August 2008

ZOG’s Nightmare (and the CT Analyst’s Dilemma)

…“ZOG” is an acronym for “Zionist Occupied Government;”white nationalist code to communicate their belief that Jews secretly control the government. "ZOG's Nightmare" suggests that Jews and other minorities will lose their power to whites after a bloody revolution. “ZOG’s Nightmare” is very similar in format and theme to other white supremacist computer games, such as “White Law” and “Ethnic Cleansing,” both of which depict the stabbing or shooting of minorities from a first-person perspective. What makes “ZOG’s Nightmare” stand out from the other games is the unvarnished language used by the game creator on the promotional video clips found on the main web site… As an analyst, I do my best to avoid imbuing reports with my personal opinions. My job, as defined by the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, is to engage in a process “of studying the nature of something or of determining its essential features and their relations.” It can be almost clinical. In the case of “ZOG’s Nightmare,” there is no subtlety; no reason to crunch discrete facts to help decision makers visualize an ambiguous phenomenon. “ZOG’s Nightmare” carries a transparent message and purpose. Numerous studies have found that playing violent computer games increases aggressive behavior and also desensitizes children to suffering, and the white supremacist computer games are intended to do just that.……(Counterterrorism Blog, 7 Aug 08)

Tyson Foods Adopts Muslim Holiday

Union employees at Tyson Foods’ poultry processing plant in Shelbyville, Tennessee will enjoy a paid holiday this year on October 1, the date on which the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr falls this year. And on Labor Day, they will be hard at work, per a new agreement that the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) negotiated with Tyson. The RWDSU explained that the new contract “implements a new holiday to accommodate the...Muslim workers at the plant.”… the reason why anyone has any problem with this decision is not because Tyson is not free to negotiate an agreement with its union -- an agreement that has apparently won the approval of the majority of plant employees. The problem is that the accommodation of Islamic holidays and practices abets, however unwittingly, an avowedly supremacist agenda that is directed toward supplanting American laws and mores and imposing Islamic law here. One notable example of this was the refusal several years ago of Muslim cabbies at the Minneapolis Airport to carry passengers who had alcohol with them…….(FrontPage, 7 Aug 08)

Russia's Council of Muftis steers clear of plan to form Intl Islamic Tribunal

Russia's Council of Muftis has proposed forming an arbitration court that would take Islamic norms into account, but rejects media claims that it was involved in creating an international Islamic tribunal.  "The Russian Council of Muftis has nothing to do with the idea to establish a Sharia court or an Islamic tribunal, as some media reports claimed today. Nor have we set up a working group to deal with this," the Council's Press Secretary Gulnur Gaziyeva told Interfax-Religion. Gaziyeva said, meanwhile, that the Council had formed a working group to establish an arbitration court "that would take Islamic norms into account."….(Interfax, 6 Aug 08)

MasterCard Creates an Islamic Debit Card

MasterCard Worldwide and EonCap Islamic Bank (a member of Malaysia's Eon Bank Group) have jointly launched what they are billing as the world's first Islamic debit MasterCard—the EonCap Islamic Debit MasterCard. The EonCap Islamic Debit MasterCard is basically a debit card with ATM functions as well. It also works on PayPass systems, which enables a person to swipe it on a terminal without the card leaving the cardholder's hand. It is referred to as blending traditional purchasing power with modern technology and is Shari'ah compliant. "It is designed to appeal to both Muslim and non-Muslim individuals who prefer better financial control as the card ensures that purchases are automatically deducted from the cardholder's account and approved only if enough funds exist within the account. It helps track spending, comes with worldwide acceptance at more than 26 million locations and can be used at an ATM for e-banking," says Fozia Amanulla, chief executive officer of Eoncap Islamic Bank…..(Business Week, 6 Aug 08)

You Still Can't Write About Muhammad

Starting in 2002, Spokane, Wash., journalist Sherry Jones toiled weekends on a racy historical novel about Aisha, the young wife of the prophet Muhammad. Ms. Jones learned Arabic, studied scholarly works about Aisha's life, and came to admire her protagonist as a woman of courage. When Random House bought her novel last year in a $100,000, two-book deal, she was ecstatic. This past spring, she began plans for an eight-city book tour after the Aug. 12 publication date of "The Jewel of Medina" -- a tale of lust, love and intrigue in the prophet's harem.

It's not going to happen: In May, Random House abruptly called off publication of the book. The series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse about the Muslim world.

Random House feared the book would become a new "Satanic Verses," the Salman Rushdie novel of 1988 that led to death threats, riots and the murder of the book's Japanese translator, among other horrors. In an interview about Ms. Jones's novel, Thomas Perry, deputy publisher at Random House Publishing Group, said that it "disturbs us that we feel we cannot publish it right now."….(Wall Street Journal, 6 Aug 08)

Fearful Publisher Drops Novel About Mohammed's Wife

Self-censorship toward Muslims continues to be a problem in corporate America. The latest casualty: a book by author Sherry Jones about Aisha, the favored wife of Islam's founder Mohammed, whom he is said to have betrothed when she was less than ten years old.  Writing in today's Wall Street Journal,  Asra Q. Nomani tells how the book,  "The Jewel of Medina," got canceled by would-be publisher Random House thanks to a politically correct professor of Islamic studies, one Denise Spellberg…..(Newsbuster, 6 Aug 08)

Iraqi Islamist leader sues Norway over human rights

Mullah Krekar, founder of radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, has filed charges with Europe's human rights court against Norway, where he lives, for "inhuman treatment," his lawyer said Tuesday.

"We lodged a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in April," Brynjar Meling told AFP, confirming a report in the Verdens Gang daily. "The complaint is currently being handled," he added.

Kurdish-born Krekar has lived in Norway as a refugee since 1991, but has been under threat of deportation since Norwegian media revealed he was the founder of Ansar al-Islam, which figures on the United States' list of terrorist groups……(AFP, 6 Aug 08)

Ex-Presidential Candidate Advocates Stalking Prosecutor

Mike Gravel, a former two-term senator from Alaska and fringe Democratic and Libertarian presidential candidate, urged people to stalk a federal prosecutor and his family in order to get criminal contempt charges dropped against Sami Al-Arian, an exclusive audio tape obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism shows.

