MIDDLE EAST NEWS & CONCERNS
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Welcome to our Middle East News & Concerns Section
Washington, DC
November 20, 2007
Announcement of Annapolis Conference
(Website Notes: BUSH & RICE to PRESS FORWARD WITH PALESTINIAN STATE in JUDEA, SAMARIA & GALILEE)
Announcement of Annapolis Conference
US. Department of State - Official Transcript - November 21, 2007 - On November
27, the United States will host Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, Palestinian
Authority President Abbas, along with the Members of the
Quartet, the Members of the Arab League
Follow-on Committee, the G-8, the permanent members
of the UN Security Council, and other key
international actors for a conference at the U.S. Naval
Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Secretary Rice will host a dinner the
preceding evening here in Washington, where President Bush will deliver remarks.
President Bush and the Israeli and Palestinian leaders will deliver speeches to
open the formal conference in Annapolis.
The Annapolis Conference will signal broad international support for the Israeli
and Palestinian leaders' courageous efforts, and will be a launching point for
negotiations leading to the establishment of a
Palestinian state and the realization of Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Those invited to attend the conference are:
United States
Israel
Palestinian Authority
Algeria
Arab League Secretary General
Bahrain
Brazil
Canada
China
Denmark
Egypt
EU Commission
EU High Rep
EU Pres Portugal
France
Germany
Greece
India
Indonesia
Iraq
Italy
Japan
Jordan
Lebanon
Malaysia
Mauritania
Morocco
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Poland
Qatar
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sudan
Sweden
Syria
Quartet Special Envoy Tony Blair
Tunisia
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
UNSYG
Yemen
Observers:
IMF
World Bank
2007/1027
--------------------------
CRISIS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Senior Iranian Official Urges Muslims To Help Arm Hizballah
August 1, 2006 -RFERL- The head of Iran's influential Guardians Council, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, today urged
Muslim nations to arm Hizballah against Israel, according to ISNA student news agency.
Jannati said he considers it the duty of Muslims to give Hizballah and the Lebanese weapons, medicine, and food, as well as publicity and political and financial support.
Iranian leaders have rejected Israel's accusations they are supplying Hizballah with money and weapons.
Foreign Minister In Beirut
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki today continued his visit to Beirut with a meeting with Lebanese President Emil Lahud.
The two were expected to focus on the conflict between Israel and Lebanese Hizballah guerrillas.
Later, Mottaki is due to meet Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri.
On July 31, Mottaki called for an immediate cease-fire in the Israeli-Hizballah hostilities and criticized the UN Security Council's failure to stop the crisis.
"We are disappointed in the failure of the [UN] Security Council to support the Lebanese people during the last three weeks of [Israeli] aggression," Mottaki said.
While in Beirut, Mottaki also met French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, who has also been talking with Lebanese politicians close to Hizballah.
Nuclear Issue
The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, today described the July 31 UN Security Council resolution ordering his country to freeze sensitive nuclear activities by the end of August as "worthless."
State-controlled media quote Haddad-Adel as criticizing the Security Council for feeling threatened by Tehran's nuclear program, while failing to strongly condemn the recent killings of Lebanese civilians -- mostly women and children -- by Israel in Qana on July 30.
IRAN PLAYING KEY ROLE IN ISRAEL-LEBANON CRISIS
By Bill Samii
RFERL- JULY 21/06 - As the conflict initiated by Hizballah's seizure of two Israeli soldiers and killing of another eight in a cross-border raid on July 12 continues, many observers are voicing concern that other regional actors -- notably, Iran and Syria -- will be drawn into the conflict.
Iran has warned that it will respond if Israel attacks Syria. Realistically, however, Iran and Syria have been involved with this conflict from the outset because they are the main outside sponsors of Hizballah. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton alluded to this relationship on July 14 at the UN Security Council in New York. "No reckoning with Hizballah will be adequate without a reckoning with its principal state sponsors of terror," Bolton said.
Israel Points Fingers At Tehran
Within hours of Israeli retaliation for the raid and commencement of efforts to recover its soldiers, Israeli officials began assigning some responsibility for the Hizballah attack to Iran.
"There is an axis of terror and hate, created by Iran, Syria, Hizballah, and Hamas that wants to end any hope for peace," said Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry website.
Major General Udi Adam, chief of the Israeli Defense Forces' Northern Command, added: "Hizballah, which is a terror organization, operates from inside Lebanese soil with Iran's assistance and financial aid," Jerusalem's Channel 2 television reported. "Iran signed a defense treaty with Syria not too long ago, which is why they are all one single package."
"We know for a fact, and you know it too, that Iran supports these organizations," Adam asserted, while also assigning some blame to Lebanon's government.
Tehran Talks Tough
Iranian reaction was not immediately forthcoming. President Mahmud Ahmadinejad had been touring East Azerbaijan Province for several days, where he gave several speeches excoriating Israel.
"There are also some countries that claim to be democracies and supporters of freedom and human rights but which keep silent when this regime [Israel] bombs Lebanon in front of their eyes and slaughters people in their houses," Ahmadinejad said in Sarab on July 13, state television reported. "They keep silent and they support murderers with their silence."
Countries that stay silent will be viewed as Israel's "accomplices," he said, and will be judged accordingly. In Tehran the same day, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani and Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi condemned Israeli actions, IRNA reported.
As hostilities entered their second day on July 13, the Israeli Foreign Ministry voiced concern that its missing soldiers will be sent to Iran.
"We also have specific information that Hizballah is planning to transfer the kidnapped soldiers to Iran," the ministry's statement said, according to the government's press office.
Although Iran has rejected the possibility that the Israelis will be transferred there, such speculation has historical echoes. Israeli airman Ron Arad, who was shot down over Lebanon in 1986, was reportedly sent to Iran. It is also believed that William Buckley, the Central Intelligence Agency's Beirut chief of station, who was taken hostage in 1984, was sent to Iran for interrogation. He was tortured to death.
The same July 13 Israeli government statement added that Iran is Hizballah's "main benefactor" and provides "funding, weapons, and directives."
"For all practical purposes, Hizballah is merely an arm of the Tehran jihadist regime," the Israeli government asserted.
The statement argued that Iranian and Syrian support to groups like Hizballah, Hamas, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is ideologically driven, but also serves as a diversion from other international issues.
A Long History Of Ties between Hizballah and Hamas with IRAN
Some Iranian connections with Hizballah and Hamas are well documented. Larijani was in Damascus on July 12 and, according to KUNA, he met with Hamas leader Khalid Mishaal and leading figures from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, and other groups. He was to meet with a Hizballah delegation, KUNA added, but the Lebanese could not come.
Representatives from all these groups participated in a conference in Tehran in April, and they participated in similar events in Tehran in 2001 and 2002. Furthermore, they met with Ahmadinejad when he visited Damascus in January 2006, and they frequently meet with Iranian officials in the Syrian capital and travel to Iran.
Tehran has never tried to hide its support for these groups, which it views as legitimate resistance movements, and it has taken the lead in trying to raise funds for the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.
Among all these groups, Tehran's relationship with Hizballah is the closest. Iranian officials had a leading role in the creation of Hizballah in the early 1980s, and the organization's ideology is based on the Iranian theocratic system of Vilayat-i Faqih. Although it has never renounced its platform of creating an Islamist government similar to Iran's, Hizballah now operates within the Lebanese political system, with its members running for office and serving in the cabinet and the legislature.
A visitor to the Hizballah press office in southern Beirut will see pictures of the founder of Iran's Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and of the country's current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Travelers in other predominantly Shi'ite parts of Lebanon will note the numerous posters of these Iranian clerics as well. Hizballah hospitals and schools continue to receive funds from Iran's Martyrs' Foundation.
The U.S government, which classifies Hizballah as a terrorist organization, has asserted that Iran provides Hizballah with funding and weapons. Press reports from September 2002 note U.S. claims that Iran provided surface-to-surface rockets to Hizballah, and there are repeated allegations that Tehran provides Hizballah with millions of dollars annually.
Tehran dismisses such accusations, saying it supports Hizballah only with moral and political backing.
Hizballah has repeatedly denied, furthermore, that it is directed by the Iranian government. Most recently, on July 15, Mahmud Qamati, deputy chairman of the Hizballah Political Council, told Al-Jazeera: "We would like to confirm today that the Iranians or Syrians have nothing at all to do with the actions of the resistance in Lebanon, or with the confrontation of the Israeli aggression." He said such allegations are meant to pressure the two countries to force Hizballah to disarm, as called for by UN Security Council Resolution 1559.
