The Simpsons - in Arabic

A funnier story from Al Bawaba:

he American animated television series, "The Simpsons," is now finally available in the Arab world. The show, renamed “Al Shamshoon”, will be accessible to all viewers in the Middle East, as the show will be dubbed in Arabic for the first time. Middle East Broadcasting Centre (MBC), a Saudi-owned satellite TV network will air the Arabized version.

The show's main character, Homer, is renamed Omar, while his wily son Bart also adopts a new Arabic name - Badr. Similar changes to fit an Arab audience, including dubbing, will reportedly attempt to win over young audiences across the Middle East.

Such a strategy, though potentially successful as some 60 percent of the region is below the age of 20, may or may not fare well according to some.

Despite hopes on the part of MBC that the series will be as much of a hit in the Arab world and its youth as it has been for years in the US, many are skeptical since much of the series is based on expressly American humor and experience.

Nadia Rahman, a professor at the Zayed University Media Center in the United Arab Emirates told reporters regarding the experiment that "Translating the show linguistically, as well as culturally, as well as socially so that it appeals to the audience that's watching it here, I think there's a lot of details that one has to pay attention to.”

According to ABC News, Rahman added some questions which might be potentially problematic: "How does the mother dress? How does the sister dress?".

In response to these concerns, the Middle Eastern version of the series will also have significant content changes, including removing any references or use of alcohol or other elements which may be offensive to Muslim viewers.

Other examples of such changes include the replacement of American hot dogs with Egyptian beef sausages, and donuts with Arab "kahk" pastries.

I'll try to avoid the cheap shot jokes (like the "Maggie dresses up in a bomb belt for Eid - but Homer was too lazy to buy fake grenades and dressed her in the real ones!") and just wonder - if you take the beer out of Homer/Omar's life, how many minutes are left per episode?

Unfortunately, this sickening cartoon (linked to by Amshinover) is probably far more popular among some Arab children than the infidel Simpsons will ever be.

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Guess which news source calls them "Muslim riots"?

Al Bawaba, from Jordan.

I'm always amused when the press pretends to be more sensitive to the feelings of a group that the group itself is.

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Tehran terrified of Israel's economic and diplomatic successes

It isn't too hard to read between the lines of this article in the Tehran Times, castigating Muslim countries for diplomatic and trade relations with Israel. I don't think that the timing of the anti-Israel screed from Iran's president was a coincidence, coming on the heels of Israel's improved relations with Arab and Muslim countries. Since Iran sees its unending battle with Zionism as a zero-sum game, it stands to reason that each Israeli success isolates Iran a little more.

This explains the hysteria we are seeing from Iran. Of course, when a crazy person is cornered, that is when he becomes most dangerous.

This article is also amusing in the backhanded compliments that the author ends up giving Israel.

Trading with the enemy

By Behnam Elmi
Following the recent withdrawal of Israeli military forces from the Gaza Strip, several economically weak countries began seeking opportunities to solve their economic problems by paving the way for establishing relations with the Zionist regime.

According to unconfirmed reports, a group of Indonesian diplomats traveled to Israel last month for talks on establishing relations with the Zionists. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono even announced on October 13 that bilateral relations between Israel and Indonesia were to the benefit of the Palestinians.

On the sidelines of the 60th summit of the world’s foreign ministers held at the United Nations in New York last summer, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda met Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.

In addition, it is quite significant that high-ranking officials of some Islamic and Arab countries, including Pakistan and Qatar, met high-ranking Zionist officials such as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Shalom at the United Nations summit of world leaders held in New York in September. So, the recent world summit had actually been turned into a festival for opportunist Islamic officials to seek their own national interests and to try to solve their economic problems, in one way or another, however wrongheadedly.

After the 1997 economic crisis in Southeast Asia, Indonesia’s economic boom came to a grinding halt, and the country never found an opportunity to return to its glory days of economic prosperity.

Also, in comparison with neighboring countries, Pakistan has never been very successful in attracting foreign investment and activating its own economy, and has always had a low Gross Domestic Product (GDP), an out-of-date economic model, and a high poverty rate.

In the competitive economic atmosphere of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, some developing Islamic countries failed to keep pace with other countries. A modern economic system requires the opening of all gates of the economy and attraction of foreign investment as the necessary stimuli for economic growth. Along these lines, certain countries tried to take advantage of the current political atmosphere in the Middle East and approached the Zionist regime, particularly after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

On the other hand, the Zionist regime, thanks to the support of Western countries and particularly the United States, has achieved considerable economic growth since its establishment and has become a gravy train for these opportunistic Islamic countries because of its political limitations in the region and the rest of the Islamic world.

