James White Responds to Kamal Saleh

If you listen to Muslim apologists, you'll notice one of the most disturbing trends in history. All too often, the more reckless, sloppy, and inaccurate a Muslim apologist is with the New Testament, the more popular he becomes.

Take recent internet sensation Kamal Saleh. His video currently has around 750,000 hits on YouTube. Yet the video is filled with numerous blatantly false claims. Why would a video with no connection to reality and no concern for accuracy be so popular among Muslims?



Is the video accurate? Not by a long shot. Tur8infan posted several pages worth of errors here. Not to be outdone, James White posted a nearly hour-long video response:



And now for the coup de grâce:



Muslims are officially on trial. Kamal has obviously misrepresented Christianity. He may appeal to his own ignorance as a defense, but not after the responses have circulated. If Kamal has an ounce of integrity, he'll take down his video (or add some major annotations apologizing for his numerous errors). Will he do so? If not, will his fellow Muslims correct him and demand that he show more concern for truth? Or will Muslims continue to spread falsehood, knowing that they are misrepresenting what the Bible says? Only time will tell, but one thing is clear. The reaction of Muslims to this material will tell us a great deal about the character of Muslims. They have an excellent opportunity to demonstrate intellectual honesty and integrity. I hope they take advantage of it.

Muslim Man Murders Wife for Giving Birth to Another Daughter

And his mother helped plan the murder.

KABUL, Afghanistan–An Afghan woman has been strangled to death, apparently by her husband, who was upset that she gave birth to a second daughter rather than the son he had hoped for, police said Monday.

It was the latest in a series of grisly examples of subjugation of women that have made headlines in Afghanistan in the past few months -- including a 15-year-old tortured and forced into prostitution by in-laws and a female rape victim who was imprisoned for adultery.

The episodes have raised the question of what will happen to the push for women's rights in Afghanistan as the international presence here shrinks along with the military drawdown. NATO forces are scheduled to pull out by the end of 2014.

In the 10 years since the ouster of the Taliban, great strides have been made for women in Afghanistan, with many attending school, working in offices and even sometimes marching in protests. But abuse and repression of women are still common, particularly in rural areas where women are still unlikely to set foot outside of the house without a burqa robe that covers them from head to toe.

The man in the latest case, Sher Mohammad, fled the Khanabad district in Kunduz province last week, about the time a neighbor found his 22-year-old wife dead in their house, said District Police Chief Sufi Habibullah. Medical examiners whom police brought to check the body said she had been strangled, Habibullah said.

The woman, named Estorai, had warned family members that her husband had repeatedly reproached her for giving birth to a daughter rather than a son and had threatened to kill her if it happened again, said Provincial women's affairs chief Nadira Ghya, who traveled to Khanabad to deal with the case. Estorai gave birth to her second daughter between two and three months ago, Ghya said. Officials did not have a family name for either Sher Mohammad or Estorai.

Police took the man's mother into custody because she appears to have collaborated in a plot to kill her daughter-in-law, Habibullah said. Ghya, who visited the man's mother in jail, said that she swears that Estorai committed suicide by hanging. Police said they found no rope and no evidence of hanging from the woman's wounds. (Read more.)

Michael Coren on Fox News Discussing Canadian "Honor" Killings

Absolutely shocking to see such an honest discussion of Islamic teachings on one of the main news networks. Kudos to Fox News, Megyn Kelly, and Michael Coren. Pass this video on to everyone you know.

Mohammad Shafia, Tooba Yahya, and Hamed Shafia Found Guilty of First Degree Murder in Mass "Honor" Killings

Mohammad Shafia, along with one of his wives and his son, murdered three daughters and a second wife for "betraying Islam." The three defendants have just been found guilty of first-degree murder. I'm wondering if CAIR will cry "Islamophobia" at this one.

THE CANADIAN PRESS--A jury has found three members of an Afghanistan-born Montreal family guilty of killing three daughters and a co-wife in a so-called honour killing.

Mohammad Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42, and their son Hamed, 21, have been found guilty of four counts each of first-degree murder.

They have been convicted of killing Shafia sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, their father's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ont., where the family had stopped for the night on their way home from Niagara Falls, Ont.

The Crown theory was that Shafia, Yahya and Hamed drowned the four victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car, then pushed it into the canal with the family's other vehicle.

The defence had said it was an accident, that they had gone for a joy ride with Zainab driving and accidentally plunged into the canal with Hamed watching, although he didn't call police. (Source)

Christian Family Flees to Escape Muslim Persecution . . . in Denmark

The glories of multiculturalism. Muslims immigrate to Denmark, and they come from countries where it is perfectly acceptable to harass and persecute Christians. Their new government refuses to criticize their cultural practices (since that would be intolerant), so the practices continue.

DENMARK--The Iranian-born leader of the Free Church "Church of Love," Massoud Fouroozandeh has moved out of the Odense district Vollsmose with his family to a small town at a secret location. This happens after the family has had two cars smashed because a Christian cross was hanging inside them.

"I was told by young people in Vollsmose that I should not drive into the area with the cross hanging in the car. Then our car was smashed and burned and the seats cut up. Since then the side windows in our new car was smashed three times," he says.

After the vandalism Fouroozandeh Massoud and his wife dare no longer let their children play on the playground in Vollsmose.

"They do not wear a headscarf, which 99 percent of the other children do, so they attracted too much attention, and it was not safe to send them out to play. So we moved very far away from Vollsmose," he says. (Read more.)

How long do you think it will take Kim or Kangaroo to say, "They deserve it! Being filthy Christians in a Muslim neighborhood, what do you expect! Allahu Akbar!"?

Former Muslim Hiding in Kenya after Repeated Threats

Meanwhile, Muslims in the West are complaining about Islamophobia.

NAIROBI, Kenya, January 27 (CDN) — A former member of a Muslim extremist group in Uganda who converted to Christianity is in hiding in Kenya, his movements severely restricted following threats to kill him.

Hassan Sharif Lubenga, 54, was a sheikh and member of the Buk Haram, a violent group of Islamists whose name suggests the Bible is corrupt and therefore forbidden. Originally from Chengera, seven kilometers from Kampala, the husband to four wives began his conversion process four years ago; in June 2011, he said, after various dreams and visions in which Jesus appeared to him, he made a full commitment to follow Christ.

Lubenga fled to Kenya last July 10 after hostilities peaked, and upon returning to Uganda in September he received messages on his cell phone from mujahidin – Islamic fighters – threatening to kill him, he said. He reported the threats to Chengera police, who told him they would investigate, but in October a friend told him that he’d heard in a Chengera mosque that his former colleagues were enraged and planning to kill him.

“My heart got troubled, but the voice of Jesus continued whispering to me to witness for Jesus without fear,” Lubenga said.

When Lubenga felt like giving up on his new faith, he said, he received a call from Bishop Umar Mulinde, his former pastor at Gospel Life Church International who was scarred in a Christmas Eve acid attack by Muslim extremists (see “Muslim Extremists in Uganda Throw Acid on Bishop,” Dec. 28, 2011). Mulinde told him the church was praying for him, and Lubenga was deeply heartened, he said.

“All my family members have deserted me,” he said by telephone. “The Muslims are looking to kill me. I need protection and help.” (Read more.)

Mordechai Kedar: How to Speak to Muslims

Muslims Stab Two Iranian Apostates . . . in Norway

But who are we to judge? Islamic culture calls for killing apostates. Do Norwegian authorities believe that Western values such as freedom of religion somehow trump Islamic values? Islamophobes! Wait till CAIR hears about this.

NORWAY--Two Iranians who converted from Islam to Christianity were stabbed by masked men in Haugesund last week. The attacker shouted 'Kuffar' (Arabic for non-believer) during the attack.

The attack happened Tuesday evening, when both Christian Iranians were out walking in Haugesund. They were suddenly attacked by three masked men armed with knives, who shouted 'kuffar' while they stabbed the two.

A nurse passing by gave first aid and then an ambulance brought them to a hospital, reports Haugesunds Avis.

According to the police, one of the victims was stabbed twice in the back and the other was stabbed in his side. No perpetrators have been caught.

