"Osama's people" crossing into US from Mexico?

He denies it all now. It is unclear why he would have asserted it all in this phone call, however, if it were not true. Of course, there could be any number of reasons. But this case bears monitoring. "Infiltration from the south feared: Terrorist smuggling denied by admitted drug runner," from The Brownsville Herald, with thanks to Richard:

Officials are pointing to records in a South Texas drug case with alleged terrorist ties that they say underscores the lack of preparedness here.

The attorney for a jailed Gulf Cartel member cited in the incident, however, says his client was falsely accused of trying to smuggle Iraqi terrorists into this country. He maintains the claims were brought to increase the punishment for a drug offense against the accused.

The allegations are debated but the danger is real, warns U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz who believes federal lawmakers do not realize the exposure that exists on this porous international boundary.

“There is a huge disconnect between Washington and the border,” Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, said and called the security issue “alarming.”

‘Gente de Osama’

The January 2005 arrest of Noel Exinia and Cesario Nuñez appeared to be just another Drug Enforcement Administration bust on the border, until court documents in the case are examined more closely.

A few days before their arrest on federal cocaine trafficking charges, Exinia and Nuñez moved more than a quarter-ton of cocaine from Mexico through the Rio Grande Valley and on to New York City, the men told officials.

Nuñez, 33, pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge in September. His sentencing is set for Thursday.

Exinia, 35, eventually pleaded guilty to the same charge. His sentencing is expected in March.

Court documents filed in Exinia’s case make frequent references to his position in the notorious Gulf Cartel. The paperwork also contains details of a December 2004 incident in which he tried to secure transportation for 20 Middle Eastern “terrorists” waiting to enter the United States from Monterrey, Chiapas and Puebla in Mexico.

Recorded telephone conversations authorized under the U.S. Patriot Act and a court order captured the La Feria truck driver referring to the 20 men as “gente de Osama” or “Osama’s people.”

During a Jan. 5, 2005, telephone conversation, Exinia described the men as “Iraqis,” ages 25 to 33, who were willing to pay $8,000 for transportation past Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas and into the U.S. interior.

Exinia mentioned that eight of the men were coming to Progreso, northwest of Brownsville. He said they were “dangerous” and “really bad people.” They carried guns and made the smuggler that was helping them “afraid.”

Fitzgerald: Khutba-monitoring and other matters

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses some problems posed by mosques in Western countries, and what to do about them:

When building new mosques in the West, one-for-one should be the rule. For every mosque that is permitted in the Infidel world, one church, synagogue, Hindu temple, depending on where the mosque is built, must be permitted -- one of similar size, and prominence -- within Dar al-Islam. Simple reciprocity. And no punishment for apostasy, so that there is freedom of conscience. Otherwise, no further permission for the building of mosques need be granted.

Reciprocity. That's a reasonable demand.

The mosques that are already here pose a more vexed question. A "dual-use" mosque, where one use is incitement of religious or other kinds of hatred, and where there is some evidence of something unconnected to individual worship going on, is not at all like a church or synagogue where there may be social gatherings and so on. When a belief-system is not only a religion but a geopolitical program, and when there is evidence that that geopolitical program threatens all others, religious or non-religious, if they are not Muslims, one has a right to investigate the place where such believers congregate. For such a place, hiding behind religion, is in fact a meeting-ground -- it has been discovered in mosques all over Europe and the Middle East – where weapons, false documents, and similar material has been stored.

Saudi Doctorate Encourages the Murder of Arab Intellectuals

From MEMRI:

A three-volume treatise by Sa'id ibn Nasser Al-Ghamdi, titled Deviation from the Faith as Reflected in [Arab] Thought and Literature on Modernity, has recently gained publicity in the Arab world. The book, published in December 2003 inSaudi Arabia, is based on Al-Ghamdi's 2000 doctoral dissertation, submitted to the Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, for which he received his degree summa cum laude. In his treatise, Al-Ghamdi names more than 200 modern Arab intellectuals and authors whom he accuses of heresy - thus making it permissible to kill them...

Al-Ghamdi's book was reviewed on the reformist website www.metransparent.com by Egyptian poet and literary critic 'Abdallah Al-Samti, who said: "The most dangerous thing in this book is its outright call to murder, and the fact that it legitimizes the killing of Arab intellectuals, since Sa'id Al-Ghamdi claims that 'the statements, actions, and beliefs of [these intellectuals] demand the ridda punishment [3] and legitimize their killing. However, in the current secular political climate that has been imported from the West, they have [been able to] spread the heresy and atheism that is in their decayed hearts...'"