The Zionist regime has actually served as a model for Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey. By establishing relations with the Zionist regime, Turkey has not only been supported by Israel but is also enjoying the full backing of Western countries.

Other Islamic countries will probably follow the same process. For example, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has recently expressed his willingness to meet Sharon.

However, it should be noted that some Islamic countries are well aware of both the Zionist regime’s unstable status in the Islamic world and Israel’s need to normalize relations with countries in the Middle East. Therefore, taking advantage of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, they are trying to attract the capital of the Zionist lobby by supporting the foreign policy of Israel.

Although no country can dictate the foreign policy of other countries, due to the religious customs of the Islamic world, all relations and meetings should be in accordance with the interests of Islamic communities and particularly the oppressed Islamic communities. Thus, all the recent meetings with Zionist officials being held in the name of supporting the Palestinian nation are against the causes of the Islamic world.

The economic systems of these countries are closed. Therefore, it is quite obvious that relying on a trickle of Zionist foreign investment would not only fail to cure their economic malady but would also tarnish the image of these countries in the eyes of other Muslim nations and would certainly increase the problems of the Islamic world.

Smells like desperation to me!

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Terror update (Daily Alert)

From Daily Alert:

British MI5 Probes Suicide Attack Plots on Washington - David Leppard (Sunday Times-UK)
MI5 is investigating a suspected plot by Islamic terrorists to carry out multiple suicide bombings of the White House and the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Whitehall officials say the alleged conspiracy was organized by a senior al-Qaeda member using the codename Maximus, who communicated by e-mail with associates in Britain and elsewhere.

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Canadian Terror Cell Busted - Al-Qaeda Bomb Expert Among Four Algerians in Toronto - Stewart Bell (National Post-Canada)
Canadian counter-terrorism investigators have dismantled a suspected terrorist cell in Toronto whose members included an al-Qaeda-trained explosives expert.
The cell consisted of four Algerian refugee claimants who had lived in Canada for as long as six years and were alleged members of a radical Islamic terror faction called the Salafist Group for Call and Combat.
The central figure was a former al-Qaeda training camp instructor who studied bomb-making at Osama bin Laden's Al Farooq and Khaldun training camps in eastern Afghanistan.

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Australia Foils "Catastrophic" Terror Attack (Telegraph-UK)
Australian police say they have foiled a major terrorist attack on the country, and have arrested 17 men on charges of committing to "violent jihad in Australia."
In raids in Sydney and Melbourne, police seized chemicals, firearms, computers, backpacks, and travel documents.
"Intelligence was received that a group was making arrangements to stockpile chemicals and other materials capable of making explosives," said Morris Iemma, the New South Wales state premier.
Australian media had reported that possible targets were the Sydney Opera House, the harbor bridge, oil refineries, and the stock exchange.

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Murder Attempt, Hijack Points to Al-Qaeda Presence - Leonard Doyle
A failed assassination attack on the prime minister of Somalia and an attempt to hijack a luxury American cruise ship off the coast has reinforced fears that the country is spiraling out of control as a center of al-Qaeda terrorism. The unsuccessful attack by pirates at the weekend was the first on a luxury cruise liner in the area. Political collapse in this failed state has created a power vacuum that is posing a danger to Somalis and the outside world. Since 2003, Somalia has witnessed the rise of a new, ruthless, independent jihadi network with links to al-Qaeda.
During the 1990s, extremism in Somalia was centered on the al-Ittihaad al-Islaami, a band of Wahhabi militants bent on establishing an Islamic emirate. Al-Qaeda also became established and attacked U.S. and UN peacekeepers, using the country as a transit zone for terrorism in neighboring Kenya. Leading members of al-Qaeda's East African network still hide in Somalia, according to the International Crisis Group. (Independent-UK)

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Elder mentioned at Newsweek online

My last post was excerpted at the online MSNBC Newsweek site, which seems pretty cool.

But on further analysis, what Newsweek does is use Technorati to find blogs that link back to the original Newsweek article, so rather than this being an example of professional pundits seeing great value in my words of wisdom, it is only an example of being automatically chosen by a robot.

But my swelling head felt nice for a minute there!

UPDATE: It scrolled off. Such is life.

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Thoughts on the European Muslim riots

Although the news coverage of the Paris riots took about a week to hit critical mass, the similar Muslim-fuelded riots in Denmark have yet to hit the major media outlets.

Is there a connection between the Moslem-led youth riots in France, and the ones taking place at the same time in Denmark?

