HONOR AMONG THIEVES

AL-ZAWAHIRI, THE SECOND IN COMMAND of Al-Qaida, released a new video message to Pakistani people yesterday, which shows the desperation of Al-Qaida to keep on going in its supposedly strongest region. Al-Qaida is fighting to survive and has lost its fundamental strength in the last few years. The U.S. government has killed or captured over 60% of Al-Qaida's leadership.

Whether you agree or disagree with the previous administration's War on Terror, it has been successful on all fronts:

We have done major damage to Al-Qaida's operation and leadership destroying 60% of its command structure. Al-Qaida today is even hurting for funds. Al-Zawahiri appealed to the Pakistanis in his video to support the organization with much-needed funding to carry on operations.

We have brought democracy to Iraq where today there are almost 100 different political groups practicing democracy and participating in the government system. Iraq today is the envy of its surrounding neighbors such as Iran, Syria, Egypt and many others - thanks to the U.S. and its allies.

We have eliminated the dictator Saddam Hussein who posed a major threat to the region and our interest.

We have protected the homeland form a major terrorist attacks since 2001.

Our immediate military involvement in Pakistan working with the secular military and applying pressure on the government has helped choke Al-Qaida in its stronghold.

All the above successes were achieved through strong, authoritative confrontation with terror. Despite all the criticism for the way we fought the War on Terror, the results speak for themselves.

Brigitte Gabriel, the New York Times bestselling author of "They Must Be Stopped" and president of Act! for America provides in-depth analysis and commentary on Al-Zawahiri.

THE TALIBAN REIGN OF TERROR

From the haunts of Hell brought to us by those who believe in their religion more than they allow others to believe in theirs.

PESHAWAR—Girls’ education remained the prime victim in Swat where over 119,248 females in private and public sector schools have been affected while 122 schools for females and 65 others for boys destroyed since the ongoing violence erupted in the town, a study disclosed.

Two police stations, 12 police posts, 80 video centres, around 300 CD shops, 25 barbershops, 24 bridges, 15 basic health units, an electricity grid station and a main gas supply line were either destroyed or severely damaged by the militants during the past few months’ violence in once the tourist haven. Two cable networks were closed while another was blown up in the district during the recent past.

The study carried out by some non-government organizations reveals that 700 hotels were closed in the area that made 30,000 workers jobless....

Containing them and fighting them by proxy might be the most efficient way to win. To try to civilize Islam is perhaps a Sisyphean task. But simply contrive to turn Islam's own ugly fangs against itself, and maybe Muslims would finally learn, and learn more swiftly, than they could from democratization and education efforts. And that is how Christian-inspired authors (among others) often arrange to have the bad guy punished: at his own hands.

In some of the more interesting theologies, the divine doesn't punish. God doesn't create hell. God merely sets bounds to hell, so that hell won't spread over the whole world. And the boundaries are not impassible, provided one who is accustomed to hell can bear to leave and can then endure the more powerful experiences of heaven. (See The Great Divorce, a brilliant, witty, allegory by C.S. Lewis.)

—Traeh

GOODBYE WASHINGTON POST

A little late to the story, but I was stunned to come across this article highlighting an astonishing point of view from my own local paper. How did I miss this one? The atrocity, the madness, the upside down worldview that parades around as journalism today, uh, leaves me speechless to my core. But in a splendid case of serendipity, if mem'ry serves, I believe that the WP article in question was published about the same time I finally picked up the telephone to cancel my subscription to the Post after 25 years of readership.

Good riddance. Here's the FrontPage complaint:

IN A BOUT OF JOURNALISTIC MALPRACTICE, The Washington Post ran a story Tuesday declaring that officials had uncovered the true motivations of the Mumbai terrorists: 400 years of persecution by the West and the existence of Jews, especially in Israel. WaPo reported:

...Indian officials suspect that the group allegedly behind the attack, Pakistan-based Lashkar-i-Taiba, draws support from security and intelligence forces within that country and is fueled by a growing list of grievances that stretch from the 17th century to the subcontinent's partition in 1947, which created the independent nations of India and Pakistan.

