zTruth

Will King Abdullah seek U.N. oversight over ALL religious dialogue?

A religious dialogue conference, organized this past summer by the ruler of Saudi Arabia where the strictest form of Islam is practice, seeks to create guidelines for worldwide interfaith dialogues, overseen by the United Nations,  This is an attempt to bring Western countries and their freedom of expression under the arm and critique of the U.N. with the goal to stop criticism of Islam.  

It is dangerous.

You can call me a skeptic, if you like, but this conference did come up with a declaration calling for the U.N. to oversee ALL religious dialogue even at the local level.

From the Madrid Declaration:

"...To agree on international guidelines for dialogue among the followers of religions and cultures through which moral values and ethical principles, which are common denominators among such followers, so as to strengthen stability and achieve prosperity for all humans..."

To work on urging governmental and non-governmental organizations to issue a document that stipulates respect for religions and their symbols, the prohibition of their denigration and the repudiation of those who commit such acts..."

The Saudi ruler will travel to the United States to discuss his proposal further with the U.N. next month.  

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See also my post about the Organization of Islamic Conference attempts to stop criticism of Islam here.

Religous freedom declining in Eqypt

The government of Egypt has failed to correct indifferences and practices that discriminate against Christians and other religious minorities:

Freedom of religious belief in Egypt "declined" between July 2007 and June 2008, according to the US State Department's annual assessment of religious freedom throughout the world, the International Religious Freedom Report.

...The report describes legislation and governmental practices which discriminate against Egypt's religious minorities and adherents of Islamic teachings viewed as heretical by the state.

Acts of discrimination against Egypt's largest religious minority, Christian Copts, take up the bulk of the report.

...There are no Christians serving as presidents or deans of public universities, and they are rarely nominated by the Government to run in elections as National Democratic Party (NDP) candidates. Christians, who represent between 8 and 12 percent of the population, hold less than 2 percent of the seats in the People's Assembly and Shoura Council," the report says.

Christians continued to experience problems in obtaining the official permission necessary to construct and repair churches, with security forces blocking the use of permits that had already been issued or denying permits altogether. These delays can last for years.

Assyrian News

Saudi father kills daughter for being a Christian!

Another brutal incident of Islamic honor that doesn't speak well, at all, for the religion of peace:

A Saudi man working with the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice recently killed his daughter for converting to Christianity.

...According to the Saudi Al Ukhdoud news website, the victim wrote an article on the blog of which she was a member under the nickname "Rania" a few days before her murder.

...Saudi religious scholars have frequently warned against the dangers of Christian internet websites and satellite TV channels which attract Muslim youngsters to change their religion.

They decreed that watching these channels or browsing these websites which call for conversion to Christianity by various means is against the teachings of Islam. zawya.com

First Muslim elected to the International Olympic Committee

FYI:

Moroccan Olympic gold medalist Nawal El Moutawakel has become the first Muslim woman elected to the powerful executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

"I feel very honored to be a member of this big family," El Moutawakel said following her election on Thursday, August 7, reported Reuters.

El Moutawakel won her seat unopposed after her two contenders withdrew from the race.

The IOC set a goal in 1996 of having women make up 20 percent of the membership.

As of today, only 16 of the 110 members are women, six short of the target.

Islamonline

Mastercard Worldwide creates a Sharia compliant debit card

FYI:

MasterCard Worldwide and EonCap Islamic Bank (a member of Malaysia's Eon Bank Group) have jointly launched what they are billing as the world's first Islamic debit MasterCard—the EonCap Islamic Debit MasterCard.

The EonCap Islamic Debit MasterCard is basically a debit card with ATM functions as well. It also works on PayPass systems, which enables a person to swipe it on a terminal without the card leaving the cardholder's hand. It is referred to as blending traditional purchasing power with modern technology and is Shari'ah compliant.

Business Week

Yale interfaith conference: Palestinian chief justice blames Israel

There was an interfaith conference at Yale University a few days ago.  One of the participants, Palestinian chief justice Shaykh Tayseer Rajab Al-Tamimi, blamed Israeli rabbis for giving approval for violence against Palestinians.  The stunned audience said nothing.  This man used the very rulings Islamic scholars have issued to support violence against Israel, including martyrdom.  He appears to have twisted the truth here.  It's a classic move of Islamists. 

Are you aware there is nothing written in the Quran about Palestine or Jerusalem?  Nothing.  Their holy book, which they claim are the exact words of Allah, actually references the biblically writings about the Children of Israel and their right to their land.  Yet Muslims claim it belongs to the Palestinians.  Go figure.

