More Children Beheaded in Afghanistan

Meanwhile, CAIR and ISNA are busy trying to convince Westerners that only racists and bigots could ever be concerned about the spread of Islam. If only they confronted beheadings with the same determination!

(Reuters) - An adolescent boy and a young girl have been beheaded in two separate incidents in Afghanistan, local officials and police said on Friday, in the latest brazen attacks that have raised fresh questions about a splintering Taliban.

A 12-year-old boy was kidnapped and killed in southern Kandahar province on Wednesday, his severed head placed near his body to send a warning to police, said provincial governor spokesman Jawid Faisal.

The brother of the boy, neither of whom were named by officials, was a member of the Afghan Local Police (ALP), a U.S.-trained militia charged with making Afghans in Taliban strongholds, like Kandahar, feel more secure, Faisal said.

"It's a Taliban warning to the ALP and to others who support the government," Faisal said of the killing, which happened in Kandahar's Panjwai district.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf denied the group was involved.

Separately, a 6-year-old girl was beheaded in eastern Kapisa province on Thursday, said provincial police chief Abdul Hamed.

"We are not sure if she was beheaded by her family or the Taliban, but we know the Taliban control the area," Hamed said of the killing in Jalukhil village. He added that he could not send investigators to the area out of fears for their safety.

The murders follow the shooting or beheading of 17 young revelers attending a party in southern Helmand province this week, which officials said was the work of the Taliban, a charge the group also denied. (Continue Reading.)

Imam Discusses Sexual Desirability of Six-Year-Old Girls

Muhammad had sex with Aisha when she was only nine years old. According to the Qur'an (65:4), Muslims can have sex with prepubescent girls. Hence, it shouldn't be surprising to find a Muslim imam telling his fellow Muslims to cover up little girls because of their sexual desirability.

Anjem Choudary Calls for More Muslim Babies . . . in Order to Take Over Great Britain

Hmmm. If I say, "Islam commands its followers to take over the world, and some Muslims want to do so," I'm immediately labeled a racist, a hate-monger, a bigot, and an Islamophobe. And yet we find Muslims around the world saying the exact same things that I say. Are they Islamophobes too?

UNITED KINGDOM--A hate fanatic has boasted that Muslims will one day conquer Britain — by having more babies.

Speaking at a rally marking 9/11, Anjem Choudary bragged that a birth explosion would let followers of Islam take control of the country.

Undercover Sun investigators secretly recorded Choudary telling a young and impressionable audience that they would eventually rule under strict Sharia law.

And our team listened in chilled silence as he predicted: “Islam is superior and will never be surpassed. The flag of Islam will rise over Downing Street.”

Lawyer Choudary also said it would be easy for vast numbers of Muslims to declare Jihad, or holy war, against Britain — and that every one of them could become “a time bomb waiting to go off”.

The Sun team watched vile Choudary, the right-hand man of exiled preacher of hate Omar Bakri, ranting to 100 young Muslims at a meeting in East London.

The mob bayed and cheered as he said: “About 500 people in Britain become Muslim every day.

“The Home Office say there are 1.5million Muslims but there were 1.5million ten years ago. Since then our brothers in Bethnal Green, Whitechapel and other places have had eight or nine children each. Eight children here, ten children, 15 children. There must be at least six million people.

“It may be by pure conversion that Britain will become an Islamic state. We may never need to conquer it from the outside.” (Continue Reading.)

Thirty-Four "Insider" Attacks This Year in Afghanistan

According to the Qur'an, the penalty for "making mischief" in a Muslim land is pretty harsh:

Qur'an 5:33–The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement.

And yet neither our leaders nor the media can figure out why so many Afghan soldiers and police officers are turning their guns on a force of non-Muslims occupying a Muslim land.

KABUL, Afghanistan – The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan says three of its troops have been killed by a man in an Afghan army uniform.

The attack is the latest in a rising number of disturbing shootings this year by Afghans soldiers -- or insurgents dressed as government troops -- on the international forces training them to fight the Taliban as the international coalition withdraws.

