CHRONOLOGY 3 -- SUBMIT TO SELF-APPOINTED LEADERSHIP

• Wealthy Arabs give little aid to victims.


   The West Australian, By KAREN MIDDLETON, Page One, Wednesday, January 5, 2005
   AUSTRALIA: The rich oil states of the Persian Gulf and the sultanate of Brunei were yesterday accused by fellow Muslims of miserly indifference towards tsunami disaster victims, compared with the immense generosity of Australians and other Western countries.
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   Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Dr Ameer Ali said that the $83 million donated by Aus­tralian residents and companies since Boxing Day was a shining example to the rest of the world.
AID PLEDGES BY MUSLIM GOVERNMENTS
  COUNTRY AMOUNT($AUS)
Bahrain flag; Mooney's MiniFlags Bahrain 2.6m
Brunei flag; Mooney's MiniFlags Brunei 0m
Iran (Persia) flag; Mooney's MiniFlags Iran 0m
Kuwait flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Kuwait 12.9m
Libya flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Libya 2.6m
Qatar flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Qatar 32.2m
Saudi Arabia flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Saudi Arabia 12.9m
Turkey flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Turkey 1.6m
United Arab Emirates flag; Flagspot http://flagspot.net/flags/ae.html  UAE 25.68m
  TOTAL $90.48m

   Dr Ali lashed out at the oil-rich Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Libya, for offering so little, despite the devastation in the world's biggest Muslim nation, Indo­nesia, and across southern Asia.
   "They haven't opened their minds and their hearts and their wallets," Dr Ali said. "We can only express our disgust at what they do."
   Dr Ali spared Qatar from criticism as it had given $US30 million. But he blasted Saudi Arabia, which reacted quickly to the disaster but had given only $US10 million, and other states such as Libya, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have given a mere $US2 million each.
   He also criticised Brunei Darussalam, a near neighbour of the affected countries, for making no cash dona­tion at all, so far. "We know that the sultan is worth billions," he said.
   But Dr Ali said he was criticising the countries' leaders, not their people, with Muslims in many countries taking up private collections. ... [Jan 5, 05]
• We Are All Torturers Now. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Iraq / Irak flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Cuba flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Afghanistan flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn.  Algeria flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   By Mark Danner. Original publication New York Times, www.nytimes. com/2005/01/ 06/opinion/ 06danner.html? oref=login&page wanted=print& position= "target="_new" ; Thursday, January 6, 2005; Republished Common Dreams.
   NEW YORK: [...] The senators are likely to give full legitimacy to a path that the Bush administration set the country on more than three years ago, a path that has transformed the United States from a country that condemned torture and forbade its use to one that practices torture routinely. [...]
   From Red Cross reports, Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba's inquiry, James R. Schlesinger's Pentagon-sanctioned commission and other government and independent investigations, we have in our possession hundreds of accounts of "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment - to use a phrase of the Red Cross - "tantamount to torture." [...]
   Take, for example, this account, offered by an unnamed F.B.I. counterterrorism official reporting in August, more than three months after the Abu Ghraib images appeared, on what he saw during a visit to Guantánamo: "On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they had urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more... [...] [...]
   ... as Gen. Joseph P. Hoar pointed out this week, the administration's decision on the Geneva Conventions "puts all American servicemen and women at risk that are serving in combat regions." [...]
   By using torture, the country relinquishes the very ideological advantage - the promotion of democracy, freedom and human rights - that the president has so persistently claimed is America's most powerful weapon in defeating Islamic extremism. One does not reach democracy, or freedom, through torture. [...] [See full version below]
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Published on Thursday, January 6, 2005 by New York Times

We Are All Torturers Now

by Mark Danner
   At least since Watergate, Americans have come to take for granted a certain story line of scandal, in which revelation is followed by investigation, adjudication and expiation. Together, Congress and the courts investigate high-level wrongdoing and place it in a carefully constructed narrative, in which crimes are charted, malfeasance is explicated and punishment is apportioned as the final step in the journey back to order, justice and propriety.    When Alberto Gonzales takes his seat before the Senate Judiciary Committee today for hearings to confirm whether he will become attorney general of the United States, Americans will bid farewell to that comforting story line. The senators are likely to give full legitimacy to a path that the Bush administration set the country on more than three years ago, a path that has transformed the United States from a country that condemned torture and forbade its use to one that practices torture routinely. Through a process of redefinition largely overseen by Mr. Gonzales himself, a practice that was once a clear and abhorrent violation of the law has become in effect the law of the land.
   Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Americans began torturing prisoners, and they have never really stopped. However much these words have about them the ring of accusation, they must by now be accepted as fact. From Red Cross reports, Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba's inquiry, James R. Schlesinger's Pentagon-sanctioned commission and other government and independent investigations, we have in our possession hundreds of accounts of "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment - to use a phrase of the Red Cross - "tantamount to torture."
   So far as we know, American intelligence officers, determined after Sept. 11 to "take the gloves off," began by torturing Qaeda prisoners. They used a number of techniques: "water-boarding," in which a prisoner is stripped, shackled and submerged in water until he begins to lose consciousness, and other forms of near suffocation; sleep and sensory deprivation; heat and light and dietary manipulation; and "stress positions."
   Eventually, these practices "migrated," in the words of the Schlesinger report, to Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where for a time last spring the marvel of digital technology allowed Americans to see what their soldiers were doing to prisoners in their name.
   Though the revelations of Abu Ghraib transfixed Americans for a time, in the matter of torture not much changed. After those in Congress had offered condemnations and a few hearings distinguished by their lack of seriousness; after the administration had commenced the requisite half-dozen investigations, none of them empowered to touch those who devised the policies; and after the low-level soldiers were placed firmly on the road to punishment - after all this, the issue of torture slipped back beneath the surface. Every few weeks now, a word or two reaches us from that dark, subterranean place. Take, for example, this account, offered by an unnamed F.B.I. counterterrorism official reporting in August, more than three months after the Abu Ghraib images appeared, on what he saw during a visit to Guantánamo:
   "On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they had urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more...When I asked the M.P.'s what was going on, I was told that interrogators from the day prior had ordered this treatment, and the detainee was not to be moved. On another occasion...the detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his own hair out throughout the night."
   This is a fairly mild example when judged against the accounts of the "abuses" that have entered the public record. I put quotation marks around the word "abuses" because most of these acts - as the F.B.I. agent acknowledged ("the interrogators from the day prior had ordered this treatment") - were in fact procedures, which would not have been possible without policies that had been approved by administration officials.
   In the next few days we are likely to hear how Mr. Gonzales recommended strongly, against the arguments of the secretary of state and military lawyers, that prisoners in Afghanistan be denied the protection of the Geneva Conventions. We are also likely to hear how, under Mr. Gonzales's urging, lawyers in the Department of Justice contrived - when confronted with the obstacle that the United States had undertaken, by treaty and statute, to make torture illegal - simply to redefine the word to mean procedures that would produce pain "of an intensity akin to that which accompanies serious physical injury such as death or organ failure."
www.commondreams.org/views05/0106-26.htm , p 1 of 2
By this act of verbal legerdemain, interrogation techniques like water-boarding that plainly constituted torture suddenly became something less than that.
   But what we are unlikely to hear, given the balance of votes in the Senate, are many voices making the obvious argument that with this record, Mr. Gonzales is unfit to serve as attorney general. So let me make it: Mr. Gonzales is unfit because the slow river of litigation is certain to bring before the next attorney general a raft of torture cases that challenge the very policies that he personally helped devise and put into practice. He is unfit because, while the attorney general is charged with upholding the law, the documents show that as White House counsel, Mr. Gonzales, in the matter of torture, helped his client to concoct strategies to circumvent it. And he is unfit, finally, because he has rightly become the symbol of the United States' fateful departure from a body of settled international law and human rights practice for which the country claims to stand.
   On the other hand, perhaps it is fitting that Mr. Gonzales be confirmed. The system of torture has, after all, survived its disclosure. We have entered a new era; the traditional story line in which scandal leads to investigation and investigation leads to punishment has been supplanted by something else. Wrongdoing is still exposed; we gaze at the photographs and read the documents, and then we listen to the president's spokesman "reiterate," as he did last week, "the president's determination that the United States never engage in torture." And there the story ends.
   At present, our government, controlled largely by one party only intermittently harried by a timorous opposition, is unable to mete out punishment or change policy, let alone adequately investigate its own war crimes. And, as administration officials clearly expect, and senators of both parties well understand, most Americans - the Americans who will not read the reports, who will soon forget the photographs and who will be loath to dwell on a repellent subject - are generally content to take the president at his word.
   But reality has a way of asserting itself. In the end, as Gen. Joseph P. Hoar pointed out this week, the administration's decision on the Geneva Conventions "puts all American servicemen and women at risk that are serving in combat regions." For General Hoar - a retired commander of American forces in the Middle East and one of a dozen prominent retired generals and admirals to oppose Mr. Gonzales - torture has a way of undermining the forces using it, as it did with the French Army in Algeria.
   The general's concerns are understandable. The war in Iraq and the war on terrorism are ultimately political in character. Victory depends in the end not on technology or on overwhelming force but on political persuasion. By using torture, the country relinquishes the very ideological advantage - the promotion of democracy, freedom and human rights - that the president has so persistently claimed is America's most powerful weapon in defeating Islamic extremism. One does not reach democracy, or freedom, through torture.
   By using torture, we Americans transform ourselves into the very caricature our enemies have sought to make of us. True, that miserable man who pulled out his hair as he lay on the floor at Guantánamo may eventually tell his interrogators what he knows, or what they want to hear. But for America, torture is self-defeating; for a strong country it is in the end a strategy of weakness. After Mr. Gonzales is confirmed, the road back - to justice, order and propriety - will be very long. Torture will belong to us all.
Mark Danner is the author of "Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror." © 2005 New York Times, Co.
###
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http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron3.htm#torturers
www.commondreams.org/views05/0106-26.htm
Original: www.nytimes.com/ 2005/01/06/opinion/ 06danner.html?oref= login&pagewanted= print&position=
   [RECAPITULATE: "By using torture, the country relinquishes the very ideological advantage - the promotion of democracy, freedom and human rights - that the president has so persistently claimed is America's most powerful weapon in defeating Islamic extremism. One does not reach democracy, or freedom, through torture." ENDS.]
NOTE: This article is also at Contents 16, Torture [Jan 6, 05]

• Don't convert our children, Muslim group warns.

  Indonesia flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   CathNews (from Church Resources, Australia), www.cathnews. com/news/50 1/35.php , Jan 10, 2005
   ACEH PROVINCE, INDONESIA: The arrival of an Australian Catholic priest Fr Chris Riley in the tsunami-ravaged Indonesian province of Aceh has sparked a warning from a hardline Islamic group not to try to convert Muslim children.
   Fr Riley, who heads the Australian charity Youth Off The Streets, arrived in Aceh on Friday with plans to set up an orphanage to house some of the reported 35,000 Acehnese children whose parents are dead or missing.
   According to The Sun Herald, radical Islamic Defenders Front chief Hilmy Bakar Almascaty warned him to stick purely to humanitarian work in Aceh, the only Indonesian province to have fully implemented Muslim sharia law.
   Fr Riley responded by saying he has no interest in converting those he helps to Christianity. He said his charity was non-denominational and even had Muslims working in it.
   "There is no religious component to any of our programs," he said.
   There is extreme sensitivity in the largely Muslim region to any suggestion of a Christian organisation running an orphanage because of the fear it could convert the children.
   Muslim groups in Aceh plan to set up their own orphanage for 1000 children. The Indonesian Government has given the go-ahead for the orphanage, to be set up by Muhammadiyah, the country's second-largest Muslim group, on the outskirts of devastated Banda Aceh, where more than 50,000 people died on Boxing Day.
   Muhammadiyah's vice-chairman Din Syamsuddin, told The Sun-Herald yesterday his group estimated that 15,000 Acehnese children up to the age of 15 were orphaned in the disaster.
   After Father Riley spent a day on the ground in Banda Aceh, his plan to set up a tent orphanage appears to have been put on hold while needs for the region are assessed.
   After seeing that parts of the city were operating normally and with aid appearing to flow to children in need, his charity might look at directing its aid elsewhere. Fr Riley said the charity would put the funds where they were most needed by the victims. That might include help with orphans in more remote areas.
   Fr Riley arrived in Banda Aceh with state Member for Bankstown Tony Stewart. Mr Stewart phoned Father Riley in the days following the tsunami disaster asking what he was going to do to help the victims.
   Fr Riley said initially he felt there was nothing he could do, thinking his charity was too small.
   But after the phone call he turned on the television to see an interview with a doctor, who was looking after children, only to find that, after their medical needs were taken care of, they were discharged, leaving them with nowhere to go.
   "Homeless kids, that's my core business," Fr Riley said. Mr Stewart was then able to secure a $100,000 donation from Clubs NSW, which was given to the charity last Monday.
   SOURCE
Don't convert our children, Muslim group warns (Sun Herald 9/1/05)
   LINKS
Youth Off The Streets
Caritas Australia Asian Eathquake/Tsunami Appeal
   ARCHIVE
Fr Chris Riley and Youth Off The Streets
Youth crusader warns on child sex trafficking (CathNews 19/11/04)
Fr Chris Riley's youth back on the streets (CathNews 6/2/04)
Two priests now nominated for Australian of the Year (CathNews 8/1/04)
There's no such thing as a bad kid (CathNews 21/2/03)
Award recognises street priest's work for kids (CathNews 13/12/02)
Asian Tsunami
Inter-faith prayer for tsunami victims in Phuket (CathNews 7/1/05
Heart-wrenching greeting for Aussie Aid Workers (CathNews 7/1/05)
Pope joins Europe's mourning for tsunami victims (CathNews 6/1/05)
Stronger faith builds in the wake of disaster (CathNews 6/1/05)
Hope is found in faith in Tamil Nadu tragedy (CathNews 6/1/05)
For some charities, delivery is half the battle (CathNews 6/1/05)
Tsunami survivors find consolation in church personnel (CathNews 5/1/05)
Bishop denounces Asian adoption profiteers (CathNews 5/1/05)
Pope praises human solidarity after tsunami tragedy (CathNews 4/1/05)
Australian Church sends prayers and support to tsunami victims (CathNews 4/1/05)
   MORE STORIES
Relief workers starts at the bottom (The Age 10/1/05)
BoysTown offers counselling to tsunami victims (ABC News 9/1/05)
Post-tsunami support for children (AsiaNews 8/1/05)
Islamic groups' orphan plan raises doubts (The Age 9/1/05)
Hardliners stop Aussie Aceh orphanage (The Age 8/1/05)
Help orphans stay in Asia, missionary group asks (Catholic World News 7/1/05)
PM defends aid package (The Age 7/1/05)
Caritas Active in Tsunami-Relief Work (Zenit 7/1/05)
Holy See Steps Up Aid to Tsunami Victims (Zenit 7/1/05)
  HAVE YOUR SAY   Click here   
   [DOCTRINE: 9.84.57: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him." www.usc.edu /dept/MSA/ fundamentals/ hadithsunnah/ bukhari/ 084. sbt.html#009. 084.057 DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jan 10, 05]
• [Abbas not even sworn in, but six civilians murdered supposedly a 'big test' for him.] [al-Aqsa Martyrs, Popular Resistance, Hamas] Israel flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Palestine Authority flag; Palestine Authority website 
   The West Australian, "Border attack a big test for Abbas," Los Angeles Times and Deutsche Presse-Agentur, p 32, Saturday, January 15, 2005
   JERUSALEM: Palestinian militants set off a bomb on Thursday night at a crossing into the Gaza Strip and then opened fire on civilian workers, killing six Israelis and wounding five others.
   It was the deadliest attack since Mahmoud Abbas was elected to replace the late Yasser Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority on Sunday.[...]
   The attack took place at the Karni crossing, a busy portal between the Gaza Strip and Israel. ... bomb ... three Palestinian gunmen ... were killed [...]
   Three Palestinian groups claimed joint responsibility: al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Popular Resistance Committees and the military wing of Hamas.[...]
   Early yesterday, an Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at a medical centre run by a charity linked to Islamic Jihad ... Mr Abbas ... said he was ready to meet Palestinian security commitments under the United States-backed road map for peace. [Bolding added]
   [COMMENT: Why are the Karni crossing and other such places still in operation? Surely Israel would lose less lives if they withdrew their fanatical US-funded "settlements" on Arab land, and returned to the 1967 UN-approved boundaries. It would mean that Judaists would STILL have more land than they have held continuously since AD 135.
   The "road map for peace" is supposedly being backed by a Quartet of Powers. Why do journalists fall into the trap of copying US reporters, writing for a US public that thinks all news rotates around the USA? COMMENT ENDS.]
   [DOCTRINE: 4 - 22.19 - But as for those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them ... www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 022.qmt.html #022.019 . DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jan 15, 05]

