Friday, 30 January 2009
Muslim population 'rising 10 times faster than rest of society'
 This is from The Times. I think that newspaper gets it; I think from the forward e-mail I received this morning that many of the general public understand, but the secularists don't. And don't realise that their actions are, in part (not fully because they should not have been allowed to undermind the Christian foundations of the UK) to blame.
The Muslim population in Britain has grown by more than 500,000 to 2.4 million in just four years, according to official research collated for The Times.
The population multiplied 10 times faster than the rest of society, the research by the Office for National Statistics reveals. In the same period the number of Christians in the country fell by more than 2 million.
Experts said that the increase was attributable to immigration, a higher birthrate and conversions to Islam during the period of 2004-2008, when the data was gathered. They said that it also suggested a growing willingness among believers to describe themselves as Muslims because the western reaction to war and terrorism had strengthened their sense of identity.
Muslim leaders have welcomed the growing population of their communities as academics highlighted the implications for British society, integration and government resources.
David Coleman, Professor of Demography at Oxford University, said: “The implications are very substantial. Some of the Muslim population, by no means all of them, are the least socially and economically integrated of any in the United Kingdom ... and the one most associated with political dissatisfaction. You can't assume that just because the numbers are increasing that all will increase, but it will be one of several reasonable suppositions that might arise.”
Professor Coleman said that Muslims would naturally reap collective benefits from the increase in population. “In the growth of any population ... [its] voice is regarded as being stronger in terms of formulating policy, not least because we live in a democracy where most people in most religious groups and most racial groups have votes. That necessarily means their opinions have to be taken and attention to be paid to them.”
Ceri Peach, Professor of Social Geography at Manchester University, said that the rapid growth of the Muslim population posed challenges for society. “The groups with the strongest belief in the family and cohesion are those such as the Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. They have got extremely strong family values but it goes together with the sort of honour society and other kinds of attributes which people object to,” he said. “So you are dealing with a pretty complex situation.”
Muhammad Abdul Bari, general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, predicted that the number of mosques in Britain would multiply from the present 1,600 in line with the rising Islamic population. He said the greater platform that Muslims would command in the future should not be perceived as a threat to the rest of society.
“We each have our own set of beliefs. This should really be a source of celebration rather than fear as long as we all clearly understand that we must abide by the laws of this country regardless of the faith we belong to,” he said. Posted on 01/30/2009 5:30 PM by Esmerelda Weatherwax
Friday, 30 January 2009
Father guilty over ashura beating
From The Daily Mail and the BBC
A taxi driver has been convicted of cruelty for encouraging his 10-year-old son to whip himself during a Shia Muslim ceremony.
Jurors found the taxi driver, 49, guilty of being cruel to a child after being told that the youngster, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was allowed to beat himself at a mosque in Birmingham.
Prosecutors said the man, who lives in Rugby, Warwickshire, was the second Muslim to be convicted of cruelty as a result of allowing a boy take part in the Matam Zanjeer ceremony.
The court heard that the boy had participated in the ceremony in January 2007, when the man lived in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
Mozammel Hossain, defending, told Judge Nicholas Coleman today that the taxi driver had acted out of 'love' and 'devotion'.
'What he did, it is very clear, was out of devotion - religious - and his love for his son, in a very funny sort of way, and for his god,' said Mr Hossain.'He loves his son... his son loves him.
'The same thing was done to him. This is the way he has seen life. His father took him in Pakistan. He wanted his son to be a man the way he is.'
But he said the taxi driver had learned that allowing a child to beat himself was illegal in the UK and would not re-offend.
Judge Coleman said he accepted that the taxi driver had learned a lesson and said he wanted others to remember that British law did not allow children to be exposed to cruelty.
'Not only did you allow him to participate in the ceremony, in my judgment, you actively encouraged him,' said the judge, who had watched footage of a Matam Zanjeer ceremony during the trial.
'I must question as to why anyone would want to do this to themselves. Adults are free to make their own choices but children must not be allowed to take part.'
A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: "Whether or not a young person consents to harming themselves is not the point in a case like this and the law is very clear.
"This man was responsible for his son and failed in his duty of care to protect him." Posted on 01/30/2009 5:07 PM by Esmerelda WEatherwax
Friday, 30 January 2009
�Beware of CAIR� Say Members of Congress to Their Colleagues
Why the warning message from these concerned Members of Congress about the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR)? Because CAIR is about to storm Capitol Hill on February 6th in an intense lobbying blitz to combat its designation as an unindicted co-conspirator in the successful Dallas federal court retrial and conviction of The Holy Land Foundation which was caught funneling millions in charitable contributions to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. These House Members of the anti-Terror caucus want to get the message out to their colleagues and constituents that meeting with CAIR, given recent actions by the FBI distancing the agency staff, both national and regional from the Muslim Brotherhood Front, would be tantamount to sanctioning CAIR’s terrorist commitments to Hamas.
As revealed in two IPT news articles, “FBI Cuts Off CAIR Over Hamas Questions” and “CAIR’s True Colors; there is ample justification for the House Anti-Terror Caucus concerns. Investigative journalist Mary Jacoby noted this about the sudden change of heart by the FBI about outreach to CAIR:
The decision to end contacts with CAIR was made quietly last summer as federal prosecutors prepared for a second trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), an Islamic charity accused of providing money and political support to the terrorist group Hamas, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
CAIR and its chairman emeritus, Omar Ahmad, were named un-indicted co-conspirators in the HLF case. Both Ahmad and CAIR's current national executive director, Nihad Awad, were revealed on government wiretaps as having been active participants in early Hamas-related organizational meetings in the United States. During testimony, FBI agent Lara Burns described CAIR as a front organization.
Hamas is a US-designated foreign terrorist organization, and it's been illegal since 1995 to provide support to it within the United States.
The decision to end contacts with CAIR is a significant policy change for the FBI. For years, the FBI worked with the national organization and its state chapters to address Muslim community concerns about the potential for hate crimes and other civil liberty violations in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
But critics said the FBI improperly conferred legitimacy on CAIR by meeting with its officials, even as its own investigative files contained evidence of CAIR leaders' ties to Hamas.