THE QUR'AN SAYS:

"To Moses We [Allah] gave nine clear signs. Ask the Israelites how he [Moses] first appeared amongst them. Pharoah said to him: 'Moses, I can see that you are bewitched.' 'You know full well,' he [Moses] replied, 'that none but the Lord of the heavens and the earth has revealed these visible signs. Pharoah, you are doomed.'"

"Pharoah sought to scare them [the Israelites] out of the land [of Israel]: but We [Allah] drowned him [Pharoah] together with all who were with him. Then We [Allah] said to the Israelites: 'Dwell in this land [the Land of Israel]. When the promise of the hereafter [End of Days] comes to be fulfilled, We [Allah] shall assemble you [the Israelites] all together [in the Land of Israel]."

"We [Allah] have revealed the Qur'an with the truth, and with the truth it has come down. We have sent you [Muhammed] forth only to proclaim good news and to give warning."

[Qur'an, "Night Journey," chapter 17:100-104]

These interfaith conferences are mostly a joke.  While most of the discussions are about fluffy sweet talk, it fails to discuss the Islamic march towards global rule.  I find it troubling Islamic scholars from Muslimc countries come here to visit or to live and speak to us of a version of Islam that is most certainly not practiced from where they came.  There are no facts that support their version of Islam.  None.

Keep in mind, nothing would please Islamists more than having everyone leaving these conferences speaking only of the peace and love of Islam.  It will help make Islamists jobs that much easier down the road.   

Participants at these conferences should question Muslims why Islam isn't practiced in one Islamic country the way they portray it to us in America. We need some accountability here.  But first,  be sure to study up on how Islamic countries rule over their citizens and treat other religions, according to Sharia Law.  And if they respond to those hard questions that it's a cultural tradition not Islam.  Keep in mid, the culture is Islam.  This is the hard cold reality that must be confronted.

Prince Ghazi said that Muslim leaders reached out to the Christian world because of its size and influence, but that other religions are welcome to join the dialogue. Several Jewish leaders are observing the conference at Yale, and Rabbi Douglas Krantz of Congregation B'nai Yisrael of Armonk is expected to take part in a closing panel tomorrow.

"These are people who have differences - and they're talking," Krantz said yesterday. "That is significant. And everyone is not necessarily agreeing on everything."

The participants, Krantz said, were showing great civility and respect for one another.

"We all had lunch together today and nobody used their knives - except to eat a meal," he said, smiling. "These are not trivial matters."

Toward the end of the day, the Palestinian chief justice, Shaykh Tayseer Rajab Al-Tamimi, made one of the day's few overtly political statements when he accused Israeli rabbis of giving religious approval to violence against Palestinians. He called Jerusalem the "scene of the most horrible genocide and ethnic cleansing."

He criticized those who use religion to "achieve their own interests, political interests or expansionist interests."  What?   Isn't this called diversion?

No one in the audience commented on Al-Tamimi's statement.

lohud.com

Christians evacuated from school in Indonesia

Here's another report about the religion of peace which involves the Muslim Brotherhood in Indonesia - the largest Muslim-majority country on earth.  In a different story a Christian teacher was killed in front of his family near Jarkarta:

Police evacuated the Christian Theological Arastamar Institute (STT SETIA) which is located in an eastern district of the Indonesian capital after it suffered damages during clashes between Christians and Muslims over the week-end. At least 1,500 students were moved to nearby police headquarters and a local Christian-based political party.

...Last night hundreds of residents from the village of Kampung Pulo had taken up arms threatening to storm the school after being instigated by an imam at a local mosque who claimed that a bunch of Christian gangsters were coming to “protect” the school after it was attacked on Saturday by a Muslim mob, causing damage to the building and hurting hundreds.

In an attempt to solve the problem East Jakarta District Chief Murdani held a close door meeting with the warring parties to discuss the issue. At the same time though, he said that police would conduct a thorough investigation and check if the school’s legal status was in order and that it respected all building regulations. In case of violations he would issue orders to demolish the unlawful structures.

...The violence and charges against SETIA are the work of Risman Hadi, chairman of Muslim Brotherhood Forum of Kampung Pulo Village, who in the past opposed the opening and continued existence of the Christian institute.