In his dissertation, Al-Ghamdi explains that "since the arrows of doubt shot by the enemies of Islam have multiplied... and they have spread their intellectual and behavioral poisons among the Muslim youth in an attempt to drown them in deviancy, to bring them out from light into darkness, to replace their inner conviction and faith, and to cast them into the wasteland of doubts, skepticism, and vanities - [for these reasons] it is incumbent upon those who understand this to make clear to their [Islamic] nation and their community the danger inherent in this behavior...

"The most dangerous and vile thing that the enemies of Islam have done in order to achieve their deviant aims has been to use cultural means, which are outwardly manifest as literature, poetry, culture, and criticism, but which internally embody heresy, skepticism, and hypocrisy.

"The enemies of Islam have succeeded in sowing the seeds of their hatred in the land of the Muslims, and in growing the evil tree - the tree of accursed materialism. Muslims see and hear the people who openly call to heresy and to departure from the right path, and who openly spread intellectual and moral depravity, sometimes in the guise of 'modern literature' and sometimes under the slogan of 'human culture'..."

Zawahri missed dinner that prompted U.S. strike

More on the Pakistan airstrike from Reuters:

ISLAMABAD - A dinner invitation to al Qaeda's second-in-command triggered a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan's tribal region but Ayman al-Zawahri failed to show up, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Sunday.

Pakistan condemned Friday's strike, which killed at least 18 people, including women and children, and summoned U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker to protest. Thousands of local tribesmen also rallied near the scene, chanting anti-American slogans.

The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that foreigners had been near the village of Damadola in the Bajaur region bordering Afghanistan and were the probable target.

Pakistani intelligence officials said they were checking reports up to seven foreign militants had been killed and their bodies removed by local supporters. But they said there were no indications Osama bin Laden's deputy, Zawahri, was there.

"He was invited for the dinner, but we have no evidence he was present," a senior intelligence official told Reuters.

Al Arabiya television quoted a source it said had contact with al Qaeda saying Zawahri was alive...

Protests erupt in wake of deadly attack in Pakistan

From AP:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan Chanting "Death to America," angry anti-U.S. Islamic groups staged nationwide protests Sunday against a purported CIA airstrike that Pakistan says killed innocent civilians instead of the apparent target - top al-Qaida lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf meanwhile, warned his countrymen not to harbor militants, saying it would only increase violence within Pakistan's borders.

"If we kept sheltering foreign terrorists here ... our future will not be good," Musharraf said in speech broadcast Sunday by state-run Pakistan Television. "Remember what I say."

Musharraf, who spoke Saturday to a gathering in the northwestern town of Sawabi, did not directly mention Friday's attack that killed at least 17 people, including women and children, in a village of Damadola, just a few kilometers (miles) from the Afghanistan border.

But his government has protested to the U.S. Embassy amid growing frustration over a recent series of suspected U.S. attacks along the frontier, apparently aimed at Islamic militants.

On Sunday, about 10,000 people rallied in Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, many chanting "Death to American Aggression" and "Stop bombing against innocent people."...

West is in dark ages, says Iran's President

From The Guardian:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hardline President of Iran, launched an angry tirade against the West yesterday, accusing it of a 'dark ages' mentality and threatening retaliation unless it recognised his country's nuclear ambitions.

In a blistering assault, Ahmadinejad repeated the Islamic regime's position that it would press ahead with a nuclear programme despite threats by the European Union and United States to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, where it could face possible sanctions. He added that Iran was a 'civilised nation' that did not need such weapons. Iran insists its nuclear programme is a wholly peaceful attempt to generate electricity.

Addressing a rare press conference in Tehran, he appeared to issue thinly veiled threats against Western countries, implying that they could face serious consequences unless they backed down. 'You need us more than we need you. All of you today need the Iranian nation,' Ahmadinejad said. 'Why are you putting on airs? You don't have that might.'

Reminding the West that it had supported the monarchical regime of the former Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi - overthrown in the 1979 Islamic revolution - he went on: 'Those same powers have done their utmost to oppress us, but this nation, because of its dignity, has forgiven them to a large extent. But if they persist with their present stance, maybe the day will come when the Iranian nation will reconsider.' He added: 'If they want to deny us our rights, we have ways to secure those rights.'

Ahmadinejad, an ultra-Islamist populist elected last June, did not elaborate on his apparent threat. But Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil producer and analysts have predicted that any disruption to its supplies could have a grave impact on global markets.

The Iranian President's outburst - the latest in a series asserting Iran's nuclear rights and questioning Israel's right to exist - came after the EU last week effectively abandoned two-and-a-half years of negotiations with the Iranians. The move came after Iran decided to remove UN seals at a nuclear plant in Natanz, enabling it to resume research into uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to produce a nuclear weapon...