Last autumn, FBI field offices began notifying state CAIR chapters that bureau officials could no longer meet with them until CAIR's national leadership in Washington had addressed issues raised by the HLF trial, according to people with knowledge of the notifications.
CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper declined to comment Wednesday when the IPT called for comment. Before hanging up, Hooper said "We're more than happy to cooperate with legitimate media. But we don't cooperate with those who promote anti-Muslim bigotry."
And what is the basis for these concerns? Note this supporting evidence from a report cited in the follow up IPT article on “CAIR’s True Colors:”
In Their Own Words: The Council on American Islamic Relations
- CAIR incorporator and current executive director Nihad Awad has publicly expressed his support for Hamas. At a symposium at Barry University in Florida on March 22, 1994 , he said:
"After I researched the situation inside and outside of Palestine , I am in support of the Hamas movement."[1] [emphasis added]
- At the 2007 ISNA 44th Annual Conference in Rosemont , Illinois , then CAIR -National Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed defended Hamas and Hezbollah by criticizing those who refuse to separate their roles as terrorist organizations and their roles as parts of democratic governments:
"Hamas and Hezbollah are both on the U.S. State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. But Hamas and Hezbollah are also part of their democratic governments. They’re elected representatives of their own people. So this presents a problem. And the challenges that often the detractors, who have a vested interest in perpetuating a situation of conflict in the Middle East try to use simple language and simple broad brush to lump them into the same category . And I call this ' Islamic exceptionalism. ' In other words that while the discourse among people of influence, people of knowledge, are able to distinguish between the subtleties of different things for other groups, that subtlety of differences are not applied towards Muslims."[2] [emphasis added]
- Asked in a May 27, 2003 deposition, "Do you support Hamas," CAIR co-founder and Chairman Emeritus Omar Ahmad responded, "It depends. Qualify ' support. ' "[3] Similarly, he was asked whether he had "ever taken a position with respect to... [Hamas ' ] ‘martyrdom attacks. ' " Ahmad responded, "No."[4]
- At the Islamic Society of North America ' s 44th Annual Conference in Rosemont , Illinois in 2007, then- CAIR National Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed justified "suicide terrorism" as a response to occupation:
"Another problem when talking about this question of suicide terrorism, suicide bombings, especially in the Middle East, especially in the occupied territories, you know people use a circular logic. It was not the suicide terrorism led to occupation; it was occupation led to suicide terrorism."[5]
- CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad has echoed Hamas ' absolute rejection of Israel’s legitimacy. In an April 1994 letter to the editor of The Message, an American-Muslim publication, he criticized the magazine for using the term “Israel."
"I hope," he wrote, "that the use of ' Israel ' in your news briefs was the result of an oversight and not intentional...Furthermore I hope you will return to the terminology "Occupied Palestine " to refer to that Holy Land ."[6] [emphasis added]
- At a Right of Return rally in front of the White House on September 16, 2000 , Awad rejected coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians, stating,
"they [the Jews] have been saying "next year to Jerusalem, ' we say ' next year to all Palestine.’ "[7]
- During CAIR ' s 13th Annual Banquet in San Jose , California in 2007, Awad argued that the U.S. is wrong in supporting Israel :
"..our government is blindly, unlimitly and unconsciously supporting the state of Israel, oppressing the Palestinian people. This is wrong, and we have to stand up and we have to tell our government, "Enough is enough.’ "[8]
- In March of 2008 Hussam Ayloush, Secretary of CAIR-California, characterized Israel with the aim of delegitimizing it and condemned the United States for act[ing] like a terrorist state:
It's a struggle for an America that respects and humanizes religion. It's an America that if free to act on its values and not on the interests of any foreign lobby. It's an America that rejects all forms of collective punishment on the Palestinians of Gaza and West Bank, an America that genuinely supports justice, peace and democracy in Palestine, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Pakistan, in Lebanon, in Somalia and all over the world, rather than supporting occupation, instability, the interests of defense and war companies and the corrupt allies and puppet regimes that we keep supporting an America that can defeat terrorists without having to act like one.'"[9] [emphasis added]
A December 2008 Associated Press article quoted CAIR Michigan Executive Director Dawud Walid downplaying the danger of the more than 5000 Hamas rockets fired at Israel in attempting to delegitimize Israel ' s defensive attacks:
"Today’s attack - which amounts to a massacre - was definitely a disproportionate response to a few cheap, homemade, makeshift rockets being fired across the border."
CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad echoed this same sentiment as quoted in a CNN article:
"We demand that our government, the U.S. government, take immediate steps to end the immoral and illegal Israeli bombardment of Gaza and its population."[10]
Send this article to your Members of Congress to further the warning made today in the “Dear Colleague” by the several House Anti-Terror caucus members. Perhaps a rising crescendo of outrage may stop CAIR in its efforts to further its agenda, infiltration of American institutions and establishment of a beachhead for strict Islamic Sharia law and support of Palestinian terror group, Hamas. Posted on 01/30/2009 4:31 PM by Jerry Gordon
Friday, 30 January 2009
Americans To Their Government: Do, Do Something
Posted on 01/30/2009 1:11 PM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Friday, 30 January 2009
But He Was Going To Banbury Cross
From Associated Press, Jan. 29, 2008:
CODY, Wyo. - A man has been cited for public intoxication while riding a white horse during a snowstorm in the northern Wyoming town of Cody.
Police said they cited 28-year-old Benjamin Daniels, of Cody, after they received a call at 4 p.m. Sunday from a motorist who was concerned that a man was creating a road hazard by riding his horse on a street in conditions with poor visibility.
Assistant Police Chief George Menig said officers noticed that Daniels was intoxicated after they stopped him to explain that drivers were having difficulty spotting his slow-moving white horse. Posted on 01/30/2009 11:54 AM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Friday, 30 January 2009
What About The Cholera In Zimbabwe, Or, The U.N. Only Has Time For Gaza
"Cholera spreads to 60,000 in Zimbabwe..."
