The person who wrote that was a fool! As Neil MacFarquhar and all right-thinking people know, it's venomous Islamophobes, not Muslims, who link Islam with violence! Venomous Islamophobes like bin Laden, al-Zawahri, Omar Bakri, Abu Bakar Bashir, etc. etc. etc.!

These video pioneers’ arena of choice is mostly YouTube and similar Web sites, which young Muslims extol as a new way to take their arguments public. The role model is Bill Cosby, who young Muslim filmmakers believe changed the perception of African-Americans by depicting them as ordinary.

For the moment, the filmmakers suspect, most of the hits they attract are generated by other young Muslims.

“They are deprived of any type of representation in the media which isn’t a terrorist or an extremely pious Muslim,” said Lena Khan, 23. So whenever an image to the contrary is seen “on YouTube or the Internet or on a TV show, it just spreads across the Muslim community like wildfire, because everyone wants to support it.”...

Somali jihadists retake parts of Mogadishu, enforce Sharia on pain of death

The Islamic Courts Union are back -- in some areas of Mogadishu. "Islamists target Somalis in terror campaign: Islamists target white aid workers," by Alex Strick van Linschoten in the Sunday Times, May 11 (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

When Ibrahim Saeed Abdullah saw a neighbour’s cinema burnt down by a barrage of grenades, he realised that he had no choice but to heed the death threats he had received from the big men with guns in their hands and hatred in their hearts. Last week he closed the doors of his own cinema for the last time.

It was two years since Abdullah had opened for business in Mogadishu, the largely ruined capital of war-torn Somalia. The location may have been inauspicious but the timing seemed right: the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist coalition that briefly took over much of the country in 2006, had just been driven out by an American-backed Ethiopian invasion.

In recent months, however, Al-Shabab, the military wing of the Islamic Courts Union, has spread renewed fear through Mogadishu, a city of up to 3m people that has been convulsed by fighting for 17 years.

Like the Taliban in Afghanistan, Al-Shabab does not approve of the showing of films.

Soon Abdullah’s cinema was the last one standing in Mogadishu and he was threatened repeatedly. “They came with weapons, surrounded my cinema and told me, ‘We will kill you if you don’t close’,” he said.

Al-Shabab, now an autonomous rebel group which has added an explosive element to the combustible mix of Mogadishu’s militias, enforces strict sharia (Islamic law) and uses tactics imported from the global jihadi movement. As in Afghanistan, those who work or trade with the government risk being branded as spies or collaborators and beheaded as a warning to others.

Members of Al-Shabab deliver “night letters” to businessmen and others they wish to intimidate. One such letter listed “traitors assisting the occupiers who attacked the country” and warned of action if they did not make amends in 48 hours.

The group has overrun at least eight towns this year and taken control of large swathes of Mogadishu. It is behind a spate of roadside bombings directed at convoys of Ethiopian troops....

Islamic nations launch "Islamophobia Observatory"

Observe this, İhsanoğlu

If İhsanoğlu really wants to rectify Islam's image, he should start by rectifying things like this. But instead, he and the OIC continue to pretend that any concerns non-Muslims may have over an Islamic cleric proclaiming that "we will rule the world, as has been said by the Prophet Muhammad" are simply manifestations of "Islamophobia." That in itself reveals a great deal about the real agenda of İhsanoğlu and the OIC.

"OIC endeavoring to rectify Muslim image," from Today's Zaman, May 10 (thanks to Twostellas):

Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu has stated that a project called the Islamophobia Observatory has been launched in order to eliminate the worldwide waves of fear of Islam.

İhsanoğlu cited the commonsensical intellectual reaction of the Danish public following cartoons published in the country that were critical of Islam as one of the important successes of the project. "We presented a report on Islamophobia at the first summit we held with the CEOs and civil society organizations we are in touch with. It has sparked very positive reactions and spread across Europe in a short time. Publications have praised the initiative. We have seen both support of and opposition to the initiative, but [all in all] it has created very positive reactions," he said.

İhsanoğlu visited the Zaman Media Group on Thursday and briefed editors and columnists on OIC projects. Stating that the foremost target was to eradicate prejudice and fear of Islam, İhsanoğlu noted that there were groups in favor of the projects and also those disturbed by them. An OIC report on Islamophobia has seriously disconcerted Americans and Europeans, he said, adding: "The report has started to pay off. Let me give you an example: The cartoons published in Denmark and a short film, named 'Fitna' and released last month, if you look at the attitudes of the Danish prime minister, the media and civil society organizations, they are all very different from one another. So far, in these three-and-a-half years we have managed to get the UN General Assembly and Geneva make very important decisions. In the meantime the European group was left alone. We have gathered significant support from our own group in Asia, Africa and Latin America. A special rapporteur has been assigned [to track] the denigration and hatred campaigns against religions, and this person will write up reports on the issue."