Al Qaeda admits US helicopter strike

From ITN:

Al Qaeda in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the downing of a US military helicopter near the northern city of Mosul which killed two pilots.

"Our lions in Mosul ... succeeded to shoot down a US helicopter on Friday by targeting it with medium-sized weapons," said an Internet statement attributed to al Qaeda.

The statement's authenticity could not be verified but it was posted on a Web site often used by insurgents.

Witnesses reported seeing gunmen armed with heavy machine guns open fire on the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, a two-seat, single-engine helicopter, in al-Sukar district north of Mosul, about 240 miles north of Baghdad.

It was the second U.S. helicopter to crash in Iraq in less than a week. A military UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed last weekend, killing all 12 aboard in one of the worst incidents of its kind since the war began in 2003.

The US military believes the Black Hawk may have been brought down by bad weather, but the cause is still under investigation...

Americans save British hostage no one knew was missing

Someone is going to get called on the carpet in the Jihad Publicity Bureau -- you know, the guys who post the braggadocio-laden, threat-filled announcements on Islamic websites. From The Observer, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

A British man kidnapped in Iraq and held for five days by armed men who threatened to behead him was rescued last week by American special forces and astonished to discover that no one had noticed he was missing.

Phil Sands, 28, a freelance journalist, was held by gunmen who ambushed his car in Baghdad. He said the worst aspect of his ordeal was imagining the anguish of his family. But his parents were holidaying in Morocco and knew nothing of his sufferings until he called them after he was released during a chance raid by US forces on a farm outside Baghdad.

“The jihadist project completes the political one and the political project cannot be completed without jihad”

Here's one for all those who think that the jihad is advancing today only by terrorist violence. In fact, it is advancing across a broad spectrum of political and cultural fronts. But few, very very few, recognize that. Umm Farhat update: "Hamas rallies to 'martyr' mother," from the TimesOnline, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

ONE objective burnt deep in the heart and mind of Mohammed Farhat when, rifle in hand, he attacked a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip: to kill as many Israelis as possible. The 17-year-old Palestinian dispatched five settlers before being shot dead. In later military operations his two brothers were killed by the Israelis, who also tried to blow up the Farhats’ home. Today, with the intifada in Gaza and the West Bank over and Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip completed, Mariam Farhat, the mother of the three dead youths, insists that the struggle must go on. But this time she has chosen the ballot box over the bullet.

Across the Arab world the 56-year-old mother is an icon of the resistance as she campaigns in Gaza as a candidate for the Islamic militant group Hamas in Palestinian parliamentary elections on January 25.

Hamas has been the deadliest of the Palestinian militant groups. It has always stood for the obliteration of the Jewish state and was responsible for suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis over the past five years.

Farhat still mourns her sons. Nidal, her eldest, was killed in 2003 while preparing an attack and Rawad was blown up last year in an Israeli airstrike on his car, which was laden with rockets.

The mother regards her candidacy for the Palestinian Legislative Council as a logical extension of the armed struggle she encouraged her sons to die for. She denies that Hamas’s decision to join mainstream Palestinian political life contradicts its military goals.

“The jihadist project completes the political one and the political project cannot be completed without jihad,” she says. “The resistance needs the political project to support it through the legislative council.”

Abu Hamza: Holocaust a punishment from God

Don't expect him to be apologizing for this, a la Pat Robertson, anytime soon. "Holocaust a punishment from God, said radical preacher," from the Times Online, with thanks to JE:

ABU HAMZA AL-MASRI used his position as imam of the Finsbury Park mosque to preach virulently anti-Semitic sermons, the Old Bailey was told yesterday....

In a sermon in Arabic, a translation of which was read to the court by David Perry, for the prosecution, Abu Hamza said that God had decreed that the Jewish people should face further torture.

He said: “Every time they lit the fire for war God has put it out. And this is the imminent result and this is a universal result too. Hitler looked at their dealings and their treachery. They wanted to deceive him in his war. Some were dealing with the Allies against him.

“So he killed them and punished them and this is a sunna (Islamic rule). And they will be inflicted with that again when the stones and the Sharia start talking to the Muslim — you the worshipper of God . . . This is a Jew dealing in usury, so come and kill him.

“This shows that the Jews will be destroyed, the State will be destroyed and some of the Jews will be running around hiding behind the trees and the stones and then they get cursed by the earth until there is not one of them left.”

This is a well-attested Islamic tradition (cf. Bukari 4:52:176; 4:52:177; 4:56:791; Muslim 41:6981-6985; etc.). I'd like to see Stephen Schwartz address it. I am not holding my breath.

In a separate video, Abu Hamza told a group of people that shoplifting and theft by Muslims from non-believers was permitted. Students were not required to repay loans and identity fraud by Muslim refugees was allowed, according to his interpretation of Islam.