The two victims want to remain anonymous and have not spoken of the assault. They've lived in Norway for many years. One of them converted in Norway, the other did so in Iran and managed to flee to Norway after he was abused and imprisoned for his faith.

They're both active in a local evangelical church. (Read more.)

If anyone still doubts that the penalty for apostasy in Islam is death, watch this video from a few years ago:

Over 3000 Muslims Attack Christian Homes and Shops in Egypt

The attacks were carried out by Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood. But don't worry. Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood just took over the Egyptian government, so things are sure to get better for the Copts and other minorities.

(AINA)--A mob of over 3000 Muslims attacked Copts in the village of Kobry-el-Sharbat (el-Ameriya), Alexandria this afternoon. Coptic homes and shops were looted before being set ablaze. Two Copts and a Muslim were injured. The violence started after a rumor was spread that a Coptic man had an allegedly intimate photo of a Muslim woman on his mobile phone. The Coptic man, Mourad Samy Guirgis, surrendered to the police this morning morning for his protection.

According to eyewitnesses, the perpetrators were bearded men in white gowns. "They were Salafists, and some of were from the Muslim Brotherhood," according to one witness. It was reported that terrorized women and children who lost their homes were in the streets without any place to go.

According to Father Boktor Nashed from St. George's Church in el-Nahdah, a meeting between Muslim and Christian representatives was supposed to take place in the evening in Kobry-el-Sharbat. But, by 3 P.M. a Muslim mob looted and torched the home of Mourad Samy Guirgis, as well as the home of his family and three homes of Coptic neighbors. A number of Coptic-owned shops and businesses were also looted and torched. "We contacted security forces, but they arrived very, very late," Said Father Nashad. The fire brigade was prevented from going into the village by the Muslims and the fires were left to burn themselves out. "Those who lost their home, left the village," said Father Nashed. (Read more.)

Growing Number of Child Brides Among Muslims ... in London

Behold the glories of multiculturalism. We keep telling ourselves that all cultures are equal, and that no one should judge another person's cultural practices. But then we have to face reality: Other cultures follow Muhammad's example and see no problem with old men having sex with nine-year-old girls. So now we have a dilemma on our hands. Do we protect the young girls, thereby showing that we don't really believe the absurd myth that all cultures are equal? Or do we sacrifice the young girls on the altar of political correctness and false tolerance?

UNITED KINGDOM--An alarming number of under-age girls – some as young as nine – are being forced into marriage in Islington [a neighborhood in London], according to a leading campaign group.

The Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO) claim that at least 30 girls in the borough were forced into marriage in 2010.

The practice was condemned by the Imam of Finsbury Park Mosque, who said such marriages were against Islam and “unacceptable”.

He pledged to invalidate any marriage which he said were carried out by “back-street Imams”.

IKWRO, which made headlines last month when they revealed there had been almost 3,000 “honour-based” violence cases in 2010, has shown the Tribune records which revealed at least three 11-year-old girls and two nine-year-olds had been forced into marriage with older men within Islington. The oldest girls involved were 16.

They have warned that hundreds of Islington girls could be suffering sexual, emotional and physical scars as a result of the child marriages every year and are calling for teachers, social workers and police to be better trained to spot and manage the abuse.

Information from the Ministry of Justice, following a Freedom of Information request, revealed that 32 Forced Marriage Protection Order applications were made for children under 16 in Britain last year.

Six of these were made for under-16s within Islington at the Royal Courts of Justice, although these were not necessarily made for Islington residents.

At the Islington court, “five or fewer” orders were made to protect children between the ages of 9-11.

The orders are a form of injunction that threaten legal punishment if marriage takes place due to emotional or physical force.

In most cases, the children fear they will be killed if they reveal the truth to anybody, while others believe they will be separated from their families and taken into social services’ care.

Dianna Nammi, director of IKWRO, explained that the girls are married in a mosque’s sharia court. This means they are not legally married according to British law, rendering the Home Office unable to recognise or prove the abuse.

“They are still expected to carry out their wifely duties, though, and that includes sleeping with their husband,” she said.

“They have to cook for them, wash their clothes, everything. They are still attending schools in Islington, struggling to do their primary school homework, and at the same time being practically raped by a middle-aged man regularly and being abused by their families. So they are a wife, but in a primary school uniform.

“The reason it doesn’t get out is because they are too terrified to speak out, and also the control their families have over them is impossible to imagine if you’re not going through it. The way it is covered up is so precise, almost unspeakable.” (Read more at Islington Tribune.)

Court Awards Attorneys’ Fees Against the City of Dearborn, Michigan for Violating a Christian Pastor’s Right to Freedom of Speech

The City of Dearborn has no respect for Freedom of Speech. They threw four of us in jail for having a peaceful discussion at the Arab Festival. They took us into custody two days later for attempting to distribute copies of the Gospel of John outside the Arab Festival. They threw Terry Jones and his partner Wayne Sapp in jail for planning to hold a rally across the street from the largest mosque in America. And they violated the rights of countless Christians by threatening to jail anyone who would dare pass out tracts within five blocks of the Arab Festival.

Fortunately, there are lawyers who believe in fighting for our Constitutional rights. In 2011, Robert Muise won a long legal battle on behalf of Pastor George Saieg. Pastor Saieg, who immigrated to the U.S. from Sudan (and therefore understands what it's like to live under Muslim rule), simply wanted the right to pass out tracts to Muslims. The Thomas More Law Center took up his case and defeated Dearborn's pro-Sharia attorneys. Pastor George went to the 2011 festival with his team and passed out materials to thousands of Muslims.

Of course, fighting lengthy legal battles costs money, which is why it's exciting to learn that the city is now required to pay the Thomas More Law Center more than $100,000 in attorneys' fees. We can only hope that Dearborn finally learns its lesson and stops harassing non-Muslims. Here's the update from the American Freedom Law Center:

AFLC--Today, a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Detroit, Michigan recommended that Robert J. Muise, the attorney for Christian Pastor George Saieg, be awarded $103,401.96 in fees and costs for successfully challenging the City of Dearborn’s restriction on the Christian’s right to freedom of speech at the 2009 Arab Festival held in the City. The City, not wanting to offend its large Muslim population, would not allow the Christian to hand out religious literature at the Festival.

In the order, the federal judge stated, “In this case, the Plaintiff received the full relief he sought — an invalidation of the leafleting restriction and a permanent injunction barring its enforcement. . . . Because this result ‘cannot fairly be labeled as anything short of excellent, [Plaintiff] is entitled to a fully compensatory fee.’” AFLC Senior Counsel Robert J. Muise represented Pastor Saieg in this successful free speech case. At the time, Muise was Senior Trial Counsel for the Thomas More Law Center. The City has 14 days to appeal. [Read order here]

“The award of attorney fees in this case,” noted Muise, “is critical in the lawfare against Civilization Jihad and dhimmitization, or subjugation, of an entire municipality in Michigan. Dearborn has a long record of this kind of illegal, heavy-handed treatment of Christians as an attempt to placate Dearborn’s sharia-faithful. The court’s ruling today demonstrates that this kind of behavior will come at great cost.”

Muise recently won acquittals for charges of “disturbing the peace” brought by the Dearborn prosecutor against a group of Christians following their arrests by Dearborn police in 2010 for the same kind of peaceful free speech activities. Muise and David Yerushalmi of the American Freedom Law Center, along with attorneys from the Thomas More Law Center, currently represent these Christians in a civil action arising from these arrests.

The American Freedom Law Center is a Judeo-Christian law firm that fights for faith and freedom. It accomplishes its mission through litigation, public policy initiatives, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. Visit us at www.americanfreedomlawcenter.org.

Click here to learn more about Dearborn.

Muslim Convert Antonio Martinez (aka Muhammed Hussain) Pleads Guilty to Planning Maryland Terrorist Attack

Muslims have committed more than 18,000 deadly terrorist attacks since 9-11. Many more attacks have been thwarted. I wonder how many more we'll need to go through before the media and our leaders are finally willing to open the Qur'an and the Hadith and do a serious investigation of Islamic teachings.

BALTIMORE–A man pleaded guilty Thursday to attempting to blow up a Maryland military recruiting center as part of a foiled terror plot.