The week of riots in poor neighbourhoods outside Paris, which has spread to 20 towns, has been well covered by the international media.

Not so for Århus, Denmark.

“Nothing of it has penetrated to the English-language sections of Danish media,” laments the Viking Observer.

The Observer took the trouble to translate into English the following from Danish Jyllands-Posten:“Rosenhoj Mall has several nights in a row been the scene of the worst riots in Århus for years. “This area belongs to us,” the youths proclaim. Sunday evening saw a new arson attack.

“Their words sound like a clear declaration of war on the Danish society. Police must stay out. The area belongs to immigrants.

“Four youths sit on a wall in Rosenhoj Mall Sunday afternoon, calling themselves spokesmen for the groups, that three nights in a row have ravaged and tried to burn down the restaurant and other stores.

“Around the parking lot, cars with youngsters from the immigrant community are swarming, and many are walking around, greeting each other with a sense of victory after the worst riots in Århus for years.

“Every night 30-40 youths took part, especially immigrants.

“Only two were arrested, “That was a victory.”"

Like the French riots (and the Palestinian intifada before that), the riots in Denmark started ostensibly from a trigger event that was proportionately much smaller than the resulting unrest. In this case, it was sparked by this incident:

ISLAM is no laughing matter. Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten is being protected by security guards and several cartoonists have gone into hiding after the newspaper published a series of 12 cartoons about the prophet Mohammed.

According to Islam, it is blasphemous to make images of the prophet. Muslim fundamentalists have threatened to bomb the paper's offices and kill the cartoonists.

The newspaper published the cartoons when a Danish author complained that he could find no one to illustrate his book about Mohammed. Jyllands-Posten wondered whether there were more cases of self-censorship regarding Islam in Denmark and asked 12 illustrators to draw the prophet for [it]. Carsten Juste, the paper's editor, said the cartoons were a test of whether the threat of Islamic terrorism had limited the freedom of expression in Denmark.

The publication led to outrage among Muslim immigrants living in Denmark. Five thousand of them took to the streets to protest. Muslim organisations have demanded an apology, but Juste rejects this idea: "We live in a democracy. That's why we can use all the journalistic methods we want to. Satire is accepted in this country and you can make caricatures." Danish imam Raed Hlayhel [says]: "This type of democracy is worthless for Muslims. Muslims will never accept this kind of humiliation. The article has insulted every Muslim in the world."

Flemming Rose, cultural editor at the newspaper, denied that the purpose had been to provoke Muslims. It was simply a reaction to the rising number of situations where artists and writers censored themselves out of fear of radical Islamists, he said. "Religious feelings cannot demand special treatment in a secular society," he added. "In a democracy one must from time to time accept criticism or [become] a laughing-stock." The affair, however, has also led to a diplomatic incident. The ambassadors of 11 Muslim countries complained about the cartoons in a letter to Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. They say the cartoons' publication is a provocation and demand apologies from the newspaper.

Jyllands-Posten was also included on an al-Qa'ida website listing possible terrorist targets. An organisation [that] calls itself the Glorious Brigades in Northern Europe is circulating pictures on the internet which show bombs exploding over pictures of the newspaper and blood flowing over the national flag of Denmark. "The mujaheddin have numerous targets in Denmark -- very soon you all will regret this," the website says.

There have also been similar incidents in Brussels.
How much of the unrest is a result of radical Islam and how much is just criminal behavior? It really is hard to separate the two. In the early days of the French intifada, the rioters were heard to shout out "Allahu Akbar" and "Jihad." (credit Iris Blog.) However, the activities seem to be more criminal, more reminiscent of LA riots than Al Qaeda.

The Muslim communities in Europe have not assimilated into European culture, but it appears that this is at least as much the fault of the Muslim leaders as the Europeans. Islamic leaders are always is suspicious of assimilation and nervous about the West influencing its youth. Combine this with the mindset that the world owes them something and they have no personal responsibility for the actions of their own people, and a smattering of the obsession that Muslims (and Arabs especially) have about controlling land (which effectively made the status quo of Muslim ghettoes acceptable both the the Europeans and to the immigrants) and you have the ingredients for a non-religious, but very Muslim, uprising.

Another factor, highlighted by the cartoon incident, is how much the liberal mindset of fake multiculturalism has instilled itself in world Islam. Since the privileged classes offending minorities is considered a major crime by the Left, but minorities that are deemed to be disadvantaged by the Left have no similar rule, we consistently see cases where Muslims cannot be offended and yet are allowed, and sometimes encouraged, to be offensive. (No similar consideration is given to Hindus or Jews.)