In other passages from his lectures, the court heard Abu Hamza telling his audience that they were allowed to kill non-Muslims.

He said: “Killing a kuffar (unbeliever) who is fighting you is OK. Killing a kuffar for any reason, you can say it is OK even if there is no reason for it.”

The cleric reserved particular ire for the owners of off-licences and authorities that granted licences for the sale of alcohol.

“Don’t go to the man in the wine shop and tell him, ‘Please why are you selling the wine, come to the mosque’. Make sure the person who gave him the licence for that wine shop does not exist any more on the earth. Finish him up. Give him dawa (the spread of Islam), if he doesn’t respect dawa, kill him.”

Iran’s Ahmadinejad: Islam will lead to "great event"

Mind you, some non-Muslims might not find this event quite so great. From Iran Focus, with thanks to JE:

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 12 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday evening that the Islamic Republic’s 1979 Islamic revolution was a great movement and a stepping stone to a final “great event” in the world.

Speaking to a crowd in the southern city of Roudan, Hormozgan province, Ahmadinejad said, “The Islamic Republic is the continuation of the path of the prophets which came to begin a great movement and the final occurrence”.

“The Islamic revolution was a great leap in leading the people and reaching the climax of history”, Ahmadinejad said.

If he sets off his nukes as he wishes to, he may not be that far wrong.

What is a moderate Muslim?

This is an exceedingly vexed question. Everyone wants to encourage moderate Muslims and make common cause with them, but no one is agreed on what exactly constitutes one. Most non-Muslim Westerners assume that all Muslims who are not saying or doing anything publicly to the contrary are moderate, and that they accept the parameters of Western pluralism. Maher Hawash and a myriad of others have shown this to be naive. Daniel Pipes offers some useful criteria for distinguishing moderate Muslims here, and Hugh Fitzgerald has made some important observations about moderate Muslims in light of what is in the Qur'an and Sunnah here. I myself have addressed various aspects of this question in several articles, including this one, in which I ask: "Where is moderate Islam? How can moderate Muslims refute the radical exegesis of the Qur’an and Sunnah? If an exposition of moderate Islam does not address or answer radical exegeses, is it really of any value to quash Islamic extremism? If the answer lies in a simple rejection of Qur’anic literalism, how can non-literalists make that rejection stick, and keep their children from being recruited by jihadists by means of literalism?"

Of course, as I have pointed out many times, traditional Islam itself is not moderate or peaceful. It is the only major world religion with a developed doctrine and tradition of warfare against unbelievers. (Those who claim that Christianity is equivalent should read that sentence over carefully before invoking the Crusades.) The Qur'an and Sunnah teach warfare against unbelievers until they are converted or subjugated as dhimmis. See Qur'an 9:29 (bearing in mind the traditional Islamic theology that holds that sura 9, as the last revealed, takes precedence over other Qur'anic passages that appear to counsel tolerance rather than war), Sahih Muslim 4294, etc. etc.; I explain this at length with reference to Islamic texts in my books, including the latest, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades). I have been harshly criticized for not going farther than this and denying that any peacefully-inclined Muslims even exist. Some have even claimed that such people are all deceivers, which I think is an impossible position to hold, as it claims a knowledge of other people’s hearts that no one really has. It also betrays a strange unawareness of the fact that a wide spectrum of belief and practice exists within all religious traditions.

Others have said that moderates must be either deceitful or ignorant of their own religion, since their primary texts so clearly teach supremacism and violence. While there is no doubt that the mandate that the Qur’an must be read and recited in Arabic limits the understanding of it to a tremendous degree, not only among non-Arab Muslims but also among Arabic speakers who have not mastered seventh-century Qur’anic Arabic, that is not the only source of Islamic moderation. There are some who are genuinely trying to frame a theory and practice of Islam that will allow for peaceful coexistence with unbelievers as equals. Certainly there are many more who claim to be doing this than are actually doing it or doing it as honestly or fully as they would like the world to believe, but nonetheless, the world situation and the dignity of each individual requires that every such claim be treated with respect -- and examined forthrightly and searchingly.

And now Stephen Schwartz, himself a Muslim, offers some criteria for how to identify a moderate Muslim in “What Is a Moderate Muslim?,” published at Tech Central Station. There are some useful elements to his analysis, and some not so useful. He begins by saying that “Muslim moderation is defined by attitudes and conduct, not by abstractions or historical precedents, which, as with all religions, may be interpreted to support any ideological position.” This appears to mean that Muslim moderation need concern itself only with actions, not with reforming core texts or working to overhaul the traditional understanding of those texts, since later Schwartz adds: “Moderate Muslims admit there is a problem in the body of the religion -- not in the principles and traditions of the faith, but among the believers themselves.”