Gravel, 78, spoke at a forum with Al-Arian's wife and two of their children Friday evening in Washington, D.C. During his remarks, he focused attention at the prosecutor driving the case (Click the play button to the left to hear the clip)……(IPT, 5 Aug 08)

Political writer Hirsi Ali discusses democracy and Islam

The word "apostate" has fallen into relative disuse in the West in the last couple of 100 years.
The idea that leaving your religion, apostasy, should be punished, has largely died out since the Enlightenment.
But Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who's been in Australia over the last few days, is in continuous fear for her life because she is an apostate from Islam. In 2004, in the Netherlands, her friend, the filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, was stabbed to death for an anti-Islam film for which she wrote the script. A death threat against her was pinned to the corpse with a knife. In her subsequent book, Infidel, she stepped up her attack on global Islam. And in Australia she's been talking about the ideas of the Enlightenment……(ABC, 5 Aug 08)

Pakistan and Another "Wake-Up Call"

…Tarik Jan's commentary in The Nation should indeed be a wake-up call for American leaders regarding the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.  Public opinion polls suggest that many other Pakistanis share Tarik Jan's views.   In consistent national polls in August 2007 (page 34, Question 16e) and January 2008 (page 31, Question 12g), nearly 75% of the Pakistan population stated that it was important for the government to implement "strict Sharia law." This Islamic republic has federal Sharia courts today, and the Taliban are working to develop more Sharia courts in FATA and NWFP regions of Pakistan. Such support for a Sharia-based Islamic Republic of Pakistan is hardly just "extremist" thinking. America's leaders need to reassess Pakistan, as they also need to develop a strategic assessment of the challenges of Islamic supremacism itself.  The Nation states that it is the "market leader" in Pakistan's capital (Islamabad) as well as throughout Punjab province, with a "strong presence" in Karachi……(Counterterrorism Blog, 4 Aug 08)

A wake-up call

…Musharraf failed to foresee the prolonged US stay in the region that will create craters of hatred and resentment morphing into violent responses in Afghanistan and around; that it would stretch Pakistan armed forces' stay in FATA pitting it against its own people; and that India would love to oblige US in aggravating the situation in FATA and Balochistan.  Musharraf also failed to see the impact his secularisation agenda would create on his people's psyche throwing them into a state of shock, grief, and eventually desperation to preempt his secularism. But Musharraf's ostrich-in-the sand policy aside, the whole attitude to the brewing crisis seems problematic……(Nation, 4 Aug 08)

Emboldening Terrorists: 'Moderates' Kowtow to Hezbollah

Make no mistake about it: the recent prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah is a victory for Iran and its allies. The crux of the deal is this: Hezbollah gained the release of five imprisoned Lebanese terrorists in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah in a July 12, 2006, cross-border raid that triggered the 2006 war with the Jewish State. The most immediate impact will be to embolden another Iranian-backed terror group: Hamas, which says it will drive a harder bargain for the return of Israel Defense Force Corporal Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by Hamas in a June 25, 2006, cross-border raid into southern Israel. As a Hamas source told the Israeli Ynet.com news service: "The deal proves that patience and fortitude will lead to us seeing celebrations here [in Gaza] similar to those in Lebanon."  The prisoner exchange occurred two weeks before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's announcement that he will not be a candidate for re-election, and it is another reminder of his regrettable geopolitical legacy…..(FSM, 4 Aug 08)

The Law of Unintended Consequences

The Times of London today brings an interesting reminder of the law of unintended consequences, and the rise of radical Islam, through the first Bosnian conflict.  I and others have long argued the the Bosnian conflict provided the template for al Qaeda action in the years ahead. Fresh off driving the Soviet Union from Afghanistan and convinced Allah would deliver another major victory, thousands of _mujahadeen_rushed from Afghanistan and elsewhere to fight for Bosnian Muslims. The recruitment, training, rapid radicalization and the the massive use of charities (the Third World Relief Agency-TWRA-in particular) came from the Afghan playbook and were honed in Bosnia……(Douglas Farah, 4 Aug 08)

Olympic Sponsor Tyson Foods Swaps Labor Day for Islamic Holiday

… Tyson Foods is a sponsor of the United States Olympic Team and also features prominently on the menu of those touring to China in pursuit of Olympic gold. Market Watch reported on Friday that 1984 Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Rhetton would be the face of Tyson Food's Olympic efforts in 2008… In spite of the all-American image Tyson Foods is portraying with its Olympic efforts, tempers are flaring in Shelbyville, Tennessee. The Voice of Clarksville reported on August 3rd that 1,200 of Tyson Foods workers will not receive the day off with pay on Labor Day, and instead the company and the union agreed to a five year contract that would benefit the 700 Muslim employees who would prefer to receive Eid ul-Fitr off, the end of Ramadan……(AC, 4 Aug 08)

Shelbyville’s Tyson Food plant shifts holidays; trades Labor Day for Ramadan

Tyson Foods in Shelbyville is rocking the boat for approximately 500 workers accustomed to the traditional Labor Day holiday on the first Saturday of September.  In its new five-year contract, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union has opted to ditch the familiar paid holiday in favor of a change that will please the plants 700 Muslim workers: Eid-al-Fitr, which occurs at the end of Ramadan. The contract contains the same number of paid holidays as before; the holidays have simply changed. Eid al-Fitr, which this year happens on Oct. 1, ends the Muslim faith’s month of fasting……(Clarksville Online, 3 Aug 08)

Israel's Islamic Movement: Filling the vacuum, aiming for a caliphate

It wasn't just sermons and prayers that filled the gender-segregated soccer field in Kafr Kara on Friday night during the annual summit of the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel.

Thousands of devotees gathered from around the country to commemorate Muhammad's journey to "the farthest mosque" and his ascension to the heavens on a winged steed, but politics also hung heavily in the air.