Israeli sources claimed on July 15 that an Iranian C802 shore-to-ship missile that was operated by Iranians struck an Israeli Navy vessel off the Lebanese coast. The Iranian Embassy in Beirut denied on the same day that any of the country's military personnel are in Lebanon, Al-Alam television and the Lebanese National News Agency reported. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi denied on July 16 that Iranian missiles were used.
The UN Weighs In
Iran's support for Hizballah on Lebanon concerns the international community. A UN report in April said the cooperation of Iran and Syria is needed to bring about the disarmament of all Lebanese militias, and it referred to Hizballah as "the most significant Lebanese militia." The subsequent Security Council Resolution 1680, which was issued in May, cited Syria's negative influence on Lebanese affairs and indirectly referred to Iranian influence.
The relationship between Tehran and Damascus has grown warmer in recent years, as both Iran and Syria face increasing international pressure. The two countries have signed military agreements, and their chief executives have exchanged visits.
Ahmadinejad telephoned President Bashar al-Assad on July 13 and declared that an attack on Syria would be an attack on the Islamic world and would elicit a response, Hizballah's Al-Manar television, Iranian state radio, and SANA reported.
Iranian Friday Prayer leaders' sermons, the content of which is determined in Tehran by the 10-member executive board of the Central Secretariat of the Central Council of Friday Prayer Leaders, has echoed this theme, as well as support for Hizballah. In Tehran, Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani encouraged Muslims to back Hamas and Hizballah, the actions of which he described as "self-defense," state radio reported. In the southern city of Ahvaz, Ayatollah Musavi-Jazayeri said Hizballah has "smashed the myth of [Israeli] invincibility" and described Hizballah's actions as "a source of pride for the world of Islam," provincial television reported.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in Tehran on July 16 that the most recent events in Lebanon and the Palestine territories prove that "the presence of the Zionists in the region is a satanic and cancerous presence and an infected tumor for the entire world of Islam," state television reported. (Originally published on July 17.)
SYRIA, IRAN LOOM LARGER IN ISRAEL-LEBANON CRISIS
By Charles Recknagel
Israel is now fighting with Islamic militias in two theaters from which it previously thought its military had permanently withdrawn.
As it wages an air campaign against Hizballah in southern Lebanon, and an air-and-ground campaign against Hamas in Gaza, Israel's frustration is mounting. Even as it vows to break the backs of both militias, Israel knows it cannot crush the militant groups without also curbing their sponsors.
Pointing The Finger At Damascus And Tehran
So recent days have seen Israeli officials increasingly singling out Syria and Iran as the source of the problem they now face. "The reason we see now this deterioration, it is because of a premeditated attack or strategy that unfortunately is being concocted in Damascus and in Tehran," Israeli Ambassador to the United States Daniel Ayalon told journalists in Washington on July 12.
Ayalon said that Iran, despite its distance from Israel, has two goals. The first is to work for the "Islamic radicalization" of the region in hopes of creating more theocratic states like its own.
Tehran's other goal, according to Ayalon, is to distract the international community from Iran's nuclear program, which he said aims at acquiring nuclear weapons.
Other officials in Israel have also been calling attention to Tehran. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev, said on July 13 that there was concern Hizballah would attempt to move the two captured Israeli soldiers to Iran.
Tehran immediately rejected that charge, with Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi saying Israel is "talking absurdities."
Iran Answers Back
Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad vowed to help Syria-- which shares a defense pact with Iran -- if it is attacked. "If the occupying regime [Israel] commits another stupid move and attacks Syria, this will be considered as an attack against the whole Islamic world and that regime will receive a fierce response," read a statement by Ahmadinejad that was broadcast on state television on July 13.
Analysts say that as the tensions rise, the possibilities for state-to-state warfare increase.
Heading Toward War?
Mouin Rabbani, a Middle East expert at the International Crisis Group in Amman, sees the danger of the conflict widening into an Israeli-Syrian showdown as the most pressing.
"That is a distinct possibility," Rabbani says. "There is the possibility that Israel could choose to escalate the conflict to include Syria. And there is also the possibility that if Israel continues pounding Lebanon and vastly escalates its campaign there that Syria would try intervene to come to the assistance of Lebanon, which could also produce an Israeli-Syrian confrontation."
The danger could be increased by the limited room that exists for diplomatic solutions. Two of the most obvious brokers -- the United States and the United Nations -- are not favorably regarded by Damascus.
U.S. President George W. Bush on July 13 blamed Damascus for supporting Hizballah, saying that the Israeli soldiers "need to be returned" and Syrian President Bashar Assad "needs to show some leadership toward peace."
Washington has few trade and diplomatic ties with Damascus, and some U.S. officials have called for regime change there.
The UN is unwelcome in Damascus because of its continuing investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in February 2005. That investigation has linked Syria to the killing.
That would leave any broker's role to a European country such as Germany -- which has played a leading role in previous negotiations between Hizballah and Israel. But such a player -- which would certainly exercise little leverage over either Syria or Israel -- would need great goodwill on both sides to succeed.
Geography Plays A Role
Rabbani says he sees little likelihood of an armed Israeli-Syrian conflict widening to include Iran -- despite Tehran's recent vow to come to the aid of its defense-pact partner.
"I am assuming that Iran's statements yesterday were motivated in large part to dissuade Israel from any plans it may have to attack Syria," Rabbani said. "But its difficult to say to what extent Iran would come to Syria's active support. I mean, geographic distance does play a role here, and I find it extremely unlikely that Iran, which is probably also preoccupied with preparations of its own against any potential American and/or Israeli attack on Iranian territory, I find it extremely unlikely that it is now going to use whatever retaliatory measures it may have found against Israel in Syria's defense."
As the crisis continues, both Hizballah and Hamas are sticking to their conditions for ending it.
Hizballah has said it is ready to exchange the two soldiers for prisoners held by Israel. Analysts say that obtaining such an exchange was the militia's intention in launching a cross-border raid into Israel on July 12.
Hamas is also seeking a prisoner exchange. But analysts say that as the crisis in Gaza has grown, Palestinian demands appear to be widening to also include an end to Israeli security operations and assassinations in the Palestinian territories. (Originally published on July 14.)
THE PARTY OF THE ISLAMIC GOD (ALLAH)
In May 2000, Hizballah won the respect of many Lebanese when it took credit for Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon. An Israeli military pullout of Lebanon had always been the goal of the Iranian-inspired Shi'ite movement, which first emerged during the bloody Lebanese civil war in the early 1980s.
Shi'ite Resurgence
Yet its spiritual and intellectual origins go back further. "The origin of this is not in the early '80s," says Lebanese-born Nadim Shehadi, director of Oxford University's Center for Lebanese Studies in Britain. "The origin late '50s, early '60s. The root of it is a reaction to the higher clergy and to the dominant ideology of the Shi'ite establishment, which was to suffer in silence and wait for the second coming of the Mehdi, the 12th imam, who will then spread justice in the world."
Hizballah wanted to take an active role and found its inspiration in Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The party's rhetoric calls for the destruction of Israel. It regards Palestine as occupied Muslim land. Israel, it says, has no right to exist.
In 1983, Hizballah-linked militants orchestrated the bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon that killed 241 U.S. troops. That attack eventually led to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the region. Hizballah also was behind the kidnapping of some 30 Westerners between 1982 and 1992.
Fighting By Proxy
Like then, some analysts see today's fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hizballah as a proxy conflict.
"The blowing up of the [U.S. Marine] barracks and the [1980s] hostage crisis was in a way a proxy confrontation between Iran and the United States, in Lebanon," Shehadi says. "And what you're seeing now, in a way, is a replica of this."
In the early days of existence, Hizballah was seen working closely with thousands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Based in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, the guards had been sent by Tehran to help drive Israeli troops out.
This past week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused Iran of having Revolutionary Guard troops in Lebanon. Iran denies providing any military aid to Hizballah, but readily acknowledges its moral support of the movement.
"With this effort by Hizballah, the Lebanese people will have a better understanding of the value of Hizballah's resistance and arms and as the leader of our Islamic Revolution said, Hizballah will not be disarmed," said Iranian parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Hadad-Adel during a July 18 speech to a Tehran rally.