Not a peep not a hint of a public outcry or demonstration, not any plans for fundraising by some supposed samaritans on some British television station, not any discussion of why 2% of the U.N.'s aid goes to UNRWA, while only a bit more -- 3% -- goes to all other refugees, all over the world. And this despite the fact that the Arab Muslims have received, since 1973 alone, more than twelve trillion dollars in oil revenues (that required no effort on their part), but the world, or the world of the U.N., insists on making sure that the Gazan Arabs, and the West Bank Arabs, and other Arabs who claim, after 60 years, to somehow acquire, as no other set of "refugees" in the world ever has, a permanent, genetically-transferable status of "refugees."
Henry Kissinger was a "refugee" from Nazi Germany. Vladimir Nabokov was a "refugee" from Bolshevik Russia. Is Henry Kissinger's son, or his grandson, or will his great-grandson, be described as "German refugees"? Is Dmitri Nabokov a "Russian refugee"? What about the children of people who arrived in the United States from Russia twenty years ago, who are now eight or twelve or fifteen. Are they "Russian refugees"? Is someone who is the child of an "Asian family" booted out of Uganda by Idi Amin, someone born in London or Toronto, a "Ugandan refugee" or even a "refugee from Uganda"? But with the Arabs who since late 1967 have been carefully calling themselves the "Palestinian people," refugee status is permanent, and can be inherited, and never ends. For the Jihad against Israel needs this as one more arrow in the quiver of Jihad.
And they also need that phrase "refugee camps." Look at those "camps." They are cities. They are no different from many parts of Amman, or Damascus, or Beirut, or Cairo. They have apartment buildings. They have every convenience that the Infidels have brought to the Arabs and Muslims. They have television stations, and DVD stores, and Pampers for sale in the stores (indeed, Pampers are among the goods, along with all those rockets and explosives, favored for smuggling), and cell-phone stores. Is that what you think of when you see pictures of real refugees -- which despite all the attention given to the Arabs, sometimes do manage to make it into the public's ken -- in Ethiopia, fleeing famine, or in Chad, fleeing Arab Muslim mass-murderers, or in Rwanda or the Congo, or think of how those 400,00 Kashmiri Pandits, driven out by Muslims, live still today. That is real impoverishment, those are real refugees, and not a second or third or fourth generation carefully claiming, for political reasons, in furtherance of the Jihad against Israel, to be refugees.
Bring on the cholera, and full steam ahead with those pledges, that billion dollars from Saudi Arabia, that $631 million that the U.N. claims it needs to raise, those tens or hundreds of millions pledged from Japan, and the U.S., and so many other places, all for Gaza. And as for the daily life of people in Calcutta, or the Congo, who cares? As for the cholera in Zimbambwe, well what about it? What's it to us, we who have to keep our eyes, our focus, deliberately and steadily on the sins of the Israelis in Gaza.
Well, what did you expect? There's no Jewish connection or angle . Roy Wilensky has been deadd for decades. The synagogue in Bulawayo closed, and shipped the books of the Jewish community to the Yiddish Book Repository in Western Massachusetts some time ago. So really, why should the U.N., or the BBC, or Oxfam, or a thousand NGOs quick off the mark about putative Israeli (Jewish) misdeeds, have to get excited?
When someone asks you "How is the cholera in Zimbabwe?" you have the permission of the BBC, and the U.N., and Karen AbuZayd and John Ging of UNRWA, to respond with the same look of indifference or annoyance so many at Bush House, or at the U.N., would likely offer. Who cares? It's not Gaza. It's not about the "Palestinians." It doesn't help in Israel-bashing. There is no Jewish angle. So forget it. Or at least, if you must on the news or at some gathering mention, at least have the decency to mention it only en passant, quite quickly, along with all those other things -- darfursouthernsudanchadcongoetc. -- that shouldn't be allowed to take precious attention away from what really counts. And right now what really counts is Gaza, Gaza, Gaza.
Posted on 01/30/2009 10:13 AM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Friday, 30 January 2009
Pound foolish
From The Times:
Those of us who pursued the smart course of following our financial adviser's recommendations and ploughing all our cash into CDOs, oil futures, shorts, SIVs and derivatives now find ourselves in the lucky position of having all the money we'll need for the rest of our lives - provided we die by next Tuesday.
How did that happen? It happened because by the time we realised that most of these financial advisers understood leveraged CDOs (full name: collateralised debt obligations) and monoline insurance about as well as you and I understand the solution to Fermat's Last Theorem, it was way too late. How were we to know that a plausible-sounding financial instrument such as a “CDO” might, in practice, involve taking a stake in a loan to a hillbilly living in a trailer park in Arkansas?
We asked people in Brighton what they understood by the following terms: hedge fund, derivative, sub-prime market, short selling, fiscal stimulus, arbitrage and quantitative easing. Here are their answers:
Allan Hart, 22, student
Hedge fund: dunno
Derivative: dunno
Sub-prime market: dunno
Short selling: dunno
Fiscal stimulus: dunno
Arbitrage: dunno
Quantitative easing: I'm a music student, not an economics student.
Michael Moscrop, 73, cab driver
Hedge fund: Something to do with gardens? Or people that manage other people's money and try to make a profit.
Derivative: Maybe it's a way to manage hedge funds.
Sub-prime market: Debt. And I know all about debt. I've just been declared bankrupt.
Short selling: It's when people buy shares that are going down knowing that they're going to be going back up again.
Fiscal stimulus: Never heard of it.
Arbitrage: It sounds French to me - a new type of blancmange perhaps?
Quantitative easing: Hopefully when things get better.
[...]
Thomas Everchild, 59, graphic designer
Hedge fund: Money collected to keep the hedges going? [Funny you should say that: M.J.]
Derivative: I know what derivative means, but not in a financial sense. In my opinion, technical nomenclatures like this are usually used to hide what you're doing.
Sub-prime market: I wouldn't know about that. I don't know what a prime market is so I couldn't tell you what a subprime market is.
Short selling: I don't really know but I would guess that someone will be making lots of money out of it.
Fiscal stimulus: Something to do with putting money into something to make it do what you think you want it to do.
Arbitrage: It sounds like one of those words like ‘destinationalised' that American pilots use these days: “We will shortly destinationalize in New York.”