Antonio Martinez, 22, admitted trying to use a weapon of mass destruction to blow up an Armed Forces recruiting center in Catonsville in December 2010, The Baltimore Sun reported Thursday.

The Maryland man, who also uses the name Muhammed Hussain, faces 25 years in prison over the foiled plot after coming to an agreement with prosecutors, the newspaper said.

He was arrested on Dec. 8, 2010, after he attempted to detonate what he believed to be explosives, supplied by federal agents, at the recruiting center.

His lawyer previously claimed that his client had been entrapped and that the bombing plot was designed by the federal government to set up Martinez.

Martinez, a Muslim, allegedly wrote about his support of jihad (holy war) and his desire to go fight in Afghanistan or Pakistan on Facebook, in the months before the foiled attack, according to an FBI informant.

"My dream is to be amongst the ranks of the mujahideen," Martinez allegedly wrote. "Jihad is all I think about when i sleep, when I wake up, sometimes i cry cuz im not there and kaffur [nonbelievers] killing all our brothers and sisters."

Martinez allegedly told the informant in October 2010 that he wanted to "kill them as they killing muslim around the world," an FBI email said. (Source--Fox News)

The media, of course, are utterly baffled by Martinez's turn to terrorism. AOL News reports:

Like the other accused "homegrown" terrorists before him -- from would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad to Jose Padilla, who admitted to training with al-Qaida -- each new detail about Martinez's life only seems to raise more questions about how a naturalized U.S. citizen from Nicaragua who attended American schools and once tried to join the Army could have allegedly turned to violent jihad before his 22nd birthday. . . .

Before Martinez began posting radical, anti-American messages on his Facebook wall, he worked retail, selling children's clothes in a Maryland shopping mall, according to The Baltimore Sun. Interestingly, one of his former co-workers told the newspaper that Martinez's conversion to Islam came not long after he was newly baptized as a Christian. (Read more at AOL.)

Since no one in the media can figure out why a Muslim might turn to violence, let me take a crack at it.

Qur’an 5:51—O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other.

Qur’an 9:29—Fight those who believe not in Allah . . .

Qur’an 9:73—O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them.

Qur’an 9:111—Surely Allah has bought of the believers their persons and their property for this, that they shall have the garden; they fight in Allah's way, so they slay and are slain.

Qur’an 9:123—O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness.

Qur’an 47:35—Be not weary and fainthearted, crying for peace, when ye should be uppermost.

Qur’an 48:29—Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and those who are with him are severe against disbelievers, and merciful among themselves.

Sahih Muslim 30—Muhammad said: “I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah.”

Sahih Muslim 4366—Muhammad said: “I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslims.”

Sunan An-Nasa’i 3099—The Prophet said: “Whoever dies without having fought or having thought of fighting, he dies on one of the branches of hypocrisy.”

Sunan Ibn Majah 2763—The Messenger of Allah said: “Whoever meets Allah with no mark on him (as a result of fighting) in His cause, he will meet Him with a deficiency.”

For more on violence and terrorism, see my video "Three Stages of Jihad."

CNN Conceals Motive Behind Canadian Honor Killings

On June 30, 2009, Mohammad Shafia, with the help of his wife Tuba and his son Hamed, murdered his three daughters and his other wife in Ontario, Canada. The wealthy Shafia family worked quickly to conceal their actions, staging a car accident and weeping for their daughters. The media rushed to support the grieving family, until evidence showed that the girls' deaths were no accident.

Yesterday, CNN posted a video about the murders, noting that "interrogations of the family never uncovered a motive." Indeed, the closest CNN comes to identifying a motive in the killings is when the reporter says that the Shafia family comes "from a very conservative Afghan background."

Yes, it's the family's Afghan background, rather than some other background, that is most relevant to this case. At no point in the video does CNN use the words "Islam" or "Muslim."

This is all the more disturbing when we consider that Mohammad Shafia himself, in a recorded conversation, identifies his daughters' betrayal of Islam as his motive for the killings. He declares:

"They betrayed kindness. They betrayed Islam. They betrayed our religion and creed. They betrayed our tradition. They betrayed everything."

Shafia was so confident that his actions were justified, he had absolutely no remorse for killing his daughters:

"God curse their generation, they were filthy and rotten children."

"To hell with them and their boyfriends, may the devil shit on their grave."

“Even if they come back to life a hundred times, if I have a cleaver in my hand, I will cut (them) in pieces.”

Yet CNN remains puzzled about Shafia's motive. I assume CNN is also puzzled about why Muslims commit 91 percent of the world's honor killings. But there's a difference between (a) being puzzled due to ignorance of Islamic teachings, and (b) willfully concealing the stated motive of a group of murderers. By deliberately leaving Islam out of the equation, CNN has joined in the cover up.

Devout Muslim Sunny Islam Raped British Women as Punishment for Being Out at Night

The Qur'an allows Muslim men to rape their female captives, even captives who are married (Qur'an 4:24). Islam also teaches that "good" women are strictly obedient to men (Qur'an 4:34). Should it come as any surprise when a young Muslim man decides to rape "rebellious" non-Muslim women in order to "teach them a lesson" for refusing to submit to Islamic standards of conduct?

United Kingdom--A Muslim man who raped women to 'teach them a lesson' for being on the streets at night was jailed indefinitely today because of the danger he poses to women.

Sunny Islam, 23, who comes from a strict Muslim family, dragged his terrified victims - including a 15-year-old - from the street at knifepoint, bound and assaulted them during a two-month reign of terror.

Police fear that Islam may have attacked many more.

Three of the assaults took place close to his home in Barking, east London, while a fourth occurred in nearby Forest Gate.

Judge Patricia Lees, sentencing him to a minimum of 11 years, said: 'The harm you have done to your victims is incalculable.

'The nature and extent of these offences drives me to the conclusion that you represent an extreme and continuing danger to women, particularly those out at night.'

He was traced through the number plate of his girlfriend's car after he kidnapped and raped the 15-year-old in September 2010.

He grabbed her from behind as she walked home with a friend and bundled her into the car at knifepoint before driving to a secluded spot where he raped her twice despite her claiming she was only 11 years old.

Judge Lees said: 'You told her you were going to "teach her a lesson", and similar things were said to the other women.

'Those words are a chilling indictment of your very troubling attitude towards all of these victims.

'You seem to observe women out at night as not deserving respect or protection.

'I have no doubt that you were out that night looking for a victim, as you were on each of these occasions.' (Read more at Daily Mail.)

For more on women in Islam, see our "Women" link, as well as the following articles:

Dallas M. Roark, "Women in the Qur'an"
Samuel Green, "The Status of Women in Islam"
James M. Arlandson, "Top Ten Rules in the Qur'an That Oppress and Insult Women"

Convicted Terrorist Hysen Sherifi Accused of Plotting to Behead Witnesses

If only Hysen Sherifi had learned about Islam from TLC's "All-American Muslim" instead of by reading the Qur'an and Hadith!

RALEIGH, N.C. – A North Carolina man sentenced to prison recently as part of a homegrown terrorist ring has been accused in a federal court document of plotting to kill witnesses who testified against him at trial.

An affidavit unsealed in federal court Monday accuses Hysen Sherifi of plotting against the witnesses from his jail cell. Authorities say an FBI informant posing as a hit man met with Sherifi's brother and a female friend and accepted $5,000 and a photo of an intended victim.

FBI agents have arrested the brother, Shkumbin Sherifi, and Nevine Aly Elshiekh, a school teacher. Now in federal custody at the New Hanover County Jail, each is charged with a felony count of use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

Hysen Sherifi, 27, was sentenced to 45 years in prison earlier this month in what prosecutors described as a conspiracy to attack the Marine base at Quantico, Va., and targets abroad. Five others, including construction contractor Daniel Patrick Boyd, have been sentenced to federal prison terms for terrorism charges related to raising money, stockpiling weapons and training in preparation for jihadist attacks. . . .

The Sherifi brothers and other family members emigrated from Kosovo following the wars that ravaged the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. A call to the Sherifi family home in Raleigh on Tuesday was not returned.

Hysen Sherifi and others arrested in the terrorism conspiracy were members of the Islamic Association of Raleigh, the largest Muslim congregation in the Triangle. Several members of the mosque also routinely made the 4-hour round trip for the trial in New Bern to support the accused, who they described as innocent men being railroaded by overzealous federal authorities. (Read more.)

