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JERUSALEM DEBATE PRE-QUEL: FEAR AND LOATHING OVER PALIN American expatriates in Israel staged a pre-debate debate with stand-ins for McCain and Obama battling over American issues: http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=36384. Unlike the real debates, this proxy affair included audience Q & A. Aside from the incongruity of staging an American “presidential debate” on foreign soil, the exercise highlighted the conflicts at home, principally over Governor Sarah Palin, to wit, ” ‘I’m absolutely terrified to have someone who is considered a fundamental Christian in the White House, who supports creationism. How [can] an American Jew” support Palin, a fundamentalist Christian, a young woman from...

The guard at the Carmelite convent in Banduha (Ujjain, Madya Pradesh) has been wounded while trying to protect the sisters; in Karnataka, the Syro-Catholic church of St George in Ujire was devastated and burned; a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes was destroyed in Kolar. This is some of the new violence against Christians recorded today. All of these attacks took place overnight, or in the early morning. The wave of violence, which began in Orissa three weeks ago, has so far killed at least 45, and wounded more than 18,000.

State Environmental Watch, a new project of the Capital Research Center, is proud to present the first edition of "Weekly Top 5: Five Ways Environmental Extremism Is Screwing Things Up This Week." Each week, we will pick five interesting, funny, or infuriating articles that highlight some of the ways that environmental extremism is screwing things up for the rest of us. Be sure to check back every Monday to read the newest "Weekly Top 5." Also, please check out State Environmental Watch's website to browse through the previous weeks. Ignoring the increased cost of energy and the increasing number of...

According to witnesses, Saturday afternoon Fr. Thomas celebrated mass in Burgida, before setting out for another village in the district where he was to have celebrated Sunday mass. The last people to have seen him alive were religious sisters from Lingapetta convent, where the priest had stopped for supper before continuing his journey. “Fr. Thomas is a martyr – said Msgr. Marampudi, archbishop of Hyderabad, on hearing of the brutal murder. The Indian Church is shocked and deeply saddened by this barbarous killing, the result of a growing climate of intolerance and violence against Christians in this country”. The prelate...

You might have thought the demented Americans with Disabilities Act — a bonanza for lawyers that requires any public facility to be designed with handicappers in mind or be sued out of existence — would be the last word in otherly-abled totalitarianism. Not so. Visitability is a concept that makes the ADA downright libertarian by comparison. The initial objective of Visitability proponents is to impose on every home a zero-step entrance, interior doors at least 32" wide, and at least one wheelchair-accessible bathroom on the ground floor. Once they've managed to have this mandated, we'll see where they go from...

The government is to sponsor a theological board of leading imams and Muslim women in an attempt to refute the ideology of violent extremists. The committee, to be announced this week, will issue pronouncements on areas such as wearing the hijab and the treatment of wives and is part of a government strategy to counter radicalism. It will rule on interpretation of the Koran and promote the moderate strain of Islam practised by most British Muslims. It will also comment on controversial issues affecting Muslims living in Britain, including whether or not they should serve in the armed forces. Its...

While the stern eyes of the world are turned toward China, in India equally severe violations of freedom and human rights are taking place amid general disinterest. With Christians as the victims. The epicenter of the violence is Orissa, a state facing the Bay of Bengal, south of Calcutta. Here, since Christmas until now, there have been 6 deaths, 5,000 left homeless, and 70 churches, 600 homes, 6 convents, and 3 seminaries destroyed. "An expanse of ashes, that's what is left", exclaimed Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi, after visiting the areas struck by anti-Christian violence. But alarming news is...

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2008 – Extremism is the enemy of success in Iraq, whether in the form of Iranian-backed "special groups,” criminal militias or al-Qaida, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday. “It’s those who are not willing to participate in the political process and do so peacefully -- those are the enemy. And those we are trying to help are trying to build a stable government and a stable country,” Gates said speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Gates fielded questions ranging from the strain on the military to how quickly the U.S. will be able to withdraw more...

'Extremism' fear over Islam studies donations By Ben Leach Last Updated: 1:00am BST 13/04/2008 Extremist ideas are being spread by Islamic study centres linked to British universities and backed by multi-million-pound donations from Saudi Arabia and Muslim organisations, a new report claims. Eight universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, have accepted more than £233.5 million from Saudi and Muslim sources since 1995, with much of the money going to Islamic study centres, according to the report. The total sum, revealed by Anthony Glees, the director of Brunel University's Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, amounts to the largest source of external...