Quantitative easing: Easing can also mean lubricating. So it could mean trying to make something move faster. Posted on 01/30/2009 10:00 AM by Mary Jackson
Friday, 30 January 2009
Failed Exeter suicide bomber jailed for life
From Reuters, The Times and the Exeter Express and Echo.
A Muslim convert who tried to carry out a suicide bomb attack on a busy family restaurant in Exeter, Devon, was jailed for life on Friday.
Nicky Reilly, 22, who has Asperger's syndrome and a mental age of 10, was described as the “least cunning” person ever to have been charged with terrorism.
Sentencing him today at the Old Bailey to life, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said: “I am quite satisfied that these offences are so serious that only a life sentence is appropriate. This defendant currently represents a significant risk of serious harm to the public.
“The offence of attempted murder is aggravated by the fact that it was long-planned, that it had multiple intended victims and was intended to terrorise the population of this country.
“It was sheer luck or chance that it did not succeed in its objectives.”
Reilly had intended to run out into the packed dining area holding three bottles, filled with caustic soda, kerosene, and nails, to his stomach.
But he got stuck in the toilet as he prepared the blast, leaving one of the bottles to go off before he could leave the cubicle.
Reilly, who appeared in court as Mohamad Abdulaziz Rashid Saeed Alim, set up his own page on YouTube, Chechen 233, where he discussed with the men who his targets should be. They answered his questions and directed him to bomb-making websites.
Officers said the failed attack was a terrifying echo of the tactics of extremists in Iraq who use the mentally or physically disabled to carry out attacks.
Stunned detectives listened in horror as a Muslim convert told them he wanted to kill himself and as many others as possible in a suicide attack.
Speaking from his hospital bed just hours after a botched bombing, 22-year-old Nicky Reilly wasted no time outlining his murderous intentions.
Reilly suffered burns to his face and arms when his volatile home-made liquid bomb exploded in a restaurant toilet cubicle.
Dozens of customers sitting just yards away at Exeter's trendy Giraffe cafe fled in panic after hearing three loud bangs and smelling smoke.
"He told police he intended to martyr himself and to kill others in the restaurant.
"In his words, this was in retaliation for the oppression of Muslims around the world and in relation to world events of recent years.
"His initial explanation was given in a slightly disjointed way as he was left in shock by the premature explosion."
Nicky Reilly left a suicide note in his bedroom blaming the "disgusting" behaviour of Britons and the "war on Islam" for his attack.
The rambling note, printed in red ink, attacks drunkenness and sexual immorality as well as the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.
In it, Muslim convert Reilly insists: "I have not been brainwashed or indoctrinated."
The note reads: "In the name of God most gracious, most merciful: why I did it.
"Everywhere Muslims are suffering at the hands of Britain, Israel and America. We are sick of taking all the brutality from you.
"You have imprisoned over 1,000 Muslims in Britain alone in your war on Islam.
"You torture and destroy Muslim lives by taking a father or a son or a brother, even you torture Muslim women.
"In Britain it's OK for a girl to have sex without marriage and if she gets pregnant she can get an abortion so easily.
"When you are getting drunk on Friday and Saturday night your behaviour is worse than animals.
"You have sex in nightclub toilets. You urinate in shop doorways. You shout your foul and disgusting mouth off in the street.
"It is unacceptable to Allah and the true religion Islam. Britain and USA and Israel have no real rules.
"All us Muslims have seen the pictures of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and you all know what you do to our brothers in Guantanamo Bay.
"Sheikh Usama has told you the solution on how to end this war between us and many others have as well but you ignore us.
"Our words are dead until we give them life with our blood. Leave our lands and stop your support for Israel.
"I have not been brainwashed or indoctrinated. I am not insane.
"I am not doing it to escape a life of problems or hardships. I am doing what God wants from his mujahideen. We love death as you love life.
"Muslims welcome death because we will get jennah, inshallah, for defending the weak and oppressed Muslims.
"You kill one of my people, I kill one of yours.
"I have simply seen for myself the brutality and corruption of America, Britain and Israel for myself and my common sense told me it is unacceptable and wrong.
"The word is the word of the sword until the wrongs have been righted."
Posted on 01/30/2009 9:12 AM by Esmerelda Weatherwax
Friday, 30 January 2009
More Craporola Adds To The Job-Hunter's Misery
Posted on 01/30/2009 8:37 AM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Friday, 30 January 2009
FBI Finally Cuts Ties With CAIR
From IPT (hat tip: Andy McCarthy):
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has cut off contacts with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) amid mounting concern about the Muslim advocacy group's roots in a Hamas-support network, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned.
The decision to end contacts with CAIR was made quietly last summer as federal prosecutors prepared for a second trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), an Islamic charity accused of providing money and political support to the terrorist group Hamas, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
CAIR and its chairman emeritus, Omar Ahmad, were named un-indicted co-conspirators in the HLF case. Both Ahmad and CAIR's current national executive director, Nihad Awad, were revealed on government wiretaps as having been active participants in early Hamas-related organizational meetings in the United States. During testimony, FBI agent Lara Burns described CAIR as a front organization.
Hamas is a US-designated foreign terrorist organization, and it's been illegal since 1995 to provide support to it within the United States.
The decision to end contacts with CAIR is a significant policy change for the FBI. For years, the FBI worked with the national organization and its state chapters to address Muslim community concerns about the potential for hate crimes and other civil liberty violations in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
But critics said the FBI improperly conferred legitimacy on CAIR by meeting with its officials, even as its own investigative files contained evidence of CAIR leaders' ties to Hamas.