Christian parents lose custody of their Islamic convert girls

Once again, another story that doesn't speak well for the religion of peace and Islamic law:

 A Pakistani couple has appealed a court decision to award custody of their two daughters, 10 and 13, to the children’s alleged kidnappers. The court based its custody decision on the girls’ conversion to Islam.

Judge Main Naeem Sardar ruled Saturday (July 12) that Saba Masih, 13, and Aneela Masih, 10, had become Muslims, invalidating their Christian parents’ right to legal guardianship.

“He said that because the parents are Christians and because the girls told the court that they adopted Islam, their relationship has ceased,” lawyer Rashid Rehman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) told Compass. Under a common interpretation of Islamic law, a Christian cannot have custody of a Muslim.

The sisters appeared in a Muzaffargarh District and Sessions court in the company of 16 Muslim men and were given five minutes to testify that their conversion was genuine, human rights activist Ashfaq Fateh said. It was the first time that Younis Masih and his wife had seen their daughters since they disappeared on June 26 while traveling to their uncle’s nearby home in Sarwar Shaheed, 150 miles southwest of Lahore.

“The judge did not give me even a minute to speak with my daughters,” Younis Masih told rights activist Ashfaq Fateh. “My girls have been with these men for the last 20 days; they have pressured them to change their minds.”

The children’s parents were neither allowed to testify nor submit birth certificates and school records as evidence of the girls’ true ages.

Compass Direct News

King Abdullah's interfaith conference conflicts with reality in Saudi Arabia

Today is the first day of the Saudi arranged interfaith dialogue conference in Spain  This was the brainchild of Saudi's King Abdullah.  It's rather hypocritical that Saudi Arabia is taking the led here, isn't it?  This is a country that does not allow open worship for Christians, or any churches and, most importantly, religious freedom for its people.   This is a country, which is the birthplace of Islam, and it forces its people to be Muslims by making it near impossible to change one's religion!

So let me see if I got this right.  At this conference,  they are extending dialogue to the very religious groups they surpress in their own country! This obvious conflict leaves the world no choice but to view this conference with serious skepticism. It doesn't make any sense.

The Council of American Islamic Relations, an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas infrastructure in American, calls this a groundbreaking event.  

When you dig deeper another troubling aspect emerges.  The chief organizer of the conference, the World Muslim League, is apparently connected to terrorism.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism (www.investigativeproject.org ) exclusively reveals today that a major international interfaith conference set to start Wednesday in Madrid was organized by an alleged associate of a senior Al Qaeda financier and vocal supporter of Palestinian suicide bombings - Abdullah al-Turki. The conference is sponsored by the Muslim World League (MWL), which al-Turki heads.

Earlier I also wrote about the Muslim World League and their shady past.  

Forgive me, but in that post, I could not over-look a statement made by the king at their preparatory meeting for the conference.  He said the world must be made to accommodate Islam.  His speech is posted on the Saudi Arabia Embassy website:

...For this reason, this invitation from your brother is to counter challenges of rigidity, ignorance, narrow-mindedness, and to make the world accommodate the concepts and the prospects of the kind message of Islam without enmity and antagonism..."

---part of King Abdullah's statement  on interfaith goals

I suspect the ultimate goal of this so-called interfaith meeting is to get a consensus from the group to agree that criticism of Islam or any religion should be forbidden.  Once they can get many of the world's religious leaders to buy-into this then one component of an eventual Islamic caliphate has been achieved. 

No religion should ever be above criticism.  Especially one whose history is full of violent conquests to expand and place people under a growing Islamic state where religious freedom is stopped. 

The King previously announced plans to turn over the recommendations to the U.N.

Am I too skeptical? 

Update 7/18/08:  Saudi's interfaith conference seeks UN oversight over all religious dialogue!!

Update 11/13/08:   Saudi king seeks global interfaith respect (at the UN) while public practice of non-Islamic faiths in own country banned!

Interfaith dialogue proposals to be submitted to the United Nations

"...How great this nation is, how difficult the challenges it faces in a time where its enemies – extremists from its sons and others – join forces to change its fair approach. They are gathered with blatant aggressiveness to target the tolerance, justice and noble purposes of Islam.

For this reason, this invitation from your brother is to counter challenges of rigidity, ignorance, narrow-mindedness, and to make the world accommodate the concepts and the prospects of the kind message of Islam without enmity and antagonism..."

---part of King Abdullah's statement regarding the interfaith goals the Islamic nations

Did King Abdullah say they should make the world accommodate Islam without complaining?  Call me skeptical, if you will, but I get the uneasy feeling the upcoming international conference on interfaith dialogue has a hidden agenda.  I suspect the Imams and Islamic scholars with seek to gain consensus not to allow any criticism of Islam.  Oh, it won't be worded so directly but the effect will be the same. 

