British Muslims issue fatwa against suicide bombers - does it apply to Palestinians?

There have been a few articles lately about a very strong fatwa condemning suicide bombing and terror written by a group of British religious Muslim leaders. Here is the relevant text:

On behalf of over 500 clerics, scholars and Imams the British Muslim Forum issues the following religious decree:

Islam strictly, strongly and severely condemns the use of violence and the destruction of innocent lives.

There is neither place nor justification in Islam for extremism, fanaticism or terrorism. Suicide bombings, which killed and injured innocent people in London, are haram - vehemently prohibited in Islam, and those who committed these barbaric acts in London are criminals not martyrs.

Such acts, as perpetrated in London, are crimes against all of humanity and contrary to the teachings of Islam.

The Holy Koran declares:

"Whoever kills a human being, then it is as though he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a human life, it is as though he had saved all mankind." (Koran, Surah al-Maidah (5), verse 32).

Islam teaches us to be caring towards all of Allah's (God's) creation, not just mankind. The Prophet of Islam who was described as "a mercy to the worlds" said: "All creation is the family of Allah and that person is most beloved to Allah who is kind and caring towards His family."

Islam's position is clear and unequivocal: murder of one soul is the murder of the whole of humanity; he who shows no respect for human life is an enemy of humanity.

We pray for the defeat of extremism and terrorism in the world.

We pray for peace, security and harmony to triumph in multicultural Great Britain.

On first glance, it looks like this may include condemnation of Palestinian terror attacks against Jews as well. But Islam is a legal based system, and systems of law often have loopholes.

Here is one possible loophole, from a fatwa on IslamOnline.net:

We'd like to address a point; all scholars agreed that what the Palestinians carry out in showing resistance against their enemies is not a suicide bombing; rather, it's to be called martyr operation.

As regards your question, the late Azharite scholar and the head of the Sunni Egyptian Institutions in Egypt, Sheikh Fu'ad Mukhaymar, states the following:

"The view adopted by the majority of our contemporary Muslim scholars, describing as martyrs the Palestinians who blow themselves up in the occupied land in showing resistance against the aggression, is correct for the following reasons:

A person who blows himself up sacrifices his life for the survival of others. He dies for his homeland and his holy sites.

Those disarmed people are annihilated every day. Their houses and factories are destroyed and their farms are devastated. They stand with their hands tied before the tanks and armored vehicles of their enemies. The least they can offer is this sacrifice. A person who does this operation is considered by Ulama as a martyr especially as he sacrifices his life, not for a material gain, but for the sake of Allah.

The Palestinians lack the military support of the whole world. In this case, do they have to wait their doom or try their best to defend themselves?

The instances cited by scholars, in supporting their arguments, are also correct. History is full of many fascinating examples in which Muslims demonstrated an outstanding courage and strong spirit in fighting their enemies; they would sacrifice their lives for the sake of achieving their aim.

As regards the questioner’s reference to the narration that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) disapproved the act of a fighter who killed himself, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did this when he knew that the man killed himself out of despair and discontent. But on the issue at hand, a Palestinian knows well what he does and chooses it with his free will. It’s for this great sacrifice that he deserves martyrdom.

It may not be fair to compare fatwas issued by two different groups. But since the entire Arab and Muslim world is so overwhelmingly supportive of Palestinian terror, it is reasonable to ask: does the British fatwa apply to Palestinians or are they considered martyrs when they blow up Jewish woman and children? An unequivocal, explicit condemnation of Palestinian terror would speak volumes, and conversely, the refusal of the British Muslim leaders to specifically address that issue would cast severe doubts over the relevance of this fatwa to the West.

For example, last Friday the leader of the most holy mosque in Mecca, Al-Sudayyis, said that the "enemy" is engaged in "moral terrorism against the values, ideals, and virtues of the Islamic nation" - referring here to pornography and loose moral standards. Is it unreasonable for a Muslim to interpret this as a call to war against the West, to defend the honor of Islam? If the Western world is explicitly called the "enemy" does that not mean that killing, say, a woman who is not covered with a hijab may be considered a required act?

The original British fatwa seems solid at first glance. But without a definition of "extremism, fanaticism and terrorism," it may only be empty words, especially since the Muslim world's definition of terror has never included attacks against Jews in israel.