Last autumn, FBI field offices began notifying state CAIR chapters that bureau officials could no longer meet with them until CAIR's national leadership in Washington had addressed issues raised by the HLF trial, according to people with knowledge of the notifications.... Posted on 01/30/2009 7:54 AM by Rebecca Bynum
Friday, 30 January 2009
A Musical Interlude: Truckin' (Ina Ray Hutton And Her Melodears)
Posted on 01/30/2009 7:37 AM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Friday, 30 January 2009
Multiple subjectivities
When it comes to subjectivities you can't have too many of them. From Caroline Guertin's essay ‘Wanderlust: The Kinesthetic Browser in Cyberfeminist Space’, with thanks to David Thompson:
'The shuffling and unfolding of the information of her body in sensory space is enacted across a gap or trajectory of subjecthood that is multiple and present. Subjectivity is the lens and connector through which the spatio-temporal dislocation gets focused and bridged. The gap is outside vision – felt not seen – and always existing on the threshold in between nodes. Like the monster’s subjectivities, all knots in the matrix are linked.’
David Thompson unpicks this (or unpacks it - I can't remember which is the current buzzword):
At this point readers may wonder what, exactly, a ‘gap or trajectory of subjecthood’ is – and why it’s both ‘multiple’ and ‘present’. They may also wonder why this should be preferable to, or different from, one that is multiple while absent, or singular while absent. Or singular while present.
Read the rest of David Thompson's look at Art Bollocks here.
Caroline Guertin must not be confused with Orla Guerin, who in turn must not be confused with anyone with a moral compass. Posted on 01/30/2009 6:28 AM by Mary Jackson
Friday, 30 January 2009
Does she live in a shoe?
From the BBC:
A Californian woman who gave birth to octuplets earlier this week already has six children, US media has reported.
The eight babies were delivered nine weeks early by Caesarean section in a hospital near Los Angeles on Monday.
The mother has not been named, but US media is quoting family members as saying she already has six other children, including twins.
Another report said that the mother intended to breast-feed all eight babies. How?
Posted on 01/30/2009 6:10 AM by Mary Jackson
Friday, 30 January 2009
Broadcast angers Muslims
From The Detroit News
Leaders want radio station to stop airing comments by priest they say defame Muhammad.
Muslims and interfaith leaders in Metro Detroit are asking a local radio station owner to discontinue broadcasts in which, they say, a Coptic priest has repeatedly defamed the Prophet Muhammad over the past year.
In an Arabic-language broadcast Wednesday on WNZK 680/690 AM, the Rev. Zakariah Boutros said the Muslim prophet Muhammad had engaged in necrophilia and gay sex, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations.
Boutros has previously come under fire from area Muslims, who say he disparages Islam. The controversial, American-based priest can be heard on purchased time slots on radio stations internationally. His words have stirred controversy in Egypt and Great Britain, and are embraced by a number of bloggers and Web sites that criticize Islam.
Amani Mostafa, who hosts the program "Questions About Faith" on which Boutros spoke Thursday, said Boutros was "reading from an Islamic text" when he said, over the air, that the Prophet Muhammad slept in the grave of a dead woman and allowed a man to kiss and caress his chest.
"I am a former Muslim," said Mostafa, who is now Christian. "I know exactly what I am talking about. These are the things we were taught as children. We are quoting the Quran and the Hadiths, and if the Muslims have a problem with that then they have a problem with their own book."
Muslims say that no such wording appears in the Quran or the Hadiths.
"If that's their excuse, it's lame," said Dawud Walid, of CAIR, which distributed a "national alert" Thursday asking Muslims to contact the radio station to express concerns about the broadcast. CAIR also counseled Muslims to be "firm but polite. Hostile comments can and will be used to further defame Islam and Muslims."
Sima Birach, who owns the station, said he had received some complaints on Thursday, though he said he did not know how many. . . on Thursday, Birach said he had since heard from "several prominent people in the community," that what Boutros stated in the broadcasts is true.
"Maybe we need to have more meetings," Birach said, referring to members of the Muslim and interfaith communities. Posted on 01/30/2009 3:28 AM by Esmerelda Weatherwax
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Shiites Riot Against Sunni Masters After Arrests In Bahrain
Riots erupt after arrest of Bahraini Shiites
January 28, 2009
MANAMA (AFP) — Clashes erupted in a Bahrain village on Wednesday between local security forces and demonstrators protesting at the detention of Shiite opposition activists on terrorism charges, witnesses said.
Security forces used tear gas to try to break up the demonstration in Al-Darraz, a village west of the capital Manama, during the second night of protests in Bahrain.
Hassan Mesheima, the head of the opposition group Haq (Rights), cleric Mohammed al-Moqdad and Haq spokesman Abduljalil Alsingace were arrested on Monday accused of training and funding a terrorist group and seeking to overthrow the regime, a defence lawyer said.
The public prosecutor has ordered Mesheima and Moqdad to be remanded in custody for two weeks and Alsingace to be kept under house arrest, lawyer Jalila al-Sayed said.
The Islamic Council of Ulemas, the highest Shiite authority in the Sunni-ruled Gulf state, called for the "unconditional and immediate release" of the detained campaigners.
It said the move signalled a "grave escalation which will aggravate tensions" between the Sunni and Shiite communities.
Bahrain was plagued in the 1990s by a wave of Shiite-led unrest which has abated since the authorities launched steps to convert the Gulf emirate into a constitutional monarchy. Posted on 01/29/2009 10:11 PM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Thursday, 29 January 2009
An Israeli Soldier Writes To The Gazan Arab Family In Whose House He Stayed
The following letter first appeared, in Hebrew, in Maariv, and has just appeared in an English translation:
An Open Letter to A citizen Of Gaza:
I Am the Soldier Who Slept In Your Home:
By: Yishai G (reserve soldier)
ygoldflam@gmail.com
Hello,
While the world watches the ruins in Gaza, you return to your home which
remains standing. However, I am sure that it is clear to you that someone
was in your home while you were away.
I am that someone.
I spent long hours imagining how you would react when you walked into your
home. How you would feel when you understood that IDF soldiers had slept on
your mattresses and used your blankets to keep warm.
I knew that it would make you angry and sad and that you would feel this
violation of the most intimate areas of your life by those defined as your
enemies, with stinging humiliation. I am convinced that you hate me with
unbridled hatred, and you do not have even the tiniest desire to hear what I
have to say. At the same time, it is important for me to say the following
in the hope that there is even the minutest chance that you will hear me.
