More Than One Life

Established to serve us
By a document now forgotten,
And populated by those
Whose vows are quite rotten,
Our government serves itself
And interests that have money,
While patriots are few
When the forecast is not sunny.

No longer in charge,
The people sent to the rear;
Of less we can be proud
And of more we have fear.
Many are officials
Taking bribes for their clout;
Making deals in back rooms,
Our leaders sell us out.

Bought for a price, and
For a promise later sold
Key to survival is liberty,
Worth far more than gold.
To value something else
Is for a nation of whores;
But placing liberty first,
A nation achieves far more.

Wrong can never be right
And right is all that will be left
As the people relearn their power
Over corruption that is deft.
With liberty as a goal,
A people can prosper and live,
As we learn that a patriot
Has more than one life to give.

First They Came For Our Arms

British General Thomas Gage had four regiments of troops and a difficult task to accomplish. The British colony of Massachussetts was troublesome, a center of anti-crown activity by "patriots". The surrounding countryside was controlled by patriot militias, and the population in Boston was restless and wanted to leave Boston. After all, conditions in the town were not good; the people were required to quarter British troops in their houses, and British troops who committed crimes were protected by military authorities.

On September 1, 1774, British forces had removed gunpowder and other military supplies from a magazine near Boston, and the colonists took the hint: arms would be a contentious issue.

As the situation grew worse in Boston, and Bostonians wanted to leave, General Gage realized he did not want them going and joining the patriots and militias in the countryside, so he offered them the option to leave the city, provided they left their weapons behind. They could deposit their arms at Faneuil Hall, and the arms would be returned to them when they came back to Boston.

Bostonians, wanting to leave the city, complied, and turned in their firearms and some swords.

This done, General Gage then refused them permission to leave Boston; he sent them home, and prepared his elite troops to seize patriot stocks of arms and munitions in two nearby towns.

The colonists had organized an intelligence network to watch the British movements in Boston. The signal was set in the Old North Church: two lanterns, indicating the British would move by sea. Seeing the signal, a colonist named Paul Revere slipped out into the countryside, quietly warning the militias that "the regulars are coming out".

Meanwhile, a force of mixed British units assembled in the middle of the night, and disembarked at Phipps Farm in Cambridge at midnight. After some time collecting their gear, they set out at 2:00 AM for Concord with orders to seize all colonial arms and munitions, but under strict instructions not to plunder or hurt the inhabitants.

As word spread that the British troops were coming for the patriots' weapons, the colonists realized this was it: they either used their weapons now, or there would never be a second chance, because once their arms were seized by the British, the colonists would be helpless before the crown's military governor.

As dawn broke, the British troops, tired from marching all night, began to approach Lexington, and found themselves facing dozens of colonial militiamen emerging from Buckman Tavern.

Both the colonial and the British commanders ordered their men to hold their fire, but despite this, at least one shot rang out, generally thought to have come from somewhere on the Colonial side.

That shot was heard around the world.

Oslo: Violent Rapes Committed by "Non-Western Immigrants"

Kind of old news, from Immigrants behind most cases of aggravated sexual assault, April 16, 2009:

The Oslo Police have over the past three years investigated 41 cases of aggravated sexual assault, which resulted in rape. All of them were carried out by non-western immigrants to Norway.

The police now urge that more efforts be put into preventive measures among men with immigrant background.

The police have investigated all reported cases of aggravated sexual assault over the past three years, and have gained a clear impression of the offenders:

Most of the rapists have a Kurdish or African background, NRK reports. The cases of aggravated sexual assults all have one thing in common, namely the use of gross violence.

This does not come as news to anyone who is familiar with the work of the blogger Fjordman (do a search), who often posts at Gates of Vienna (see sidebar), among other places.

What the news article doesn't tell you is that these immigrants are Muslims. This is essentially a sexual jihad against the infidel women of the dhimmi society.

Do an internet search and see what you come up with.

Also, from No social problems can excuse such a behavior, June 8, 2010:

The riots and the burning down of a school building in Rinkeby, west Stockholm has become high politics. Today the Minister for education, Jan Björklund and minister for integration and gender equality Nyamko Sabuni paid a visit to the troubled district.

The article addresses the violence, leaving out the fact that the perpetrators are Muslim immigrants. This aspect is brought out in the comments - which, to me, is a surprise, since the comments are moderated and this aspect tends to get covered up.