So how are we to eradicate these problems from among believers? No problem, says Schwartz:

Observing and analyzing Sunni Muslims by such positive, practical criteria is extremely easy. There are more than a billion Sunnis in the world, and they are not all jihadists or fundamentalists, so telling them apart should not be difficult with a little effort.

Well, certainly they are not all jihadists or fundamentalists. Unfortunately, the world has not so far found it all that easy to distinguish those who will never turn out to be jihadists or fundamentalists from those who will – Hawash, the Lackawanna Six, Fawaz Damra, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, and on and on. Perhaps we have not made the proper effort. Schwartz offers more specific direction as to how that effort can be made as he goes on. But almost immediately his guidance becomes problematic:

Identifying moderate Shia Muslims is harder, but one thing may be said immediately: those who follow Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Iraq prove their moderation daily, by their silent but effective support to the U.S.-led liberation coalition.

No word from Schwartz on what he thinks of Sistani’s classification of unbelievers as unclean on the level of blood, sweat, and feces. Is that a “moderate” view conducive to the peaceful coexistence of Muslims with non-Muslims as equals? I rather think it isn’t. Has Sistani changed these views? No; the list is up on his website now. Does the fact that he has supported the U.S. in Iraq mean in itself that he is moderate? Not when it is so patent that the Shi’ites have an opportunity to gain the upper hand in Iraq by means of the electoral process. Sistanti’s website shows nothing if it doesn’t show a man deeply concerned with following Islamic laws. Are we to believe that he will cheerfully acquiesce in the setting-aside of certain of those laws regarding the subjugation of women and non-Muslims in an Islamic state in order to establish a Western-style secular republic? If he does intend to so acquiesce, why did Auxiliary Bishop Andraos Abouna of Baghdad describe the situation of Christians in Iraq after the elections as a “nightmare,” particularly because Iraq is teetering on the brink of establishing an Islamic state?

New York Muslim Leader Backs Iranian In Saying Holocaust Is 'Exaggerated'

Sheik Fadhel al Sahlani comes out for the Thug-In-Chief. From the New York Sun, with thanks to all who sent this in:

The leader of a large Shiite mosque in Queens has joined the new Iranian president in disputing the Holocaust, saying the Nazi massacre of an estimated 6 million Jews during World War II "has been exaggerated."

"The numbers which have been mentioned are too much," the spiritual leader of the Imam Al Khoei Islamic Center in Jamaica, Sheik Fadhel al Sahlani, told The New York Sun. Sheik al Sahlani, who said his mosque has a membership of about 3,000, said that the killing of innocent Jews during the war was "an injustice" but that the extent of Nazi persecution needed further examination. "The numbers, the reasons, we have to study more," he said.

In that light, Sheik al Sahlani voiced his support for Iran's proposal to hold a conference on the Holocaust in Tehran, saying there is "nothing wrong with studying more." The conference is likely to include scholars who deny that the Holocaust took place.

"If anyone doesn't want to live in peace with us, we'll make them"

That is, the jihadist peace of the supremacy of the Sharia -- aided and abetted by the Russians. I suspect their support of this man may prove short-sighted. "Chechnya's gun-toting strongman," from BBC News, with thanks to Null:

This is Tsentoroy, the home village and headquarters of Ramzan Kadyrov, the most powerful man in today's Chechnya.

He is the republic's acting prime minister - and its de facto ruler....

As the car pulls up outside the army base, Mr Kadyrov whistles into the night. From this moment, his soldiers only have 40 seconds to get ready for action.

Thirty seconds later, they are already standing to attention, lined up and armed to the teeth.

"Look at them," says Mr Kadyrov. "American uniforms, Russian weapons, Islamic beliefs and a Chechen spirit. They are invincible."...

This army - and Mr Kadyrov himself - is what the Kremlin is counting on to establish peace and stability in the troubled republic.

They are a living example of Moscow's "Chechenisation" policy - they, not the Russian federal forces, run today's Chechnya.

"We have made Chechnya the safest place in Russia, soon it'll be the safest place in the world - people will be coming here on holiday.

"We've just got a few more devils to kill and that'll be it. We want peace. And if anyone doesn't want to live in peace with us, we'll make them," promises Mr Kadyrov.

Torture claims

But human rights groups are less optimistic.

"Ramzan does not stabilise the situation in Chechnya. He himself motivates supporters of the rebels by his activities," says Grigory Shvedov, a journalist and human rights activist.

"The personal security forces of Ramzan are the main group involved in torturing and abducting people - people are arrested and then no-one can find out where they have been or where their bodies are," he says.

