DAKAR (AFP) — A Senegalese court sentenced two women to six months in jail Thursday for circumcising a baby girl, rights watchdog Raddho said of a case that sparked clashes between religious protesters and police.
The court in Matam, 680 kilometres (425 miles) north of Dakar, handed down the sentences to a traditional female circumciser and the 16-month-old girl's grandmother while her parents were given six-month suspended sentences, Raddho's local representative said.
The grandmother got a harsher sentence than the parents as she was the one who took the girl to be circumcised, he added.
The practice has been forbidden in Senegal since 1999, when Senegal adopted a law to ban female circumcision, also known as female genital mutilation (FGM).
Since then many villages have signed pledges to ban female circumcision, but the Matam case stirred controversy with local Muslim religious leaders defending female circumcision as part of their tradition.
On Thursday morning, clashes broke out between religious protesters and local police, according to the RFM radio station.
The demonstrators threw rocks at the police who used teargas to break up the protest, the station added.
Raddho wanted to give off a strong signal to show that circumcision is banned," local Raddho spokesman David Diagne said. "We will continue our awareness campaign in the region to make it known that female circumcision can cause great harm especially in health terms with the risks of infection with the girls," he added.
According to Tostan, another NGO working to eradicate female circumcision said the practice had been "massively abandoned" in Senegal over the last decade.

TEHRAN (AFP) — A top Iranian official accused the United States of hiring the bombers who carried out a devastating attack on a Shiite mosque in the southeastern city of Zahedan, Fars news agency said.
"Three people involved with the terrorist incident were arrested," Jalal Sayah, deputy provincial governor of Sistan-Baluchistan province, told the agency.
"According to the information obtained they were hired by America and the agents of the arrogance."
Meanwhile, believing his countrymen to be open to bribery, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is boosting his chaces of re-election. From The Times.
Two weeks from today, Iran’s presidential election will determine whether Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Holocaust-denying, Israel-hating, America-bashing incumbent, remains in office, whether his country continues its drive to become a nuclear power, and whether a state with a key role in Iraq, Afghanistan and other international flashpoints remains hostile to the West.
The stakes could scarcely be higher, but it is the lowly potato that has been grabbing attention.
The Government is handing out 400,000 tonnes of free spuds in rural towns. It says that it is merely distributing the surplus from a bumper crop, but Mr Ahmadinejad’s opponents accuse it of bribing the poor. “Death to potatoes,” they chant at rallies.
The ancient Romans tempted the plebs with bread and circuses. But there is no fun in Islam so chips is as good as they get.

From The New York Times
President Obama called on Israelis and Palestinians on Thursday to move swiftly toward peace talks, as his administration embarked on its first public dispute with Israel.
Speaking to reporters at the White House after talks with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, Mr. Obama said that the absence of peace between Israelis and Palestinians was clogging up other critical issues in the Middle East.
“Time is of the essence,” Mr. Obama said. “We can’t continue with the drift and the increased fear on both sides, the sense of hopelessness that we’ve seen for too many years now. We need to get this thing back on track.” I suppose he was a "community organiser" in real life. Hey! Lets do the show right here!
Mr. Obama’s words echoed — albeit less bluntly — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s brusque call on Wednesday for a complete freeze of construction in settlements on the West Bank. In expansive language that left no wiggle room, Mrs. Clinton said that Mr. Obama “wants to see a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions.”Her comments took Israeli officials by surprise.
Mr. Obama said something similar last week during private talks with Mr. Netanyahu at the White House,On Thursday, Mr. Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev, told Agence France-Presse, the French news service, that “normal life” would be allowed in settlements in the occupied West Bank, using the phrase that Israel often uses to describe continued construction to accommodate population growth.Part of the reason administration officials are pushing the Israelis on settlements is that they think that stance will bolster Mr. Abbas, who has an increasingly fractured Palestinian population. Mr. Obama congratulated Mr. Abbas for adhering to the West’s argument that he should not form a national unity government with the militant Islamist organization Hamas  forswears violence and recognizes Israel’s right to exist. 
And pigs fly and Leyton Orient win the FA Cup.

Blue Suede Shoes was said to have been written by Carl Perkins after watching a young man at a dance in Tennessee trying to keep his girlfriend from scuffing his new shoes of blue suede. Another version is a story told him by Johnny Cash about a US airman protecting his uniform shoes.
The song was later covered by many artists most famously by Elvis Presley.
My youngest uncle apparently bought a pair of blue suede shoes in the 50s. Family legend has it that I put those shoes down the lavatory at my grandmother's house. 
My mother always denied that it happened and that she didn't allow me to be so naughty. I was too young to remember the shoes but believe that the punishment would have been memorable and thus I favour my Mothers view. My older cousin insists to this day that she remembers me doing so but I fear she is mistaken. Could you imagine me doing such a thing?
This is Carl Perkins from 1956.