Sadly, I don't see how the Scandinavian countries are going to end the violence without rising up against their dhimmi overlords in government, who seem to have solid control over the media and the electoral process. It will get worse before it gets better.

Hopefully, one of my readers has a better understanding and can offer some insights?

Treasures in the Land of Az, Part 1

"R-e-s-p-e-c-t"...

Oh, sorry.

I'm starting yet another series, though I have many ongoing.

First, let's consider Bad Blood in Baku, by Thomas Goltz, June 11, 2010:

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN -- If I were still a journalist, I would have had juicy scoop last Saturday when I learned of the imminent but still unannounced arrival in Azerbaijan of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Gates had been tasked with hitting the reset button -- there are a lot of those in the former Soviet Union these days -- on Washington's increasingly problematic relationship with Baku.

I learned of the emergency visit when an old friend of mine called to say he knew I was in the Azerbaijani capital, and that his former boss, a U.S. intelligence officer, wanted to buy me a few beers and chat about my nearly 20-year hobby of reading tea leaves and goat entrails in the Land of Az.

"The American chargé d'affaires told me not to talk to you, but he is State Department and I am not," the official said -- I'm paraphrasing from memory here, but closely -- putting initial pleasantries out of the way. "I am here to set up the Gates visit tomorrow. We finally decided to give the Azerbaijanis something before this thing deteriorates any further." Then he sort of smirked while saying the following: "We frankly don't care about human rights or democracy-building, or Israel and Turkey, or peace in Karabakh or Georgia, or even Azerbaijani energy. There is only one thing we really care about right now, and that is Afghanistan."

I was not surprised, but had to ask:

"Afghanistan," he said, and then repeated the word.

Afghanistan.

Of course, we are thinking of Afghanistan, and Azerbaijan's role as a stop along the way to and from... and, to be sure, that is the context in which the article addresses it, as well. In fact, on page 2, the article makes the point bluntly:

"Our attitude is that Washington should stop thinking of Azerbaijan in terms of Afghanistan and start thinking of Azerbaijan in terms of Azerbaijan," my old pal Araz Azimov, now deputy foreign affairs minister, told me. "The official attitude as enunciated by the president is, 'We want respect.'"

But, a stop along the way to Afghanistan isn't the only treasure that the Land of Az has, is it? In fact, the word "Azerbaijan" was ādurbādagān in the Pahlavi geographical text Shahrestānihā i Erānshahr, translatable in modern Persian as "the treasury" or "the treasurer" - and treasures are abundant in Baku!

We now consider Azerbaijan Grapples with Growing Drug Addiction, dated February 22, 2007:

In the past decade, the official number of registered drug addicts has more than tripled -- from 6,000-7,000 drug addicts in 1996-1997, to almost 20,000 by 2006, according to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Health.

The interior ministry reports that every eighth crime committed in Azerbaijan in 2006 -- or some 2,309 registered offenses -- was related to drugs. Police seized 531 kilograms of various drugs that year, including 50 kilograms of heroin.

As an aside, drug abuse is only part of the problem. Drug addicts pay for their drugs through street crime. If you interdict the supply of, say, heroin, what happens to its price? And, if its price goes up due to the interdiction (supply and demand), what happens to street crime as addicts try to pay for it? Keep in mind, heroin is VERY addictive, and addicts will do whatever they have to do to get their fix....

By the way, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, drug abuse is only part of the problem. Another part is the offical corruption that accompanies the movement of drugs into a place where the drugs are in demand.... :)

One expert, however, believes that the true number of drug-related crimes -- and drug addicts -- is actually much higher.

Citing his own statistical analysis, Mazahir Effendiyev, chief of the United Nations Development Program Law Enforcement Unit in Baku, puts the real number of addicts in Azerbaijan at "not less than 300,000." The number would amount to roughly four percent of the country's estimated 2006 population of over 7.96 million.

Similarly, official statistics on drug-related crimes, he said, are only "ten percent of the real drug turnover." Effendiyev, who formerly worked as chief coordinator for the UN's drug prevention program for the South Caucasus, estimates that "at least 500 kilograms" of heroin were sold and used in Azerbaijan last year. "It is a big number which shows how serious the problem is."

One thing I've noticed is that, anywhere in south or southwest Asia where heroin addiction is rising dramatically in the past decade tends to be a place important in trafficking heroin from Afghanistan to markets in Russia or Europe... just a general rule-of-thumb, you know.