The Post quotes one of the murderers who telephoned officials as simply asking that the destruction of mosques and "killings" be stopped—and that all imprisoned terrorists be set free to kill again.

In addition to presenting the terrorists as a justifiably aggrieved population, laboring under 400 years of "grievances," the Post notes Western provocations against Mohammedans did not end 60 years ago in the postwar world. "The grievances also include India's increasingly warm ties with the United States and Israel, counterterrorism experts say."

During the three-day siege that claimed the lives of more than 170 innocent people, one of the terrorists, Imran Babar, called an Indian television station to discuss his motives. After breaking into the city's only Jewish center, the Chabad House, and killing six people including its spiritual leader, Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, Babar used the slain rabbi's cell phone to call and complain about the Jewish state. Babar voiced outrage that Israeli Major General Avi Mizrahi visited Kashmir in September to discuss counterterrorism with Israel's democratic ally, India:

"You call their army staff to visit Kashmir. Who are they to come to J and K?" Imran told the anchor, referring to the disputed Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. "This is a matter between us and the Hindus, the Hindu government. Why does Israel come here?"

[And yet all of the Muslim world rises up in outrage over the Israeli-Arab conflict. Does the Post detect the double standard? Not on their life. Same tired rhetoric. End of story.]

Like Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount, a pretext was fitted to an act of premeditated violence. Nor is this the only incident of blatant provocation the Post could find:

India and Israel have had a defense alliance since 1992, when diplomatic relations between the countries were established. India has become a major purchaser of Israeli weapons, which has angered some of India's Muslims. The visit by the Israeli general was kept secret for days, news reports said, for fear of riots by Muslims in Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim area patrolled by more than 300,000 mostly Hindu Indian troops.

Once again, Jewish merchants and interlopers are setting off waves of Muslim violence around the globe by, being Jews. Inevitably, the very existence of Israel as a state was introduced near the end of the piece, as a summary of the Pakistani terrorists' case:

"Kashmir is a symbol, like Palestine, of a sense of injustice. It is a rallying cry for a much larger anger at India and the West," said Bruce Riedel, author of "The Search for al Qaeda."

Thus, the real problem in India is the existence of Israel. And Kashmir, Kosovo, Andalusian Spain, and any other province that strains against the pressures of Islamic irredentism.

In fairness, the Post story does mention the force of Islamofascism, though, needless to say, not by that term. Lashkar-i-Taiba radicalism is mentioned, though it is given less space than passages that present the terrorists as victims:

"Lashkar has a very specific pan-Islamic vision: the recovery of all Muslim lands once ruled by Muslims, including India, Central Asia and Spain. And they've gone after those countries that they believe were usurped from traditional Muslim rulers," said Ashley J. Tellis, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who has been tracking Lashkar since 2001. "The goal is very apocalyptic and simple: attack these enemies and the symbols of those enemies," he said.

It is this apocalyptic vision that has led Lashkar to kill hundreds of Indians, at times dressed as Hindu holy men. Whatever the immediate goals of (LIT), the ultimate goal of Islam is worldwide submission to Shari'a law. "No babe is born but [as a Muslim]," said Mohammed. "It is his parents who make him a Jew, or a Christian, or a polytheist." This universal compulsion explains all expressions of Islamic jihad. The recounting of centuries of oppression, overlooking centuries of their oppression of others, explains the depth of self-pity and victimization in the Muslim mind. To place this self-pitying narrative alongside Jewish arms merchants and Indian self-defense is an abrogation of journalism at the highest level.

WOMEN RANK LOWER IN ISLAM

Over and over again we are told how liberated women are under Islam sharia law, by the men who hold them hostage, and the women who obey them. Apologists for Islam like to distort history, or simply rewrite it altogether in claiming that Islam gave women a higher role than had been traditional to Christianity in Mohammed's time, despite the fact that Aisha, Mohammed's child bride, who later often became a thorn in Mohammed's side, for instance when she is quoted in the Hadith by Bukhari as having said, "I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women. Look, her skin is greener than her clothes."

