Eideard

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The French government has rushed to the defence of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo after an arson attack on its headquarters as it published an edition featuring a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad on the cover as “guest editor”.

The Paris offices of the magazine were gutted after a fire broke out at 1am following reports of a petrol bomb being thrown through a window.

The blaze happened just before the special “Sharia Hebdo” edition hit newsstands on Wednesday morning in what the paper mockingly called a “celebration” of the victory of the moderate Islamist party An-Nahda in the Tunisian elections and the Libyan transitional executive’s comments on Islamic sharia law as a main source of the country’s law. On the front page a cartoon prophet Muhammad said: “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter..!”

However, French politicians defended the magazine. The prime minister, François Fillon, said: “Freedom of expression is an inalienable value of democracy and any incursion against press freedom must be condemned with the utmost force. No cause justified violent action.”

The interior minister, Claude Guéant, said: “You like or you don’t like Charlie Hebdo, but it’s a newspaper. Press freedom is sacrosanct for the French.” He added that all French people should feel solidarity towards the magazine.

François Hollande, the Socialist presidential candidate, told Le Monde newspaper the incident demonstrated that the struggle for press freedom and “respect of opinions” was a permanent battle, adding that “fundamentalism must be eradicated in all its forms“…

The main representative body of the Muslim faith in France, the French Muslim Council (CFCM), condemned the fire, while its president pointed out that caricaturing the prophet was considered offensive to Muslims. “The CFCM deplores the deeply mocking tone of the newspaper towards Islam and its prophet, but reaffirms with force its total opposition to any act or form of violence,” it said.

I’ll probably never have an opportunity to live in a world where my repugnance for fundamentalist hatred and violence will come to rest. There doesn’t appear to a shortage in sight of bigots of any religious stripe who would gladly kill for their God or prophet.

I hope the French police are successful in catching these thugs. Lock ‘em up and throw away the key.

Daily life in Bannu: Selling food originally donated to flood victims
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Eighteen people were killed and 15 wounded when a suicide bomber ploughed his explosives-laden car into a police station in northwest Pakistan Wednesday.

The bomber’s car struck Miryan police station on the outskirts of the town of Bannu and badly damaged a nearby mosque.

District police chief Mohammad Iftikhar told AFP that most of those wounded were police officers and paramilitary personnel. “The target was the police station and the mosque is nearby. Police and paramilitary personnel were praying inside the mosque,” when the bombing took place, he said.

“There are some civilians also but most of the victims are security personnel,” he added…

The attack was immediately claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, who said it was to avenge US drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal belt, which borders Afghanistan…

The suicide attack came as US Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Pakistan and delivered a bold message of support for Washington’s key anti-terror ally, telling the country that America is “not the enemy of Islam”…

The United States wants Pakistan’s army to do more to combat extremists on the border, including by launching a ground offensive in the district of North Waziristan, where it says key Taliban leaders reside.
The army has stalled on a ground operation, saying its troops are overstretched.

Looking at this from New Mexico, I don’t see a whole boatload of difference between death in Mexico and death in Pakistan. Sure, there’s a higher standard of living along our own border and the United States hasn’t started firing missiles from the drones we fly around border country [yet]. But, bandits killing almost indiscriminately – with little fear of retribution or capture – have the same look and feel regardless of language and politics.

I guess Mexico retains sufficient democratic infrastructure – and hasn’t the incredibly corrupt secret police like the ISI in Pakistan – but, bandits killing each other, murdering coppers and innocent civilians, still seems to be the same national sport.

Ahson Saeed, of Corvallis reacts over burnt debris from the mosque
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Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been called in to aid the investigation into an arson fire at the Corvallis mosque where Portland bomb plot suspect Mohamed Osman Mohamud sometimes attended.

The fire at the Salman Al-Farisi Islamic Center was discovered by an on-duty police sergeant at about 2:15 a.m. today. It took firefighters 10 minutes to put it out and it damaged about 80 percent of the office it was contained to. No one was injured.

FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said it’s standard for the agency to become involved in attacks on religious groups, but that the possible connection between the fire and the arrest of Mohamud makes their involvement even more important…

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the fire…

Arthur Balizan, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Oregon stated: “We have made it quite clear that the FBI will not tolerate any kind of retribution or attack on the Muslim community…We are working very closely with the leadership at the mosque. We will find the person responsible for this attack and bring the full force of the federal justice system to bear…”

If you’ve followed the details of the teenage fool who wanted to commit terrorist murders at a tree lighting ceremony, you would know that the initiatives that turned this creep up to the FBI and Homeland Security came from the Islamic community in Oregon.