What does that tell us about Azerbaijan? Skipping down:

Meanwhile, the obstacles for access to illicit drugs are steadily decreasing. In Baku, large supplies of low-quality heroin have pushed prices down from the approximate $50-per-dose norm to as low as $3, said Dr. Shaig Sultanov, chief physician at Baku's #2 psychiatric hospital. "It has increased the number of potential addicts," he commented. "Not only rich people can afford [heroin] now."

That would make sense. Skipping down again:

Pure geography is one. Azerbaijan now features as part of drug smuggling routes running from Afghanistan to Europe via neighbor Iran and from Afghanistan to Russia via the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

Some observers point to reported police involvement in the drugs trade as minimizing the obstacles to supply by silencing public criticism. A 2004 op-ed by political analyst Zardush Alizade that accused the interior ministry's anti-narcotics unit of working with drug syndicates resulted in a lawsuit that makes "people afraid to openly speak about it," charged Ilgar Ibrahimoglu, head of the DEVAM human rights center and imam for Baku's Juma mosque community.

Geography and corruption....

Without questioning this imam's sincerity, I would like to point out that some imams don't have a problem with narcotics trafficking.

But what else is mixed in the brew, here? From Azerbaijan oil: a mixed blessing, by Yigal Schleifer, December 30, 2005:

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN
On the outskirts of the Azeri capital, one can find the starting point of the $4 billion Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, a marvel of 21st-century construction and engineering that has just begun to pump oil on a 1,093-mile journey from the Caspian Sea to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

On the other end of town, one can also find Veli Garacayli's crumbling cement apartment building, the product of 1960s-era Soviet construction and engineering. Hot water hasn't flowed through the radiators in a decade, after the boiler that serves the building and several others nearby broke down, and water for bathing and drinking is available only two or three hours a day.

Mr. Garacayli, a radio and television repairman who has been unemployed for the past five years, says the sorry state of his building and the ones around it makes him question whether any of the growing oil revenues in Azerbaijan - one of the world's most corrupt countries - will make their way to his neighborhood.

Now, a quick blurb from Echoing Moscow attack, Dagestan bombings underscore Russia's terrorism threat, by Fred Weir, March 31, 2010:

Moscow
Two suicide bombers, one disguised as a policeman, killed at least 12 people and injured 23 in attacks against Russian security forces in the turbulent southern republic of Dagestan Wednesday.

Bombings, murders, and gunfights between authorities and a rising extremist insurgency on Russia's seething southern flank have become so common in recent months that even Russian media might have scarcely noticed Wednesday's attacks, had it not been for a pair of devastating terrorists strikes in the Russian capital Moscow on Monday that killed 39 people and riveted the world's attention on Russia's growing terrorist problem.

"In the northern Caucasus, terrorist acts like this have been routine for the past several years," says Pavel Salin, an expert with the independent Institute of Political Conjuncture in Moscow.

You know, it seems to me Dagestan is on Azerbaijan's northern border....

Finally, Medvedev vows revenge on visit to Dagestan, from April 1, 2010:

Russia's pain is mixed with a thirst for vengeance as it continues to bury the remaining victims from Monday's Moscow metro attacks.

Earlier, while more funerals of the 39 dead were being held in the Russian capital, President Dmitry Medvedev made a surprise visit to the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan.

After holding a minutes silence with top security chiefs, Medvedev vowed to destroy the bombers.

"Recently we have had some success in the fight against terrorism," Russia's president said.

"We have succeeded in destroying the most hateful bandits. But apparently this is not enough. In any case we will find them all in good time, and we will punish them all like we did before. Only this way things will happen," he added.

That tougher tone follows yesterday's chilling video posting by Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov. He promised to bring war to Russia's streets after claiming he was behind Monday's bloodshed.

Medvedev's visit to the Caucasus comes amid growing unrest in the region and fears Islamist militants may attempt to launch a major bombing offensive in Russia’s heartland.

Overnight, a further two people were killed in Dagestan when their car blew up. It is thought they were carrying explosives. That came only hours after another 12 people died in a twin suicide attack in the north of the country.

A wayside stop on the way from the West to the War on Terror, a wayside stop on the way from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the heroin markets in the West, and a wayside stop on the way from Caspian Basin's petroleum reserves to an oil-thirsty world... with extremist Islamic holy warriors based in the region, waging war on nuclear-armed permanent members of the UN Security Council... yes, the Land of Az has many treasures indeed, and their mix is explosive.