Children waved green Islamic flags, young women in hijabs sold large maps of "Palestine before the Nakba," the "catastrophe" of 1948, and sheikhs and politicians spoke of the need to support their Palestinian brothers in the territories, defend the Aksa Mosque and fight for equal rights as Arab citizens of Israel……(Jerusalem Post, 3 Aug 08)

Jihad Economics and Islamic Banking

The United States and the West cannot win the war against radical Islam merely with the most sophisticated military strategies. Winning requires understanding the role of shari'a and the Muslim Brotherhood in developing a global ideological and political movement supported by a parallel "Islamic" financial system to exploit and undermine Western economies and markets. This movement is the foundation and the major funding source for the political, economic, and military initiatives of the global Islamic movement.1  Shari'a finance is a new weapon in the arsenal of what might be termed fifth-generation warfare (5GW).2 The perpetrators include both states and organizations, advancing a global totalitarian ideology disguised as a religion. The end goal is to impose that ideology worldwide, making the Islamic "nation," or ummah, supreme.3……(Analyst-Network, 2 Aug 08)

Deja vu All Over Again

…The conclusion (that the ISI helped plan the July 7 bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul) was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack, the officials said, providing the clearest evidence to date that Pakistani intelligence officers are actively undermining American efforts to combat militants in the region. The American officials also said there was new information showing that members of the Pakistani intelligence service were increasingly providing militants with details about the American campaign against them, in some cases allowing militants to avoid American missile strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas. So, not only are members of the ISI, the recipient of billions of dollars in US aid since 9/11, not interested in helping hunt for Bin Laden, but they are using US taxpayer dollars to help plan attacks by our enemies against our friends… The fundamental issue that has to be faced is that much of the ISI is composed of people who view the Taliban and al Qaeda as the good guys in this conflict. They are radical Islamists who are happy to take US money, in order to protect their friends and hurt the United States. That is what they believe Allah would have them do.  No amount of visiting CIA executives or pleas to reform can achieve results. When the ISI operatives at lower levels weigh their loyalties, it will almost always be on the side of the jihadists. It is time to realize that, and cut the losses……(Douglas Farah, 1 Aug 08)

NEFA Report: Developments in the Jihadi Resurgence in Pakistan: January 2008

Pakistan and Delusions about Negotiating on Jihad

Would America find it a shocking news revelation if a white supremacist organization had members supporting Ku Klux Klan terrorism? Would the FBI go to white supremacist political groups to fight the Ku Klux Klan, or seek white supremacist leaders to convince KKK members to change their thinking? But when it comes to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Taliban, and Jihadist organizations around the world, this type of nonsensical thinking has become a common argument among many international relations circles, including American government leadership, because nearly 8 years after 9/11, such leadership continues to refuse to clearly define the enemy threat and ideology.  The American media and government seem to think it is major news that members of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan's intelligence organization (ISI) have reportedly been supporting the Taliban and Jihadist activities. They are surprised that a nation, where polls consistently show that 75 percent support the implementation of "strict Sharia law," would have individuals that support a group such as the Taliban whose goal is to enforce Sharia law and work towards restoring a caliphate……(Counterterrorism Blog, 1 Aug 08)

Are the Tribes the Best Hope for a Liberal Iraq?

Iraqi and Arab progressives have long tended to view the persistence of tribes and tribalism as a negative phenomenon that is keeping the Middle East from developing modern societal relations based on voluntarism and a modern political system. This is particularly true in Iraq, where the Ba'th regime exploited tribalism to sustain the dictatorship……(MEMRI, 1 Aug 08)

Ignorance about the Enemy's Ideology Is the Problem

In fighting Jihad, America's greatest challenge remains understanding and confronting the ideology that provides the basis for Jihadist terrorism. Efforts to clearly define this enemy ideology recently have been undermined by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and the State Department in promoting a "terror lexicon" that recommends federal government employees avoid terms such as "jihad," "jihadist," "Islamist," "mujahideen," and "caliphate" when addressing issues involving terrorism. The argument made by the DHS, NCTC, and others is that the use of such terms will aid in the "recruitment" of Muslims to join terrorist organizations, or will alternatively provide "legitimacy" to religious aspects of terrorist efforts. However, this tactical approach to create a "terror lexicon" to ban such terms used in federal government terrorism reports and the 9/11 Commission report undermines the strategic efforts to identify, understand, and confront the ideology that is the root challenge in a war of ideas against Jihad. And, as Bill West points out, it can also open the door to some unintended consequences for law enforcement……(FSM, 1 Aug 08)

Ending Londonistan

…It is against this backdrop that the true importance of the RUSI paper becomes clear. It asserts for the first time that the core problem is Britain's profound loss of confidence in itself. British society is fragmenting under the pressures of multiculturalism, which have paralyzed any attempt to draw a line in the sand against Islamist demands. Both at home and abroad, Britain has lost any shared understanding of the threats that must be faced and how to do so. Indeed, with its steady loss of the power of self-governance to the European Union, there is no longer any clear idea of where political responsibility lies. In short, the RUSI paper asserts that Britain's security is being put at greater risk from without because British democracy itself is at risk from within. In allowing the progressive fragmentation of British society and the weakening of its military and defense infrastructure, the government has left Britain open to the pincer movement of cultural colonization and terrorist attack. The only solution is for Britain to rediscover its historic identity, restore its power to rule itself, and reassert the mutual obligations between government and people. As such, the Prins and Salisbury paper should resonate not only within Britain but also within other Western countries struggling to balance immigration, assimilation, and identity.……(Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2008)

European Converts to Terrorism

Conversion to Islam among native Europeans is on the rise. Many converts live at peace within their native societies; some convert only for marriage, and reject neither contemporary culture nor Europe's Judeo-Christian values. A minority, however, embraces radical interpretations of Islam and can pose a security risk. The involvement of Muslim converts in recent terrorist attacks has raised concern in Europe about these "converts to terrorism."… For Islamist terrorists, the European convert is a prized recruit, at ease in society, cognizant of informal rules and opportunities, and able to move freely without arousing suspicion. Their citizenship enables them to travel freely under the terms of the European Schengen agreement and, in many cases, the U.S. visa waiver program.[17] Richard Reid, a British convert to Islam who attempted to blow up an airliner with explosives hidden in his shoes and boarded a flight to the United States under the visa waiver program, highlighted the threat of European converts to terrorism to both their own homelands and U.S. security. Short of requiring visas for British, French, and German passport holders, U.S. authorities have requested that airlines provide detailed passenger rosters for incoming flights to the United States. European carriers have followed suit...…(Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2008)