• ['Polytheist' Shi'ite cleric murdered, according to shadowy group; pro-election man and son killed.] [Ansar al-Islam] - Islam. Iraq / Irak flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   The West Australian, "Shadowy group adds to pressure on election," Reuters and Newsday, p 32, Saturday, January 15, 2005
   BAGHDAD: A little-known group claimed on the internet yesterday it was behind the killing of an aide to Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric and a main driving force [sic] behind elections on January 30.
   "With the help of God, a detach­ment from Ansar al-Islam Group was successful in killing Mahmoud Madaen - an aide to the polytheist Sistani - who was a leading supporter of the elections," said the message.
   Mr Madaen was killed in a town south of Baghdad on Wednesday, along with his son and four body­guards.
   It was not immediately clear if the group claiming responsibility was linked to Ansar al-Islam, a militant Islamist organisation with alleged al-Qaida ties.
   "This is the first but not the last strike of the Ansar al-Islam Group, as we will go after all mercenaries and traitors who have sold their honour," the group said.
   With the assassinations, insurgents are seen to be trying to inflame sectarian tensions at a time when Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims are at odds over the elections, analysts say.
   The killings marked the latest attempt by guerrillas to expand the rift that has developed between the Shi'ite majority and the Sunni minor­ity over the timing of the vote.
   Shi'ite leaders view the election as their best chance to win political control of Iraq for the first time in history, [sic] while Sunnis have been pushing for a delay until the insur­gency can be brought under control.
   As attacks on Shi'ite institutions and leaders mount, Iraqis wonder whether Shi'ites will begin to retaliate against Sunnis.
   If that happens, full-scale civil war could follow.
   "The two groups have a history of tolerance [sic] in Iraq, but now there is a danger of sectarian warfare," said Hazem Amin, an editor at the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat and an expert on the Shi'ites.
   "The Shi'ite leadership has to move quickly to keep the situation under control."
   Ayatollah Sistani has called on his followers not to retaliate for insurgent attacks. He also insists that the vote must go ahead.
   In contrast, many Sunni groups are calling for a boycott. Without their significant participation, many Iraqis fear the election would lack legitimacy. [Bolding added]
   [COMMENT: The term "polytheist" is a term that goes back to early Islamic religious disputes. Its most recent appearance was in a document claiming that most Muslims were polytheists, so "true Muslims" could attack and loot them at will. This recipe for anarchy, i.e., every single person making life and death judgements at will, has not been condemned by other leading lights in the global Muslim culture.
   A people that permits killing on religious grounds, and allows any follower who feels oppressed to wage "jihad", is not likely to settle down to orderly constitutional government, a "loyal opposition," civil liberties, rights of the minority, habeas corpus, independence of the executive, legislature, and judiciary, "the law is not concerned with tiny things", and such ideas hammered out in the West for hundreds of years (and still under attack everywhere).
   The minority Sunni will never agree to democracy, because that would mean the Shi'ites would be in charge -- and the custom is not to miss the chance to get an "eye for an eye". Many Muslim leaders will use the excuse that only Allah can make laws, not humans. Their real reason is they want to be dictators over other people, including the Kurds and the Christians. It's strange that the trendies, lefties, and "right-wing" think tanks in the West all argue that boundaries are sacred (except for Palestine, Yugoslavia, former Soviet Union, and some other selected favourites), so Iraq must not be subdivided into its constituent parts. "Lords of misrule" might be the apt label for the Establishment (the "Insiders"), a.k.a. as Big Business.
   People who say that a killing of an opponent was "With the help of God" obviously worship some Being far removed from what Christians say they worship. - SSU, 15 Jan, 2005 COMMENT ENDS.]
   [FOOTNOTE: The inserted "[sic]" in articles signifies that the original "copier" or writer, or this Website's Webmaster, doubts the accuracy of the preceding term or phrase. ENDS.]
   [DOCTRINE: 4 - 6.70 - And leave those who have taken their religion for a play and an idle sport, and whom this world's life has deceived, and remind (them) thereby lest a soul should be given up to destruction for what it has earned; it shall not have besides Allah any guardian nor an intercessor, and if it should seek to give every compensation, it shall not be accepted from it; these are they who shall be given up to destruction for what they earned; they shall have a drink of boiling water and a painful chastisement because they disbelieved. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 006.qmt.html #006.070 . DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jan 15, 05]

• The dark side of Kabbalah. - Judaism. Documovie. Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   The West Australian, Reuters, p 34, Saturday, January 15, 2005
   LONDON: A documentary about a branch of Kabbalah, the mystical form of Judaism that counts pop idol Madonna among its devotees, shows a senior figure saying Jews died in the Holocaust because they did not follow the sect.
   The program, due to be aired by the BBC last night, also features members of the London Kabbalah Centre trying to sell an undercover reporter bottles of "healing" water they say could help cure cancer.
   John Sweeney made the film with the help of three undercover helpers.
   He said it would throw an unflattering light on the centre, part of an international network led by Philip Berg in Los Angeles.
   "It's a devastating indictment," he said. The centre declined to comment. [Jan 15, 05]
Dialogue bridges religious divide.
   The West Australian, "Belief & Beyond" column, by Gavin Simpson, gavin.simpson@wanews.com.au , page "Weekend Extra" 14, Saturday, January 15, 2005
   PERTH (WA) Australia:
D ialogue between religious groups has always been a difficult task. It is hard enough even for Christian denominations to talk to each other and find common ground. When religious faiths based on vastly different premises and beliefs try to communicate across the divide of theology and culture, it is even harder.
   But in an age of terror, based on an apparently unstoppable and ever-increasing clash of competing civilisations, the need for dialogue, rather than confrontation, is urgent
   Seeking to meet that need, the Australian Jesuits' well-respected Social Justice Centre, Uniya, organised a series of Lenten seminars in 2003 and 2004 on the topics of Muslims and Christians -- Where Do We All Stand? and A Fair Go in an Age of Terror. Participants in the seminars included Jesuit and Muslim academics, a Buddhist monk, lawyers and high-school students.
   Their contributions have been collected in an illuminating new book: A Fair Go in an Age of Terror, edited by the director of Uniya, Good Samaritan sister Patty Fawkner. It is a collection of views that are both erudite and down-to-earth and well worth reading in an era of intolerance.
   The book also comes at an interesting time, when big swaths of the Muslim world have been hit so hard by the forces of nature and questions are being asked about the role of God in all this and what is the appropriate response. The best response is obviously to ignore whatever competing religious and cultural considerations there might be and just provide as much practical help as you can.
   Which is what the Western world, to its credit, has done, swiftly and generously. This is one time, one might have thought, when issues of religion would not have a role. But that has not been the case. Questions have been reasonably asked about how much the Muslim world has helped its own, particularly the rich oil states which have been less generous in their response in comparison with the Christian democracies of the West.
   And then there is the attitude of the Muslim fundamentalists in Indonesia who reportedly warned Australians and other Western aid workers to get out of the country as soon as they have finished helping, lest they contaminate the societies in which they are working.
   In such an atmosphere, initial feelings of goodwill can be poisoned by recriminations and counter-recriminations. So even on this situation, making an effort to understand the position of each side and exercising patience and tolerance is obviously important. Which gets back to the idea of discussion and dialogue and rising above prejudice and judgment.
   One basis of any successful dialogue is recognition of how much each side has in common, which is one of the themes of A Fair Go in an Age of Terror.
   With Christianity and Islam, there is a common religious heritage to start with, as Dr Abdullah Saeed, head of Arabic and Islamic studies at the Melbourne Institute of Asian languages and societies, points out in a chapter in the book on Muslim-Christian relations. Dr Saeed notes that a fair proportion of the Koran is devoted to Jesus and Mary, the only woman mentioned by name. Mary is presented as an example to humankind and the Koran recounts the Virgin birth, that Jesus was not like any other human being, that he was a "word" sent to Mary, that he was raised to heaven and that he performed many miracles.
   What the Koran does not accept, of course, is that Jesus was divine, the Son of God, but Muslims do regard him highly as a prophet. And that's a fair basis of commonality on which to work, while acknowledging differences which are unavoidable.
   After all, as Dr Saeed says, Christianity and Islam do not have to be identical for their adherents to work with each other.
   Dr Saeed also notes that despite the monolithic view of Islam espoused in the West, Muslims are a diverse and often divided group. They agree on a few religious tenets such as belief in one God, the role of Muhammad, life after death and daily prayers, but disagree on a host of issues such as gender roles, human rights and systems of government.
   And in Australia, they form only a very small part of the population 1.5 per cent - with a range of quite different ethnic and cultural groups. They do not, contrary to popular imagination, form a single community.
   Buddhist monk and law lecturer the Venerable Alex Bruce provides an interesting look at what lies behind the terror in a chapter on terrorism and the "clash of civilisations". He points out that meeting the terrorist threat requires looking at our Western values as well as those of the Muslim East.
   The threat, he says, is not similar to that which arose from the Cold War battle between communism and capitalism. That was in essence a conflict between competing forms of materialism. Here the threat arises out of a horror of a Western culture that is seen as morally bankrupt and devoid of any meaningful transcendent values.
   Whatever values the West is seen to have appear to be purely secular and directed towards a grim economic Darwinism where only the most economically efficient and self-interested survive.
   It must also be recognised, the Ven. Bruce says, that we can't get rid of terrorism just by imposing our model of secular, liberal democracy on other societies. To find out what their views are and what they want and need, dialogue is essential.
   A Fair Go in an Age of Terror, edited by Patty Fawkner (David Lovell Publishing , $18.95)
   [Picture - Iran's President Mohammad Khatami and Pope John Paul II.]
[David Lovell Publishing, Melbourne 03 9879 1433, 0408 335 004; no address found - 28 Jan 05]
   [COMMENT: Who would believe that any of them had read the foundation documents? or history? or current newspapers? COMMENT ENDS.] [Jan 15, 05]
• United States specialist guilty of piling up naked prisoners, etc.. Iraq / Irak flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Electronic news media, January 15, 2005
   UNITED STATES: A US operative, Specialist Charles Graner, shown in photographs as being involved in brutal and degrading treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Iraq, has been found guilty. [Jan 15, 05]
• British troops 'abused captured looters'. Iraq / Irak flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  
   The West Australian, THE TELEGRAPH GROUP, LONDON, p 11, Thursday, January 20, 2005
   BERLIN: British troops abused and sexually humiliated Iraqi prisoners in a series of "shocking and appalling" incidents after the Iraq war, a court martial in Germany has heard.
   One or more soldiers from 1st Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, forced two captured Iraqi looters to strip naked and simulate sexual acts, the hearing was told.
   Another soldier, Lance-Cpl Mark Cooley, 25, trussed up an Iraqi man in cargo netting and dangled him from the tines of a fork-lift truck which he then drove about.[...]
   Military police have investigated 160 alleged cases of death, injury or ill-treatment of Iraqis.[...] ... Fusilier Gary Bartlam ... Lance-Cpl Darren Larkin, 30, and Cpl Daniel Kenyon, 33.[...] [Fuller account elsewhere on this Website.]
   [COMMENTS: So it isn't only the United States troops who are torturing prisoners in Iraq! What a surprise to the "Yank haters" around the world. Let Australians ask themselves if they have any responsibility for handing prisoners to these armies. Perhaps Queen Elizabeth II, PM Tony Blair, the UK Parliament, and the US President George W. Bush and his Administration and the Congress ought to read Dale Carnegie's book How to win friends and influence people.
   In any case, the prisoners might not have been "looters" at all; they might have been people, like the Iraqi stock-herder shot down in cold blood, just going about their normal lives. Is it possible that such wicked behaviour is HELPING to cause the hatred towards Westerners?]
   [DOCTRINE: 2 - 1 - 5:44; 2 - 3 - 6:27 -- But I say this to you, love your enemies ..."
   2 - 3 - 6:31 -- Treat others as you would like people to treat you. DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jan 20, 05]

• [Somali gunmen desecrate Europeans' graves for a second day.] Somalia flag; www.edwardmooney.com/miniflags  
   The West Australian, "Somali gunmen desecrate graves," The Telegraph Group, London, p 44, Saturday, January 22, 2005
   NAIROBI: Dumper trucks tipped the remains of hundreds of colonial officials on to a Mogadishu beach strewn with human waste and litter on Thursday as Somali gunmen bulldozed Italy's biggest cemetery in Africa for a second day.
   Italy accused Muslim extremists, who have increased their presence in the battle-scarred capital in recent months, of ordering the desecration.
   Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi condemned the action. "To desecrate a place of silence and memory, sacred to all civilisations, represents a vile and particularly hateful act that cannot have any justi­fication," he said.
   Most of the estimated 1500 graves belong to Italian colonial officials and settlers but dozens of other Euro­peans also are buried there.
   Witnesses said more than 700 graves had been destroyed so far. Residents said children were playing football with human skulls. [...]
   [DOCTRINE: 4 - 5.33 - The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/005.qmt.html#005.033 . DOCTRINE ENDS.]
   [CONFIRMATION: People who can see and read the horrors being wrought by occupying forces in places like Iraq, will be disposed to see the facts on the ground as a confirmation of the teachings they receive. Some will ACT on these facts. ENDS.]
   [ALTERNATIVE DOCTRINES: 2 - 1 - 5: 43-44 -- 43 You have heard how it was said, You will love your neighbour and hate your enemy. 44 But I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for them who persecute you; ...
   2- 6 - 12:17-21 -- Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. ENDS.]
   [NO AFFIRMATION: What American or Briton could think that their troops are following this teaching? ENDS.] [Jan 22, 05]

• Taysir Alluni: A reporter behind bars

  Afghanistan flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Spain flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
   Aljazeera Net (Arabic independent TV), http://english. aljazeera.net /NR/exeres/0C9 4F820-9232-41AC- B01D-81DE05 7F7FE4.htm , 12:36 Makka Time, 9:36 GMT, Tuesday, January 25, 2005
   Taysir ... Alluni, who began his career as an Arabic translator for a news agency in Granada, Spain, is credited as being the only journalist based in Afghanistan in October 2001 to show the world what the US war machine was doing to one of the world's poorest countries.
Dead man on his back. Aljazeera pic. Some images from Afghanistan were too distressing to show

   By then working for Aljazeera, Alluni was able to capture images of civilian victims in the destitute villages of Afghanistan and the miserable streets of Kabul. His coverage triggered international outrage over the US action in Afghanistan.
   ... US forces bombed Aljazeera's Kabul office just hours before the Northern Alliance entered the Afghan capital. ...
   Alluni left Kabul shortly before his office was bombed, following the Taliban retreat and reporting on it. Much of what he witnessed was too distressing to show and he was himself assaulted. "Scenes that, I'm sorry, I could not describe to anybody," he said. [...]
   Although professionally satisfied at being able to report the war - reportage that earned him international recognition - the images of suffering were painful to carry. [...]
To war zone once more
   Despite his deteriorating health, Alluni headed to Baghdad in the second week of the US war on Iraq in March 2003 on his next assignment.
   While reporting there, he once more narrowly escaped a US bombardment. [...]
Behind bars
   When US President George Bush officially declared the Iraq war over, Alluni chose Spain as his destination for a holiday, thinking that his Spanish citizenship would help him avoid harassment and facilitate his movements.
Mr Taysir Alluni. Aljazeera pic. Taysir Alluni has a serious heart condition and has had surgery

   ... Syrian-born Alluni, a father of five, was arrested in September 2003 at his home in Granada. He is accused of being a member of a group in Spain belonging to al-Qaida. [...]
   He remains behind bars, a situation that has sparked outrage among Arab human rights groups, journalists and colleagues, who describe this controversial prosecution of this very modern Arab icon as nothing more than an attack on the freedom of the press.
CLICK http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/127CA659-BC10-4E1C-9EB2-51744C2197D7.htm to view Aljazeera's in-depth coverage
   [COMMENT: Ah, the "Christian" Spaniards, left-wing or right-wing, know how to exact revenge, following the neocons and just like their othr desert rivals and the Red offshoots!
   (A fuller version of this is at Main Contents 16. ENDS.] [Jan 25, 05]

• Judge gunned to death in daylight while driving.
   Electronic news media, Wed, Jan 26, 2005
   IRAQ: An Iraqi judge was murdered in his car in broad daylight.
   The elections are only days away. [Around this time some parts of the Islamic world celebrated a holy season, which entailed the cutting of sheep's throats.] [Jan 26, 05]
• Send 'immune' 'refugees' home.
   The West Australian, Letter, p 20, Friday, January 28, 2005
   PERTH (WA) Australia: I read your report (Tension mounts as gangs threaten bikies, 25/1) about gang violence. Police feared weekend violence involving a gang of Lebanese, Iraqis and Kurds.
   Having dealt with the Sword Boys and the M'Bros in my job, I know from experience that these thugs have no respect for the law or for authority in this State.
   When speaking to them they are very unco-operative to the point where they are almost asking to be arrested because they know that they are basically immune from the law because of their status as refugees.
   Are these thugs Australians or just here because they are classed as refugees? If they are found to be involved in illegal activity put them on the first available plane back to where they came from and let them run amok in their home country.#
   [EXPLANATION: The Sword Boys and the M'Bros are east Asian in origin, not west Asian as the Lebanese, Iraqis and Kurds mentioned in the letter. ENDS.] [CONTACT: Letters to the Editor, WA Newspapers, GPO Box N 1027, Perth WA 6843. letters@wanews.com.au . May be edited. CONTACT ENDS.] [Jan 28, 05]