I spent many days in your home. You and your family's presence was felt in
every corner. I saw your family portraits on the wall, and I thought of my
family. I saw your wife's perfume bottles on the bureau, and I thought of my wife. I saw
your children's toys and their English language schoolbooks. I saw your
personal computer and how you set up the modem and wireless phone next to
the screen, just as I do.
I wanted you to know that despite the immense disorder you found in your
house that was created during a search for explosives and tunnels (which
were indeed found in other homes), we did our best to treat your possessions
with respect. When I moved the computer table, I disconnected the cables and
lay them down neatly on the floor, as I would do with my own computer. I
even covered the computer from dust with a piece of cloth. I tried to put
back the clothes that fell when we moved the closet although not the same as
you would have done, but at least in such a way that nothing would get lost.
I know that the devastation, the bullet holes in your walls and the
destruction of those homes near you place my descriptions in a ridiculous
light. Still, I need you to understand me, us, and hope that you will
channel your anger and criticism to the right places.
I decided to write you this letter specifically because I stayed in your
home.
I can surmise that you are intelligent and educated and there are those in
your household that are university students. Your children learn English,
and you are connected to the Internet. You are not ignorant; you know what
is going on around you.
Therefore, I am sure you know that Qassam rockets were launched from your
neighborhood into Israeli towns and cities.
How could you see these weekly launches and not think that one day we would
say "enough"?! Did you ever consider that it is perhaps wrong to launch
rockets at innocent civilians trying to lead a normal life, much like you?
How long did you think we would sit back without reacting?
I can hear you saying "it's not me, it's Hamas". My intuition tells me you
are not their most avid supporter. If you look closely at the sad reality in
which your people live, and you do not try to deceive yourself or make
excuses about "occupation", you must certainly reach the conclusion that the
Hamas is your real enemy.
The reality is so simple, even a seven year old can understand: Israel
withdrew from the Gaza strip, removing military bases and its citizens from
Gush Katif. Nonetheless, we continued to provide you with electricity,
water, and goods (and this I know very well as during my reserve duty I
guarded the border crossings more than once, and witnessed hundreds of
trucks full of goods entering a blockade-free Gaza every day).
Despite all this, for reasons that cannot be understood and with a lack of
any rational logic, Hamas launched missiles on Israeli towns. For three
years we clenched our teeth and restrained ourselves. In the end, we could
not take it anymore and entered the Gaza strip, into your neighborhood, in
order to remove those who want to kill us. A reality that is painful but
very easy to explain.
As soon as you agree with me that Hamas is your enemy and because of them,
your people are miserable, you will also understand that the change must
come from within. I am acutely aware of the fact that what I say is easier
to write than to do, but I do not see any other way. You, who are connected
to the world and concerned about your children's education, must lead,
together with your friends, a civil uprising against Hamas.
I swear to you, that if the citizens of Gaza were busy paving roads,
building schools, opening factories and cultural institutions instead of
dwelling in self pity, arms smuggling and nurturing a hatred to your Israeli
neighbors, your homes would not be in ruins right now. If your leaders were
not corrupt and motivated by hatred, your home would not have been harmed.
If someone would have stood up and shouted that there is no point in
launching missiles on innocent civilians, I would not have to stand in your
kitchen as a soldier.
You don't have money, you tell me? You have more than you can imagine.
Even before Hamas took control of Gaza, during the time of Yasser Arafat,
millions if not billions of dollars donated by the world community to the
Palestinians was used for purchasing arms or taken directly to your leaders
bank accounts. Gulf States, the emirates - your brothers, your flesh and
blood, are some of the richest nations in the world. If there was even a
small feeling of solidarity between Arab nations, if these nations had but
the smallest interest in reconstructing the Palestinian people - your
situation would be very different.
You must be familiar with Singapore. The land mass there is not much larger
than the Gaza strip and it is considered to be the second most populated
country in the world. Yet, Singapore is a successful, prospering, and well
managed country. Why not the same for you?
My friend, I would like to call you by name, but I will not do so publicly.
I want you to know that I am 100% at peace with what my country did, what my
army did, and what I did. However, I feel your pain. I am sorry for the
destruction you are finding in your neighborhood at this moment. On a
personal level, I did what I could to minimize the damage to your home as
much as possible.
In my opinion, we have a lot more in common than you might imagine. I am a
civilian, not a soldier, and in my private life I have nothing to do with
the military. However, I have an obligation to leave my home, put on a
uniform, and protect my family every time we are attacked. I have no desire
to be in your home wearing a uniform again and I would be more than happy to
sit with you as a guest on your beautiful balcony, drinking sweet tea
seasoned with the sage growing in your garden.
The only person who could make that dream a reality is you. Take
responsibility for yourself, your family, your people, and start to take
control of your destiny. How? I do not know. Maybe there is something to be
learned from the Jewish people who rose up from the most destructive human
tragedy of the 20th century, and instead of sinking into self-pity, built a
flourishing and prospering country. It is possible, and it is in your hands.
I am ready to be there to provide a shoulder of support and help to you.
But only you can move the wheels of history."
Regards,
Yishai, (Reserve Soldier)
Posted on 01/29/2009 9:54 PM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Thursday, 29 January 2009
A Musical Interlude: All Of Me (Russ Columbo)
Posted on 01/29/2009 7:27 PM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Thursday, 29 January 2009
And Are American Bombs On Tora Bora Caves Also War Crimes?
Israel to appeal Spanish war crimes probe against its senior officials
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaertz Service The Associated Press
Israel will on Friday appeal a decision by a Spanish judge to open a probe against National Infrastructures Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and six other current or former Israeli officials over a 2002 bombing in Gaza that killed one Hamas militant and 14 other people, inluding nine children.
Ben-Eliezer, who was defense minister at the time of the bombing, blasted the decision as "ludicrous" adding that "even more than ludicrous, it is outrageous. Terror organizations use the courts of the free world and the mechanisms of democratic nations to file suit against a country that operates against terror."
Judge Fernando Andreu said the attack by Israel, which targeted senior Hamas militant Salah Shehadeh in a densely populated civilian area, might constitute a crime against humanity.
"I do not regret my decision." added Ben-Eliezer. "Salah Shehadeh was a Hamas activist, an arch-murderer whose hands were stained with the blood of about 100 Israelis and who carried out the most heinous attacks against our citizens."