A generation growing up with these rules ingrained - no personal responsibility, no consequences for acting immorally, and a dash of Islamic supremacy - will inevitably turn out to be criminal. And while this is not terrorism, the types of people who participate are prime targets for terrorist networks.

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Things that make you go hmmmm

When I notice in my hit statistics someone from Libya Googling information about Israeli UAVs...

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Today's quiz

Who wrote this?

For all their big noise and blusterous approach to statecraft, the Bush clique and the Neo Con establishment that stands behind it are as legally fragile as any evil concoction of men and women. It is obvious that any force or political agglomeration that is based on the imposition of its own dictates on its own society – and the world at large – cannot be expected to pass the test of honor and conscientiousness in flying colors. Sooner or later, the true colors of scandal and misconduct, as well as the abuse of power it has relied on to institute its will and dictates will show in their true living colors and all their claims to goodness and “freedom and democracy”, not to mention their promises of safety and security for all can be thrown against the wall.

First it will be Mr. Libby, the Chief of Staff of the icon of icons in this estrablishment, Vice President Dick Cheney. However, pretty soon, one will start seeing the strings of attachment and links to the network of evil that has overtaken the American political scene for half a decade now with its false façade of loyalty become clearly manifested to the American people and they, more than anyone else will certainly demand a very strong explanation, if not justice from their Congressmen and Congresswomen for their long silence on the bad behavior of their executive leadership.

One of the interesting phenomenon that the Bush Administration is that it has adopted as an inalienable right for states to meddle in the internal affairs of other states and to use all their influence and power to do so and achieve their objectives accordingly. Thus, we have all been affected by all the policies that have long ago reflected an evil streak in them, which have been called for by the neo cons and the icons of the Bush Administration in seminars and conferences mostly organized and endorsed by the International Zionist Establishment. We have also warned that, from the very beginning, this establishment is after something that will probably have a strong bearing on the trend in American politics and state of being – for the worse of course. Logic will dictate to anyone that an alliance that is deeply nurtured in the concept of the “ends justify the means” cannot etch its place in society without having to inflict pain on many people and destroy the lives of many others. The Zionist establishment, which has spoon-fed this Neo Con establishment with false pretensions about itself and perceptions about the rest of the world is well known for its record of evil and deceit as a “genuine moral society” that is the pride of Western culture and civilization in the region. But surely, this establishment was not expected to railroad all the American people into believing that if Israel can enjoy the imposition of will by power and chauvinistic dogma, then imagine what America can do in the rest of the world? A frightening scenario it would seem to many an observer, and others might even say far fetched. But the fact is that the association of these Neo Cons to the Zionist establishment is there for everyone to see. It will be the right of Americans to ask, why all this mess we are seeing in Iraq and why this continued insistence to meddle in the affairs of other nations so far away and not directly having any effects on the affairs of state within the United States? It should also be important for the American people to know that they have been asked to pay a dear price for the implementation of policies that create enemies more than friends, increase tension more than they create an aura of international peace and they impose more autocracy than spread the call of freedom. Evil begets evil and there is no evil that this world has seen in these times more than the Zionist menace that has sought to dominate the affairs of state not just in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon (not to mention Iran) with the unfailing support of the Neo Con establishment in the United States, but has actually sought to deepen its niches in the American political establishment through the adoption of typical “twist your arms” tactics, financial string puppetry and scandalous connivance (the Monica Lewinsky Affair is not far behind in one’s memories). If the Bush Administration believes the American people can be misled and have their trust exploited forever, then how could the rest of the freedom loving people of the world ever hope for a brighter future?

Isn't it amazing how the far left rhetoric is now indistinguishable from that of the Arab world?

The West-haters in the Arab world have found such affinity with the rhetoric of the Left that they feel quite at home writing editorials like this, even with the implication that they aren't against the US as a whole, but only against Bush (echoing the Left's defensive "We are patriotic too!" line.) Their agendas are obvious - the destruction of Western civilization and the ascendancy of an Islamic umma. But since it dovetails so nicely with the far Left agenda, they have learned to use the language of the Left as it suits them.

Too bad that this language includes overt anti-semitism.

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Abbas' Fatah: Iranian president is right

It cannot be stressed enough that the Fatah party is headed by Mahmoud Abbas and he seems to condone these sorts of remarks, which are indistinguishable from those of Hamas and PIJ and Hezbollah. On the contrary, he continues to hire Fatah terrorists as "policemen."

Any thought that he is truly interested in peace with Israel (outside of a short-term strategic cease fire) is clearly wishful thinking.