• [Reading Islam's own scriptures vilifies it!]
ALLAH VERSUS GOD
   Good Government (Sydney, NSW, Australia), Page 2, February, 2005
   MELBOURNE: Freedom of discussion is a basic freedom. The competition of ideas through discussion is the way we cooperate in the search for truth. Free discussion is a form of that spontaneous cooperation spoken of by Henry George. John Stuart Mill (1859) assumes that freedom of discussion is beyond dispute - though he had hardly written this when he found that the government was prosecuting an editor for circulating the opinion that tyrannicide was lawful. (Free speech is a bit like that.)
   Mill argued that "there ought to exist the fullest liberty of professing and discussing . . ." He was not even persuaded that restraints were needed to protect minority-held opinions. Doubtless the Religious and Racial Toleration Act of the Victorian Government has this purpose. It forbids acts to incite "hatred against, serious contempt for, or revulsion or severe ridicule" of a race or a religion.
   This Act was recently tested. In fact, there is some evidence that it was the Equal Opportunity Commission that, indirectly, brought on the case to test the legislation by encouraging a complaint against one of the opponents of the Act. The case received world-wide attention.
   It was finally settled after a long period by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The case was won by three complainants who were supported by the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) against the Catch the Fire Ministries. The judge found that the religion of Islam had been ridiculed; that this was contrary to S.8 of the Religious and Racial Tolerance Act; and that penalties would follow.
   The public is probably persuaded that this fringe Christian group had violently, ignorantly and recklessly slandered Islam and incited hatred against Muslims, and got what was coming to them. Others may have reasoned that, whatever the merits of the case, the result gives a highly salutary message to hot­headed extremist groups to temper their prejudices. The case is a little different to that.
   Surprisingly, the main speaker at the seminar was an expert on Islam at least in the sense that he had lived in a Muslim country and was very familiar with the Qur'an and the hadith. Surprisingly, too, a substantial part of what was considered to vilify Islam had been readings from the Qur'an. One complaint was that the congregation had laughed at one point when the Qur'an was being read. In one mystifying moment in the 'trial' the barrister representing the ICV directed one of the accused to cease quoting the Qur'an, since this constituted vilification. She directed him to give verse references instead!
   Another mystifying element in the case was that the full transcript of the seminar has the speaker more than once urging his congregation to love Muslims. For example, the submission by the Catch the Fire Ministries mentions the lecturer as saying ". . . that what Muslim(s) need is love, yes, love of Christ but if we don't understand their mindset, our true intention to love them will be misunderstood".
   The judge refused to accept that the meeting had a religious purpose. The Act virtually gives exemption ("exception") to anything said from a pulpit. The defendants sought that exemption upon the grounds that the purpose of the seminar was to assist its congregation to proselytise among Muslims which obviously, also meant seeking their friendship. The judge rejected this.
   Finally, it was pointed out that, under the Act, truth is ruled out as a defence. (That is indeed strange at a time when Attorneys General are seeking to make truth the only defence in all cases of defamation!)
   Evidence was brought forward that a Muslim seminar in Brisbane had had some extremely caustic things to say about Christians and Christianity. Amusingly, the Catch the Fire Ministries had argued that the generally low opinion in the Qur'an and the hadith of Christians and Christianity was a breach of an old law against blasphemy and made Islam itself illegal in Australia. "Amusingly", since certainly the most ridiculed religion in Australia today is Christianity itself, especially its Roman Catholic branch.
   I think from this you have worked out that this was a very acrimonious case. One side complained of death threats, the other of harassment and stalking. The case had cost each side $150,000 plus. The side that prayed to Allah had won. The side that prayed to God had lost. There possibly is a religious message here. But is Australia now a more tolerant place? # END.
   [FOOTNOTE: Qur'an is often spelt Quran and Koran in English. ENDS.]
   [CONTACT: Good Government, PO Box 251, Ulladulla, NSW, 2539, Australia. Tels. 02 4455 7880, 0500 858 535; Fax 02 4455 7881. Sub. $20 per year ($14 unwaged). E-mail goodgov@optusnet.com.au . ENDS.]
   [RECAP.: "In one mystifying moment in the 'trial' the barrister representing the ICV directed one of the accused to cease quoting the Qur'an, since this constituted vilification. She directed him to give verse references instead!"]
   [DOCTRINE: 4 - 5.51 -- O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/005.qmt.html#005.051 .
   4 - 8.12 -- ... I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/008.qmt.html#008.012 .
   4 - 9.30 -- And the Jews say: Uzair [Ezra] is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away! www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/009.qmt.html#009.030 . (See also 19.88-93).
   4 - 22.19 -- ... But as for those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them; boiling fluid will be poured down on their heads. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/022.qmt.html#022.019 . ENDS.] [Feb, 2005]

• [The historical Jesus; Islam, the true religion -- Yasin]


   The West Australian, Advertisement, p 10, Wednesday, February 23, 2005
The historical Jesus, a Prophet of Allah, Islam, The true religion. 53.1kb

   PERTH: The Historical Jesus, A Prophet of Allah, Sat March 5th, 7.30pm
   Islam, The True Religion, Sun March 6th, 7.30pm.
   Tickets: $7,50 (one lecture), $10 (both lectures). FREE for Non-Muslims. Call 93614292 to RSVP. More Info: www.islam-australia.net
   Once again in Perth, one of the world's most dynamic Speakers, inspired by Malcolm X -- Sheikh Khalid Yasin -- For two lectures
   Venue Winthrop Hall, University of Western Australia (UWA).
   Organized by: Islam Australia Inc & UWA-MSA. [Feb 23, 05]
• Right to choose own religion.
   Australian Reader's Digest, p 74, March 2005 (received ~ Feb 25, 05),
   AUSTRALIA: "I believe that every person has the right to choose his own religion. I believe having different religious beliefs is natural and a catalyst for dialogue and discovery." -- IMAM TAJ ALDIN ALHILALI, spiritual leader of Australia's Muslim community.
   [COMMENT: His name is printed as Alhilali, Al Hilali, Alhilaly, Al Hilaly. Contrast the above unreferenced statement with:-
  • Sep 14-15, 2002: Australia's Muslim spiritual leader, Sheikh Taj Alddin Hamed Al Hilali, according to an opponent on a Website, "is a masterful manipulator of al-taqiyya -- what some in Islam call the moral right of Muslims to mislead and lie to non-Muslims." -- The Weekend Australian Magazine, September 14-15, 2002, p 18 b.
  • Mar 1, 2004: SYDNEY: Australia's Muslim leader Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali's description of the September 11 terrorist attacks as God's work against oppressors was appalling, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday.
       Mr Downer said he had read a transcript provided by the Australian Embassy in Beirut of a sermon the Mufti of Australia had given in Lebanon earlier this month. [sic; presumably February is meant.]
       "His support for the events of September 11, which is pretty manifest from his remarks and, secondly his support for the suicide-homicide bombers against Israeli civilians -- I think these are appalling comments to make," Mr Downer told the Nine network.
       -- The West Australian, "Downer condemns Mufti's September 11 remarks," Australian Associated Press, p 27, Monday March 1 2004.
  • Nov 15, 2004: A prominent Muslim leader responded to reported comments of Cardinal George Pell by asserting that Islam should not be compared with godless Communism.
       Cardinal Pell said in a speech in the US last month that Islam might this century provide the attraction that communism provided in the last.
       A spokesman for the Mufti of Australia Taj Aldin Alhilali, Keysar Trad, said ... Islam's holy book, the Koran, had a strong emphasis on the democratic process, with one passage recommending people consult over all their affairs.
       Democracy was practised at every level of the faith, including choosing religious leaders, he said. -- "Pell comments portrayed as anti-Muslim slur," CathNews (from Church Resources, Australia), www.cathnews. com/news/411/ 85.php , November 15, 2004 COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE: (4 - 6.70) "And leave those who have taken their religion for a play and an idle sport, and whom this world's life has deceived, and remind (them) thereby lest a soul should be given up to destruction for what it has earned; it shall not have besides Allah any guardian nor an intercessor, and if it should seek to give every compensation, it shall not be accepted from it; these are they who shall be given up to destruction for what they earned; they shall have a drink of boiling water and a painful chastisement because they disbelieved." www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/006.qmt.html#006.070 DOCTRINE ENDS.] [March 2005, received ~ Feb 25, 05]
    • Bias tsunami of sharia law against majority citizens of the West.
       News Weekly, www.newsweekly.com.au, Australia,  OPINION    "The tsunami of bias," by Babette Francis, pp 18-19, February 26, 2005
       AUSTRALIA: Christopher Booker's analysis of the BBC's anti-American bias {News Weekly, January 29, 2005) highlights the unfair criticisms levelled at the US, no matter what it does.
       Not the least is the label "stingy" imposed by Mr Jan Egeland, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, because the US had initially donated "only" $15 million to­wards the Tsunami emergency.
       That amount was quickly increased to $350 million as the scope of the disaster unfolded, and it doesn't include the vast sums raised by private donors, including ordinary families who organised street "bake sales" to raise money for tsunami relief. What goes on in the mind of Mr Egeland and other UN bureaucrats who are so quick to aim their barbs at the US? Has he even noticed the US helicopters flying in and out of Aceh loaded with food and medicine for places which other planes and ships could not reach?
       The "stingy" United States pays 20 per cent of the entire UN budget. Out of every five dollars of Mr Egeland's salary, US taxpayers pay one.
    To the rescue
       I remember from my childhood in India that, whenever there was a flood or famine, it was USAID that came to the rescue - American planes with food, tents and medicine were quick to arrive.
       I suspect that the criticism of the US is part of a general attitude by Utopians who unconsciously hold Christians - and countries with a Christian ethos - to a higher standard than is expected of non-Christians.
       This attitude was very evident in the finding by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal that two Christian pastors were guilty of religious vilification in a case brought by the Islamic Council of Victoria.
       The finding is particularly unfortunate because a public examination of Muslim sharia law is essential in the context of our own legal systems, and the VCAT decision is likely to dampen, if not freeze, debate.
    [Picture of people standing on house floor, the house having been swept away. Trees were still standing.]
    Tsunami damage in Galle, Sri Lanka

       While I respect the prayer life of Muslims and their opposition (in general) to abortion, I do not admire sharia law which can be brutal and inconsistent with fundamental principles of human rights.
       What is not generally realised is that Islamic sharia is not substantially different from the Mosaic criminal code in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
       Both require the stoning of adulterers, blasphemers and those who lead others away from the faith, although for adultery, Hebrew law required the death of both parties, not just the woman.
       Leviticus and Deuteronomy are part, not only of the Jewish tradition, but also of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible.
       What caused the changes in Christendom was the New Testament - the teachings of Jesus. It may not be politically correct to say this, but the primary reason the law code in the Torah is no longer followed is simple: from the late 300s AD through the 1900s, Jews lived entirely [sic] under the dominion of Christian rulers who forbad the enforcement of Hebraic criminal laws.
       While the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 AD, therein destroying the entire Hebraic system of animal sacrifice, it was Christianity that weaned Jews away from the sharia-like aspects of the Hebraic law.
      From AD 391 Christian government fundamentally changed Jewish legal practices. No one talks about this, but it is the case.
       It is of course commonplace to point to the hundreds of Christians throughout history who have launched barbarities similar to those sanctioned by the criminal law codes of Islam, the Old Testament or the Torah.
       However, only the Christian faith has been powerful enough to stop those who launched such barbarities.
       Whether Christian, Jew, Muslim or communist-atheist, the only [sic] law that forces each human being to respect the dignity of every other is Christian law.
       If sharia law can still be cruel, if it has not yet been brought into conjunction with respect for human dignity, that is owing to the fact that Christianity has not influenced Islam as it did Judaism.
       I am not suggesting a new Christian empire - although the British empire in India did end suttee (the Hindu burning of widows on their husband's funeral pyres) and Untouchability - but a full and free discussion of religion and religious differences, including quotations from the Koran, the Torah, the Vedas and the Old and New Testaments, is important in a country such as Australia with so many immigrants from a variety of religious and cultural backgrounds.
       This is the very type of debate that the Victorian Government's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act is stifling, and this is intolerable in a democracy.
       Having won their victory, the Islamic Council of Victoria - and those "enlightened" members of other de­nominations who supported its legal action against the Catch the Fire Ministries pastors - need to turn their attention to the issues of polygamy in Muslim countries, and the "honour" killings of female relatives.
       They need also to explain why, in many Islamic countries, conversion to Christianity is regarded as "apostasy", punishable by death.
       Treating "apostasy" from the Muslim religion and laws against "proselytising" by Christians as part of the criminal code in Islamic countries is even more stifling to free religious debate than our local Racial and Religious Tolerance Act.
       Many of our Muslim immigrants have fled to Australia precisely because of the injustices inherent in the appli­cation of sharia law. It is ironic that the Islamic Council of Victoria has used Victorian legislation to impose some of the same restrictions on freedom of speech on Australian Christians, and surely the Bracks Government has kicked an "own goal" in giving them the opportunity to do so.
       The United States has formed a core group of countries with India, Japan and Australia to co-ordinate long-term rehabilitation in the tsunami-affected areas, and it deserves to be commended for its leadership role.
       How different was the attitude of Iran when confronted by a devastating earthquake in Bam some years ago: Iran stated it would accept assistance from all countries, including that "Great Satan", the United States, but would not accept help from Israel.
       That is, it preferred to let some of its citizens die than accept humanitarian assistance from a Jewish nation. This is the kind of pathology which the Islamic Council of Victoria should be tackling rather than taking to court Christian pastors who analyse the Koran.
       [COMMENT: This article is a healthy start to realising the attacks on fairness and human rights involved in the supposedly "sacred scriptures." I suppose it is because of the abysmal lack of proper history knowledge among the teaching profession and the clergy, that the writer makes no mention that Jerusalem was not only sacked in 70 AD, but there were enough Jews left in Palestine to make another attempt at freedom under Ben Kokhbar, which ended in 135 AD with a further destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, with almost complete deportations and enslavements.
       Some Judaists already lived at and near Babylon (Iraq) with semi-independent status, able to run rabbi colleges, under a succession of rulers of varying religions, which continued for about 1500 years or more to about 1000 AD. Others lived in the converted empire of Khazaria / Chazaria (south Ukraine and south Russia), others under various pagans who kept attacking from the East, while others lived in central Asia and the Far East under various religions.
       Therefore, it was NOT just Christianity and Christian rulers who helped guide the Judaists away from the crueller and more unjust punishments in the Hebrew Scriptures. Perhaps some Judaists lived under the other "peace" religion, Buddhism, and this experience might have helped the sect to ameliorate the old writings.
       However, the writer has done a wonderful service to awaken the Infidels and Gentiles. Let us hope that more of the Muslims and Judaists will wake up, too. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE:
       4 - 19.88-93:- They say: "(Allah) Most Gracious has begotten a son!" Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous! At it the skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin,... For it is not consonant with the majesty of (Allah) Most Gracious that He should beget a son. ... -- www.usc.edu/dept/ MSA/quran/019. qmt.html #019.088 .
       4 - 22.19: - ... But as for those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them; boiling fluid will be poured down on their heads. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/022.qmt.html#022.019 . DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Feb 26, 05]

    • [When Americans leave, Muslim dislike of them surfaces.]
       The West Australian, "When Americans leave, the real talk begins," Agence France-Presse, p 23, Tuesday, March 8, 2005
       WASHINGTON: United States policy has unwittingly made terror leader Osama bin Laden nearly the most popular figure in the Middle East, says an Asian scholar whose new book has triggered debate on why Muslims hate America.
       Kishore Mahbubani, once Singapore's chief United Nations diplomat, warned Islamic anger would get stronger if the US did not improve its image among Muslims quickly.
       In his book Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust between America and the World, the Singaporean university dean described positive US contributions to global society and how the super­power abruptly walked away from the world when the Cold War ended.
       He conveyed to a Washington conference his anguish over deepening distrust and resentment.
       Even in East Asia, whose economic rise would not have been possible without US political, military and financial support, "the tone of conversation about America, sadly speaking, has turned negative".
       He said: "When I travel the world, I discover there are two sets of conversations - one set when you have Americans in the room and every­body will say the right, nice things and how wonderful America is. And then the Americans will leave and the real conversation begins. Inevitably the comment comes up: Who do these people think they are?"
       Muslim friends almost inevitably told him Islam's most revered figure was bin Laden and the Palestinian plight was the biggest cause of resentment towards the US.
       His fear was that in 10 or 20 years, if the US got things wrong, Islamic anger could be much stronger.
       Thomas Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer prize-winner, agreed US policy turned controversial and changed fundamentally after the September 11 attacks. "America was like a fire-breathing dragon with an arrow in its shoulder swinging its tail wildly around the world," he said.
       But he disputed US indifference to Muslims, saying the country saved many lives in Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq where the US did not have strategic interests.
       "People say Iraq is about oil but it's so much crazier than that," he said. "We are doing this out of the belief that we really can and should bring democracy to this part of the world. We never have been less ordinary than we are today."
       Friedman said not all Muslims hated America and many young Arabs quietly backed American support for democracy in the Middle East.
       Mr Mahbubani agreed Americans had saved more Muslims than any great power but said despite that attitudes were becoming frighteningly negative.
       [COMMENT: But, all our political and other leaders state that everything will be all right, and we must not discriminate against other people! If a bomb or something kills us, it must somehow be our fault! The Nigerian journalist who wrote a foolish comment about the beauty pageant was blamed by her newspaper and the national government -- but the rioting and deaths came from people who preached hate sermons in religious buildings, and from those wicked enough to commit those crimes. Of course, we must not ask what groups are directing the United States' business, banking, and war policies! COMMENT ENDS.] [Mar 8, 05]

