Dawa: An invitation to non-Muslims to accept Islam. Performing Dawa involves both words and actions. Is the US health care system really that bad off?

AlArabiya.net: “A group of Muslim doctors has opened the first free clinic in Ohio run by Muslim physicians, press reports said. “It is a small attempt by Muslims to help solve the health insurance crisis in America,” Dr. Esam Alkhawaga, a psychiatrist and spokesperson for the free clinic, told Al Arabiya.net on Monday.

[…]

The clinic is the brainchild of the Dayton Mercy Society, a Muslim group that promotes community service and Islamic values. “Our goal is to engage the Muslim community in outreach work and let people know that Muslims are part of this community,” Dr. Alkhawaga, who sits on the board of the society, told the Dayton Daily News. “Most of us (at Dayton Mercy) are physicians and we felt as Muslims this could be the least we could do to give back to America for what they’ve done for us.”

As far as mere words are concerned, all could be very well, fine and dandy, but the more one learns about Islamic “outreach”, one discovers that there are usually strings attached where one wouldn’t expect to find any. Also, why in the world does it have to be called a “Muslim clinic“, I wouldn’t have given it any further thought had he (Dr. Alkhawaga) stressed that it’s just a clinic that happens to be run by a group of Muslim doctors, …and open to all.

Perhaps it’s to reassure Muslim women that they won’t have to see any male doctors, so that would make the clinic’s true purpose really one of servicing the Islamic community, not the public in general. It also means that they will be reducing contact between Muslims and the non-Muslim community in the Dayton area, which carries all the hallmarks for setting up of a parallel society. Not good.

But as usual with zakat, it’s less than appears to the eye, it’s only open 4 hours a week, so big deal! It’s maximum grandiosity with minimal actual donations, or in other words, big PR, little action. If the Muslim clinic is truly resting on “Islamic values”, it will be interesting to find out exactly, what values they are promoting and to whom?

If one were to be cynical, the next logical question would be, will they be offering free clitoridectomies? More here. *L* KGS

H/T Baron Bodissey

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday beginning at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

Callers welcome!

Friday, April 4 (two hours): This week on the nearly famous Gathering Storm Radio Show, our guests are Nonie Darwish, Cassandra (USA) and Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld (Read her bio).

If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

UPCOMING SHOWS
April 11: Amil Imani and Maccus Germanis
April 18: Pamela Geller
April 25: Bob McCarty, Elisabeth of Austria, and Allyson Taylor
May 2: Bill Warner

Read the information HERE at Brigitte Gabriel’s Act! For America.

Right here in America, Dr. Sultan and her family have had to go into hiding!

A little less than two years ago, Time Magazine published the following about Dr. Wafa Sultan, outspoken critic of Islam: Also in 2006, Time Magazine recognized Wafa Sultan as one in "The Time 100: The People Who Shape Our World."

Whatever happened to supporting Dr. Sultan, an American citizen, in her exercise of freedom of speech here in America? A bunch of Mo cartoons got in the way?

By so sharply voicing her beliefs, Sultan crystallizes the mission for the rest of us who want to take the slam out of Islam.

Moonbats can prance around wearing kafiyyehs and carrying the flags of our enemies.  The moonbats get protection.  But Wafa Sultan doesn’t?

What is happening to America?

From the brilliant Raymond Ibrahim, editor of The Al-Qaeda Reader, from National Review:

Islam’s ‘Public Enemy #1’
Coptic priest Zakaria Botros fights fire with fire.

By Raymond Ibrahim
Though he is little known in the West, Coptic priest Zakaria Botros — named Islam’s “Public Enemy #1” by the Arabic newspaper, al-Insan al-Jadid — has been making waves in the Islamic world. Along with fellow missionaries — mostly Muslim converts — he appears frequently on the Arabic channel al-Hayat (i.e., “Life TV”). There, he addresses controversial topics of theological significance — free from the censorship imposed by Islamic authorities or self-imposed through fear of the zealous mobs who fulminated against the infamous cartoons of Mohammed. Botros’s excurses on little-known but embarrassing aspects of Islamic law and tradition have become a thorn in the side of Islamic leaders throughout the Middle East.

Botros is an unusual figure onscreen: robed, with a huge cross around his neck, he sits with both the Koran and the Bible in easy reach. Egypt’s Copts — members of one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East — have in many respects come to personify the demeaning Islamic institution of “dhimmitude” (which demands submissiveness from non-Muslims, in accordance with Koran 9:29). But the fiery Botros does not submit, and minces no words. He has famously made of Islam “ten demands,” whose radical nature he uses to highlight Islam’s own radical demands on non-Muslims.