Tactical Hudna and Islamist Intolerance

…Over the course of history, hudna became the standard term to describe a cessation of hostilities during jihad. Muslims distinguished the hudna from other forms of disengagement, such as those applied to tribal feuds, clashes between city factions, rebellions against the monarch or his provincial governors, or fitna, sedition or civil strife. Fitna was the greatest fear of classical Muslim society, which aspired above all things for perfect order both under a caliph or sultan and under religious law as mediated by the ulema or religious scholars, and, more narrowly, the fuqaha or jurisprudents.[8] By being unaware of fitna, most journalists ignore something vital to the course of Islamic civilization and the development of Islamic thought. For all the greatness of their architecture, scholarship, and literature, traditional Islamic societies were prey to disintegration. Muslim societies lacked the stability of China. Western societies overcame such tensions by creating nation-states. This did not mean that either Chinese power or European states remained constant over time, only that they were remarkably stable when compared to Muslim dynasties—at least those that arose before gunpowder enabled leaders to retain control through sheer force……(Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2008)

July 2008

War of Ideas Department

James K. Glassman, the new undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, has launched a more aggressive program to counter Islamist extremism through a war of ideas. "The war of ideas is a very important aspect of the non-kinetic part of the war on terror," Mr. Glassman said in an interview this week. "In fact, it may be the most important aspect of the war on terror." Mr. Glassman's office is the lead federal agency in organizing both policy and programs designed to "push back against violent extremist ideology." Most of the focus is on al Qaeda and other radical Islamist groups. The war of ideas is supposed to be one of three equal components of the U.S.-led war on terrorism, after military operations and law enforcement and intelligence counterterrorism…….(Washington Times, 31 Jul 08)

Drilling in Afghanistan

…The truth is that Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Pakistan are just different fronts in the same war. The core problem is that the Arab-Muslim world in too many places has been failing at modernity, and were it not for $120-a-barrel oil, that failure would be even more obvious. For far too long, this region has been dominated by authoritarian politics, massive youth unemployment, outdated education systems, a religious establishment resisting reform and now a death cult that glorifies young people committing suicide, often against other Muslims. The humiliation this cocktail produces is the real source of terrorism. Saddam exploited it. Al Qaeda exploits it. Pakistan’s intelligence services exploit it. Hezbollah exploits it. The Taliban exploit it.  The only way to address it is by changing the politics. Producing islands of decent and consensual government in Baghdad or Kabul or Islamabad would be a much more meaningful and lasting contribution to the war on terrorism than even killing bin Laden in his cave….(New York Times, 30 Jul 08)

Terrorist promotes Islam in NYC subways

A leading critic of Islam says it's very ironic that a Brooklyn imam with ties to the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing would now be involved in a public relations campaign to promote Islam. A group known as the Islamic Circle of North America has paid $48,000 dollars for the new ad campaign known as the "Subway Project," scheduled to begin running on 1,000 New York City subway cars in September. According to the Fox News Channel, the group wants to inform people about Islam and "dispel common misconceptions about the religion." But the effort to plaster Islamic messages on subway cars has run into controversy because of the involvement of radical Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who is promoting the campaign…..(One News Now, 31 Jul 08)

Head of Islamic School Guilty Of Not Reporting Child Abuse

The director general of a controversial private Islamic school in Fairfax County has been found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of failing to report child abuse and fined $500.  Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, head of the Islamic Saudi Academy on Route 1 in the Mount Vernon area, was arrested last month by Fairfax police, who said Al-Shabnan had been informed of the possible sexual abuse of a 5-year-old student at the school. School authorities are required by law to report alleged child abuse within 72 hours.  Al-Shabnan was charged with misdemeanor counts of failing to report child abuse and obstruction of justice. He pleaded no contest July 24 to the failure to report charge, and Fairfax prosecutors agreed to dismiss the obstruction charge…..(Washington Post, 31 Jul 08)

Turkey’s Dilemma

Can democracy survive the closing of a major political party – the ruling political party in the country? Imagine if the Supreme Court had convened to discuss banning the Democratic Party. Something no less momentous is happening in Turkey this week. Turkey’s constitutional court convened last Monday to discuss charges that the Justice and Development Party (AKP), the ruling party in that country, should be closed down. The party is charged with trying to destroy Turkey’s secular government and impose Islamic law. Al-Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid estimates that the court should take “at least three to 10 days” to come to a decision.  Closing down political parties has long been a means by which Turkey’s highest court has protected the increasingly fragile secular system established in that country by Kemal Ataturk in the 1920s…..(Human Events, 31 Jul 08)

Afghan TV journalist is released

An Afghan television presenter, Mohammad Nasir Fayaz, who was arrested earlier this week has been released from detention, officials say. It is not yet known whether any conditions were attached to his release. Mr Fayyaz hosted a program on the private Ariana television station which broadcast allegations of corruption within the government. In turn, government ministers made corruption allegations against him….(BBC, 30 Jul 08)

Osama bin Laden, Bard of Terror

In Riyadh last March, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia decorated American Vice President Dick Cheney with the Kingdom’s Order of Merit. This gesture elicited hundreds of Internet postings from Arabs condemning the award as treachery and lamenting the pitiful state of leadership in the Arab world…At the same time, Osama bin Laden released two audio statements condemning Western and Israeli attacks on Muslims and reiterating the need for violent warfare to liberate occupied Muslim territories from the infidels. In terms of media strategy, the contrast between the leaders of the Arab countries and bin Laden could not be starker. On the one hand, Arab kings and presidents lack charisma, seem politically impotent and are rarely, if ever, on message with respect to the “big issue” concerns of the peoples of the Middle East. Bin Laden, however, is mesmerizing, framing the perceived frustrations of many Arabs in his use of classical Arabic, including the recitation of medieval-style poetry….(Daily Strategy, 30 Jul 08)