The Islamic world has already managed to shut down any criticism of Islam in the UN Human Rights Council.  The more international bodies they can conform in this regard, the easier it will be for Islamists to go about their business of spreading Islam and laying the foundation for Islamic rule because using the words that describe this movement will be prohibited. 

Do people who plan to attend this event know about the Muslim World League, the main organizer of the event?  Seriously, do they know about their connections to terrorism?

The proposals of the international interfaith conference, which will be opened by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah in Madrid on July 16, will be submitted to the  United Nations for further action, informed sources said.

King Juan Carlos of Spain will address the opening session.

“The proposals will be presented to the UN General Assembly in September,” one source said. “There is a possibility that this will become an annual forum.”

Abdullah Al- Turki, secretary-general of the Muslim World League, the main organizer of the conference, said the three-day event would focus on common values of different communities and explore ways to achieve peaceful coexistence, understanding and cooperation.

“The conference will try to isolate those forces that try to promote hatred and create conflicts,” Al-Turki told the Saudi Press Agency yesterday before leaving for Madrid at the head of an MWL delegation. “By holding this major gathering of religions, ideologies and civilizations, the MWL wants to emphasize the importance of religion for humanity.”

Arab News

Additional reading resources:

Muslim World League 1973-2006 (Cooperative Research Database)

...Osama bin Laden privately identifies the three most important charity fronts used to finance al-Qaeda. He names:
The Muslim World League (MWL), a Saudi charity closely tied to the Saudi government...

...The Saudi government has also done little to rein in influential radical religious leaders who openly encourage their followers to attack US interests in Iraq and elsewhere in the world. US officials claim that at least five organizations, including the Muslim World League (MWL), the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WML), “are headquartered in Saudi Arabia but continue to engage in highly suspect activity overseas.”

7/17/05:  Muslim World League responds to U.S. charges of funding terrorism  Arab News

Muslim World League:   Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism (book)

WAHHABISM: STATE-SPONSORED EXTREMISM WORLDWIDE (Senate judiciary testimony by Testimony by Alex Alexiev Senior Fellow, Center for Security Policy

Ex-Gitmo detainee now new producer at Al Jazeera TV

FYI:

Al Jazeera television said on Wednesday it had appointed a cameraman held for six years without charge at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay as producer at its new freedoms and human rights programs department.

"I will do my utmost to reveal to the world the violations committed against humans," Sudanese-born Sami al-Haj, who was handed to Sudanese authorities in May, said in a Jazeera statement announcing the appointment.

"I hope Jazeera, through creating this department would be able to help those who suffer quietly due to such violations.

Jazeera, known best for its leading Arab news network, has said Haj was seized by Pakistani intelligence officers while travelling near the Afghan border in December 2001, despite holding a legitimate visa to work for Jazeera in Afghanistan.

Haj, who had been accused of making videos of Osama bin Laden, was handed to the U.S. military in January 2002 but was never charged or brought to trial, the network says.

Iran's first lady

I just saw this picture over at Little Green Footballs.  He got it from a newspaper which identifies the woman covered from head to toe in black as Iran's first lady.  Fake?  Somehow I don't think so but what do I know?

The disturbing "sharia compliant" UN Human Rights Council

The UN Human Rights Council, a sham of a council if there ever was one, has decided to be in compliance with sharia law where no discussion that brings forth troubling components of Islam is permitted.  What has happened with this council is exactly how Islamic countries rule over their citizens - where they are allowed only to say "Islam is peace".  These countries reasoned to the UN if you speak the truth about Islam it's akin to spreading hate.  Of course, they didn't phrase it this exact way but that's what is going on.

Why Islamic organizations in the U.S. aren't issuing statement after statement about their fellow Muslim''s lack of freedom of religion or free speech ought to be a big clue about where their hearts and mind are in the grand scheme of things.  At interfaith meetings or forums where Islam is discussed we often hear from Muslims there is no compulsion in religion,  Yet, in Islamic countries where most Americans Muslims come from, this isn't the case, at all.  In these countries if you are born a Muslim the laws, constitution and practices compels one to remain a Muslim.  Most all Islamic countries forbid Muslims from hearing the Gospel of Jesus yet in America they will tell you that Islam includes this gospel.  This discrepancy between what Muslims tells us and the facts is where we need to challenge them as often as possible.  There is an overview of how Islamic countries force its citizens into Islamic bondage here.  Questions you can use that can help weed out false information that is being told to us about Islam are here.  Most Muslims are very persistent and won't bat an eye to tell you about a version of Islam that is not practiced in any Islamic country.  the more you know the more you can stand up to their misinformation.