From Islam In Europe:

The Islamic Cultural Center mosque has never hidden where they get their ideological inspiration: from Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan, an organization considered to be an extreme group on the extremist side of the religious and political landscape.

[Corrigendum: For "an organization considered to be an extreme group on the extremist side of the religious and political landscape," substitute "an Islamic organization."]

When the Norwegian royal family wanted to visit a Muslim community in Norway for the first time ever Monday, they chose the Islamic Cultural Center. It's unclear if Queen Sonja was aware of the links between the Islamic Cultural Center in Oslo and religious extremist groups in Pakistan.

[...]

She could have visited a mosque with moderate points of view.  It's a paradox that so many Muslims in Norway follow radical movements within Islam after they come to Norway.  [To paraphrase Winston Churchill, it's a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, then folded and placed between the pages of a Qur'an. We'll probably never figure it out.]

[...]

Taj says that in Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami is considered to have connections with al-Qaida.  It's typical that Jamaat-e-Islami is now one of three political groups who don't support the army's operations against extremism in the Swat area.

According to the Pakistani press, around 1990 Qazi Hussain Ahmad had several meetings with bin Laden.  After the terror attack against the US on September 11, 2001, he said the Jews were responsible.  When one of the top leaders of al-Qaeda, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, was arrested in 2003, he was found in the home of then important member of Jamaat-e-Islami.  Several experts consulted by Aftenposten emphasize, however, that Jamaat-e-Islami was never a part of bin Laden's terrorist network.

[...]

Jamaat-e-Islamic and the Islamic Cultural Center threaten women's rights, thinks Hege Storhaug, spokesperson for Human Rights Service.

"Queen Sonja could hardly have been aware of which ideological platform ICC supports when on Monday she, with a scarf over her head, spoke to the sex-segregated assembly," she says.

Storhaug points out that ICC's ideological leaders is Sayyid Maududi.  He particularly infamous for the book "Purdah and the Status of Women" from 1939.  It degrades women to second-class citizens.  He writes that women's eyes are an 'erogenous zone' that can lead to adultery.  The same holds for a woman's voice, which Maudud characterizes as 'agent of the devil'.

Several experts consulted by New English Review emphasize, however, that Islam has an entirely positive view of women.

From The Times. The fruit does not fall far from the tree.
Three sons of the radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri were jailed today for their part in the theft of more than £1 million worth of luxury cars that were then sold all over Europe.
Hamza’s sons, Hamza Kamel, 22, and Mohamed Mostafa, 27, along with his stepson Mohssin Ghailam, 28, helped run the two-year fraud with four other men.
The gang targeted BMWs, Range Rovers and Mercedes that had been left for weeks in long-stay car parks. They exploited a loophole in the DVLA system to divert registration details from the real owners to front addresses. Using false documentation they received log books and keys.Other cars were stolen during domestic burglaries.
Last year another of his seven sons, Yasser Mostafa Kamel, 18, narrowly escaped jail after admitting burglary.
Judge Gregory Stone, QC, sentencing seven men at Southwark Crown Court for their involvement in the case, said that it involved serious criminality and he had no alternative but to jail them all.
Kamel, of Acton, West London, pleaded guilty to counts of dishonest handling of stolen cars and money laundering and was handed two and a half years in prison.
Mostafa, also of Acton, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud, which involved the use of a false French passport and a utility bill and was sentenced to two years.
Ghailam pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and was given four years after being described as a “key player”.
The gang sold the cars for cash and detectives are not sure what they did with the money or where it went. Lawyers for the three sons had rejected suggestions that the cash was being used to finance terrorism.
Mohammed Chiadmi, 31, another “key player”, received four years, while his brother Abdul Chiadmi, 22, said to have played an “important role” also got four years. Khalid Jebari, 22, the operation’s driver, received two years for handling stolen goods plus two years for possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply. Hamza Mrimou, 27, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud, got three and a half years.