The South Country, Part 2

In Part 1, we introduced the new rioting occurring in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan.

Here we take a look behind the headlines to see what is really going on.

At the end of the first post, I pointed out that the unrest was supposedly sparked by rival gangs.

Well, we now consider Kyrgyz South and Uzbek issue, dated June 9, 2010, by Sanobar Shermatova. The English is a little hard to decipher, since it is not the author's native language, so instead of quotes, I summarize.

Aibek Mirsidikov, known as "Black Aibek", was reputedly an organized crime boss. Government authorities recently announced that organized crime factions were becoming more active in southern Kyrgyzstan (which borders neighboring Uzbekistan in the Ferghana Valley, near the city of Osh); it appeared a mob war was breaking out.

When Black Aibek was murdered, the governor of Jalal-abad Oblast (the province north of Osh Province, where the city of Osh is located, and where the recent unrest has been occurring), Bektur Asanov, blamed the death on the mob war.

In Kyrgyzstan, the business and criminal worlds are closely linked, and organized crime provides important "services" to political factions in return for certain payments. Once the services are rendered, if the payment is not made on time, trouble ensues. A classic example of this was when the organized crime boss Ryspek Akmatbaev threatened to bombard the Kyrgyz White House if the previous president, Kurmanbek Bakiev (run out of Kyrgyzstan during violence this past April), did not pay what he owed to the underworld. It was scandalous as the people of Kyrgyzstan saw their president negotiating with a crime boss.

Black Aibek was an Uzbek. Another Uzbek, Kadyrzhan Batyrov, who is reputed to be a legitimate businessman with significant political clout, emerged as another popular leader in the community. Supposedly, Batyrov was losing power under exiled President Bakiev's regime, which was more closely tied to illegal business activities; when Bakiev left recently, Roza Otunbayeva became the interim president, and the situation began to reverse. So, in retaliation, Black Aibek blamed Batyrov for burning the houses of the ex-president and his relatives; these allegations of Kyrgyz suffering violence at the hands of Uzbeks had the anticipated incendiary effect, igniting the most recent round of ethnic violence.

The unrest that resulted in Bakiev's departure and Otunbayeva's accession to the interim presidency has, of course, been blamed on Russian intelligence and the CIA, depending upon who you listen to.

An excellent article by STRATFOR blames it on Moscow, with excellent analysis of the rationale that would lead to the Kremlin's involvement. I present here only an excerpt, and very highly recommend that you read the article, Kyrgyzstan and the Russian Resurgence, in its entirety.

Central Asia largely comprises a massive steppe of more than a million square miles, making the region easy to invade. The one major geographic feature other than the steppe are the Tien Shan mountains, a range that divides Central Asia from South Asia and China. Nestled within these mountains is the Fergana Valley, home to most of Central Asia's population due to its arable land and the protection afforded by the mountains. The Fergana Valley is the core of Central Asia.

To prevent this core from consolidating into the power center of the region, the Soviets sliced up the Fergana Valley between three countries. Uzbekistan holds the valley floor, Tajikistan the entrance to the valley and Kyrgyzstan the highlands surrounding the valley. Kyrgyzstan lacks the economically valuable parts of the valley, but it does benefit from encircling it. Control of Kyrgyzstan equals control of the valley, and hence of Central Asia's core.

Moreover, the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek is only 120 miles from Kazakhstan's largest city (and historic and economic capital), Almaty. The Kyrgyz location in the Tien Shan also gives Kyrgyzstan the ability to monitor Chinese moves in the region. And its highlands also overlook China's Tarim Basin, part of the contentious Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

Given its strategic location, control of Kyrgyzstan offers the ability to pressure Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China. Kyrgyzstan is thus a critical piece in Russia's overall plan to resurge into its former Soviet sphere.

If it is true that Russia saw Kyrgyzstan getting too close to the West under Bakiev, and if it's true that Otunbayeva is Moscow's woman in Bishkek, then allegations that Washington is behind the current unrest might make sense. The violence is allegely "clearly directed"; from Azimbek Beknazarov: Unrest in the south of Kyrgyzstan has well defined interethnic character and is clearly directed, dated June 11, 2010:

"The unrest in the 'south capital' of Kyrgyzstan has well defined interethnic character and is clearly directed", stated the Deputy Interim Leader, Curator of force structure Azimbek Beknazarov, who is in Osh city at the moment.