Does the Qur'an Claim That the Bible Has Been Corrupted?

Muslim Football Players in Dearborn Heights Arrested for Assault on Christian Quarterback

I'm not sure what motivated these Muslim players to rip off a quarterback's helmet and beat him senseless, but if their lawyer is claiming that their arrests were racially motivated (Islamophobia, of course), then I will say that the attacks themselves were racially motivated (Christianophobia). Could you imagine the media uproar if four Christian players had given a Muslim quarterback a concussion?

DEARBORN HEIGHTS — A figurative beat down turned literal beating has led to the felony arrests of a group of local high school football players.

Police arrested four Star International Academy seniors Wednesday on aggravated assault charges stemming from an altercation in the team’s last game of the season.

The players -- Mohamed Ahmed, Fanar Al-Alsady, Hadee Attia and Ali Bajjey, all age 17 -- are accused of gang-beating Lutheran Westland’s quarterback as time expired in Lutheran’s 47-6 drubbing of Star on Oct. 21.

According to numerous witness statements gathered by police, Lutheran’s quarterback was set to take a knee to run out the clock. Before the snap, referees told both teams to refrain from contact, police said.

After the snap, however, the four arrested Star players burst through the line and allegedly manhandled Lutheran’s quarterback. Police said they ripped off his helmet, threw him to the ground and punched and kicked him repeatedly. The incident came to an end after coaches, players and refs stepped in and broke it up.

Police took a statement from a referee who said he heard a Star player say to hit the referees after being directed to not hit the other team.

According to published reports, Lutheran’s quarterback suffered a concussion from the beating. (Source)

Andrew McCarthy: "Islam Is Islam, and That's It"

Interesting. McCarthy is convinced that Islam has something to do with Muslim behavior, especially when that behavior has been openly displayed for the past fourteen centuries and is grounded in Islam's most trusted sources.

FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS--The tumult indelibly dubbed “the Arab Spring” in the West, by the credulous and the calculating alike, is easier to understand once you grasp two basics. First, the most important fact in the Arab world — as well as in Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other neighboring non-Arab territories — is Islam. It is not poverty, illiteracy, or the lack of modern democratic institutions. These, like anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, and an insular propensity to buy into conspiracy theories featuring infidel villains, are effects of Islam’s regional hegemony and supremacist tendency, not causes of it. One need not be led to that which pervades the air one breathes.

The second fact is that Islam constitutes a distinct civilization. It is not merely an exotic splash on the gorgeous global mosaic with a few embarrassing cultural eccentricities; it is an entirely different way of looking at the world. We struggle with this truth, which defies our end-of-history smugness. Enthralled by diversity for its own sake, we have lost the capacity to comprehend a civilization whose idea of diversity is coercing diverse peoples into obedience to its evolution-resistant norms.

So we set about remaking Islam in our own progressive image: the noble, fundamentally tolerant Religion of Peace. We miniaturize the elements of the ummah (the notional global Muslim community) that refuse to go along with the program: They are assigned labels that scream “fringe!” — Islamist, fundamentalist, Salafist, Wahhabist, radical, jihadist, extremist, militant, or, of course, “conservative” Muslims adhering to “political Islam.”

We consequently pretend that Muslims who accurately invoke Islamic scripture in the course of forcibly imposing the dictates of classical sharia — the Islamic legal and political system — are engaged in “anti-Islamic activity,” as Britain’s former home secretary Jacqui Smith memorably put it. When the ongoing Islamization campaign is advanced by violence, as inevitably happens, we absurdly insist that this aggression cannot have been ideologically driven, that surely some American policy or Israeli act of self-defense is to blame, as if these could possibly provide rationales for the murderous jihad waged by Boko Haram Muslims against Nigerian Christians and by Egyptian Muslims against the Copts, the persecution of the Ahmadi sect by Indonesian and Pakistani Muslims, or the internecine killing in Iraq of Sunnis by Shiites and vice versa — a tradition nearly as old as Islam itself — which has been predictably renewed upon the recent departure of American troops.

The main lesson of the Arab Spring ought to be that this remaking of Islam has happened only in our own minds, for our own consumption. The Muslims of the Middle East take no note of our reimagining of Islam, being, in the main, either hostile toward or oblivious to Western overtures. Muslims do not measure themselves against Western perceptions, although the shrewdest among them take note of our eagerly accommodating attitude when determining what tactics will best advance the cause.

That cause is nothing less than Islamic dominance. (Read more.)

Thirteen-Year-Old Pakistani Girl's "Honor" Killing Covered Up by Family, Police

I'm sure Muslim groups like CAIR and ISNA would be upset about such "honor" crimes, if only there weren't so much "Islamophobia" to complain about here in America.

PAKISTAN--The body of a teenaged girl who was allegedly killed in the name of honour was exhumed by a medical team on Saturday after the divisional bench of the Peshawar High Court ordered a re-investigation into the case.

The inquiry team, which included two medical officers, was headed by judicial magistrate Rashid Rauf Swati.

Rehnaz Bibi, 13, was allegedly shot dead by one of her cousins in September 2010. According to reports, Bibi left home to convince the boy she liked to marry her without her family’s consent. However, she was sent back home by his family, who lived in the same village, with the promise to send a proposal for her later.

When her family found out about the incident, her father, who was in Karachi at that time, allegedly asked one of his nephews to kill her.

According to an application filed in Haripur district and sessions court by a local activist Qamar Hayat, Rehnaz was fired at with an AK-47 and received 30 bullets. Her family had termed her death as an accident.

The petitioner claims the police closed the case and allegedly concealed facts pertaining to her murder. (Read more.)

Iraq Becoming a Police State

And yet our leaders will continue to claim that the Muslim world simply needs democracy.

BAGHDAD—Iraq's Shiite-led government cracked down harshly on dissent during the past year of Arab Spring uprisings, turning the country into a "budding police state" as autocratic regimes crumbled elsewhere in the region, an international rights groups said Sunday.

Security forces abuse protesters, harass journalists, torture detainees and intimidate activists, Human Rights Watch said in the Iraq chapter of its annual report.

"Iraq is quickly slipping back into authoritarianism," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for the New York-based group. "Despite U.S. government assurances that it helped create a stable democracy (in Iraq), the reality is that it left behind a budding police state," she said. (Read more.)

Imam Charged with Raping Eight-Year-Old Student

Muslims assure us that the spread of Islam will put an end to rape, child molestation, etc. However, given that we regularly find cases of rape, child molestation, etc., being committed by Muslims, how can we believe that Islam is the solution Muslims claim it to be? Should we just take their word for it?

Pirojpur, Jan 21 (bdnews24.com) — Police have arrested an imam on charges that he violated an 8-year-old female madrasa student at Pirojpur district's Swarupkathi upazila.

Upzila's Qazi Bari Mosque's Imam Mohammar Nurul Islam was arrested after the girl's parents lodged a rape case on Saturday with the Swarupkathi Police Station, police said.

Station's inspector (investigation) Surendranath Adhikari told bdnews24.com that Nurul Islam, a Fazil grade student of the upazila's Sarsina Alia Madrasa, was also presented before the court following his arrest.

According to case details, Islam was appointed to tutor the victim in Arabic. Islam reportedly violated the girl when she was alone at the madrasa in the morning.

Her parents admitted her to upazila health complex after the girl arrived home and fell sick.

After lodging the case, the victim's mother told reporters, "I sent her to the imam to learn Arabic thinking he was a good person. But I did not know this would happen." (Source)

Bart Ehrman on the Qur'an

Here's some of the information Bart would share if he stopped valuing his life:

Muslim Group Boko Haram Kills More Than 120 People in Nigeria

Hmmm. Boko Haram is killing people in their efforts to establish Sharia. Here in America, when leaders attempt to make laws against establishing Sharia, Muslims assure us that they have no desire to establish Sharia, and that Sharia is simply a set of personal Islamic duties such as praying and visiting a mosque. Ever get the feeling someone's not being honest?