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Gaza retreat dangerous to America

It very refreshing, and way too rare, to see articles that point out the obvious truths - about Abbas' lack of any real power, about how Hamas will take over Gaza, about Hamas' involvement in international terror.

Hat tip to Israpundit.

Eyeless in Gaza
What the terrorists know that we don’t.
By Barbara Lerner

The Israeli retreat from Gaza — now scheduled for August 17 — wasn't George Bush's idea. It was Ariel Sharon's. Sharon didn't succeed in selling it to his military and intelligence chiefs or to the party and people who elected him, but he was very successful in selling it to national elites in Israel and America, and to the media in both countries. In time, President Bush decided to buy it too.

We can, perhaps, see why. The president has other things on his Middle Eastern plate: a stubborn, bloody war in Iraq; looming deadlines with regard to Iranian nukes; a deadly flow of international jihadists through Syria into Iraq and Lebanon; fanaticism and instability in oil-rich Saudi Arabia; and restless decay in populous Egypt, where the mass following of the Muslim Brotherhood is a looming danger. On the Palestinian front, the moment of hope when Arafat died quickly faded, and was replaced by a weary recognition that Abu Mazen's incredible weakness made real progress impossible and continuing Palestinian violence inevitable. What was George W. Bush to do? Confront Palestinian terrorism directly, drawing the red line he promised to draw in his bold, no-peace, no-state speech of June 24, 2002? That would send the Al Jazeera crowd into overdrive and bring down the combined wrath of the Democrats, Old Europe, and the U.N., echoed and amplified by our own media.

This didn't seem a propitious time to take all that on. And there was Ariel Sharon with his Gaza withdrawal plan, offering an out — offering the illusion of progress, and claiming that behind it he could establish a better Israeli defensive line and some temporary peace and stability. It was a tempting apple, and the president bit.

But Gaza isn't Eden, and this isn't the apple of knowledge. It's a Rohypnol-like apple of ignorance, and it is blinding us to the danger America faces — a danger our Islamofascist enemies see clearly and are primed to take advantage of. We think Gaza is all about Israel and the Palestinians; our enemies know it's mainly about us. We think we are encouraging Israel to hand Gaza over to Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party, local Palestinians with purely local ambitions — ambitions that encompass the whole of Israel, perhaps, but nothing beyond it — ambitions that have nothing to do with us. Our enemies know that behind a Fatah fig leaf, we are handing Gaza over to Hamas, an international terrorist organization of global reach and ambition that is one of America's deadliest enemies. We think Hamas only attacks Jews. They know that Hamas is a main recruiting agent for Arab jihadists, not just from among the 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and from the much larger numbers of Palestinians scattered in strategic enclaves throughout the region and the world, but for other Arabs too. We think Hamas sends all these jihadists only to Israel. They know Hamas sends a never-ending stream of them to Afghanistan, Chechnya, the Balkans, Kashmir, Lebanon and, most critically for us right now, to Iraq. And when our press insistently refers to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the master terrorist who directs the foreign jihadists in Iraq, as "a Jordanian," our enemies laugh. They know Zarqawi has always called himself a Palestinian, and is recognized as such, in Jordan and throughout the Middle East.

To see what Hamas control of Gaza will mean for us in Iraq, we have to see it as our enemies do — not just Hamas, but its parent organization, the Brotherhood, and its longtime partners Hezbollah, al Qaeda, and the Wahhabi and Salafist movements. To do that, forget Israel entirely for a moment. Look only at the terror war against America, and at the geography of Islamofascism that supports it. Place Gaza in that context, and its strategic location jumps out at you. Control of Gaza gives Hamas and its partners direct access to the land border with Egypt, as well as access by sea to terrorist supply ports in Lebanon and Syria, and from them, overland, to the terror training camps in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran and to the ratlines from Syria into Iraq.