    • Migrants 'contribute just 14p a week to UK'

      Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The International Express (Britain), West Australian edition, intexletters@aol.com , p 19, Tuesday, March 15, 2005
       BRITAIN: TONY Blair's economic case for allowing millions of migrants into Britain has been attacked by an anti-immigration campaign group. The Prime Minister - who has refused to set a limit on the record numbers being allowed in - claims immigrants contribute £2.5 billion every year to the Treasury and 0.5 per cent of the nation's GDE.
       But a study by right-wing pressure group Migrationwatch claims he has misled the public and, at best, immigrants contribute only 14p each. Mr Blair has also overlooked the huge impact migration has on the nation's schools and hospitals and the billions of pounds being sent out of the country by immigrants to relatives overseas, the think-tank says.
       Chairman Sir Andrew Green said: "There is no doubt that immigrants do add to the size of our economy but they also add to our population.
       "What the Government conveniently fails to mention is that they therefore generate considerable costs in terms of infrastructure - schools, hospitals, housing, transport.
       "When these costs are added back, the true economic 'benefit' to the host population is likely to be at best 0.1 per cent of GDP [gross domestic product], or about 14p a week per head each year, with the likely true benefit being no better than neutral - as all major studies overseas have also concluded."
       Mr Blair and his ministers have made a series of bold economic statements in support of widespread immigration, which has swollen the population by more than one million since Labour came to power.
       The Government quotes figures from 1999/2000 to claim migrants in the UK contributed £2.5billion more in taxes than they consumed in benefits and state services. But Migrationwatch claims this figure is misleading as it is based on a year when the economy did very well and government accounts were in "surplus" -- which effectively means everybody contributed more taxes than they took out in services.
       Correcting for this factor reduces the migrants' contribution by £1.3billion, down to £1.2 billion.
       This is less than the £1.9billion cost of running the country's chaotic asylum and immigration system.
       The think-tank also seized on figures showing steady increases in personal remittance -- money earned in Britain by immigrants being sent overseas to relatives.
       The figure has almost doubled in the past ten years to £3.8billion, with the Indian sub-continent, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa the main beneficiaries. British people working overseas sent back £2.7billion - but the net outflow of cash from our economy was still £l.lbillion. # [Mar 15, 05]

    • Greek Orthodox church mired in Jerusalem land row.

      Israel flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Palestine Authority flag; Palestine Authority website 
       The Guardian (Britain), www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1442923,00.html , by Chris McGreal in Jerusalem, Tuesday, March 22, 2005.
       JERUSALEM, Israel / Palestine:
    The Greek Orthodox church in the holy land, already mired in financial and political scandal, has been accused of secretly selling off a prime Arab area of Jerusalem's old city to Jewish settlers.
       The properties were allegedly sold by the church's treasurer in Jerusalem, Nicholas Papadimas, before he disappeared when he was charged in Greece with stealing church funds in a separate case.
       But Palestinians in the Greek Orthodox hierarchy allege that the church's controversial patriarch in Jerusalem, Irineos I, is behind the secret deal with two groups of overseas Jewish investors. Irineos is already fighting for his survival as patriarch after an Israeli court ruled that he had been elected to the post with the help of a convicted drug trafficker who discredited rivals using homoerotic pictures.
       The Greek Orthodox Church, which has about 100,000 followers in the holy land, is the richest church in the region and the second largest landowner in Jerusalem after the Israeli state. Among its holdings is the land on which the Israeli parliament and Ariel Sharon's official residence stand.
       The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, has ordered an investigation of the sale of land and buildings in Omar Ibn al-Hitab square, next to the Jaffa Gate, a sensitive area because its future is uncertain in any negotiated settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians.
       Mr Qureia said he suspected the deal was part of a broader strategy by Jewish groups to buy up property and force Arabs out, "all with the goal of making Jerusalem Jewish".
       "It is dangerous and a clear indication of the Israeli plan that targets the holy city," he said.
       The affected properties include the renowned Imperial hotel, a favourite meeting place for Palestinian politicians, and numerous shops.
       Mr Papadimas is alleged to have secretly sold the area some months ago and then disappeared after he was indicted over the missing funds. The Greek Orthodox leadership in Jerusalem said it had no prior knowledge of the sale, which it has declared "null and void".
       Any such deal would need the written approval of the patriarch, the church said in a statement.
       But local Arab leaders of the Greek Orthodox community, headed by Archimandrite Attalla Hanna, dismiss the denials and accuse Patriarch Irineos of being part of a conspiracy to "Judaise" the old city.
       "The Judaisation of the city is unacceptable and whoever concedes our rights to the city does not represent us," he said. "The individuals involved must be kicked out of the church and tried."
       Marwan Tobasi, head of the executive committee for the Arab Orthodox Conference, said the deal posed "a real threat to the Arab identity of Jerusalem and to the joint Christian-Muslim existence in the city".
       Although the identity of the new owners is not yet public, Palestinians fear they will follow an established pattern of moving Jewish residents into the area and edging Arabs out over time, as has happened in other parts of the old city and just outside its walls.
       The Israeli newspaper Maariv described the sale as Jews seeking to "liberate the lands of Jerusalem".
       The Greek foreign ministry dispatched a delegation to Jerusalem yesterday to investigate the sale in an attempt to prevent a further deterioration in relations between the church leadership and Palestinians who say it is working in league with the Israelis.
       In the 1990s, the church enraged Palestinians by selling land outside East Jerusalem to Jewish investors who built the settlement of Har Homar on it, and there have been several smaller deals since. The church ran into financial problems last year when an Israeli court ordered it to pay about £3.7m to a property developer over a failed hotel construction deal.
       It has also faced upheaval after an Israeli court ruled this month that the election of Irineos I as patriarch in 2001 was illegal. The case was brought by an Arab Israeli who alleged that the election had been fixed with the help of a convicted Greek drug trafficker, Apostolos Vavilis, with close ties to the head of the church in Athens, Archbishop Christodoulos.
       Mr Vavilis has since admitted that he distributed homoerotic pictures of the patriarch's main opponent to influence the election.
    [Emphasis added.]
    [Mar 22, 05]
    • The War Within Islam; The West can't save the world from radical jihadists. But brave Muslims can.
    The War Within Islam; The West can't save the world from radical jihadists. But brave Muslims can
       Australian Reader's Digest, by Fouad Ajami, pp 110-15, April 2005
    A  DARING Muslim journalist in her thirties, Irshad Manji, stepped forth last January with a bold challenge to the Islamic world. "I have to be honest with you - Islam is on very thin ice with me," said Manji, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani ancestry.
       "Through our screaming self-pity and our conspicuous silences, we Muslims are conspiring against ourselves. We're in crisis and we are dragging the rest of the world with us. If ever there was a moment for an Islamic reformation, it's now. For the love of God, what are we doing about it?"
       The alarm bells have been sounded. Manji, a fearless "refusenik" who campaigns for the rights of Muslim women, makes her sweeping indictment in her book, The Trouble With Islam.
       There is a battle under way for the soul of Islam, and it isn't a fight that coalition soldiers can win. This struggle pits mainstream modernists against cruel bigots with a warped vision of the faith.
       What's at stake is nothing short of peace or global war. If the fundamentalists triumph, we will see more terrorism of different kinds: killings of innocent people, attacks on symbols of freedom, sabotage of business and trade interests. If the secularists come to the fore, bored and angry Muslim youths - who fill the ranks of terrorist groups - could reap the rewards of a dramatic economic and cultural renewal.
       Today, the destitution in the Arab heartland is overwhelming. The entire Arab world, with 300 million people, has a combined gross domestic product valued at $77 billion less than that of Spain. The whole Arab region translates fewer foreign books than Greece with its 11 million people.
       The blame for keeping people poor can be laid at the feet of the obscenely rich ruling families in such places as Saudi Arabia and Jordan. But keeping people ignorant is a deliberate strategy of the jihadists, who feed on poverty and ignorance and blame these woes on secular rulers and the corrupt West. The outcome of the struggle be­tween moderate and radical Muslims will probably hinge on this: does Islam have, in its midst, enough reform-minded men and women like Irshad Manji? Does it carry within itself the seeds of renewal?
       IF REFORM is to take root, it may start in a surprising place: Iran. It was there the radical Islamists first came to power, in the late 1970s. A quarter of a century later, large numbers of Iranians have come to realise that the theocratic revolution of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini has brought them only misery and economic ruin.
       In the richest of ironies, one of the chief critics of the regime is a grandson of the radical Ayatollah. Sayyid Hussein Khomeini is attaching his revered family name to a campaign for a civil society, the rule of law, the separation of religion and politics, and the return of the mullahs to the mosques and to the functions of traditional religion.
       Khomeini is tapping into a lot of resentment, especially among the disaffected young. Even though the mullahs still rule, the revolution has not aged well. The regime is riddled with official hypocrisy and corruption and few Iranians today believe in the export of "revolutionary happiness" that had seized them in the era of Ayatollah Khomeini's pan-Islamic revolt. The clerics may rail against the US and Europe, but younger Iranians have a fixation with the ways of the West. Their faith in the clerics is a thing of the past. Sayyid Hussein Khomeini is one of several prominent reformers who are stirring hopes for a fresh revolution.
       IN IRAQ, too, there are encouraging signs of reason and moderation. Much ink is spilled on the young firebrand, Sayyid Moqtada al-Sadr, and his Mahdi army, those boys of the Baghdad slums who have answered Sadr's call by engaging in banditry and fomenting chaos. The much more significant story, though, is unfolding in another place, with another person.
       In the Shia holy city of Najaf, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani appears to have managed a tremendous historical feat: he has pulled Shi'ism back from the brink, subduing its centuries-old romance with martyrdom and revolution. Although Sistani is a man of Iranian birth, and rarely ventures beyond the confines of a modest house in the warrens of Najaf, he holds the affection of the Shia of his adopted country. The majority of Muslims in Iraq belong to this branch of Islam and there is no higher religious authority for the Shia than Sistani. As their supreme jurist, Sistani carries enormous authority.
       It's been critically important, then, that he's given no sustenance to those who wanted war against coalition forces in Iraq. In word and deed, this revered scholar has thrown his weight on the side of reason and practicality.
       True, Sistani's moderation has not prevented the coalition from facing dire problems in Iraq. But the ground would have been burned and the mission there destroyed if Sistani had a radical's soul.
       He does not. When Moqtada al-Sadr attempted to take charge of the holy city of Najaf, Sistani called large crowds into the streets there to demand the withdrawal of the Mahdi army. Sistani is the reason there can be no triumph for Sadr in Iraq.
       NOWHERE IS the war within Islam more bitter, and the outcome more critical, than in Saudi Arabia. Home to Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia has also spawned waves of terrorists, including 15 of the 19 hijackers of 9/11. Osama bin Laden himself comes from one of the kingdom's most exalted families.
       Now, at last, Saudi Arabia's political leaders have awakened to the grave threat surrounding them. The jihadists want to bring down the royal family's secular rule and they have the means to strike hard. Unlike elsewhere in the Arab world, Saudi radicalism has never been a movement of the desperate and the paupers. The children of the poor were merely cannon fodder - the ones who attacked clubs in Tel Aviv strapped with explosive belts.
       Instead it is massive wealth, mainly from oil, that has given this movement its virulence. It's a wealth grafted on to an austere religious tradition, Wahhabism, that is contemptuous of both the "infidels" and other Muslim sects.
       In the course of the last 18 months, Saudi Arabia has become a battle­ground, as the jihadists pursue a campaign of subversion with great cunning and cruelty.
       Determined to drive out the tens of thousands of "expats" ["expatriates," i.e., foreigners temporarily in a country] who keep the economy intact, the terrorists gunned down five Westerners last May at an engineering firm in Yanbu, on the Red Sea. Four weeks later, the militants struck again in a horrific attack on oil company and housing compounds in Khobar, with a toll of 22 lives, including 19 foreigners.
       The perpetrators were children of Arabia, determined to bring about a reign of zeal and wrath, and to rid their land of all Westerners.
       For the Saudi regime, the time of denial had come to an end. The kingdom's rulers declared those jihadists "enemies of Islam," heretics who had lost their way. They agreed to open the workings of the country's financial systems, as well as their charities, to agents of the FBI.
       In a telling development, last June the Saudi and US governments held a joint press conference to announce that five Saudi charities had been designated "financiers of terrorism."
       Among those shut down was Arabia's most powerful "charity" al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, which had supported terror with tentacles reaching into Afghanistan, Pakistan, Albania, Bosnia and the Netherlands.
       It is too early to tell if the tempest in Arabia will subside. But the Saudis now know the high price of flings with religious bigotry.
       THERE IS a hadith (a tradition or saying) attributed to the Prophet Muhammad that the condition of a people will not change unless they change it themselves. There have been scapegoating and escapism aplenty in Islamic lands. A new age of responsibility is long overdue. [Emphasis added]
    [April, 2005]
       [CONTACT: editors.au@readersdigest.com. CONTACT ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: Well, a hadith for most Muslims is a genuine history of the actions and sayings of Muhammad, and as such for most Muslims it is a set of commands, and theoretically must be obeyed on pain of death, in this life as well as the next. An earlier statement that the Saudi rulers declared the jihadists "enemies of Islam" is cold comfort to anyone who was hoping years ago that they would have declared that the fatwa and reward for murdering a famous book author was null and void. The Saudi rulers, as a previous Reader's Digest article shows, have been financing extremism for years. They have not been converted to moderation, because to do so would entail repudiating the ancient writings. More than a Luther is wanted there! Sistani's moderation cannot withstand the assassin's bomb, bullet, or knife. Yet there is no clear prohibition of killing in the tradition. To kill for the faith is "moral." The definition of faith is in reality left to any man (not woman). COMMENT ENDS.] [April 2005]

    • Beware the push for sharia law. Australia flag; Aust. National Flag Assn. 
       The West Australian, Letter, p 16, Tuesday, April 12, 2005
       PERTH: It comes as no surprise that the W A Islamic Council wants to set up sharia divorce courts in WA. Muslims believe they cannot properly practise their religion where sharia law is not enforced, therefore they have a mandate to introduce sharia law wherever they choose to live.
       In countries like the UK they already have an Islamic parliament because the politically correct government bent over backwards and made many concessions to accommodate Muslims, even if it meant changing the constitution.
       They are already trying to do the same here in Australia. They were the main activists behind the religious vilification laws that now exist in Victoria, but were thankfully abandoned in WA - which means I can write letters like this without fear of prosecution. The aim is to have the same protection for Islam they get in Islamic countries, where criticism of any aspect of the religion - even mishandling the Koran - is a capital offence.
       Marriage laws are next on their list. I wonder whether we will draw the line at allowing Muslim men to marry up to four wives, and even nine-year-old girls like their prophet Mohammed, who had up to 21 other wives and sex slaves.
       Will we allow honour killings of girls who refuse to marry their allotted spouses or who are found not to be virgins before marriage? This is already happening in many European countries and investigators are met with a wall of silence from the Islamic community.
       Women are treated as men's possessions in Islam; they have no say in anything; they are often killed for no reason except the husband's displeasure and on divorce, the children always go to the father to be brought up as Muslims. No decent, freedom-loving Australian should allow any woman in this country to be treated like that.
       Once these laws are allowed for Muslims, they then try for more concessions. If they don't get their way, they wait until their higher birthrate results in them outnumbering the host population. This is known as the Qur'anic model of conquest - negotiate peace with your enemy until you're strong enough to annihilate him. Mohammed used it to overcome the Jewish population of Media, formerly Yathrib, in the 7th century, Yasser Arafat applied it to the Oslo Peace Accord too.
       Islam is more than a religion, it is an insidious, seditious organisation that uses many seemingly innocuous ways gradually to overcome an established government. Watch out Australia.# [Emphasis added] [Apr 12, 05]
    • [Non-Aboriginals ought to get out; I've accepted the truth; 'Total way of life'.]
       The West Australian, "I Disagree" section, Letter by Saalik Nazim, Mirrabooka, p 16, Tuesday, April 12, 2005
       PERTH: It still astounds me that there is so much ignorance about one's own culture, as shown by the letter from Peter Boam (9/4).
       Mr Boam tells all Muslims to adhere to "our" culture and habits but seems to forget that "his" people invaded and forced others to live by "his" culture (India, the Americas, Africa).
       Shouldn't you people get out of all those countries you invaded under the same premise? What do the Australian Aboriginals think about this suggestion?
       For your information, the sharia court for divorces is a court for Muslims who have married under Islamic law not secular law. It would not apply to you or your kind.
       These people are not "fanatics", as it appears you are. These people believe in the fundamentals of their "deen" (religion and total way of life).
       What difference is there in a judge saying "I divorce you", as in Australian courts, and people following their customs and doing the same? You seem to have a simplistic and naive understanding of the situation.
       I will say again, Australia is not a multicultural country, only a country of multicultures. Other cultures are not respected unless they kowtow to the ideas of Australians like you.
       If we were multicultural, other cultures would be able openly and safely to practise their culture so long as it does not cause problems with Australian law.
       I will end this letter by saying, before anyone assumes that I come from a Muslim country, as has been assumed many times before, I am an Australian who has recognised and accepted the truth.
       [COMMENT: It would not apply "to you or your kind." Does anyone see where this writer is coming from? He's not actually going to put another sausage on the barbie and teach your kid how to rollerskate, is he? COMMENT ENDS.] [Apr 12, 05]