However, don't for a moment think that it ends with factionalism and strategic geopolitical considerations; Kyrgyzstan is just one of the many places where control of the world's heroin industry is being decided; but, more on that later.

For now, I suggest the following links for further information, though I do not necessarily endorse the information or conclusions to be found there:

CIA PUT ROZA INTO POWER? OIL, HEROIN, AIR BASES AND BANKERS IN KYRGYZSTAN

CIA SEEKS CHAOS IN KYRGYZSTAN?

more unrest in Kyrgystan follows hot on the heels of NATO visitor

The South Country, Part 1

An article appeared just a little while ago about renewed trouble in Kyrgyzstan, entitled Ethnic riots sweep Kyrgyzstan, govt begs for help by AP writers SASHA MERKUSHEV and LEILA SARALAYEVA.

OSH, Kyrgyzstan – Ethnic riots wracked southern Kyrgyzstan on Saturday, forcing thousands of Uzbeks to flee as their homes were torched by roving mobs of Kyrgyz men. The interim government begged Russia for troops to stop the violence, but the Kremlin offered only humanitarian assistance.

At least 75 people were reported killed and nearly 1,000 wounded in the violence spreading across the impoverished Central Asian nation that hosts both U.S. and Russian air bases.

Much of its second-largest city, Osh, was on fire Saturday and the sky overhead was black with smoke. Gangs of young Kyrgyz men armed with firearms and metal bars marched on minority Uzbek neighborhoods and set homes on fire. Stores were looted and the city was running out of food.

"It's a real war," said local political leader Omurbek Suvanaliyev. "Everything is burning, and bodies are lying on the streets."

Those driven from their homes rushed toward the border with Uzbekistan, and an Associated Press reporter there saw the bodies of children trampled to death in the panicky stampede. Crowds of frightened women and children made flimsy bridges out of planks and ladders to cross the ditches marking the border.

Interim President Roza Otunbayeva acknowledged that her government has lost control over Osh, a city of 250,000, even though it sent troops, armor and helicopters to quell the riots. Violence spread to the nearby city of Jalal-Abad later Saturday.

"The situation in the Osh region has spun out of control," Otunbayeva told reporters. "Attempts to establish a dialogue have failed, and fighting and rampages are continuing. We need outside forces to quell confrontation."

Otunbayeva asked Russia early Saturday to send in troops, but the Kremlin said it would not meddle into what it described as Kyrgyzstan's internal conflict.

A snip from Kyrgyz leader asks Russia to restore order in Osh, dated June 12, 2010:

Ethnic tensions

Kyrgyz TV reported that the country's borders with Tajikistan and China have been closed because of the unrest.

According to local reports, the violence broke out between rival gangs and developed into gun battles late on Thursday.

Riots and looting followed.

Rival gangs....

Now, I wonder what that is all about.

Sneaking Sharia, Al-Taqiyya, and the Infidel West

An excerpt from Rethinking Islamism III, by Sholto Byrnes, June 11, 2010:

Secondly, the majority of commenters prove my point by focusing on the most extreme forms of sharia - which as I have said, many Muslims feel to be perversions - and concluding that that's all it is. They don't seem to be remotely open to the possibility that it could vary in any way.

Thirdly, what I find disturbing is not just this identification of sharia solely with what happens in Saudi Arabia, for instance, but the sense that these commenters actively wish that to be the only available version. Given the popularity of Islamist parties, some of which have already won freely fought elections, such as the AKP in Turkey and Hamas in Palestine, and the fact that more would be sure to do so if some of the Middle Eastern autocracies loosened their grip, these commenters must foresee very bleak times ahead.

My comments at the site:

Early Light
11 June 2010 at 16:49
The trouble is, per an agreement reached centuries ago between the family of Saud and that guy Wahhab, Saudi Arabia is today using its petrodollars to build new mosques and to send preachers and propaganda to old mosques throughout the House of War, as they call the infidel world. Many of the world's Muslims may be against this, but this is the trend that is winning - the most extreme forms of Islam are taking over, killing not just infidels, but Muslims who aren't radical enough, making takfir out of them. So, what happens in Saudi Arabia is disproportionately important in the world. Beyond that, Deobandi Islam from South Asia is an ongoing threat as well, not just in Pakistan, but in the UK, which has a large community of Pakistani descent.