From Wales on Line
A man was jailed today for shining a laser at a passenger plane preparing to land.
Hossein Hosseiny briefly illuminated the cockpit of the Dublin to Cardiff aircraft which was carrying 52 people on board on the evening of March 8.
The pilot said the actions of the 21-year-old father-to-be from the Countisbury Avenue area of Llanrumney, Cardiff, caused a “momentary loss of concentration” during his approach to the runway due to a “dazzling green light”.
The incident was reported immediately by the pilot to air traffic control and Hosseiny, a failed asylum seeker from Afghanistan, was arrested soon after in the nearby Porthkerry Park area of Barry.
Prosecutor David Thomas told Cardiff Crown Court that, during a search, officers found Hosseiny in a car intoxicated with a friend. Cannabis was also found in the vehicle which Hosseiny later admitted supplying to his friend.
In interview, the defendant told the police he had taken to selling cannabis as a means of funding his own habit.
Jeremy Jenkins, defending, said Hosseiny entered the UK in December 2002 at the age of 15 and became an asylum seeker.
The following year his application for asylum was refused after which he was granted exceptional leave to remain in the UK.  He has since been served with a deportation notice.
Mr Jenkins said his client initially found work in Swindon before settling in the south Wales area where he now has a heavily pregnant girlfriend. That figures.
Judge Eleri Rees said “The consequences of such an action could have been catastrophic. Fortunately there was no catastrophe and the aircraft landed safely.”
She added: “Those who deliberately aim such pens into the cockpit of an aircraft or helicopter should expect a custodial sentence. I will leave it to the authorities to determine whether you are deported or not,”
For supplying drugs, Hosseiny was given a six month jail sentence. He was given a consecutive sentence of four months imprisonment for endangering the safety of an aircraft.
Red laser pens beloved of office yuppies for their presentations were withdrawn from sale after a series of eyesight injuries a few years ago. I was not aware that green ones were still on the market. There have been other incidents of this type in, I think, Canada and Florida. 
Jihad with the office stationery; a very easy method of potentially causing enormous harm.

From The Times
Britain should do more to secure the release of five men kidnapped in Baghdad two years ago, Iraq’s national security adviser said yesterday.
His comments came as the father of one of the hostages — the longest-held British captives since the Beirut kidnapping crisis of the 1980s — hit out at the Government for failing his son. Other family members also spoke out to emphasise that the men are always in their thoughts, while David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, made a fresh appeal for their release.
Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of the moment that scores of armed men in police uniform seized computer consultant Peter Moore and his four security guards from a Finance Ministry compound in the capital. A second consultant escaped by hiding among Iraqi officials.
The men were transported to Sadr City, a notorious Shia slum in eastern Baghdad, where they were paraded by their captors. The kidnapping started a hostage crisis that remains a priority for the British Embassy in Baghdad.
Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s National Security Adviser, said that the Iraqi Government was trying its hardest to secure the release of the hostages.
In an e-mail to The Times, he added: “The families of the hostages should work on the Western governments to be much more proactive in their approach towards this problem.”
Mr al-Rubaie declined to comment on whether he was referring to Britain and the United States. They are the two Western powers most closely involved in the kidnap case.
Mr Miliband said that Britain was "totally committed" to working for the safe return of the captives. He continued: "We call on those holding all hostages to release them immediately and unconditionally and return them safely to their families where they belong."
In a distressing journey for the relatives, the kidnappers claimed last year that one of the hostages, Jason, had committed suicide. His mother, Marie, refused to believe this. "Jason is a very strong guy," she told the BBC, which was given permission to speak to the principle family members of the "Baghdad five".
"So when we got the news that he had taken his own life, we just didn't believe it. Jason's not that sort of guy. He's very strong, very wilful, very outspoken and he's not one to take his own life, no way," Marie said.
The seven-year-old daughter of the other Jason has written her missing father a letter, scribbling red and blue hearts around the border of the page.
It was a rare insight into the lives of the families, who have been advised by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that publicity could jeopardise efforts to help the hostages.
Graeme Moore, 59, Peter’s father, prefers to speak out and remains hopeful of his son’s release. “It is a question of when, not if,” said Mr Moore.
Mr Moore was unimpressed with Britain’s efforts to free his son. “The Foreign Office and the Government don’t give a damn,” he said. But a source who worked at the embassy in Baghdad at the time of the kidnap said everything possible was done to help. An incident room inside the embassy remains in use, with photographs of the men still on the wall.
“There was an awful lot of talking to an awful lot of people,” the source said. “You were not sat waiting for a call. It was very proactive.” British special forces were out every night hunting possible sites in the immediate aftermath of the kidnapping, but to no avail.
The kidnappers, calling themselves the Leagues of the Righteous, have a main goal: the release of Qais al-Khazaali, a former chief spokesman for the al-Mahdi Army, and his brother, Laith, as well as Ali Mousawi al-Daqdouq, a Hezbollah veteran.

Andrew Bostom writes in the NY Daily News:

"These were people who were eager to bring death to the Jews and the Jewish community." Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Snyder provided this apt characterization of the four converts to Islam whose plans to bomb a Bronx synagogue and a Jewish community center were thwarted.

Richard Williams, uncle of the arrested plotter Onta "Hamza" Williams, lamented that his nephew, a Baptist who converted to Islam, "…wasn't raised this way. All this happened when he became a Muslim in prison." Indeed, Warith Deen Umar, a Muslim chaplain who worked for 25 years in the New York State prisons and was considered a highly influential cleric, reportedly boasted that this vast incarceration system was, "...the perfect recruitment and training ground for radicalism and the Islamic religion." During his chaplaincy, Umar also repeatedly gave sermons fomenting Jew hatred, witnessed by prison staff.