Mr Kadyrov himself categorically denies these accusations, while the Kremlin seems to ignore them.

Back at his home in Tsentoroy, Mr Kadyrov treats us to some tea and biscuits. On the wall opposite is a huge photograph of our host, taken at the Kremlin.

The picture shows him waiting patiently as President Vladimir Putin attaches the Hero of Russia medal to his jacket.

Kadyrov's lion

"Do you want to see my pet lion? The one I received as a present when my baby son was born?" Mr Kadyrov asks us suddenly.

The pet lion shows it has a tough character, too

We rush outside, into the enormous front yard. And there, in the corner, hiding behind a white Caucasian sheepdog, sits a lion cub. It looks confused - and rather scared.

But when Mr Kadyrov reaches out to pat it, the cub growls and bares its teeth, making sure the message is clear.

"One day I'll teach it who the master is," he says as he looks at his pet.

"This lion will either kill me - or learn to be obedient."

Words non-Muslims in Kadyrov's vicinity would be well-advised to remember.

Iran threatens to curb some UN atomic inspections

1938 Update from Reuters, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran threatened on Friday to halt snap U.N. inspections of its nuclear facilities if it is taken to the U.N. Security Council, and Britain said the council would consider sanctions if Tehran defied international demands.

The United States and the European Union's three biggest powers said on Thursday that nuclear talks with Iran were at a dead end and Tehran should be brought before the Council.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said such a step would have "consequences" for the West.

"The government will be obliged to end all of its voluntary measures if sent to the U.N. council," he said.

Saudi king receives Moqtada Sadr

Our friend and ally receives our bitter enemy. Is this a sign that King Abdullah knows who will eventually be coming to power in Iraq? From Middle East Online, with thanks to JE:

MINA, Saudi Arabia - Saudi King Abdullah has received radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr at his palace in Mina near the Muslim holy city of Mecca, as the annual hajj pilgrimage winds down.

"The meeting was to strengthen relations between the two countries," the firebrand cleric said on Wednesday, declining to give details.

Saudi state television broadcast footage of the meeting which took place late Tuesday, after which the Saudi monarch appeared showing Sadr around the palace.

King Abdullah received Sadr again on Wednesday as part of a reception for dignitaries and world leaders.

Sadr who led a bloody rebellion against US-led forces in Iraq in 2004, walked into the sumptuous conference room in his hallmark black robes and turban and sat to the left of the king.

He later expressed pessimism about the future of his war-torn country following the December 15 legislative polls.

"I am pessimistic (about the future of Iraq). Fanaticism and branding others as apostates dominate now," said Sadr, who was in Saudi Arabia to perform the hajj for the first time in his life.

Sadr travelled overland from Iraq and was told by Saudi officials upon arrival that he was a guest of the king, according to the head of the Iraqi hajj delegation, Sheikh Khaled al-Atiyah.

Sadr, who only speaks Arabic, has rarely travelled abroad. His only known trip outside Iraq was to neighbouring Iran to take part in a June 2003 commemoration of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The King Abdullah-Sadr meeting was significant because of past tensions between the ultra-conservative Sunni kingdom and radical Shiites in the Middle East.

Hamza 'had terrorism manual'

Targeting Big Ben and more. From the Evening Standard, with thanks to Sparta:

Muslim cleric Abu Hamza kept a terrorism "manual" which contained a dedication to Osama bin Laden and suggested a list of potential targets which included skyscrapers and Big Ben, the Old Bailey heard.

The Encyclopaedia of Afghani Jihad, which was found at Hamza's home, also advised hitting targets such as the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower to cause "destruction" and suggested attacks on museums or archaeological sites. It said plans "should be laid out" to hit buildings such skyscrapers, ports, airports, nuclear plants and football stadiums and it talked about attacking large congregations of people at Christmas.

"This, the prosecution say, is a blueprint, a manual for terrorism which echoes the things which feature in the defendant's speeches," said David Perry prosecuting....

Abu Hamza's video 'call to arms'

How can Muslims who say that they accept pluralism and Western governments as they are currently constituted reply to Abu Hamza's assertion here that Muhammad claimed the whole earth for Islam? Answer: they don't. Evidently they just hope that non-Muslims will not notice this material. Imam Hook Trial Update from the TimesOnline, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

TWO very different Abu Hamzas appeared at the Old Bailey yesterday as the trial of the former imam of Finsbury Park mosque was shown video recordings of the radical cleric preaching.

Abu Hamza al-Masri sat in silence in the dock watching a much more animated and younger version of himself. The on-screen Abu Hamza was passionate, gesticulating with the stumps of his amputated arms as he emphasised the plight of Muslims around the world, the duty to fight the unbeliever and the evils of democracy.

