“The era of de-facto appeasement under pope John Paul II is over. The era of subtle discreet yet firm confrontation has begun.”
Joseph D’Hippolito writes in the Jerusalem Post.
The Muslim threat to Western Europe
“I would encourage all responsible-minded people to get up to speed on what’s going on in the Netherlands, and in Western Europe generally. The country I cherished a few years ago as the most liberal in the world has an increasingly large – and increasingly alienated – population of extreme reactionaries who despise, and seek to destroy, its liberalism.”
Andrew Sullivan’s chum Bruce Bawer on the Muslim threat to Europe.
Soldier lifts lid on Guantanamo abuse
A former US soldier who worked on interrogations at Guantanamo Bay has written a damning expose of the brutal, degrading treatment he says was meted out to prisoners there. Sgt Erik Saar’s book, Inside the Wire, comes with the US military’s treatment of prisoners in the spotlight due to court hearings over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. In an interview with the BBC, Sgt Saar says that bizarre, sexual abuses at the prison camp set dangerous precedents that paved the way for mistreatment of US detainees in Iraq.
I was tortured, says ricin plotter
“An informant who revealed an al-Qaeda plot to make and use deadly ricin poison in Britain is claiming that he was tortured before admitting his role in the conspiracy.”
Which might lead anyone other than the Times to conclude that it is highly questionable whether any plot or conspiracy took place at all.
Islam growing in central Iowa
Jail for mosque arson plan
Roermond Court has sentenced 20-year-old Peter G. to three years jail, 12 months of which were suspended, for his role in preparing an arson attack at a Venray mosque. The court ruled it was not proven the man actually attempted to set fire to the mosque on 11 November when it was occupied, but said he was involved in preparations. He was arrested with a friend following the murder of Theo van Gogh. There were Molotov cocktails in their car. Three others have previously been sentenced to two years jail.
Report to show sharp jump in anti-Muslim hate crimes
On Wednesday, May 11, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will hold a noon news conference in the nation’s capital to release its 10th annual report, titled “Unequal Protection,” on the status of Muslim civil rights in the United States.
The Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group’s report – the only annual study of its kind – will show a significant increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes during 2004 and an 11-year high in the total number of reported cases. (States with the largest numbers of reported incidents include California, New York, Arizona , Virginia, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, and Illinois.)
The report’s authors believe at least some of the sharp rise in anti-Muslim incidents can be attributed to growing Islamophobia in American society. That disturbing phenomenon will be addressed at a CAIR conference, called “Islamophobia and Anti-Americanism: Causes and Remedies,” to be held this weekend in Washington , D.C. SEE: http://www.cair-net.org/2005conference/
Free speech for Islamophobes – National Secular Society
After Norwegian evangelical Christian preacher Runar Søgaard delivered a sermon in Stockholm in which he attacked Islam, describing the Prophet as “a confused paedophile”, the media was quick to find a Muslim extremist prepared to issue a death threat against him.
However, the head of Sweden’s council of imams, Hassan Moussa, said although the comments “injure millions of Muslims all over the world”, they must not lead to violence like the murder last year of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh. “We assure all honest Swedes that the tragic developments we witnessed in Holland will not take place here,” Moussa wrote in Expressen newspaper. “Those who cast stones against us will not get stoned in return. We beg those who threatened Søgaard, in the name of Islam, to let Swedish law judge between him and us. Do not under any circumstances take the law into your own hands.” But the Muslim community is suing the preacher for hate crimes. “See you in court, Runar,” Moussa wrote.
And how does Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society report this? Under the headline “Swedish Muslims repudiate violence against anti-Muslim bigot”, perhaps? No, under the headline “No free speech for Islamophobes, say Islamists in Sweden”.
Turkey: The road to Sharia?
“As Turkey drifts toward Islamization, some serious questions arise: Is Turkey even our ally? Is Turkish accession to the EU in America’s interests? Does the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which leads Turkey’s government, threaten Turkish secularism? What policy should the Bush administration pursue toward Turkey?”
Right-wingers discuss the terrible threat posed by the AKP – one of the most moderate Islamist parties in existence.
Daniel Pipes opines: “… while radical Islam in many ways parallels fascism and communism (the brutal drive to power, the totalitarian goals, the intent to defeat the West), it differs in one key way – radical Islam rides a wave of international popular support the other movements never had. This creates a dilemma for the Bush administration, whose urgent push for democracy turns out to enable Islamists to reach power. Worse yet, Washington is beginning to whitewash the Islamists, and even the terrorist organizations among them. The government of Recep Tayyip Erdoðan presents the most advanced and difficult form of this dilemma, however. Though many wish to avert their eyes from his Islamist background, foreground, and future, that ideology defines his prime ministry. Is the U.S. government going to sit by, applauding, as he creates the Islamic Republic of Turkey?”
Celebration in Harlem as girl held in terror inquiry is released
It began with two 16-year-old immigrant girls arrested at dawn, detained far from home, and, in a chilling government assertion, called would-be suicide bombers who posed “an imminent threat to the security of the United States.” But now, after holding the girls for six weeks in a Pennsylvania detention center, the government has quietly released one of the girls and is allowing the other to leave the country with her family.