But beyond all this, the obvious question persists - although dutifully avoided by our learned religious, media and political elites in this sorry age of Islamic correctness: What Islamic teachings might these American Muslim converts have learned, whether in prison, or elsewhere, which caused them to target their American Jewish neighbors, specifically, for mass killing? Simply put, it is impossible to comprehend this ugly phenomenon without understanding the core, mainstream Islamic theology - still unreformed and unrepentant - which has inspired hatred of Jews since the advent of Islam?

For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, has served as the academic shrine - much as Mecca is the religious shrine - of the global Muslim community. Al Azhar University and its mosque represent the pinnacle of Islamic religious education.

A front page New York Times story published Saturday Jan. 10, 2009, included extracts from the Friday sermon (the day before) at Al Azhar mosque by Egyptian-government appointed cleric Sheik Eid Abdel Hamid Youssef. Referencing well-established antisemitic motifs from the Koran (citations provided, below), Sheikh Youssef intoned:

"Muslim brothers, God has inflicted the Muslim nation with a people whom God has become angry at [Koran 1:7] and whom he cursed [Koran 5:78] so he made monkeys and pigs [Koran 5:60] out of them. They killed prophets and messengers [Koran 2:61/3:112] and sowed corruption on Earth. [Koran 5:33/5:64] They are the most evil on Earth. [Koran 5:62 /63]"

In authoritative classical and modern Koranic interpretations, the Koran's central antisemitic theme - its eternal curse for "prophet killing" and violating Allah's commands - is coupled to Koranic verses 5:60 and 5:78, which describe the Jews' transformation into apes and swine (5:60), or simply apes (i.e. verses 2:65 and 7:166), having been "...cursed by the tongue of David, and Jesus, Mary's son" (5:78). The Muslim prophet Muhammad himself repeats this Koranic curse in a canonical hadith (sacred collections of Muhammad's words and deeds).

Continue reading here.

The New York Times
CAIRO — The official word is that nothing has been decided about where President Obama will give his speech when he visits Cairo next Thursday to address the Muslim world.
It is supposed to be a secret.
There are, of course, matters of security for the president of the United States when he comes to visit this crowded, chaotic city on the Nile filled with quite a few people who hold a good deal of animosity for the United States.
But it is not a secret.
“He is speaking in Cairo University,” said Ramadan Abdel Al, 40, who manages a small store that sells men’s shirts  . . . “I read it in the paper.”
The newspaper, Al Masry Al Youm, was pleased with itself for getting hold of the presidential itinerary and announcing on its front page that the speech would be given at Cairo University. Of course, there remains the chance that the article was wrong, that President Obama does not plan to speak at Cairo University.
“The whole schedule is not confirmed,” said a spokeswoman from the United States Embassy on Wednesday.
Cairo University is a landmark occupying a large gated area in Giza, part of greater Cairo. It is an important institution that once helped to elevate modern Egypt to the center of Arab learning.
These days its reputation may have sagged, but its walls smell of fresh paint. The grounds have been manicured and the walkways swept clean. The floors have been polished to an unaccustomed shine. “We are very proud to host the president of the United States,” said Galila Mukhtar, who works with university public relations,
The university has about 200,000 students. But the school will be closed when the president is in town, the faculty will be given the day off and only 15 students from each of 18 colleges will be invited to attend.
"The White House did not put out a schedule yet,” the spokeswoman said. “It is not finalized, and we are still working on it. As far as the White House is concerned, there is no schedule yet.”
That is news to the university.
A spokesman, Sami Abdel Aziz, said that President Obama would speak in the Major Reception Hall.
“Just leave us to concentrate on our exams,” said a student who would give only her first name, Dina. “I’m not expecting anything. Americans don’t like us and we don’t like them. They think we’re terrorists, and we don’t like them because of what they’re doing in Iraq.”
Most heads of state coming to Egypt go to the Red Sea resort area of Sharm el Sheik, which is far easier to secure than any venue in the middle of a city of 18 million people. But the consensus here — and in Washington — was that the president needed to be in Cairo if he had any hope of his speech resonating on the street.
It remains a tough audience.
“They are cleaning things they have never cleaned before,” said Amira Abbas, 18, who had just finished a sociology exam. “I don’t understand why he’s visiting. What does he have to say to the Muslim world? He’s new, and he wants to improve the image of the U.S. in the Muslim world.”
Somewhere in the world that is not completely Obama barmy. Don't you know that he is the Chosen One?

By Rabbi Israel Vana,  Dr. Arnold Pock and Jerry Gordon

A few weekends ago I was elsewhere and very nice it was too.
As some light relief is appropriate this is from Edward Lear.