KANO, Nigeria--Coordinated attacks claimed by a radical Islamist sect killed at least 120 people in north Nigeria's largest city, hospital records seen Saturday show, as gunfire still echoed around some areas of the sprawling city.

Soldiers and police officers swarmed over streets Saturday in Kano, a city of more than 9 million people that remains an important political and religious hub in Nigeria's Muslim north. But their effectiveness remains in question, as the uniformed bodies of many of their colleagues lay in the overflowing mortuary of Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital, Kano's largest hospital.

Hospital records seen by an Associated Press reporter there showed at least 120 people died in the attacks that started Friday afternoon after Muslim prayers and as shops closed for the weekend in the sprawling, dusty city. A mortuary attendant, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with journalists, said they had 126 bodies there. . . .

A Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in a message to journalists. He said the attack came as the state government refused to release Boko Haram members held by the police.

Boko Haram has carried out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, is responsible for at least 510 killings last year alone, according to an AP count. So far this year, the group has been blamed for at least 196 killings, according to an AP count. (Read more.)

Victim of Attempted "Honor" Killing Speaks Out

Indonesian Atheist Alexander An Beaten, Facing Jail for "Blaphemy"

I'm sure Muslims in the UK would jump at the chance to defend this atheist's rights, if only they weren't so busy complaining about cartoons.

INDONESIA--An Indonesian civil servant who declared himself an atheist on Facebook was arrested and is now facing jail for blasphemy after being attacked by an angry mob, police said today.

Alexander An, 30, who wrote "God doesn't exist" on his Facebook page, was beaten by a mob of dozens on Wednesday in his hometown in Pulau Punjung, West Sumatra province.

"He is suspected of having blasphemed against Islam," local police chief Chairul Aziz told AFP.

"The man told police investigators that if God really exists and has absolute power, why didn't he prevent bad things from happening in this world."

An said on his Facebook page that he was brought up as a Muslim, like the vast majority in Indonesia, where blasphemy is a punishable crime carrying a maximum five-year prison term.

Dozens of locals stormed into his office after a heated debate with them on Facebook over religion, police said.

An was also an administrator of a Facebook group promoting atheism with 1243 followers. His postings no longer appeared online following his arrest. (Source)

Al Qaeda Leader Aslam Awan (aka Abdullah Khorsani) Reportedly Killed in Drone Strike

It's interesting that so many of these terrorists keep popping up in friendly, moderate Pakistan.

FOX NEWS--A senior Al Qaeda figure was reportedly killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan last week, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News.

Four militants in the town of Miranshah in the North Waziristan tribal region were also killed, according to eyewitness reports.

U.S. officials had confirmed to Fox News that the first drone strike was the first in the region since a November NATO cross-border air attack last year left 24 Pakistani troops dead.

U.S. and Pakistani sources told Fox News that the target of the most recent attack was Aslam Awan, who they describe as a significant figure in the remaining leadership of Al Qaeda.

"Aslam Awan also known as Abdullah Khorsani was a senior Al Qaeda external operations planner who was working on attacks against the West," the U.S. official said.

Pakistani officials did not confirm that Awan was killed in the attack.

"His death reduces Al Qaeda's thinning bench of another operative devoted to plotting the death of innocent civilians," the U.S. official said. (Read more.)

Newt Gingrich Responds to Media Bias

This is mostly off-topic, but one of the issues we regularly deal with at AM is media bias (in favor of Islam). It turns out that the media are biased in other areas as well!

I've never seen anyone lay a smack-down on CNN for their bias the way Gingrich does here.

Yes, It's Yet Another Cartoon Controversy (Care to Guess Which Religion's Followers Are Throwing a Tantrum?)

Muslims keep telling us that Muhammad was just a man. And yet Muslims have far more reverence for him than they have for God.

I (foolishly) thought the cartoon controversies would die out after "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day," but it seems there are still plenty of Muslims to get angry over silly cartoons. Interestingly, if Muslims hadn't complained, far less people would have seen the cartoon of Jesus and Muhammad having a drink. By bringing the media into the discussion, millions of people have now seen it:

Sunnis are blowing up Shias, and vice versa. Ahmadis are being slaughtered in Indonesia. Christians are being persecuted by Muslims in Egypt, Iraq, and Pakistan. Muslims from around the world are calling for the annihilation of Israel. Teenage girls are being butchered by their fathers and brothers over Muslim "honor." Wives are being beaten in the name of Surah 4:34. Terrorist groups are plotting their next attack. And Muslims in the UK are complaining about . . . a cartoon.

Islam: The Religion of Odd Priorities.

DAILY MAIL--A row has erupted over an atheist society at a top London University posting a cartoon sketch featuring the prophet Muhammad having a drink with Jesus on its Facebook page.

A student Muslim group is demanding the 'offensive' image of Jesus and Mo having a drink at the bar, taken from an online satirical sketch, be removed from the social networking site.

The president of the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society at the prestigious University College London (UCL), Robbie Yellon, has stepped down over the controversy.

But the Society still refuses to take down the image - claiming its right to defend 'freedom of expression'.

Secretary for the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies, Michael Paynter,said: 'Robbie stepped aside because he signed up as president to organise events and run a student society.

'He did not appreciate the stress he would be under when dealing with a controversy like this, so he wanted to make way for someone else.'

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association's protest against the photo has been backed by UCL's Union.
A UCL Union statement said: 'The atheist society has agreed they will take more consideration when drawing up publicity for future events.

'The society was asked to remove the image because UCLU aims to foster good relations between different groups of students and create a safe environment where all students can benefit from societies regardless of their religious or other beliefs.'

The image that started the controversy was taken from an online twice-weekly satirical comic strip, called Jesus and Mo, and has been running since 2005.

The Association aims to continue its protest until the image is taken down - claiming it is offensive and has wider implications.

The association's national spokesperson, Adam Walker, said the two student groups had worked well together in the past and said the offence was unnecessary.

He said: 'The principle is more important than who is being attacked - this time it is Muslims and Christians but in the future it could be atheists themselves.'

"This time it is Muslims and Christians but in the future it could be atheists themselves." Wow. This guy apparently thinks that atheists will be just as upset over a cartoon as Muslims are. (Read more.)

How about it, atheists? Are you quaking in your boots at the thought of the tables turning, when someone might ***GASP*** draw a cartoon making fun of your beliefs? Here's one:

Let's see if I get any death threats.

Jewish Students in France Pretending to Be Muslims to Avoid Being Attacked

I'm sure Western Muslims would love to do something about this, if only they weren't so busy complaining about Islamophobia.

THE JERUSALEM POST--From the mid-1930s to early 1940s, Jews who recognized that they were no longer safe in Europe anxiously sought refuge abroad. Sylvain Zenouda, the co-founder and current vice president of the Bureau National de Vigilance Contre l"Antisèmitism—an organization which monitors and documents anti-Semitism in France—told me that educated young Jews in France with the financial means to do so have either fled the country or are making plans to flee. Again?

80 years ago, our people were being verbally abused and brutally assaulted in public places. And now it seems to be happening all over again. Viviane Teitelbaum, a minister in the Brussels Regional Parliament, related an incident that occurred this past November involving a 13-year old Jewish girl in Brussels. The girl was brutally assaulted at her school, resulting in her hospitalization for multiple injuries including a concussion. The attackers were not members of the Third Reich’s SS, but a group of female Muslim students at the same school. The ringleader pronounced her to be a “filthy Jew!” Apparently, in the weeks prior to the attack, the girl’s father had approached the authorities and the school with complaints that there had been threats made by fellow classmates against his daughter. Upon hearing that his concerns were simply brushed aside, I immediately thought of Yogi Berra’s famous gaff: “This is like déjà vu all over again!”

2 generations ago, some Jews sought to protect themselves by masquerading as Aryans. In an interview conducted in November, a Parisian mother related how the fear of being physically attacked by Muslim extremist thugs means that it is “not rare at all today” for French Jewish students to attempt to pass themselves off as Muslim - with some even going as far as to fast on Ramadan. One case in point was a Jewish girl of North African descent who for years was successful in this deception, until finally she was “exposed” when Muslim girls caught her eating matzah in the bathroom during Pesah. After her classmates beat her viciously, they invited their male Muslim friends to their school to participate in a gang rape.