NATO said Wednesday the latest attack came a day earlier in southern Afghanistan. It gave no other details. Similar "insider attacks" have been rising sharply, with 34 of them so far this year. Forty-five coalition members have been killed, mostly Americans.

At least a dozen of this year's attacks have been in the past month, raising questions of a new Taliban strategy. (Source)

Who is God? A University Forum

Sheikh Wesam Charkawi and Samuel Green - 14th August 2012.

Former Muslim Describes Living in Fear of Honor Killing

CNN, as usual, is quick to assure us that Islam has nothing to do with "honor" killings, despite the fact that more than 90% of all honor killings are carried out by Muslims (not exactly an insignificant correlation). If you didn't see our ABN special on honor killings in Islam, be sure to watch it here.

Pakistani Christian Girl Rimsha Masih Too Traumatized to Speak after Arrest on Blasphemy Charges

Muslim organizations like CAIR and ISNA, along with the mainstream media and countless politicians, are constantly accusing critics of Islam of being racist, fear-mongering bigots. Meanwhile, in countries where Muslims have a majority, little girls are savagely beaten by Muslim mobs and thrown in jail. Can't CAIR, ISNA, and their Muslim and non-Muslim supporters spare a few minutes of their endless complaint-time to inform Muslims in Pakistan (and Egypt, and Iraq, and Sudan, etc.) that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance?

REUTERS - A Pakistani Christian girl detained on accusations of defaming Islam was too frightened to speak in a prison where she is being held in solitary confinement for her safety, an activist who said he visited her said on Thursday.

Religious and secular groups worldwide have protested over the arrest last week of Rimsha Masih, accused by Muslim neighbors of burning Islamic religious texts.

The case has put another spotlight on Pakistan's anti-blasphemy law, which rights groups say dangerously discriminates against the conservative Muslim country's tiny minority groups.

Christian activist Xavier William said he visited Masih at a police station where she was first held, and then this week in prison.

"She was frightened and traumatised," William told Reuters.

"She was assaulted and in very bad shape. She had bruises on her face and on her hands," he added, referring to an attack by a mob in her village on the edge of Islamabad after she was accused of blasphemy.

Under the blasphemy law, anyone who speaks ill of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad commits a crime and faces the death penalty, but activists say vague terminology has led to its misuse.

Convictions are common, although the death sentence has never been carried out. Most convictions are thrown out on appeal, but mobs have killed many people accused of blasphemy.

There have been conflicting reports on Masih's age and her mental state. Some media have said she is 11 and suffers from Down's Syndrome. Masih's lawyer, Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, said her family had informed him she was mentally ill.

One police official said she was 16 and mentally sound. William said he could not confirm she had a mental illness. Masih's family told William she was 14, he said.

Masih's arrest triggered an exodus of several hundred Christians from her poor village after mosques reported over their loudspeakers what the girl was alleged to have done. Emotions were running high.

A neighbor named Tasleem said her daughter saw Masih throwing away trash that included the burned religious material.

"If Christians burn our Koran, we will burn them," she told Reuters.

Other Muslims were more conciliatory.

"We protected the rest of the Christians," said Masih's landlord, Malik Amjad Mohammad. "People here support them."

Christians, who make up four percent of Pakistan's population of 180 million, have been especially concerned about the blasphemy law, saying it offers them no protection.

Convictions hinge on witness testimony and are often linked to vendettas, they complain.

In 2009, 40 houses and a church were set ablaze by a mob of 1,000 Muslims in the town of Gojra, in Punjab province. At least seven Christians were burned to death. The attacks were triggered by reports of the desecration of the Koran.

Two Christian brothers accused of writing a blasphemous letter against the Prophet Mohammad were gunned down outside a court in the eastern city of Faisalabad in July of 2010.

President Asif Ali Zardari has told officials to produce a report on the girl's arrest, which has brought protests from Amnesty International, British-based Christian group Barnabas Fund, and others.