He stressed that the OIC has not yet reached the place it set out for, but that it has covered a remarkable distance in comparison to previous years and that there were very positive changes between the scene in 2005 and today. "This is only the beginning. We still have a long way to go. But there is a foreign ministers' meeting in Kampala ahead of us. Things will be better then," he said.

Pointing out that there were some negative developments in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks with the influence of some lobbies, İhsanoğlu remarked that US officials were also endeavoring to eliminate these negativities.

Commenting on the visit, the secretary-general said: "The US is sending us a message at this point. 'We want to be on good terms with the OIC,' they implicitly say." İhsanoğlu also said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had spoken with him to say that President Bush wanted to assign a special envoy to oversee US relations with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). A very accomplished US citizen of Pakistani origin has already been chosen for this role. "This person achieved a great many things during Bush's term as governor of Texas. Before the summit, he spoke with me. This shows that the entire world and the EU are closely interested in our organization. We have advanced since I took office," he said....

Lebanon: Army overrules gov't decisions against Hizballah

"As for the telecommunications network, the army will look into the issue in a manner that is not harmful to the public interest or the security of the resistance [against Israel]."

A clear statement of priorities. Never mind that Iranian client state-within-a-state. "Lebanese army revokes government decisions against Hezbollah," from France 24:

The Lebanese army said on Saturday it had frozen measures taken by the government against the Shiite Hezbollah movement, and called for all armed militants to withdraw from the streets.

"The army command calls on all parties to (help restore calm) by ending armed protests and withdrawing gunmen from the streets and opening the roads," the military said in a statement.

It said that the head of airport security, who had been reassigned from his job, would remain in his post pending an investigation and that the army would look into a communications network set up by the militant group.

"The head of airport security, Brigadier General Wafiq Shqeir, will remain in his post until appropriate procedural measures have been taken after a probe," the statement said.

"As for the telecommunications network, the army will look into the issue in a manner that is not harmful to the public interest or the security of the resistance" against Israel, it said.

The military said it had taken these decisions in the light of a government wish that it rule on these matters. The army statement came shortly after Prime Minister Fuad Siniora made a televised address to the nation.

Tuesday's government decision to reassign Shqeir and launch a judicial probe into the communications network sparked bloody clashes that saw Hezbollah seize control of west Beirut.

Jordanian Muslim cleric: Islam will rule the world, America will fall

Who would have expected that the former minister of religious endowment in modern, moderate Jordan was a Misunderstander of Islam? Yet here he is saying Islam will rule the world. Didn't he get the new US government guidelines about how Islam is peaceful and pluralistic?

"Former Jordanian Minister Ali Al-Faqir Vows to Conquer Spain and Rome and Declares: America and the EU Will Soon Come to an End," from MEMRITV, May 2 (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):

Following are excerpts from an interview with Sheik Ali Al-Faqir, former Jordanian minister of religious endowment, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on May 2, 2008.

Sheik Ali Al-Faqir: We must declare that Palestine, from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, is an Islamic land, and that Spain – Andalusia – is also the land of Islam. Islamic lands that were occupied by the enemies will once again become Islamic. Furthermore, we will reach beyond these countries, which are lost at one point. We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once, and as it will be conquered again.

That may be a reference to the end of Turkey's secular regime.

Interviewer: Allah willing.

Sheik Ali Al-Faqir: We will rule the world, as has been said by the Prophet Muhammad.

[...]

We will face a battlefront that is broader and stronger. Its beginnings were in Palestine, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in Chechnya. What has begun will be completed. It will not stop.

[...]

The Zionist entity reached completion, and it is beginning to decline, until it will wane and come to its end. Similarly, America has occupied, thundered, and foamed with rage, and proclaimed, like Pharoah, "I am your supreme God," but it will come to its end, and they have begun to realize that their end is near. We have begun to read in American and European newspapers that "our glory is on the wane, and there is nothing we can do about it." This morning on Al-Jazeera TV, I saw American scientists and strategic theoreticians, who said that America would soon come to its end.

Really? Who were they?

They said it before about the USSR, and, indeed, it has come to its end, and we say now that America and the EU will come to an end, and only the rising force of Islam will prevail.

We'll see about that.

UK: High-profile reformed jihadist arrested on suspicion of jihad activity

Now this is very interesting, and its implications are manifold. Was Hassan Butt's entire conversion to anti-jihadism an exercise in Muhammad's dictum "war is deceit"?

"Anti-terror police arrest Muslim author and former al-Qaida recruiter as he boards flight to Pakistan," from the Daily Mail, May 10 (thanks to Twostellas):

A muslim author who admits being a former al-Qaida recruiter was today being questioned by anti-terror police.

Hassan Butt, who penned a book on his terrorist past - was detained at Manchester Airport yesterday afternoon.

Mr Butt, 31, is understood to have arrived at Terminal 2 and bought a ticket to Lahore, Pakistan, 45 minutes before the Pakistan International Airlines flight was due to leave.