The Radicalization Of Southern Lebanon
At one time, the movement's leadership dreamed of transforming Lebanon's multiconfessional state into an Iranian-style Shi'ite Islamic state. That idea also appealed to many Hizballah supporters in southern Lebanon, where the movement is seen as an organic outgrowth of the local population.
"Hizballah is part and parcel of the population of south Lebanon," Shehadi says. "It's a resistance movement that emerged from the radicalization of the population of south Lebanon following the Israeli invasion of 1982 and the occupation of south Lebanon."
But along the way, Hizballah came to abandon its visions of an Islamic state in favor of a more open attitude toward the rest of Lebanese society and to take part in parliamentary elections. It's an approach that has proven successful.
Shi'a are Lebanon's biggest community, comprising one-third of the population, Hizballah has a significant presence in parliament. It has built broad support by providing social services and health care. And it has an influential television station, Al-Manar, which Israel has targeted with air strikes this week.
Still, it's Hizballah's military wing, the Islamic Resistance, that is helping to fuel the current crisis. The military wing violates the Taifa Agreement that ended the Lebanese civil war in 1989. It also violates UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which in 2004 called for the disbanding and disarming of all militias in Lebanon and helped lead to Syria's military pullout last year.
Hizballah cites two immediate motives for maintaining its militia along the Israel-Lebanon border.
One is the detention of prisoners from Lebanon in Israeli jails. Hizballah's cross-border raid to kill and capture Israeli soldiers last week, which triggered the current crisis, was ostensibly intended to obtain leverage to get Israel to agree to a prisoner swap.
"There is only one way for these [Israeli] prisoners that we have to go home: indirect negotiations and [prisoner] exchange and peace," said Hizballah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah during a July 12 news conference in Beirut. "Nobody in the entire world can take them back home except through indirect negotiations and exchange."
The Syrian Factor
Hizballah's second reason for maintaining its militia is an area known as the Shebaa Farms. With broad backing among the Lebanese population, Hizballah says Shebaa Farms is Lebanese territory.
But Israel and the UN say the area is part of the Golan Heights -- that is, Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
With Iran, Syria has long been seen as Hizballah's chief benefactor. Diplomats say Damascus uses Hizballah as a card to play in its conflict with Israel over the Golan Heights.
In the current crisis, the United States has accused both Syria and Iran of in effect "playing the Hizballah card" to pursue their own regional interests.
Those interests were particularly affected by last year's withdrawal from Lebanon of Syrian troops, after Damascus was widely blamed for the assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syria denies any involvement.
But in the anti-Syria frenzy that swept Lebanon following Hariri's killing, pro-Syrian Hizballah ironically emerged as the country's most powerful military force.
It even gained a seat in Lebanon's multiconfessional cabinet -- a government that U.S. President George W. Bush said on July 18 must not be toppled in the current conflict. (Originally published on July 20.)
Arab League Asks Global Community To Help With Middle East Talks
Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the Arab League (file photo)
(epa)
March 28, 2006 -- Arab leaders today called on the international community to help revive Middle East peace talks and respect the result of Palestinian elections won by Hamas in January.
Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, told a summit in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, that the situation in the Middle East has deteriorated.
"In Palestine, everything is getting worse. The peace process is receding and it may even be lost," Moussa said. "The occupiers continue with their colonial policies. We were hoping that the opportunity presented by the formation of the two new governments in the Palestinian Authority and Israel will be a good chance to refresh the peace process and the Quartet should be allowed to exercise the responsibilities which it was formed for."
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the host of the summit, called on the Arab world to provide the necessary money to keep African Union peacekeepers operating in Sudan's troubled Western Darfur region.
Only 12 heads of state from the 22-member Arab League attended the opening session of the summit amid concern the summit might wrap up in only a day instead of two days as scheduled.
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS, FREE SPEECH RIGHTS UNDER PRESSURE FROM
RADICAL ISLAM
Intimidation factor is real following riots and death threats
By Mark Ellis
Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
WASHINGTON (ANS) - Feb 7/06 - Riots throughout the Middle East in response to cartoons published in a Danish newspaper
increase the climate of intimidation slowly suffocating free speech rights, one terror consultant believes.
A dozen cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad first published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Poste in September, then reprinted by a Norwegian newspaper last month, launched a violent wave of recent protests against the two countries throughout the Middle East.
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a Washington D.C.-based counterterrorism consultant, says the rationale behind the publication of the cartoons is misunderstood. “A lot of people don’t understand the context, including the U.S. State Department and Jack Straw, the British Foreign Secretary,” he suggests. “There’s a very real pattern of people criticizing Islam being threatened and physically assaulted, so there is a resulting self-censorship.”
The newspapers were not attempting to bash Islam, but to affirm free speech rights, he believes. “This was not an Islamophobic outburst,”
Gartenstein-Ross says. “The Danish newspaper wanted to test this article of self-censorship in order to reaffirm the primacy of free speech.”
Europeans have been going down the wrong path, according to Gartenstein-Ross, by asking if self-censorship might be an acceptable accommodation to maintain social peace. Religious vilification laws, which make the slander of a religion punishable as a crime, have been passed in several European countries. A number of other countries are considering such laws in hopes they will produce social harmony.
“Religious vilification laws are part of the
problem,” Gartenstein-Ross believes. “It sends a signal to Muslims that criticism of a religion can be punished through the legal system,” he notes. “We don’t want the state to be the arbiter of acceptable religious discourse.”
“Christians who engage in apologetics will be silenced,” he predicts. “This is happening in both Europe and the U.S.”
Gartenstein-Ross cites the example of Pastor Daniel Scot, convicted of violating Victoria, Australia’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Act passed in 2002. Scot fled his native Pakistan in 1987 after they adopted a far-reaching blasphemy law, which prohibited any speech that directly or indirectly defiled the Prophet Muhammad.
Believing Australia would allow him more freedom of expression, Scot engaged in a series of lectures exploring the differences between Christianity and Islam, where he pointedly criticized Islam’s treatment of women and jihad movements. “Whether you agree with his points about the status of women or jihad, they were all legitimate arguments appropriate for religious debate,”
Gartenstein-Ross notes. “These were within the bounds of apologetics.” But Scot was convicted—his case is currently under appeal.
In France, actress Bridgette Bardot was fined in 2004 for her outspoken comments against the “Islamization of France” and the “underground and dangerous infiltration of Islam.” Noted Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci will go on trial in June over charges she defamed Islam in her book “The Force of Reason.”
While religious vilification laws may dampen religious dialogue, threats of violence may produce an even greater self-censoring effect. Author Salman Rushdie was forced into hiding after the publication of his book “The Satanic Verses” led to a fatwa issued by the Ayatollah
Khomeini, requiring Rushdie's execution for blasphemy against Islam. Last year, Khomeini's fatwa against Rushdie was reaffirmed by Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei.
After the fatwa, Rushdie’s Japanese translator was stabbed and killed in Tokyo, and his Italian translator was beaten and stabbed in Milan. Rushdie’s Norwegian publisher William Nygaard was shot in an attack outside his home in Oslo.
In 1993 Rushdie’s Turkish translator, Azia Nesin, was attacked by a mob who gathered around the Madimak Hotel in
Sivas, Turkey, where he was staying. The crowd set fire to the hotel and 37 died as a result, but Nesin managed to escape.
Last October, actor Omar Sharif—a Muslim convert—was threatened with death after he played St. Peter in an Italian television film and made positive comments about the role. An al Qaeda web posting said: “Omar Sharif has stated that he has embraced the crusader idolatry…I give you this advice, brothers, you must kill him.”
Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was murdered in 2004 on a street in Amsterdam after he directed the film “Submission,” which criticized the treatment of women in Muslim families. Islamic radical Mohammed Bouyeri shot Van Gogh eight times before slitting his throat with a kitchen knife and stabbing him in the chest.
The murderer was born in Amsterdam, well-educated and appeared to be well-integrated into Dutch society, but he also had terrorist ties with the Dutch Hofstad terror network.
Gartenstein-Ross does not expect riots in the U.S. because the Muslim population is smaller and better integrated socially, but he does expect more terror attacks. “There is less chance of dramatic attacks like 911, but there is a greater chance of attacks like the ones in Britain on July 7,” he says.