Masih is due to appear in court in the next 10 days. She could be formally charged with blasphemy. She is being held in solitary confinement for her safety, said William.

"She would not make eye contact. She did not say anything. She did not answer back," he said. (SOURCE)

On a related note, if anyone still doesn't understand why there's such a tremendous difference between peaceful American Islam and violent Pakistani Islam, see my video "Three Stages of Jihad":

Australian Judge Sir Gerard Brennan Says Sharia Incompatible with Democratic Principles

Judge Brennan must be either a racist, Islamophobic bigot, or someone who recognizes the obvious. I'm going with the latter.

AUSTRALIA--The idea sharia could operate as part of Australian law was "misconceived" and minority practices that offend moral standards should be abandoned, the former High Court judge Sir Gerard Brennan said last night.

"No court could apply and no government could administer two parallel systems of law, especially if they reflect - as they inevitably would reflect - different fundamental standards," he said.

To do so would result in two legal systems and confirm dual cultures, Sir Gerard said during a lecture in honour of the former law professor Hal Wootten at the University of NSW.

"The democratic principle prescribes that the culture of the majority is determinative of the legal structure," he said. In Islamic law, he said - quoting the president of the Abu Dhabi Supreme Court - customs and legal reasoning had to agree with the Koran. But in Australian common law there was a gap between the requirement of the law and individual moral standards.

"We call that gap 'freedom' and it allows Australian law to protect the cultural moral values of our minorities," he said. (Continue Reading.)

The Islamic Historical Method

I have often been told that when I quote a hadith I need to make sure it is authentic. For this reason I have read several Islamic books on how to authenticate a hadith. The basic summary is:

1. It must have a complete chain.
2. The narrators in the chain must be reliable.
3. The chain must be historically possible.

But I have come across another important criteria which I now have references for.

g) Traditions containing such remarks of the Prophet as may not be a part of his prophetic vocation, or such expressions as are clearly unsuitable for him, should be rejected. (Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi, Hadith Literature - Its Origin, Development & Special Features, Cambridge: U.K., The Islamic Text Society, 2008, p. 114)

God willing I shall begin this book with Isma'il son of Ibrahim and mention those of his offspring who were the ancestors of God's apostle one by one with what is known about them, taking no account of Isma'il's other children, for the sake of brevity, confining myself to the prophet's biography and omitting some of the things which Ibn Ishaq has recorded in this book in which there is no mention of the apostle and about which the Quran says nothing and which are not relevant to anything in this book or an explanation of it or evidence for it; poems which he quotes that no authority on poetry whom I have met knows of; things which it is disgraceful to discuss; matters which would distress certain people; and such reports as al-Bakka'i told me he could not accept as trustworthy—all these things I have omitted. But God willing I shall give a full account of everything else so far as it is known and trustworthy tradition is available. (“Ibn Hisham’s Notes”, translated by A. Guillaume in Ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rasul Allah, translated as, The Life of Muhammad, Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 691)

It seems that for a hadith to be authentic it must also honour Muhammad.

This is a very poor method for doing history because it limits our knowledge of this person to some predetermined standard rather than to the evidence that is available.

Non-Muslim historians actually hold that an embarrassing account from a sympathetic source is more likely to be true because there is no motive to dishonour the person. Therefore, the criteria of embarrassment, rather than providing grounds for rejecting a hadith, actually provide grounds for accepting a hadith.

Ibn Hisham clearly explains how he has edited Ibn Ishaq's sirat and it includes removing "things which it is disgraceful to discuss; matters which would distress certain people." Ibn Hisham's approach seems to be based on the Qur'an itself.

O you who believe! Ask not questions about things which, if made plain to you, may cause you trouble. ... (Qur’an 5:101, Yusuf Ali)

I think it would profit Christians and Muslims to discuss whether this is a valid historical method?

If you know about similar quotes to those I have given please share them as a comment.