OTOH, the sort of cowardly bigot that committed the arson attack upon the Corvallis mosque will likely turn out to be someone who has trouble reading the Sunday comics.

The new head of Britain’s armed forces, Gen Sir David Richards, has warned that the West cannot defeat al-Qaeda and militant Islam.

He said defeating Islamist militancy was “unnecessary and would never be achieved”. However, he argued that it could be “contained” to allow Britons to lead secure lives.

Gen Richards, 58, said the threat posed by “al-Qaeda and its affiliates” meant Britain’s national security would be at risk for at least 30 years.

The general, who will tomorrow lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall in memory of Britain’s war dead, said the West’s war against what he described as a “pernicious ideology” had parallels with the fight against Nazi Germany in the Second World War…

He said the British military and the Government had been “guilty of not fully understanding what was at stake” in Afghanistan and admitted that the Afghan people were beginning to “tire” of Nato’s inability to deliver on its promises…

The general said: “In conventional war, defeat and victory is very clear cut and is symbolised by troops marching into another nation’s capital. First of all you have to ask: do we need to defeat it [Islamist militancy] in the sense of a clear cut victory? I would argue that it is unnecessary and would never be achieved.

“But can we contain it to the point that our lives and our children’s lives are led securely? I think we can.”

He also said the real weapon in the war against al-Qaeda was the use of “upstream prevention” as well as “education and democracy”. The problems that gave rise to militant Islamism were unlikely to be solved soon, he added.

On the issue of future wars, the general said he could see no case for military intervention in other countries “at the moment” but added that he would be “barmy to say that one day we wouldn’t be back in that position”.

I’d love to see discussion with the general more detailed than that contained within the short attention span of the Telegraph. Not a bad newspaper for conservatives; but, sorely lacking in thoroughness and detail providing information for truly thoughtful analysis.

Still, there’s more truth here than you could expect from what passes for popular conservative media in the United States.

A Muslim man who told his wife “I divorce thee” three times in an online Skype messenger conversation has been told the separation stands.

The ruling, made in an online fatwa by the Darul Uloom Deobandi seminary in northern India, regarded as one of Islam’s leading authorities on religious law said that the woman would have to first marry another man before she could remarry her first husband.

The man, from Qatar, wrote to the seminary following his Skype joke to seek clarification.

“Jokingly typed ‘talak, talak, talak’ (I divorce thee, I divorce thee, I divorce thee) to my wife on Skype chat. I don’t understand Islam very much and did not know about how talaq works. We love each other very much and want to be together but right now [we are] caught in this thing. Want to know a way out,” he wrote.

His hopes of a “way out” were dashed when the seminary issued a fatwa confirming his wife must first remarry another man, consummate the marriage, and then divorce him before she could be allowed to remarry her first husband.

“When you gave three talaqs, your wife became “haram” (forbidden) for you. Neither you have the right to take her back nor solemnise a new “nikah” (marriage) without a valid “halalah” (second marriage). After the completion of “iddah” (a three month waiting period following a divorce), the woman can marry whomever she wishes except you,” the fatwa stated.

Har! Or he could just tell the Imam and his Fatwa to screw off – and live a perfectly happy life.

I know, I know. He isn’t any more likely to do that than an Orthodox Jew or a Catholic.

A 23-year-old Pakistani man plans to marry two women in 24 hours, gaining national attention for his novel solution to a dilemma over wedding the woman he loves or going ahead with the marriage his family arranged.

Pakistani law allows polygamy based on the concept that Islam, the main religion in the country, allows up to four wives. But men who take multiple wives usually do so years apart and must get approval from their first wife prior to a second marriage.

Azhar Haidri initially refused to marry 28-year-old Humaira Qasim – the woman to whom he has been engaged since childhood – because he wanted to marry the woman with whom he had fallen in love, 21-year-old Rumana Aslam. But the decision threatened to split his family apart since arranged marriages are often customary in Pakistan.

”I gave this offer that I will marry both of them,” Haidri told The Associated Press ahead of his first marriage to Qasim on Sunday in the central Pakistani city of Multan. ”Both the girls agreed.”

He married Aslam on Monday…

For their part, both women say they think the compromise is a good one and they plan to live as sisters and friends.

”I am happy that we both love the same man,” Aslam said.

Cripes! It took me decades to find the right woman. I can’t imagine sorting out two at once.

Two Christians who were on trial in Algeria for breaking Ramadan fasting rules have been cleared of wrongdoing.

Human rights groups said the trial was a violation of the right to religious freedom under the constitution.

Hocine Hocini and Salem Fellak were arrested in August during the month of Ramadan, after they were seen eating lunch on the building site where they worked in Kabylie, northern Algeria…

The two men admitted they had been eating, but said they had done it discreetly, and felt they had done nothing wrong.