“We must dramatically reassert the importance of free speech and the notion that in a society with vibrant free speech no religion can be above insult.”
Monday, February 6, 2006
“MUSLIM INDIGNATION OR INTOLERANCE?” ASKS HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
WASHINGTON D.C. (ANS) - Feb 6/06 - A human rights group that has been monitoring the violent Islamic response to cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad is worried that as Muslim outrage escalates about this issue, Christians will increasingly be targeted because of their association with the Western world.
The caricatures first appeared in a Danish newspaper last fall.
In a news release, the Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) said that in their protest over these “offensive” cartoons, Muslims are attacking embassies, burning flags, boycotting products, and attacking Christians and others associated with the West.
The violent protests have continued to spread to Beirut, Indonesia, Palestine, and Afghanistan. In Beirut, over the weekend, a Christian neighborhood was attacked and rampaged by Muslims and in Pakistan, a church was ransacked and Christians beaten.
Especially in Muslim-majority countries, ICC reported, Christians are now under increased threat because they are targets for retribution from radical Muslims. Some Muslim clerics are even calling for a “day of wrath,” and, ICC said, “there seems to be no end in sight for the intolerance doled out by Muslims to Christian minorities.”
ICC commented, “Muslim indignation is understandable as they feel persecuted by having their religion mocked and ridiculed. Christians too have been ridiculed. Depictions of our Lord in artwork and in the press have often been used in a way that is less than reverent. Indignation though, is never a reason for violence.”
According to ICC, “There are two sad ironies in the response of Muslims to this indignation. One is the fact that their reaction is an illustration of exactly what the cartoons are depicting. It is as if the protestors are saying ‘How dare you portray us as violent? We will kill you for that.’”
The second irony, ICC reported, is that while Muslims are crying “persecution” in regards to a depiction of Mohammad in a cartoon, this is nothing in comparison to the crimes committed against Christians, Jews, and Hindus in Muslim-majority countries because of their faith.
ICC commented, “The persecution of people of minority faiths is routine in Muslim societies,. In some cases, it is even justified by law, and can often be deadly. ICC has documented case after case of Christian suffering, maiming, torture – and murders of Christians who were killed because they are infidels or apostates (one who has turned away from Islam).”
With that in mind, ICC asked, “How does the Muslim world justify their indignation over these cartoons, when it routinely oppresses people of other faiths who do not conform to their dictates? While these violent protests have received significant media coverage, the daily persecution of Christians by fundamentalist Muslims remains an obscure issue that many people know nothing about. ICC will continue to bring to light the suffering of Christians, even when it involves Muslim intolerance.”
CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKERS IN HEBRON EXPERIENCE WRATH
Meanwhile, members of a peacemaking team in Hebron have experienced a variety of reactions in the wake of the cartoon debacle.
A news release from “Christian Peacemaker Teams” said that their first experience occurred on Jan. 30, when two Swedish members of a team were advised by their leadership to leave Hebron – which they did briefly. They came back when they received assurances from Palestinian leadership that their presence was welcome.
On Feb. 1, the first day of the Islamic New Year, a protest was staged by Hamas outside the headquarters of TIPH (Temporary International Presence Hebron).
A consortium of six nations including Sweden and Denmark, CPT said TIPH “has been
monitoring Israeli occupation-caused tensions in the Old City since 1994.” CPT reported that although the protest, according to one member of TIPH, was “quiet and orderly,” a throng of young Palestinians who later gathered outside the headquarters gate was not. The building was stoned and many windows broken.
On Thurs. CPT members ran into store owner friends “who expressed their concerns and astonishment over the republication of the cartoons.” Also on Thurs. CPT received a call from EAPPI, the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel. The small contingent of people EAPPI normally maintains in Hebron, CTP was told, will be staying away temporarily.
On Friday, the Muslim Sabbath, CPT reported that team member Jerry Levin, in the streets for most of the day orienting a visitor to the situation in Hebron, was stopped by men making their way to noon prayers. These individuals told Levin it was very important for the cartoons not to be republished in the American press. After the prayers were over, CPT reported, “the pace of those encounters increased.”
Then in the middle of the afternoon while walking along one of the ancient terraces below the Tel Rumeida settlement, CPT reported that Levin and his colleague were stopped by four teen age Palestinian boys, two of them with clubs concealed in the folds of their coats. The boys first complained about the cartoons and then demanded Levin's cell phone. Levin, CPT reported, refused to hand it over.
The boys “not very convincingly,” CPT reported, began brandishing their clubs. Then when Levin still refused, one snatched his camera from around his neck and the four ran off.
“I never was really worried about being hurt,” Levin said in the release. “I really think the kids were after my phone and my camera, and thought sounding angry about the cartoons while waving their clubs at us might move things along.”
In the meantime, CPT reported that Palestinian advisors have told organization members to keep a lower than usual profile for a few days.
Straw pursues Iran conciliation
BBC: UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw interview
BBC - Jan 28/06 - The UK Foreign Secretary has said that talks aimed at resolving a dispute over Iran's nuclear programme must allow Iran to maintain its national dignity.
"We must have a bargain which enables both sides to come out of it with their head held high," Jack Straw said.
He was speaking in a seminar at the World Economic Forum in Davos, after talks with IAEA head Mohamed
ElBaradei.
The US, UK, Germany and France want Iran to be referred to the UN Security Council for censure over its
programme.
Threat of force
But the BBC's Jonathan Charles, who is attending the forum in Davos, Switzerland, says their desire for immediate action is not shared by Mr
ElBaradei.
"He's indicating any decision should wait until he has produced his report in March about whether Iran's activities really are peaceful or just a cover for the development of nuclear weapons," our correspondent said.
We have to keep the military option as the last option but not take it off the table, otherwise I am not sure how we have any significant leverage
US Senator John McCain
Western countries have been alarmed by Iran's decision to resume nuclear production, fearing that it is aimed at developing nuclear weapons.
Iran insists the programme is solely aimed at meeting its energy needs and has warned that a referral to the Security Council would prompt it to forge ahead with a full-scale uranium enrichment
programme.
Washington, Israel and many European powers distrust Iran, partly because it had kept its nuclear enrichment research secret for 18 years before it was revealed in 2002.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4656878.stm
Reign of the ISLAMIC Radicals
By Joel Mowbray
| February 2, 2006
FrontPageMagazine
- Omar Najib doesn't cut an imposing figure, with his white hair and disarming smile, but the 62-year-old Palestinian immigrant has placed himself at the front line of the battle to reclaim the faith he loves. Mr. Najib is not the only moderate Muslim fighting Islamic fundamentalists, but the ones he is up against at his suburban Chicago mosque are considered to be among the most radical in the nation.
Situated in Bridgeview, Ill., the mosque has been on the radar of federal authorities for more than a decade. In the last seven years, the U.S. government has taken legal action against several former officials and other prominent members for funding and participating in terrorist organizations. The mosque itself has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into three charities that were closed shortly after 9/11 for financing terrorism.
From the early '70s, the predominantly Palestinian immigrant community in Bridgeview had been trying to raise funds to build a mosque. They had little luck—until newer immigrants raised $1.2 million, mostly from wealthy Gulf countries. The older, more moderate Muslims—whose men were clean-shaven and whose women wore short sleeves and no
hijabs—handed over control of the mosque to the principal fundraisers. One day later, the old guard sued, claiming they didn't know who was behind the new
order—radical Wahhabists who ran the North American Islamic
Trust.
Shortly after the suit was filed, the new leadership fired the longtime prayer leader, a moderate (and proud American), and replaced him with a fundamentalist, Ahmad Zaki
Hammad, who was imported from
Egypt. The court sided with the fundamentalists, saying it had no role in determining who controls a mosque. Mr. Najib represented the mosque—and thus, the fundamentalists who controlled it—in the two-year battle. At the time, he says, many on the mosque board were more
moderate.
Within months of helping them, however, Mr. Najib realized his mistake. He raised questions about Mr.
Hammad, and, as a result, lost his seat on the board. Mr. Najib's worries were eventually confirmed. The prayer leader was the founder of the
Quranic (Koranic) Literacy
Institute, whose assets were frozen in 1998 by federal authorities for terror
financing. Six years later, QLI was found by a civil court to have funneled money to the Palestinian terrorist group
Hamas.