There was an old person from Cromer
Who Stood on one leg to read Homer;
When he found he grew stiff, he jumped over the cliff
Which concluded that Person from Cromer.

Photo by E Weatherwax May 2009

From World Net Daily:

A top U.S. radio talk show host has become the subject of an Islamist Internet death threat, WND has learned.

Rusty Humphries, whose show is broadcast on over 250 stations through Talk Radio Network, was the target of the tirade, posted on a blog powered by Google entitled, "The Jew Report." Humphries is an outspoken critic of Islamic terrorism and a strong supporter of the U.S.-led war on terror.

The author of the online threat apparently confused Humphries for Rusty Shackleford, the pseudonym used by the proprietor of the popular My Pet JAWA Report website, which focuses on exposing online support of Islamic terrorism.

Alongside a dated picture of Humphries posing with commentator and star blogger Michelle Malkin, the threat begins: "Yes this Fat descusting (sic) pig you are looking at is the boss of the website Jawareport.com but their are many fat kafirs like him you might ask why are we talking about him here's why."

The blog claimed Muslims in Florida are being "harassed" because of Humphries, while his "work," seemingly as Shackleford, led to the raiding of mosques and police interrogations of Muslims.

Continued the blog: "The Shaabab and muslim Leaders have said enough is enough he has to go and they dont mean move....Inshallah we will see his Fat rottan (sic) torso dumped in the side of the road or in some Florida swamp."

Humphries immediately reported the threat to local and federal law enforcement agencies, which initiated investigations.

The talk host was taken aback that he could be confused for Shackleford, especially since he's interviewed Shackleford several times on his live, three-hour daily show.

"If I was going to have a fake identity, I'd come up with something a lot more creative than simply changing my last name," Humphries quipped.

He slammed the author of the blog as a "coward" and told WND the threat highlights the Islamic fundamentalist penchant for promoting the idea of grand conspiracies.

"Everything is a huge conspiracy to the terrorists," said Humphries. "On my many travels to the Mideast, I've been told by Muslims it was the Jews who sent Monica Lewinsky to Bill Clinton so the Jews could rule the U.S. The terrorists believe the West is plotting the extermination of Islam."

"Now they believe that I'm Rusty Shackleford. Ha. I wish I was part of a conspiracy. I'd like that big paycheck I'd probably get for it," he said. "I have great respect for the work Rusty Shackleford has done in stopping extremist websites from spewing vile hate against America online."

Humphries said while he is taking the online threat seriously, he will continue his hard-hitting radio broadcasts.

"These threats only prove me right," he said. "The terrorist response to anyone who points out their violent and hypocritical ways is just to threaten more violence and destruction."

"First it was Michael Savage who was banned from traveling to the U.K. for his views. Now death threats to me for my views? What will it take to reawaken America?" he continued.

[...]

A year later, Humphries interviewed the top leaders of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Bethlehem.

During his initial interview with the Brigades, Humphries visibly agitated his terrorist subjects when he repeatedly asked them to point out where the Quran mentions 72 virgins as reward for "martyrdom," armed with the knowledge that the Islamic book does not once list 72 virgins.

"They just kept flipping through the Quran they had and kept trying to change the subject," related Humphries. "They realized they were caught in another lie."

[...]

"I learned from talking to the terrorists in person that when you peel away all their lies, there is no foundation to what they are doing," said Humphries.

Wellllll, I wouldn't go so far as to say there is no foundation to what they are doing.  There are plenty of unambiguous Qur'anic quotes justifying, even mandating, violent jihad.  But Rusty Humphries sounds like a very good egg.  I had to cut out a lot of his biographical info in the interest of brevity.

U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis on Wednesday morning handed down sentences that will likely mean two founders of the Holy Land Foundation will spend the rest of their lives behind bars for financing the terrorist group Hamas.
Shukri Abu Baker, 50, of Garland was ordered to serve 65 years in prison as sentencing began for five men convicted on charges in the largest terrorism financing case in American history. Another founder, Ghassan Elashi, 55, of Richardson, was sentenced to 65 years in prison.
Speaking to the audience and ignoring the judge, Elashi (said)Nothing was more rewarding than ... turning the charitable contributions of American Muslims into life assistance for the Palestinians. That's what motivated me.
"We gave the essentials of life – oil rice flour. The occupation was proving them with death and destruction. And then we are criminals. The Holy Land Foundation was to assist the Palestinians in their steadfastness against the brutal apartheid regime of Israel.
The judge warned him to address the court and not the audience.
"I did it because I cared, not at the behest of Hamas," Baker told the judge during a long address to the court where he explained why he founded what was once the nation's largest Muslim charity organization.
Judge Solis, after cutting him off over the objections of his defense attorney, told the convicted man, "You didn't tell the whole story. Palestinians were in a desperate situation, but that doesn't justify supporting Hamas."
Another defendant, Mohammad El-Mezain, 55, was sentenced to 180 months in prison, followed by three years of supervisory release after serving that time. Jurors found him guilty of providing support to Hamas, having been acquitted on 31 other charges in 2007.
Afterwards, Judge Solis told him: “Your function in life was raising money to support Hamas. You stated it was to help people, but the motive was to support Hamas. You state that you are innocent, but the evidence shows the opposite. You were part of this from the beginning.”
The sentences come six months after a federal jury in Dallas convicted the men on Nov. 24 of funneling more than $12 million to the Palestinian group Hamas. It has been illegal to offer Hamas support since it was designated a terrorist organization by the Unites States in 1995. The group has taken credit for hundreds of suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians.
The men were not accused of violence. Rather, Holy Land contributed money to, among other things, agencies that supported survivors of suicide bombers. Sometimes Holy Land officials sent those families money directly.
Their lawyers portrayed them as pious Muslims who only wished to help their Palestinian brethren in need.