Wait…didn’t this happen to us already? (Read more.)

Moeed Abdul Salam Goes from U.S. Boarding School to Al Qaeda Suicide Bomber

What could have possibly changed him? What could have convinced a devout Muslim that violence is the way to move forward? It couldn't possibly be the Muslim sources, which proclaim nothing but peace and tolerance:

Qur’an 9:29—Fight those who believe not in Allah . . .

Qur’an 9:73—O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them.

Qur’an 9:111—Surely Allah has bought of the believers their persons and their property for this, that they shall have the garden; they fight in Allah's way, so they slay and are slain.

Qur’an 9:123—O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness.

Qur’an 48:29—Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and those who are with him are severe against disbelievers, and merciful among themselves.

Sahih Muslim 30—Muhammad said: “I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah.”

Let's face it. The world may never know what drove this man to violence.

ASSOCIATED PRESS--Moeed Abdul Salam didn't descend into radical Islam for lack of other options. He grew up in a well-off Texas household, attended a pricey boarding school and graduated from one of the state's most respected universities.

But the most unlikely thing about his recruitment was his family: Two generations had spent years promoting interfaith harmony and combating Muslim stereotypes in their hometown and even on national television.

Salam rejected his relatives' moderate faith and comfortable life, choosing instead a path that led him to work for Al Qaeda. His odyssey ended late last year in a middle-of-the-night explosion in Pakistan. The 37-year-old father of four was dead after paramilitary troops stormed his apartment.

His Nov. 19 death went largely unnoticed in the U.S. and rated only limited attention in Pakistan. But the circumstances threatened to overshadow the work of an American family devoted to religious understanding. And his mysterious evolution presented a reminder of the attraction Pakistan still holds for Islamic militants, especially well-educated Westerners whose Internet and language skills make them useful converts for jihad.

"There are things that we don't want to happen but we have to accept, things that we don't want to know but we have to learn, and a loved one we can't live without but have to let go," Salam's mother, Hasna Shaheen Salam, wrote last month on her Facebook page.

The violence didn't stop after Salam died. Weeks after his death, fellow militants killed three soldiers with a roadside bomb to avenge the raid.

It is not clear to what extent Salam's family knew of his radicalism, but on his Facebook page the month before he died, he posted an image of Anwar al-Awalki, the American Al Qaeda leader who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, beside a burning American flag. He had also recently linked to a document praising al-Awalki's martyrdom and to a message urging Muslims to rejoice "in this time when you see the mujahideen all over the world victorious." (Read more.)

Raymond Ibrahim: How Circumstance Dictates Islamic Behavior

Raymond Ibrahim has written a short article discussing comments by Egyptian Sheikh Yassir al-Burhami, who says . . . GASP! . . . the same thing we keep telling people Islam teaches, namely, that Jihad proceeds in stages.

JIHAD WATCH--Has there ever been a time when one group of people openly exposes its animosity for another group of people—even as this second group not only ignores the animosity, but speaks well, enables, and legitimizes the first group?

Welcome to the 21st century, where Western politicians empower those Muslims who are otherwise constantly and openly denouncing all non-Muslims as enemies to be fought and subjugated.

Consider this video of Sheikh Yassir al-Burhami, a top-ranked figure in Egypt’s Salafi movement which won some 25% of the votes in recent elections. He makes clear a point that, in a different era, would be thoroughly eye-opening—that all notions of peace with non-Muslims are based on circumstance: when Muslims are weak, they should be peaceful; when strong, they should go on the offensive.

Discussing “the analogy between Egypt’s Christians and the Jews of Medina,” Burhami pointed out that Muslims may make temporary peace with infidels, when circumstance calls for it:

The Jews of Medina represent a paradigm—laid by the prophet [Muhammad]—that shows how Muslims should deal with infidels. The prophet’s methods of dealing with infidels are available for Muslims to replicate depending on their situation and their capabilities. The Prophet in Mecca dealt with the infidels in a certain way, so whenever Muslims are vulnerable they should deal with the infidels in this same manner.

Burhami is referring to the famous Mecca/Medina division: when Muhammad was weak and outnumbered in his early Mecca period, he preached peace and made pacts with infidels; when he became strong in the Medina period, he preached war and went on the offensive. This dichotomy—preach peace when weak, wage war when strong—has been instructive to Muslim leaders for ages. (Read the rest of the article at Jihad Watch.)

If you missed my video on this topic, be sure to watch it:

Ann Marie Waters: Freedom of Expression under Threat by Violent Extremists

What happens when students want to learn about Sharia and human rights in the UK? A Muslim threatens everyone present, and the event is cancelled. I guess the students got the answer they were looking for.

NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY--This week I was due to give a talk to students at Queen Mary College, London on sharia law and human rights. Rather fittingly – and as if to prove my point - my human rights were quashed by a person demonstrating one of the effects of sharia law; the threat of violence for criticising religion.

Just before I was due to start, a young man entered the lecture theatre, stood at the front of the room with a camera and proceeded to film everyone in the audience. That done, he informed us that he knew who we were, where we lived and if he heard a single negative word about the Prophet, he would track us down. (I am told he made further threats as he left the building).

The organisers of the event, the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies called the police and the event was unfortunately cancelled.

On reflection of the incident, I am left wondering what exactly we could have done. I would love to say that we stood up to him and carried on bravely in a valiant defence of free speech, but it was a frightening experience and I know that people felt genuinely threatened and upset. In any case, is it the role of speakers and students to face off against potentially violent Islamists in defence of our free speech, risking our safety in the process? Just whose job is it to defend freedom of speech and can we be expected to fight for it when the state and other powers refuse to back us up?

Question: can you remember the last time you heard the Government – or any political party – give a robust and dogged defence of free speech? No, neither can I. But there have been plenty of opportunities.

Take the Danish cartoon affair for example. Look at the pathetic response of the British Government at the time; "There is freedom of speech, we all respect that ... But there is not any obligation to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory. I believe that the republication of these cartoons has been unnecessary. It has been insensitive. It has been disrespectful and it has been wrong." Even the UN said it would investigate whether the cartoonists were racists. How can we expect people in a university lecture hall to stand up to violent threats when this is the reaction of our leaders? The message is very clear – don't insult religion. And if you do, and you get in to trouble for it, you have only yourself to blame (or "don't come crying to us"?)

Freedom of speech needs to be defended from above. We need prosecution and punishment of those intent on frightening people into staying silent. Until the state speaks out and makes it clear to the likes of this guy that this behaviour is not acceptable – no excuses, no apologies – these things will continue to happen and more and more people will be frightened in to shutting up. We can then say goodbye to freedom for good." (Source)

Richard Butrick: The Golden Age of Islam - A Second Look

Richard Butrick has written an excellent article on the so-called "Golden Age of Islam," i.e. the mythical period in history when the Muslim world led humanity in science and mathematics, and Christians and Jews lived in an interfaith paradise under Muslim rule.

STONEGATE INSTITUTE--The period from the death of Muhammad through the 13th Century marks the glory days of the Islamic empire. It was a period of commerce, industry and intra-cultural synergies and a flourishing of the sciences, art, medicine and architecture. It was the epitome of what civilization should be. Just ask Obama. In his 2009 Cairo speech the president said that Islam "carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment," and praised the "innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed."

While Central Europe languished in the Dark Ages of ignorance, fear and superstition following the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century (so the story goes), it was the Islamic world that carried the torch of Classical civilization to a Europe finally stumbling out of the Dark Ages in the 15th century.

By contrast the Islamic world flourished during the Dark Ages: by the 13th century, both Africa and India had become great centers of Islamic civilization, and soon after, Muslim kingdoms were established in the Malay-Indonesian world while Chinese Muslims flourished throughout China.

Islam therefore is a religion for all people from whatever race or background they might be: Islamic civilization is based on a unity which stands completely against any racial or ethnic discrimination. Such major racial and ethnic groups as the Arabs, Persians, Turks, Africans, Indians, Chinese and Malays in addition to countless smaller units embraced Islam and contributed to the building of Islamic civilization.

Moreover, so the story goes, Islam was not opposed to learning from the earlier civilizations and incorporating their science, learning, and culture into its own world view. Each ethnic and racial group that embraced Islam made its contribution to the one Islamic civilization to which everyone belonged.