What Pakistan's Intelligence Ties Say About Ending Terrorism

…The CIA assessment specifically points to links between members of the spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, and the militant network led by Maulavi Jalaluddin Haqqani, which American officials believe maintains close ties to senior figures of Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The CIA has depended heavily on the ISI for information about militants in Pakistan...This is not new, but is useful when juxtaposed with the conclusions of the new and very useful Rand Corporation report on how to end terrorism. While the central argument of the study is to make police work and intelligence the backbone of the counterterrorism efforts, it also argues strongly for a greatly reduced U.S. military presence and overall reduced footprint abroad… The problem with that approach, particularly in Afghanistan and along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border is precisely that many of those who are classified as allies in combating radical Islamist are, in fact, not allies at all. The CIA’s often less than careful involvement with the ISI, and cooperation with local police and intelligence agencies simply provides information to the enemy.…..(Douglas Farah, 30 Jul 08)

Afghan government detains critical talk show host

Afghan intelligence agents detained a TV talk show host critical of the government, the president's spokesman confirmed Tuesday, accusing private media of coming under the influence of foreign countries. The government said in a statement that Nasir Fayaz, who hosted a weekly show called "Truth," made baseless accusations against two ministers and called for his prosecution. "The Cabinet decided that such people, and any other persons who are working in the media and are making baseless accusations, should be prosecuted,"….(AP, 29 Jul 08)

Islamic Front for Iraq Resistance Brigadier Refutes al-Qaeda’s Approach to Combating U.S. Occupation

A jihadi forum has posted an interview with a spokesman for the Islamic Front for Iraqi Resistance (al-Jabha al-Islamiya fi’l-Moqawama al-Iraqiya - JAMI), an Iraqi Sunni jihadi group (al-Boraq, July 4). The movement has a political wing and a military wing consisting of the Salah al-Din Ayyubi and Sayfullah al-Maslul Brigades (jaami.info). In a video released last December, JAMI claimed its focus was fighting occupation troops, not terrorism or the killing of other Iraqis (al-Jazeera, December 27, 2007).  A forum participant, nicknamed Jamjoum, posted the interview with Staff Brigadier Abu Baseer, the military spokesman of JAMI. Abu Baseer answered questions put to him by members of the jihadi website hanein.info. On the question of the Awakening councils, the Brigadier agrees the councils serve law and order, but opposes their collaboration with the occupiers: “The phenomenon of the Awakening councils is positive in some parts of Iraq and negative in others..…..(Jamestown, 29 Jul 08)

Damsels of Death

Four female suicide killers just murdered 57 people and wounded 300 others in Iraq. Many of their victims were on a religious pilgrimage. This should no longer surprise us. Like men, women are human beings and are therefore as close to the apes as to the angels. Thus, like men, women are as likely to nourish as to destroy…According to the U.S. Military, in the last five years in Iraq, 43 women carried out suicide bombings. Women hide their explosive belts and bombs under their flowing black abayas–one more reason that such outerwear should be banned in the West. Actually, Muslims kill more Muslims than anyone else does. This latest attack was apparently launched by Sunni Muslims against Shiite Muslims. It might be in the interests of Islam to ban such clothing which has been used to disguise both male and female terrorists…..(Front Page, 29 Jul 08)

Al-Qaeda Terrorist Accuses Saudi King of Trying to 'Spawn a New Religion'

In a video message posted on several Islamic websites, Afghanistan terrorist Abu Yahya al-Libi strongly criticized the recently-held inter-faith meeting that drew Islamic, Jewish, and Christian leaders to the city of Madrid. "The Prophet (Muhammad) ordered us to drive unbelievers from the Arabian Peninsula...Today, the Saudi royal family is destroying our Islamic tenets by showing Muslims it is possible to spread Christian principles. By sitting side by side in public, they are taking part in the Crusader campaign,” Libi added.....(Christian Post, 29 Jul 08)

King Abdullah's experiment

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had a good idea in convening an interfaith conference in the Spanish capital, Madrid, earlier this month. The meeting brought together some 200 representatives of the three monotheistic faiths - Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Representatives of several Asian religions also came, including Sikhs, Hindus and Taoists, as well as a swami who said he did not belong to any organized faith and asserted that religion divides rather than unites people…the Saudi king is putting more than his reputation on the line. Given the kingdom's history, King Abdullah may be gambling with his life.  Al Qaeda's campaign of violence, which largely caught Saudi security forces off guard, remains fresh in the minds of many people, not least among members of the Saudi royal family who were targeted by the extremists. Osama bin Laden, who has had his Saudi Arabian citizenship revoked, was highly critical of what he called the decadent lifestyle of the Saudi royal family.  The breaking point between bin Laden and the House of Saud apparently came after Saddam Hussein's troops invaded Kuwait in 1990. Fearing the Iraqis would continue their drive south and capture Saudi Arabia's oil wells, the Saudis turned to the United States for protection......(New York Times, 29 Jul 08)

Netherlands: Former MP Hirsi Ali seeks police protection in US

A court in The Hague has approved a request by Somali-born ex-MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali for witnesses to be heard in her claim for the Dutch state to pay for her security in the US, Dutch media reported on Tuesday.  The Dutch government stopped paying for Hirsi Ali's police protection after she moved to the US permanently last year. An outspoken critic of Islam and advocate of women's rights, Hirsi Ali had to live under police protection in the Netherlands after receiving death threats. She now works for a conservative US think-tank…..(AKI, 29 Jul 08)

Day of decision for Turkey over future of secular state

Turkey's highest court is to make the toughest decision in its 46-year history this week: 11 judges must decide whether to outlaw the ruling party and ban the President, the Prime Minister and 69 other elected officials, on the grounds that they pose a threat to the secular state. A decision against the party that has ruled for the past six years would be the nuclear option, bringing chaos to a country already accustomed to coups, economic crashes and domestic terrorism. The Constitutional Court of Turkey convened yesterday while the country was still recovering from a deadly double bombing in its largest city, Istanbul, that killed 17 people and injured more than 150…..(Independent, 29 Jul 08)

Ignorance about the Enemy's Ideology is the Problem

In fighting Jihad, America's greatest challenge remains understanding and confronting the ideology that provides the basis for Jihadist terrorism. Efforts to clearly define this enemy ideology recently have been undermined by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and the State Department in promoting a "terror lexicon" that recommends federal government employees avoid terms such as "jihad," "jihadist," "Islamist," "mujahideen," and "caliphate" when addressing issues involving terrorism. The argument made by the DHS, NCTC, and others is that the use of such terms will aid in the "recruitment" of Muslims to join terrorist organizations, or will alternatively provide "legitimacy" to religious aspects of terrorist efforts. However, this tactical approach to create a "terror lexicon" to ban such terms used in federal government terrorism reports and the 9/11 Commission report undermines the strategic efforts to identify, understand, and confront the ideology that is the root challenge in a war of ideas against Jihad. And, as Bill West points out, it can also open the door to some unintended consequences for law enforcement……(IPT, 29 Jul 08)