This video was surreptitiously taken by police on August 6, 2007, four days after Chauncey Bailey was murdered.  So it's not new, but it gives a window into the personality and temperament of a still-giddy Yusuf Bey IV, the former leader of the Your Black Muslim Bakery and current murder suspect.  From the Chauncey Bailey Project:

From Reuters:

EYL, Somalia: Driving a luxury 4x4 car and smoking imported cigarettes with an expensive satellite phone at his side, Mohamed Said fears his flashy lifestyle as a Somali pirate could come to an end soon.

The 35-year-old has no regrets about joining one of the gangs operating out of the pirate lair of Eyl, a former fishing village that overlooks the Indian Ocean and the strategic shipping lanes linking Europe to Asia through the Gulf of Aden.

Their attacks have driven up insurance costs and delayed UN aid deliveries. But Said’s career has brought him riches he could never have imagined as an impoverished fisherman.

He and his colleagues have hijacked nearly 30 vessels this year, meaning 2009 is on course to be even worse [errata, Reuters meant "better"] than last year, when pirates from the Horn of Africa nation seized 42 ships.

But the crime wave has prompted a hurried deployment in the region by foreign navies, thwarting several attacks — and now the weather is turning too, making the seas rougher and the pirates’ prey harder to hunt.

“My biggest fear is that the piracy business will have to stop. The weather will be terrible in the coming days and the warships have increased in number,” Said told Reuters in Eyl.

“I have experienced the bitter-sweetness of piracy,” he added, pointing out that his car, satellite telephone and speedboat were all paid for with his cut from ransoms.

But the last few weeks have not been so successful. He knows he was lucky to get off scot-free after being captured once. “I recently went to sea ... but all of my last three attempts have been in vain. I was even caught by a Portuguese warship, but fortunately they released me and my friends.”

NATO forces have been disarming and releasing gunmen detained during its anti-piracy operation. Said is well aware that if it had been a different warship, he might well be dead, or facing trial in a courtroom far from home.

Even after the weather improves, Said worries that the foreign navies might make the pirates’ business impossible. “If dozens of warships remain in our waters, our work will be as futile as a chameleon trying to catch a fly,” he said.

Lighting an imported Benson & Hedges cigarette and unwrapping a roll of leafy khat, a mild narcotic popular in the Horn of Africa, he says he is holding out for his share in a $1.7 million ransom being demanded for a hijacked German ship.

At small cafes on Eyl’s dusty, unpaved streets, pirates are also swapping gossip about negotiations in progress for the release of a Dutch ship. The buccaneers want $2.5 million, but the owners have only offered $1.5 million so far.

“If they give me some cash I will clear my debts. You know khat is expensive here,” Said said.

Yeah, buddy.  We know just how you feel.  There's a worldwide recession.  Things are tough all over.

Maybe the Obama Administration can reach out to this unemployed workforce, and bring them to the U.S.  We haven't yet filled our immigration quota for arrogant Somali jihadist pirates.

From JTA and the Jerusalem Post
An Arab-Israeli man has confessed to killing an American-Israeli teenager.
Dana Bennett's remains were found last week, six years after she disappeared in Tiberias after finishing her shift at a local restaurant.
After a gag order was lifted on the case Tuesday, police said that Adwan Yahiya Farhan, 34, of the northern Israeli Arab village of Wadi Hamam confessed to the murder and re-enacted it.
Farhan, who is in jail, also confessed to several other murders, rapes and the attempted honor killing of his sister, according to police.
The mother of the young Russian immigrant under arrest for allegedly serving as an accomplice to Adwan Yihya Farhan expressed shock Tuesday that her daughter was involved in any criminal wrongdoing.
The young woman, a resident of  Tiberias, married suspected serial killer Yihye Farhan, 32, when she was 16 and had converted to Islam.
Farhan had previously been married to a Beduin woman, with whom he has three children.
"She loved him very much, and would do everything for him," the girl's mother said. "She obeyed him."
She said she had repeatedly urged her daughter to leave Farhan, because she felt he was a dangerous criminal, and that recently the couple had separated.
The young woman, who is suspected of luring Dana Bennet into the suspect's car six years ago, was arrested several weeks ago.