The result? Mass conversions to Christianity — if clandestine ones. The very public conversion of high-profile Italian journalist Magdi Allam — who was baptized by Pope Benedict in Rome on Saturday — is only the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, Islamic cleric Ahmad al-Qatani stated on al-Jazeera TV a while back that some six million Muslims convert to Christianity annually, many of them persuaded by Botros’s public ministry. More recently, al-Jazeera noted Life TV’s “unprecedented evangelical raid” on the Muslim world. Several factors account for the Botros phenomenon.

First, the new media — particularly satellite TV and the Internet (the main conduits for Life TV) — have made it possible for questions about Islam to be made public without fear of reprisal. It is unprecedented to hear Muslims from around the Islamic world — even from Saudi Arabia, where imported Bibles are confiscated and burned — call into the show to argue with Botros and his colleagues, and sometimes, to accept Christ.

Secondly, Botros’s broadcasts are in Arabic — the language of some 200 million people, most of them Muslim. While several Western writers have published persuasive critiques of Islam, their arguments go largely unnoticed in the Islamic world. Botros’s mastery of classical Arabic not only allows him to reach a broader audience, it enables him to delve deeply into the voluminous Arabic literature — much of it untapped by Western writers who rely on translations — and so report to the average Muslim on the discrepancies and affronts to moral common sense found within this vast corpus.

A third reason for Botros’s success is that his polemical technique has proven irrefutable. Each of his episodes has a theme — from the pressing to the esoteric — often expressed as a question (e.g., “Is jihad an obligation for all Muslims?”; “Are women inferior to men in Islam?”; “Did Mohammed say that adulterous female monkeys should be stoned?” “Is drinking the urine of prophets salutary according to sharia?”). To answer the question, Botros meticulously quotes — always careful to give sources and reference numbers — from authoritative Islamic texts on the subject, starting from the Koran; then from the canonical sayings of the prophet — the Hadith; and finally from the words of prominent Muslim theologians past and present — the illustrious ulema.

Typically, Botros’s presentation of the Islamic material is sufficiently detailed that the controversial topic is shown to be an airtight aspect of Islam. Yet, however convincing his proofs, Botros does not flatly conclude that, say, universal jihad or female inferiority are basic tenets of Islam. He treats the question as still open — and humbly invites the ulema, the revered articulators of sharia law, to respond and show the error in his methodology. He does demand, however, that their response be based on “al-dalil we al-burhan,” — “evidence and proof,” one of his frequent refrains — not shout-downs or sophistry.

More often than not, the response from the ulema is deafening silence — which has only made Botros and Life TV more enticing to Muslim viewers. The ulema who have publicly addressed Botros’s conclusions often find themselves forced to agree with him — which has led to some amusing (and embarrassing) moments on live Arabic TV.

Botros spent three years bringing to broad public attention a scandalous — and authentic — hadith stating that women should “breastfeed” strange men with whom they must spend any amount of time. A leading hadith scholar, Abd al-Muhdi, was confronted with this issue on the live talk show of popular Arabic host Hala Sirhan. Opting to be truthful, al-Muhdi confirmed that going through the motions of breastfeeding adult males is, according to sharia, a legitimate way of making married women “forbidden” to the men with whom they are forced into contact — the logic being that, by being “breastfed,” the men become like “sons” to the women and therefore can no longer have sexual designs on them.

To make matters worse, Ezzat Atiyya, head of the Hadith department at al-Azhar University — Sunni Islam’s most authoritative institution — went so far as to issue a fatwa legitimatizing “Rida’ al-Kibir” (sharia’s term for “breastfeeding the adult”), which prompted such outrage in the Islamic world that it was subsequently recanted.

Botros played the key role in exposing this obscure and embarrassing issue and forcing the ulema to respond. Another guest on Hala Sirhan’s show, Abd al-Fatah, slyly indicated that the entire controversy was instigated by Botros: “I know you all [fellow panelists] watch that channel and that priest and that none of you

Incapable of rebutting Botros, the only strategy left to the ulema (aside from a rumored $5-million bounty on his head) is to ignore him. When his name is brought up, they dismiss him as a troublemaking liar who is backed by — who else? — international “Jewry.” They could easily refute his points, they insist, but will not deign to do so. That strategy may satisfy some Muslims, but others are demanding straightforward responses from the ulema.

The most dramatic example of this occurred on another famous show on the international station, Iqra. The host, Basma — a conservative Muslim woman in full hijab — asked two prominent ulema, including Sheikh Gamal Qutb, one-time grand mufti of al-Azhar University, to explain the legality of the Koranic verse (4:24) that permits men to freely copulate with captive women. She repeatedly asked: “According to sharia, is slave-sex still applicable?” The two ulema would give no clear answer — dissembling here, going off on tangents there. Basma remained adamant: Muslim youth were confused, and needed a response, since “there is a certain channel and a certain man who has discussed this issue over twenty times and has received no response from you.”