The problem is not that I do not understand Islam; the problem is that I understand it rather well. It is an ideology of armed conquest, and those good people in the Islamic world who do not go along with this imperialistic program are either conspicuously silent or risk being killed as takfir apostates should they speak out; the result is that the very worst of the Islamic world is rising to the top, hijacking communities of Muslims that have traditionally been peaceful, and using these communities to hijack the rest of the world.

Early Light
11 June 2010 at 16:53
By the way - any form of Islamic law that is accepted in a country, regardless of how innocuous it may seem, is just a leak in the dyke that keeps back the flood of medieval barbarism.

Here is an excerpt from Rethinking Islamism II, dated June 8, 2010:

As is sadly so often the case, the nuances in the lecture Rowan Williams delivered at the Royal Courts of Justice in February 2008 failed to have any impact on those whose closed minds alit on the word "sharia" and decided he was talking nonsense yet again. In fact, Dr Williams addressed this point very early on when he quoted Tariq Ramadan's chapter on sharia in his book Western Muslims and the Future of Islam.

"In the west," writes Ramadan, currently professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford, "the idea of sharia calls up all the darkest images of Islam . . . It has reached the extent that many Muslim intellectuals do not dare even to refer to the concept for fear of frightening people or arousing suspicion of all their work by the mere mention of the word."

The example of Saudi Arabia undoubtedly has much to do with this. Yet it is important to stress that to look at that country and then assume that its version of sharia is the only one, or the one to which Muslims all secretly aspire, would be akin to holding up a vision of Torquemada's Inquisition and concluding that this was what real Christianity was. It is unrepresentative and, many would argue, a perversion.

"Barbarism"

Equally important is that the punishments which cause the greatest outcry -- flogging, stoning, etc -- come under the hudud laws, which are implemented in Saudi Arabia and were introduced by General Zia ul-Haq in Pakistan in 1979, but are the exception, not the rule, in most Muslim countries.

They are, in fact, an embarrassment to the many Muslims who consider them barbaric. So when Ramadan called for a moratorium on corporal punishment, stoning and the death penalty in the Islamic world in 2005, some non-Muslims criticised him for not going further. Why didn't he say the hudud laws should just be discarded or repealed?

He explained this by pointing out that most of the authorities "are of the opinion that these penalties are on the whole Islamic [because of textual references] but that the conditions under which they should be implemented are nearly impossible to re-establish. These penalties, therefore, are 'almost never applicable'." He later declared that "Islam is being used to degrade and subjugate women and men in certain Muslim-majority societies in the midst of collusive silence and chaotic judicial opinions on the ground". The present-day use of hudud, therefore, is clearly a misuse of sharia.

But Ramadan provides further explanation for why the simplistic view of sharia is wrong. He has written of "the fundamental distinction that should be established between timeless principles" -- "sharia as a way towards justice", as he puts it -- "and contingent models". In other words, to reduce the whole of sharia to a detailed and specific set of laws, none of which leaves room for interpretation or reform, is, in his opinion, to miss the point.

"The concern should not be to dress as the Prophet dressed," he writes, "but to dress according to the principles (of decency, cleanliness, simplicity, aesthetics, and modesty) that underlay his choice of clothes . . . It really is a way, a way toward the ideal."

My comment:

Early Light
11 June 2010 at 17:13
To me, Professor Tariq Ramadan is a fountain of al-taqiyya. Did Mohammed himself not promise peace to Ka'b bin al-Ashraf and Usayr ibn Zarim, then slaughter them when they let their guard down? Did Mohammed himself not say that war is deception? Why should we trust these guys whose religion advocates lying when lying is convenient to further Islam? Why should we believe them when they tell us Islamic law is not that bad, when in fact Islamic Law institutionalizes discrimination against women, against religious minorities, and so on? The fact that all aspects of Islamic law have not been universally enforced in all places subject to sharia in no way negates the threat Islamic law poses.

Please go to Rethinking Islamism I: Turkey -- friend or foe?, Rethinking Islamism II and Rethinking Islamism III, read the whole story, and join in the discussion.

Sexual Jihad - Oh, What a Feeling!

This one is particularly infuriating.