This is the reality we face: The "Palestinian democracy" we rattle on about is a mirage no desert-dweller is seduced by. Abu Mazen is president of nothing; his Fatah party no longer exists. It never was anything but a collection of competing terrorist gangs, but Arafat was a master manipulator who controlled them all by keeping the big carrots and sticks in his own hands and wielding them with ruthless cunning. With his death, Fatah splintered into a multitude of shifting groups and now they're not just competing — they're at war, regularly breaking up each others meetings with gunfire and shooting each other down in the streets, along with hapless bystanders. We pretend that with our help and a huge new infusion of Western cash the 58,000-man Palestinian security forces will be able to create order out of this internecine chaos, but this too is a mirage. It's the security forces that are doing most of the shooting, mostly at each other. As U.S. special envoy General William Ward, our no-nonsense military expert on the ground in Gaza told us last week, Palestinian security forces are "dysfunctional." Only about a third of them actually show up for work, and it doesn't make much difference when they do, because the chain of command that supposedly links them to their leaders is so broken that Abbas and his few remaining loyalists can barely get them to protect his headquarters in Ramallah, let alone the whole of Gaza and the West Bank.

What, then, of Abu Mazen's presumed popularity, you ask, the popularity that led to his easy victory in the first post-Arafat election, which so many American pundits of the right as well as the left praised as a birth of democracy, like the election in Iraq? That too is a mirage. The Palestinian election was nothing like the one in Iraq. Abu Mazen won the top job only because Hamas chose not to run, preferring to take control from the bottom up. Hamas ran in the subsequent municipal elections and swept to victory in almost every major Palestinian population center. It was poised to do the same in the parliamentary elections, until Abu Mazen postponed them indefinitely, and invited Hamas to join him without an election. It hardly matters. Hamas is taking over, with or without elections or invitations, and most Palestinians are glad. Hamas is a disciplined terrorist organization, and they are sick of chaos and corruption. Besides, like their Islamofascist brothers everywhere, they believe that it is Hamas that is forcing the Israelis to retreat in Gaza, and America with her. They see it as another terrorist victory, a harbinger of more to come. Meanwhile, they are enjoying the sight of the great American Samson, stumbling about, "eyeless in Gaza." They think our acquiescence in the once-mighty Sharon's appeasement plan puts us "at the mill with slaves," and they are jubilant.

The good news is that unlike the Biblical Samson, we are not irrevocably blind, only seduced and blindfolded by a mix of propaganda, ideology, and wishful thinking that prevent us from seeing reality. If we tear off our blindfold and call a halt to the Gaza retreat before August 17, we will save ourselves and our friends in Iraq much anguish, and save our Israeli friends and perhaps our Lebanese friends too. And if we do it boldly, proclaiming our determination to defeat Islamofascist terror in Gaza as we are defeating it in Iraq and Afghanistan, we will bring a final American victory much closer.

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Zero percent of Lebanese, Jordanians like Jews

The Pew Research Center periodically surveys people in countries worldwide. Its most recent survey of global attitudes showed a rising concern about Muslim extremism in predominantly Muslim countries, as well as evidence for reduced support for terror in Muslim countries. These parts of the survey got some press. But what was barely reported was the unfathomable amount of Jew-hatred in various Muslim countries.

Here is a graphic summarizing the results of what each country surveyed thinks about the three major monotheistic religions:



Look at how Jews are perceived in Arab countries: zero percent of Jordanians and Lebanese look at Jews favorably. When was the last time you ever saw a poll with a zero in it? I doubt that an honest poll in Nazi Germany would have come up with the same numbers.

And in "moderate" Indonesia and "secular" Turkey, the numbers are hardly better.

So whenever you see someone claiming how tolerant Muslims are of Jews, and that it is only Zionism they despise, remember that the truth does not quite jive with soothing words meant for Western ears.

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Sharon to Ban Oranges (Punks of Zion)

I have a warm spot in my heart for the Punks of Zion, who are anxiously awaiting my retirement (or perhaps demise) so they can take over the family business of world domination. I remember well my younger days when I posted satirical spoofs on the pre-Web Usenet, and it is great to see these whippersnappers living up to the name.

(Not to be confused with the beautiful and talented Daughter of Ziyon, who has yet to dabble her toes in the murky Jew pool of international banking, world media ownership, and Hollywood. What can I say, she has more pressing teenage concerns. She is being carefully groomed for greatness...)

