US media reluctant to call terrorists "Muslim"

It is a top story across many US news sites this morning:

Four men arrested for an alleged plot to bomb a New York synagogue and Jewish community center are expected to appear in federal court Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

The men also wanted to use surface-to-air missiles to fire at U.S. military planes, according to a criminal complaint filed in White Plains, New York.

James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen are accused of plotting to detonate explosives near a synagogue in the Riverdale section of Bronx, New York.

Each man had at least one alias, according to the office. Three of them are U.S. citizens and one is a Haitian, a statement from the New York governor's office said, citing the U.S. Attorney's office.

The statement said the informant met with Cromitie in June 2008 in Newburgh, New York. During that meeting, Cromitie said his parents live in Afghanistan, that he was angry over the U.S. war there and that he expressed interest in "doing something to America."

They also conducted surveillance, including photographs, of an Air National Guard base where they wanted to blow up planes, the statement said. The informant provided the men with a surface-to-air guided missile and C-4 plastic explosives, none of which could actually be used.

From stories like this one it is very hard to understand motive. At first it sounds vaguely like some sort of skinhead-type group wanting to kill Jews, but why would they also want to blow up military planes? CNN's article only gives a slight hint when it said that the ringleader's parents live in Afghanistan.

Nothing adds up...unless you look for other sources of news. The London Evening Standard puts things in perspective from the first paragraph:

Four Muslims have been arrested over a plot to shoot down US military aircraft and simultaneously blow up two synagogues in New York.

The Daily Mail even puts the dreaded "M" word in its headline:

Four Muslim extremists arrested over plot to bomb synagogue and shoot down planes

One can understand why US media would be reluctant to identify someone's religion for, say, a random murder or a robbery, but in a case like this, their religion is a critical part of understanding the story.

The Evening Standard continues, adding details about the men's aliases and statements that CNN and AP deemed irrelevant:

The alleged plotters were named today as James Cromitie (also known as Abdul Rahman), David Williams (aka Daoud and DL), Onta Williams (aka Hamza) and Laguerre Payen (aka Amin and Almondo). They are all thought to have been born in the US. Cromitie, the apparent ringleader, told an FBI informant he was upset by the war in Afghanistan, where his parents were born, and wanted to “do something to America”.

He was caught on tape complaining that the “best target [the World Trade Center] was hit already”. In the same conversation Cromitie, who has been arrested 27 times, said: “I hate those motherf***ers, those f***ing Jewish bastards ... I would like to get a synagogue.”

At one stage he told the informant as they watched Jews in the street that if he had a gun he “would shoot each one in the head”. He also said that if he died a martyr he would go to paradise.

The plotters allegedly planted one fake bomb in the boot of a car outside the Riverdale Temple and two on the seat of another car outside the nearby Riverdale Jewish Center in the Bronx last night. The gang then planned to drive 60 miles north of New York to Newburgh to collect mobile phone detonating devices.

The next stage was to go to Stewart International Airport, also in Newburgh, where they would shoot down a military jet while simultaneously exploding the synagogue bombs. The airport is used by the New York Air National Guard and the US Air Force. But the weapons were supplied by an FBI informant and the gang's movements had been monitored since June last year.

And the Daily Mail adds:

One, of Afghan descent, was Muslim-born while the other three converted in prison, officials said, adding that some were of Arabic descent and one is of Haitian descent.

All of the relevant facts in the London papers were clearly available to the US news outlets - and they were consciously suppressed by the editors as not being an important part of the story.

The American media has spent lots of time in the effort to paint Islam as being just another religion, a highly personal aspect of people's lives that has only a tiny influence on their activities (except when the activities are wholesome and charitable.) News editors so not want to be accused of incitement and Islamophobia, so they play it safe. In this case, it is clear that their refusal to highlight the obvious makes the news suffer.