Mohanad Shareef Hammadi Pleads Guilty of Conspiring to Support al-Qaeda

Muslim organizations like CAIR and ISNA keep telling us that Islam is a religion of peace. Wouldn't their time be better spent sharing their "peaceful" version of Islam with Muslims like Mohanad Shareef Hammadi?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - An Iraqi man pleaded guilty Tuesday to 10 charges of conspiring to send weapons, cash and explosives to al-Qaida in Iraq and two counts of lying to federal immigration agents to get into the United States and stay in the country.

Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 24, gave simple "yes" and "I plead guilty" answers to questions from U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell in federal court in Louisville. The surprise plea came a week before Hammadi was set to stand trial on the charges in Bowling Green, Ky., where he and a co-defendant were arrested in May 2011 after a federal sting operation.

Hammadi, who did not have a plea agreement with prosecutors, faces 25 years to life in federal prison plus millions of dollars in fines when he's sentenced Dec. 5. He had been scheduled for trial Aug. 28 in Bowling Green. The co-defendant, 30-year-old Waad Ramadan Alwan, previously pleaded guilty and is scheduled for sentencing Oct. 3 in Bowling Green.

The plea came as good news to soldiers who fought near the city of Bayji, Iraq, in the Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad in 2005, where Hammadi and Alwan told the FBI they worked as insurgents. Six Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers died in that area in August 2005 and Hammadi and Alwan told the FBI and an informant that they were active insurgents there. (Continue Reading.)

Muhammad Ismail Says He Is Proud of Triple Honor Killing

And he'll most likely be released soon.

More than 90 percent of "honor" killings worldwide are carried out by Muslims. But instead of trying to deal with the problem, Western Muslim groups like CAIR and ISNA spend their time trying to convince the rest of us that we should keep quiet about such killings.

Kot Chutta, Pakistan (CNN) -- From behind the steel bars of his jail cell, Muhammad Ismail described with uncanny ease how he shot and killed his wife, his mother-in-law, and sister-in-law.

"The first shot hit the side of her body," Ismail said. "I left her there and went next door and killed my wife's mother and sister. I made sure they were all dead. Then I locked the door and left the house."

Without any apparent regret, Ismail said he would do it again.

"I am proud of what I did. That's why I turned myself over to the police."

Ismail's confession to the triple-murder that took place last February in a village in central Pakistan is a rare and chilling first-hand account of a so-called 'honor' killing -- the murder of women who are usually accused of dishonoring their families by being unfaithful or disobedient.

Ismail accused his wife of eight months of repeatedly flirting with other men and spending long hours away from home.

"My wife never made me happy," said the 20-year-old who played drums in a traditional Pakistani wedding band before his arrest. "She was like a prostitute. She never took care of me."

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported 943 women were "killed in the name of honor" in Pakistan last year, an increase of more than 100 from 2010.

Rights groups blame the increase in 'honor' murders partly on what they call an ineffective justice system in Pakistan that too often allows killers to go unpunished.

Despite his videotaped confession to CNN and an earlier confession to police, prosecutors say Ismail can soon be a free man if his victims' family agrees to accept compensation for the killings.

Receiving blood money is an option for victims in many conservative Muslim societies under the Islamic principal that mercy is more noble than revenge. (Continue Reading.)

Video Footage of Shafilea Ahmed

Suicide Bomber Kills Seven Policemen at Funeral . . . in Russia

Jihad has been going global for years, though we rarely hear much about the daily terrorist attacks that take place around the world. Here's the latest from Russia.

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia – A suicide bomber blew himself up as policemen in southern Russia gathered Sunday for the funeral of a slain colleague, killing at least seven of the policemen and badly wounding 12 other people, investigators said.

The funeral was held at the home of an officer who had been shot dead the night before by militants in Ingushetia, one of the predominantly Muslim republics in Russia's restive North Caucasus region.

In the nearby republic of Dagestan, two masked gunmen burst into a Shiite mosque during Saturday evening prayers and opened fire, wounding eight people, police said.

Shiites are a minority in Dagestan and throughout the North Caucasus, where an Islamic insurgency has raged for years.

The latest attacks took place as Muslims in Russia and around the world prepared for the feast that celebrates the end of the holy month of Ramadan. (Continue Reading.)