The flustered Sheikh Qutb roared, “low-life people like that must be totally ignored!” and stormed off the set. He later returned, but refused to admit that Islam indeed permits sex-slaves, spending his time attacking Botros instead. When Basma said “Ninety percent of Muslims, including myself, do not understand the issue of concubinage in Islam and are having a hard time swallowing it,” the sheikh responded, “You don’t need to understand.” As for Muslims who watch and are influenced by Botros, he barked, “Too bad for them! If my son is sick and chooses to visit a mechanic, not a doctor — that’s his

But the ultimate reason for Botros’s success is that — unlike his Western counterparts who criticize Islam from a political standpoint — his primary interest is the salvation of souls. He often begins and concludes his programs by stating that he loves all Muslims as fellow humans and wants to steer them away from falsehood to Truth. To that end, he doesn’t just expose troubling aspects of Islam. Before concluding every program, he quotes pertinent biblical verses and invites all his viewers to come to Christ. …read it all here….

— Raymond Ibrahim is editor of The Al Qaeda Reader.

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

Callers welcome!

Friday, March 28: SPECIAL SHOW!

This week’s scheduled guest for the entire hour will be Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch. He is the author of two bestsellers: The Truth About Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades). Others of his books include Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t; Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World’s Fastest Growing Faith; and Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West.

In advance of the show, you can submit questions for Mr. Spencer in the comments section of this post; when the show is on the air, you can submit questions in the chat room at this link.

If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Be sure to listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show this week!

NOTE: Our August 31, 2007 interview of Mr. Spencer is HERE.

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live for at least one hour every Friday beginning at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

Callers welcome!

Friday, March 21 (one hour): Our guests are blogger/reporter Sultan Knish, who reveals the stories behind the news from New York to Israel, and Elisabeth of Austria, who will discuss with us the political jihad in Europe and The European Freedom Alliance’s recent conference Identity Crisis: Can European Civilization Survive?

If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

UPCOMING SHOWS
March 28: Robert Spencer
April 4: Cassandra USA
April 11: Amil Imani and Maccus Germanis
April 18: Pamela Geller
April 25: Bob McCarty
May 2: Bill Warner

Until at least 2011. There is no rule that says we must pull out after that, either, nor anything that says we can’t further extend this necessary security, humanitarian and military mission further as needed.

As Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said before, Canada will not cut and run.

Now it’s up to NATO to do its part. Come on, guys; we know you can do far, far more than you are. Quit worrying about domestic political fallout and do the right thing. Historians will speak well of you if you choose the correct path and ensure the Taliban cannot ever retake Afghanistan ever again.
We decided to do a job. We will finish the job no matter how tough it gets.

No apology for fighting evil. Not from Canada.

Cross-posted with The Canadian Sentinel

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live for at least one hour every Friday beginning at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

Callers welcome!

Friday, March 14 (two hours): Walid Shoebat will be with us for the first hour, Mark Alexander the second hour.

Read more details at Always On Watch.

If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

UPCOMING SHOWS
March 21: Elisabeth of Austria
March 28: Robert Spencer

English Version at the end of the article. 

Deux membres du Centre de Vigilance pour la Liberté ont participé à une réunion avec des représentants anti-Jihad français, le 9 mars, pour discuter de la coopération entre les composants français et britanniques du mouvement et pour encourager davantage d’intégration française pouvant émerger rapidement sur des réseaux européens et globaux. La réunion fut très productive et aidée à cimenter les liens qui s’étaient développés ces derniers mois par l’intermédiaire du travail d’Internet. L’union franco-britanniques et d’autres réseaux européens devrait être renforcée par le travail que nous avons entrepris au cours de la réunion.

Les activistes Français et Britanniques avanceront ensemble dans un intérêt commun pour le bénéfice de la civilisation occidentale à laquelle les deux pays ont réalisé d’énormes contributions, avec les autres pays du monde occidental.

La France est un acteur important dans les affaires du monde et il est important que les militants français puissent commencer à influencer la politique de leur gouvernement et de participer pleinement aux travaux du mouvement mondial contre le djihad.

Un grand merci à tous ceux qui ont participé à la réunion, il serait génial de voir nos nouveaux amis à des événements futurs.

———-

English Version:

Counter Jihad Entente Cordiale

Two Vigilant Freedom Board members attended a meeting with representatives of the French Counter Jihad movement on 9 March to discuss co-operation between French and British components of the movement and to encourage further French integration within rapidly emerging European and global networks. The meeting was very productive and helped to cement the links that have been developing in recent months via Internet work. The French, British and other European networks should be strengthened by the work that we have undertaken at the meeting.

French and British activists will be moving forward together in mutual interest for the benefit of Western Civilisation to which both countries have made huge contributions along with the other countries of the Western world.

France is an important player in world affairs and it is important that French activists can begin to influence the policies of their Government and to play a full part in the work of the global Counter Jihad movement.

Many thanks to all who participated in the meeting, it would be great to see our new friends again at future events.