The judge at the court in Ain El Hamman threw the case out because “no article [of law] provided for a legal pursuit” against the men, thereby rejecting the prosecutors’ request for three-year prison sentences…

Algeria is a mostly Muslim country; the ministry of religious affairs estimates there are only about 11,000 Christians among a population of 36 million.

Phew! An illustration of the trials and tribulations of a minority in a theocracy – where minority status is determined by religion alone.

Dr. Eli Landau has written “The White Book,” touted as the first Israeli pork cookbook.

With 80 mainly Mediterranean recipes and Eastern European dishes, “The White Book” tries to reveal the secrets of the pig for cooks who have never prepared it nor perhaps even tasted it.

Since the mid-1950s, Israel has had laws restricting the sale of pork and banning its farm production in deference to biblical proscriptions. But because of legal loopholes, it was possible to raise pigs for science or in areas considered Christian. Pork buyers included secular Jews, Christian Arabs and more recently, immigrant workers and the hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who don’t keep kosher.

Now it is up to individual municipalities to determine whether pork can be sold in each neighborhood and whether shops will incur fines for selling it, much as they would for staying open on the Sabbath. Many Jews who ignore other kosher rules will not eat pork for cultural and historical reasons. Observant Muslims also abstain from it.

Even more than other nonkosher foods, pork is seen by many Israelis as an affront to Jewish nationalism. Pork sellers routinely face protesters, and in recent years, arsonists have attacked shops in cities like Netanya and Safed, where Orthodox Jews live near secular immigrant communities.

“People are reluctant to cook pork at home,” said Dr. Landau, who is not an observant Jew. “I want to make it easier for chefs and personal cooks to bring it home and to the menus. If that happens, I’ll be more than happy.”

The book, which Dr. Landau self-published in January, has not caused much of a stir so far.

Dr. Landau said that ultra-Orthodox Jews, who would be most likely to protest, haven’t heard of it because they don’t watch cable news or read the mainstream press.

Pretty interesting tale. Landau reaches out to modern Mediterranean cuisine, shows good sense.

Life in a theocracy has got to be incredibly frustrating to anyone who makes contact on a regular basis with the real world.

Prime Minister Erdogan at a rally supporting the referendum
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Turkish voters have approved a sweeping package of constitutional reforms by a wide margin, handing a major victory to the Islamist-rooted government and marking another concrete step in an inexorable shift in power away from the secular Westernized elite that has governed modern Turkey for most of its history.

The proposed changes were intended to bring Turkey’s post-coup Constitution in line with European law but were widely viewed by voters and politicians here as a referendum on the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

With nearly 96 percent of the ballot boxes counted late Sunday night, the package of 26 constitutional amendments passed with 58 percent of the vote, the semi-official Anatolian News Agency reported. About 41 percent voted against the measure…

Analysts said the vote would bolster the government’s prospects of winning reelection next spring, but was also likely to reinforce sharp ideological divisions in this deeply polarized country.

The governing Justice and Development Party, which proposed the changes and brought them to a referendum, portrayed the constitutional overhaul as an effort to strengthen Turkey’s democracy while helping clear its path toward membership in the European Union. The amendments, the government says, were a long overdue attempt to revamp a Constitution ratified after the 1982 military coup…

But opponents of the changes say they constitute an orchestrated power grab aimed at undermining the secular order established by the country’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923 and giving the religious conservatives power over the military and judiciary, the last independent guardians of the secular state…

The heated debate over what both sides cast as the future of this Muslim democracy on Europe’s edge drew nearly 36 million voters to the polls, a remarkable 73 percent of eligible voters, Anatolian News Agency reported…

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“It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan”
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The pastor of a small Florida church said Tuesday he will go ahead with his plans to hold a Koran burning this week, despite warnings by the US commander of the Afghan war of violent reactions in the Islamic world.

Terry Jones, who heads the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville Florida, said he had given “serious” consideration to the concerns expressed by General David Petraeus over plans to torch a Koran to mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, but said he would proceed anyway.

“We are taking the general’s words very serious. We are continuing to pray about the action on September 11th,” he said. Nevertheless, he said “we have firmly made up our mind” to go ahead with burning the Muslim holy book…

In a statement, Petraeus expressed concern that the planned torching of the Koran would be a propaganda coup for Islamic extremists.

It’s a true measure of how little integrity opportunist politicians demonstrate on occasions like this. Anyone hear the Republican Party stand up for troops and other Americans abroad versus these fundamentalist nutballs? Not when bigotry represents an important quality of the party line.

Who do you think owns the votes of fanatics like this?