    • Christian Leader Explains Islam's Appeal to Religious Converts. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       Religion Today Summaries, www.crosswalkmail. com/icfektd _jcvaacj.html , by Chad Groening, Agape Press, Wednesday, April 13, 2005
       AMERICA: A former Muslim woman who now heads an evangelical ministry says she understands why an alarming number of Hispanics are embracing Islam.
       W.L. Cati, president of Zennah Ministries, is a former Muslim woman who says particular groups of people are being actively recruited into her former faith. Cati's belief is that Islam is especially attractive to many Latinos who come from a strongly Catholic background."
       Her theory is that "religion attracts religion," and a works-oriented faith, as she assesses Islam to be, will appeal to those who want to "work [their] way into heaven."
       Sadly, she asserts, people in many faith backgrounds prefer the false notion of works righteousness to the truth of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. An earnest recitation of the shahadah, the Islamic creed or declaration of faith one recites in order to profess faith in Islam, once in Arabic, before two Islamic witnesses is all that is required initially for a person to become a Muslim convert.
       As a former Muslim who found truth and renewed life in Christ, she says she is committed to communicating the truth of the gospel and educating people about the differences between true Christian faith and the Muslim religion. [Apr 13, 05]
    • Observers Predict Revision In Relations With Islam. Vatican City / Papal flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       CathNews (from Church Resources, Australia), www.cathnews.com/news/504/98.php , April 18, 2005
       VATICAN CITY: After two decades of contact and dialogue with the Islamic world under Pope John Paul II, the Vatican is rethinking an approach that critics say has brought almost no benefits to persecuted Catholic minorities in Muslim countries.
       [COMMENT: Funny how the "unchanging" RCC forgot about its previous centuries-long opposition to Islam, stretching back to the Muslim overthrow of the heart of Christianity in the Near East and stretching west across Christian North Africa to Spain, north almost seizing Vienna, and east to Persia/Iran and later even taking India and parts of central Asia and all the way to Indonesia and much of central Africa. In modern times, the slow digestion of Europe and other such countries started in the 1940s.
       The RCC's wrong turn probably began because of the genocidal mass-murders of Stalin and Hitler, thus leading Westerners to abhor anything like strenuous opposition to groups that don't assimilate, because of the risk of committing hate crimes. At the Second Vatican Council the declarations (e.g., November 21, 1964, October 28, 1965) about the Muslims and the Jews were erroneous theology, unrealistic history, and political suicide. One of the documents (November 21, 1964) claims that the Muslims believe in the same "merciful God" that the Roman Catholics do. The "mercy" shown is similar to that shown by the Israelites to the original dwellers in Palestine, or by the Roman Catholic and the Protestant religious and civil rulers, courts, invaders, and colonisers to Muslims, Jews, heretics, schismatics, and pagans all over the world, beginning in ancient times.
       The decadence in the West is now so far advanced, as shown for example by government bans on free speech, that no-one ought to hold his/her breath expecting the RCC or other Western Churches to adopt a realistic attitude to warrior religions and their infiltration. Islam, Sikhism, Shinto, and some original African religions are warrior religions in the modern world. The original Amerindian religions have been all but obliterated -- by the genocide of the Amerindian populations by supposed Christians. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE:[3:118] O ye who believe! Take not into your intimacy those outside your ranks: They will not fail to corrupt you. They only desire your ruin: Rank hatred has already appeared from their mouths: What their hearts conceal is far worse. We have made plain to you the Signs, if ye have wisdom. http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/003.qmt.html#003.118 .
       [8.12] ... I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.
       [9.73] O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination.
       [9.123] O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil). DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Apr 18, 05]

    • [Syrian torture broadcasts followed by destruction - attacks go on] Lebanon flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The Record (Western Australian Roman Catholic newspaper), "Catholic radio bombed in Lebanon; Catholic-run radio station in Lebanon bombed; one person killed" CNS, p 8, May 12, 2005
       JOUNIEH, Lebanon - A Catholic-run radio station in Lebanon was destroyed in a bombing attack on May 6, the latest in a series of attacks in Lebanon's Christian areas.
       The attack was an apparent response to the stations campaign regarding the plight of Lebanese detained in Syrian prisons.
       The Voice of Charity, operated by the Congregation of Maronite Lebanese Missionaries in the port city of Jounieh since 1984, was completely destroyed in the attack, caused by an estimated 50 pounds [22.6 kg] of explosives in the main square outside the building. One person was killed, and more than 20 were injured. Several adjoining buildings were also destroyed in the blast.
       On the day of the attack, the Voice of Charity broadcast live from outside Beirut's UN house, where families of Lebanese detainees staged a sit-in. Approximately 600 Lebanese - including two Maronite priests - have been either missing or detained in Syrian prisons since Lebanon's civil war, which ended in 1989. Syrian authorities have denied the existence of the prisoners, and the Lebanese government has ignored the issue.
       Former prisoners of Syria recounted their experiences of torture in Syria's prisons during the Voice of Charity's live broadcast, and family members of current prisoners shared their frustrations about not knowing about their loved ones. The daylong programming also included prayers and a Mass celebrated for the intention of the prisoners.
       "We consider this attack as a kind of political response" to the May 6 broadcast, said Maronite Father Maurice Chidiac, co-director of the Voice of Charity. "From now on we will consider the cause of the Lebanese prisoners as our case," Father Chidiac said. "It is a kind of democratic expression of our will and our prayers that this case will be sorted out very soon."
       An hour after the attack, the station resumed broadcasting hymns from a transmitter in the sanctuary of Our Lady of Harissa Shrine located on a mountaintop overlooking the Bay of Jounieh; a liturgy was arranged in the station's parking lot on May 8, and the following day a eucharistic procession was held around the grounds of the station and the surrounding damaged neighbourhood. In addition, a special prayer session will be held daily at 9:46 pm, the time at which the blast occurred.
       By May 9, broadcasting had begun from tents erected in the station's parking lot. The Maronite Church of St John the Beloved, located on the street level of the stations second-floor facilities, was severely damaged in the attack, but remains intact. All four of the Voice of Charity's recording studios and possibly its program archives were destroyed.
       An estimated 3,000 people attended the May 8 liturgy in the station's parking lot, with the rubble serving as a backdrop behind the altar.
       In his homily, Voice of Charity co-director Maronite Father Fadi Tabet called for "an open heart and a clear conscience." Referring to the May 6 broadcast on the plight of those in Syrian prisons, he said: "On that day, the Voice of Charity wanted to carry (the prisoners') voice to all the world and to everyone who is willing to listen.
       But there are people who wanted to shut off this voice that is calling for freedom. It is because it is the voice of truth, and they thought by destroying the Voice of Charity they would be destroying this message of truth. But you are all here today to prove that this voice never started with the intention to stop." -CNS # [Bolding added]
       [DOCTRINE: 2.193 - ... Fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 02.qmt.html #002.193 .
       5.51 - O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 005.qmt.html #005.051 .
       19.88-93 - They say: "(Allah) Most Gracious has begotten a son!" Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous! At it the skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin, ... For it is not consonant with the majesty of (Allah) Most Gracious that He should beget a son. ... www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 019.qmt.html #019.088 . DOCTRINE ENDS.] [May 12, 05]

    • Spotlight on crimes in Sudan Sudan / Soudan flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       May 12, 2005

    Spotlight on crimes in Sudan

    Sudanese offer stories of hope, life, faith in struggle to be free The Record (Western Australian Roman Catholic newspaper), By Deacon Greg LaFreniere, CNS, p 9, May 12, 2005
       During informal conversations, many Sudanese reveal how deeply a two decades-long civil war has touched them. Lino Deng Aller, who said he is about 75 years old, is a member of the Dinka tribe and has lived much of his life in and around Mayen Abun.
       He explained how he escaped bombings and troops from the North by living in the bush and forest. The holes in the corrugated tin roof of the village church were caused by gunships and shrapnel, he said. Some damage was caused by soldiers, who shot through the roofs, he added.
       As Aller talked about how his faith sustained him during the war years, he said that of his eight chil­dren only six are alive; two of his sons were killed in the war. His old­est son, Mario Malou, who would now be about 37, left in the late 1970s to avoid being forced to join the army.
       "He wanted to be free ... he went away. I think he is in the United States now; someone told me that is where he went," Aller said.
    [Picture] A Sudanese refugee mother breast-fees her malnourished child.   Photo: CNS
       Touching his heart, Aller added: "If you can find my son, tell him my foundation is empty. He will understand."
       Deacon Francis Lemyama, 37, said that for about 12 years the Nuba Mountains region was cut off from the rest of the country.
       "There was nothing coming in, and people simply learned to go without" things like clothes, soap and salt, he said, adding that no relief agencies worked in the area.
       "The only thing the people had was the diocese," he said.
       Deacon Lemyama remembered what a great occasion it was when a bishop brought sweets for the chil­dren, many of whom did not know what candy was.
       Makuc Akec, 28, left the South in 1988 and fled to northern Sudan, hoping it would be safter there.
    [Picture] Children wait for Mass outside a church in Sudan.   PHOTO: CNS
       He was living in El Obeid and had gone to the river to get water when he was surrounded and captured by troops. He said the soldiers tied him to a tree and told him, "We can kill you."
       Akec said the soldiers put him into a cattle camp, where he was forced to watch the herd.
       After two years of living with the militia, he escaped one night. The soldiers quickly found him and sent him to a second cattle camp in the North. Akec managed to escape a second time, only to be captured again and taken back.
       This time he managed to rejoin his wife and two sets of twin girls, who lived with him in the cattle camp for a year. Adior Thuc, his wife, looked away and answered softly when asked if she or her daughters had been abused. With her face shielded from view and her eyes averted, she said they were beaten and abused.
       Bishop Macram Max Gassis of El Obeid interrupted the silence that followed and suggested Thuc probably had experienced things simply too difficult to share.
       Later, Akec recalled how he was duped by the soldiers. They told him that if he stayed with them for one year he would get a cow to help restart his life. However, after the year they did not give him anything.
       Eventually rebel troops negotiated his release from the government camp and his return to Turalei.
       Akec said after his release he walked away without any belongings, but at least his wife and daughters were with him.
       Akec and Thuc said they hope their children will be able to attend school in Turalei. The sets of twins - 15 and 5 years old - have never attended school.
       Father Joseph Mogga, a parish priest in Turalei, said he entered a minor seminary when his family fled to the refugee camps in neigh­bouring Uganda; he did not see them for another 12 years.
       "My younger sisters didn't even recognise me ... they didn't know who I was," he said.
       Father Mogga's mother, now in her 70s, has spent more than 20 years in refugee camps.
       "However," he said, "her one dream is to die in Sudan."
       Father Mogga said his older brother, John, fled to Khartoum, as the war intensified. He then migrated to Egypt to avoid joining the army.
       He has been in Canada for 25 years and has not seen his family, although he has kept in touch through letters.
       Ahmed Hran, 45, an Arab Muslim, fled his village in western Sudan's Darfur region after an attack by government and militia troops.
       "Everything was destroyed," he said, adding that he and friends left all their belongings when they fled.
       He said troops destroyed all the houses and cut down all the trees in his village, but "we don't I why."
       "Those who couldn't run away were killed, and all the animals were killed," he said.
       "We need the truth to get out ... let everyone, especially the Catholics and Christians, come to Sudan to search for and see what is wrong," he said. #
    [May 12, 05]
    • Thought Crimes: The Race Hate Regime 

    Thought Crimes: The Race Hate Regime

     
       The New Times Survey (Melbourne), by Brian Simpson, pp 1-4, June 2005
    The Sword of the Prophet
       Just between you and me: do you believe that Islam is a threat to the West and the world because Islam really does want to conquer the world and that Muslims believe that only their religion is the true path to salvation? In Australia, as we will soon see, voicing such thoughts in public could land one in much trouble with the law. But in other jurisdictions such thoughts can be voiced. Even in repressive Britain, Anthony Browne was able to say essentially that in The Spectator of 24th July, 2004 ("The Triumph of the East").
       Browne cited the example of Saudi Arabia whose embassy in Washington recommends the home page of its Islamic Affairs department. There it is stated: "The Muslims are required to raise the banner of jihad [Holy War] in order to make the Word of Allah supreme in the world." Arabic TV channels frequently discuss the best way of conquering the West and largely agree that immigration and conversion are the best strategies. Browne sincerely believes that Islam is on the road to conquering the West.
      OUR POLICY  
    To promote service to the Christian revelation of God, loyalty to the Australian Constitutional Monarchy, and maximum co-operation between subjects of the Crown Commonwealth of Nations.
    To defend the free Society and its institutions - private property, consumer control of production through genuine competitive enterprise, and limited decentralised government.
    To promote financial policies, which will reduce taxation, eliminate debt, and make possible material security for all with greater leisure time for cultural activities.
    To oppose all forms of monopoly, either described as public or private.
    To encourage all electors always to record a responsible vote in all elections.
    To support all policies genuinely concerned with conserving and protecting natural resources, including the soil and environment reflecting natural (God's) laws, against policies of rape and waste.
    To oppose all policies eroding national sovereignty, and to promote a closer relationship between the peoples of the Crown Commonwealth and those of the United States of America, who share a common heritage.