The Justice Ministry on Thursday sent the Israeli Embassy in Madrid a large amount of documents which included legal rulings and Supreme Court decisions dealing with the targeted killing of Shehadeh.
Israeli Ambassador to Spain Rafi Shotz will on Friday give the material to the Spanish judge in order to help bring a cancellation of the ruling.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak earlier Thursdsay lambasted Andreu's decision as "hallucinatory."
"Whoever calls the assassination of a terrorist a 'crime against humanity' is living in an upside-down world," said Barak, in a statement released by his ministry.
Barak added that, "All senior officials in the security establishment, current and erstwhile, have acted appropriately on behalf of Israel and from a commitment to defend its citizens."
The judge is acting under a doctrine that allows prosecution in Spain of such an offense or crimes like terrorism or genocide even if they are alleged to have been committed in another country.
Andreu announced the probe in a writ issued Thursday.
The people named in the suit include Dan Halutz, former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff and Israel Air Force commander at the time, as well as Ben-Eliezer.
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu also condemned the decision to open the probe.
"It's absurd; Israel is fighting against war criminals and they are charging us with crimes?" said Netanyahu, speaking on Army Radio.
He added: "There is nothing more ridiculous and absurd than them accusing us, a democracy legitimately protecting itself against terrorists and war criminals, of these crimes; it is absurd and makes a mockery out of international law."
Meanwhile, Israel is preparing for a wave of lawsuits by pro-Palestinian organizations overseas against Israelis involved in the latest Gaza fighting, claiming they were responsible for war crimes due to the harsh results stemming from the IDF's actions against Palestinian civilians and their property.
Senior Israeli ministers have expressed serious fears following the war about the possibility that Israel will be pressed to agree to an international investigation of the losses among non-combatants during Operation Cast Lead; or alternately, that Israelis will be faced with personal suits, such as happened to Israeli officers who were accused of war crimes in Britain for their actions during the second intifada.
Posted on 01/29/2009 4:47 PM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Cui bono?
Regarding Israel's purported attack on a UN school in Gaza, here is a comment from Lynne T, a reader of Harry's Place:
So, firstly, one has to ask why the UN stated that deaths occured within the compound, when none had. When John Ging, UNRWA Director of Operations in Gaza, visited the UN school in Jabaliya he stated in a press release, which says an Israeli strike on UNWRA school occurred:
“There’s nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized. These men, women and children are all seeking safety and there is no safety in Gaza at the moment, even in an UNRWA school. This is unacceptable.”
Why indeed?
Perhaps because a factual representation of the “refugees” (the majority of whom were electors responsible for the democrat election of Hamas precisely because Hamas promised to make a war of extermination against Israel) would result in far less largesse being bestowed upon the Palestinians and, as a result, far fewer jobs for the likes of John Ging.
Funny how it works. The Palestinians have been official “refugees” since 1948 regardless of the merits of their individual claims, some of which were very dubious. They have an entire UN agency dedicated to their situation whereas all other refugees in the world are served by a single agency.
And Norm Finkelstein talks about “The Holocaust Industry”!
Bono is another one that does well out of these things. Posted on 01/29/2009 4:37 PM by Mary Jackson
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Martin Kramer Sets Henry Siegman (And Gerald Kaufman Etc.) Straight
From the website of Martin Kramer:
Henry Siegman, who must spend every waking hour hating Israel, has a piece in the London Review of Books, which is never complete without an Israel-bashing tirade. This one is called simply "Israel's Lies." Siegman spends a lot of time faulting Israel for the breakdown of the previous six-month cease-fire with Hamas, reached through Egyptian mediation in June 2008. In one passage, he accurately reports the quid pro quo of the cease-fire:
[The cease-fire] required both parties to refrain from violent action against the other. Hamas had to cease its rocket assaults and prevent the firing of rockets by other groups such as Islamic Jihad... and Israel had to put a stop to its targeted assassinations and military incursions.
Correct. But only a couple of paragraphs earlier, he set up the cease-fire as an entirely differently deal—and accused Israel of violating it:
Israel, not Hamas, violated the truce: Hamas undertook to stop firing rockets into Israel; in return, Israel was to ease its throttlehold on Gaza. In fact, during the truce, it tightened it further.
Therefore according to Siegman, Israel violated the cease-fire before Hamas fired a single rocket, by reneging on its supposed commitment to ease sanctions. Rashid Khalidi, writing in the New York Times, went even further: "Lifting the blockade," he wrote, "along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas." (My emphasis.)
None of this is true.
First of all, contra Khalidi, Israel did not agree to "lifting" of the "blockade," only to easing it. At the time, the Economist reported the cease-fire thus (my emphasis):
The two sides agreed to start with three days of calm. If that holds, Israel will allow some construction materials and merchandise into Gaza, slightly easing an economic blockade that it has imposed since Hamas wrested control of the strip.
And Israel did just that: it slightly eased the sanctions on some construction materials and merchandise. Siegman falsely claims that Israel "tightened" its "throttlehold" on Gaza after the cease-fire, and that this is confirmed by "every neutral international observer and NGO." Untrue. The numbers refuting him appear in the last PalTrade (Palestine Trade Center) report on the Gaza terminals, published on November 19, as part of its "Cargo Movement and Access Monitoring and Reporting Project." The report says the following (my emphasis):
Following the announcement of the truce 'hudna' on June 19, 2008 and took effect on June 22, a slight improvement occurred in terms of terminals operation times, types of goods, and truckloads volume that [Israel] allowed to enter Gaza Strip.
This is exactly what Israel had agreed to permit. Here is the table from the PalTrade report, comparing average monthly imports before the Hamas coup (June 12, 2007), between the coup and the "truce," and then after (i.e., during) the "truce" (through October 31). (If you can't see the table below, click here).