Ahmadinejad Call's Israel's Existence an Insult to All Humanity

And I'm sure he'll get multiple calls from CAIR and ISNA, informing him that Islam is a religion of peace.

TEHRAN, Iran – Israel's existence is an "insult to all humanity," Iran's president said Friday in one of his sharpest attacks yet against the Jewish state, as Israel openly debates whether to attack Iran over its nuclear program.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said confronting Israel is an effort to "protect the dignity of all human beings."

"The existence of the Zionist regime is an insult to all humanity," Ahmadinejad said. He was addressing worshippers at Tehran University after nationwide pro-Palestinian rallies, an annual event marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.

The comments are "reminiscent" of a letter written about the Jews and signed by Adolf Hitler in 1919, Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean of the Simon Wisenthal Center, says.

"Even though Ahmadinejad is attacking the state of Israel, we know what he means," Rabbi Hier said.

Israel considers Iran an existential threat because of its nuclear and missile programs, support for radical anti-Israel groups on its borders and repeated references by Iranian leaders to Israel's destruction.

Ahmadinejad himself has repeatedly made such calls, as has Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Rabbi Hier compares Ahmadinejad's comments to the notion found in Hitler’s letter referencing the "removal of Jews all together." "Twenty-two years later he implemented everything, and the same is true about Ahmadinejad," Rabbi Hier said.

"We assume it's only rhetoric, but we once paid a very high price for assuming Hitler was talking rhetoric," he said. (Continue Reading.)

Police Captain Paul Fields Sues Over Mosque Assignment

Captain Fields has no objections to serving and protecting Muslims as he would any other U.S. citizens. But when his police department requires him to attend Muslim outreach events in order to reeducate him about Islam, it's time for the American Freedom Law Center (who are also our lawyers in our suit against Dearborn) to step in.

FoxNews--A Tulsa police officer and devout Christian is suing his department after being punished for refusing to go to a mosque for a mandatory cultural event.

Police Capt. Paul Campbell Fields, a 17-year veteran, was docked two weeks' pay, transferred, reduced to the graveyard shift and made ineligible for promotions for at least a year, after he told his chief his faith made it impossible for him to attend a "Law Enforcement Appreciation Day" at the Islamic Cultural Society of Tulsa, according to the lawsuit.

Fields, 43, is a non-denominational Christian, who quoted Scripture in legal explanation of his insubordination.

"This event is compelling me to go to a venue where a group of individuals is prepared to discuss their (Islamic) faith," Fields said during a May 2012 deposition, the transcript of which was obtained by FoxNews.com. "And in my faith, I have a duty to proselytize my faith to people (who) don't subscribe to my faith. I can't do that in uniform. And so therein lies the conflict or moral dilemma I face."

Fields' attorney, Robert Muise of The American Freedom Law Center, elaborated, "He was going to be in a place where people were going to refer to Jesus Christ as merely a prophet and not his Lord and Savior.

"And he wouldn't be able to respond to them in any way," Muise added. "That was very troubling to him."

Fields is seeking his docked pay, attorney's fees, as well as compensatory damages for the "humiliation" -- and damage to his reputation -- he suffered as a result of the affair.

The donnybrook has its origins in a Jan. 25, 2011, Tulsa Police Department staff meeting, in which Deputy Police Chief Alvin Webster informed fellow officers of the March 4 event at the Islamic center.

At that point, attendance was voluntary, according to the lawsuit.

The Islamic Cultural Center of Tulsa did not return calls or emails from FoxNews.com, but a promotional flier for the event cited in the suit states the event would include meetings with Muslim community leaders, a tour of the center's mosque, talks on Islam, as well as a 45-minute prayer service.

On Feb. 17, Webster sent out another email stating that attendance at the event was no longer voluntary, and that Fields was to order at least a few of the 25 or so men under his command to accompany him, there.

Fields replied that he believed the said order was an unlawful one, "in direct conflict with my personal religious convictions." In that email, Fields described Webster's order as, "conscience shocking."