       Islamic immigration has met with a backlash in the Netherlands, once home to liberalism in its most extreme form and all things involving White racial suicide. In Dutch cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague, ethnic minorities outnumber native Dutch in the under 20 year old category and very soon will be in absolute majority. The Dutch accepted migrants from former colonies such as Morocco and especially encouraged family reunion migration.
       The Dutch even paid for mosques and special religious schools, and granted dual nationality to Moroccans. Issues of crime and ethnic conflict were ignored in the name of political correctness, until very recently. After a series of violent incidents about 40 per cent of people polled said that they hoped that Muslims no longer feel at home in the Netherlands. The number of asylum seekers admitted per year has been slashed from 43,000 per year to 10,000 and 90 per cent of these applications are rejected. Or so we are told.
       Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch Parliament, living in safe-houses because of Islamist death threats, has said: "I believe we have been far too tolerant for far too long, especially being too tolerant of intolerance, and we only got intolerance back." Barry Madlener, town councillor of Rotterdam has said: "If you say, 'I reject the Western lifestyle and I don't want to fit in your way of life' then I say 'Keep away." These are a few of the typical comments coming [Page 2 begins] from Europe. Even former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt has said: "Multicultural societies have only... functioned peacefully in authoritarian States. To that extent it was a mistake for us to bring guest workers from foreign cultures into the country at the beginning of the 1960s."
       The Winter 2004-2005 edition of The Social Contract, an American journal, is devoted to the issue of the threat of Islam to the West. All contributors to the issue are aware that not all Muslims have a radical agenda. But as Brenda Walker, who produces the website www.Immigrat ionsHuman Cost.org points out, extremist-run mosques are the norm not the exception in the US, with an estimated 80 per cent of mosques following the radical Islamist Wahhabist line. The Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has recognised links to terrorist organisations. In 1998 CAIR's chairman Omar M. Ahmad said: "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran... should be the highest authority in America and Islam the only accepted religion on earth."
       The Social Contract edition goes on to present substantial argument and evidence in the words of Daniel Pipes, that the US Muslim population "includes within it a substantial body of people - many times more numerous than the agents of Osama bin Laden - who share with the suicide highjackers a hatred of the United States and the desire, ultimately, to transform it into a nation living under the strictures of militant Islam." (p.98)
       These themes discussed in The Social Contract are discussed in a number of scholarly books, also reviewed in that edition: Robert Spencer, "Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest Growing Faith" (Encounter Books, San Francisco), Steven Emerson, "American Jihad: The Terrorist Living Among Us" (Free Press, New York) and Dale M. Herder, "Common Sense Rediscovered: Lessons from the Terrorist Attack on America" (DMH and Associates, Lainsburg, Michigan), and Serge Trifkovic, "The Sword of the Prophet: The Politically Correct Guide to Islam: History, Theology, Impact on the World" (Regina Orthodox Press, Boston). Surely then there is a legitimate academic scholarly and public interest question about Islam's potential threat to the West? The authorities quoted may be right or may be wrong but there seems to be a material question here that should be discussed - at least in a free society. Australia, however, is not a "free" society.
    Religion and Vilification in Australia
       The sentiments about Muslims stated above by the selected authorities may constitute thought crimes under Australia's federal and state race hate legislation. In December 2004 Danny Nalliah, pastor of the Christian fundamentalist church, Catch the Fire Ministries, was found guilty of breaching Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 by Judge Michael Higgins of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal (VCAT). The case was brought by the Islamic Council of Victoria and pertained to a seminar, newsletter and website article which was held to have demeaned the religion of Islam and incited fear and hatred of Muslims. Specifically it was claimed by the defendant that the Quran promoted violence and killing and that Muslims had a plan to conquer the West, including Australia. The decision was "welcomed" by the Catholic and Uniting Churches and the "Jewish community": see: D. Hoare, "Pastor Found guilty of vilifying Muslims," The Australian, 20th December, 2004, p.5.
    "Law Report" 2005
       In a transcript of the ABC radio "Law Report" 1st February, 2005 {>http://www. abc.net.au/ rn/talks/ 8.30/lawrpt/ stories/ sl292210.htm<) Waleed Aly, a commercial solicitor in Melbourne, and a member of the executive committee of the Islamic Council of Victoria, the organisation that brought the complaint, states that the main objection by Muslims was "that there was some kind of conspiratorial plot that Muslims would be trying to take over Australia at some point by violent means". Judge Higgins said that the seminar did not constitute a serious discussion of Islamic religious belief.
       Although the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 (Victoria) permits exceptions for academic, religious or scientific purposes, or in the public interests - the proviso is that such purposes must be conducted "reasonably and in good faith". These vague type of phrases allow adequate scope to find that almost any statement - however much in the public interest and of an academic, religious or scientific purpose - is not reasonable or in "good faith". Most controversial political statements made about "hot" issues such as the Jews, race, homosexuals and so on by leading historical figures could be easily argued to constitute vilification. Shakespeare, for an example, is a raging racist and anti-semite by the politically correct standards that constitute "reasonable" and in "good faith" today in our politically correct Leftist universities.
       Judge Higgins did not decide the question of whether the conduct was for a genuine religious purpose or in the public purpose because he found that the conduct was not reasonable or in good faith. The defendants gave cause to be regarded as unreliable witnesses and relied unduly on Biblical quotations. By the standard of the "reasonable" Australian person, arguably Judge Higgins made the right decision. In the present politically correct culture of Australia polite people don't talk about the "hot" topics that Shakespeare, Jesus and Schopenhauer and other great thinkers spoke about. Certainly in an atheistic culture such as Australia's, basing judgements on Biblical quotations indicates something very "unreasonable". This is not a problem with Judge Higgins' reasoning but a problem intrinsic to the reasonable person test, and hence with the legislation. Ultimately it is a problem with the "new class" status quo.
       For example, applying the "reasonable person" test to "victims" in our most unreasonable and arguably insane (consider for example Eric Fromm's The Sane Society which argues that modern capitalism is mentally ill) society, yields the result that almost any criticism will offend, insult, humiliate, or intimidate a "victim" group. All criticism in a culture that makes tolerance mandatory is by definition derogatory, even if true.
       Any criticism can be viewed as offensive in a culture that devalues freedom of speech and rational debate. For this reason, Judge Higgins correctly judged the intellectual standards of mainstream "reasonable" Australian culture. Civil liberty critics are therefore wrong to blame the Judge for making a faulty interpretation of the legislation. The legislation and the intellectual culture which produced it is flawed.
       The intention of race hate legislation has always been to limit freedom of speech. The legislation was introduced to deal with a "race hate" problem - typically to deal first with criticisms of Asian immigration to Australia. Token "protection" clauses were added to the legislation to permit scientific, artistic and academic discussions, and matters in the public interest. This was never done to really allow a sincere debate, but merely to deflect civil libertarian criticism. These protection clauses are weak because of the qualification [Page 3] that the conduct must be reasonable and in good faith. As I have argued, this reasonable person test is highly culturally relative and ultimately leads to the paradoxes of jurisprudence which the Catch the Fire Ministries case illustrates.
       Statements in the public interest and made for the best scientific and academic purposes, if made with heated political passion - as is likely in a political debate - will be seen as unreasonable, intemperate and not in good faith. In our existing repressive culture, all such critics would be viewed by "victims" as hostile. The claims made by British journalist Anthony Browne, Geert Wilders, Helmut Schmidt and especially the writers in the Winter 2004-2005 edition of The Social Contract, if made with passion at a political seminar, could probably lob the speaker in the same situation as Catch the Fire Ministries.
       The statements made by Catch the Fire Ministries may seem extravagant, but some scholars have argued for such a position. In the context of a religious seminar concerned with how to proselytise Muslims, exaggerated or extravagant statements are to be expected. So the lesson for Christians must not be to proselytise Muslims. Religion by definition relies on faith for its basis rather than rationality, so many religious discussions by their very nature will fail the rationality test.
       The defendants Catch the Fire Ministries argued that there are passages in the Quran, Hadith and Suras which could, and do, incite believers to violence and hatred of non-Muslims. This is also the view of many academic critics who see Islam as equivalent to Fundamentalist Islam and incompatible with Western liberalism. It is beyond question that Islamic Fundamentalists justify their actions by reference to various quotations from their religious texts such as the Quran (Believers, make war on infidels that dwell around you" [9.5]).
       The complainants argued that to suppose that Islam was a religion of extremism was an unlawful smear on all Muslims. The judge agreed with this view. In the opinion of this writer the critics of Islam cited earlier in this paper would also so offend, no matter how many references were attached in footnotes. The defendants were asked not to quote from the Quran because this could vilify Muslims. Thus no matter what was in the Quran, no defendant could mount an effective defense because the primary evidence could not be considered.
       In all other cases not involving race/religion, this would constitute an abuse of process and an unfair trial. However the judge once again understood the role of race hate legislation in our "multicultural society". It is intrinsic to the doctrine of multiculturalism that "intolerance" cannot be tolerated - even in a legal defence. As in Germany, in cases of Holocaust denial, even mounting a defence may constitute a new act of denial and a new offence. Likewise no defence referring to violent passages in Islamic sacred texts would legitimately fall under the permitted exceptions of the Act. In a multicultural society negative comments about races, ethnic groups and religions, provided that they are not Northern European Christians are unbalanced and unreasonable. The new class have now made this a matter of definition.
       In summary then, Justice Higgins did make a correct legal judgement within the present cultural context of politically correct multi-cultural Australia. It is however not the learned Judge's reasoning which is at fault, but the legislation itself and the intellectual culture which produced it. The judge has merely followed the letter of the law. But in so doing we can see clearer than ever before the extreme oppressiveness of race hate legislation.
    Where Did PC Come From?
       Frank Ellis is an academic in the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies, University of Leeds, England. In his paper "From Communism's 'Enemy of the People' to PC's 'Hate Criminal'," The Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies (vol.30, no.l, 2005), Ellis explores the question of the origin of political correctness. Communists from Lenin onwards devoted considerable energy towards suppressing politically undesirable thought. Mao, during his red terror dug out "enemies of the people" and at the barrel of a gun enforced "correct thinking".
       Completely innocent people frequently had to confess to the Soviet KGB and Mao's Red Terror to a variety of absurd politically incorrect "crimes". While this was done, Stalin's Terror Famine in the early 1930's alone resulted in over 11,000,000 peasants being shot and starved to death. Mao in the late 1950's killed as many as 50,000,000 people. Yet unlike Germany, China has never apologised for its past and continues to build up its military might. In Australia it's not "polite" to endanger trade by discussing the possibility of a "China threat".
       Political correctness, Ellis argues, originated in the Soviet Union and after undergoing various mutations, grew in Western universities and law schools. Ellis believes that this process took place in the 1990s, but there is a case that the seeds of political correctness were sown in the cultural revolution of the 1960s in the West, beginning with the Civil Rights and immigration reform movements and the ascendancy of Leftist thought and activism. In any case, for the Leftist the hate figure of the ruthless capitalist was replaced in the new Leftist demonology by the White, heterosexual, middle class male, the new enemy of the "people". The "people" now were increasingly becoming through mass immigration, people of colour of the Third World.
       The working class of the West failed to be good Leftist pawns and "make revolution" like breeding dogs. The working class has thus been replaced as heroes of the Left by a new heterogeneous class of victims: homosexuals, racial and ethnic minorities and women. As Ellis puts it, multiculturalism has an unholy trinity of damnation: homophobia, sexism and racism. These are the ultimate evil that must be destroyed at all costs. Racism permeates White civilisation so White civilisation must be transformed by the cleansing powers of non-White immigration and inter-racial unions.
       Race hate legislation which criminalises an entire spectrum of ideas is necessary in this demonology to socially sanction and reinforce thought codes and to eliminate resistance to what essentially amounts to White racial suicide. The mere threat of imprisonment or massive fines promotes self-censorship. A Ellis notes, forcing people to believe that their undemocratically instituted multiracial, multicultural societies are the epitome of ethnic harmony typically leads to the Yugoslavia situation at some point when "resentments and festering hatreds" erupt in an "orgy of genocide". This apparently was what race hate legislation specifically, and multiculturalism in general, was to avoid. Ellis says:
       "Legislators in the West who think that the West will always be immune from such violence overestimate the extent to which human behaviour can be manipulated by ill-conceived laws. People do not become favourably disposed to one another because of hate crime legislation. Public displays of tolerance are not enough to hold a multicultural society together. Without that essential feeling that the "other" belongs in my tribe, the "other" will always be an outsider. The more governments coerce public opinion, the bigger will be the divide [Page 4] between the private and public spheres. The more I am told that I must accept the "other", the more I will come to resent and eventually, to reject him. Denied the option of expressing my rejection of multiculturalism in public, I can give free rein only within the four walls of my home. And what happens when eventually the barriers come down, as they must, between what I really think and feel, and between what I am expected to say in public? The obedient arrows of my hatred, lovingly made and crafted, will do my bidding." (p. 104).
    Waking in Fright
       One of the articles published in The Social Contract, Winter 2004-2005 by Ilana Mercer is entitled "Muslim Immigration: A Time Bomb that is Ignored by American Jews". Mercer states that American Jewry (and by implication all Jews in the West although it is too late for their European, British and Canadian brethren) are threatened by Muslim immigration. She cites the work of leading US Jewish intellectual Stephen Steinlight in his paper for the Centre for Immigration Studies, "High Noon to Midnight: Does Current Immigration Policy Doom American Jewry". Both authors state that the US Muslim community is the most anti-semitic in the US. As Mercer puts it: "The violent assaults on Jews and their property in Europe and Canada are almost exclusively the handiwork of an old hatred, nurtured within Islamic countries, whose religion, unlike Christianity and Judaism, has not undergone an Enlightenment". Steinlight also agrees and the following quote should be compared to the judgement in the Catch the Fires case:
       "It is virtually impossible to be reared in classical Islam and not be educated to hate Jews - based on a literalist reading of the Koran, where many of the Suras concerning Jews are monstrously hateful, murderous, terrifying, as well as the literature of the Sunnah. These texts also regard Jews as a spiritually fraudulent entity -all the prophets and great figures of the Hebrew Bible, according to Islamic teaching, were Muslims, not Jews... With the exception of a tiny group of courageous American Muslims... who have spoken out and condemned... anti-Semitism, the 'Muslim Street' in the US has yet to show its disapproval of this philosophical and political agenda."
       Remember, that statement is by a leading Jewish intellectual. Unfortunately there is little that can be done about it by us in Australia to help prevent this outbreak of anti-Semitism, an outbreak described by these Jewish intellectuals. For us race hate legislation now restrains our thoughts and actions. Ironically, it was the Jewish community that lobbied hard and relentlessly to have such legislation put in place in the first place. We conclude by citing Ellis again:
       "Free speech is one of the most important weapons the citizenry have to defend themselves against dictators and tyrants, which is why they [multiculturalists] want to destroy it... Hate crime legislation ...[is] designed to intimidate opponents and where that fails to punish them and to deter further dissenters." (p. 117). #
       [RECAPITULATION: ... being too tolerant of intolerance ... The Dutch even paid for mosques and special religious schools ... RECAP. ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: And so does Australia! In addition, in mid July 2006 as rockets were being fired into Israel, and Israel was bombing unfortunates in Lebanon, and both Arabs and Israelis are kidnapping, Australia announced millions of dollars for Islamic studies -- when a close study of Hebrew scriptures, and a paperback Koran for less than $30, would give all the information required! A day or two earlier Australian had banned two books, which quoted standard Islamic holy books and authors contending that holy warfare against all non-Muslims is ordered by Allah! COMMENT ENDS.]
       [2nd RECAPITULATION: "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant." RECAP. ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE (Hebrew Torah);
       But if any harm follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. -- Hebrew Torah, Exodus 21:23-25 at http://www. mechon-mamre. org/p/pt/pt 0221.htm (A Hebrew-English Bible, According to the Masoretic Text and the JPS 1917 Edition) {Compare with Islamic text, Koran 5:45 / 49}
       If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him. - Hebrew Torah, Leviticus 24:19-20 (New American Standard translation)
       Thus you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. -- Hebrew Torah, Deuteronomy 19:21 (NAS)
       [DOCTRINE (Koran / Quran): 2:193:- ... Fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left.
       5:45 (or 49):- And we decreed for them in it that: the life for the life, the eye for the eye, the nose for the nose, the ear for the ear, the tooth for the tooth, and an equivalent injury for any injury. ... www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 005.qmt.html #005.045
       8:12:- ... I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/ quran/008.qmt. html#008.012 .
       8:38 (or 40):- Make war on them until strife shall be at an end, and the religion be all of it God's. DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Issue: June 2005]

    • [Woods' kidnappers 'honest hands', says leader Al-Hilaly; Downer says Al-Hilaly making progress] Iraq / Irak flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Australia flag; Aust. National Flag Assn. 
    I've seen kidnapped Australian in Iraq, says Muslim leader
       The West Australian, p 4, Monday, June 6, 2005
       CANBERRA: Douglas Wood was in honest hands, Australia's top Muslim cleric said yesterday after he had seen the 63-year-old Australian hostage who is being held in Iraq.
       Egyptian-born mufti Taj el-din al-Hilaly said Mr Wood, who was kidnapped late in April, was being held by people who were protest­ing at what he described as the oppression of the United States-led occupation.
       "I swear that Douglas Wood is still alive and is in honest hands and with people who have an issue," Sheikh al-Hilaly said.
       "They (the kidnappers) want others to listen to them. They are not against the Australian people. Why don't we listen to their issues? Their rights were oppressed."
    [Picture] Sheikh Taj el-din al-Hilaly: Says he has seen hostage Douglas Wood.
       Since arriving in Baghdad last week, Sheikh al-Hilaly has been airing what he says are the griev­ances of the kidnappers in an apparent bid to free Mr Wood. He has been calling on US-led forces to free Iraqi detainees and end their occupation of Iraq.
       Mr Wood was abducted shortly before a militant group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahideen of Iraq released a DVD on May 1 showing him pleading for Australia to withdraw its 1400 troops from Iraq.
       The Australian Government has refused to bend to terrorists' demands regarding Mr Wood, who has a heart condition and requires regular medication.
       A team of diplomats, police and military personnel from Australia is in Iraq trying to secure Mr Wood's release. In a TV interview yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Sheikh al-Hilaly was making progress towards freeing Mr Wood. #
       [RECAP.: "They (the kidnappers) want others to listen to them. They are not against the Australian people. Why don't we listen to their issues? Their rights were oppressed." -- Al-Hilaly. ENDS.
       [COMMENT: The statement that Al-Hilaly had seen Wood bears close scrutiny. Mr Downer's apparent swallowing of Al-Hilali's story shows why Australia's foreign policy is so askew on this as on most other matters.
       (Taj el-din al-Hilaly's surname variants in news media include Alhilaly and Alhilali. "Mujahideen" is also spelt different ways in different places.) COMMENT ENDS.] [Jun 6, 05]

    • Afghan arrested for murder of cameraman Afghanistan flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 
       The West Australian, p 4, Monday, June 6, 2005
       AFGHANISTAN: Afghan authorities have arrested a gang leader accused of killing Australian camera operator Harry Burton and three other foreign journalists more than three years ago.
       The suspect, identified as Zar Jan, was arrested after a shootout with police in Sarobu district, about 50km east of Kabul on Saturday night.
       Burton and Afghan photographer Azizullah Haidari, both 33, Spaniard Julio Fuentes and Italian Maria Grazia Cutuli were killed on November 19, 2001, at Tangi Abrishum, about 90km east of Kabul.
       They were stopped on the road from Pakistan by a gang of about 12 gunmen while trying to reach Kabul days after the defeated Taliban had withdrawn from the city.
       They were shot and killed shortly afterwards. [Jun 6, 05]
    • Six-week Iraq horror over as Wood goes free. Iraq / Irak flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
    Six-week Iraq horror over as Wood goes free
       The West Australian, by BEN RUSE, Page One, Thursday, June 16, 2005
       CANBERRA: After a six-week nightmare held captive and threatened with death by Iraqi insurgents, Australian hostage Douglas Wood was freed yesterday in a dramatic operation involving Iraqi and United States forces.
       John Howard, who announced Mr Wood's release in Parliament late yesterday, did not reveal details of the rescue but Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said later he was taken by force.
       Mr Wood, a 64-year-old engineer seeking private contract work in Iraq, is a long-time resident of California and married to an American. He had been held by the Shura Council of the Mujahideen of Iraq group which had threatened to kill him if Australian troops were not withdrawn from Iraq.
       The Prime Minister maintained the Government's firm line of not negotiating with terrorists during Mr Wood's ordeal. He said no ransom had been paid.
       Mr Howard said Mr Wood was in Baghdad last night under the protection of the Australian emergency response team which had been set up to try to secure his release. He was having medical checks but appeared in good shape though mentally exhausted.
    [Picture of bald man, with the ends of two firearms pointing at his head, and Arabic writing.]
    Loaded gun: An unwell and despondent Douglas Wood makes a plea for his life in a video released by his captors on May 6.