Activists from around the UK came together in central London on 8 March for one of our regular face to face meetings. This turned out to be the most important VFB so far. The meeting was well attended and the foundations of future organisation and project work within the UK were laid down. Officers were appointed for the completion of specific projects and for the organisation of defined geographical areas to develop our national branch structure for more effective regional organisation.

There was a real sense of urgency at the meeting and concern from British CVF members about the way tyranny seems to be continuing to encroach on our traditional liberties.

It is hoped that future national meetings can be organised in other parts of the United Kingdom to allow participation of members who live too far away from London to contribute regularly at face to face meetings in the national capital.

Many thanks to all who attended and we look forward to meeting Vigilant Freedom Britannia members at future meetings.

H/T Fausta

One fewer Democratic governors? Why resign if it’s just a question of purchase?

But if he was working on the supply chain side, this makes more sense:

Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring
By DANNY HAKIM and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation.

The wiretap recording, made during an investigation of a prostitution ring called Emperors Club VIP, captured a man identified as Client 9 on a telephone call confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a room. The person briefed on the case identified Mr. Spitzer as Client 9.

The governor learned that he had been implicated in the prostitution probe when a federal official contacted his staff last Friday, according to the person briefed on the case.

The governor informed his top aides Sunday night and this morning of his involvement. He canceled his public events today and scheduled an announcement for this afternoon after inquiries from the Times.

The governor’s aides appeared shaken, and one of them began to weep as they waited for him to make his statement at his Manhattan office. Mr. Spitzer was seen leaving his Fifth Avenue apartment just before 3 p.m. with his wife of 21 years, Silda, heading to the news conference. more

Wall Street sure will be sympathetic. And here’s the theme song for his departure.

Sada Cumber is the Bush-appointed Special Envoy to the abysmal Organization of the Islamic Conference.  The Sada Cumber Watch blog is tracking the OIC, where a meeting this week (March 13 and 14) will vote on the OIC Ten Year Plan.  Read more here:
H/T Sada Cumber Watch 

The OIC supports the appalling Cairo Declaration of Human Rights (meaning imposition of Sharia Law in violation of all human rights), and the Ten Year Plan Sada Cumber will be agreeing to this week proposes that all countries must protect Muslim minorities’ rights based on the Cairo Declaration definition of those rights.

The Ten Year Plan also proposes “deterrent punishments” for Islamophobia…

Albert Einstein: “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

So our FBI, our CIA, our State Department, Gordon England’s office at the Pentagon, the White House (at least the Saudi Wahhabist wing of the White House), our universities dominated by MESA, our textbook publishers dominated by the CIE, our presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama, our Arafat-idolizing other presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, our societal political correctness that uses terms like Islamophobia to describe those who defend the Constitution and oppose the Islamic Code of Sharia Law, our multi-million dollar arms sale to the Saudis, our new Special Envoy of Dhimmitude to the Organization of Islamic Council, Sada Cumber…..

Those are all on the same level of consciousness that created the problem of our dhimmitude and our submission to Sharia in the first place. So they will not be where we solve this problem of Islamic imperialism.

It will be solved by individuals in all those institutions who dare to speak out, to protest, to resist, to write the minority opinion memo, to refuse the bribe, to take a regular retirement and not a Saudi-financed one, to begin the debate, to continue the fight, to imagine something other than a graceful degradation into defeat.

We’ve been told no interagency meetings are held, dealing with Homeland security or Homeland Defense issues and certainly all dealing with civil liberties in any form, without Muslim Brotherhood proxies in attendance. Our new political commissars.

You are out there, now. You understand the problem of Islamisation. You can see the problem from the outside, the way Einstein suddenly understood the problem he was trying to solve. Unlike the people around you, you no longer spend your time staying inside the problem and justifying your denial. You are in a place where you can help.

We have so little time. Do what you can now.

DE ROSSA VOTES AGAINST “RESPECTING THE OUTCOME OF IRISH REFERENDUM” IN EU PARLIAMENT 

Written by Libertas    
Wednesday, 20 February 2008 

Responding to News that Irish MEP Proinsias De Rossa joined a large majority of
MEPs in voting to reject a motion that committed the EU to “respecting the
outcome of the referendum in Ireland”, Libertas President Declan J. Ganley
issued the following statement:

“Today’s vote is absolute confirmation that the EU Parliament is committed to
ignoring the will of the people.

By a majority of 499-129, the Parliament has sent a message to the Irish people
to say “we don’t care what you think”.

I condemn Proinsias De Rossa absolutely for this vote, and I urge him to give
an explanation to the people who elected him.

This Treaty is designed to remove as much power from the people as possible,
and today’s vote confirms the mindset behind it.

With this treaty, we will get a President and a Foreign and Defence Minister of
Europe unaccountable to us at the ballot box. We will get a Europe that has
power over Irelands Foreign Direct Investment policy, and can hamstring the
valuable work of the IDA.