Fields cc'd the department's chief, Charles W. Jordan, as well as other superiors on the email.

Four days later, Fields found himself explaining his actions at a meeting in Jordan's conference room. There, Webster asked -- on tape -- if Fields had solicited volunteers to attend the Islamic center's event.

“Yes, I have,” Fields replied, to which Webster asked, according to the suit, “Okay, and the response?”

"Is zero," replied the captain.

“All right," said Webster, "And so that makes this fairly easy. Are you prepared to designate two officers and a supervisor or yourself to attend this event?”

"No," said Fields, to which Webster replied by slapping the captain with the aforementioned punishments. Since then, Fields has toiled, according Muise, from 8:45 p.m. to about 7 a.m. on the "graveyard shift."

On Feb. 24, the department made the Islamic center event voluntary for all officers, although with a catch. Officers could give a medical excuse for not going, but not one based on religious grounds, the suit states.

For its part, the City of Tulsa denied comment other than to say, "The police department serves every citizen regardless of demographics. We cannot comment in this case or on any pending litigation."

Fields has said that if it were merely a police matter to which he was called, requiring him to enter a mosque, he would have no problem doing his duty as an officer. (Continue Reading.)

California Trip

Greeting friends! I'll be heading to California next month for some events around the anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. I'll post a schedule in a couple of days, though I should note here that in one of the events, I'll be sharing the stage with one of my childhood heroes, Dwight Schultz (aka "Howling Mad" Murdock from the original A-Team series!). Sam and I will also be doing an entire series in California in early November. I hope to see those of you who live in the area.

Plane tickets are surprisingly expensive nowadays, so if anyone wants to help out, my ticket was over $300 (which is a lot when you've got four boys!).

Now for a blast from the past:

U.S. Military Hopes to "Build Trust" in Afghanistan

There have been at least 21 attacks this year on coalition troops by Afghan forces (who are supposedly our allies) or Muslims dressed as Afghan forces. The military's response? "We need to work on building more trust." Yep, that's it. Just keep trusting the people who pretend to be your allies right before they fire a hail of bullets into your back.

KABUL, Afghanistan – A man in an Afghan uniform shot and killed three American troops Friday morning in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military command said, in the third attack on coalition forces by their Afghan counterparts in a week. The Taliban claimed the shooter joined the insurgency after the attack.

So far this year, at least 21 similar attacks -- in which Afghan forces or insurgents disguised in Afghan uniforms have turned their guns on international troops -- have killed 30 coalition service members, according to an Associated Press tally.

Friday's shooting took place in Sangin district of Helmand province, said U.S. military spokeswoman Maj. Lori Hodge. She gave no further details and said the military were investigating. (Continue Reading.)

Robert Fowler's 130 Days in Hell

Al-Qaeda terrorist explained their beliefs and goals to Robert Fowler while they held him captive. What does al-Qaeda want? They want to establish Sharia, to overthrow man-made political systems, to die while fighting for Allah, and to receive their reward in paradise. Notice that these are all things Muhammad taught his followers to do and believe. But all of this has nothing to do with Islam, right?

CNN – “I thought it would end in a tent with a knife, like Daniel Pearl,” Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler tells Christiane Amanpour about his 130 days being held captive by al Qaeda in Mali in 2008.

“Every time I went into a tent, the first thing I did was look on the ground to see if there was plastic,” he recalls. “I figured they wouldn’t want blood all over their rugs in the middle of the desert where there was no water.”

Fowler and another Canadian diplomat were kidnapped when they were in neighboring Niger, where Fowler was a representative of the U.N. Secretary-General. He was on his third trip to the region when he and his group were grabbed by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and held by thirty of its members—deep in the Sahara Desert in Northern Mali.

For more than twenty years, Mali has been an anomaly – a stable democracy despite a long history of poverty and drought in Western Africa. And then this spring, Mali imploded. A military coup overthrew the elected government, just as rebels took over the northern part of the country.