He is being questioned by Greater Manchester's regional counter terrorism unit. Since his arrest, police have searched his home in north Manchester and two other properties nearby and two cars were last night taken away for forensic examination.

Muslim author Hassan Butt, who renounced his radical past, was today being questioned by anti-terror police

A police spokesman said: "A 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of terrorist activity and officers were involved in searching three addresses."

Mr Butt has renounced a past in which he admitted raising tens of thousands of pounds for terror networks. He has also spoken of his determination to work against extremism....

"Hizbullah has turned from an opposition party into a militia attempting to impose its control. I think Hizbullah believes that the way to Tel Aviv passes through Beirut"

More on Iran's attempt to create a client state in Lebanon to go along with its Iraqi Shi'ite client state and its friends in Syria. "Lebanese minister: Hizbullah believes way to Tel Aviv passes through Beirut," by Roee Nahmias for Israel National News (thanks to Sr. Soph):

"Iran is responsible for what is happening in Lebanon. The subject now is the Iranian attack on Lebanon. They want us to surrender totally without any compensation," Lebanese Sports Minister Ahmed Fatfat said Friday during an interview with the Al-Arabiya television network Friday amid reports that Hizbullah gunmen seized control of large parts of Beirut.

"Hizbullah has turned from an opposition party into a militia attempting to impose its control. I think Hizbullah believes that the way to Tel Aviv passes through Beirut," he said.

Fatfat said Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah had "taken advantage of the government's decision to outlaw the (Shiite) group's communications network in order to declare war."

According to the minister, regardless of whether a "Gaza-like" revolt occurs in Lebanon, "the government will remain legitimate."

"We do not want a civil war, and we've decided to confront them politically, not militarily," Fatfat said. "We do not have gunmen like they do."...

Well, good luck. The world should be standing with you.

Sign the anti-Spencer petition!

Jihad Watch reader James has alerted me to this petition over at PetitionOnline:

To: Robert Spencer

We strongly condemn all the writings of Robert Spencer which present a wrong and misleading view about Islam and about Holy Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W). Especially Robert Spencer’s book “The truth about Muhammad” (S.A.W). This contains totally wrong and invalid references. All this author’s books and website are against Islam and is clearly an attack on Islam. We ,all Muslims, strongly condemn it.

"This contains totally wrong and invalid references."

Oh yeah? Prove it.

"All this author’s books and website are against Islam and is clearly an attack on Islam."

The truth can hurt, can't it, fellows?

"We ,all Muslims, strongly condemn it."

All Muslims? Really? And here I thought we were all forbidden to generalize in such a way!

Iran backing Hizballah jihadists in Lebanon: "It is a new chapter of the battle led by Iran to control all of the Middle East"

The world should be standing for a Free Lebanon, in which Lebanese Christians can live in peace without being terrorized by Hizballah or any other jihadists, and should understand that this initiative by Iran and Hizballah is just another part of the global jihad. But don't hold your breath. "'Iran backs Hizbollah fighters in Lebanon,'" by Adam Pletts in Beirut and Damien McElroy in the Telegraph, May 10 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Israel has claimed that Iran was behind the terror group Hizbollah's armed struggle with the Lebanese government and warned that the conflict could spill into a wider Middle East crisis.

Hizbollah fighters spread virtually unopposed across west Beirut districts loyal to the pro-Western government.

After a night of firefights, the mainly Sunni Muslim residents of the capital's west woke to find Shia Hizbollah fighters patrolling the streets.

The main compounds of country's two senior political leaders were besieged in a dramatic demonstration of the shift in power. [...]

"The armed and bloody coup which is being implemented aims to return Syria to Lebanon and extend Iran's reach to the Mediterranean," said Samir Geagea, the Christian faction leader.

International condemnation of Hizbollah focused on the potential for the crisis to spill across the borders.

Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, pointed to Hizbollah's links with Iran's Islamic regime.

He said: "It is a new chapter of the battle led by Iran to control all of the Middle East."...

"The jihadist project—and it most certainly is a jihadist project—is to remove all barriers to the establishment of sharia"

Andrew McCarthy, author of the sobering and essential new book Willful Blindness, discusses that blindness in an address at the Hudson Institute, "The Jihad in Plain Sight," May 6:

...Simply stated, we did not take the enemy and his motivations seriously before he announced himself. We did not react seriously in attempting before 9/11 to prosecute him into submission while he attacked again and again. And we are not serious now if we believe we can democratize him into submission—a fact that should be palpable given his penchant for exploiting democratic freedoms in furthering the jihad, and given that lack of democracy is not what drives him to act. His motivation is what he takes to be the divine summons to jihad.