Once religion becomes part of the story, other uncomfortable questions naturally come up: why would people who choose to be Muslim also choose to bomb Jewish targets in America? Is their anti-semitism a result of their religion, or did they choose the religion because of their existing Jew-hatred? The usual implied reason, anti-Zionism (which for some reason is deemed an understandable and acceptable reason for terror attacks in other cases) does not fit into this story at all. The American press mentions a vague motive about US involvement in Afghanistan, but targeting US synagogues doesn't fit in.

These people hated Jews and America. The most relevant fact about the case is being suppressed. The all important question - motive - is therefore being ignored. And the secondary question of how to connect the dots between their religion and their motive cannot even be asked without this information.

UPDATE: The New York police commissioner, when asked about motive at a press conference a few minutes ago, said, simply, "jihad."

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The Zionist Occupied Government, 2009 edition

Today I took my second trip to Washington DC with Norpac, a PAC based in the New York area dedicated to strengthening the US-Israel relationship.

Over 800 people took a day off of work to advocate the importance of this relationship to our lawmakers and to request help on specific bills.

Capitol Hill was crawling with mostly religious Jews, talking to nearly every senator and member of Congress or their aides. As I mentioned last year, for today at least it really was a Zionist-occupied government.

Norpac organizes the logistics brilliantly, training hundreds of laymen with talking points and providing background information, scheduling all the appointments and arranging for followup.

My group first visited a congresswoman froma southern state. We were scheduled to meet her aide but as soon as we started talking to him she entered the room. She is strongly pro-Israel and very much against giving money that could go towards terrorism, and indeed even against the US giving money to the UN.

She spoke to us for so long that we we almost late to the next meeting, with a southwestern congressman. His voting record is spotty on issues that the pro-Israel crowd supports, but it appeared that his objections were more technical - he is a stickler for agreeing to all the amendments and riders and if he has a problem with one, he might not vote for it.

My talking point was about the concerns of funding the PA while we cannot guarantee that Hamas doesn't benefit. He asked, very reasonably, how we could ensure that the money won't be misappropriated, while still giving support to the "moderates" supposedly on our side. (This is not the place to argue with that, if the Israeli leaders support the PA we are not going to tell politicians not to.)

Our third meeting was with an aide for a Western congressman. He is also very pro-Israel and informed us that IDF pilots train in his state.

I had a little time to sightsee afterwards. I got a ticket from my local representative to visit the House gallery and watch a pretty boring session. I was a bit taken aback that the seats in the gallery have a pattern on them that include a backwards swastika. No cameras or any electronics are allowed there so I couldn't take a picture, but it was disconcerting to see. Maybe I'll call my congressperson...

Altogether, it was a very fruitful day. It is vital for our leaders to know that this issue is important to us, and it makes a big impression on them to welcome a delegation of 6 or 8 ordinary people who are passionate about Israel. There is no doubt that Norpac brings results, and I highly recommend that any New York/New Jersey area readers join the mission next year.

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Mr. Elder goes to Washington

Today blogging will be light as I am going to Washington with some 800 other people from NORPAC to advocate for a strong relationship between the US and Israel with members of Congress and their aides.

I am putting updates on my elderofziyon Twitter channel, and you can read the updates on the sidebar. Later I will try to blog a wrapup.

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Hamas stealing medical equipment, medicines

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has charged Hamas with stealing ambulances donated by Arab countries, painting them black and taking expensive medical equipment on board for their own purposes.

Moreover, Hamas has taken tons of medicines and given them to medical clinics aligned with their movement to the exclusion of public hospitals. They have also sold the medicines at huge profits. Beyond that, Hamas is claiming not to have enough medicine even though a four month supply is sitting in warehouses.

The spokesman charged Hamas with destroying the health infrastructure in Gaza, replacing experienced doctors with Hamas lackeys who have little medical knowledge, causing many patients to die.

I think that I might mention this to the members of Congress and their aides I'm seeing today on the NORPAC trip.

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Obama's choice of venue in Egypt

It has been reported that Barack Obama will make his much anticipated speech to the Muslim world from Cairo University.