       Mr Wood's three brothers, Graham, Malcolm and Vernon, issued a statement saying they were delighted he had been released.
       "It has been a horrifying ordeal for him. The family is greatly relieved," they said.
       No one from the family had spoken to him. The brothers did not know when Mr Wood would leave Iraq or where he would go.
       Mr Wood had been in poor health and suffered heart disease and high blood pressure which needed daily medication.
       Mr Downer said details of the operation would not be released for several days. He said the Australian Government had not been aware that the rescue was taking place but had authorised the use of military force if it was thought appropriate by Iraqi troops.
       "It ended through some kind of military intervention. It was one of the options we had approved," he said. He did not know if anyone had been killed but said people had been detained.
       A Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said the operation occurred in early morning Baghdad time. Mr Downer said Mr Wood had been extraordinarily lucky because few hostages were released through military action.
       Continued on page 6 [Not shown here] #
    [Jun 16, 05]
    • Prophet of Decline. United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Italy flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
    Prophet of Decline
    An interview with Oriana Fallaci
       Opinion Journal, from The Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal editorial page, www.opinionjournal. com/columnists/ tvaradarajan/?id= 110006858 , BY TUNKU VARADARAJAN, Thursday, June 23, 2005
       NEW YORK--Oriana Fallaci faces jail. In her mid-70s, stricken with a cancer that, for the moment, permits only the consumption of liquids--so yes, we drank champagne in the course of a three-hour interview--one of the most renowned journalists of the modern era has been indicted by a judge in her native Italy under provisions of the Italian Penal Code which proscribe the "vilipendio," or "vilification," of "any religion admitted by the state."
       In her case, the religion deemed vilified is Islam, and the vilification was perpetrated, apparently, in a book she wrote last year--and which has sold many more than a million copies all over Europe--called The Force of Reason. Its astringent thesis is that the Old Continent is on the verge of becoming a dominion of Islam, and that the people of the West have surrendered themselves fecklessly to the "sons of Allah." So in a nutshell, Oriana Fallaci faces up to two years' imprisonment for her beliefs--which is one reason why she has chosen to stay put in New York. Let us give thanks for the First Amendment.
       It is a shame, in so many ways, that "vilipend," the latinate word that is the pinpoint equivalent in English of the Italian offense in question, is scarcely ever used in the Anglo-American lexicon; for it captures beautifully the pomposity, as well as the anachronistic outlandishness, of the law in question. A "vilification," by contrast, sounds so sordid, so tabloid--hardly fitting for a grande dame.
       "When I was given the news," Ms. Fallaci says of her recent indictment, "I laughed. Bitterly, of course, but I laughed. No amusement, no surprise, because the trial is nothing else but a demonstration that everything I've written is true." An activist judge in Bergamo, in northern Italy, took it upon himself to admit a complaint against Ms. Fallaci that even the local prosecutors would not touch.
       The complainant, one Adel Smith--who, despite his name, is Muslim, and an incendiary public provocateur to boot--has a history of anti-Fallaci crankiness, and is widely believed to be behind the publication of a pamphlet, "Islam Punishes Oriana Fallaci," which exhorts Muslims to "eliminate" her.
       (Ironically, Mr. Smith, too, faces the peculiar charge of vilipendio against religion--Roman Catholicism in his case--after he described the Catholic Church as "a criminal organization" on television. Two years ago, he made news in Italy by filing suit for the removal of crucifixes from the walls of all public-school classrooms, and also, allegedly, for flinging a crucifix out of the window of a hospital room where his mother was being treated. "My mother will not die in a room where there is a crucifix," he said, according to hospital officials.)
       Ms. Fallaci speaks in a passionate growl: "Europe is no longer Europe, it is 'Eurabia,' a colony of Islam, where the Islamic invasion does not proceed only in a physical sense, but also in a mental and cultural sense. Servility to the invaders has poisoned democracy, with obvious consequences for the freedom of thought, and for the concept itself of liberty." Such words--"invaders," "invasion," "colony," "Eurabia"--are deeply, immensely, Politically Incorrect; and one is tempted to believe that it is her tone, her vocabulary, and not necessarily her substance or basic message, that has attracted the ire of the judge in Bergamo (and has made her so radioactive in the eyes of Europe's cultural elites).
       "Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder," the historian Arnold Toynbee wrote, and these words could certainly be Ms. Fallaci's. She is in a black gloom about Europe and its future: "The increased presence of Muslims in Italy, and in Europe, is directly proportional to our loss of freedom." There is about her a touch of Oswald Spengler, the German philosopher and prophet of decline, as well as a flavor of Samuel Huntington and his clash of civilizations. But above all there is pessimism, pure and unashamed.
       When I ask her what "solution" there might be to prevent the European collapse of which she speaks, Ms. Fallaci flares up like a lit match. "How do you dare to ask me for a solution? It's like asking Seneca for a solution. You remember what he did?" She then says "Phwah, phwah," and gestures at slashing her wrists. "He committed suicide!" Seneca was accused of being involved in a plot to murder the emperor Nero. Without a trial, he was ordered by Nero to kill himself. One senses that Ms. Fallaci sees in Islam the shadow of Nero. "What could Seneca do?" she asks, with a discernible shudder. "He knew it would end that way--with the fall of the Roman Empire. But he could do nothing."
       The impending Fall of the West, as she sees it, now torments Ms. Fallaci. And as much as that Fall, what torments her is the blithe way in which the West is marching toward its precipice of choice. "Look at the school system of the West today. Students do not know history! They don't, for Christ's sake. They don't know who Churchill was! In Italy, they don't even know who Cavour was!"--a reference to Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, the conservative father, with the radical Garibaldi, of Modern Italy.
       Ms. Fallaci, rarely reverent, pauses here to reflect on the man, and on the question of where all the conservatives have gone in Europe. "In the beginning, I was dismayed, and I asked, how is it possible that we do not have Cavour . . . just one Cavour, uno? He was a revolutionary, and yes, he was not of the left. Italy needs a Cavour--Europe needs a Cavour." Ms. Fallaci describes herself, too, as "a revolutionary"--"because I do what conservatives in Europe don't do, which is that I don't accept to be treated like a delinquent." She professes to "cry, sometimes, because I'm not 20 years younger, and I'm not healthy. But if I were, I would even sacrifice my writing to enter politics somehow."
       Here she pauses to light a slim black cigarillo, and then to take a sip of champagne. Its chill makes her grimace, but fortified, she returns to vehement speech, more clearly evocative of Oswald Spengler than at any time in our interview. "You cannot survive if you do not know the past. We know why all the other civilizations have collapsed--from an excess of welfare, of richness, and from lack of morality, of spirituality." (She uses "welfare" here in the sense of well-being, so she is talking, really, of decadence.) "The moment you give up your principles, and your values . . . the moment you laugh at those principles, and those values, you are dead, your culture is dead, your civilization is dead. Period." The force with which she utters the word "dead" here is startling. I reach for my flute of champagne, as if for a crutch.
       "I feel less alone when I read the books of Ratzinger." I had asked Ms. Fallaci whether there was any contemporary leader she admired, and Pope Benedict XVI was evidently a man in whom she reposed some trust. "I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true. It's that simple! There must be some human truth here that is beyond religion."
       Ms. Fallaci, who made her name by interviewing numerous statesmen (and not a few tyrants), believes that ours is "an age without leaders. We stopped having leaders at the end of the 20th century." Of George Bush, she will concede only that he has "vigor," and that he is "obstinate" (in her book a compliment) and "gutsy. . . . Nobody obliged him to do anything about Terri Schiavo, or to take a stand on stem cells. But he did."
       But it is "Ratzinger" (as she insists on calling the pope) who is her soulmate. John Paul II--"Wojtyla"--was a "warrior, who did more to end the Soviet Union than even America," but she will not forgive him for his "weakness toward the Islamic world. Why, why was he so weak?"
       The scant hopes that she has for the West she rests on his successor. As a cardinal, Pope Benedict XVI wrote frequently on the European (and the Western) condition. Last year, he wrote an essay titled "If Europe Hates Itself," from which Ms. Fallaci reads this to me: "The West reveals . . . a hatred of itself, which is strange and can only be considered pathological; the West . . . no longer loves itself; in its own history, it now sees only what is deplorable and destructive, while it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure."
       "Ecco!" she says. A man after her own heart. "Ecco!" But I cannot be certain whether I see triumph in her eyes, or pain.
       As for the vilipendio against Islam, she refuses to attend the trial in Bergamo, set for June 2006. "I don't even know if I will be around next year. My cancers are so bad that I think I've arrived at the end of the road. What a pity. I would like to live not only because I love life so much, but because I'd like to see the result of the trial. I do think I will be found guilty."
       At this point she laughs. Bitterly, of course, but she laughs.
       Mr. Varadarajan is editorial features editor of The Wall Street Journal.
    [Jun 23, 05]
    • The day terror came to London.  July 9, 2005 Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
    LONDON BLASTS; YOUR 8-PAGE SPECIAL
    THE DAY TERROR CAME TO LONDON
       The West Australian, July 9, 2005
    • [Britain gave haven to suspected terrorists; reaps punishment]
    Britain's Islamic haven spawns a vipers' nest
    London suffers at the hands of al-Qaida supporters to whom it gave refuge
       The West Australian, "London blasts" special feature page 7, Saturday, July 9, 2005
       BEIRUT: When Islamic militants massacred 58 tourists in Egypt in 1997, the government issued a list of 14 most-wanted militants it accused of inspiring the attacks. Half were living in London and none were arrested.
       A year later, when suicide bombers at two United States embassies in East Africa killed 224 people, three men linked to Egyptian militant groups were arrested in London. They are still fighting extradition to the US.
       For decades, London has been a haven for Islamic militants fleeing from crackdowns by their home governments in the Middle East. For the first time, it appeared to fall victim on Thursday to Islamist violence.

    'Britain could become a new front line in the conflict between Islamic militants and the West'
    MOHAMMAD SALAH, JOURNALIST ON AL-HAYAT

       "Britain could become a new front line in the conflict between Islamic militants and the West," said Mohammad Salah, an expert on militancy at the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat. "It has become harder for militants to reach the United States. That makes Britain a more tempting target, especially because the militants have had a long time to establish networks there."
       Analysts said al-Qaida, led by Osama bin Laden, now was more of a grass roots than top-down organisation. Because of the worldwide war on terror, it could not carry out com­plex attacks that took long preparation, such as those on September 11, 2001. It used the internet to spread its ideology and techniques to a big audience. Small groups acted in its name.
       Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, terrorism experts have warned that al-Qaida has gained followers, par­ticularly in Europe where a big, well-educated Muslim population familiar with technology has some angry and alienated young people attracted to the call of holy war against the West.
       For years, the British Government monitored Islamic extremists but did not clamp down because officials feared that they would go underground and be harder to control.

    [Picture] Asylum: Abu Hamza al-Masri was arrested in Britain last year at the request of US officials and is fighting extradition.
       That changed after the US attacks. Prime Minister Tony Blair's Government tightened asylum and extradition laws and made incitement to religious hatred a crime. It also gave police the power to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely without charge.
       But London still has dozens of militants from Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. They went there because it is a global financial centre, international travel hub and has two million Muslims. Britain also has a tradition of taking in refugees and asylum-seekers.
       Islamic extremists criticising Middle East regimes and sometimes supporting bin Laden generated a debate in the 1990s about asylum policies and the limits of free speech.
       The asylum issue has long strained relations between Egypt and Britain. Since the early 1990s, Egypt has tried unsuccessfully to extradite nearly 20 militants from Britain. Before the September 11 attacks, the British had also rebuffed extradition requests from Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. British courts have repeatedly ruled that militants should not be sent back to countries where there is a death penalty or where they cannot be assured of getting fair trials.
       Egypt was especially angered by the granting of asylum to Yasser al-Sirri, a former leader of Islamic Jihad, the group that assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981 and later waged a long campaign of terror aimed at toppling the government.
       Al-Sirri, who was sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian military court, fled to London in 1993. He set up the Islamic Observation Centre, which he says is a group that disseminates information about Islamic causes. "In Britain, there is a system of law, which Tony Blair must obey," al-Sirri told Newsday in October 2001. "Hosni Mubarak does not obey any law."
       Shortly after, al-Sirri was arrested for issuing statements on behalf of various militant groups. He has been in and out of British jails since then and is fighting extradition to the US.
       Egyptian Abu Hamza al-Masri also got asylum in Britain. He was arrested last year at the request of US officials and is fighting extradition. The Finsbury Park mosque where he usually gave the Friday sermon was shut in January 2003, after a raid by anti-terrorism police. September 11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui and shoe bomber Richard Reid frequented it.
       After the shutdown, al-Masri preached in a nearby park. "Seek the way of death, try to do actions that subject you to death," he told an audience of mainly young men in April last year. "If you die to defend your religion, you are a martyr." #
       [RECAPITULATION: ... Islamic militants massacred 58 tourists in Egypt in 1997, ... 14 most-wanted militants ... accused ... Half were living in London and none were arrested. A year later, when suicide bombers at two United States embassies in East Africa killed 224 people, three men ... were arrested in London. They are still fighting extradition to the US.
       Since the early 1990s, Egypt has tried unsuccessfully to extradite nearly 20 militants from Britain. Before the September 11 attacks, the British had also rebuffed extradition requests from Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
       "Try to do actions that subject you to death" - Al-Masri. ENDS.] [Jul 9, 05]