Yale’s Dhimmi Applicants

The National Council of Churches is boasting of its participation in Christian-Muslim dialogue at Yale Divinity School running July 28-31.  Hosting the lovefest is Yale Professor Miroslav Volf and his Reconciliation Program at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, who together organized last year’s Christian response to a manifesto by Muslim clerics addressed to Christians called “A Common Word Between Us and You.”   Volf and his Yale seminary colleagues persuaded several hundred clerics and academics to sign their responsive “Loving God and Neighbor Together: A Christian Response to ‘A Common Word Between Us and You.’”  The July Christian-Muslim dialogue at Yale is the first of several follow-ups to the supposedly profound exchange between ostensible representatives of the two faiths.  Other events in the coming months will convene in Britain, the Vatican, Washington, D.C., and Jordan.  While the original Muslim appeal in October 2007 came from mostly moderate clerics, it affirmed Islamic teachings, while appealing for conversation.  In typical fashion for accommodating Western clerics and academics, the Christian response opened with words of apology about Christians “sinning against our Muslim neighbors” in the Crusades of 1000 years ago, and then again today through “excesses” in the “war on terror.”…..(FrontPage, 28 Jul 08)

Egyptian Islamic Preacher 'Amr Khaled: Within 20 Years, Muslims Will Be Majority in Europe; Muslims in Europe Should Be "Ambassadors for Islam"

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian Islamic preacher Amr Khaled, which aired on Dream 2 TV on May 10, 2008. …..(MEMRI, 27 Jul 08)

Europe, Islam and Jihadism: establishing the distinctions

In my last European professional tour of June-July, I briefed and lectured Government officials, NGOs and European Union audiences in Rome, Berlin, Brussels, Paris and London. I will report on the main issues of discussions and areas of common interest in the near future. One of the hot issues of exchange has been the ability for Europeans (Government and public) to make a distrinction between the theology of Islam and the ideology of Jihadism. Although links have been established by the Jihadists themselves, especially in their indoctrination process, EU and local Government officials need to isolate the doctrinal political component from the theological web, for the prupose of drawing national security strategies. But the Jihadi lobby has been efficient in blurring the frontiers in the purpose of keeping authorities and the public at bay. This trend is now developing in the United States as well, particularly since the dissemination of the so-called "lexicon." The battle of ideas seems to be now taking place within the West, between two camps: those who want to isolate the ideology of Jihadism as a root of Terrorism and those who wish to camouflage it for a variety of reasons……(CI Centre Professor Walid Phares, 26 Jul 08)

Stifling Debate: Canadian Coalition for Democracies Study on "Islamophobia"…..(IPT, 26 Jul 08)

Debating About Islam - Part I

Once you know something about Islam and try to talk to others, you may find yourself in a debate. Here are some of the “standards”:

• CAN YOU READ ARABIC?.....

• WELL, THE CHRISTIANS DID.....

• I KNOW THIS MUSLIM AND HE SAYS.....

• I KNOW THIS MUSLIM AND HE IS A NICE MAN

• THAT IS NOT THE REAL ISLAM

• THEY DON’T REALLY BELIEVE THAT.

• I KNOW THIS MUSLIM AND HE IS NOT VIOLENT

• WHAT ABOUT THE VIOLENCE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT?

• IF ISLAM IS SO VIOLENT, HOW CAN IT BE SO SUCCESSFUL?........(Political Islam, 25 Jul 08)

Resisting Islamization

Al-Qaeda Commander: Islam Doesn't Distinguish Between American People, American Gov't – Both Are Infidels and At War with Islam ......(MEMRI, 24 July 08)

Michigan rep fights terrorism words ban

A Republican Michigan congressman is fighting a Bush administration ban on using words offensive to Muslims while describing terrorists. Rep. Peter Hoekstra offered an amendment last week to the 2009 Intelligence Authorization Act that would ban financing for any restriction on use of words such as "jihadist" and "Islamist." Fellow Republican Michigan Reps. Joe Knollenberg and Thaddeus McCotter, and Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, supported the amendment which was approved by a 249-180 vote in the House, The Detroit News reported Wednesday. Some analysts say the words inadvertently honor terrorists while they are considered slurs by moderate Muslims, who believe Islam provides no justification for terrorism. "I am sympathetic to the argument that if used inappropriately, the words can be counterproductive, but I find that the people who are criticizing this are very short on alternatives," Hoekstra said in response. "So how do they want us to describe al-Qaida and what they are involved with?" (UPI, 23 July 08)

Can Britain survive multiculturalism?

Britain's top judge says the nation should allow Islamic Sharia law. The head of the Church of England said something similar. Consequently, police dogs might have to wear booties when they search Muslim homes to avoid offending Muslims who believe dogs are unclean. And Britain's Home Secretary has decided Islamic terrorism should be re-named "anti-Islamic activity." In the modern British politically correct state, multiculturalism runs amok. And the government persecutes and suppresses British culture and tradition, while allowing hate and injustice within radical Islam to flourish. There is a real fear of Muslims in Britain that is far different than in America, and the headlines here sometimes make it look as if capitulation to Islam is inevitable. It's somewhat astonishing that in a nation of 60 million people, a few million Muslims could cause so much concern. Critics of the government say that's because the nation's politically correct leaders are still hesitant to tackle the issue head on. (CBN, 23 July 08)

Paving the way for 'soft jihad'

.....The soft jihad is gradualistic and law-abiding, but no less desirous of Islamic domination of the West than its violent counterpart. Soft jihad strategy exploits liberal discourse and weaknesses in our legal system to induce guilt about a largely mythical "Islamophobia."......(National Post, 23 July 08)