What I believe we are witnessing is one component of an Islamic caliphate (Islamic rule) taking hold in an international body:

On Monday the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU)---tried to make a brief statement about honour killings, female genital mutilation and stoning.  But as they tried to make the statement, they were constantly interrupted by the representative of Egypt who accused the NGOs of trying to “crucify Islam”. They insisted that sharia law must not be mentioned at the UNHRC, let alone criticised. A Pakistan delegate — whose country speaks for the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in the rights body — said the grouping had “strong objections” to any direct or indirect discussion of sharia.  Joining Egypt in asking the president, Romania's Daru Romulus Costea, to bar any debate that took this path, he said that if allowed it would “amount to spreading of hatred against certain members of this Council”.

On Wednesday Mr Costea told a press conference that he had ruled that only Muslim scholars can be permitted to talk about Islam in the Council. He said that religions deserve special protection because any debate about faith is bound to be “very complex, very sensitive and very intense”. The ruling will not affect findings by the Council’s experts, just its chamber debates, although in a later ruling it was decided that independent experts could be sacked after three years. “Good mandate holders who do their  job right upset governments,” a spokesman for Amnesty International said.

nationalsecularsociety

More here

20+ Christians kidnapped and severely beaten in Pakistan

One more report that doesn't speak well, at all, for the religion of peace:

Despite the Pakistan government's tall claims of enhanced protection to the minorities, a group of over 20 Christians were kidnapped and savagely beaten by armed Islamic militants on Saturday.

Christians who were congregating for a religious prayer in Banarasabad, Peshawar, were held at gunpoint by the militants, who took the believers in more than six vehicles to an undisclosed location.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani said on Sunday that the government had secured the release of 16 members of the minority Christian community who were abducted in the restive North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

"We condemn this act and, despite the recovery of the abductees, an enquiry will be held to uncover the faces behind the incident," Gilani said, accoridng to a state-run Pakistan television news channel.

ChristianPost 

Leading Muslim Clerics Meet in Saudi Arabia

I'm not sure what to make of a interfaith dialogue conference in Saudi Arabia, organized by the Saudi-based Muslim World League.  Some of their statements already show their unwillingness to accept or talk to other religions.  The "interfaith" conference was closed to non-Muslims. 

King Abdullah said Islam is greatest of all the religions, which ensures human values, justice and wisdom and there is need to preach it in the best possible manner. "How great the status of the Islamic Ummah is but how difficult time it is when the enemies of Islam are attaching extremism, militancy and terrorism with the Muslim!" King Abdullah exclaimed, according to the Pakistan Tribune.

An international appeal was launched yesterday urging Muslims around the world to learn about non-Muslims and their cultures for the sake of peaceful coexistence.

The call was made in a communique issued at the end of the International Islamic Conference for Dialogue, a three-day event that brought together more than 600 influential scholars and academics.

The plea, one of many in the 18-page document, aimed to encourage Muslims to reach out to people from other monotheistic faiths in order to diffuse conflict and restore tolerance. The appeal was careful to make the distinction between integration and assimilation: "Coexistence and cooperation do not mean concessions regarding the fundamental principles nor harmonising among religions."

The initiative has the support of the Saudi monarch King Abdullah, who is seen as a bridge between the west and the Muslim world. An ally, Dr Ezzedin Ibrahim from the Ministry of Presidential Affairs in the United Arab Emirates, said: "Saudi Arabia is the cradle of Islam and only King Abdullah could be effective in calling Muslims from all parts of the world."

In addition to the emphasis on dialogue, there was renewed commitment to fight terrorism, with a pledge to study the phenomena and causes of violence and fanaticism, a tacit acknowledgment that the negative perception of Islam stems from events such as suicide bombings.

There were signs that dialogue with other believers, specifically Jews, would be problematic. Several clerics, including the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, said it was almost impossible to talk to them because of the situation in the occupied territories. "How can you negotiate with someone who is against you all the time? They seem to be against us in every way so I don't know how we're supposed to have dialogue."

Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi said he would only talk to Jews who denounced Zionism and he urged Muslims to talk to Buddhists, Hindus and atheists. His impromptu speech, lasting 15 minutes, garnered the loudest applause, proving his popularity among fellow clerics even if the west views him with suspicion.

Another source of tension was the refusal to consider building a Catholic church in Saudi Arabia. Currently, the open worship of other faiths is severely restricted, even though the Catholic population is rising because of migrant workers, mostly from the Philippines.

The March inauguration of Qatar's first Christian church - a small chapel with no bells or visible crosses - was welcomed as an improvement in relations between Catholicism and Islam. Soon after, the Vatican confirmed it was negotiating for permission to build the first church in Saudi Arabia. But there remains opposition to a formal Christian place of worship, with some fearing that one church will lead to the construction of others.

Guardian

Pakistan officials: EU restrict free speech or else

I first became aware of Ezra Levant when he testifed before the Canadian Human Rights Commission.  He was brilliant. If you haven't had a chance to watch his testimony before I hope you can now.  Below is a blog post from him that you may find most interesting regarding a delegation from Pakistan that will try to convince the EU to restrict free speech or else:

Like many of you, my Internet home page is the newsy Daily Times of Pakistan.

Here is their report that six high-ranking Pakistani officials will fly to Brussels today to "ask" the European Union to restrict freedom of speech

Pakistan will ask the European Union countries to amend laws regarding freedom of expression in order to prevent offensive incidents such as the printing of blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and the production of an anti-Islam film by a Dutch legislator, sources in the Interior Ministry told Daily Times on Saturday.

My favourite part of the story is the last two sentences. They fit together perfectly, almost like a Shakespearian rhyming couplet:

...the delegation would also tell the EU that if such acts against Islam are not controlled, more attacks on the EU diplomatic missions abroad could not be ruled out.

Sources said that the delegation would also hold discussions on inter-religious harmony during its meetings with the EU leaders. 

Read the rest of his post

Actor Omar Sharif blasts the U.S. says Americans don't know anything

Hmmm, I use to think he was neat:

Egyptian actor Omar Sharif — best known for his film roles in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago  — reportedly blasted U.S. policy in Iraq and said Americans are ignorant.

According to The Middle East Media Research Institute, Sharif said the "East" will never have a democracy because people like him "prefer to go to the neighborhood sheik." MEMRI —a Middle Eastern press monitoring organization — posted an interview of Sharif that aired on the Al-Hayat TV network.

"I lived in America for a long time. Only 10% of all Americans have a passport. In other words, 90% never left America," said Sharif. "They don't know anything."

Sharif said that he spoke with President Bush before the beginning of the Iraq War and told him that Arab nations are made up of sects resistant to becoming democratized.

"I said to Bush, even before he entered Iraq: Forget about all that. We, the Arabs... We are not like [regular countries]," said Sharif. "You will drown there.

After being asked what Bush's response was, the actor stated: "He didn't believe me."

Sharif, who was born Michel Demitri Shalhoub and raised a Roman Catholic, converted to Islam and changed his named when he married Egyptian actress Faten Hamama in 1955.

Read the full transcript and watch the video at MEMRI

Comment from Pakistan

I just read an interesting comment left early this morning on a post I did about British Female Muslim medical students refuse basic hygiene rules.  The comment left by "UZMA KHAN" at 6.21 AM called non-Muslim females a horrible name for not covering up. 

This sure doesn't speak well, at all,  about the religion of peace, does it?

"IT IS CORRECT THAT ISLAM FORBIDS FEMALES TO EXPOSE THEIR BODY PARTS, UNLIKE BITCHES OF EUROPE"

Below is the IP address and location of the commentor:

Domain Name		(Unknown)
IP Address		116.71.1.161 ? (PTCL Triple Play Project)
ISP		PTCL Triple Play Project
Location		Continent  :  Asia Country  :  Pakistan  (Facts) State/Region  :  Islamabad City  :  Islamabad

Shiek Yusef Qaradawi's "Fatawa on Palestine"

"Fatawa on Palestine" was written by Shiek Yusef Qaradawi, who chairs a number of Islamic organization of which Jamal Badawi is a board member.  Badawi, as you may recall, was the chosen Islamic scholar to represent the Islamic Society of Tulsa in a debate last January in Oklahoma.

Badawi's association with terror-supporter Qaradawi reveals his true Islamic believes which don't match up with wonderful version of Islam he tries to push in America which, by the way,  is not practiced in any Islamic country in the world.