Here are a couple of tidbits from Cairo University's recent history.

In April 2000, some Israeli Embassy officials in Cairo went to Cairo University to attend a lecture on "Jews, Judaism and Zionism." They were banned from attending the lecture, because even then, 21 years after Camp David and before the Intifada broke out, Cairo University did not want to make it appear that they were supporting "normalization" with Israel. Egyptian intellectuals applauded the move.

More recently, an Egyptian movie included a lesbian scene. A professor at Cairo University decried the movie:

Preacher and Islamic Studies professor at Cairo University, Dr. Abdel-Sabour Shahin accused the new movie, Heena Maysara (Until Further Notice), of spreading homosexuality and promoting debauchery.

He called on authorities to prosecute the director of the movie and the two actresses, Ghada Abdel-Razeq and Sumaya Al-Khashab, who enacted the lesbian encounter on the big screen.

Shahin claimed the movie is part of "a Zionist and American conspiracy" which uses this sort of movie to destroy the moral fabric of society.

Even with these stories, Cairo University is probably still the least inappropriate place for an American president to speak in Egypt. Which is not saying much.

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Saudis lead world in camel urine research

You can make fun of the Arabs all you want, but they sure know how to find good uses for camel urine. This article in AKI last year gives the gruesome details:

Camel urine, considered an ancient Islamic 'remedy' from the time of the Prophet Mohammed, has become big business for men and women in Yemen.

The urine has become fashionable recently among Yemen's young people, who claim that it strengthens the scalp, slows hair loss and promotes healthy hair.

According to the Arab TV network al-Arabiya, hair salons throughout the country are requesting this precious 'tonic' and selling it at four dollars a litre - a high price considering the income level of most of the buyers.

"I have been using camel urine since I have been going to elementary school," said Amal, a university student in Sanaa.

"The first time a neighbour told me that she had been using it (urine) for many years, because it made her hair more beautiful and shiny. Now everyone in my home uses it."

The use of the urine is not just limited to women. Men have reportedly also been using it to prevent or stop hair loss.

"Many young men use the camel's urine. I am forced to buy large quantities for my business," said Hasan, a barber.

A boom in the sale of camel urine has prompted people to begin breeding more camels, and they are constantly being given liquids in order to collect more urine.

Nomadic camel breeders have benefited the most from the sale of urine. The breeders are usually in the most remote areas of the country such as Hudeida and Mukallah provinces.

Some people also claim that camel urine is good for the liver, a claim discredited by the University of Sanaa that said it was harmful for the digestive system.

The use of camel urine could have its roots in Islamic religion. In the Prophet Mohammed's "sunna" (or tradition), it talks about the benefits of camel milk and urine.

In a "hadith" (or narrative), foreigners are said to have gone to the holy city of Medina with high fever and the Prophet Mohammed ordered them to leave the city and drink urine and milk from a camel to help them recover.

So it is only natural that camel urine would be a cornerstone of research by Arabs to find every miraculous use possible. Which is perhaps why it was a Saudi who found that camel urine can possibly cure cancer:

Saudi inventors received eight awards in the ITEX 2009 exhibition held in Kuala Lumpur between 15 and 17 May, with one of the winning inventions - microparticles in camel’s urine to treat cancer by Dr. Faten Khorsheed from King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah – chosen as one of the six best out of 600 inventions presented to win the exhibition’s Asia Cup.

Who said that Arabs aren't any good at science?

(I must confess I don't understand why a potential cancer cure is being exhibited at an inventors' fair rather than being presented as a paper in a medical journal. But who am I to judge Dr. Khorsheed's priorities?)

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Hezbollah trying to make inroads in Egypt

From Al-Arabiya:

Egypt's parliament has opened an investigation into the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah's reported distribution of money to the poor in the predominantly Sunni Muslim country, according to press reports Monday.

