Category Archives: USA

Is Turkey going Islamist?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

pipes3“Is Turkey going Islamist?” Daniel Pipes want to know. “Is it on the road to implementing Islamic law, known as the Shari’a?”

New York Sun, 7 June 2005

And what basis is there for supposing that the ultra-moderate AKP might be heading down that road? Well, they tried to reduce (not abolish but reduce) the penalties for teaching the Qur’an without state authorisation!

Mind you, the National Secular Society fully agrees with Pipes on this. Their report is headlined “Turkish secularism to be compromised by new penal code” . See NSS Newsline, 3 June 2005

Even though parliament voted overwhelmingly for a change in the law, Turkey’s president Ahmet Necdet intervened to veto it, on the grounds that it was incompatible with secularist principles. Phew! A welcome victory for civilised, democratic values. See Islam Online, 3 June 2005

Horowitz exposes ‘the unholy alliance of American radicals and Islamic terrorists’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David Horowitz and John Perazzo present “the second in a series of articles with visual maps that describe the alliances between American leftists and radical Islam, unlikely collaborators who have joined forces to oppose America’s War on Terror and its war of liberation in Iraq”.

And not only American leftists. Our own George Galloway is featured prominently for having argued that the progressive movement should – shock, horror – ally with Muslims where they find common ground.

Front Page Magazine, 7 June 2005

Bush urged: ‘Never apologize’ to Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Some members of the Bush administration have taken a cue from a classic John Wayne Western and are advising their boss to take the film’s advice – ‘Never apologize’ – when dealing with Muslims, reports geopolitical analyst Jack Wheeler.

“In a column on his intelligence website, To the Point, Wheeler explains Wayne’s ‘She Wore a Yellow Ribbon’, made in 1948, though lesser known than many of the star’s films, includes what’s been called one of the top 100 movie quotes of all time. Wayne’s character, Capt. Nathan Brittles, who is facing an Indian attack, advises a junior officer: ‘Never apologize, son. It’s a sign of weakness.’

“It’s that attitude that some employees of the Pentagon, State Department and White House are urging President Bush to take when dealing with charges of Quran desecration and other allegations from radical Muslims. They’ve even sent a DVD copy of the film to the commander in chief.”

World Net Daily, 7 June 2005

Pentagon says no plans to close Guantánamo prison

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Pentagon on Monday rejected a call to close the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects and declined to express regret over five cases of U.S. jailers “mishandling” the Koran there.

US guards or interrogators kicked the Islamic holy book at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, stepped on it and soaked it in water, and in one case a guard’s urine splashed through an air vent onto a prisoner and his Koran, US Southern Command said.

Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman, said the United States was not considering shutting the Guantanamo jail, as suggested by a senior Senate Democrat. “Guantanamo serves a vital purpose in many ways.” Mr Whitman said. He said some prisoners are “very, very, very dangerous people”.

“They want to do harm not only to Americans but to US interests overseas, to our friends and allies and these are people that if released would certainly be found back on the battlefield in the war on terror.”

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Shut down Guantánamo – New York Times backs Amnesty

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Guantanamo“What makes Amnesty’s gulag metaphor apt is that Guantánamo is merely one of a chain of shadowy detention camps that also includes Abu Ghraib in Iraq, the military prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and other, secret locations run by the intelligence agencies. Each has produced its own stories of abuse, torture and criminal homicide. These are not isolated incidents, but part of a tightly linked global detention system with no accountability in law. Prisoners have been transferred from camp to camp. So have commanding officers. And perhaps not coincidentally, so have specific methods of mistreatment.”

Editorial in the New York Times, 5 June 2005

Little Green Footballs is not impressed: “The New York Times defends Amnesty International’s comparison of Guantanamo Bay (where 600 unlawful combatants are held) with the Soviet Gulag (where more than 20 million innocent Russian citizens were imprisoned, and millions killed). As a solution to this towering injustice, the editors of the Times call for Gitmo to be shut down. Immediately. Turn them all loose. And make sure the evil Bushco doesn’t send those poor oppressed killers without consciences to places where they might be imprisoned again – like their home countries.”

LGF, 5 June 2005

See also “Senator urges Guantánamo closure after Pentagon admits Qur’an abuse”, Guardian, 6 June 2005

And “Quran splashed with urine at Guantanamo”, Informed Comment, 6 June 2005

High-flying professor faces US terror trial

Posted on by Bob Pitt

samialarianUniversity of Florida professor Sami al-Arian goes on trial today in what is being billed as the most important terrorism case in the United States since September 11.

Prosecutors claim that Dr Arian, and three other Arab-Americans who will be in the dock with him, commanded an Islamic Jihad cell that flourished in Tampa and infiltrated the University of South Florida. The group is said to have helped finance a series of attacks in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel in which more than 100 people died, including at least one American.

However, supporters and lawyers for the Kuwait-born professor claim that it is not a straightforward case of terrorist funding. Instead, they say it raises serious issues about anti-Muslim bias in the US post-September 11, freedom of speech and what they see as a blatant attempt by Israel to silence a powerful Palestinian voice in America.

Guardian, 6 June 2005

Jeb Bush sells out to militant Islamism (it says here)

Posted on by Bob Pitt

AAH logoGovernor of Florida Jeb Bush was among those who sent greetings to the annual banquet of the Florida Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Joe Kaufman, chairman of “Americans Against Hate” (satire stands disarmed), declared: “Our organization expresses its deep disappointment that our state’s leaders would send letters of support to a group such as CAIR. We find it especially counterproductive, during our country’s war against terrorism. We ask all those that sent letters of support to retract the statements made in those letters.”

Americans Against Hate press release, 5 June 3005

One Muslim’s odyssey to Guantánamo

Posted on by Bob Pitt

muratkurnazRichard Bernstein examines the case of Guantánamo detainee Murat Kurnaz, a 19-year-old Muslim from Germany, who was arrested in Pakistan in 2001 and handed over to US forces to face imprisonment and torture.

New York Times, 5 June 2005

No doubt this is the sort of person General Richard Myers had in mind when he claimed that Guantánamo detainees would “slit our children’s throats” if they were freed. See here.

Liberal joins neocons in anti-Amnesty campaign

Posted on by Bob Pitt

irenekhan2The speech by Amnesty general secretary Irene Khan describing Guantánamo as the “gulag of our times” (see here) reduced the US right to apoplexy. From Donald Rumsfeld down, they united to deny there was any parallel between incarcerating millions of Soviet citizens and locking up a mere 600 Muslims. See here, here, here, here, here and so ad infinitum.

Now here’s a test for you. Which journalist on a liberal Sunday newspaper could be relied upon to echo the anti-Amnesty propaganda of the US neocons?

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Killing Al Jazeera journalists? ‘Oops’ chuckles Jihad Watch

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dima TahboubReuters reports: “The Arab TV channel Al Jazeera rejected on Saturday as unfounded Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s accusations that it was encouraging Islamic militant groups by airing beheadings of foreign hostages in Iraq. ‘Al Jazeera … has never at any time transmitted pictures of killings or beheadings and … any talk about this is absolutely unfounded,’ the television said in a statement.”

Commenting on the Reuters report, Jihad Watch declare their full support for Rumsfeld’s slanders and indicate that they’re quite comfortable with the idea of US forces launching air strikes against Al-Jazeera’s offices and killing its journalists.

Jihad Watch, 4 June 2005

Cf. Dima Tareq Tahboub, “The war on al-Jazeera”, Guardian, 4 October 2003