From The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Obama announced Tuesday that he would nominate Sonia Sotomayor, a federal appeals judge in New York, to the Supreme Court, choosing a daughter of Puerto Rican parents who was raised in a Bronx public housing project to become the nation’s first Hispanic justice.
In making his first pick for the court, Mr. Obama emphasized Judge Sotomayor’s “extraordinary journey” from modest beginnings to the Ivy League and now the pinnacle of the judicial system. Casting her as the embodiment of the American dream, he touched off a confirmation battle that he hopes to wage over biography more than ideology.
Judge Sotomayor’s past comments about how her sex and ethnicity shaped her decisions, and the role of appeals courts in making policy, generated instant conservative complaints that she is a judicial activist.
“When Sonia Sotomayor ascends those marble steps to assume her seat on the highest court of the land,” Mr. Obama said as he introduced her in the East Room of the White House, “America will have taken another important step towards realizing the ideal that is etched above its entrance: Equal justice under the law.” (I didn't realise the US was falling so very short of that ideal? Or was Perry Mason and Ironside really completely mythical?)
At the heart of the fight over her nomination will be a debate over the role that a judge’s experience should play in rendering decisions. Although Mr. Obama said on Tuesday that “a judge’s job is to interpret, not make law,” his emphasis on a nominee with “empathy” has generated criticism from Republicans, who saw that as code for legislating personal views from the bench.
Judge Sotomayor has said that “our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions.” In a lecture in 2001 on the role her background played in her jurisprudence, she said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”While conservative groups took aim, Republican senators responded more cautiously, weighing how aggressively they want to fight her confirmation. Twenty-nine Senate Republicans voted against her confirmation to the appellate bench in 1998, including Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, now the party’s Senate leader . . . Mr. McConnell said on Tuesday that the Senate would not be a “rubber stamp” and promised that Republicans would “examine her record to ensure she understands that the role of a jurist in our democracy is to apply the law even-handedly, despite their own feelings or personal or political preferences.”
Mr. Obama selected Judge Sotomayor from a field dominated by women as he sought to add a second female justice to the court. Advisers culled through writings of 40 candidates before narrowing the list to nine who were actually contacted, officials said. From there, Mr. Obama chose four finalists, who were spirited into the White House to meet with him secretly last week.
The Obama team also interviewed colleagues on the Second Circuit to check out reports that she was difficult to get along with, and was reassured it was not true.
I found this interesting as it is not how Judges are selected in the UK, although there is a huge division devoted to supporting diversity. But we are different countries and don't have to do things the same.

From The Times
At least 30 people were killed and over 100 injured when a suicide car bomber rammed into a police office building in the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore this morning.
The massive blast completely demolished the two story structure and damaged several other buildings - including intelligence agency offices - around it, according to senior city official Sajad Ahmed Bhutta. The attackers hurled several grenades before a suicide bomber exploded his truck. The blast was followed by intense firing.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but the police suspect Islamic militants retaliating against the military operation against the Taleban in Swat Valley north-western Pakistan.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but the police suspect Islamic militants retaliating against the military operation against the Taleban in Swat Valley north-western Pakistan.

From The Peninsula in Qatar:

DOHA: In a rather animated session of the Doha Debates yesterday, which marked the end of the fifth series of debates, a majority of the participants agreed with the motion: ‘This house believes that Muslim women should be free to marry anyone they choose.’

The motion was carried with 62 percent votes, with 38 percent voting against it.

Speaking for the motion was Dr Muhammed Habash, Director of Islamic Studies Center, Damascus, and Asra Nomani, an American Muslim writer and activist. Dr Thuraya Al Arrayed, a Saudi writer, columnist and a member of the advisory board of the Arab Thought Foundation, and Yasir Qadhi, a Muslim American cleric, strongly spoke against the motion.

[...]

Speaking against the motion, Qadhi stressed the fact that a Muslim was one who followed the laid down principles of Islam. “Islam is all about submission to God. A Muslim woman can marry any Muslim regardless of any other barriers. Muslim clerics exaggerate these barriers rather than support any moves even within the Muslim community. Anyone following Islam will have to stay within the restricted boundaries of Islam and this applies to both men and women. Islamic society should rather try rediscovering Prophetic teachings and follow the unanimous fatwas as Muslims,” he said. 

I'm sorry, I honestly can't find any cogent idea in there to highlight.  It's pure gibberish.