This Treaty is bad for our economy because Europe isn’t simply an economic
partner, its an economic competitor as well. We need to be able to set
ourselves apart economically, - that power is what has made us so successful,
and this treaty removes that power.

Proinsias De Rossa’s actions today were disgraceful, and I condemn them, but at
the same time, I welcome the fact that the mask, at last, has slipped”.

From the Star Tribune - take care if you’re protesting against Female Genital Mutilation (required by the most common Code of Sharia Law).  It sure appears these women may have been targeted, and in case you hadn’t heard yet, Brussels is a deadly place for anyone protesting Sharia and Islamisation:

Waris Dirie, former model and women’s rights campaigner, reported missing

By PAUL AMES , Associated Press

March 7, 2008

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Waris Dirie, a former model who has campaigned against female genital mutilation and written an international best-seller about her experiences, is missing, police and her manager said Friday.

Dirie, 43, has not been seen since early Wednesday when police saw her getting into a taxi in Brussels, manager Walter Lutschinger said in a telephone interview.

“We are really very scared,” said Lutschinger, who has been her manager for seven years.

Dirie - who was born in Somalia and now lives in Vienna, Austria - gained international fame as a model posing in Chanel ads and acting in a James Bond film before launching her campaign against female genital mutilation in 1996.

She recounted her own experiences of suffering genital mutilation as a child in the book “Desert Flower,” which became an international best-seller.

Dirie was due to speak to two conferences on women’s rights organized by the European Union in Brussels this week, including one Thursday attended by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Dirie’s disappearance comes a week after French police said they’d found the body of another former model of African origin who had campaigned against female genital mutilation.

Guinean-born Katoucha Niane’s body was found floating in the Seine River in Paris. French police said an autopsy showed no signs of foul play, pointing to the possibility that the 47-year-old Niane may have fallen accidentally into the river.

On Friday, Belgian police launched an official missing persons appeal for Dirie, asking the public for information. The police said they also were looking for the taxi driver that took her from the area between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m.

Lutschinger said Dirie had been involved in an altercation at a hotel reception after a taxi driver had taken her to the wrong branch of the Sofitel hotel chain after a visit to a night club. The police were called and drove Dirie around Brussels looking for the correct hotel, after she had apparently forgotten where she was staying.

At one hotel, while staff and police were checking for her name on a computer, Dirie walked out and climbed into a taxi that drove away, Lutschinger said police told him.

He said hotel staff told him Dirie had said she was going to buy cigarettes before getting into the vehicle. Lutschinger said he thought she was carrying little money and no identification documents or cell phone when she vanished.

Dirie’s description of how she underwent genital mutilation without anesthesia as a child shocked those who knew her from glossy fashion magazine covers, Chanel perfume ads and her role in “The Living Daylights,” a 1987 James Bond film.

She chronicled her own experience in a best-selling autobiography, “Desert Flower,” and three sequels, “Desert Dawn,” “Desert Children” and “Nomad’s Daughter,” and served as a U.N. goodwill ambassador to fight the practice.

“There are millions of children - young, hopeless, desperate - who need help, a voice, somebody, somewhere,” she told The Associated Press in a 2005 interview.

Dirie was due to travel to the Netherlands to receive an award Friday in the town of Kerkrade.

___

Associated Press Writer Aoife White contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

Waris Dirie Foundation: http://www.waris-dirie-foundation.com

A devastating piece by Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post, about the Bush and Condi blindness to the disaster they’re preparing in the Middle East:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left many Israelis and supporters of Israel scratching their heads in disbelief this week.

Rice arrived in Israel in a week marked by Fatah-incited violence against Israel and Israelis, both in Judea and Samaria and within sovereign Israel.

On Monday, a well organized group of hundreds of Arab thugs threw rocks at Jewish motorists in Jerusalem. A dozen hoodlums nearly lynched two municipal inspectors when, after blocking traffic on Salah a-Din Street with burning tires, they stoned the inspectors’ vehicle and began shattering their windshield with a metal pipe. The two escaped by the skin of their teeth.

Outside Hebron, an Israeli was attacked by yet another mob and escaped alive only by opening fire at his assailants.

In another incident, Fatah forces murdered a Palestinian and seriously wounded an Israeli outside of Hebron. The US-financed group claimed its operatives lured the Israeli to the scene.

In Ramallah and Hebron, thousands of Fatah members rallied in support of Hamas and its missile offensive against the western Negev. Israeli Arabs also escalated their verbal and physical assaults on Israel and Israeli Jews, in a series of demonstrations that culminated in a mass demonstration in support of Hamas that took place on Tuesday evening in Umm el-Fahm.