But in reality, we draw a different picture. Dr. Farrukh Saleem writes in The News International:

Muslims do not treat women right. According to the Global Gender Gap (GGG) report, the planet's ten-worst offenders are: Yemen, Chad, Pakistan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Benin, Morocco, Turkey, Egypt and Oman. Of the ten, nine are Muslim-majority states. At the other end of the spectrum, the planet's best countries for women to live in are: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Philippines, Germany, Denmark, Ireland and Spain. Not even one of the top-ten is a Muslim-majority state.

GGG collected data from a total of 128 countries to develop a comprehensive, scientific index. The GGG Index is based on four different sub-indices—namely, economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment and health -- while each of the sub-indices has half a dozen components.

Under economic participation, five of the worst-offenders are: Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Oman and Bahrain. Under educational attainment, the worst-offenders are: Chad, Yemen, Benin and Pakistan. The best: Denmark, United Kingdom, Australia, France and Belgium. Under political empowerment the worst are: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt and Iran. The best: Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Spain.

For women, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan comes out as one the worst of countries to live in; there are only two other countries worse off than is Pakistan—Yemen and Chad. Under economic participation, Pakistan is ranked 126 out of 128. Educational attainment, 123 out of 128. Health, 121 out of 128. Political empowerment, 43 out of 128. Surprisingly, Pakistani women are worse off this year than they were last year.

Al Mamlakah al Arabiyah as Suudiyah, or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is ranked really low, too. Under economic participation, Saudi Arabia is ranked 127 out of 128. Educational attainment, 87 out of 128. Health, 60 out of 128. Political empowerment, 128 out of 128.

Al Jumhuriyah al Yamaniyah, or the Republic of Yemen is worse than both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Under economic participation, Yemen is ranked 128 out of 128. Educational attainment, 127 out of 128. Political empowerment, 127 out of 128.

Intriguingly, there is a correlation between poverty and status of women. Some of the worst offenders are also the poorest of the poor (with the exception of oil wealth). Most of the Arab world is far below global averages and conditions, unfortunately, are actually deteriorating—not improving. Yes, there are a few exceptions. The UAE, for instance, has invested massive resources into educating its women. Bahrain now has a woman parliamentarian....

CONQUEST MODEL OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM

"I don't know if they are Al Qaeda, but they think just like Al Qaeda," quoth one official, underscoring the often-overlooked fact that Al-Qaeda did not invent the ideology that drives them. And thus, the less-advertised, "generic" jihadist can be just as potent as the name brand.

From FrontPageMag.com, here is an insightful and honest article written by Moorthy Muthuswamy.

THE WESTERN POLITICAL, defense and intelligence establishments, for the most part, view Islam under the "religion model." In this model, aspirations of Muslims are seen to be no different from the ones in any other religious community. It acknowledges the violent track record of Muslims and its probable origins in Islamic scriptures, but hopes that, as is the case with other ethnic groups and nations, over the passage of time, Muslims too will eventually overcome the hurdles to become a cohesive component of the global community. This model implicitly assumes coexistence.

However, unlike any other religion, terrorism in the name of Islam, with the arrival of 9/11 attacks on America, has become a strategic threat to Western civilization. While still clinging to the religion model of Islam, the West is hoping to diffuse Islam-based terrorism through a multitude of approaches. These measures range from occupation of Muslim majority areas to crush the sources of terror, efforts to help build institutions for development and governing, use of massive amounts of aid, bring forth pressure on the financiers of terror, etc.

Smoldering Iraq, deteriorating Afghanistan, increasingly destabilized Pakistan, a virulent Iran, unabated funding for terror from Saudi Arabia and the unending supply of anti-American jihadists compel us to realize that American strategy in the global war on terror requires fresh perspectives and new approaches informed by deeper insights. Specifically, the religion model of Islamic terrorism itself requires rethinking.

Western sociologists and war strategists have mostly utilized the dynamics of Muslims vis-à-vis westerners and their ally, Israel, to influence what they see as "root causes" of terror. Prominent among these are the "grievances" Muslims feel in the hands of the West and Israel.

The most prominent grievance is Israel's continued military dominance of neighboring Middle Eastern nations and the unresolved status of predominantly Muslim Palestinians. Although one could argue that most of these grievances are self-inflicted, Muslims have managed to successfully transplant the idea that being part of the weaker civilization, they are the victims.