Muslim countries warned Friday of strong reactions to an anti-Islam film posted on the Internet by far-right Dutch deputy Geert Wilders, though initial reactions in the Netherlands were calm. Wilders posted his film "Fitna", featuring violent imagery of terror attacks in New York and Madrid intertwined with Koranic texts, on the Internet on Thursday. A handful of Muslim countries had responded early Friday, with Iran saying the short movie showed some Westerners were waging a "vendetta" against Islam, and warning of unspecified repercussions. Bangladesh also said the film could have "grave consequences", while a coalition of Jordanian media said it...

THE Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq has claimed mosques in Blackburn {in the UK} are more extreme than in his home country, according to an MP. The comments were allegedly made by Dr Barham Salih, who visited the town as a guest of Jack Straw in 2005. He is reported to have told a Conservative MP: "I am not surprised that you British are facing so many problems with extremists after what I saw in those mosques in Blackburn. "What I saw...would not be allowed here in Iraq - it would be illegal." The comments have angered mosque leaders in...

LONDON (AFP) - Britain is planning a "diplomatic surge" in the Middle East and south Asia to help counter extremism and nuclear proliferation, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in an article published Sunday. Writing in The Sunday Times, Miliband said 2008 would "show in word and deed" what Prime Minister Gordon Brown meant when he described his government's approach to world affairs as one of "hard-headed internationalism". "We plan a diplomatic surge in the Middle East and south Asia by raising the number of staff by 30 percent," he said. "That means we can deepen our engagement with Pakistan to...

Lavishing funds on Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority to achieve peace has been a mainstay of Western, including Israeli, policy since Hamas seized Gaza in June. But this open spigot has counterproductive results and urgently must be stopped. Some background: Paul Morro of the Congressional Research Service reports that, in 2006, the European Union and its member states gave US$815 million to the Palestinian Authority, while the United States sent it $468 million. When other donors are included, the total receipts come to about $1.5 billion. The windfall keeps growing. President George W. Bush requested a $410 million supplement...

TGIF and TGIS?

Catholic School Board calls Pro-Family Group "Extremist Hate Group", Board Defends Pro-Gay Manual Board's family life committee said to have approved homosexual-activist counselor who is raising male child with his homosexual partner. By  Mauro MacMillan WATERLOO, Sept 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com)  In an attempt to divert attention from a controversial pro-homosexuality resource that the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) has approved, the Board has taken to calling into question the motive and character of the Defend Traditional Marriage and Family (DTMF) group that brought the issue to light earlier this year. At the heart of the issue is a teacher...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Sweden is in danger of becoming a recruiting center for terrorists planning attacks on other countries, it was reported Monday. At least 20 Swedes, most with suspected links to Islamic extremists, have been arrested world wide on suspicion of terror since 2001, The Local reported. Sweden’s security service, Sapo, said the country could be used to recruit, finance and plan attacks elsewhere, The Local reported. Swedes arrested for terrorist activities since 2002 include Mirsad Bektasevic, jailed for eight years in Bosnia, and Oussama Kassir, suspected by U.S. authorities of helping set up a terrorist...

There is no Democrat more despised in Republican circles than House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She beats out that failed lifeguard, the fatuous Senator Teddy Kennedy, and former Ku Klux Klan member, the hypocritical Senator Robert Bird, put together. Mention Democratic National committee chairman Howard Dean these days and Republicans just yawn. But mention Pelosi and their blood boils. I wrote about Pelosi in 2005 in "Democrats stray" (Sept. 18) long before she became the first woman to head a major party in the U.S. Congress. Back then, I described her as "a vulture who cloaks herself as if...

April 24, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- A disturbing video of a young boy beheading a Pakistani hostage has shocked and angered the Afghan public and international observers since it began circulating several days ago. Rights activists condemned the use of a child in the execution as "new low" -- even for an extremist group like the Taliban. In Afghanistan, it is unclear what effect the grisly video might have on militants' efforts to recruit sympathizers. more

Academic: Extremism debate is being stifled By Graeme Paton, Education Correspondent Last Updated: 2:13am GMT 16/03/2007 An academic at the centre of a row over censorship last night accused Britain of being the worst country for stifling debate on Muslim extremism. Matthias Küntzel, a German author and political scientist, was due to give a lecture at Leeds University on Islamic anti-Semitism but it was cancelled after complaints from Muslim students. As disclosed by The Daily Telegraph yesterday, a number of protest emails were received, although the university insisted the event was axed because of safety fears. Last night the academic,...