In Judea and Samaria, Fatah leader and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas referred to the IDF’s operations in Gaza as an attempted “holocaust.” He praised terrorists, suspended negotiations with Israel and reiterated his refusal to recognize Israel. His deputies and associates echoed his incendiary remarks and also spoke in support of armed attacks against US forces in Iraq.

Then there is Egypt. Last Monday, two days before Hamas escalated its missile offensive against southern Israel, Egypt released 21 Hamas terrorists from custody in el-Arish. Twelve of the men had reportedly been detained while carrying weapons and attempting to cross into Israel to carry out terrorist attacks. On Monday, they were escorted to Gaza by scores of Egyptian security officials and handed over to Hamas.

One might think, in the face of Fatah’s obvious support for Hamas’s efforts to destroy Israel, that Rice might have begun to question her devotion to Palestinian statehood and support for Fatah. It might have made her question her refusal to support an Israeli bid to retake control over Gaza’s border with Egypt. Indeed, in light of Iran’s deep involvement in Hamas’s missile offensive, it might have even occurred to Rice that an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza would weaken Iran and so put a damper on its efforts to take over Lebanon and Iraq.

But none of these developments had any impact on Rice, or for that matter on her boss President George W. Bush. Ignoring Fatah’s obvious involvement in terror and increasingly overt support for Hamas’s missile war against Israeli civilians, Bush overrode a congressional ban on the transfer of $150 million to Fatah. Similarly, in her visit to Egypt this week, Rice announced that the administration was overriding a congressional decision to block the transfer of $120m. to Egypt due to its refusal to prevent Hamas weapons smuggling operations from Egypt.

In her joint press conference with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Rice acted as though nothing notable had transpired over the past two weeks. Rice announced that the US will be giving $148m. to UNRWA in 2008 - this despite the fact that UN refugee camps in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria and Jordan are all hotbeds of terror recruitment, training and indoctrination. She ignored Hamas’s widespread popularity in Palestinian society, called for Israel to step up its humanitarian aid to Gaza, and defended the Palestinians as victims. As she put it, “Hamas… in effect, holds the people of Gaza hostage in their hands.”

Ignoring Abbas’s open support for Hamas against Israel, Rice claimed that he had agreed to return to the negotiating table and insisted that the only way to end violence is to establish a Palestinian state. She then intimated that in the midst of Fatah’s open support for Hamas’s Iranian-supported open war against Israel, she expected Israel to take action to demolish the communities its citizens have built in Judea and Samaria, claiming, “We do need to have improvements on the ground. We do need to have the parties meeting their road map obligations.”

SOME ISRAELIS and supporters of Israel attribute Rice’s irrational championing of Palestinian statehood to anti-Israeli bigotry. These voices cite Rice’s penchant for drawing parallels between white supremacists in the pre-Civil Rights movement era American South and Israeli soldiers carrying out counterterror operations in Judea and Samaria. By repeatedly invoking this morally and factually perverted comparison, they claim that Rice exposes a deep-seated animus towards the Jewish state and its citizens.

But there is another possible - in fact more likely - explanation for Rice’s behavior. It is quite possible that Rice has simply isolated herself from all information and all persons bearing information that might force her to change her policy course.

In an investigative report on the Hamas takeover of Gaza last June, Vanity Fair reporter David Rose recalls Rice’s reaction to the terror group’s electoral victory. Speaking to reporters at the time, Rice said, “I’ve asked why nobody saw it coming. I don’t know anyone who wasn’t caught off guard by Hamas’s strong showing.”

What is remarkable about this statement is what it says about the insulated nature of Rice’s world. Indeed, it is a veritable echo chamber. In Israel, this writer, as well as The Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh warned that Hamas was likely to win those elections. So did esteemed Israeli diplomatic and military leaders like former UN ambassador Dore Gold, former IDF chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. (res.) Moshe Ya’alon and many others. In the Bush administration, David Wurmser, who at the time served as Vice President Richard Cheney’s Middle East adviser, similarly warned that Hamas would likely win. Other senior voices in the administration voiced concern as well.

Some three million Israelis who opposed the 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip warned repeatedly that the withdrawal would serve to empower Hamas and other terror groups. Withdrawal opponents also warned that if Israel ceded control over the international border with Egypt, the border would become a terror highway, and that Katyushas would rain down on Ashkelon.

But Rice ignored all these warnings and either ignored or sidelined those sounding them. Reveling in the warm embrace of State Department careerists like R. Nicholas Burns, David Welch and others, Rice helped to torpedo UN ambassador John Bolton’s Senate confirmation hearings. Other dissenters met similar fates.

It is not only toward Israel and the Palestinians that Rice insists on operating in a policy vacuum. Her stewardship of other central issues is also marked alternately by a studied silencing of dissenting views and outright neglect of US national interests in favor of a perception of “progress” that doesn’t exist. State Department policies toward North Korea and Iraq are glaring examples of this overarching trend.