The jihadist project—and it most certainly is a jihadist project—is to remove all barriers to the establishment of sharia (the prerequisite for Islam's dominance). Those barriers are not merely military but political, cultural, spiritual and attitudinal. Force is used when necessary, but the theory of terrorism—and, while barbarous, terrorism is a rational method, not a form of madness—is that force should rarely be necessary. The terrorist defies our settled assumptions about civilized behavior. His actions, quite intentionally, are wanton and depraved, the better to extort us into capitulation through occasional shock and awe rather than a regular, predictable pattern of attacks. Though his self-perception is hallow, the terrorist's strategy is not in principle different from the mafia loanshark, who generally collects his usurious payments without incident because the debtor well knows the wages of resistance.

The strategy is having the desired effect. The administration did not arrive at the language purge initiative on its own. It was done in consultation with what our government regards as influential Islamic organizations, such as the Muslim Public Affairs Council. MPAC greeted AP's report of the new language code with a chest-beating press release, braying that its "regular … engagement with government agencies including [the Department of Homeland Security,]" coupled with its long advocacy of a "nuanced approach" that stresses "the importance of decoupling Islam with [sic] terrorism," had been instrumental. Naturally, it omitted its equally long history of lobbying for government recognition of the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations, and statements by some of its leading figures endorsing terrorist bombings as legitimate "resistance" against Israel.

Read it all.

Happy Sixtieth Birthday, Israel!

Iranian freedom fighter Amil Imani pens an eloquent tribute to the country on the front lines of the global jihad.

Israel, your people, as well as people of good will, are celebrating your sixtieth birthday. We, the children of Cyrus the Great, also would like to offer our heartfelt best wishes to you on this occasion. Yet, this, in fact, is your rebirth. Your birth occurred some 4,000 years ago.

Regrettably, your journey from your early beginning to the present has been fraught with great suffering. It is a tribute to the indomitable spirit of your people that they persisted in their valiant struggle to re-gather again in the land of their birth.

A noble and just Persian king, Cyrus the Great, rescued your people from captivity in a foreign land and empowered them to return home and build their sacred temple. By his action of freeing an entire people from captivity and restoring their rightful dignity, Cyrus the Great, the author of the first code of Human Rights, cemented a bond of friendship between the Jews and the Persians. It was the Just King’s way of setting the world on a course of freedom, equality, and justice for all people, irrespective of any and all considerations.

Yet, your people, Israel, were unable to settle down for long in their own homeland, to worship their God as they wished, and to live in peace. They were assaulted once again by the forces of destruction that sent them scurrying for the relative safety of other lands.

Your rebirth, Israel, is in reality a culmination of thousands of years of gestation during which the Jewish people, dispersed through much of the world, endured immense degrees and varieties of suffering. The Nazi murderers and their collaborators capped the crimes committed against your people by brutally slaughtering six million innocent men, women and children.

Now, Israel, you are a sovereign state but hardly safe. You are surrounded by nations and peoples who are bent on your destruction. It is tragic that your neighbors and you have not been able to find an equitable way of living side-by-side with mutual respect and in peace.

Many of us Iranians co-suffer with this tragic state of affairs that harms you as well as your neighbors. We earnestly hope that ways can be found for a peaceful resolution of this destructive impasse.

We appreciate the fact that you, Israel, have welcomed the Iranian Jews who could no longer tolerate the rule of the oppressive venomous mullahs. These mullahs are indeed traitors to the lofty long-standing tradition and values championed by Cyrus the Great and revered by Persians throughout the ages.

We applaud you for affording millions of Israeli Arabs opportunities denied to them in many other lands.

Your fair treatment of the Baha’is, Israel, is a further testimony to your ability and willingness to live in harmony with any and all people. In Iran, the birthplace of the Baha’i faith, Baha’is are ruthlessly subjected to a form of gradual genocide by the savage mullahs. Some Baha’is are executed for their faith, Baha’i children are denied university studies, Baha’i holy places destroyed and even their cemeteries are bulldozed, just to cite a few examples. You, Israel, by contrast, have provided the Baha’is freedom to care for their holy places which were established in the Holy Land during the 19th century, long before your rebirth.

Your perennial prayer, “Next Year in Jerusalem” has finally been answered. We also pray that you succeed in taking the steps necessary for making the New Jerusalem a place of hope and lasting safety for your people as well as people of all religions and those with no religion at all.

Happy Sixtieth Birthday, Israel.

Hamas' Mashaal threatens to kidnap more Israelis

"I think there's no doubt in anyone's mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process," - Dhimmi Carter, April 13.

"Hamas chief threatens to capture more Israelis," from Agence France-Presse, May 9:

DAMASCUS (AFP) — Exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on Friday threatened that his Islamist movement would capture Israeli citizens if the Jewish state does not release tens of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

"If our enemies don't set free our prisoners held in the Israeli jails, Gilad Shalit will not be the last" to be captured, he said of the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants in 2006.

There are "11,600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails," Meshaal said in a speech at a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus to mark the "Naqba" or catastrophe of Israel's creation 60 years ago.

