Fridays are always slow anyway....
And yes, it was me singing in the Rachel Corrie video. That's the punishment you get for not volunteering. At any rate, it gave me the opportunity to learn about various audio filters.
The results of a recent election held for one of Hamas's key decision-making bodies are likely to hinder efforts to free kidnapped IDF soldier St.-Sgt Gilad Schalit, sources in the Gaza Strip told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.The "young guard" is more likely to see Israeli concessions in Shalit negotiations as proof of weakness and a reason to demand more.
The secret ballot was held about 10 days ago for the Shura (Consultative) Council, which is made up of Hamas's senior political and religious leadership and is tasked with discussing all important issues.
The sources told the Post the vote resulted in a major victory for representatives of the "young guard" in Hamas, most of whom are affiliated with the movement's armed wing, Izzadin Kassam.
The sources described the victory as a "coup," pointing out that the newly-elected members were far more radical than those who were ousted from the council.
"The Shura Council of Hamas is now dominated by warlords, thugs and militiamen," one source said. "The new members are not as educated as their predecessors.
Another source described the vote as a "turning point" in the history of the Islamist organization. "From now on, the armed wing of Hamas is expected to play a bigger role in the decision-making process, he said. "The political leadership of Hamas has definitely been weakened."
Given the fact that Schalit is being held by members of Izzadin Kassam, some of whom are now represented in the Shura Council, Hamas is unlikely to soften its position in the talks on a prisoner exchange agreement.
A Palestinian academic closely associated with Hamas told the Post he expected the new council members to endorse a tougher approach in the negotiations over the release of Schalit.
TAIF – The controversial divorce case of two minor girls trapped in “an invalid trade-off marriage” to two septuagenarian men goes to court here on Saturday.In parts of the Arab world, women seem to be treated about as well as cattle, and not as well as camels.
The mothers of the two girls, Shaikha 16, and Abeer 11, have filed for divorce on the grounds that the minors were forced into illegal wedlock and were victims of domestic violence.
The case has sparked widespread debate in Saudi society with religious scholars expressing their views as well.
Renowned Saudi scholar Sheikh Abudlmohsin Al-Obaikan has opined that the girls should be granted divorce and the two men severely punished for allegedly trading off the girls in an “exchange marriage” of their daughters without any dowry or wedding ceremony.
The Sheikh’s opinion is also based on evidence that in both cases the marriage did not have the full consent of the minors.
However, the marriage contractor has refuted the charge that the girls were illegally married off. “The contract is perfectly legitimate as it satisfies all the legal pillars of an Islamic marriage including the consent of the two brides and the payment of their dowries,” the marriage contractor said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The two guardians received SR50,000 and SR45,000,” as dowry, he said.
In Islam, a marriage is valid only if both the bride and her guardian fully accept it. Moreover, the dowry should be handed over the bride’s guardian in hard cash and must be seen by the marriage witnesses and guests.
Sheikh Obaikan’s conclusion that the two marriages were illegal is based on reports that the two girls were threatened into marriage by their fathers.
In Yanbu, while Shaikha was doing her pre-marital test, she called her divorced mother, who she had not seen for 10 years, to save her from what she said was a forced marriage.
Shaikha’s mother acted quickly and complained to the authorities, including the National Human Rights Society (NHRS).
After signing the marriage contract, the two couples went to Taif for the honeymoon. There, Shaikha tried to commit suicide to escape marriage to a 75-year-old man and was admitted to King Faisal Hospital in the city. She was subsequently taken to a social care house as the authorities started to investigate the case.
USC Muslim Group Removes anti-Semitic Passage From Its Internet SiteI have mixed feelings about this.
Until earlier this month, the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at USC included on its Web site the complete texts of the Quran, Islam's holy book, and the Hadith, which are the oral traditions associated with the life of the prophet Muhammad.
This database included a saying attributed to Muhammad that calls on Muslims to kills Jews:"The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews," Book 41, No. 6985 stated.The MSA is a university-sanctioned student group and its Web site is hosted on the USC server. When Rabbi Aron Hier, director of campus outreach at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Reut Cohen of the Horowitz Freedom Center discovered the passage, they sent a letter to Alan Casden, a USC trustee and co-chair of the Wiesenthal Center's board, urging him to have the university remove that portion of the Hadith.
Casden quickly contacted Provost C.L. Max Nikias, who ordered the passage removed, saying it was "truly despicable" and that it violated the university's Principles of Community.
"This is an important reminder that when free speech becomes a platform to encourage violence, then it has crossed the line," Hier said. "We commend USC for having the moral courage to stand up against those who hijack speech and religious freedoms and the good will of the campus community in order to spread a message of hate and extremist violence."
Volume 2, Book 23, Number 472:
Narrated 'Aisha:Allah's Apostle in his fatal illness said, "Allah cursed the Jews and the Christians, for they built the places of worship at the graves of their prophets."
Or the many variants of the hadith quoted above which are still there (Bukhari):
Volume 4, Book 52, Number 176:Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Umar:
Allah's Apostle said, "You (i.e. Muslims) will fight wi the Jews till some of them will hide behind stones. The stones will (betray them) saying, 'O 'Abdullah (i.e. slave of Allah)! There is a Jew hiding behind me; so kill him.' "
Volume 4, Book 52, Number 177:
Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."