And it is interesting to note that while the press and world leaders had a field day over the Iranian screed they are completely silent over the PLO remarks. Evidently when the people who make bigoted comments are "the good guys" there is no reason to castigate them. Where's Kofi Annan today?

The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the Fatah's military wing, expressed in a leaflet published Sunday its identification with the remark of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who called to 'wipe Israel off the map.'

The Palestinian news agency Maan reported that in the leaflet, the Brigades stressed its 'Identification with and overall support of the position and declaration of the Iranian President, who called with all honesty to wipe Israel off the map of the world.'

The leaflet also said that 'We stress our support of the Iranian president's position toward the fictitious Zionist state, which will disappear with the help of Allah.'

The Brigades stressed that 'The acknowledgement of the State of Israel, the state that was established on Palestinian land, constitutes contempt of the Palestinian people, who sacrifice their blood every day for the sake of freeing Palestine and Jerusalem.'

The organization also emphasized its identification with Ahmadinejad's declaration that 'The battles conducted in the occupied territories are part of fate's commands and will be conducted in the next hundreds of years in the territories.'

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French Muslims: "We're not rioting, it's all a Zionist plot!"

You knew it had to happen....From Islam Online:

The Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF) will issue a fatwa (religious edict) banning Muslim scholars from joining the raging riots, IslamOnline.net has learnt Sunday, November 6.

The fatwa is expected to underlined that such acts run counter to the basic teachings of Islam.

The influential UOIF is one of the main groups comprising the umbrella French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM).
[...]
UOIF's chairman Lhaj Thami Breze cast doubt over the parties behind the accelerating violence.

He accused several parties, including far-rightists and Zionist lobby, of fishing in the troubled water to 'smear the image of Muslims and Arabs'.

The Muslim leader said many of the incidents involving the burning of public properties remain ambiguous.

'The rioting, which started as a spontaneous reaction, is not like that anymore. Some parties are feeding these incidents,' Breze charged.

'The perpetrators of such actions can never be Muslims,' he averred.

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Haveil Havalim #43 is up

The latest round-up of the greatest of the blogosphere, Haveil Havalim #43, is now up at Jack's Shack.

At the suggestion of SoccerDad, I nominated myself for the first time to HH, for this article that he suggested. But for some reason, Jack chose a completely different article in his post, so I suppose that my meager record of not getting self-nominated articles mentioned in HH remains unblemished!

At any rate, it is recommended reading, as usual, even on the weeks that I am not mentioned!

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Jews were the canary in the coalmine of France

Let's see - "North African youths," "Paris suburbs"; where have we heard those terms before?

Has it already been three years since the outbreak of anti-semitism in France that the world softpedaled for months? And then the EU commissioned a report on French anti-Semitism, only to decide not to release it, because it showed that Muslims (the M word that is so often missing in the articles about the current French "Intifada") were usually the perpetrators. (After Jewish groups published it anyway, the EU reluctantly did the same.)

Here are excerpts of that report:

As the second Intifada began, the number of anti-Semitic criminal offences rose drastically; out of 216 racist acts recorded in 2000 146 were motivated by anti-Semitism. The peak was reached during the Jewish High Holidays in October 2000; one third of the anti-Semitic attacks committed worldwide took place in France (between 1 September 2000 and 31 January 2002 405 anti-Semitic incidents were documented). The perpetrators were only seldom from the extreme right milieu, coming instead mainly from non-organised Maghrebian and North African youths. After interrogating 42 suspects, the police concluded that these are “predominantly delinquents without ideology, motivated by a diffuse hostility to Israel, exacerbated by the media representation of the Middle East conflict (…) a conflict which, they see, reproduces the picture of exclusion and failure of which they feel victims in France”. Beginning in January 2002, but mainly from the end of March till the middle of April 2002 , there was a wave of anti-Semitic attacks. In the first half of April attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions in Paris and surrounding areas were daily occurrences. This was a repeat of the situation of October 2000. In reaction to the anti-Semitic mood the number of the French Jews who immigrated to Israel in 2002 doubled to 2,566, the highest number since 1972.
[...]The fact that anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish acts in France are presently being committed mainly by youngsters from North African immigration, apparently acting in an isolated manner, brought many observers to the conclusion that a far right anti-Semitism has been superseded by a form of anti-Semitism rooted in urban decay and social deprivation. The French term for this combination of urban decay and social deprivation is “banlieue”, literally “suburb”, which functions in roughly the same way as “inner city” in English.

The report was ignored then and now the French are paying for ignoring the problem. Once again, Jews are the lightning rod for hate against all of Western civilization, and the West ignores anti-semitism at its own peril.

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