Sharon to Ban Oranges
JERUSALEM, don’t expect a country name here (AP) – Following the recent ban on orange bracelets and Hindus, the Israeli government has decided to take it a step further by announcing a ban on the sale of oranges. According to government officials, the move is intended to curb the burgeoning anti-disengagement movement which is represented by the fruit’s eponymous hue.

The Orange Revolution, as it is known, is modeled after the people-power movement which led to the overturning of election results in the Ukraine last winter. Hatched by a small but determined band of zealous settlers in response to Ariel Sharon’s proposal for unilateral disengagement from settlements in Gaza and northern Samaria, it has since matured into a political juggernaut that has gained the sympathy of many across the political spectrum and is not showing any sign of abatement.

Effective August 1, the ban will also cover tangerines, clementines and navels. Grocery stores, supermarkets and other retailers violating the ban will face hefty fines and possible misdemeanor charges. The government will now view all those who purchase the delicious citrus as a subversive fifth column who must be dealt with harshly.
[...]
“Although it will hurt my business, I will throw my support behind any decision that will hasten the expulsion of Jews from Gaza,” said Ahmed Jalili, who runs a fruit stand in Jaffa. “As the old Arab maxim goes: ‘When in doubt, kick ‘em out!’”

Similar sentiments were shared by Liora Steinberg, a student activist at Haifa University.

“I doggedly hold by a belief in free choice and civil liberties, so my gut reaction would be to oppose this government’s latest draconian decree,” she stated. “However, I’m all for any move that will screw over the settlers. Oh, how I loathe those little Eichmanns!”

Her religiously secular “companion,” Eynet (insert Ashkenazi surname) agrees. “I don’t believe in G-d, but if I did, I’d pray for Him to kill off those settler heathen in the most gruesome manner possible,” she callously proclaimed.

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The UK press is on the Jihadist case

An interesting byproduct of the London terror bombings is the British press' willingness to unflinchingly look at the radical terrorist Islamist subculture in their midst. I do not remember any similar actions by the mainstream US press after 9/11 - it appears that the PC crowd is much stronger in US media compared to the British media. I cannot imagine the New York Times having written something like this in late 2001.

AN ISLAMIC scholar who loathes Western values is advocating “physical jihad” in the Yorkshire home town of one of the London suicide bombers.

While Tony Blair and leaders of Britain’s Muslims were condemning extremism at their Downing Street summit, Mufti Zubair Dudha explained why British foreign policy led directly to the 7/7 atrocities. Mr Dudha, 29, teaches primary school children, teenagers and young adults at his Islamic Tarbiyah academy in Dewsbury.

He condemned the London atrocities and signed the Sunni Muslim fatwa against suicide bombings, but he is also an advocate of jihad. In his foreword to a 1996 translation of a pamphlet by one of his mentors, entitled Jihaad, Mr Dudha wrote: “Today many of us are misled into believing that in our times jihad of the sword is not warranted. Most definitely physical jihad is, and will be needed to a large extent.”

Later he added: “Besides the jihad of the pen and tongue, the Muslim ummah [nation] cannot be exempted from physical jihad. No learned person and no true Muslim can deny the benefits, fruits and blessings of physical jihad for the course of Allah.” One chapter title in the book is: “Preparing for Jihad and obtaining warfare equipment is also compulsory.”"

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Is the "Jordanian Option" still alive?

This is an interesting article about recent closer ties between Jordan and the (West Bank) Palestinians, raising the question of what role Jordan can play in an ultimate peace treaty.

It may be a bit too premature and optimistic to think about something like this but it is an intriguing read. I would guess that a huge majority of Israelis who would prefer Jordan taking care of security rather than the ineffectual and doomed Abbas.

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The capitalist Gaza tunnel subculture

Although this long article has the usual British fawning over Palestinian Arab terrorists, it is an excellent piece of investigative journalism that reveals the real motivation for tunnel-building between Gaza and rafah: pure profit, and lots of it.

It is ironic that these are the high-minded ideals that Rachel Corrie "martyred" herself for - so that some Arabs can make hundreds of thousands of dollars off of other Arabs.