Shalit was captured almost two years ago by militant groups including Hamas in a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip on June 15, 2006.

Meshaal has repeatedly said that Shalit will not be released unless Israel frees Palestinian prisoners.

Last month former US president Jimmy Carter said after controversial talks with Meshaal in Damascus that Hamas had agreed to allow Shalit to write a letter to his parents.

Captured Al-Qaeda chief not captured after all

Sorry about that, Chief

This is nothing. Last year around this time he was killed but not killed.

"Iraq al-Qaeda chief not captured," from the BBC, May 9 (thanks to larwyn):

The United States military in Iraq says a man detained in the northern city of Mosul is not in fact the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

An earlier statement from the Iraqi defence ministry said that al-Masri had been captured.

But an American military spokeswoman, Peggy Kageleiry, said Abu Ayyub al-Masri had not been arrested.

She said confusion had arisen because a man with a similar name to the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader had been detained.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been blamed for or has claimed responsibility for some of the bloodiest insurgent attacks in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003....

A debate challenge to a satisfied man, Dinesh D'Souza

Dinesh D'Souza, who has come in for almost as much flogging here at Jihad Watch as he gives his books at his blog, is a very happy man these days. Flogging his latest book, he's in full Von Hugel mode, debating atheists left and right, and noting their grateful admiration for his efforts at his blog. In "God and Man at Harvard" from May 7, he marvels at his own prowess, so formidable that leaves his opponents muttering his praises:

I'm not sure why atheists praise me so much. [...]

Then Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great, complimented me on the occasion of our first New York debate, saying I was a formidable debate opponent on any topic. [...]

The latest addition to my atheist fan club is Dan Barker, head of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. [...] Recently I debated Barker at Harvard University, after which Barker wrote me to say that of the hundreds of opponents he has faced over the years, "you are clearly one of the best debaters I have encountered." [...]

So the best these atheists can do is to call me arrogant. But even the atheists I debate seem to think that this arrogance is justified. In reality, as people like Shermer and Hitchens who know me will testify, I'm not arrogant. [...]

Is there any doubt why Sam Harris seems to have changed his mind about debating me, and why Richard Dawkins is still hiding under his desk? How come these "brights" seem to have fled into the cover of darkness? Do any of the atheist organizations offer an annual Wimp award?

Arrogant? Not on your life! But satisfied? Certainly. Yet before Dinesh leaves this old world with a satisfied mind, I'd like to issue him another challenge to debate.

Now, to be sure, Dinesh and I have debated before, at CPAC in 2007, and on several radio shows, on whether Islam was a religion of peace and related topics. But none of these have been the extended-format, well-organized events he has been putting on around the country with the atheists. The radio shows were generally local affairs, and the CPAC debate was maddeningly brief and marred by a moderator, Suhail Khan, who was so openly biased and hostile to me as to make the debate practically two against one.

Now, I am quite happy with how the CPAC debate and all of our encounters turned out -- and I do not share the atheists' awe at Dinesh's skills as a debater. But I do think it would be illuminating and enlightening to a great many people if he and I mixed it up one more time, this time in a more formal debate setting that allows us both the time to explain our positions, and examine each other's, at length and in depth.

So how about it, Dinesh? Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins may be hiding, but I'm not. After all, you have a book to flog on this issue too, and no less a luminary than John Esposito to lean on.

What do you say, Hoss? Let's go!

Methodist group claims responsibility for Philippine bus bombing -- no, wait...

Scratch that. It wasn't Methodists after all. It was, of all things, an Al-Qaeda-linked Muslim group. Didn't they get the new US government guidelines about not linking Islam with terrorism?

"Muslim militants-linked extortion gang says it caused Philippine bus bomb that wounded 5," from The Associated Press, May 9 (thanks to Twostellas):

MIDSAYAP, Philippines: A notorious extortion gang claimed responsibility Friday for detonating a bomb in a passenger van that wounded five people in the southern Philippines, a town mayor said.

Manuel Rabara, mayor of Midsayap township in North Cotabato province, told reporters he had received several calls from a man demanding money on behalf of his group before and after the bomb went off at a passenger terminal Thursday.

"We will not give in to their demand," Rabara said.

The homemade bomb, apparently detonated by cell phone, exploded while the van was about to begin a journey, police said. Five people were wounded, including a mother and her two children. The mother's feet may have to be amputated, said a doctor, Sanny Sandig....

Police believe the April attack, which caused no injuries, was the work of the Al-Khobar gang that has been targeting bus companies and other businesses.

Authorities said the group has ties to al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants, notorious for bomb attacks and kidnappings for ransom....

Defining the Jihadist Enemy: A Petition

From PetitionOnline (thanks to all who sent this in):

To: U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

The American people condemn the May 8, 2008 decision by the majority of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in rejecting Congressman Peter Hoekstra's amendment to the 2009 Intelligence Authorization Act (H.R. 5959), which was intended to "prohibit the intelligence community from adopting speech codes that encumber accurately describing the radical jihadist terrorists that attacked America and continue to threaten the homeland."