In the two decades since, Mr. Najib has written numerous letters to the imam and the board of directors, expressing deep concern with the mosque's extremist
positions. He distributed the letters to other congregants, but had been unable to gain support. Since 9/11, however, his criticisms, have been printed in the Chicago Tribune and other local papers. Mr. Najib's last letter, dated February 2005, in which he threatened a lawsuit, came on the heels of a local bank closing the mosque's account. Bridgeview had sent $10,000 to the Islamic American Relief Agency, which was later designated a terrorist organization by the Treasury Department.
This was not the first instance of the mosque's questionable donations. Between 1991 and 2001, the mosque gave a total of almost $400,000 to three Islamic
charities: the Global Relief
Foundation, the Holy Land Foundation and the
Benevolence International
Foundation. All had offices near the mosque and shared many of its leaders.
US freezes assets of Syrian intelligence chief
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jan 19/06 - The United States on Wednesday froze the U.S. assets of Syrian military intelligence director Asef Shawkat, accusing him of fomenting terrorism against Israel and backing Syria's intrusion in Lebanon.
The move represented increased pressure on Syria to cooperate with a U.N. inquiry that has been trying to identify those behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in a Beirut bomb blast on February 14.
"Today's action is a significant signal that those like Mr. Shawkat who support Syrian terrorism will be held to account," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
The U.S. Treasury Department, in the Bush administration's latest effort to pressure Syria, named Shawkat a "Specially Designated National" -- freezing his assets in the United States and banning U.S. citizens from doing business with him.
"Shawkat has been a key architect of Syria's domination of Lebanon, as well as a fundamental contributor to Syria's long-standing policy to foment terrorism against Israel," said Stuart Levey, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the U.S. Treasury.
The U.S. Treasury did not specify whether Shawkat, who is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law, had any assets in the United States.
The United States accused Shawkat of cooperating with groups like Hizbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in his position as military intelligence chief.
Iran Unseals Nuclear Sites
ICEJ - Jan 10/06 - Iran said Sunday that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency would remove seals from some nuclear facilities by Monday, opening the way for the Iranians to resume research on fuel production and heightening concerns in the West that the Iranians are moving toward building atomic weapons, the AP reports.
IRAN 'SCOURING EUROPE' FOR NUKE BOMB PARTS
German Press Says US is Readying NATO Allies to Attack
ICEJ - Dec 05 - The Iranian government has been successfully scouring Europe for the sophisticated equipment needed to develop a nuclear bomb, according to the latest Western intelligence assessment dated July 2005 and leaked to the British press this week.
The timing of the disclosure, combined with a report in the German press indicating that the US is readying its NATO allies for a possible military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, is thought to reflect growing European despair over a diplomatic solution to the standoff.
According to an article published Wednesday in UK daily The Guardian, scientists in Tehran are also shopping for parts for a ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe, reflecting the Islamic Republic's growing determination to perfect a ballistic missile capable of delivering warheads far beyond its borders. The next generation of the Shahab missile should be capable of reaching Austria and Italy, says the report - compiled jointly by British, French, German and Belgian agencies.
It also concludes that Syria and Pakistan have also been buying technology and chemicals needed to develop rocket programs and to enrich uranium.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday Austrian Ambassador to Israel Kurt Hengl, whose country assumes the European Union presidency Sunday, warned that the EU is willing to impose its own sanctions on Iran even if efforts to bring the Islamic republic before the United Nations Security Council fail.
"If Iran, instead of saying, 'We want to talk,' says, 'We don't need to talk, do what you want,' Europe will have to do something," Hengl told The Post.
Hengl's comments follow revelations published in the Berlin-based daily Der Tagesspiegel last week that quoted "NATO intelligence sources" claiming that the NATO allies had been informed that the United States is currently investigating all possibilities of bringing the Iranian regime into line, including military options.
Referring to European efforts to rein in Iran's nuclear development program, the Austrian envoy told the Post that Algeria could potentially block Security Council action. "It is enough if sanctions are imposed by the European Union," he added.
Hamas, Fatah Sign Deal to Curb Violence during Palestinian
Election
ICEJ - Jan/06 - The Islamic extremist group Hamas on Sunday signed an election accord with all competing Palestinian factions to ensure a peaceful lead up to the January 25 Palestinian parliamentary poll. The deal is a last ditch bid to put a stop to election-related clashes between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority's governing Fatah movement that have already resulted in loss of life. Senior Gaza Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar however, warned Fatah against provoking violence on election day adding that if the elections did not take place as scheduled, it could result in "the collapse of the entire Palestinian issue."
Syria's Former VP Calls for Uprising Against Assad
ICEJ- Jan 12/06 - Former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam says he wants to see President Bashar al-Assad ousted through a popular uprising, the BBC reports. Speaking from Paris, Khaddam said: "The Syrian people will take on themselves the responsibility for changing the government." "The Syrian people are quite unhappy....There is an opposition in Syria which will find its way in leading the people to overthrow him." Calling Assad "a traitor" who is harming the country Khaddam directly implicated the Syrian president in the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri last February, saying he should go to jail.
TREASON CHARGE AGAINST SYRIAN Ex-VP FOR ASSAD MURDER LINK
ICEJ - Jan. 2/06 - The Syrian parliament unanimously calls for the trial of former vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam on charges of high treason after he tells al-Arabiya television that Syrian President Bashar Assad threatened former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in the months before Hariri's assassination in February 2005. Khaddam says that the
sophisticated operation to kill the former Lebanese premier could not have been carried out on the authority of only one agency, suggesting the participation of senior Syrian officials in the murder. The Syrian regime has long maintained that Khaddam - a close friend of Hariri - betrayed Assad to UN prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, confiscating his vast property assets in November.
Egypt Opposition Leader Denies Holocaust
By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt - Dec 05 - The leader of Egypt's main Islamic opposition group - [ known
as the Muslim Brotherhood ]- said Thursday the Holocaust was a "myth," and he slammed Western governments for criticizing disclaimers of the Jewish genocide.
The comments by Muslim Brotherhood chief Mohammed Mahdi Akef — made on the heels of his group's strong showing in Egyptian parliamentary elections — echoed remarks made recently by Iran's hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which sparked international outrage.
"Western democracies have slammed all those who don't see eye to eye with the Zionists regarding the myth of the Holocaust," Akef wrote in a weekly article meant as a directive to the group's followers on its official Web site.
Akef's hard-line rhetoric was in contrast to the moderate tone the Brotherhood took in November and December parliamentary elections, during which it played down its calls for implementing Shariah, or Islamic law, in Egypt and instead touted itself as a pro-democracy movement.
The outlawed Brotherhood surprised many with its election showing, winning 88 seats in the legislature — about 20 percent of the body — and establishing itself as the top opposition bloc.
In his article, Akef lashed out at the United States and other Western powers for what he described as a campaign against Islam.
"These words are meant to expose the false American rule which has become a nightmare of a new world order," Akef said.
"I am making these comments to all free people in the world, aiming to wake up the conscience in humanity. The sword of democracy is only unsheathed against those who raise the flag of Islam."
Similar comments by Ahmadinejad earlier this month sparked an international outcry. The Iranian president called the Holocaust — in which an estimated 6 million Jews were killed — a "myth" and said Europeans have used it to create a Jewish state in the heart of the Islamic world.
He also said Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Arab governments and media did not condemn Ahmadinejad's remarks.
It was not clear why Akef made the remarks, but his article was full of criticism of Western democracy, which he said "was drawn up by the sons of Zion."
Akef did not take a question about his statement when telephoned by The Associated Press.
But a top Brotherhood leader said the group is disenchanted by the U.S. policies in the Mideast, including President Bush's reform plans for the region.
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Eurofighter Jet sold to Saudi Arabia
Dec 21/05- BBC - Shares in BAE Systems have risen over 6% in value after the UK government agreed to supply Saudi Arabia with the new Eurofighter.
This is the first contract for the jet outside Europe and will safeguard thousands of UK jobs.
The Eurofighter has been developed by a consortium of firms in the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy.
It is competing for market share against two rival jets, the US Joint Strike Fighter and the French Rafale.
The Royal Saudi Armed Forces are on a mission to modernise, which will see the Eurofighter Typhoon replace the Tornado in the Royal Saudi Air Force.
BAE has provided Tornado planes to Saudi Arabia since 1985.