This Abu Hamza emphasised the need for young Muslim men to train for jihad and to identify targets including the law courts, banks and brothels — all of them symbols of corrupt “kuffar countries” like Britain....

The war against the unbeliever must be fought, Abu Hamza stated, “until you see the Khilafa sitting in the White House ruling from there like the Prophet Muhammad said, that Allah showed him the Earth, that Allah told him that the whole Earth will be for Muslims, booty for Islam.”

The trial continues.

WHAT HE SAID

ON MUSLIMS IN BRITAIN
“It looks unfortunately that we have been forced to be inside a toilet . . . and some of us think they can be leaders in that toilet unfortunately. We are all under the feet and the heavy boots of the kuffar”

ON FIGHTING
“The first phase is called the Shawkat al-Nekaya, it is called the needle of bleeding the enemy. Like you imagine you have one small knife and you have a big animal in front of you . . . You have to stab him here and there until he bleeds to death . . . This is the first stage of jihad, destruction of the enemies of Allah”

ON LEGITIMATE TARGETS
“Every court is a target and every brothel is a target and everybody who’s endorsing that is a target”

ON CHRISTIANITY
“The Church itself have lost every capacity it has. In the hearts and minds of people preachers have become homosexual, they have become child hazard. Churches have become places of dancing, iniquity, business, black magic, you name it. Child prostitution and everyday there is evidence of that”

ON MULTICULTURALISM
“The Hindus don’t worship God, they worship the cow, and as far as Christians (are concerned) they don’t worship God they worship Jesus, and Jews they worship their desires and Muslims, they worship Allah. So your God is different from their God”

ON WEAPONS
“We ask Muslims to . . . bleed the enemies of Allah anywhere by any means. You can’t do it by nuclear weapon, you have to do it by kitchen knife, no other solution. You can’t do it by chemical weapons, you have to do it by mice poison”

'Peaceful' PA official praises suicide bombers

Yet more evidence of the fact that it is virtually impossible to distinguish moderate Muslims from those more inclined to, or at least approving of, violence. From WND, with thanks to all who sent this in:

JERUSALEM – A Palestinian official who publicly claims to support Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives this week gave a speech in Arabic in which he praised suicide bombers, blasted "filthy [Israeli] occupation," and declared Jerusalem is Palestinian land.

Qadura Faras, a Palestinian Legislative Council member and lawmaker from the ruling Fatah party, has been a vocal proponent of the Geneva Initiative, a private peace proposal drafted in 2003 by a group of extreme leftist Israelis, Palestinians and Europeans calling for an immediate Palestinian state in Gaza, Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

Faras appears on a video featured on the official Geneva Initiative website with a message of peace toward Israelis:

"It is always asked, do you [Israelis] have a partner on the other side. I am telling you with full sincerity, we are ready to reach an inclusive agreement with you, which will promise us freedom and liberty and statehood, and will promise you the thing we know you are sensitive to, which is your full right to live in peace and security."

But Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch reports Faras this week conveyed a different kind of message in a speech to a group of Palestinians.

According to the Al-Hayat Al-Jadida Palestinian newspaper, which covered Faras' Arabic-language address, the Fatah official "emphasized the continuation of the struggle until the freeing of all of the Palestinian territories from the filth of the occupation, and establishing the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Fares blessed the prisoners behind bars, and in particular mentioned the imprisoned fighter, "The Sniper" Tha'ir Hamed, who carried out the ... operation that led to the killing and injuring of several of the occupation soldiers."

Hamed was involved in terror attacks that killed 10 Israelis.

"Wasting your Tine"

Although I do not normally administer tuberculosis tests, that was the subject line of this message that just arrived in the hate mail bag:

You guys are a bunch of senseless losers who have nothing but to spread Zionism and hate around the world. Well guess what you are losing the battle and Islam will shine everywhere, even in your dark houses and countries. I welcome any respectful reply if you guys know of such a thing.

Well, your message was itself so respectful, sir, that I doubt I could match it no matter how carefully I framed my reply.

Hamza attacks 'enemies of Islam'

Perhaps Iqbal Sacranie will be along soon to explain to us why most Muslims in Britain don't think this way at all. Imam Hook Trial Update from the BBC, with thanks to Null:

The video shows Mr Abu Hamza standing on a platform bearing a banner with the words "Al Jihad" in red.

In English, he speaks about life "asking [non-Muslims] to give us security from our own oppressive regime, asking them to protect our children, our wives, our money from our own regime staying in their pavements happy to be there".

Charges against Hamza

He says they were thrown "bits and pieces" as dogs who run after the honey pot, "as they like to call it".

"It is sad... what is more sad about it is that people are arranging their life according to this as the unescaped destiny," he says.