Moreover, the American people call for those members of the Committee who opposed this amendment to publicly account for and explain their vote.

Sign it here.

New Jersey imam says he was tortured into admitting he was member of Hamas

But if he was, why didn't he say so on his green card application, and come clean then? And what about his membership in the Muslim Brotherhood, which is just as much an Islamic supremacist group as Hamas (which defines itself as a branch of the Brotherhood)?

An update on this story. "Imam's defense: He was tortured into 'confessing' he joined Hamas: Deportation trial under way for respected Passaic cleric," by Brian Donohue for the Star-Ledger, May 9 (thanks to Twostellas):

The deportation trial of a popular North Jersey Muslim leader began yesterday with the lead government witness testifying that the cleric pleaded guilty in an Israeli military court to being a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas from 1989 to 1991.

That arrest forms the core of the case that U.S. Department of Homeland Security attorneys are bringing against Mohammad Qatanani, imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County.

Federal agents, however, knew nothing of Qatanani's arrest until the imam contacted the FBI and told them about it in 2005, an FBI agent testified later in the day. That was 12 years after Qatanani moved to the United States, and he was seeking the agency's help with his stalled green card application. [...]

On the sidewalk outside the Peter Rodino Federal Building in Newark, hundreds of supporters gathered in a noisy but peaceful demonstration that lasted more than five hours. Throughout the day, Qatanani sat alongside his wife and six children, his youngest son reading the Koran while his daughter studied for her Advanced Placement U.S. history exam. His wife and three oldest children also face deportation; the younger children are U.S. citizens. [...]

Testifying for the Department of Homeland Security, Amos Guiora, a professor at the University of Utah School of Law and a former judge and prosecutor in the Israeli-occupied territories, read from Israeli court records showing that Qatanani pleaded guilty in 1993 to aiding and being a member of Hamas. He was sentenced to three months in prison.

Qatanani has denied making such a confession or having any ties to Hamas, saying he was tortured while in detention and convicted in absentia.

During cross-examination, Qatanani's attorney, Claudia Slovinsky, homed in on discrepancies in the Israeli court documents -- including the lack of any specific mention in the court records that Qatanani was present at his conviction.

She also attacked the credibility of the Israeli military court system, reading from reports by Human Rights Watch and other groups that found the Israeli military had routinely used tactics like sleep deprivation, hooding and exposure to cold temperatures on detainees during that time period.

"The judges were soldiers, the prosecutors were soldiers," she said.

Conviction rates for Palestinians detained in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during that period ranged from 90 to 95 percent. And the military's interrogation tactics were later banned by a 1999 Israeli supreme court ruling that equated them with torture.

Guiora conceded that, subject to such conditions, a detainee like Qatanani "no doubt will tell an interrogator what he thinks he wants to hear."

Qatanani, 44, has been praised by some law enforcement and elected officials here for forging close ties with authorities while leading one of the state's largest mosques. And testimony revealed that federal agents might not have learned about his arrest if Qatanani had not turned to them for help.

Angel Alicea, an FBI special agent serving on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, said he met with Qatanani after mosque officials called the bureau to discuss his green card application.

Qatanani was frustrated, his lawyer said, because he was unable to get an interview with immigration officials and his work visa had expired, forcing the loss of his driver's license. "He thought we had something to do with it," Alicea said.

During that February 2005 interview, Alicea said Qatanani told him he had been arrested by Israeli soldiers a week after he crossed from Jordan to the West Bank in 1993 and that he was detained for three months, kept in a cold room and chained to a small chair.

But on his green card application, Alicea said, Qatanani had answered "no" to a question asking applicants whether they had been arrested, fined, charged or imprisoned.

Qatanani, he said, also admitted being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a controversial organization that is banned by the governments of Israel, Egypt and Syria, which argue that it has ties to terrorists. It is not on the U.S. State Department's list of known terrorist organizations. After that interview, Alicea said, he obtained the Israeli court records of Qatanani's arrest....

Indian Muslim cleric: "Every Muslim should be a terrorist"

He also pines for Sharia in America and recommends hijab as a preventative for rape. And when he recommends that every Muslim be a terrorist, he means that "Muslims should terrorize the anti-social elements in society. He should terrorize the robber, the decoy, the rapist."

The decoy?

Anyway, this is an exhortation to thuggery wrapped in moral standards. Certainly the robber, the rapist, and maybe even the "decoy" should not be tolerated. But terrorized? What exactly does Ashraf Mohamedy mean? Perhaps that they should be crucified or have their hands and feet cut off on opposite sides, as per Qur'an 5:33, so that terror will be struck into their hearts, as per Qur'an 8:60?