Confidential deal
Both BAE and the Ministry of Defence were keeping mum about the precise number of Eurofighters that would be sold to Saudi Arabia but the deal is rumoured to be worth more than £6bn ($10.6bn).
Violent Dhaka rally against Islamic group
BBC - Dec 23/05 - Hundreds of opponents of Bangladesh's minority Muslim Ahmadiyya community have clashed with police during a march in the capital Dhaka.
The clashes occurred as supporters of the hardline Islamic group
Khatme Nabuwat Movement tried to march to a mosque used by the Ahmadis.
The hardliners want the Ahmadis to be declared non-Muslims.
The Ahmadis, who number 100,000 in Bangladesh, do not believe Mohammed was necessarily the last prophet.
Rights report
Police used batons and lobbed tear gas to disperse the supporters of the Khatme Nabuwat Movement.
We believe Bangladesh is not a place for any extremist views. We are taking measures to resist them
Mosharref Hossain Shajahan,
minister
Witnesses said at least 10 people, including some policemen, received minor injuries during the clash that followed a noisy demonstration outside the main mosque in Dhaka.
Police said they retaliated after the activists threw bricks.
Friday's demonstrations were the latest of a series of protests against the Ahmadiyya community.
The hardliners demand that the government enact a law to declare the Ahmadiyya non-Muslim.
The sect has been subjected to a number of attacks across Bangladesh.
In June, the New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report accusing the Khatme Nabuwat and its allies of attacking Ahmadiyya mosques and beating and killing Ahmadis.
Last year, the government banned the publications of the Ahmadiyya but refused to declare it non-Muslim.
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Arab League and Russia reject push for
U.N. sanctions against Syria
BEIRUT - Lebanon - DailyStar - Oct 27/05 - While the UN Security Council member states were divided Wednesday over adopting a tough resolution by Washington, London and France threatening sanctions against Syria, the Arab League spoke out in rejection of further restrictions against Damascus.
Russia's opposition to sanctions against Syria could spell serious trouble for the draft resolution circulated late Tuesday by the U.S., France and Britain strongly demanding the arrest of any Syrian national suspected of involvement in the assassination, and greater leeway for UN investigators.
The Security Council is expected to formally discuss Syria and its full cooperation with the UN probe into former Premier Rafik Hariri's murder at another meeting early next week. Diplomats hope to arrive at a final draft resolution by then.
But the Arab League said Wednesday that the United Nations should not impose sanctions on Syria for not cooperating with the UN probe.
"The Arab League ... sees no logic or legitimacy to impose sanctions on Syria based on accusations that are not fully investigated, especially when the (UN) report itself called for the continuation of the probe," the 22-member pan-Arab body said in a statement.
The Arab League said it believed Syria was cooperating with the probe. It also expressed "full solidarity with Lebanon and its legitimate right to determine its future as a free and independent Arab country and in promoting historic ties with Syria based on mutual respect."
But the White House called Wednesday for a UN Security Council ministerial meeting to consider action on Syria's alleged role in Hariri's killing.
U.S. President George W. Bush "believes it is important for the Security Council to meet at the ministerial level to talk about how to proceed, and talk about how we move forward on this resolution," said spokesman Scott McClellan.
The U.S. also adapted a firmer stance toward Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying the UN commission must have access to all Syrians it deems useful to its probe, including Assad, said U.S. ambassador to the UN, John Bolton.
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Men and weapons flowing
across border From Syria into Lebanon, says UN 
Investigator Larsen
UN report welcomes dialogue about disarmament
LEBANON - DailyStar - Oct 27/05 - UNITED NATIONS: Weapons continue to flow across the Syrian border to Palestinian groups and others in Lebanon, despite the Lebanese government's efforts to crack down and assert its authority, a new UN report said on Wednesday. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan presented his second semi-annual report to the Security Council on the implementation of Resolution 1559, prepared by UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen Wednesday, in which he said:
"There is an increasing influx of weaponry and personnel
from Syria to some of these
groups."
The report also says the Beirut government informed Annan that it had detained a number of infiltrators "of Palestinian origin
who carried Syrian identification documents."
But the report said that Syria acknowledged that arms and people were being smuggled
back and forth over the border.
"The government of Syria has informed me that the smuggling of arms and people across the Syrian-Lebanese border does indeed take place, albeit in both directions," Annan said.
The report added the "continued existence of armed groups defying the control of the legitimate government which by definition is vested with a monopoly on the use of force throughout its territory, is incompatible with the restoration and full respect of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and political independence of the country."
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Diplomatic furore at Iran remarks
By Bridget Kendall
BBC diplomatic correspondent
BBC - Oct 27/05 - Iran's relations with its erstwhile partners in Europe seem to be hurtling downhill like a snowball out of control.
Ever since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn into office in early August, week by week, the confrontation seems to escalate.
And now, the latest layer of ice to be added to the relationship; hostile remarks about Israel from the Iranian president, prompting widespread dismay.
It is, in fact, not uncommon for senior Iranian officials to take a rhetorical swipe at Israel.
And President Ahmadinejad was addressing a domestic audience of conservative Iranian students at a conference in Tehran ahead of the pro-Palestinian rally that always takes place on the last Friday of Ramadan.
But it did not take long for a chorus of European governments, plus Canada, the US and Australia - and of course Israel itself - to denounce the comments as deeply troubling and completely unacceptable, and summon Iranian ambassadors to give them a dressing down.
Britain called the address sickening. Israeli politicians have even called for Iran to be expelled from the United Nations.
So why this response?
Revived rhetoric
In the first place, it is the vehemence of President Ahmadinejad's language that has caused such concern.
It is one thing for Iran to refuse to acknowledge the state of Israel's right to exist.
It is quite another to applaud the prospect of a new wave of Palestinian attacks that might "sweep Israel away", just as new diplomatic moves are afoot to try to nudge Israeli and Palestinian leaders back to direct talks and away from further violence.
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Lebanon rejects Latest United Nations
(UN) militia report
Hezbollah is both a military and political force in Lebanon
BBC - Oct 27/05 - Lebanon has rejected a United Nations report that calls for Lebanese militias to disarmed in line with Security Council resolution 1559.
Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said his country would deal with armed groups such as Hezbollah through national dialogue.
The report by UN special envoy Terje
Roed-Larsen, said Hezbollah's militia had not even begun to disarm.
Part of the envoy's job is to report on the implementation of the resolution.
The resolution, passed in September 2004, called for Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon and for the dismantling of militias there.
'Internal dialogue'
Mr Aridi reiterated the government's position that the issue would be dealt with through national dialogue.
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Lebanese Army denies encircling Palestinian bases in Bekaa
Valley
Thursday, October 27, 2005
BEKAA Valley - DailyStar - Oct 27/05 - The Lebanese Army Command rejected claims that army units have encircled Palestinian bases in the Bekaa towns of Sultan Yacoub and Hilweh Wednesday.Reports had emerged earlier in the day that Lebanese troops and tanks had encircled military bases run by pro-Syrian Palestinian militants near the border, hours ahead of a UN report set to accuse Damascus of arming militias in Lebanon.
The reports added that the army set up checkpoints at Sultan Yacoub, where the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) runs a network of tunnels dug into the hills.
Lebanese Army commandos and tanks also deployed in force along other parts of the remote border where gunmen shot a Lebanese Army civil contractor Tuesday, according to witnesses.
The Lebanese National News Agency said earlier the army had asked Palestinian guerrillas through loudspeakers to leave the base at Sultan Yacoub, but later withdrew the report.
In a statement Wednesday, the Army Command said measures were merely being taken to "strengthen previous procedures adopted to arrest the people who fired at Mohammad Ismail on Tuesday."
Lebanese Army firms grip
around Palestinian bases
Move aimed to arrest killers of surveyor
BEIRUT - Lebanon - DailyStar - Oct 28/05 - The Lebanese Army tightened its grip around seven Palestinian militant bases close to the Syrian border Thursday in an attempt to arrest the killers of a civilian surveyor shot dead on Tuesday.
In a press statement, the Army Command said: "The military moves were taken to apprehend the killers of the army's civilian surveyor Mohammad Ismail, who was shot dead while on an assignment in the Bekaa village of Hilweh, five kilometers from the Syrian border."
Hundreds of troops backed by tanks were deployed around military bases operated by Ahmad Jibreel's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and Abu Moussa's Fatah-Uprising - which is accused of killing Ismail - in Sultan Yacoub, Hilweh, Deir al-Ashayer and Yanta, in the southeast Bekaa Valley.