New research published in the March issue of Psychological Science may help elucidate the relationship between religious indoctrination and violence, a topic that has gained renewed notoriety in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In the article, University of Michigan psychologist Brad Bushman and his colleagues suggest that scriptural violence sanctioned by God can increase aggression, especially in believers.

Beware where you spend your money this Holiday season. Founder of The Body Shop and now a consultant to it, Anita Roddick, signed and promoted a letter of an extremist anti-Israel and anti-US Coalition that said Israel had "no justification" for its actions in Lebanon (it does not even mention Hezbollah!). Roddick also joins that same Coalition in vigorously demanding an end to Tony Blair's support of "Bush's War" in Iraq.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Officials detained 100 people in a raid on a meeting of a group trying revive a banned Islamic sect's teachings in Malaysia, media reported Sunday. Religious affairs officers in the central state of Selangor made the raid Saturday on the upper floor of a bakery in Shah Alam, near Malaysia's largest city, Kuala Lumpur, the Sunday Star newspaper quoted State Executive Councilor Rahman Palil as saying.

WASHINGTON -- CNN TV host Glenn Beck tells NewsMax that he believes "Islamic extremism is the biggest threat to our way of life since World War Two and we'll never be able to fight it – if we can't see it." American viewers are going to see - up-close-and-personal - the ugly face of extremism on Wednesday evening, when Beck will air on his cable show a special ominously called "Exposed: The Extremist Agenda." For the first time, according to the show's producers, Americans will be able to see actual videos from Middle East television and other sources that show...

Shut up. When all is said and done -- when protestors junk their placards, when burning churches cool, when a murdered nun's grave grows grass -- "shut up" is the underlying message of Pope Rage, the latest fulmination to come from Islam, this time over Pope Benedict's recent lecture on faith and reason. When the pope argued, quoting a Byzantine source on Muhammad, that the practice of forced conversion -- key to Islamic expansion over the centuries -- is inimical to both faith and reason, the reaction of anger and violence was instantaneous. Just shut up, the umma exclaimed. Pakistani...

No quarter in dealing with terrorists By KARL WEINBERG COMMUNITY VOICE On the subject of how to treat terrorists once caught in our fight against Islamofascists, the mainstream media would have us believe that we are torturing the captives by using sleep deprivation, loud rock'n' roll music, female interrogators and such. Many Americans, including me, do not believe this is torture at all. Instead, we believe that much harsher treatment should be used to get information from these terrorists. While the U.S. Supreme Court, Sens. John McCain and Lindsay Graham have said these terrorists are covered under Common Article three...

Reid: parents must heed 'tell-tale signs' of extremism (Filed: 20/09/2006) John Reid, the Home Secretary, has challenged British Muslims to do more to identify potential terrorists. John Reid was heckled during the speech Mr Reid met an audience of specially-invited Muslims in Leytonstone in London's East End to urge parents to "look for the tell-tale signs" of radicalisation in their children. During the speech a small protest was made by two men. One man, later identified as activist Abu Izzadeen, stood up and began heckling Mr Reid, calling the Home Secretary an "enemy" of Islam, before being led from the...

British minister infuriates Muslims By ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON Britain's top law-and-order official warned Muslim parents on Wednesday to watch their children closely for signs of extremism. Home Secretary John Reid told an audience of Muslims in London that they must do their part in a "battle of values," the Home Office said. Aug. 15 feature: British Muslims blame extremism on Tony Blair's foreign policy Reid's words infuriated an angry listener, who began to yell back at the minister during his speech and had to be escorted out of the room. "There is no nice way of saying this," Reid said,...

It took President George W. Bush to tell the truth to Britain about the massive plot to blow US-bound airliners out of the sky. In his first comment on the apparently foiled attempt to explode airliners flying from Britain to the US, Bush put it simply: "This was a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists." He is right. But in the early news reports in Britain the words "Islamist" or "Muslim" were hardly emphasized. Let alone "extremist" or the dread word "fascist." Instead the common code words on television were that the 24 men arrested...

DISTURBING details have emerged about the radical background of the chief adviser on Islamic affairs at the Foreign Office. Mockbul Ali, a 26-year-old civil servant, was involved in a Muslim student group that has published material supporting Palestinian female suicide bombers. The Union of Muslim Students (UMS), which has been repeatedly praised by ministers as a paragon of moderate Islam, also carried articles in its newspaper by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based preacher banned from entering America.