The global civilization created by Islam also succeeded in activating the minds and thoughts of the people who entered its fold. As a result of Islam, the nomadic Arabs became torch-bearers of science and learning. The Persians, who had created a great civilization before the rise of Islam, nevertheless produced even more science and learning in the Islamic period than before. The same can be said of the Turks and other peoples who embraced Islam. The religion of Islam was itself responsible not only for the creation of a world civilization in which people of many different ethnic backgrounds participated, but it also played a central role in developing intellectual and cultural life on a scale not seen before.

Quite a story. And it is a story being fed to US students from k-12 on through graduate schools. Quite a story? More like a fairy tale.

Click here to read Butrick's response to this "fairy tale."

"Pious" Pakistani Muslim Sells Christian Girls

If you're waiting for Western Muslims to show their outrage at the kidnapping, rape, and forced conversion of Christian girls in the Muslim world, you'll just have to wait. They're too busy showing their outrage at Lowe's Home Improvement, and people who criticize Islam, and Marines who urinate on dead terrorists.

PAKISTAN--“I saw two of my daughters being raped in front of me,” an old lady from Essa Nagri told The News. “It is considered that Chooras have no integrity.” She says that around midnight, men from other areas start gathering in their neighbourhood. “They are usually drunk. They choose which home they will plunder.”

She adds that one night they stormed into her home and raped two of her girls, while she “was locked in another room hearing their cries for help”. “I am a widow without any financial prospects, but I did go to the MPA representing us. What good is he if he can’t do anything to protect us?” The fear to report these cases is such that at first, no one even admits that an incident of rape or torture has taken place.

Within the past three months, nine women have been abducted and forcibly converted to Islam. MPA Javed adds that the purpose is not to gain good deeds, but to sell them. A majority of the Christian girls converted are married, he says.

According to reports he received from different areas of the city, the abducted women are later sold to feudal lords in Sindh and Punjab. Citing a recent example, Javed says that in Essa Nagri, a 23-year-old married girl was forcibly remarried to a 60-year-old Muslim man, who was notorious for selling girls.

Javed said that the man was known to be pious, but had a side business of selling Christian girls. He says many people apart from him knew the truth. The only information that the family received was by a phone call through which they were informed by somebody that their girl is in Punjab.

He points out that there is a judgment by the Lahore High Court which clearly states that a “married Christian woman cannot be remarried to a Muslim even if converted,” but these cases do not even go to the police to be challenged in the high courts. (Read more.)

Hassan Nisar: The Ummah vs. the West

CAIR: Muslim Mafia

Click here if you haven't read the book.

Three Muslims Found Guilty Terrorism-Related Charges in North Carolina

Of course, Muslims in the West would be in an uproar over these plots, if only there weren't so much Islamophobia to complain about.

North Carolina--In Federal Court in New Bern, NC today, three would-be Islamist terrorists were found guilty of a slew of terrorism-related charges in a planned attack on unsuspecting wives and children of Marine Corps personnel residing on the sprawling Marine base in Quantico, Virginia.

Ziyad Yaghi, 23; Hysen Sherifi, 27; and Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, 24 all stood before Her Honor U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan as they had their convictions and sentences publically read to them. (Read more.)

Muslim Terrorists Strapping Bombs to Muslim Children

I'm sure that Muslim organizations like CAIR and ISNA would be ready to do something about this, if they weren't so busy complaining about Lowe's. And the Mainstream Media would be calling far more attention to this, if they weren't so worried about Marines urinating on dead terrorists.

Priorities.

AFGHANISTAN--The mission was as simple as touching two wires together, the little boy was promised. The resulting blast would obliterate the American infidels – but God would spare him from the flame and shrapnel. Abdul Samat would be unharmed and free to run back to the men who had fitted his bomb vest.

Blindfolded and rigged with his explosive payload, the boy, who was about 13, was driven to his target in the Afghan city of Kandahar, after being plucked from the streets of Quetta in neighbouring Pakistan. Minutes before he was due to execute the attack, however, Abdul realised the lies of his recruiters seeking to turn him into a human bomb.

"When I opened my eyes, I saw it was a very black thing they wanted me to do," he later recalled.

"I began to cry and shout. People came out of their houses and asked what was wrong. I showed them I had something in my vest. Then they were scared too and called the police who took the bombs off me."

Afghan security officials say that Abdul's story is not unusual. In the past year, insurgents have used a wave of child suicide bombers, some as young as 10, on the ruthless assumption that small boys can pass through checkpoints and security cordons more easily than men.

A senior Afghan intelligence official estimated that more than 100 had been intercepted in the past 12 months, including 20 from the Kandahar area in the south. The insurgents seek to exploit the innocence of their recruits and turn it into a weapon.

The largely illiterate boys are fed a diet of anti-Western and anti-Afghan government propaganda until they are prepared to kill, he said. But the boys are also assured that they will miraculously survive the devastation they cause.

"The worst part is that these children don't think that they are killing themselves," said the official. "They are often given an amulet containing Koranic verses. Mullahs tell them, 'When this explodes you will survive and God will help you survive the fire. Only the infidels will be killed, you will be saved and your parents will go to paradise'." (Read more.)

Kristin Butler: UN Resolution Threatens Freedom of Speech

I suspect GreekAsianPanda will find the U.N. resolution "mildly annoying."

CROSSWALK--A new resolution introduced at the United Nations Human Rights Council has free speech advocates concerned about a potential backlash against religious minority groups. Previously introduced as Resolution 62/154, “Combating defamation of religion,” the piece was originally written to criminalize the criticism of religion. Advocates worried that the resolution would, at best, limit freedom of speech, and at worst, jeopardize religious minorities in countries carrying heavy punishments for blasphemy and apostasy.

Recently the piece has morphed into Resolution 16/18, the goal of which is “Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping, and stigmatization of, and discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against, persons based upon religion or belief.”

But in spite of the seemingly benign language, free speech advocates say there is still cause for concern. According to Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice, in some Islamic countries, particularly those with harsh penalties for apostasy and blasphemy, it often doesn't take much for religious minorities to incite extremist rage. "Just the building of churches ... having a cross outside your door can be inciting violence," Sekulow says. "So if you let them define these definitions when there is no problem coming from the minority faiths, this is somehow going to 'green-light' their suppression," he explains.

Advocates point to the case of Asia Bibi, a wife and mother who awaits death by hanging in Pakistan after being charged with blasphemy. During a dispute over drinking water, Bibi's Muslim co-workers accused the Christian woman of insulting the Prophet Mohammed – charges that led to her conviction of blasphemy in a Pakistani court. Religious freedom advocates say that religious minorities often bear the brunt of persecution under blasphemy codes in Islamic countries. In Pakistan, Christians, Hindus and other religious minorities comprise only 3 percent of the population of 180 million.

Those opposing the resolution say that the countries most heavily lobbying for its passage are those with less than ideal track records for freedom of speech or religious diversity. Jordan Sekulow, Director of Policy and International Operations for the American Center for Law and Justice, says that the countries pushing this resolution are countries whose “populations are 90 to 99 percent one single religious group.” He is concerned that religious minorities in these predominately Muslim countries already face some forms of persecution, and that the passage of this resolution might serve to increase persecution against minority groups. "What is the problem here with the 1 percent speaking out and why is that such an issue that needs to be handled at the international level?" he asks.

The Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is backing the resolution. Frank Gaffney, president of the American Center for Security Policy, questions the group's goals for the resolution, accusing the group of attempting to promote Sharia, Islamic law, through the passage of the resolution. "It is 57 states and Palestine that have come together to promote what is fundamentally the agenda that is known as Sharia," he says. (Read more.)

Robert Muise and David Yerushalmi Form the American Freedom Law Center

I can debate, make videos, and write articles all day long. But when police throw me in jail and seize my camera, my hands are tied. That's where lawyers come in.

Whether you know it or not, if you live in the U.S., Robert Muise and David Yerushalmi have been defending your rights for years. They're the lawyers representing us (pro bono) against the City of Dearborn. They've also represented Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller. As various government officials do their best to take away the rights our forefathers fought and died to give us, Muise and Yerushalmi stand on the front lines on behalf of freedom, America, and the Constitution.