The army also encircled Palestinian military camps in the Southern village of Naameh.
The Daily Star sources said that the army set up checkpoints at Sultan Yacoub and closed off tunnels connecting the military bases to each other and roads used to smuggle weapons and militants from Syria into Lebanon.
Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after the Cabinet's weekly session that "regarding the Palestinian issue, there was a government decision taken unanimously and this decision is being executed. Dialogue with our Palestinian brothers should start as soon as possible."
Premier Fouad Siniora opened a dialogue with various Palestinian factions earlier this month in an attempt to reach an agreement on how to shut down the Palestinian military bases located outside Lebanon's 12 refugee camps.
An official statement quoted Siniora as having told his Cabinet :"We don't have an interest in having anyone drag us into a battle, an argument, a difference or tension that seeks goals that don't serve Lebanon."
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LEBANON - Saint John graveyard shelters remains of rare twin-type Crusader church
Sixth century house of worship is divided into two structures
By Nicolas Tohme
Thursday, April 16, 2004
April 2004 - DailyStar - Lebanon (Right Next to Israel) - The Saint Giles fort, a short distance further up from the Tripoli fort on the way to Abi Samra, is on a hilltop that has been known throughout history as one important to pilgrims.
About 200 meters south from there is a huge old iron gate, which leads to the Maronite Saint John graveyard.
In the southern part of the graveyard, there are remains of a Crusader-era church, which is the only one of its kind in Lebanon, but resembles a similar church in Syria and another one in Jordan.
This church has given its name to the graveyard. The name was found in manuscripts dating back to Crusader times. The manuscripts were discovered around the middle of the last century.
The foundations of the church were discovered between the years 1946 and 1948, when some excavations were undertaken by the state's archeology office.
The remains of the church reveal two parts, a northern and a southern part. The two parts are connected through a door, which is their only link.
Dr. Hassan Sarkis, who conducted excavations in 1973, said that the two parts represent two separate churches, which were linked together.
The two parts have identical architectural features. But while the northern church has a semi-circular shape, the southern one has a rectangular shape.
The northern church measures 16.53 meters in length and 7.88 meters in width.
Its circular altar has a wall thickness of 1.7 meters.
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"MUSLIM RAGE" TARGETS TAIBA CHRISTIANS
Houses burned following Islamic Honor Killing
ICEJ - SEPT 5/05 - At least 14 houses belonging to residents of the Arab Christian town of Taiba northeast of Ramallah, were torched by Muslims from neighboring Deir Jarir on Sunday, to avenge
what they termed the dishonor of a Muslim woman.
"The young men, who were holding Molotov cocktails, threw them at the houses, which began to go up in flames, one after another," said Taiba resident Buthaina Sha'aban, according to Ha'aretz.
"They vandalized parked cars and beat village residents who went out into the streets. Entire families were thrown into the street after their homes were torched. Not much remains of their property. We urge all international, Israeli, and Palestinian actors to intervene and protect village residents from the Muslim rage."
A security sources said the rampage was triggered by an incident last week in which a 30-year-old woman was made to drink poison by her relatives because they suspected her of carrying on a romance with a Christian man from the village - thought by scholars to be the city of Ephraim to which Jesus and his disciples went in John chapter 11.
The woman was quickly buried, but last Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority police exhumed the body for an autopsy angering relatives. So-called
Muslim 'honor killings' are common throughout the Middle East but attract only
minimal sentences due to their widespread cultural acceptance as an
integral part of Islamic 'Sharia'
law.
Al-Jazeera TV Condemns Spain Conviction of Journalist collaborating with Islamic Terrorist
CAIRO, Egypt - Sept 26/05 - AP -The pan-Arab TV channel Al-Jazeera condemned a Spanish court's finding Monday that one of its journalists had collaborated with terrorists, accusing the judges of violating legal principles.
"It was a black day in the history of Spanish justice," Al-Jazeera news editor Ahmed al-Sheik told the channel from Madrid minutes after the court sentenced Tayssir Alouny to seven years' imprisonment for collaboration with a terrorist organization.
A Syrian who also holds Spanish citizenship, Alouny was one of 24 defendants who stood trial in Madrid's National Court on charges related to the Sept. 11 attacks and membership in al-Qaida.
He had pleaded innocent, denying that he ever belonged to al-Qaida.
Alouny became famous in the Arab world as Al-Jazeera's correspondent in Kabul during the U.S.-backed offensive against the Taliban in 2001. Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, he interviewed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
In a statement issued in Qatar, Al-Jazeera said it was "surprised and deeply disappointed by the court's decision."
It said Al-Jazeera would support Alouny and his family's decision to appeal the verdict and was consulting the defense team.
"The channel views the incident as a dangerous precedent for the profession of journalism and journalists across the world who go to great lengths on a daily basis to bring coverage on critical issues," the statement said. "Al-Jazeera reiterates its support for Mr. Alouny and his professional integrity and courage as a journalist."
The station also asked Spain's judiciary to release Alouny on bail for health reasons, saying he had a heart condition.
The London-based Algerian lawyer Saad Djebbar told the channel the verdict was "sad" and alleged the court had accepted security service reports as unchallenged evidence.
Former Qatari Justice Minister Najeeb al-Nuaimi told Al-Jazeera the verdict was "politically motivated."
Sudan and Saudi Arabia continue forging Alliance
Sudan president meets with Saudi king
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) - Sept 25/05 - Sudanese "President" Omar
al-Beshir met with King Abdullah in the Saudi city of Jeddah to discuss cooperation between their countries and regional developments.
Beshir, who arrived in the Red Sea city earlier the same day, held talks with King Abdullah, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz and other senior Saudi officials, the state news agency SPA said.
"They discussed developments on the Arab, Muslim and international scenes, and chiefly the Palestinian issue and the situation in Iraq," said the agency.
"The two sides also discussed ways to boost bilateral cooperation in all
sectors," said SPA.
Beshir "praised and thanked Saudi Arabia ... for standing by Sudan to allow it to overcome all circumstances until the peace agreement was reached".
Sudan's first post-war national unity government was sworn last Thursday, eight months after a peace deal ended Africa's longest-running conflict.
Saudi Arabia has been providing millions of dollars in aid to Sudan.
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Gaza Disengagement Completed:
Many of us spent much of the morning Wednesday and Thursday watching televised
news reports in horror. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) entered homes in the
Gaza strip on Wednesday and the synagogue in Neve Dekelim on Thursday and
extracted residents and demonstrators. It is amazing to observe American news
commentators who insist to the public that they are the "norm" and
that they represent stable, responsible thought, as they
completely miss the truth and frankly state blatant lies. They repeatedly
told us that the majority of Israelis agreed with the disengagement, which is a
lie.
They told us that the "Palestinians" need the land, which also is not true. Most of the "Palestinians" are from neighboring countries. Before 1948 it was the Israeli's that were referred to as "Palestinians." Those who have traveled to Israel testify to enormous land areas between cities and towns that are uninhabited. Would residents of California, Arizona, New Mexico, or Texas be willing to give up their homes to Mexico?
Source at: htp://www.tzemach.org/fyi/archives/20050820.htm
Commentary on the Events in London
Prof. Louis Rene Beres - If you liked what happened in London on July 7, you'll love what is now planned for Gaza. Next month, the forcible expulsion of Jews from this tiny piece of territory will set the stage for further Arab terror attacks in Europe and the United States. While President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair have high hopes that carving up Israel will protect their own countries, they have neglected to understand that
a "disengaged" Gaza will quickly become the site for expanded terror violence against the West. They should have learned by now that the smell of carrion always inflames the vulture.
On the eve of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement
(Expulsion of Jews, then Retreat) from Gaza, Israel continues to ignore the obvious. The official map of Palestine remains clear and explicit. Gaza is merely the start of a long-established and never-revoked plan to dismantle Israel in "phases." This carefully-constructed cartography defines the emergent 23rd Arab state to include all of Judea/Samaria (the West Bank), Gaza and the entire state of Israel. A small slice of Jordan is also included on the map, which purposefully excludes any references to Jewish populations.