The Washington Post reported this week that the State Department toned down its human rights report on North Korea. The report claimed that Glyn Davies, principal deputy assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific, e-mailed Erica Barks-Ruggles, deputy assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor, last Friday asking for changes in the language on North Korea. The e-mail suggested that “given the secretary’s priority on the six-party talks, we can sacrifice a few adjectives for the cause.”

Those six-party talks ran aground on December 31 when North Korea failed to abide by its commitment to fully disclose its nuclear inventory and its proliferation activities. In light of this state of affairs, Jay Lefkowitz, Bush’s special envoy to North Korea on human rights, told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington last month that the six-party talks had failed, and that the US should reconsider its policy toward North Korea.

Rice’s response to Lefkowitz’s argument was marked by mean-spirited hysteria. Rather than contend with the substance of his argument, she belittled Lefkowitz. “He’s the human rights envoy,” Rice told reporters. “That’s what he knows. That’s what he does. He doesn’t work on the six-party talks. He doesn’t know what’s going on in the six-party talks and he certainly has no say in the six-party talks.”

One of the oddest aspects of Rice’s diplomatic activities is how little time she devotes to Iraq. Iraq, after all, is the face of Bush’s foreign policy and in the final analysis, Bush’s legacy will be determined not by what he does to Israel or the Palestinians, but by what sort of Iraq he leaves behind. Yet apparently Rice couldn’t care less about Iraq.

In a scathing memo sent last month to US Ambassador in Baghdad Ryan Crocker, Manuel Miranda, a senior Republican attorney who spent the past year overseeing the embassy’s office of legislative oversight, noted a complete disconnect between the US military’s valiant efforts to cultivate the formation of a secure, democratic Iraq and the State Department’s incompetence in advancing this central US policy. Miranda described a puerile embassy staff, bereft of institutional memory from year to year, which ignores Iraqi society and treats the democratization drive as an annoyance rather than as the central objective of US policy in Iraq.

In his words, “In this excuse-making culture, the State Department has been an albatross around the neck of the coalition command.”

As Miranda put it, “This past year, the State Department and the embassy have been led by two misguided premises: First, the obsessive aim that the embassy be turned into a ‘normal embassy,’ and, second, that the State Department cannot be faulted for the things that the government of Iraq is not doing.”

The fact is that this is Rice’s policy. It was Rice who, in November 2006, began claiming that Iraq’s failure to transform itself overnight into a properly run federal state was solely the responsibility of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Miranda noted that rather than cultivate a habit of liberalism by reaching out to Iraqis as the military does, the State Department has sufficed with training law enforcement officials and kibitzing with lawmakers. In his words, “With a few exceptions by the military and a few other recent efforts, we have ignored the Iraqi Bar, the twenty-six [Iraqi] law schools and the development of the culture [of liberalism] beyond the areas associated with arrest and prosecution.”

WITH ONLY 10 months left in office, unless Bush swiftly forces Rice to change course, these and other policies pushed by Rice in spite of their obvious failures will either blow up in her face, or in the face of her successor. And of course, it isn’t only her legacy that will be harmed by her irresponsible insulation. The lives of tens of millions of people will be imperiled by her hidebound policies.

Press Release March 7, 2008

Veiling of public statues

at the International Women’s Day

Throughout the night on 6^th of March we have successfully continued our statue veiling campaign. With this reappearing action, we want to inspire the public to discussion concerning Islamisation and associated taboo subjects. By veiling statues in Berlin, Braunschweig, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Helsinki, Moscow, Tampere, and Turku, we have expanded our activities to Germany, Finland and Russia within six months.

• 8 statues have been veiled with a Burqa or headscarf
• Refering to basic European values, the statues have been fitted with an armband reading “gender equality!”
• Every statue has been fitted with a signboard comparing an Article from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 1948, and on the other hand quotation from Quran regarding its treatment towards women.

LINK to the pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/veiled_statues

LINK to the press release and former actions:

http://veiledstatues.blog.de/

The aim of the campaign is to refer to the creeping Islamisation endangering the European idea of UNITY IN DIVERSITY and other similar cultural achievements of the liberal thinking world. Particularly, the phenomenom that Muslim women wear increasingly Burqa or headscarfs, is a visible expression of the challenge and threat to our liberal societies with their values such as women’s rights, democracy, liberal and secular thinking.

With this campaign, we would like to increase public awareness of our liberal values and to advocate them. The liberal achievements such as equal rights of men and women, individual freedom, Human Rights, and the dignity of each individual are no negotiable values! We would like to point out that substantial and partly irreconcilable differences exist between the Muslim and the liberal thinking world.

Many Muslims are lead by religious systems and by affiliated traditions such as Sharia which is a strict code of conduct and justice. Therefore, the appearence of parallel societies are carried on in which completely different values exist. For instance, in Muslim societies refering to Quran and the Sharia, the supposedly honour of a woman is much more important than her education or self-determination.