This book has been translated into English for the first time.  Below are some highlights of a book review by Mark Gardner and David Rich:

• A new book, published for the first time in English and distributed in Britain for British Muslim readers, allows us to do just this with Qaradawi's views on Israel, Palestine, Jews and Zionism. It is a book that promises a battle 'between the collective body of Muslims and the collective body of Jews i.e. all Muslims and all Jews' (p.77).  Originally published in Arabic as Fatawa Min Ajl Falastin (Wahba Library, Cairo 2003 [1]), and now translated into English, it is a compilation of fourteen rulings by Qaradawi on various aspects of the conflict, including 'Peace with Israel', 'The Legitimacy of Martyrdom Operations in Occupied Palestine', 'Ruling on Accepting Compensation for the Land of Palestine', 'Hadith: "The Judgment Day Will Not Occur Unless You Fight Jews"' and 'Discussing the Verses on Banu Israel and Their Mischief'.  Highlights:

• Qaradawi's classification of 'every Jew in the world' (p. 42) as an enemy
• Israel should be removed from Muslim land.
• it obligatory upon every Muslim wherever he is to defend Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque. This is an obligation upon all Muslims to participate in defending Jerusalem with their souls, money, and all that they possess, otherwise a punishment from Allah shall descend on the whole nation ... (p.24)
• Suicide bombings are, in Qaradawi's words, '[O]ne of the greatest types of Jihad … valid heroic martyrdom operations and very different from suicide.' (p. 6) The suicide bomber '[H]as sold his soul to Allah and placed his heart on gaining martyrdom and purchasing Paradise' (p. 7) Women suicide bombers '[A]re doing a remarkable deed that is blessed by Almighty Allah and considered an act of Jihad for the sake of Allah.' (p. 21)

You can read the rest of this book review here.

Christian church in California receives death threats from Iran

Here's another report that doesn't speak well, at all, for the religion of peace.  This also flies in the face of the often quoted verse in the Quran that there is no compulsion in religion by Muslims who want to convince Americans about a version of Islam that is not practiced in any Islamic country:

According to International Antioch Ministries (IAM), callers from Iran are threatening their workers with disfigurement, injury and death.

Farzaneh, an IAM telephone counselor taking phone calls from Iran during IAM’s daily broadcasts into Iran, was threatened by someone who identified himself as Heydar Amiri:

“One day you will see that the building of this church will collapse on all of you, we know your address very well and know where you are located. We do not let you continue your programs like this anymore. Shedding your blood in Islam has a reward for me.”

Bahnoosh, another telephone counselor, relayed this threat:

“One day a bomb will go off in your church and will make you all vanish, because you are all blasphemers.”

IAM believes that these terrorist threats are being fueled by the success of IAM’s satellite broadcasts into Iran. As a result of these broadcasts, according to IAM, the number of Muslims embracing Christianity in Iran is growing dramatically.

Dr. Hormoz Shariat, president of IAM and senior pastor of The Iranian Christian Church said, “Our broadcasts are a benefit to the people of Iran. During our daily two-hour, live, call-in TV broadcasts, we often receive callers from Iran who have severe personal problems and we offer them comfort, healing and hope. Some are suffering from drug addiction, depression, contemplating suicide or are trapped in a life of prostitution all of which are epidemic in Iran. Every day, we get calls from Iran from people who report that their lives have been changed, they have been set free from addictions, and their families have been restored. We are making a positive difference in Iran and are saving lives.

“We are very careful to show respect to Islam and to Mohammad. So we are doubly concerned about these threats since we have done nothing to merit these terror tactics in all our broadcasts except to hold up Jesus, which all Muslims honor. These terror threats will only increase our resolve to continue and expand our good work in our beloved Iran.”

Businesswire

Wafa Sultan speaks about why she fights against Islam

A while back I heard Wafa Sultan speak for the first time on TV. One thing she said still runs through my mind from time to time. She said, America gave me my humanity. What a beautiful statement to make about our country. Truly beautiful.

She says Islam has never been misunderstood and she is fighting against it. Her story is compelling.

 

Christian physican jailed in Pakistan for blasphemy

Oh dear, the religion of peace is showing the world how intolerant it really is towards just about anyone in the Middle East who believes in another religion or dares to criticize Islam. Funny how this doesn't match the version of Islam we hear about in America.