Dr Al Arrayed, on the other hand, dwelt on the psychological and other issues that can make marriages fail if the choice is given to an individual alone. “Choices people make are aimed to fulfill their aspirations. Freedom, on the other hand, is a double-edged tool which should be utilised carefully, for which there should be some embedded controls. At young age, it is physical attraction that draws people together. The further one goes away from one’s own tribe or community in a marriage, the more compromises must be made to make the marriage happy, which at times can be tiring,” she said.

So, women, submit to the arranged marriage to your cousin, and get a burst of energy.

This breakneck rampant innovation is worrisome.  First, women will get the right to choose who they will marry.  Then, it will lead to women having the right to choose colors other than black for their chadors.  Then, women will expect the right to walk outside their home, unaccompanied by a related male.  As you can see, this will quickly lead to the dissolution of society.

Listen here.

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 26 (Compass Direct News) – Sunday worship in a house church near Zanzibar City, on a Tanzanian island off the coast of East Africa, did not take place for the third week running on Sunday (May 24) after Muslim extremists expelled worshippers from their rented property.
Radical Muslims on May 9 drove members of Zanzibar Pentecostal Church (Kanisa la Pentecoste Zanzibar) from worship premises in a rented house at Ungunja Ukuu, on the outskirts of Zanzibar City. Restrictions on purchasing land for church buildings have slowed the Christians’ efforts to find a new worship site.
Angered by a recent upsurge in Christian evangelism in the area, church members said, radical Muslims had sent several threats to the Christians warning them to stop their activities.
“Radical Muslims reported the church campaign to [village elder Mnemo] Mgomba, who in turn ordered that no Christian activity to be carried out in his area of jurisdiction,” said Obeid Fabian Hofi, bishop of the church.
On the morning of the attack, more than 20 church members had gathered for Saturday fellowship when word reached them that Muslim extremists were about to attack. The group was shouting, saying, ‘We do not want the church to be in our locality – they should leave the place and never come back again,’” said one church member who requested anonymity.
A Muslim had rented his house to a member of the church, Leah Shabani, who later decided to make it a place of fellowship. The church, which has been in existence for seven years, had reached more than 30 members at the beginning of this year, most of them from the Tanzanian mainland. Without their worship site, Bishop Hofi said, some members are traveling long distances into Zanzibar City to worship.
When the church reported the attack to area chief Jecha Ali, members said, he told them that he could not help them.
“This property is not mine – if the owner has refused to allow you people to pray there, then I have nothing to do,” Ali told them.
When Bishop Hofi went to police in Ungunja Ukuu about the attack, officers also told him that the landlord had the right to refuse to rent to the Christian.
Police promised to investigate, but Bishop Hofi said he was not convinced they would take any action against those who had attacked his congregation.
“To date no action has been taken by the police,” he said. “I am very concerned about the spiritual situation of my flock, seeing that my appeal has landed in deaf ears. No one is ready to listen to our grievances. We are fighting a losing battle since the administration is headed by Muslims.”
Bishop Hofi said he has decided to appeal for prayer and financial support from churches in Zanzibar to buy property for a church building.
Bishop Hofi told Compass by telephone. “I know getting the money is easy, but to get someone to sell the land might be difficult, especially for worship purpose, but we are trusting God for His providence. We shall be very grateful for prayers and any support towards the purchase of the plot for church worship.”
In predominately Sunni Muslim Zanzibar, the church faces numerous hurdles. There are restrictions on getting land to build churches, open preaching is outlawed and there is limited time on national television to air Christian programs. In government schools, only Islamic Religious knowledge is taught, not Christian Religious Education.
The 1964 merger (Tanganyika to form the present day Tanzania ) left island Muslims uneasy about Christianity, seeing it as a means by which mainland Tanzania would dominate them.

The hotel that was hosting our symposium has bowed to intimidation. They cancelled our plans due to concerns for the "health, safety and welfare of their employees and other guests."

We have found another location that will be emailed to those registered.

We'll have the details worked out soon.

Read (in Italian) here.

DHAKA (AFP) — A 22-year-old unmarried Bangladeshi woman who was caned 39 times for alleging a neighbour was the father of her son is fighting for her life in hospital, police said.
The case has shocked the impoverished Muslim-majority nation, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordering the woman to be shifted from her village home to the capital for proper medical treatment.
Local police chief Moshiur Rahman told AFP that the woman, from Comilla, 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of the capital Dhaka, had angered Islamic clerics when she told friends that a neighbour had fathered her six-year-old son.
They called her and the alleged father to appear before a makeshift Islamic court, but the man denied the paternity claim, Rahman said. "He held a Koran in one hand and swore to the village clerics that he was not the father of the boy. The village court found him not guilty," he said.
"They also issued a fatwa that the woman should be caned 39 times for lying."
Two of the clerics have been arrested for repression of women,