This is why the following news is so exciting.

AFLC--Having collaborated for over four years on many high-profile cases, attorneys David Yerushalmi and Robert J. Muise have decided to formalize their working relationship by together launching the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC). Yerushalmi, an orthodox Jew, and Muise, an orthodox Catholic, describe AFLC as the Nation’s first truly authentic Judeo-Christian, public interest law firm.

According to Yerushalmi and Muise, they formed AFLC because they share the firm conviction that the strength of our Nation lies in its commitment to a Judeo-Christian heritage and moral foundation and to an enduring faith and trust in God and His Providence. This intersection between our Judeo-Christian values and the preservation and security of our Nation has garnered the interest and support from several prominent leaders, including former CIA Director R. James Woolsey; former Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan and current President of the Center for Security Policy Frank Gaffney; Notre Dame law professor Charles Rice; former Inspector General for the Department of Defense Joseph Schmitz; and former Assistant U.S. Attorney and current contributing editor to National Review Andy McCarthy, all of whom will be serving on the AFLC advisory board.

Through AFLC, Yerushalmi and Muise seek a return to what they describe as “America’s founding commitment to receive God’s continued blessing for America.” Yerushalmi commented, “AFLC will fight for faith and freedom by advancing and defending America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and moral foundation through litigation, education, and public policy programs. Fighting for our Judeo-Christian values is more than simply defending religious liberty; it is fighting for the very survival of our Nation.” He added, “Throughout history, great nations have fallen from within. Make no mistake, America is a blessed Nation, but only so long as it remains faithful to the Judeo-Christian values upon which it was founded.”

Yerushalmi and Muise have pledged to aggressively fight those who seek to undermine and destroy our Nation’s founding principles. They view secular progressives and organizations such as the ACLU and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as domestic enemies to the Judeo-Christian values reflected in our Constitution and Declaration of Independence. They vow to fight the “civilization jihad” being waged by the Muslim Brotherhood and other sharia-driven Muslims operating within the United States, including CAIR.

What is AFLC? It is first and foremost a public interest litigation firm. Muise explained the pressing need for an organization like AFLC: “To great effect, elite secular progressives are systematically assailing and destroying our Nation’s moral foundation. Driven by a transnational world view that is hostile to our Nation’s Judeo-Christian values, progressives are zealously sweeping religion from the public square, foisting sharia law and other harmful international precedents into our courts and Constitution, assaulting the traditional family, and weakening our national defense by — among other things — undermining the strength of our military through social engineering and political correctness. Our traditional liberties hang in balance. And for good or ill, this battle for America’s soul is being waged in the courtrooms across America.” (Read more.)

Pat Condell: Human Rights Travesty

This video is from 2010, but it's even more relevant now.

Nine out of Top Ten Most Dangerous Countries for Christians are Muslim Countries

I'm sure that Muslim organizations like CAIR and ISNA would like to do something about the brutal treatment of Christians and other minorities in Muslim countries; however, they're too busy complaining (still) about Lowe's and condemning U.S. Marines who peed on dead terrorists.

U.N. WATCH--Concerns about an Islamic-sponsored “combating intolerance” initiative at the United Nations are brought into sharp relief by results of a new world survey on religious persecution.

Muslim nations make up nine out of the top ten countries where Christians face the “most severe” persecution, and 38 of the top 50, reports U.S.-based Open Doors in its 2012 World Watch List.

Topping the list is North Korea, where the Stalinist regime enforces cult worship of its leaders.

The results lay bare the sheer incongruity of the idea that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), whose 56 member states control more than a quarter of the votes in the UN General Assembly, can be serious about promoting religious tolerance.

Yet that is what it claimed by successfully pushing for an assembly resolution titled “Combating intolerance, negative stereotyping, stigmatization, discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons, based on religion or belief.” The measure, which passed last month, mirrored an almost identical resolution in the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva last March.

The assembly resolution, which the United Arab Emirates tabled on behalf of the OIC, repeats the prior HRC measure’s call for governments to “take effective measures to ensure that public functionaries, in the conduct of their public duties, do not discriminate against an individual on the basis of religion or belief.”

OIC member states want us to believe they are promoting that and the many other praiseworthy precepts of both resolutions even though a majority of them oppose the measures through their actions.

What’s more, a decade’s worth of Open Doors surveys shows that “the persecution of Christians in these Muslim countries continues to increase,” the group’s Dr. Carl Moeller reports.

And so the question begs: If most OIC member states practice the opposite of each resolution’s stated intent, why did the organization launch the initiative? (Read more.)

Clifford May: Free Speech Ends Where Islam Begins

The Dickinson Press--It’s funny in an Orwellian way that in Europe there are now militant groups with such cutesy names as Sharia4Belgium and Sharia4Holland. Less funny, but perhaps more Orwellian: Last month, the European Foundation for Democracy held an event in Amsterdam featuring two speakers who favor liberalizing Islam. More than 20 members of the pro-Sharia groups pushed their way in shouting “Allahu Akhbar!” They demanded the event be stopped, called the speakers apostates, spat on them, threw eggs at them and threatened to kill them.

Now here’s the least funny and most Orwellian part: Few Europeans — few journalists, politicians, members of the self-proclaimed Human Rights community, Muslim organizations claiming to be moderate — have expressed outrage over this boot-stomping suppression of free speech in a city, country and continent that claim to value freedom and tolerance.

Roberta Bonazzi, EFD’s executive director, vowed not to be silenced. “We are united and will continue to support inspirational Muslim reformers across Europe,” she said. Her speakers also kept a stiff upper lip. Canadian author Irshad Manji said that she and Dutch Parliamentarian Tofik Dibi had “refused to leave, even when police asked. We wouldn’t play on jihadi terms.” Dibi, of the Green-Left party, said “the disruption shows that even in the Netherlands it is necessary to continue the debate on reforming Islam.”

Necessary, yes; safe, no. In Europe, increasingly, free speech ends where Islam, Islamism and even Islamic terrorism begin. Two months ago, the Paris offices of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo were firebombed and its staff targeted with death threats after publication of an issue “edited” by the Prophet Mohammad.

In 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten published a dozen cartoons satirizing terrorism in the name of Islam. That led to protests, riots, death threats, an assassination plot and the bombing of the Danish embassy in Pakistan.

All this continues a trend begun in 1989, when Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered any Muslim willing and able to murder British author Salman Rushdie whose novel, “The Satanic Verses,” Khomeini deemed blasphemous. Rushdie has required bodyguards ever since.

In any of the more than 50 states that hold membership in the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC — formerly the Organization of the Islamic Conference) that probably would not have saved him. Last year, Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, defended a Christian woman sentenced to death for having said something some Muslims found offensive. One of Taseer’s bodyguards shot him 27 times.

There is not a single OIC member state that seriously guarantees freedom of speech. Nevertheless, in association with the OIC, the U.S. State Department last month hosted, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended, a three-day, closed-door international conference in Washington on combating religious “intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization.” The conference reinforced the OIC tenet that all religions are equal — though one is more equal than others. OIC members are concerned only about the “defamation” of Islam and, evidently, they do not view militant Muslims attacking reformist Muslims as defaming their faith.

Nina Shea, who serves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, attended part of the conference and reported that it “immediately reignited OIC demands for the West to punish anti-Islamic speech.” The audience was reassured that “the Obama administration is working diligently to prosecute American Islamophobes and is transforming the U.S. Justice Department into the conscience of the nation, though it could no doubt learn a thing or two from the assembled delegates ...”

From which delegates exactly? The Saudis whose school textbooks describe Jews as apes and Christians as swine? Or those of the European Union which, in response to the violence incited over the Danish cartoons, has mandated religious hate-speech codes that shield Islamic militants but, as the attack against EFD’s speakers illustrates, do little to protect the rights of liberal Muslims, much less of non-Muslims?

Will the day come when Europeans and Americans again stand up on their hind legs and defend their freedoms, values and traditions? Or have we effectively given up the fight in an attempt to appease such groups as the OIC and Sharia4Belgium? If only Orwell were still with us: I bet he’d have some pungent answers to these questions. (Source)