Pakistani police have jailed a Christian doctor after “blasphemy” charges incited a mob attack on his home last week in Punjab province. Officials said Dr. Robin Sardar is being held in Punjab’s Gujranwala Central Jail, and his wife and six children have left their home in the town of Chak Chatta, 200 miles southeast of Islamabad. “This is the house of a blasphemer,” reads a sign on the gates of Sardar’s now empty home where a crowd of angry villagers gathered on May 5, Union of Catholic Asia News reported. Carrying sticks and kerosene, the group chanted “The punishment of the blasphemer is death,” family members told Sharing Life Ministries Pakistan. Sardar denied having said anything against Muhammad. Under article 295-c of Pakistan’s penal code, blasphemy against Islam’s prophet Muhammad merits death. Now in hiding with relatives at an undisclosed location, Sardar’s wife Veenas said she could not return home for fear of new attacks. Neighbors have told her that members of local Islamist groups have threatened to kill Sardar if he is acquitted.

CompassDirectNews

Author Mark Steyn confronts some of his Islamic critics

Author of "American Alone", Mark Steyn was interview on TVO TV, Ontario's public educational channel,  a couple days ago. 

Here's a quick background:  In December 2007, complaints were filed against Macleans Magazine after the Canadian weekly news magazine published a cover article by Steyn, "The Future Belongs to Islam". A complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Commission was made by Osgoode Law School students associated with the Canadian Islamic Congress. Further complaints to the British Columbian and the federal Human Rights Commissions were lodged by Mohamed Elmasry and Naiyer Habib of the Canadian Islamic Congress.  The complaints claimed that Macleans published a series of nineteen articles (eight by Steyn; seven by Barbara Amiel) with characteristics that promoted Islamophobia and that Maclean's simultaneously refused to allow representative Muslim organizations and voices to rebut the anti-Muslim and Islamophobic content of its articles, particularly Steyn's “The Future belongs to Islam”.

On May 9th, Canada.com reported:

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has agreed to hear a complaint brought against Maclean's magazine by a consortium of Muslim law students.

The complaint originates from a Maclean's article that quotes from columnist Mark Steyn's bestselling book, America Alone -- The End of the World as We Know It. It is alleged that the passages in question defame Muslims.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission acknowledged it lacked jurisdiction to hear the case, then issued a press release declaring Maclean's and Steyn guilty anyway.

There was no hearing, no evidence presented and no opportunity to offer a defence -- just a pronouncement of wrongdoing.

A complaint was also laid with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, one that has yet to be ruled on.

In the first video he discusses the Western's failure to reproduce as part of our downfall in the world.  Aa sad and, unfortunately, true statement, if there ever was one.  Starting in the 3rd video, some of his Muslim critics join the discussion for a discussion/debate. 

Part 1:  each video is 8-9 minutes long:

Part 2:

Part 3:  The DEBATE

"America and Europe will soon come to an end", former Jordanian minister said

MEMRI TV has posted a video clip and transcript of a May 2nd interview on Al Aqsa TV, a Hamas-run television station, with a former Jordanian minister who declared Islam will rule the world:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Sheik Ali Al-Faqir, former Jordanian minister of religious endowment, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on May 2, 2008.

Sheik Ali Al-Faqir: We must declare that Palestine, from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, is an Islamic land, and that Spain – Andalusia – is also the land of Islam. Islamic lands that were occupied by the enemies will once again become Islamic. Furthermore, we will reach beyond these countries, which are lost at one point. We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once, and as it will be conquered again.

Interviewer: Allah willing.

Sheik Ali Al-Faqir: We will rule the world, as has been said by the Prophet Muhammad.---We will face a battlefront that is broader and stronger. Its beginnings were in Palestine, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in Chechnya. What has begun will be completed. It will not stop.---The Zionist entity reached completion, and it is beginning to decline, until it will wane and come to its end.

Similarly, America has occupied, thundered, and foamed with rage, and proclaimed, like Pharoah, I am your supreme God, but it will come to its end, and they have begun to realize that their end is near. We have begun to read in American and European newspapers that "our glory is on the wane, and there is nothing we can do about it. This morning on Al-Jazeera TV, I saw American scientists and strategic theoreticians, who said that America would soon come to its end. They said it before about the USSR, and, indeed, it has come to its end, and we say now that America and the EU will come to an end, and only the rising force of Islam will prevail.

MEMRI TV

Hamas TV speaks to the world's Islamic women

A young teenager or older child speaks to the women of the world in English to wear the Islamic uniform, the hijab.

My sisters in Europe, in America, in the whole world, I would like to advise you the hijab protects you from this false freedom---Westerners---destroying their humanity.

1 min. 44 sec.