Excerpt:

But a chance conversation resulted in my living in Rafah for a week with the "tunnel people". It was like discovering a lost tribe in a city I had been visiting for 15 years. I found an extraordinary, secret tunnel culture known only to a few Palestinians. The tunnel people told me they originally smuggled in contraband drugs, women, cigarettes (5 shekels in Egypt, 12 shekels in Gaza), and even the python that still slithers around in the Rafah zoo, and the ostrich that escaped during the May 2004 Israeli incursion, to the great glee of Rafah kids, who rode bareback on the big bird until the zookeepers recaptured him. Since the second intifada began five years ago, however, the tunnellers have mostly smuggled weapons.

The profits are huge. A Kalashnikov sells for $200 on the Egyptian side, but fetches $2,000 on the Gaza black market. A good night's delivery is 1,200 Kalashnikovs — a profit of more than $2m. Bullets — 50 cents in Egypt, $8 wholesale in Gaza — are even more profitable. A standard one-night delivery returns a profit of $750,000. The tunnels are financed by wealthy families — locals call them the "snakeheads" — who run the tunnels as businesses. They rent the passage to anyone who pays $10,000 for one night's use — a gun dealer, Hamas or Islamic Jihad, the militant Islamic fundamentalist groups, or a man who can't get his wife legally into Gaza. Cash is the currency, not politics, patriotism or sentimentality.

They rent, build or buy a house, even an entire farm, just to disguise a tunnel's "eye", as they call the entrance. The gun dealers are their biggest clients. "We call them blood dealers," said Abu Sibah, 36, the bearded head of a rogue Palestinian militia in Al-Bureij refugee camp north of Rafah, outside a car mechanics' shop where he had stored his latest shipment of Kalashnikovs and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). "But there is nothing to do about them. We depend on the tunnels for guns." He was particularly proud of the shiny black Belgian revolver in his belt — at $3,000, a special order. It was to this world that Nadr Keshta turned for the money to marry.

His relatives were in the tunnel business and he heard a "big project" was about to start. He signed on with a group of eight young men, all relatives. In the tunnels there is a hierarchy: those not related to the patron work for $100 a day as diggers, while those who are relatives get a share of the profit in return for their labour, a much better deal. When the tunnel is finished they are entitled to a percentage on every load that passes through it.

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Obligatory Harry Potter review (no spoilers)

I had ordered 2 Harry Potter books from Amazon for my two kids, to avoid their fighting over it. And, sure enough, the books arrived on Shabbos, right on time.

But I didn't figure on being on a business trip this week. So I had to buy a third Half-Blood Prince at the airport just to make sure that I would get to read it this week.

The book breaks the successful but tired formula of the other books, where Harry and his pals try to interpret events based on incomplete information and therefore get themselves in trouble, with the final hundred pages dedicated to explaining how all the pieces fit together. In fact, this book contains surprisingly little action until the last few chapters; most of it fills in the backstory of Voldemort.

It is also interesting to see how Harry is far more confident then he was in Book 5, and has less self-pity. He speaks to adults in positions of power as equals, and in the case of the new Minister of Magic, he is dismissive.

Much of the book concerns the romantic entanglements of the main characters, and the maturity that Harry shows in dealing with the adult world is understandably missing in his interactions with girls. There are amusing riffs on how public displays of affection can alienate bystanders, as well as the games people play to make the objects of their affections jealous.

A couple of ethical issues were dealt with very well, if only in passing. One of the troubling things about Book 5 was the seeming loss of Harry's free will; the Prophecy seemed to foretell his future and place him in a position of having no choice but to go towards his pre-ordained destiny. Dumbledore neatly shows Harry that this is not true.

Another lesson from Dumbledore that I found interesting was his insistence on being polite even to those who clearly do not deserve such consideration. Manners are not optional.

As the next-to-last book in the series, it has to set up the final volume, leaving us feeling that it ends in the middle of the story. This can't be avoided, just as the death of a major character couldn't be avoided, to bring the series to its final battle in Book 7.

Altogether, it is a satisfying read and aimed at an older audience than the earlier books. The book also managed to shake up our comfortable ideas of how each installment would be - it is not altogether clear that the majority of Book 7 will even take place at Hogwart's. The fact that we can still be surprised after we know the series so well is a testament to Rowling's skill.

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"They're evil and I hate them"

Oh my G-d, I can’t deal with this anymore. I hate them. I hate them. They’re evil and I hate them.