Mohamed Sherdi, MP of al-Wafd opposition party for the northeastern governorate of Port Said, accused Hezbollah of distributing five and 10 Egyptian pound bills with the Shiite party's stamp.

"We found one pound, five pound and 10 pound bills with the Hezbollah stamp on them," Sherdi told Al Arabiya. "These small bills are what people on the lower end of society commonly use so we fear that Hezbollah members in Egypt are distributing money to the poor," he explained.

The stamp printed on the bills says "Hezbollah-Ahl al-Beit- God's bond." Ahl al-Beit refers to the prophet's family and is a common expression used in the Shiite faith.

There has been increasing friction between Egypt and Hezbollah/Iran in recent months, after Egypt caught Hezbollah terrorists planning attacks.

Islamists often use "charity" in order to gain a foothold in areas they want to subvert.

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"Breastfeeding" sheikh returns to Al Azhar U.

From Al-Arabiya:

The case of the male breastfeeding fatwa, or religious ruling, just took another strange turn as the scholar who issued the controversial opinion was rehired after being fired by Egypt’s al-Azhar University.

The Cairo Administrative Court overturned the decision by al-Azhar's disciplinary committee to expel Ezzat Attiya, the president of the hadith department, for issuing a fatwa condoning the symbolic breastfeeding of grown men in 2007.

The court annulled the university’s decision to expel Attiya after he issued a fatwa permitting symbolic breastfeeding of men as a way to loosen the customs of segregation between the sexes in Egypt.

Islam prohibits sexual relations between a man and the woman who breastfed him in infancy. Attiya said that if a woman were to symbolically breastfeed a male colleague, she could be alone with him since he would no longer be considered a potential mate.

Attiya's unusual opinion was widely publicized by Arabic language satellite channels and largely ridiculed in the Western press. It was even discussed in the Egyptian parliament.

In 2007 Attiya made his statement on Al Arabiya, saying that after five breastfeedings the man and woman could be alone together without violating Islamic law because the man becomes a symbolic relative of the woman, and therefore they could be alone and the woman could remove her headscarf to reveal her hair.

He later retracted his statement and apologized saying his interpretation war reserved for exceptional cases.

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Iran shows Hamas who's boss

Ma'an reports:

Senior Hamas leader Khalid Mash’al dismissed his deputy, Mousa Abu Marzouq and another leader because of their reported opposition to the dictates of Syria and Iran, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper “Politics.”

Quoting anonymous sources, the newspaper reported that Mash’al had Abu Marzouq and Imad Al-Alami replaced during Hamas’ internal elections over two weeks ago, specifically because they opposed Tehran and Damascus over the issue of reconciliation with Fatah.

“The elections have many changes but still many details are hidden by Hamas … the removal of Abu Marzouk and Al-Alami were the result of pressure from Syria and Iran on Mash’al,” the newspaper’s source said.

The report also states that Mash’al had the two leaders dismissed in exchange for a promise of continued support from Iran.

Kuwaiti sources aren't always the most accurate, but if this is true it shows (once again) that Hamas is simply a client of Iran and not a representative of Palestinian Arabs, who overwhelmingly want to see a Hamas/Fatah reconciliation.

The natural consequence is that all the moonbats who pretend to love Palestinian Arabs and who support Hamas are really, effectively, lackeys of Iran in its fight against the more moderate Arabs in the region.

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Followup 2 on Yemen "blasphemer" case

Last month, a mob burned down the house of a man in Yemen after a rumor was started that he had torn a Quran.

A week later Yemeni politicians were very upset that some of the mob were arrested for burning the man's house down. They called for the accused blasphemer to be arrested and put on trial instead.

Apparently, they got their wish. From The Yemen Observer:

In the first case of its kind in Yemen, the lawyer of the Yemeni citizen AbdulMalik al-Beidhani withdrew from the court after the judge refused to allow him access to the file of the case, or listen to the witnesses and ask them questions in the session held on Monday May 11.