As Mali sank into chaos, AQIM– the same group that kidnapped Fowler– took control of the northern part of the country and instituted Sharia law.

“They've been fighting for 20 years, under different names,” Fowler says. “They took up the al Qaeda franchise formally in January of 2007. But they've been the Islamic Front [and] the Group Armée Islamique.”

Fowler says the group isn’t actually interested in governing the country. As he puts it, “They want God to govern. They don't think men should govern. And they hate all our favorite terms. They hate democracy. They hate liberty. They hate freedom. They hate human rights. These are all things they believe are the province of God and not of man.”

Fowler says the kidnappers were the most focused group of young men he had ever seen in his life. “There are no women. There's no slinking off for R&R on the weekends. They are totally focused to Jihad; to dying in their cause. They believe that the prophet said that 99 out of 100 shall not pass. But if you die in Jihad, you get a free pass to those rivers of milk and honey. And that's what they want.” (Continue Reading.)

Sudan's Genocidal Omar Al-Bashir to Be Appointed to UN Human Rights Council?

Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir has about as much right to sit on a human rights council as his prophet does.

FoxNews--The election of a Sudanese warlord accused of genocide to the United Nations Human Rights Council is now virtually guaranteed, since he has the full backing of the world body's African delegation.

The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Omar Al-Bashir -- its first ever for a sitting head of state -- for crimes against humanity he allegedly committed in Darfur. Yet, his regime is set to take its place on the panel, in the latest bizarre appointment to make a mockery of the UN's human rights credibility, according to critics.

It's like putting “Jack the Ripper in charge of a women’s shelter,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.

Neuer's Geneva-based group is calling on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to denounce election of the war-torn North African nation to the 47-member body. Sudan is not technically on the panel, but its election is a certainty because only five African nations are vying for the continent's five seats. (Continue reading.)

New Articles on Answering Islam

Here's the latest at Answering Islam:

Anthony Rogers, "Missing the Mark: Unveiling Mark’s High Christology of Divine Inclusion"

Sam Shamoun, "Unveiling the Identity of the Only True God" (Part One)(Part Two)(Addendum)

Dallas Roark, Review of Robert Spencer's "Did Muhammad Exist?"

Keith Thompson, "Ibn Anwar’s False Charge of Anachronistic Error: An Exegetical Examination of Mark 2:26"

Andrew Vargo, "Did the Egyptians Use Crucifixion?"

Jochen Katz, "Pinning the 'Tale' on Ibn Anwar"

Jochen Katz, "Brains in Chains: The Perils of Parroting" (Response to Bassam Zawadi)

Sam Shamoun, "Responding to a Muslim Review of the Williams-Green Debate" (Part One)(Part Two)(Addendum)

Sam Shamoun, "Has Islam Misunderstood Christianity? A Christian Response to Bassam Zawadi’s Debate with Dr. James R. White" (Part One)(Part Two)(Addendum)

Qur'an Student Beaten Unconscious for Making Mistakes While Reciting

But again, who are we to judge other people's cultures?

PAKISTAN--A 15-year-old was taken to a hospital on Wednesday after he was allegedly beaten by a teacher at a seminary.

Police said Abu Bakar, a student at Jamia Rehmania, was a Hafiz-i-Quran and was now revising it at the madrassa. They said on Wednesday Vice Principal Qari Kaleemullah hit Abu Bakar on the legs with a wooden stick for making some mistakes while reciting some verses. They said the boy fainted from the beating.

Some students at the seminary informed Abu Bakar’s father, Manzoor, who took him to the trauma centre at the district headquarters hospital, from where the boy was referred to Nishtar Hospital in Multan owing to critical condition.

Manzoor told The Express Tribune that Abu Bakar was lying unconscious when he arrived at the school.

Dr Hamid Hayat, the deputy medical superintendent at the DHQ hospital said the boy had suffered several fractures in both legs.

He said it was likely that his backbone had been affected. (Continue reading.)

Parents Convicted of Killing Shafilea Ahmed . . . in the UK

Over 90 percent of honor killings in the world are carried out by Muslims. But who are we to judge other people's cultures?