<p>Bernard Lewis is arguably the most important living scholar of Islam in the West. Author of more than two dozen books, the retired Princeton professor, who turned 90 earlier this year, has long been an adviser to governments and policymakers seeking to understand the intricacies of Islam and its relationship to the Western world.</p>

We all know that lefty trolls can be a real inconvenience at times, but a very special troll named Deborah Frisch has taken trolling down a very dark road. Jeff Goldstein is the very insightful conservative blogger who writes at Protein Wisdom and Dr. Frisch (did I mention she's a psych[o] professor at the University of Arizona?) has repeatedly and quite disturbing levied DEATH THREATS against Jeff's 2 year old child.

LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday questioned the effectiveness of official public diplomacy in battling Islamic extremism, saying the government alone cannot heal the rifts with Britain's Muslim community. Mr. Blair was responding to criticism in Parliament that he had not done enough to engage the country's 1.6 million Muslims a year after the July 7 terrorist attacks in London. A new poll showed that 13 percent of British Muslims regard the four suicide bombers who killed 52 persons that day as martyrs. "Government itself cannot go and root out the extremism in these communities," the prime minister told...

Americans love their angry moderates, their principled centrists, and their predictable independents almost as much as they love jumbo shrimp and other oxymorons. Indeed, the ranks of Americans who call themselves “independent” swell with every passing year. Self-appointed guardians of our national “discourse,” led by the pontiff of pacific politics, David Broder, constantly disparage partisanship, ideology and, most of all, “extremism” as inherently bad. This hatred of extremism is a bit odd. Nowhere else in life do we think extremism is inherently bad regardless of context. When doctors use “extreme measures” to save a life, we don’t tar the surgeon...

A group of powerful warlords controlling the Somali capital has formed a new political party whose main goal is to oppose extremism associated with hard-line Islamic courts in the lawless Horn of Africa nation, officials with ties to the party said on Tuesday. The Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), launched on Saturday in southern Mogadishu, aims to play a key role in fighting terrorism in the country that has lacked a functional government for the past 15 years. Witnesses said this week's fighting in southern Mogadishu, which left at least 18 people dead and displaced hundreds...

Just got this e-mail from the UAC about an upcoming event: -- You are invited to a special event at UC Irvine to expose radical Islam. Two weeks from today, the United American Committee will be holding an event on February 28th in Irvine, CA. DESCRIPTION: Panel discussion to; A) Confront Islamic organizations in America who have questionable motives and post as ‘civil rights groups’. B) Discuss Islamic militancy in U.S. college campuses. C) There will also be a special ‘Unveiling of the Cartoons’ in which the controversial Danish cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammad will be displayed along with...

LONDON - A British jury convicted radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri on Tuesday of fomenting racial hatred and inciting his followers to kill non-Muslims. Al-Masri, 47, the former imam at London's Finsbury Park mosque, also was convicted of possessing a terrorist document and threatening or abusive recordings. Al-Masri, Britain's best-known Islamist orator, could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison. The jury of seven men and five women found al-Masri guilty on seven of nine charges of soliciting murder. He also was convicted on two of four charges of stirring racial hatred. Though asked to stand for the...

The commentariat's response to the Danish cartoons that mocked Muhammad reminds me of the iconic scene in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Challenged to a duel by a scimitar-wielding enemy, Indiana Jones draws a pistol and dispatches the swordsman without further ado. In my analogy, Indiana Jones, however, is the Muslim world. His showy opponent is the West, which has unleashed its penmen on rampaging Muslim mobs to convolute about the values of freedom of expression, enquiry and conscience. How have Muslims responded to these lofty disquisitions? As Indiana Jones did, lethally – by calling for the heads of the...

06 February 2006, 17:07 The Union of Orthodox Citizens urges to boycott businessmen who publish satanist and extremist literature Moscow, February 6, Interfax - The Union of Orthodox Citizens expressed its solidarity with Muslims who had opposed the publishing Prophet Muhammad cartoons and urged to boycott publishers of extremist and occult literature in Russia. ‘It should be noted that the problem of offending the feelings of believers is still actual in our country as well. Just sentence to the organizers of the ‘Beware of religion!’ exhibition cooled down the hotheads of the most scandalous artists. Unfortunately, we cannot say the...

Original: What you get to work with:

Student extremism brings violence and chaos to Iraqi universities By Oliver Poole in Baghdad (Filed: 09/01/2006) The spectacle of students dressed in black, many beating themselves with their fists, following an imitation coffin through the campus of was not one its secular professors had sought on their syllabuses. In an earlier demonstration, students gathered outside a university in Mosul to protest about oil prices They knew that the procession in remembrance of the death of a revered Shia cleric would only further inflame sectarian and political squabbles. But no one in authority did anything to stop it, despite the private...