"Indian Cleric Ashraf Mohamedy: Every Muslim Should Be a Terrorist against the Anti-Social Elements in Society," from MEMRI, April 22 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Indian cleric Ashraf Mohamedy, which aired on Peace TV on April 22, 2008:

[...]

"Allah Has Instructed Us to Follow the Hijab, So That Women Can Be Saved From Rape And Molestation"

Ashraf Mohamedy: "There are two twin sisters who are equally identical and equally good looking, and they are walking down the street. At the corner there is a hooligan waiting for a catch, waiting to tease someone. One of the sisters is putting on the Islamic hijab, that is, covering herself completely, except for the face and the hands up to the wrist, and the other sister is dressed in a miniskirt.

"Who is the hooligan going to tease - the sister in the hijab or the one in the miniskirt? Of course he will tease the sister in the miniskirt!

[...]

"Allah has instructed us to follow the hijab, so that women can be saved from rape and molestation. In Islam, there is capital punishment for the rapist. Whenever we say this to non-Muslim brothers, they react by saying that Islam is a cruel law, that it is a barbaric law. But believe me, Islamic law gets results.

[...]

"Western society, in the name of women's liberalization, has exploited the body of the woman, has degraded her soul, and has deprived her of her honor. They have converted women into mistresses, concubines, and society butterflies, who are mere tools in the hands of sex marketers and pleasure seekers.

"In America, according to statistics of the FBI, in 1990, the cases of rape were 1,750, and later on, 1,900. The Americans got a bit bolder. The latest statistics, of 1996, say that now the rate has gone up to 2,117 rapes taking place every day.

"If the Islamic shari'a is applied in America, if every man, whenever he sees a woman, would lower his gaze, if every woman is asked to cover herself completely, except for the face and hands up to the wrist, and if there is capital punishment for the rapist - will the rate of crime go up, remain the same, or come down in America? Of course it will come down! Islam gives dignity and protection to the women in Islam, and that is just the reason why Islam has prescribed the hijab." [...]

"Every Muslim Should Be Proud to Be a Fundamentalist Muslim"

"Another misconception among non-Muslim brothers and sisters is that Muslims are fundamentalists and terrorists. They say and allege that you are terrorists and fundamentalists. Let's analyze the meaning of fundamentalism. If a person wants to be a good doctor, then he should know, he should follow, and should practice the teachings of medicine. In other words, he should be a fundamentalist in the field of medicine.

"If a person wants to be a very good scientist, he should know, he should follow, and he should practice the teachings of science. In other words, he should be a fundamentalist in the field of science. Similarly, if a person wants to be a good mathematician, he should know, he should follow, and he should practice the teachings of mathematics. In other words, he should be fundamentalist in the field of mathematics.

"We cannot paint all fundamentalists with the same brush, for a fundamentalist robber causes harm to the society, and that is highly disagreed upon. That is highly irresponsible. But at the same time, a fundamentalist doctor causes good in society. He cures and he heals, and he is much desired by society.

"I am proud to be a fundamentalist Muslim, because I know, I follow, and I strive to practice the teachings of Islam. Every Muslim should be proud to be a fundamentalist Muslim. That is because none of the teachings of Islam causes any harm to society. On the contrary, it causes.... it gives benefits to society. On the basis of this knowledge, every Muslim should be proud to be a fundamentalist Muslim." [...]

"I Repeat: Every Muslim Should Be a Terrorist"

"I would stress that every Muslim should be a terrorist. I repeat: Every Muslim should be a terrorist. A terrorist is a person who terrifies others, who terrorizes others. That is precisely the reason we have the police. As soon as the robber sees the policeman, he is terrified, he is terrorized. Similarly, the Muslims should terrorize the anti-social elements in society. He should terrorize the robber, the decoy, the rapist. I know that 'terrorist' is taken as a concept of a person who terrorizes the common man. But we Muslims should be terrorists for the anti-social elements in society."

Hizballah seizes western Beirut from Lebanese Army

An update on this story, and things are going downhill fast. "Hezbollah militias assume control of western Beirut," from CNN, May 9:

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Western Beirut fell under the control of opposition Hezbollah militias Friday in what amounted to an army-negotiated surrender of pro-government positions, Lebanese Internal Security Forces and Western military observers said.

The "dramatic development" is a major blow to the democratically elected and pro-Western government of Lebanon, CNN's Brent Sadler said.

Soldiers went to several offices of pro-government political parties in western Beirut overnight, he said. They persuaded pro-government gunmen who had battled Hezbollah militants to leave the offices as the opposition forces hovered nearby, he said.

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, part of the pro-government coalition, said the government was "now at the end of a gun barrel" and they expect the "conditions for surrender will be offered sooner or later," Sadler reported.

"I think ... it's a coup," Jumblatt told CNN in a phone interview. "The Lebanese army is in total paralysis."

Rather than fight, the army has stayed above the fray. With its own political factions, taking sides could throw the military into disarray.