The Lawyer Yasin al-Azizi told journalists that the court had dealt with his client as if he was condemned prior to his trial. “The court did not respond to my requests as a lawyer of the defendant,” said al-Azizi. He also accused the judge of administrating the trial based on prior beliefs and neglecting the defendant’s right of defense.

Al-Azizi called for the application of the law and to give the suspect legal protection as the accusations are weak and his case is of a crime that threatens public security since his home was destroyed, his property was confiscated, and his family was abused. Al-Azizi wondered what the judiciary has done about the case for those responsible for burning and completely destroying the house of the defendant’s family.

At the first session the suspect did not have a lawyer as his family had asked to defend him, but they withdrew at the last minute. However, at the first session, the suspect denied all of the accusations saying that they were fabricated by some people he had problems with. He said he believed in God, his Holy book, and the Sunnah of the Prophet Mohammed.

He strongly denied tearing or disrespecting the Holy Quran and said that the Quran is protected by Allah forever until the judgment day.

The suspect’s family complained that the prosecution and judiciary have refused to accept their complaint about the burning and destroying of their home by extremists who, according to the family, were incited by preachers of mosques particularly by the preacher of al-Anqa mosque which is located a few meters away from their home.

Over 150 extremists and citizens took part in burning and destroying the suspect family’s three storey house in al-Anqa quarter in al-Hasaba zone of Sana’a last month. On the day they destroyed the house, mosque preachers in al-Hasaba zone accused the suspect of tearing the Quran and stepping on it. They also accused him of raping several young girls, killing them and burying them in his home. They also accused his mother of running a prostitution ring in her home.

After destroying the house and the suspect was brought to the court, the attackers, headed by mosque preachers, unanimously decided to confiscate the property which the house was built on and claimed it as waqf for the al-Anqa mosque.

Yemen - where anyone with a grudge can get a mob to take care of your enemy, and get the court system to support them as well.

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Honor killing in West Bank

The woman whose body was found stabbed to death last week was apparently the victim of an "honor killing."

Palestinian police said on Monday they arrested a 24-year-old who allegedly killed his aunt, whose body was found in the West Bank city of Ramallah six days ago.

According to Palestinian Authority security spokesperson Major Adnan Ad-Dimeiri, the alleged murderer of 30-year-old Halimah Ahmad Ash-Sheikh was arrested on evidence that he was responsible for the killing.

Ad-Dimeiri also said that the suspected confessed to the charges, and said that he killed her for reasons of so-called “family honor.”

Ad-Dimeiri said that, according to his affidavit, the suspect rented a car, drove his aunt to the city of Nablus, stopping in the village of An-Nabi Saleh to buy food, and stopped again to get out of the car to eat. He said the suspect stabbed his aunt and left the body in Ramallah, before driving home to the West Bank city of Qalqiliya. The suspect then went the same day to the police station with the victim’s husband to report her missing.

The spokesperson also said that, after finding the body and receiving information from the person who found it, police arrested the suspect 30 hours later with an estimated 4,000 Jordanian dinars (5,648 US dollars) in jewelry he stole from the victim, though he claimed that she had given them to him recently.

The victim, police said, was married six years ago and was a mother of seven.

Now, why would anyone think this was a true "honor killing" when the murderer was caught with the victim's jewelry? Do "honor killers" normally also act as "honor thieves?"

Either the murderer claimed it was an "honor killing" in order to be able to have a lighter sentence, or the hatred of women is so ingrained in the Palestinian Arab psyche that every case of femicide is, by definition, an "honor killing."

The husband also has some explaining to do...

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NORPAC trip coming up Wednesday

The NORPAC trip to Washington is this Wednesday. My group is scheduled to meet one member of Congress and two Congressional aides. Altogether, the mission will meet with nearly every senator and congressperson.

The talking points are heavy on Iran as well as to talk about concerns about funding the PA.

I plan to Twitter things as they happen, although I will not get into details as to whom I am meeting. Blog visitors can keep track of things by reading my Twitter gadget on the right sidebar.

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