If you liked London, you'll love Israel's planned August deportation of Jews -- the prime minister's incomprehensible plan of
"Land For Nothing." Following this deportation, the Palestinian Authority and its many collaborators will turn Gaza into an organized area for more ferocious Islamic attacks against selected targets in Europe and the United States. The terrorists who are responsible for the July 7 London bombings are in very close association with the terrorists of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. In essence, in spite of widely-presumed distinctions, they are simply different wings of the same overarching Jihadi movement.
Manifestly delighted that Britain and America have unhesitatingly agreed to turn Israel into a present-day Czechoslovakia, al Qaeda and
its various Palestinian cousins fully understand that capitulation has been the West's predictable response to Islamic terror. Yes, of course America and England fight together in Iraq and Afghanistan, but this often heroic effort is strangely coincident with offering tiny Israel as a sacrificial lamb to the very same terrorist enemies. In time, this unforgivable surrender of Israel in pieces will create pieces of terrorist devastation within our own European and American heartlands.
Now London has become Tel Aviv. Tomorrow it could be New York (again), Los Angeles or Chicago. For years, British newspapers and TV news journalists have referred euphemistically to Palestinian suicide bombers as "militants." Today, however, when the victims are not just Jewish women and children in Israel, but English mothers and daughters on London buses and subways, the militants are finally called "terrorists." How desperately human beings always want to ignore what is true.
Soon the body parts will have been properly collected in London, and the affected streets and rails hosed down to a pre-incident state of cleanliness. Soon, London, like Tel Aviv, will return to "normal." Driven by an unstoppable passion for both commerce and self-delusion, British authorities will take prudent steps to ensure that the hotels stay filled and the air charters keep flying. But London, like Tel Aviv, will never return to normal until it understands exactly who is responsible for defiling its people.
Story Here -
(Commentary of July 17/05)
Radical Islamic links of UK's
'moderate'
Islamic
group
The Muslim Council of Britain has been courted by the government and lauded by the Foreign Office but critics tell a different and more disturbing story. Martin Bright reports
Sunday August 14, 2005
The Observer
Aug 14/05 - UK - The Muslim Council of Britain is officially the moderate face of Islam. Its pronouncements condemning the London bombings have been welcomed by the government as a model response for mainstream Muslims. The MCB's secretary general, Iqbal Sacranie, has recently been knighted and senior figures within the organisation have the ear of
[UK] ministers.
But an Observer investigation can reveal that, far from being moderate, the
Muslim
Council of
Britain
has its origins in the extreme orthodox politics in Pakistan. And as its influence increases through Whitehall, many within the Muslim community are growing concerned that this self-appointed organisation is crowding out other, genuinely moderate, voices of Muslim Britain.
Far from representing the more progressive or spiritual traditions within Islam, the leadership of the Muslim Council of Britain and some of its affiliates sympathise with and have links to
Islamist movements in the Muslim world and in particular Pakistan's
Jamaat-i-Islami, a radical party committed to the establishment of an Islamic state in Pakistan ruled by
[islamic] sharia law.
One of the MCB's affiliate organisations, Leicester's Islamic Foundation, was founded by Khurshid Ahmad, a
senior figure in Jamaat-i-Islami.
Another is Birmingham-based Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, an extremist sect whose website says: 'The disbelievers are misguided and their ways based on sick or deviant views concerning their societies, their universe and their very existence.' It urges its adherents not to wear Western hats, walk dogs, watch sport or soap operas and forbids 'mingling and shaking hands between men and women'.
Jamaat-i-Islami activists in Pakistan have been involved in protests against images of women on adverts in public places. The organisation's founder, Maulana Maududi, was a fierce opponent of feminism who believed that women should be kept in purdah - seclusion from male company. Although the
MCB's leadership distances itself from some of these teachings, it has been criticised for having no women prominently involved in the
organisation.
The origins of the Muslim Council of Britain can be traced to the storm around the publication of the Satanic Verses in 1988. India was the first country to ban the book and many Muslim countries followed suit. Opposition to the book in Britain united people committed to a traditionalist view of Islam, of which the founders of
the Muslim
Council of
Britain
- MCB
- was a part.
The MCB was officially founded in November 1997, shortly after Tony Blair came to power, and has had a close relationship with the Labour government ever
since. Its detractors claim it was the creature of Jack Straw, but his predecessor as Home Secretary, Michael Howard, also played a role in its establishment as a semi-official channel of communication with British Muslims. It remains particularly influential within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which has a little-known outreach department which works with Britain's Muslims. The FCO pamphlet Muslims in Britain is essentially an
MCB publication and the official ministerial celebration of the Muslim festival of Eid is organised jointly
with the MCB
.
The Observer has learnt that the MCB
used its influence in Whitehall to gain a place on the board of trustees of the Festival of Muslim
Cultures, planned for next year. This extravaganza is designed to demonstrate the diversity and vibrancy of Muslim culture. The festival is funded by the British Council and has Prince Charles as its patron, but it has been told that it will need to be compliant with Islamic 'sharia law' in order to gain the MCB's full support.
The organisers are now concerned that the festival will lose political backing if they invite performers who are seen to be 'un-Islamic'.
Festival organisers already hope to invite the Uzbek singer, Sevara Nezarkhan, who does not wear the headscarf or 'hijab' and has worked with Jewish 'klezmer' musicians. It also intends to exhibit the 14th-century world history of Rashid al-Din, which represents the human form and the prophet Mohammed himself, thought by some strict Muslims to be forbidden.
The strain of Islamic ideology favoured by the MCB
leadership and many of its affiliate organisations is inspired by Maulana Maududi, a 20th-century Islamic scholar little known in the West but hugely significant as a thinker across the Muslim world. His writings, which call for a
global Islamic revival, influenced Sayyid Qutb, usually credited as the
founding father of modern Islamic radicalism and one of the inspirations for al-Qaeda.
In Maududi's worldview all humanity was split into believers (practising Muslims) and non-believers, whom he describes as 'barbarians'. He was deeply critical of notions such as nationalism and feminism and called on Muslims to purge themselves of Western influence.
In 1941 he formed Jamaat-i-Islami and remained its leader until 1972.
Malik said that its leaders needed to be clearer about its position on suicide bombers. 'You cannot be equivocal about innocent people. An innocent person in Tel Aviv is the same as an innocent person in Baghdad or London. The
MCB has never clarified any of the critical issues and now the chickens are coming home to roost.'
The MCB 's Inayat Bunglawala said he had a deep respect for Maududi and defended the
MCB 's affiliation to Khurshid Ahmad's Islamic Foundation. He said:
"Maududi is a very important Muslim thinker. The book that brought me to practise Islam was Now Let Us Be Muslims by Maududi. As for Jamaat-i-Islami, it is a perfectly legal body in Pakistan. There is no suggestion that the Islamic Foundation has done anything wrong. They have done fantastic work in publishing literature on Islam, including works for
children."
A spokesman for the Islamic Foundation confirmed that Khurshid Ahmad was chairman of its board of trustees.
Former head of American-Arab body passes away
Regional-USA, Local, 4/27/2002
ArabicNews - April 27/05 - Dr. Hala Salaam Maksoud, President of the Arab-American anti Discrimination Committee (ADC), passed away on Friday after a long illness, ADC announced.
"It is with a profound sense of loss and sadness that the Board of Directors and the national office staff of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) mourn the passing of Hala Salaam
Maksoud," said ADC.
One of the most influential and important leaders in ADC's history, Maksoud served as ADC President from 1996 to 2001. Dr. Maksoud had been actively involved with ADC since its inception in 1980, and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for many years.
Dr. Maksoud held a Ph.D. in political theory and an M.A. in government from Georgetown University, and an M.A. in mathematics from the American University of Beirut. She taught courses at George Mason University and at Georgetown. In addition to her academic career, Dr. Maksoud was a prominent Arab-American leader and participated in the
founding of several organizations, including the American Committee on
Jerusalem, the Association of Arab-American University Graduates, and the
Arab Women's
Council.
Maksoud was a nationally recognized advocate of civil and human rights, and was the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the American Immigration Law Foundation in March 2002.
Maksoud is survived by her husband, Clovis Maksoud, former Ambassador of the League of Arab States to the United States and the United Nations, and current professor of international relations at American University.
Full Story Here
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/020427/2002042740.html
==============================
UK Anti-terror measures
05.08.2005: Full text: The prime minister's statement on anti-terror measures
05.08.2005: The prime minister's 12-point plan
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