First, we consider an excerpt from Inside Iran's sex slave industry, by D.M. Murdock, dated June 6, 2010 (see the original for more information and links which I did not reproduce):

One need only look at images preceding the Islamic fundamentalist takeover of Iran in 1979 to see how poorly women have fared in the past three decades under what some Iranians consider a criminal occupation of their ancient nation. Says Iranian-American writer Amil Imani, for example:

"Under the late Shah, Iranian women were the most respected females in the entire Muslim world. These thugs who are currently running my native country are not Iranians but packs of Muslim wolves who are simply following the examples of the prophet of Islam, Muhammad.

"This misogynist religion of Allah is custom-made for the savage male. A faithful follower of Allah is allowed to have as many as four permanent wives—and replace any of them at any time he wants—as well as an unlimited number of one-night or one-hour-standers that he can afford to rent. But, woe unto a woman if she even has a single love affair with another man. Nothing less than death by stoning is her just punishment."

The article then goes on to quote, with emphasis, the work of Professor Donna M. Hughes of the University of Rhode Island. I reproduce an excerpt of Professor Hughes' work here (see also this link):

A measure of Islamic fundamentalists' success in controlling society is the depth and totality with which they suppress the freedom and rights of women. In Iran for 25 years, the ruling mullahs have enforced humiliating and sadistic rules and punishments on women and girls, enslaving them in a gender apartheid system of segregation, forced veiling, second-class status, lashing, and stoning to death.

Joining a global trend, the fundamentalists have added another way to dehumanize women and girls: buying and selling them for prostitution. Exact numbers of victims are impossible to obtain, but according to an official source in Tehran, there has been a 635 percent increase in the number of teenage girls in prostitution. The magnitude of this statistic conveys how rapidly this form of abuse has grown. In Tehran, there are an estimated 84,000 women and girls in prostitution, many of them are on the streets, others are in the 250 brothels that reportedly operate in the city. The trade is also international: thousands of Iranian women and girls have been sold into sexual slavery abroad.

The head of Iran's Interpol bureau believes that the sex slave trade is one of the most profitable activities in Iran today. This criminal trade is not conducted outside the knowledge and participation of the ruling fundamentalists. Government officials themselves are involved in buying, selling, and sexually abusing women and girls.

Please familiarize yourself with the work of Professor Hughes, as she has she has done a great deal of solid research and has made tremendous efforts to get the truth out on an incredibly important subject, the trafficking and exploitation of women.

Sexual jihad, whether against fellow Muslims or against kuffar, is neither new nor unusual in Islam.

Here's a transcript of a MEMRITV segment entitled Egyptian Lawyer Nagla Al-Imam Suggests Arab Men Should Sexually Harass Israeli Women and Declares: Leave the Land So We Won't Rape You, from October, 2008:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian lawyer Nagla Al-Imam, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on October 31, 2008.

Interviewer: Egyptian lawyer Nagla Al-Imam has proposed that young Arab men should sexually harass Israeli girls wherever they may be and using any possible method, as a new means in the resistance against Israel.

[...]

Interviewer: We have with us the lawyer Nagla Al-Imam from Cairo. Welcome. What is the purpose of this proposal of yours?

Nagla Al-Imam: This is a form of resistance. In my opinion, they are fair game for all Arabs, and there is nothing wrong with...

Interviewer: On what grounds?

Nagla Al-Imam: First of all, they violate our rights, and they "rape" the land. Few things are as grave as the rape of land. In my view, this is a new form of resistance.

Interviewer: As a lawyer, don't you think this might expose Arab youth to punishment for violating laws against sexual harassment?

Nagla Al-Imam: Most Arab countries... With the exception of three or four Arab countries, which I don’t think allow Israeli women to enter anyway, most Arab countries do not have sexual harassment laws. Therefore, if [Arab women] are fair game for Arab men, there is nothing wrong with Israeli women being fair game as well.

Interviewer: Does this also include rape?

Nagla Al-Imam: No. Sexual harassment... In my view, the [Israeli women] do not have any right to respond. The resistance fighters would not initiate such a thing, because their moral values are much loftier than that. However if such a thing did happen to them, the [Israeli women] have no right to make any demands, because this would put us on equal terms – leave the land so we won't rape you. These two things are equal.

[...]

I don’t want young Arab men to be interrogated. I want these Zionist girls with Israeli citizenship to be expelled from our Arab countries. This is a form of resistance, and a way of rejecting their presence.

Also, watch the vid at WalidShoebat.com.