Volume 4, Book 56, Number 791:So let's try to be a bit consistent. If hadiths that call for the genocide of Jews are offensive, then they should be repudiated by Muslims altogether, not just temporarily removed from some public websites. If the Muslims stand by these hadiths, let them be visible for everyone to see, along with the ability for others to criticize them. But just removing them does not do anything to stop "hate speech" - the problem isn't hate speech; the problem is the belief system of a large percentage of the world's population.Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Umar:
I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "The Jews will fight with you, and you will be given victory over them so that a stone will say, 'O Muslim! There is a Jew behind me; kill him!' "
But for some reason, Syria's repeated incursions into Lebanon - taking land, stealing natural resources - is not called "occupation" by anyone.Lebanese security sources are saying that teams from Syria's Irrigation Ministry began digging two water wells in Lebanese territory west of Dir Al-'Asheir village in the border region.
According to the sources, the digging began over a week ago.
It was also reported that the Syrian teams have prepared large tanks in Syrian territory to store the water pumped from the wells, and that the water will be used in Damascus and its suburbs.
Western anti-terrorism officials are growing concerned Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shiite Muslim militia Washington has labeled a terrorist group, is basing operations in Venezuela.But don't call them anti-semitic for targeting Jewish targets. They are strictly anti-Zionist. They love Jews!Linked to deadly attacks on Jewish targets in Argentina in the early 1990s, Hezbollah may be taking advantage of Venezuela's ties with Iran, the militia's longtime sponsor, to move "people and things" into the Americas, according to a Western terrorism expert.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has established warm diplomatic relations with Iran. The Bush administration, Israel and other governments worry Venezuela is emerging as a base for anti-U.S. extremist groups and spy services.
Several joint Venezuelan-Iranian business operations have been set up in Venezuela, and the two nations have formed a $2 billion program to pay for social projects in Latin America. Those ties worry U.S. officials because Iranian spies around the world have been known to work with Hezbollah, sometimes using Iranian embassies as covers, experts say.
The most concrete allegations of a Hezbollah presence in Venezuela involve money-raising. In June, the U.S. Treasury Department designated two Venezuelan citizens as Hezbollah supporters and froze their U.S. assets.
In March 2007, the ties between Venezuela and Iran led to the start of weekly Air Iran flights from Tehran to Caracas that stop in Damascus, Syria.
Agents of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah have allegedly set up a special force to attempt to kidnap Jewish businesspeople in Latin America and spirit them to Lebanon, according to the Western anti-terrorism official.
Iranian and Hezbollah operatives traveling in and out of Venezuela have recruited Venezuelan informants working at the Caracas airport to gather intelligence on Jewish travelers as potential targets for abduction, according to a Western anti-terrorism official.
The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs demanded a need to hold an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers to take necessary action to protect the city of Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque; [and they also demanded] the formation of an international commission of inquiry on the "criminal" practices of the occupation in their excavations under the Al Aqsa mosque.And the Ma'an story is illustrated with a picture that appears to be a stereotypical Israeli settler in front of an array of rockets, taken from an Israeli newspaper but obviously way out of context (not to mention probably Photoshopped.)
...[There were reports] earlier in the media that Israeli extremists are preparing to rocket shelling of the Al Aqsa Mosque in the month of Ramadan. Palestinian sources said that Jewish settlers had already brought rocket launchers to the Old City of occupied Jerusalem.
Faked Anis: Hate speech is not allowed on YouTube.Anis (sorry, "Faked Anis") reads the Corrie satire - written from the perspective of an Arab terrorist who partners with the ISM to mislead idealistic college students into conflating "resistance" with peace - as if these are words I believe!
FEZ: It is my freedom. You are for freedom, aren't you?
Faked Anis: You are not free.
FEZ: Of course I am. I called Rachel Corrie an idiot and a tool of terrorists.
Faked Anis: She was killed by an Israeli tank when she defended the human rights.
FEZ: Her death was a victory.
Faked Anis: I saw that you wrote that on your blog.
FEZ: Her death has been the best thing since the SS Liberty!
Faked Anis: You wrote that, too.
FEZ: Yes! And I am proud of it.
Faked Anis: This is your level.
FEZ: I think you meant that as an insult.
Faked Anis: I said: this is your level.
FEZ: You won't get away with insulting me, you bastard.
I'm considering a parody of Simon and Garfunkel's "Richard Cory" as "Rachel Corrie," calling her an idiot and a tool of terrorists. Would that pass your muster or would you try to find a reason to take that one down as well? Just wondering what your definition of "free speech" includes, Anis!His response was "This is your level." I think he meant it as an insult.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has blasted some 'Zionist drug cartels' that develop new diseases to sell their pharmaceutical products.So you see, the Jews - oh, sorry, Zionists - are creating diabolical new diseases just so these capitalist pig Jews - oh, damn, I meant capitalist pig Zionists - can profit from the drugs that only evil Jewish minds - evil ZIONIST minds - can develop antidotes to.
“Some multinational companies and Zionist cartels produce new kinds of diseases to export their drugs to other countries,” Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with Iranian pharmacists arragned to mark the Pharmacy Day.
“Contrary to the commercial approach that is prevalent in the world drug markets, our approach towards the production and export of drugs is humane,” Fars news agency quoted the president as saying.
“We should try to produce drugs that are needed worldwide to help the humans,” he noted.
Earlier this year, Iran successfully mass produced Angipars, the world's first herbal medication for the effective treatment of diabetic foot ulcers.
Buy EoZ's book, PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
If you want real peace, don't insist on a divided Jerusalem, @USAmbIsrael
The Apartheid charge, the Abraham Accords and the "right side of history"
With Palestinians, there is no need to exaggerate: they really support murdering random Jews
Great news for Yom HaShoah! There are no antisemites!