Maybe I’m dumb. But I just don’t get it. Why are they still shelling us? The explanation has always been because we’re in their territory. We’ve moved into their homes and they want us to get out, so they try to kill us. But we’re freaken LEAVING. The government has decided to evacuate every single Jew by force from the entire Gaza strip. SO WHY DO THEY STILL WANT TO KILL US? What explanation can be provided now? Since Thursday night, the shelling has not let up. We came home at 2:00 a.m. to find our guests at the kitchen table, pale and frightened. The woman had awakened to the sound of nearby explosions. We explained that it was nothing, that they were always sending mortars, that the roof of the house was reinforced and protected.

Read the whole thing.

Hat tip to Mirty.

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Palestinian TV calls for genocide against infidels

It is funny that no matter how many times Palestinian-controlled TV broadcasts the most vicious hatred, the most vile bigotry, the most intolerant ideas - yet most Westerners choose to willfully ignore the plain facts that a Palestinian state would be a criminal terror state that would be used as a launchpad to further destroy Western civilization. The tolerant, civilized, liberal Westerners who want a Palestinian state are the desired victims of mass murder espoused by a significant number of potential members of that same state.

No, it is easier to close our eyes and pretend that a Palestinian state would bring peace. The truth is so much more uncomfortable, it is simpler to look for the easy solution where it appears only Israel would have to pay.

Less than 24 hours after the July 7 terrorist bombings in London, a Palestinian Authority Television sermon called for the extermination of every single Infidel:

'Annihilate the Infidels and the Polytheists! Your [i.e. Allah's] enemies are the enemies of the religion! Allah, disperse their gathering and break up their unity, and turn on them, the evil adversities. Allah, count them and kill them to the last one, and don't leave even one.'
[Suleiman Al-Satari, PA TV, July 8, 2005.]

This call for the genocide of all Infidels is particularly striking coming as Britain was still reeling from the London terror attacks - especially since PA religious usage routinely includes Britain in the 'Infidel' category. [See examples below.] (not in this excerpt - EoZ)

Such a call does not represent a new policy - or even a shift in policy. While the PA is careful to exclude this hate ideology from the image it presents to the foreign media, to its own people in Arabic the PA has always presented itself as part of a greater Arab-Islamic conflict against the West. This enmity is focused primarily on the US and Britain, who are seen as the dominant forces of Western civilization. This enmity is neither time nor event dependent, but is presented as part of Allah's plan. The ultimate victory is predetermined, Palestinians are taught, and Islam will eventually rule over America and Britain.

This representation of current affairs as an Islamic-Western religious conflict is of particular significance given the overwhelming religious sentiment in PA society. In a recent poll, 69% of Palestinians preferred that the PA follow the Shari'a - Islamic religious law, while only 16% preferred laws passed by their own Palestinian Legislature. Another 11% wanted both. [Palestinian Center for Research and Cultural Dialogue, March 3, 2005]"

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1936: Arab incitement, terror, "condemnation." Repeat.

In 1936, the Arabs of Palestine and neighboring areas intensified their campaign of incitement against Jews moving into Palestine, with the usual lies about Jewish threats to Muslim holy places:



This incitement culminated in a series of murderous terror attacks against Jews by the Arabs in Palestine. Fatal shootings and bombings were everyday occurrences, with the victims invariably innocent civilians.

One particularly horrific day in Jaffa had two Jewish nurses murdered, with a third woman murdered as well while acting as a lookout. In the days surrounding these murders a 7-year old boy was blown up with an Arab bomb, a Jewish college student was shot and killed, a Jewish telephone repairman was murdered, a Jewish taxi driver was shot to death.

This was a few weeks into the Arab terror spree, and the world pretty much ignored Arabs murdering Jews. But the murder of the nurses touched a nerve and there was a measure of worldwide outrage towards this disgusting act of terrorism. So much so, that even an Arab organization decried the murders, as the Palestine Post opinion page that follows shows.

But then, as now, the "condemnation" of terror was hollow, and the Post pointed out the hypocrisy of denouncing a specific act of terror while not bothering to call for an end to the incitement and terror that preceded it.