Both, Quran and Sharia have to be taken literally. For the theological authorities as well as for the population of the Muslims, it is out of question whether the content is valuable or not. In the Muslim and non-Muslim countries the Muslim women are mostly underprivileged. The higher social position of the man (with regard to justice, legal authorities, marriage and family law), and the decision-making process (even with regard to sexual issues) show that the women’s rights are undermined not only by the religious but also the cultural restrictions.

Every citizen – native or foreign – need to aware of all basic laws which are enacted in their country. One of these basic laws is the equality of men and women. The fact that in our liberal western societies people have to live inhibited is a sign for the failured integration as well as a sign that liberal thinking and Muslim values are hardly compatible.

Through our action we want to show that there exist taboo subjects in a certain religious movement, therefore we need to deal with them at once. We are not supposed to do the same and shall speak about certain subjects that are still being treated as taboos. It is not racist to point out these issues, it is racist to keep ourselves from protecting and advocating the rights of the women in the Muslim world, whether they live in foreign countries or in ours. So, where are the women’s rights activists who used to stand up for women’s rights for the Western women in the our world? There is no reason and no need to leave these Muslim women alone without help in sight.

We would like to compare two quotes, one is taken from the Declaration of Human Rights and one is chosen from the Quran in order to show where the substantial differences are:

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations, Art. 1

“To those (women) on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them.”

Quran, Sura 4,34

We need to consider the Human Rights Charta to be accomplished in its totality everywhere in the world. Neither the Quran nor the Sharia can be seriously put on the same level with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the UN.

It is not only us being responsible to deal with these subjects, the state itself has got its responsibility too. For instance, the third part of the Principals of Limburg, which were formulated by a group of Human Rights Experts from UN in 1986 refer to the view of warranty. The state which signs the Declaration of the Human Rights has to take care for the total implementation of these. Hence, we have a responsibility to advocate for the Muslim women who live under difficult circumstances in our societies.

Anonymous Group of Democratic and Free Thinking

Claudia Bordeaux skulptur2008@web.de
http://veiledstatues.blog.de/
The Veiling of Sculptures in a Europe-wide campaign - The veiled sculptures
Campaign March 7, 2008

+ Moscow, Russia

———————

Monument “Adam and Eve”,

Composition: “Adam and Eve” are sitting under the wisdom tree and Eve is

holding an apple.

Location: in the city centre Pyatnickaya st. 25, Moscow

+Berlin, Germany

————————

Monument „Käthe Kollwitz“,

by Gustav Seitz, bronze, 2,10 m

Käthe Kollwitz was one of most important female artists of the 20th century. Despite difficult circumstances, she developed with her sincere lithography, etching, copperplate and wood engraving a timeless style.

+ Braunschweig

———————-

Monument “Braunschweiger Venus”,

by Prof. Jürgen Weber, 1998

Material : bronze

Location: Am Wendetor, nearby the Torhaus Wendetor

+Dortmund

—————-

Statues of male and female leant against a pillar,

approx. 2m height,

symbolize the destitute population in the years of 1922 and 1923,

in front of the museum of art and cultural history,

Hansastr., Dormund-centre

+ Düsseldorf

——————

“Garden of sculptures of Palace Benrath”,

6 sculptures of three males and three females,

by Peter Anton von Verschaffelt, late barogue,

The six sculptures show Demeter, Flora, Atalante, Meleager, Pan, and Bacchus,

Boyond substantial phenomenons, it is shown the idea of the cosmic order,

Location: Garden of sculptures of Palace Benrath, Düsseldorf

+Helsinki, Finland

————————-

Monument:”Convolvulus”

Location: Helsinki, Kaisaniemi park

Artist: Viktor Jansson

“Convolvulus” is a symbolic sculpture which shows a young woman.

+Tampere, Finland

————————–

Monument: “Statue of Minna Canth”,

by Lauri Leppänen (1951),

Minna Canth (born Ulrika Wilhelmina Johnsson, 1844) was a Finnish writer and

social activist. Her work addresses issues of women’s rights, particularly

in the context of a prevailing culture she considered antithetical

to permitting expression and realization of women’s aspirations.

+Turku, Finland

———————–

“Lilja-statue”, Red Granite,

by Wäinö Aaltonen, 1927,

This statue is the first public art purchase of the city of Turku.

It depicts the heraldic symbol of Turku which is lily,

(fin. lilja, which is also female name:). Since 1929 it have had an important role

“‘Islamophobia’ is a fear of Islam so intense that you loose heart and fail to defend your country, culture and freedoms. It needs to be eradicated.”

H/T HC

And it pervades much of our government, and the governments of Europe…our media…our liberal dhimmified churches and synagogues…our schools…

No more Islamophobia, it does need to be eradicated -

By the resisters opposing jihad. A much better term, that.