New Disclosures Tighten ISNA-Muslim Brotherhood Bonds

The Islamic Society of North America's (ISNA) roots in the Muslim Brotherhood have been strengthened by newly declassified FBI memos and from a second, highly unlikely source. The records, recently obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism through Freedom of Information Act requests, show that FBI agents investigated a parent organization to ISNA, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), during the mid 1980s. The FBI investigation concluded that the Muslim Brotherhood members who founded U.S.-based groups had risen to "leadership roles within NAIT and its related organizations," including ISNA, "which means they are in a position to direct the activities and support of Muslims in the U.S. for the Islamic Revolution." (IPT, 22 July 08)

Islam subway ads cause stir in New York

Ads promoting Islam are to be placed on New York subway cars in September, but a U.S. congressman finds people sponsoring the messages unacceptable. "I have no problem with the ad itself, but I have a very, very real problem with those behind it," Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican, said Tuesday. He is urging the Metropolitan Transit Authority to reject the ads. The campaign is to feature ads on 1,000 of the subway system's roughly 6,200 cars. The main sponsor is a grass-roots organization, Islamic Circle of North America. The ads, simple black-and-white panels, will feature key words or phrases about Islam on one side of the panel such as "Head Scarf?" or "Prophet Muhammad?" and the words "You deserve to know" along with the Web site address WhyIslam.org on the other side."The idea is to evoke certain thoughts in the mind-set of the person who is looking at the ads and get them to a point where they can reflect upon certain words that one could define as hot words or key words that get thrown around a lot but are not necessarily defined in the most proper context," said New York University's Imam Khalid Latif, a cleric who is promoting the project in a YouTube video created by the Islamic Circle. (CNN, 22 July 08)

Pro-Islam film to be released in response to 'Fitna'

A short film titled Beyond Love will soon be released by the Iranian-based NGO Islam and Christianity (IC), in response to the anti-Islamic Dutch film Fitna, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported. "The film aims to introduce the real Islam. It will be useful for those who want to get acquainted with Islam," said IC spokesman Muhammad Karimi. Earlier this year, Dutch filmmaker Geert Wilders produced Fitna, which claimed to have explored Quranic motivations for terrorism. The film was condemned by many in the West, as well as in the Muslim world. Al-Qa'ida even issued a religious decree against Wilders, while the Dutch government was quick to distance itself from the film. While IC claims to be an independent organization, Radio Netherlands quoted an Iranian journalist a few months ago as saying that it was created by the government itself. "It is an NGO of ‘convenience'; it is absolutely clear that this is a government initiative," said Mina Sa'adi, a journalist working for the independent Farsi-language website Shahrzad News. (Media Line, 22 July 08)

Islamists Launch PR ‘War’ Against Western Values

Radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir has launched a campaign to stop young Muslims being corrupted by Western “liberal values”.  The organization, which Tony Blair wanted to ban in Britain, has planned a summer PR campaign against Western “attacks” on the religion.  The move comes as Hizb ut-Tahrir’s British arm slammed Government plans to combat Islamic extremism and to take on the preachers of hate.  The group claims the Government is trying to build a compliant British Islam, and complains no other religion is subjected to such state interference….(Express, 20 Jul 08)

Hezbollah wages anti-U.S. war on-air

Wearing a bright blue veil carefully wrapped around her head, the TV host smirked as she listened to her guest's comments about the lack of U.S. strategies in the Middle East. "The U.S. administration has no policies," U.S. analyst and military expert Mark Perry said recently on the only English-language talk show on Hezbollah's TV station, Al-Manar. "It is not that it has bad intentions, but (that it) has no intentions."  The 33-year-old presenter, Zaynab Assafar, fumbled through her notes. In fluent and elegant English, she quickly asked about the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, the future of peace talks and the prospects of a strike against Iran. For the past year and a half, Assafar has been interviewing people such as Western intellectuals critical of Zionism, a former U.S. ambassador to the region and Irish peace activists. Her weekly program, "In Their Eyes," is part of Al-Manar's attempt to broaden its global reach after Hezbollah's war with Israel in the summer of 2006……(LA Times, 19 Jul 08)

France closes ranks against burka

France has taken a united stand against the burka and the veil with a leading Muslim minister in Nicolas Sarkozy's Government condemning head-to-toe Islamic dress as "a prison and a straitjacket".  Following a landmark appeal court ruling denying French citizenship to a Moroccan woman who wore a burka at the behest of her French husband, Urban Affairs Minister Fadela Amara said all Islamic coverings for women, including the popular head and shoulder veil or hijab were "symbols of oppression".  "The burka is a prison; it's a straitjacket," she told Le Parisien.  "It is not a religious insignia but the insignia of a totalitarian political project that advocates inequality between the sexes and which is totally devoid of democracy."…..(Australian, 18 Jul 08)

School for Scoundrels

Despite a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom that the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va., has continued to use textbooks that teach hatred of everyone not of their specific brand of faith, the U.S. State Department has yet to act to close down the school. Officials of the academy, which has about 1,000 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12, promised to excise passages in the textbooks that disparage Jews and Christians… There are at least two questions that should be asked. One: are they telling us the truth this time? Probably not. Two: why do we allow such schools in our country when nothing close to a Christian, Jewish or even secular school would be permitted in Saudi Arabia, whose government specifically treats as contraband any religious text other than the Koran and prohibits even private worship of any God but Allah?

Unfortunately, such schools and hate material are not limited to the United States……(Townhall, 18 Jul 08)

Analysis: Islam body for the UK

"Guarding the self against committing adultery and fornication is achieved by avoiding its causes and there can be no doubt that leaving eyes free to gaze and the mixing of men and women at work… are some of its major causes."  So says the late Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia in a booklet about women in the workplace available in Islamic bookshops around the UK. And it is this clash of ideas between a particular religious take on the world and the reality of modern Britain that is at the heart of what could become an extremely controversial government move. The Department for Communities is responsible for driving the "Prevent" package of measures in the government's counter-terrorism strategy……(BBC, 18 Jul 08)