UNITED KINGDOM--The parents of Shafilea Ahmed have been jailed for life after being convicted of her murder.

The 17-year-old went missing from her home in Warrington, Cheshire, in 2003 and her body was found in the River Kent in Cumbria six months later.

Iftikhar, 52, and Farzana Ahmed, 49, had denied her murder but the jury at Chester Crown Court returned guilty verdicts against them both.

Mr Justice Roderick Evans said they would both serve a minimum of 25 years.

The judge told them: "Your concern about being shamed in your community was greater than the love of your child."

The couple suffocated Shafilea with a plastic bag after years of abuse.

After the trial. Det Supt Geraint Jones described the killing as a "vile and disgraceful act against someone they should have been very proud of".

He added: "For me this is not an 'honour killing', it's a clear case of murder." (Continue reading.)

Jones doesn't seem to understand that the term "honor killing" emphasizes the motive, which is to restore a family's reputation in the community after one member has damaged the reputation. But that's exactly what the motive was. So why is Jones denying that this was an honor killing?

On a different note, here's a video of Shafilea's parents conjuring up some crocodile tears as they deny their involvement in 2004:

Wall Street Journal: The Religious Silence on Christian Persecution

In the West, anyone who criticizes Islam is immediately labeled a racist, Islamophobic, hate-mongering bigot. Most people don't like being called racist, Islamophobic, hate-mongering bigots; hence, most people won't criticize Islam.

One of the horrifying results of giving Islam a protected status is that even Christian leaders in the West are reluctant to speak out on behalf of persecuted Christians in the Muslim world.

WALL STREET JOURNAL--This month the Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani marked his 1,000th day of incarceration in Lakan, a notorious prison in northern Iran. Charged with the crime of apostasy, Mr. Nadarkhani faces a death sentence for refusing to recant the Christian faith he embraced as a child. He embodies piety and represents millions more suffering from repression—but his story is barely known.

Mr. Nadarkhani's courage and the tenacity of his supporters, many of them ordinary churchgoers who have crowded Twitter and other social media to alert the world to his plight, bring to mind the great human-rights campaigns of recent years: the fight against apartheid in South Africa, or the movement to assist Soviet Jews seeking to emigrate from behind the Iron Curtain. As Nelson Mandela represented the opposition to South African racism, and Anatoly Sharansky exemplified the just demands of Soviet Jews, so Mr. Nadarkhani symbolizes the emergency that church leaders say is facing 100 million Christians around the world.

Yet Mr. Nadarkhani has almost none of the name recognition that Messrs. Mandela and Sharansky had. Despite the increasing ferocity with which Christians are targeted—church bombings in Nigeria, discrimination in Egypt (where Christians have been imprisoned for building or repairing churches), beheadings in Somalia—Americans remain largely unaware of how bad the situation has become, particularly in the Islamic world and in communist countries like China and North Korea.

The principal reason public opinion hasn't been galvanized around the persecution of Christians is that the various church leaderships either ignore or dance around the issue. If churches don't speak up forcefully, then it is unrealistic to expect the world's democratic governments to do the same. (Continue reading.)

Somali Comedian Abdi Jeylani Malaq Marshale Murdered in the Name of Allah

It's strange that no one is surprised, seeing as how all religions are equally likely to produce violence.

SOMALIA--Gunmen shot dead a well-known comedian known for poking fun at Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents in the Somali capital Mogadishu, officials and colleagues said Wednesday.

Abdi Jeylani Malaq Marshale, in his late thirties or early forties, was killed late Tuesday, minutes after leaving Kulmiye radio station, where he worked as drama producer and performer.

"Two men shot and seriously injured Marshale... the comedian was later pronounced dead," said police lieutenant Mohamed Gaal, adding that "unfortunately the assailants escaped."

The shooting of Marshale, who also worked for the London-based Universal TV station and who reported having received death threats on several occasions, is the latest in a string of apparently targeted killings against media workers. (Continue reading.)