 As is obvious from this table, Israel did ease sanctions during the cease-fire. The average number of truckloads per month entering Gaza during the cease-fire rose by 50 percent over the period before the cease-fire, and Israel also allowed the import of some aggregates and cement, formerly prohibited. (No metal allowed, of course—it's used to make rockets.) Israel did not allow more fuel, but the PalTrade report notes that fuel brought from Egypt through the tunnels "somewhat made up the deficit of fuel that entered through Nahal Oz entry point." (For Israel's own day-by-day, crossing-by-crossing account of what went into Gaza during the cease-fire, go here. This account also puts the increase of merchandise entering Gaza at 50 percent.)
Why do the Khalidi and Siegman errors (or lies, if made knowingly) matter now? If you believe Khalidi's claim that the last cease-fire included "lifting the blockade," you might say: why shouldn't Israel agree to lift it in this one? Or if you believe Siegman's claim that Israel tightened the sanctions at the crossings during the cease-fire, you might say: Israel shortchanged the Palestinians once, so the next deal on the crossings has to have international guarantees. But in both cases, you'd be relying on entirely bogus claims.
Israel has a compelling strategic reason to keep the sanctions in place. (I say sanctions and not blockade, because Israel doesn't control the Egyptian-Gazan border, and so cannot impose a true blockade.) Israel's sanctions are meant to squeeze the "resistance" out of the Hamas regime—and, if possible, to break its monopoly on power in Gaza. Unless these goals are met, at least in part, it's lights-out for any peace process. And as long as sanctions don't create extreme humanitarian crises—as opposed to hardships—they're a perfectly legitimate tool. It was sanctions that ended apartheid in South Africa, kept Saddam from reconsituting his WMD programs, got Qadhafi to give up his WMD, and might (hope against hope) stop Iran's nuclear program.
Hamas owes everything not to its feeble "resistance," but to the tendency of the weak of will or mind to throw it lifelines. It's now demanding that the sanctions be lifted, and the usual chorus is echoing the cynical claims of a tyrannical and terrorist regime that shows no mercy toward its opponents, Israeli or Palestinian. Supporters of peace shouldn't acquiesce in another bailout of its worst enemy. It's time to break the cycle, and make it clear beyond doubt that the Hamas bubble has burst. The way to do that is to keep the sanctions in place. Posted on 01/29/2009 7:09 PM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Jihad As An Internal Struggle
Posted on 01/29/2009 4:16 PM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Could The Fast Jihadists Of Hamas Be Any Clearer?
Posted on 01/29/2009 4:13 PM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Thursday, 29 January 2009
The Fury Mounts
Posted on 01/29/2009 4:05 PM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Brividi
Posted on 01/29/2009 3:28 PM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Hamas Torturing And Killing Fatah Members
Hamas accused of torture death of Gaza criticGAZA (Reuters) - A Palestinian man on Thursday accused Islamist Hamas militants in control of the Gaza Strip of torturing and killing his brother for publicly criticizing them.
Osama Atallah, a teacher, was a supporter of the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the sworn enemy of Hamas, whose gunmen drove Fatah militia out of Gaza in 2007 and fought Israel's army in a three-week war this month.
His brother Bassam said masked gunmen in two jeeps arrived at the family home in the city of Gaza on Tuesday. They identified themselves as members of Hamas internal security and they arrested his brother Osama.
Bassam said the Hamas security service told the Atallah family Osama would be released in a matter of hours. But a Hamas government official, who is also a member of the Atallah family, later denied the teacher was in custody.
The family subsequently received a telephone call from hospital that Osama Atallah was in critical condition.
He later died of his wounds.
Ten Israeli soldiers died in the 22-day offensive, including four in a "friendly fire" accident. About 1,300 Palestinians were killed, according to a Gaza human rights group, of whom over 700 were civilians.
Many older Gaza Palestinians scoffed at a claim of "victory" by Hamas once the fighting was halted on Jan 18.
Fatah sources said Osama Atallah, a Fatah activist, had been threatened by Hamas "because of his public and continued criticism of the performance of the Hamas militias in Gaza."
They accused Hamas of "severely torturing and then strangling" Osama Atallah. They said bullets in his body could have been fired after he died.
Hamas interior ministry spokesman Ehab al-Ghsain did not respond to telephone calls from Reuters about the accusation.
Hamas security officials said "dozens of collaborators" had been detained, including people they accused of spying for Israel during this month's battles.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Thursday that Hamas "executed several dozen civilians" during and after Israel's assault on Gaza. Some were members of Fatah, but others were not politically affiliated, the paper said.
Haaretz quoted an Israeli intelligence source as saying a number of Palestinian agents working for Israel were intercepted by Hamas "because the intelligence they provided was used carelessly" by commanders intent on minimizing troop casualties.
"It appears that in most cases Hamas suspected that their victims had collaborated with Israeli intelligence," it said.
Hamas in Gaza has not confirmed killing collaborators. But an Arab newspaper has carried a statement by an exiled Hamas official confirming that the group killed several.
The accuracy of some Israeli airstrikes targeting individual militants in buildings, or trying to snipe at or pinpoint Israeli forces, certainly came from spies on the ground, according to some Palestinian security sources.
Haaretz said Israeli commanders with troops in Gaza were "very impressed that (intelligence services) could warn them with great precision of developments in their proximity."
Posted on 01/29/2009 10:53 AM by Hugh Fitzgerald
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So, firstly, one has to ask why the UN stated that deaths occured within the compound, when none had. When John Ging, UNRWA Director of Operations in Gaza, visited the UN school in Jabaliya he stated in a press release, which says an Israeli strike on UNWRA school occurred:
“There’s nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized. These men, women and children are all seeking safety and there is no safety in Gaza at the moment, even in an UNRWA school. This is unacceptable.”
Why indeed?
Perhaps because a factual representation of the “refugees” (the majority of whom were electors responsible for the democrat election of Hamas precisely because Hamas promised to make a war of extermination against Israel) would result in far less largesse being bestowed upon the Palestinians and, as a result, far fewer jobs for the likes of John Ging.
Funny how it works. The Palestinians have been official “refugees” since 1948 regardless of the merits of their individual claims, some of which were very dubious. They have an entire UN agency dedicated to their situation whereas all other refugees in the world are served by a single agency.
And Norm Finkelstein talks about “The Holocaust Industry”!