"Do we stay like that... do we change? It looks like, unfortunately, that we have been forced, unfortunately, to be inside a toilet."

He also talks of establishing a caliphate, a government according to Islamic law.

Read it all.

I do not

Jihad Watch reader Mike sends me this article, which states:

Robert Spencer, who writes the "Jihad Watch" column and believes Islam will conquer Europe within 10 years...

Come now. I think no such thing. I do hold, with Bernard Lewis, that Europe will be Islamic by the end of this century, unless there is some cataclysmic change. But I have not given up hope altogether for a recovery of Europe's identity and cultural vitality.

Spencer: The Economist's Surrender

In FrontPage this morning I discuss how the world's foremost economic magazine aids Islamist intimidation and the chilling of free speech. (News links in the original.)

Several weeks ago I wrote about how some cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper became an international incident. At stake is much more than some cartoons; this matter has become a test case for the continued viability of freedom of speech in Western countries. And now The Economist has written about the story in a way that reveals the biases and false assumptions so prevalent in the public discourse today.

As Islamic terrorism and jihad violence spread all over the globe, The Economist has doggedly maintained its tone of blame-the-West-first dhimmitude. Instead of seeing the cartoon controversy as another threat to freedom of speech in the West, it places the onus all on Danish racism and xenophobia. The spin starts in the lead sentence: “For much of last year, various squabbles have simmered over several prominent Danes' rude comments about Islam.”

Imagine you are a writer for The Economist, sitting down to write your story about the cartoon controversy. What is this story about? You could start it with a reference to the Van Gogh murder and the chill on free speech about Islam in Europe. Or you could refer to one of the many anti-Christian broadsides lauded in European art museums and on its airwaves, and the stout defenses of freedom of speech that the likes of The Economist published in the face of any Christian protest. You could refer to the menacing rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, and to increasing intimidation by Islamic thugs.

Or you could cast the whole thing all as being about "rude comments about Islam." Yes, of course! That's it! How could non-Western non-Christians, largely non-white, be anything but victims!

And so The Economist story got its proper lead. Then it follows with this: “Now a schoolboy prank...” Oh, so that's what it was. Not a trial balloon to see if free speech still existed in Europe. Not an attempt to defend it against attack. Just a schoolboy prank. Those idiotic schoolboys at Jyllands-Posten! Don't they realize they're playing with fire? “Now a schoolboy prank by a newspaper has landed the prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in the biggest diplomatic dispute of his tenure in office.”

True, but it also showed him, at least initially, to be one of the few European statesmen with a clear understanding just how deep and serious was the cultural challenge presented by the cartoon protests and other instances of Muslim indignation. But as far as The Economist is concerned, all that matters here is that a schoolboy prank ended up embarrassing the Prime Minister.

Ahmadinejad: Iran to have “full” nuclear power in near future

1938 update from Iran Focus, with thanks to JE:

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 11 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic would obtain nuclear capabilities in the “near future”.

“In the near future, full nuclear energy for peaceful purposes will be at our disposal”, Ahmadinejad told a gathering in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas.

Take that "peacful" in the sense that Sayyid Qutb argued that Islam was a religion of peace: it will fight to establish Sharia everywhere, and then Allah's peace will reign over the world.

Hamza 'urged followers to murder'

Imam Hook Trial Update, from the BBC, with thanks to John and Mick:

Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri told his followers it was their "religious duty to kill" non-Muslims, jurors heard as his trial began at the Old Bailey.

David Perry, prosecuting, said a "terrorism manual" was found at the cleric's home in London in May 2004.

It explained how to make explosives and organise a terrorist unit, he said.

Abu Hamza, 47, denies 15 charges including having a document "useful" to a terrorist and soliciting people to murder non-Muslims....

He is also accused of threatening behaviour with intent to incite racial hatred.

Mr Perry said Mr Abu Hamza railed against alcohol, adultery, democracy and said Muslims had an "obligation" to fight and kill kuffar (non-believers)....

"You will hear the tapes and we will hear that the defendant, Sheikh Abu Hamza, encouraged his listeners, whether they were an audience at a private meeting or a congregation at the mosque, to believe that it was part of a religious duty to fight in the cause of Allah, God, and as part of the religious duty to fight in the cause of Allah, it was part of the religious duty to kill."

See Qur'an 2:190-193; 9:5, 9:29; and a host of others.

Mr Perry said the cleric preached "intolerance, bigotry and hatred", especially against Jewish people.

The prosecutor stressed the case was "not a trial against Islam", or against its holy book, the Koran, but had been brought "because of what the defendant said"....

Hmmm. But what if what he said tallies with what is in the Qur'an?