Wearing the mantle of a victim has its advantages, including the ability to camouflage aggression as a form of self-defense.

However, the dynamics of Muslim-non-Muslim interaction in the developing world tells an entirely different story. Far more aggressive tactics have been employed by Muslims against much weaker opponents, be it in Darfur against black Africans or against brown unbelievers in South Asia. Here too terrorism is employed, but only as part and parcel of a multi-front religious war of conquest (called jihad).

In the past sixty years, from every Muslim majority region of South Asia—without exception—be it Pakistan, Bangladesh or from India's own Kashmir valley, non-Muslims have been driven out in massive numbers to Hindu-majority India. This occurred when Muslim populations in these regions obtained political power. In 1971 about three million Hindus were slaughtered by the Pakistani army in the then East Pakistan and many more were driven to India, never to return. Surrounded by many Islamic nations, even the mostly non-Muslim India is seeing signs of an Islamic siege – the necessary instrument of an Islamic conquest.

This data bespeaks conquest in the name of Islam, using terror and more. This has no parallel with any other religion in the modern era. Most of these expulsions and genocides occurred before 1972—well before the large-scale infusion of petrodollars and Wahhabism. This occurred despite the populations sharing ethnicity, language, culture and food habits. Also notable is that unlike the advanced, powerful and wealthy West, South Asia consists of populations that are among the most impoverished and deprived on the planet.

The geographical extent and the size of Muslim populations (about a third of the worldwide total) in South Asia make the above data an unlikely anomaly. This data is indicative of absolute violation of coexistence and hence is outside of the scope of the religion model. It compels one to scrutinize the roots of Islamic scriptures and study Islamic history of conquest.

Bill Warner has published a ground-breaking statistical analysis of the Islamic trilogy (consisting of the Koran, Hadith and Sira). His analysis emphasizes the point that that the Islamic scripture is predominantly political and that the religion itself was probably designed to extend Islam's founder Mohammed's powerbase upon an edifice of theology.

That a conquest-based ideology should use religion in its framework should be no surprise. Religion provides enduring and powerful legitimacy, inspires followers and helps impose the will of a civilization on unsuspecting alien populations.

Had western analysts been perceptive to the ongoing dynamics of the Islamic conflict in South Asia, they would have likely concluded that that the religion model of Islamic terrorism would be grossly violated by this data and that a different model is required.

Indeed, the conquest model of Islamic terrorism not only explains the data discussed concerning South Asia, the enduring Israel-Palestinian conflict too may be readily understood through this model. The revealing feature of the conquest model is the Muslim passion for conquest through jihad-building, not nation or community building. It comes as no surprise that significant aid given to the Palestinians by Europe and others have been, to the most part, wasted and the jihad directed at Israel continues.

The religion model would have the grateful Islamic world thanking America for siding with the Muslims both in Afghanistan (during the Soviet occupation) and more recently in the Balkans, both in words and in action. Instead, as part of the conquest vision, America has been relentlessly attacked by Islamists, due to its preeminence as the non-Muslim super-power.

The conquest model is a much more inclusive and nuanced one, where terror is just one of the many tools for achieving objectives. It also explains why the Muslim population in Europe is fast growing, angry and is disfranchised (through self-infliction)—to deliberately create conditions conducive to Europe's demographic conquest by the Muslims. The religion model of Islam also fails here, as it would have likely predicted that the transplanted Muslims would avail themselves of the opportunities like the Hindus in Britain and participate in its national aspirations.

Read it all.

BURNING LOVE FROM PAKISTAN

More love from the freaking religion of peace. This lovely image shows how much of a moral stupor these gesticulating Muslims who wallow about in daily outrage pretend to be. Of course they are on some mullah's payroll. Of course, they are dumb and dumber. But they execute the part they play with a strong mix of vigor and anguish, just like the thugs are really are. They're morally outraged at someone sending a card saying "I love you", but they never seem to imagine a problem with rigging a retarded person with explosives and detonating it in a crowded market.

I personally have never gone in for this day-glo commercialized Cupid's special day nonsense, but the madness that this so-called religion is fostering is not only worth noting, and fearing in the sense of how close it is coming into our own world, but it is to be strategically fought and eradicated.