With pro-government gunmen out of the way, the fighting in the capital eased at bit Friday after intense gunbattles the previous two days echoed through Beirut's streets.

At least 11 people have been killed and 44 wounded in the clashes since Wednesday, according to Lebanese Internal Security Forces.

The developments came as two pro-government television stations -- Future TV and al-Ekhbariya TV -- ceased operations Friday.

They went off the air after being threatened by government opponents in Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militia, and Amal, a major Shiite party in Lebanon, according to Nadim Mounla, head of Future TV.

"Early this morning, many armed militiamen were in the surroundings of the Future television headquarters and they have sent us a very clear message: 'Either you shut off or (we're going to) destroy the premises,'" Mounla said.

The television stations are owned by the Hariri family, supporters of the country's pro-Western, Sunni-led government. In addition, the building housing the Hariri-owned al-Mustaqbal newspaper came under fire overnight. No injuries were reported.

The Hariri compound in western Beirut came under fire Friday. Security sources said rocket-propelled grenades slammed into the wall surrounding the residence.

Saad Hariri, the leader of the government's bloc in parliament, is the son of the late former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whose 2005 assassination sparked protests that brought the current government to power and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops.

Hariri and Jumblatt were besieged Friday in their residences in Muslim western Beirut, The Associated Press reported, while Prime Minister Fuad Saniora was believed to be under protection at his downtown office.

"Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe" freed on bail in U.K.

Why?

Abu Qatada Update. "Islamic preacher Abu Qatada is bailed," by Christopher Hope for The Telegraph, May 9:

Abu Qatada, who last month defeated the Government’s efforts to deport him to Jordan on terror charges, will be subject to a 22-hour curfew when he is released from Long Lartin high-security prison.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said she was “extremely disappointed” at the decision and promised “all steps necessary to protect the public”.

Some of the bail money is thought to have been put up by Norman Kember, the Christian peace worker who was held hostage in Baghdad for four months from November 2005 by a group of insurgents. Qatada had made a video appeal for his release.

The bail decision by the Special Immigration Advisory Tribunal is a fresh blow to the Government’s anti-terror policies.

Last month, the Home Office was forced to abandon plans to deport 12 Libyan fanatics, leaving a memorandum of understanding with Libya, signed in October 2005, effectively in tatters.

The rulings mean that not a single international terrorist has been forcibly removed from this country. Nearly three years after the 7/7 attacks, the only Islamic extremists to depart are eight Algerians who left voluntarily.

Qatada 45, has been convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks in 1998 and of plotting to plant bombs at the Millennium.

The radical cleric once called on British Muslims to martyr themselves, and tapes of his sermons were found in a flat in Germany used by some of the September 11 hijackers.

Mrs Smith said: “Public safety is our main priority and we will take all steps necessary to protect the public. We will ensure that necessary steps are taken to ensure the safety of the public.

“I am already seeking to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision that it is not safe to deport Qatada and we will continue with deportation action with this and the other Jordanian cases.”

Qatada could be freed within days and it is thought he will return to his family, who are understood to be living in Acton, West London.

Once he has been released, the Jordanian father-of-five, can expect to receive £1,000 a month in benefit payments. The taxpayer will also face a bill of tens of thousands of pounds to keep the cleric under 24-hour watch.

Somalia jihadists seize police headquarters in Mogadishu

Remember, jihad is an interior spiritual struggle. This one just happens to be in the interior of the Mogadishu police headquarters now.

Somalia Jihad Update. "Armed Somali Insurgents Seize Police Headquarters in Mogadishu," from the Associated Press, May 8:

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Firing rocket-propelled grenades and heavy submachine guns, Islamist fighters seized the police headquarters at the heart of the government's stronghold in Mogadishu on Thursday in a bold attack that witnesses said killed two soldiers and two policemen.

The insurgents have tried many times to attack the heavily guarded K4 district but Thursday's raid was their first major success. The ambush could not be immediately be verified by Somali officials. It came a day after a bloody Wednesday in the Horn of Africa nation. Insurgents attacked Ethiopian military convoys in two rural areas, and the soldiers responded by opening fire on civilians in both towns, killing at least 17 villagers total, according to witness accounts.

It wasn't known how many Ethiopians died in that fighting and the witness accounts could not be verified. Ethiopia, which sent troops into Somalia last year to back up soldiers fighting Islamic insurgents, does not make public its troops' fatalities but the insurgents said one of their regional commanders was killed.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb killed three Somali soldiers Wednesday, a military officer said. A separate attack on a World Food Program convoy in central Somalia killed a driver, U.N. officials said.

In the Mogadishu attack Thursday, witnesses said an explosion rocked Makalal Mukrama Road outside police headquarters in K4 district, sending plumes of black smoke into the night air after fighters set ablaze a captured "technical" -- a pickup truck with a submachine gun fixed to its bed. The blast came after the insurgents seized the police station yelling "God is great," witnesses said.