And you think our website is sarcastic

“When we saw the title of Paul Akers’ Oct. 30 essay, ‘Why Islam didn’t conquer the world‘, we were pleased to see a too-often-ignored subject such as the early history of Muslim-Christian relations receive space in our community’s newspaper. Mr Akers’ attempt to bring what is clearly a keen interest in European history to the attention of readers is to be commended. His vivid prose style, clearly reminiscent of the comic books that inspired him as a child, retains the reader’s attention.”

Nabil Al-Tikriti, Mehdi Aminrazavi, Ian Campbell, Farhang Rouhani and Ranjit Singh reply to Paul Akers’ article on the horrors that would have befallen the world if Charles Martel had lost the battle of Tours in 732.

Free Lance-Star, 19 November 2005

A Muslim responds to ‘five questions’

In a recent commentary, radio talk show host Dennis Prager posed five questions “that law-abiding Muslims need to answer for Islam’s sake, as well as for the sake of worried non-Muslims”. Prager said his questions were prompted in part by recent rioting in France “by primarily Muslim youths”, despite the fact that neutral experts say the violence had little to do with Islam and it was Muslim leaders who ultimately helped quell the violence.

Hussam Ayloush of CAIR replies to Prager’s questions.

The American Muslim, 19 November 2005

Ayaan Hirsi Ali to make gay Islam film

A Somali-born Dutch MP who collaborated on the film that led to the murder of director Theo van Gogh has written a sequel, about Islam’s attitude to gays. Ms Ali told Dutch media that she had co-written the script with Van Gogh in the summer of 2004, months before he was killed last November. “I examine the position of homosexuals in Islam in the film Submission II,” she told the De Volkskrant newspaper.

BBC News, 17 November 2005

And what exactly is this film intended achieve? To improve the situation of gay Muslims … or to promote the view of Muslim “immigrants” as backward people undermining liberal Dutch values? The fact that Van Gogh was an admirer of Pim Fortuyn and regularly referred to Muslims as “goatfuckers” gives you a hint as to what the answer might be.

‘The French insurrection: cars burn, Islam benefits’

Riot police“… for a white Frenchman who’s technically a Catholic but probably an agnostic, it must be depressing to open the newspaper each morning and read yet another headline about an alien creed that seems intent on imposing itself on his country. If it’s a really ‘class’ newspaper like Le Monde, the editorial will probably inform him that the fault for this state of affairs is largely his own and that he will soon be expected to pay the price economically while redoubling his efforts to be exquisitely sensitive about all things Muslim. How long he’ll put up with this, that is the question.”

Brendan Bernhard in LA Weekly, 18 November 2005

A far-right racist and crazed reactionary demagogue writes …

“Britain’s state of denial continues to deepen. We saw it after 9/11, when people said America had brought the atrocity upon itself – mainly through its ‘uncritical’ support for Israel. Then after Britain’s own human bomb attacks last July, the media became gripped by fear not of Islamist terrorism but of Islamophobia, or fear of the fear of Islamist terrorism. Now we are told that the riots in France by Muslim and Arab youths from the banlieues – the city suburbs – have nothing to do with Islam but are the result of poverty, unemployment, racism and discrimination. Those who say, au contraire, that Islam is at the core of the disorder are being vilified as far-right racists and crazed reactionary demagogues.”

Melanie Phillips in the Jewish Chronicle, 18 November 2005

Piggy bank pork pies

Hogwash“Remember the political-correctness-gone-mad story about the Halifax and Nat West banning piggy banks so as not to offend Muslims? The Daily Express led with it, as did several internet news sources and a few of the more intemperate blogs. Well, Australian Mediawatch reveals that it wasn’t true.

“The Halifax press office said in an email to Mediawatch: ‘Halifax has not withdrawn any piggy banks from branches. As a matter of fact we have not used piggy banks in our branches for a number of years.’ And the media relations office of the Nat West wrote: ‘There is absolutely no fact in the story. We simply had a UK wide savings marketing campaign, which included pictures of piggy banks, running until the end of September. Piggy banks have been and will continue to be used as a promotional item by NatWest’.”

MediaWatchWatch, 16 November 2005


Credit where it’s due, though. Two weeks ago even that most intemperate of anti-Muslim bloggers, Robert Spencer, admitted that he got it wrong.

The question is why anyone ever swallowed this patently bogus story in the first place.

Prince Charles, Islam’s new ambassador

“The Islamic Caliphate is encroaching and England appears to be going down without a fight. Prince Charles certainly seems to be on board for the changeover.” Cinnamon Stillwell explains how “the British descent into dhimmitude” continues apace, with the assistance of the royal family.

Jewish Press, 16 November 2005

Update:  The article seems to have been deleted but can be found here.

Anti-Islam Republican convention in Texas

cherrytreelogoA convention of a group of Republicans was due to take place in Texas on Tuesday that critics and concerned Muslims have denounced as anti-Islam. The group, which calls itself Cherry Tree Republicans, charges that Muslims are bombing Israel, Jordan, England, Spain, France, and that Al Qaeda has training camps “as close as Mexico and South America”. “Our borders,” the convention literature states, “are crossed by thousands illegally every week, including illegal aliens from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran and Syria.”

Muslims, the group claims, either want to “convert us or kill us”. It goes on to say that “Islam teaches that Muslims must wage war to impose Islamic law on non-Muslim states”. American Muslim groups are said to be engaged in a “huge cover-up of Islamic doctrine and history”, and “today’s jihadi terrorists have the same motives and goals as the Muslims who fought the Crusaders”. The group says that Muslim persecution of Christians has continued for 13 centuries and still goes on.

Daily Times, 16 November 2005

‘The pathology of an Islamic mind’

“Always able to put the blame elsewhere for all of Islam’s crimes and problems, Muslims eagerly accept any and all excuses for the sins of Islam, no matter how illogical those excuses may be. If their warped minds can’t accept the fact that their ‘religion of peace’ is to blame, the blame is pushed off on the Jews, or justified by claiming it was Islam that was attacked first. Denial is their first line of defense.”

Barbara J. Stock assesses the Amman bombings. ChronWatch, 16 November 2005