These sad, mad actors and their understudies who fear love, oppress women, murder homosexuals, and everyone else in their path of narcissistic paranoia...

SUDDEN JIHAD SYNDROME STRIKES DENTIST

Four years, perhaps out in little more than one year. That's the prognosis for the Paki-bred UK dentist who decided to take up arms against the British to avenge his Muslim brothers of the Taliban.

He claimed he was going to visit his family for the Islamic festival of Eid. Qureshi is the first to be convicted under new legislation targeting the preparation of terrorist acts. He was held after a joint operation involving Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command and the Security Services. Investigations revealed Qureshi offered to help the war effort in Pakistan and Afghanistan. An intercept communication revealed him telling one of his contacts: "All I know is it's a two- to three-week operation. Pray that I kill many."

Qureshi pleaded guilty to preparing for the commission of terrorist acts, possession of articles for terrorist purposes and possession of articles likely to be useful to terrorists...

The biggest joke of the new year is that you can now, in Britain, be sentenced to seven years for "religious hatred". One doesn't actually have to do anything overtly (or even covertly), one just has to show hatred towards a religion (Islam mainly). And the US Congress is considering similar legislation on their docket. So basically a flag waving native son can receive a longer sentence for a thought crime against Islam than an Islamist continues to receive for attempting to go and murder the citizens of your host nation.

A fast-tracked congressional plan to add special protections for homosexuals to federal law would turn "thoughts, feelings, and beliefs" into criminal offenses and put Christians in the bull's-eye, according to opponents.

"H.R. 1592 is a discriminatory measure that criminalizes thoughts, feelings, and beliefs [and] has the potential of interfering with religious liberty and freedom of speech," according to a white paper submitted by Glen Lavy, of the Alliance Defense Fund.

"As James Jacobs and Kimberly Potter observed in Hate Crimes, Criminal Law, and Identity Politics, 'It would appear that the only additional purpose [for enhancing punishment of bias crimes] is to provide extra punishment based on the offender's politically incorrect opinions and viewpoints,'" said Lavy. The proposal has been endorsed by majority Democrats on the committee, and already has 137 sponsors in the full House, making it possible it could be voted on in a matter of days or weeks.

Get out the little red book, the Communists are truly in power.

JIHADISTS CONTINUE SEIGE AGAINST BUDDHISTS

Striking out at the rampant Islamophobia (it's everywhere, you know) displayed by ancient Buddhist carvings, the irrepressible iconoclasts of the Taliban have attempted to continue the work they began when they blew up the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Oh, what fun they'll have in Europe!

Suspected pro-Taleban militants have tried to blow up an ancient carving of Buddha in north-west Pakistan. The giant statue, thought to date from the second century BC, sustained only minimal damage in the attack near Manglore in remote Swat district. The area, however, has seen a rise in attacks on "un-Islamic" targets in recent months. This is the first such attack in Pakistan and is reminiscent of the Taleban's 2001 destruction of the giant Buddhas at Bamiyan in Afghanistan. Dynamite speaks volumes. Officials and witnesses in Swat said armed men arrived in the area on Monday night.

"Militants drilled holes in the rock and filled them with dynamite and blew it up," provincial archaeology department official Aqleem Khan told Reuters news agency, adding, "The explosion damaged the upper part of the rock but there was no damage to the image itself."

Loudmouth says, "I have been to Thailand, and must say that Buddhism permeates the culture of those people. These humble culture is among the friendliest, happiest, gentlest people on this earth. And yet they face a horrible problem with Islamists on their southern border with Islamist Malaysia. But the peaceful, orange-robed Buddhist monks must take up the fight to repel these savages. Contrast with the cowardly politicians of Brussels who capitulate to the Mohammedans in the heart of Europe. Shame. Even 15 years ago I recall being trailed and monitored by suspicious characters in southern Thailand. They have already started WWIII. When does the West realize? Thinking about what might someday happen to the great art treasures of the Western World is one of the most horrifying aspects of the islamization of Europe. Muslims have been destroying the religous temples and artifacts of other religions for 1,500 years. And they want respect?"

Buddhism is a "religion of peace". Islam, not so much.