Hello Dalai--Muslim-ology is Not Islam

The Dalai Lama said Sunday that "it's totally wrong, unfair" to call Islam a violent religion. This is not the first time that the Dalai Lama has spoken up to say that Islam is not violent. Where does he get his information? He bases his statements on what his Muslim friends have told him. For the Dalai Lama these Muslims represent the real Islam. They are not violent, and therefore, there is a peaceful Islam. The Dalai Lama does not recognize the existence of a civilization called Islam. Islam has a highly detailed political doctrine that determines 100% of what a Muslim does to kafirs (kafirs is what the Koran calls unbelievers). This political doctrine includes what being "nice and moderate" to kafirs really means…….(Political Islam, 18 Jul 08)

Muslim youths taught citizenship to avoid extremism

Muslim youths will be taught how to be good British citizens as part of a strategy to stop them turning into extremists, the Government said. The lessons will be held in mosque schools in several cities round the country from the beginning of the new term in September. Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said the initiative was designed to show youngsters there was no conflict between their religion and being British. It is one of a series of measures including the establishment of a new independent board of academic and theological experts and a group of community leaders to advise on local responses to tackling extremism…..(Telegraph, 18 Jul 08)

The Way Back from Islamism

…To address radicalization, one must undermine local grievances and counter the Islamist ideology. The Quilliam Foundation, which I helped establish, works to critique and refute this ideology wherever it is found. Quilliam advises government officials and articulates a counter-narrative so that Islamists cannot indoctrinate aggrieved populations. This counter-narrative asserts that Islamism is an irreligious, modern concept, and that extremists are falsely claiming to preach a religious, traditional ideology. The Quilliam Foundation is challenging not only HT, but all Islamist groups including al-Qaeda. These groups share Islamist ideology, but differ on tactics. Nabhani crystallized HT's ideology in 1953, laying out three core aims: to overthrow every Arab and Middle Eastern regime through a military coup, to replace them with caliphate, and to use that caliphate to conquer the rest of the world. Today you can hear these aims from al-Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri -- the same theory coupled with a tactical shift toward terrorism. It is critical for Muslims to develop a "Western" Islam. Historically, Islam has developed differently in various countries…….(Policy Watch #1390, Jul 08)

About The Way Back from Islamism

On July 11, 2008, Maajid Nawaz addressed a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute. Mr. Nawaz was a longtime member of the British leadership committee of Hizb al-Tahrir (HT), an international Islamist movement. In 2002, while studying in Egypt, he was arrested for his membership in the group and was imprisoned in Egypt's Mazra Tora prison until 2006. He returned to Britain upon his release and publicly announced his withdrawal from HT in 2007. Mr. Nawaz now directs the Quilliam Foundation, which describes itself as "a counter extremism think tank” which was “created by former activists of radical Islamist organizations."……(Counterterrorism Blog, 17 Jul 08)

CAIR’s Medical School Grievance Theater

When Iram Qureshi of Dublin, Ohio was dismissed from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine last month after having to repeat her first year and then failing two “systems” in her second year after she stopped attending classes, she did what any normal American Muslim woman would seem to do these days – she called the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and sued. Tragically, perhaps fatally one day for one of her future patients, a Kanawha County Circuit Court judge has granted her a temporary restraining order so that she could resume her “studies” and clinical rotation beginning this month while her dismissal appeal is reviewed, the Charleston Gazette reports. Curiously, the Charleston Gazette waits until half-way through their article before telling readers that the cause of her dismissal was poor academic performance, not religious discrimination…..(FrontPage, 17 Jul 08)

What Does 'Jihad' Really Mean?

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration has relied on terms like "jihadist" and "Islamic extremists." But jihad has very positive connotations in the Islamic world. It is akin to religious duty: when someone wants to better themselves, they embark on a jihad. Whether it's to quit smoking, pray more, and in some cases, fight off anyone preventing them from practicing their religion.  "Just like you wouldn't call Josef Stalin a hero of the revolution, you don't want to call Osama bin Laden a jihadist. He loves it," says Duncan MacInnes, a spokesman for the State Department's Counterterrorism Communication Center……(NPR, 17 Jul 08)

Dialogue will remove mistrust: King

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah yesterday hoped that the interfaith dialogue would help remove mistrust and suspicions from the minds of believers of different religions and boost world peace and unity. “A dialogue which emphasizes what we hold in common as human beings... will make us realize that values and principles uniting us are more than those dividing us,” he told Italy’s La Repubblica daily on the eve of the World Conference on Dialogue in Madrid. King Abdullah, who called the dialogue in order to end human suffering caused by wars and social and economic problems, will open the conference at Madrid’s Auditorium Hotel today in the presence of nearly 200 religious leaders from around the world.  “We are a nation with a sublime mission and a deeply rooted cultural heritage. Our religion urges us to embrace the principle of dialogue and to cooperate and coexist in peace with others, and promote understanding, peace, accord and good values among people,”…..(Arab News, 16 Jul 08)

Syria Bans Issue of Saudi Paper over Article Attacking Assad, Syrian Regime

A Saudi-Syrian media spat has emerged over the issue of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's attendance at the Union for the Mediterranean conference in Paris. On July 15, 2008, the liberal Arab e-journal Elaph reported that Syria had prevented the circulation of that day's issue of the Saudi-owned Al-Hayat daily in the country, because of an article that the Syrians found objectionable. The article, by Saudi writer Daoud Al-Shiryan, accused the Syrian regime of hypocrisy, on the one hand promoting revolutionary slogans while on the other attending the conference and sitting at the table with Israel……(MEMRI, 16 Jul 08)

Saudi King Denounces Extremism, Touts Islam's 'Moderation and Tolerance'

In a bid to counter Iran's influence and establish himself in the eyes of the West as the dominant figure in the Muslim world, Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is here to preach that "Islam is a religion of moderation and tolerance" to a group of bishops, rabbis, swamis, and other religious leaders whom he convened here yesterday…Although the themes of the conference — religious moderation and interfaith dialogue — are benign, almost banal, by Western standards, the king, merely by courting leaders of other faiths, risks a backlash at home, where Wahhabism, a severe form of Sunni Islam, is the religion of the land.  One Saudi in attendance noted privately that Abdullah's visit last year with Pope Benedict, the first meeting between a reigning Saudi king and a pope, was poorly received by large segments of the population in Saudi Arabia.  And the relatively limited attendance of top Muslim clerics in Madrid raises questions……(New York Sun, 17 Jul 08)

France denies citizenship to veiled Muslim woman

The ca