Iranian Soldiers Kidnapped Near Pakistan Border 1 January 2006 -- There are reports that nine Iranian soldiers have been kidnapped in Iran by a little-known Sunni Muslim rebel group.

Ahmed Omar Abu Ali sat at the defendant's table in a small federal courtroom last month, a youthful man with a sparse beard accused of a serious crime - conspiring to kill President Bush. Several dozen supporters chanted softly in Arabic, drawing a rebuke from a security officer. A veiled woman explained that they were merely praying for the 24-year-old American student, who had confessed that he aspired to hijack and crash an airliner into "the leader of the infidels." To Abu Ali and his supporters, the trial that ended a few days later with the young man's conviction was...

Leaders of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference began a meeting Wednesday in Mecca to discuss a strategy for presenting a moderate image of Islam and confront attacks on Islam by "enemies" at home and abroad. "Islamic unity will not be achieved through bloodshed as claimed by the deviants ... but through tolerance and moderation," said Saudi King Abdullah, whose country hosts the OIC headquarters. The king was referring to Islamist extremists, notably the Al-Qaeda terror network of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. He called upon the Islamic jurisprudence arm of the OIC to "fulfill its historic role of combating...

We do Muslims no favors by excusing attitudes or practices that ought always to be deemed inexcusable. In Australia's Victoria state, the Herald Sun reported recently, police have been issued a "religious diversity handbook" that advises them "to treat Muslim domestic violence cases differently out of respect for Islamic traditions and habits." Sikhs, for example, "should not be disturbed" when reading their holy scriptures, a practice that normally takes 50 hours. Photographing Aborigines is discouraged, since it might raise fears of "sorcery and spiritual mischief." And Muslim wife-beaters should be treated with kid gloves, in deference to Islamic norms. "In...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2005 – The war on terror is focused on Islamic radicalism, not Islam, President Bush emphasized today as he called on Muslim leaders around the world to denounce what he called the terrorists' "murderous ideology." Extremists who claim to murder under the banner of Islam "are not just enemies of America or enemies of Iraq," the president said during a major speech here before the National Endowment for Democracy. "They are the enemies of Islam and the enemies of humanity." Many Muslim scholars already have publicly condemned terrorism, citing Chapter 5, Verse 32 of the Koran, Bush...

A new federation of concerned Americans takes a stand against Islamic extremism. From FrontPage Magazine http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19551Confronting Jihad in America By Jamie Glazov FrontPageMagazine.com | September 20, 2005 Frontpage Interview's guest today is Jesse Petrilla, the founder of the fast growing organization The United American Committee (UAC), a federation of concerned Americans promoting awareness of threats to Homeland Security, primarily focusing on Islamic extremism in America. FP: Jesse Petrilla, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Petrilla: Thank you. Good to be here. FP: What inspired you to create The UAC? Petrilla: The growing threat of Islamic extremism in the U.S. is a legitimate...

Just a little question posed to the forum: What are your suggestions for activities the United American Committee may do to help stop Islamic terror in America and protect the American people? FYI The UAC focuses on confronting the Islamic extremist threat in the U.S., we'd like to know the peoples thoughts on activities and direction:

A royal commission to investigate how and why the London bombings happened and a media unit to rebut negative stories about Muslims and counter propaganda from Islamist extremists should be set up, according to proposals to be sent to Tony Blair by government-appointed taskforces on tackling Islamist extremism. The Guardian has obtained details of the plans drawn up by the taskforces, set up after the July bombings. They were asked to come up with ideas to help prevent British Muslims turning to terrorism, and which would also counter a sense of alienation some Muslims feel from British society and institutions....

...describing the intellectuals who oppose democracy and the factors obstructing its implementation. At the end of his study, he concludes that Arab societies are facing a dilemma: they must either sever their ties with their medieval legacy and adopt a philosophy of life and freedom rather than one of death and hatred, or else must sever their ties with Western civilization and reject democracy and modernity. The Arabs Don't Understand that the World Has Changed Al-Houni begins his treatise by explaining that he intends to present a different viewpoint from the nationalist, conspiracy-based viewpoint currently prevalent in the Arab world,...

Today We Remember Sept 11, 2001Today's a solemn day of remembrance. Over 3,000 Americans paid with their lives 4 years ago to satisfy the blood lust of a criminal gang of murderers and terrorists who believe they are doing "God's" work. Nothing's further from the truth. The whole religious mantle that these murderers have arrogated to themselves remind me of the following exchange that occurs in the Gospel of John, between Jesus and the Pharisees:"Abraham is our father," they answered. If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would[d] do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are...