Let's go back a little farther, and consider excerpts from an article on Beslan (2004) from Jihad Watch, entitled Sexual Terror: The Untold Stories of Beslan Jihad, by Deborah Schurman-Kauflin, Ph.D, dated November 18, 2008:

There are predators in wait lurking everywhere searching for unsuspecting victims. If a person has a proclivity or a secret desire, that inclination can easily come out if an opportunity arises. And that is what happened at Beslan. The terrorists immediately killed the men because they wanted no resistance for their plans. Then, when they saw the helpless girls in front of them, the temptation became too much. Their perverse dreams came true.

Beslan was clearly a sexual homicide/sexual suicide. That is, the offenders wanted more than simple terrorism. Some of the terrorists at Beslan were hired guns who did not plan on dying that day. They had not thought things through and did not realize that the Russians would not let them out alive. Then, once they were inside, and the realization dawned on them, plans changed.

Things had deteriorated when the media reported that there were only 354 victims. Wanting to have a dramatic impact, the terrorists exploded with anger. There were 1200 victims, and the Russians were trying to down play the incident. The terrorists said they would have to eliminate victims to fit with what the media had reported. Their demeanor worsened, and they got really mean.

It was then that they began raping the girls. They wanted sex as they killed, and this is sexual homicide. A sex killer gets excited when he thinks about forcing himself inside an unwilling victim, but the rape itself does not produce the ultimate excitement. It is the rape followed by the killing that is arousing. This is what happened at Beslan.

One by one, females were targeted. The sex killers looked for the perfect victims, and after zeroing in, they grabbed and disrobed the little girls in the middle of the gym. There were muffled cries as the girls were humiliated in front of everyone. They were stripped, raped, and sodomized by several men. Not content to simply rape, the terrorists used their guns and other objects to penetrate the screaming victims while the other hostages were forced to watch. And the terrorists laughed. They laughed as they violated the children and made them bleed. What few people know is that some of the girls died as a result of being raped with objects. The internal damage was so severe that without immediate medical attention, the girls bled to death. Those who managed to survive required extensive reconstructive surgery and painful recoveries.

But raping the girls was not enough for the deviants who had entered the school. The terrorists beat the other children. In fact, beatings took place regularly, and as they pummeled the little ones, the terrorists smiled and laughed. It was said that they would strike a child and then watch the child cringe. When the youngsters recoiled, their captors laughed. This says the offenders enjoyed inflicting the suffering. They wanted their victims to suffer. Such behavior is sadistic. Bringing others pain brings the sadist pleasure. And the terrorists tortured the victims in many ways.

Go to the link if you want to read the rest.

How was Islam originally? Here are Islam's rules concerning female captives (I have reformatted this extensively);

FROM THE QURAN - 70:22-30

"Not so the worshippers, who are steadfast in prayer, who set aside a due portion of their wealth for the beggar and for the deprived, who truly believe in the Day of Reckoning and dread the punishment of their Lord (for none is secure from the punishment of their Lord); who restrain their carnal desire (save with their wives and their slave girls, for these are lawful to them: he that lusts after other than these is a transgressor..."

This verse shows that Muslim men were allowed to have sex with their wives (of course) and their slave girls.

FROM THE QURAN - 23:5,6

"...who restrain their carnal desires (except with their wives and slave girls, for these are lawful to them..."

Again, Muslim men were allowed to have sexual relations with their wives and slave girls.

FROM THE QURAN - 4:24

"And all married women are forbidden unto you save those captives whom your right hand possess. It is a decree of Allah for you." (Muhammad Pickthall's English translation of the Quran).

This verse is one verse out of a long passage dealing with who Muslim men can marry or have sexual relations with. The phrase "captives whom your right hand possess", means the slave girls Muslim men own.

Note also that this passage deals with more than just marriage. In Sahih Muslim volume 2, #3432, the background context for this Quranic verse is given. It relates to the events at Autus, and it permitted the Muslim men to have sex with their female slaves.

FROM THE QURAN - 33:50

"Prophet, We have made lawful to you the wives whom you have granted dowries and the slave girls whom God has given you as booty;..."

This verse is for Muhammad. Supposedly, God allows Muhammad to have sex with his slave girls.

Brutal rape, sadistic torture, sex slaves and forced prostitution, murder... this is how the Religion of Peace treats women. The example was set by his worshipfulness, Satan's prophet Mohammed, and the world is full of sick scum who are more than happy to immitate him.

(Where's Dirty Harry when you need him?)