So, just like today, we have Palestinian Arab leaders who incite their people to murder Jews, who whip up their people into a Jew-hating frenzy, who use their media and their mosques to broadcast the most hateful kinds of bigotry - and then who dutifully parrot their "condemnation" at any murders that occur in the wake of their agitation and who do nothing to stop the terror from continuing.

Cross-posted to Palestine Post-ings.

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"Some of my best friends are terrorists" - Reuters finds them hilarious

Those terror-supporters (sorry, militant-supporters) at Reuters sure know how to tickle the funny bone - and especially how to get yuks from their colleagues at the BBC, ITN, other "news" outlets. Jew-killing hasn't been this hilarious since Goebbels called the yellow star "humane."

I can't wait for the side-splitting London bombing videos that will be shown at responsible journalists' parties. Hell, it looks like Reuters can round up those murderers faster than the British police can - they probably have them on speed-dial.

Top terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi made a “guest appearance” in a video prepared by the staff of Reuters news agency in Israel and the Palestinian Authority as a “going away” gift for a colleague, Ynetnews has learned.

Zubeidi, who heads Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Jenin, has been named by security officials as a key figure in organizing terror attacks on Israeli civilians.

Zubeidi’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades have claimed responsibility for more than 300 terror acts in the last five years.

A Reuters spokeswoman confirmed the video’s existence, but said the London-based news organization is “not associated with any group or faction in any conflict.”

The screening, which occurred in a Jerusalem restaurant last March, involved the showing of a video during a private party.

'The video's theme was what Israel would be like in 10 years,' said an Israeli government official who attended the party and viewed the video.

'All of a sudden, at the end, there is Zakaria Zubeidi, playing the head of Reuters. Zubeidi was sitting in Reuters' Jenin office, saying he was Reuters’ chief,” the official said.

The party included guests from the BBC, ITN, the Independent newspaper, and French journalists.

'They all thought the video was hilarious,' the official said. He added that only a few individuals did not seem amused during the screening.

'They were laughing; they thought it was very funny, he said.”

Hat tip to Backspin:

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November 1933: Arabs use Koran for political purposes

In 1933, the Palestinian Arabs wanted to pressure the British not to allow Jews to immigrate to the area. They chose to use mass demonstrations, as a follow-up to the 1929 riots. The British didn't want to see a repeat of 1929 and made such demonstrations illegal. The Arabs held them anyway, in Jerusalem and Jaffa, and there were a number of injuries that were greatly exaggerated by Arab newspapers.

Anyway, as the following article shows, a month later the Arabs used Islam as an excuse to have the demonstrations. They claimed that Britain, by making their anti-Jewish demonstrations illegal, was infringing on their religious freedom! And they were using Western standards of "freedom of religion" to push their own purely political (and, incidently, bigoted) agenda!

This is perhaps one of the first times that Arabs who despise Western ideals used those same ideals as weapons against the West.

Things have not changed much since 1933.



Cross-posted to Palestine Post-ings.

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Reuters' editorial quality shines through

Apparently, Reuters in England doesn't know English. Either that, or pieces of land have turned murderous.

Here was the headline:

Gaza kills Israeli woman, Palestinians clash

I guess it was just too hard for the "news" agency to say that Palestinians killed an Israeli.

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NYT cluelessness

A jaw-dropper:

LEEDS, England, July 13 - In the gritty, working-class suburbs of Leeds, Shahzad Tanweer, 22, was the fun-loving, rich kid of the neighborhood, the son of a savvy, Mercedes-driving shop owner.

Hasib Hussain, 18, who lived nearby, was the impressionable one, a charming young man who had been drifting into a reckless teenage life until religion set him straight.

And Mohamed Sadique Khan, 30, was the grown-up one, with a wife and a baby daughter at home. The three men used to work out together at the Hardy Street mosque in Beeston, the Leeds neighborhood that two of the suspects called home.

As the identities of these suicide bombing suspects slowly emerged Wednesday behind a thicket of disbelief, the question that nobody in these neighborhoods could answer was this: What kind of radical force threw the three men together, with another bomber, to commit such a heinous crime against their country, the one they rooted for in soccer matches, and their people?

Obviously it couldn't have been the religion that set them straight, could it?

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