    • [Sheikh Omran of Australia approves of Osama Bin Laden]. "Muslims prepare for backlash," www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2005/s1411904.htm , Reporter: Tony Jones, Broadcast: July/11/2005
       AUSTRALIA -- TONY JONES: Well, despite warnings from figures such as the Archbishop of Canterbury not to make Muslims scapegoats for the London bombings, it seems a backlash has begun. In New Zealand, mosques have been targeted and police in some Australian capital cities have also stepped up security. To discuss this and what exactly it is that radicalises young Muslims and attracts them to the teaching of militants, we're joined in our Melbourne studio by Sheikh Mohammed Omran. He is the iman of a Melbourne mosque and head of the al-Sunnah Wal-Jamaah association, which I think is fair to say is a fundamentalist Islamic organisation. Reda Hassaine is a journalist who fled Islamist terror in Algeria and ended up as an informer on Islamic militants for French intelligence, the British Special Branch and M-I5. He's in our London studio. Thanks to both of you for joining us. Sheikh Omran, after the news today from New Zealand, are you at all worried there will be a backlash against Australian Muslims?
    * * *
       TONY JONES: Can I interrupt you, though, because I asked you a specific question there about Osama bin Laden, and I asked it specifically because you have actually said in the past that Osama bin Laden is a very great man for some of his actions.
       MOHAMMED OMRAN: This is as I said. When you look at the man from some part of his life, yes, he is. From another part, well, again, what action we are talking about? I dispute any evil action linked to bin Laden. Again, I don't believe that even September 11 - from the beginning, I don't believe that it has done by any Muslim at all, or any other activities. London, as I said just a few seconds ago, never done yet - no-one proven that any Muslim has a hand in it. But ... [Jul 11, 05]
    • When will carnage in Iraq, Afghanistan end?.
    When will carnage in Iraq, Afghanistan end?
       The West Australian, Various Letters to The Editor, p 19, Thursday, July 11, 2005
    When will carnage in Iraq, Afghanistan end?
       It would appear to me that Australians are starting to take their eyes off the ball in their apathy to the continuing injustice of the occupation of Iraq and to Prime Minister John Howard's commitment to provide Australian troops to assist his American friend.
       If you choose to watch some of the minor television stations you will get a limited news coverage of the daily carnage that is the fate if the Iraqi people and the mounting suffering of the innocent.
       It would be true to say that this suffering is being perpetuated by Iraqi on Iraqi but this time it is under the governance of the occupying forces.
       Previously, of course, it was the supporters of the Saddam regime who meted out the suffering to his opponents and this became the concocted reason for the allied liberation of the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator. As a result of this so-called humanitarian occupation, countless more people are suffering deprivation and are in greater danger of personal injury than at any time during the previous regime.
       While Saddam ruled with the threat of imprisonment, torture and death, there was at least a unified obedience to a central authority throughout the country. Now in Iraq there is nothing being offered in the foreseeable future but anarchy and the threat of endless conflict between the various religious and ethnic sectors.
       Mr Howard, in an undisguised move to secure a free trade deal with America, made a rash open-ended commitment of Australian troops to the allied occupation of Iraq and to provide support to the Americans troops anywhere in the world, on demand.
       With the Americans floundering in an increasingly obvious inability to overcome the insurgents, it would seem that our troops are destined for a long and dangerous stay in Iraq as part of an occupying force.
       Once again, John Howard is about to put Australian troops in fruitless danger to honour his rash commitment - it would seem that there is mounting political pressure to resume the Australian presence in Afghanistan. This is because the Americans are starting to realise that they are involved in another imminent defeat, as they wander around the world, meddling in other people's affairs.
       In the space of probably no more than three to five years, all the countryside of Afghanistan outside of Kabul will be back in the hands of the Taliban, simply because it is their country and they are skilled at fighting in the harsh and challenging terrain.
       The Pentagon is starting to realise that America is not equipped to fight two relatively intensive wars at the same time and one solution is to call on John Howard's boys to help them out.
       When will it end? Clive Coombs, Cloverdale.
    LONDON TERROR
    Get serious with these cowards
       The heroic terrorists have struck again. They have bravely murdered unarmed innocent commuters in London. It is a pity they didn't pick on the G8 Summit. They may have all died for the cause without inflicting much damage. Strange that, isn't it? They never pick targets that can fight back.
       Seriously, we Western countries affected by these scum need to legislate to make it lethal to be a member of such organisations (outside their own country), with mandatory death penalties to apply to anyone involved in any way with terrorists outside their own country. They then should have their carcasses doused in pig or cow's blood (whichever applies) before burial in an unmarked grave. N.Cutten, Albany.
    Put an end to this medieval nonsense
       So, the Islamic terrorists have blown up hundreds of innocent passengers in the London tube and on a double-decker bus. This is in retaliation for what? To turn Britain into a 14th century state where women are treated as chattels and kept covered in bed sheets? Where men no longer think for themselves but are controlled by old embittered imams without a realistic thought in their head?
       It is not going to happen. The Western world has grown up beyond the medieval nonsense that these fanatics are peddling. The obvious reaction of the Western world should simply be to give the various versions of the SAS a bag of cartridges and send them hunting, not to return until these idiots are all in this paradise to which they are so eager to send other people. J.T.Boot, Beldon.
    We are importing the same problem
       In the wake of the London bombings, I would like to see all of our weak-kneed politicians and the bleeding heart brigade sent to assist with the wounded and dying. Under the pretence of political asylum and multiculturalism we have imported our own terrorists.
       The British have all but lost their identity and culture, and Australia sadly is following in their footsteps. Do we wait to be bombed before we stop welcoming these terrorists into our country? Graham Chapman, Rockingham. .
    Bombings do Islam no favours
       To the terrorists of London, you are not helping your cause, you are damning it for all people who are under the umbrella of your religion, Islam. Through your actions you have instantly made life difficult for millions of innocent people who may follow Islam and who are truly decent, law-abiding people who now face the possibility of acts of retaliation. If you want your lives made better, try diplomacy and kindness. Laura Martinazzo, Joondanna.
    Londoners are the wrong target
       So now you cowardly evil bastards have started on London. You have picked the wrong race to antagonise, you mindless animals. Rosemary Richardson, Forrestfield.
    Today's text
    Real love isn't our love for God, but His love for us. God sent His Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. -- 1 JOHN 4:10. (The Bible for Today). From the Bible Society.
    [Jul 11, 05]
    • Londoners united; Wary city gets back to work after 250,000 turn out to defy terror bombing threat.
    Wary city gets back to work after 250,000 turn out to defy terror bombing threat
    Londoners united
       The West Australian, Page One, Tuesday, July 12, 2005
       LONDON: As the search for the missing continued in bomb-shaken London yesterday, the Australian Government warned Australians could be among the dead.
       And the possibility of a terror attack in Australia rose when Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said that the number of Australians known to have travelled to Afghanistan to train under the Taliban was much higher than had been made public.
       He said that among people whose homes were raided in Melbourne and Sydney in recent weeks were several men known to have undertaken training under the Taliban.
    [Picture] - London lives: Tens of thousands stand in a Union Jack-bedecked Mall in a show of solidarity to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II. Picture: Associated Press
       Prime Minister John Howard said he could not rule out Australian deaths with London's King's Cross station still to be cleared of bodies and all but four of the dead still unidentified.
       Six of nine Australians hurt in last week's blasts remain in hospital. One is in a critical condition and another is in intensive care.[...] [Jul 12, 05]

    INSIDE
    • Pressure-packed day for jaded forensic officers P6
    • Bike sales boom as Londoners steer clear of public transport P7
    • Defiant Britons pay tribute to a wartime generation P9

    [Jul 12, 05]
    • Hundreds of Diggers likely to be sent back to Afghanistan.
       The West Australian, Page One, Tuesday, July 12, 2005
       CANBERRA: Federal Cabinet is likely to approve today sending hundreds of troops back to Afghanistan, including 150 Perth-based SAS soldiers as well as RAAF aircraft.
       Senior military officers are under­stood to have prepared troop deploy­ment options ranging from sending 100 or so troops to a contingent of about 500. [...]
       Australia sent 1550 soldiers and sailors to the United States-led war against terrorism in Afghanistan in /t 2001. It scaled back its contribution by the end of 2002, before the war in Iraq began in early 2003. Only one Australian soldier remains there.# [Jul 12, 05]
    • LONDON TERROR. These people want a Muslim world order.
    LONDON TERROR. These people want a Muslim world order
       The West Australian, Various Letters to The Editor, p 17, Tuesday, July 12, 2005
    This atrocity must not fan the hatred
       All peace-loving individuals will be extending their sympathy to the victims of the London bombings and to their families and friends as we try to make sense of this latest outrage. These violent and indiscriminate attacks must be condemned as an appalling affront to the peace that we long to see on our small, shared planet. These angry acts against innocent civilians cannot lead us to that goal.
       It is sad to contemplate that many of those killed or injured had probably joined the huge marches against the war in Iraq. That war, we might guess, is one of the motives of the terrorists' actions - or is it the general lack of social justice in our unequal world? It would help us to understand if the perpetrators of this latest mayhem would articulate why they are so angry. Our response to London's pain must be such that it will not fan the hatred. Judy Blyth, Daglish.
    Easy targets for suicide bombers
       Terrorists around the world must be celebrating the media beat-up and hyperbole that tragic events in England have triggered. George Bush and Tony Blair have used the occasion to flag their resolve in toughing out the struggle in Iraq. Al-Qaida is smug in the knowledge that it is keeping America and its friends in Iraq where they are easily punished by an endless source of suicide bombers. Owen Evans, Scarborough.
    Let's tell them about our moral superiority
       How should the West respond to the dreadful events in London? We could, building on our century or more of opportunistic political manipulation, betrayal and deceit in the Middle East, find out where most of the perpetrators came from and then continue to prop up the despots running the place (they are good guys, we do business with them - lots of business).
       We could then fabricate evidence against the mob next door and, on the basis of that fiction, bomb the hell out of them and invade and occupy them. In the process we could kill tens of thousands of them, destroy their economy, their infrastructure, their security and their hope and turn their country into an incubator for terrorism.
       We could randomly detain numbers of them and desecrate their religion, violate their social norms and lose no opportunity to humiliate them. We could hold the threat of a stay at our extra-legal convenience at Guantanamo Bay over any we choose, or alternatively we could send a few off to Egypt for a spot of torture by proxy.
       Most importantly, we must continue to preach to them about the moral superiority, the compassion and the "respect for justice, the law and freedom that seethes in the breast of "we in the civilised world". Yeah, that should work well. Hugh Warren, Cowaramup.
    We must stop interfering in their countries
       The unspeakable obscenity of the London bombings has been rightly condemned worldwide, including by mainstream Muslims. All political leaders of the Western world have given their politically popular assurances that this evil will be beaten.
       There is, however, another consideration that is ignored by politicians more interested in popular rhetoric than real solutions, other than even more bombs in response. As the world comes to grips with this tragedy, perhaps there is a true international leader somewhere who will ask why this minority of fanatics has developed such perverted views. Could it be because the West has failed to recognise that the majority of these terrorists have been spawned by indoctrination that has been explained as Western imperialism and decadence?
       Most recently, those countries subjected to gunbarrel democracy have been Muslim, including Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, plus a number of smaller countries. Unforgiveable though their actions are, should we not attempt to understand that poorly educated tribespeople can also be influenced by propaganda and even lies -- as we have been? Only when the West gives a commitment to stop interfering in tribal warfare for economic reasons can the warped rationale behind terrorists' activities be removed. It is not a sign of weakness to give future commitments without backing away from the current determination to prevail over all historical events. Because the role of politicians is to remain in power, perhaps Republican and Democrat, Liberal and Labor voters should demand this action of their politicians. They will relent if their re-election is jeopardised. James Cameron, Forrestfield.

    Today's text
    Keep in tune with wisdom and think what it means to have common sense. -- PROVERBS 2:2. (The Bible for Today). From the Bible Society.

    These people want a Muslim world order
       In the aftermath of the London bombings perhaps more people will come to the realisation that we are experiencing the early stages of the third world war. The combatants are disparate groups of Muslim fundamentalists on one side and the civilised world on the other.
       The fundamentalists' goal is the destruction of Western civilisation, which they see as the main barrier to their goal of a Muslim world order. They hope to achieve this by intimidating the allies of the US into ceasing to support the US and then forcing the US to become isolationist.
       From there they believe that they can gradually extend their influence over other nations. I would suggest to the self-loathers, the rabid anti-US left and the handwringers that they need to think seriously about the consequences of undermining their own society.
       Moderate Muslims also need to stand up and clearly and persistently voice their opposition to these freedom-hating groups. They cannot be appeased, only destroyed by determined, united and relentless opposition. Alan Wells, Wembley.
    Why poverty?
       To suggest that it is poverty and lack of education in Muslim countries that are the root cause of terrorism shows a lack of understanding of the problem. The perpetrators of such crimes are usually from well-off, well-educated backgrounds.
       However, the suggestion begs a very fundamental question of "why poverty in Muslim countries". Islam is not a geographical locality that somehow disadvantages the people of those countries, nor are they any poorer than the many resource-starved nations throughout the world that have climbed out of their poverty to become world-beaters.
       For those with eyes not blinkered by ideological prejudice it is obvious that the biggest obstacle to Muslim countries developing their potential is the oppression of the Islamic faith itself, in the same way that the oppression of the Church in Catholic-dominated nations kept them, for centuries, among the most impoverished in the Western world.
       This is the reason most migration in the world is a one-way ticket from Islamic countries to the hated Western democracies, never the other way round. It is up to Muslims to wake up and identify the root cause of their oppression and poverty and stop heaping their self-pity and hate on the world. Shereen Zailanee, Coolbellup.
    Appreciate life
       The streets of London have been rocked first by Live 8, then by bombs. It was a week of contradictions, so many joined together to preserve life and then a few planned to destroy it.
       People on the way to work and play were attacked by unknown assailants, nameless, faceless terrorists who have demolished lives and beliefs. No one can feel safe in their city, we will be afraid and suspicious of all.
       So many of us take life for granted. We must appreciate all the moments we are given. These attacks show us the need to chase our dreams and cherish life. V. Knight, South Guildford.
    [Jul 12, 05]
    • [General's admission, Imams speak]
       Electronic news media, June-July 2005
       A U.S. general, giving evidence to a Congress inquiry, said there were more foreign fighters in Iraq now than at the fall of Saddam Hussein's forces.
       A mosque imam, on television discussing Osama bin Laden, said he was a good man.
       Journalist Tony Jones asked a mosque imam on television if he would declare a fatwa against suicide bombers. He did not. [June-July 2005]
    • Six homes raided in UK bomb crackdown.
       The West Australian, Page One, Wednesday, July 13, 2005
       LONDON: Soldiers and British police investigat­ing the London terror attacks raided a house in northern England yesterday looking for explosives and cleared the site with a controlled blast.
       Up to 500 people were evacuated from nearby homes and a mosque in the city of Leeds.
       The address was one of six searched in connection with the bombings as investigators said they were on the verge of identifying one of the attackers. [...]
       "There have been a series of searches carried out in Yorkshire, " Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said. It is understood a single bomb-maker was most likely responsible for all the London bombs. [...]
    > FAMILIES MOURN          6,7 [Jul 13, 05]
    • London blasts | Police pick through debris .... Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The West Australian, Wednesday, July 13, 2005
    London blasts
       • Police pick through debris of a puzzle that doesn't fit. (pp 6-7)
       [***] Mr Blair suggested the Government may crack down on a number of British-based Muslim clerics who have been accused of provoking extremism. "I do think we need to look very carefully at the question of inciting such hatred," he said.
       But he praised "the overwhelming majority of Muslims" who "stand four square with every other community in Britain. ..."
       • Injured Australian woman has legs amputated, expected to recover (p 6)
       • Agony of families of 'missing' (p 6)
       • Blair says he will fast-track terror laws (p 7)
       [...] Mr Blair said the Government was considering clamping down on radical Muslim clerics who were "inciting hatred".
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 5.33 -- The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 005.qmt.html#005.033
       4 - 5.51 -- O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 005.qmt.html#005.051 DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jul 13, 05]

    • [Bin Laden not involved, partly a great man: Omran of Melbourne.] . Australia flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 
       The West Australian, "Bin Laden not involved in bombings: cleric," p 16, Wednesday, July 13, 2005
       CANBERRA: One of Australia's leading Islamic cleric says he doesn't believe Osama bin Laden was involved in the London bombings.
       Sheikh Mohammed Omran, head of the fundamentalist Ahl Sunnah wal Jama'ah Association in Melbourne, said he rejected allegations that bin Laden played a leading role.
       "When you look at the man (bin Laden), from some part of his life, yes he is a great man," he said.
       Mr Omran said he also did not accept that Islamic extremists were responsible.
       "No one has proved that any Muslim was involved," he said. "How could I believe any Muslim could think to help his religion by doing an evil act like this?"
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 9.123: "O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil)." www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 009.qmt.html#009.123 .
       5 - 9. 84. 64: Narrated 'Ali: Whenever I tell you a narration from Allah's Apostle, by Allah, I would rather fall down from the sky than ascribe a false statement to him, but if I tell you something between me and you (not a Hadith) then it was indeed a trick (i.e., I may say things just to cheat my enemy). No doubt I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "During the last days there will appear some young foolish people who will say the best words but their faith will not go beyond their throats (i.e. they will have no faith) and will go out from (leave) their religion as an arrow goes out of the game. So, where-ever you find them, kill them, for who-ever kills them shall have reward on the Day of Resurrection." 009.084.064 www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/ fundamentals/ hadithsunnah/bukhari/ 084.sbt.html #009.084.064 . DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jul 13, 05]

    • [Racists are the enemy within]
    I DISAGREE
       The West Australian, To The Editor, p 17, Thursday, July 14, 2005
       Racism and bigotry are alive and well in WA. This is the sad conclusion I came to after reading the narrow-minded letters on this page, particularly Graham Chapman's (We are importing the same problem, 11/7). Australia is founded on the work of the refugee and migrant communities. I am sure Mr Chapman "suffers" the benefits of these people's work with a heavy heart.
       Can we really blame multiculturalism and the ethnic population for the actions of a few heartless killers? We should remember the Oklahoma tragedy where people blamed Palestinian and Islamic terrorism. It later turned out to be the enemy from within - and a racist one at that
       I am sure I will be labelled a "bleeding heart" because I try to understand things with a compassionate heart. David Musca, Shelley. [Jul 14, 05]
    • [An ID card will solve bombing problem]
    MY SOLUTION
       The West Australian, To The Editor, p 17, Thursday, July 14, 2005
       The time has come for all Australians to be issued with an identity card with a photograph. We would then be in a position to weed out the undesirables who have entered our great country either uninvited or by overstaying their visas.
       After the London bombings I am sure nobody in their right minds would object to its introduction in the UK and the same applies in Australia. Before all the civil libertarians get on their high horses and spout off about civil liberties, I say to them, if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear from an ID card. James Turnbull, Gwelup. [Jul 14, 05]
    • Immigrants' loyalties questioned
    Immigrants' loyalties questioned
       The West Australian, Various Letters to The Editor, p 17, Thursday, July 14, 2005
    Immigrants' loyalties questioned
       After brilliant forensic research, the worst-case scenario for the Brits has been reached - the bombers were from their own community. The progression from this point is a sad but realistic extension in war (one faced in 1941 by the US with their Japanese population after Pearl Harbour) that some immigrant populations' loyalties may be open to question. It is also a chilling warning to Australians to think three times before naively relaxing our immigrant controls.
       If I were a respectable member of any immigrant Islamic community it would be time to reflect on the need for me now to stand up and join non-Islamic voices in loud, enthusiastic condemnation of Islamic extremism. So far, throughout the Islamic world, that declaration has been ominously muted or remains focused on anti-US, anti-Israeli and anti-Western distractions. This is a further chilling warning for all of us in the West.
       Have no doubt, we are at war against terrorism to defend our freedom and way of life - the reasons many immigrants seek to come to Australia, the UK, the US and other democracies - against extremist Islam that would put us back in the Stone Age and enslave our women with repressive laws.
       For our part, with the same enthusiasm as these evil and murderous suicide bombers embrace their promised paradise, we must deny it to them. First, as a deterrent to any others of their kind, we must bury any "animal" who commits such a crime against decent humanity in an indecent manner - as an animal and shrouded in pig skins. Then, all of us, irrespective of religion and politics, who abhor such extremist violence, must without reservation stand firm in a paean of condemnation. And finally, maybe we should reconsider reintroducing the death penalty for anyone convicted of helping or being an extremist bomber.
       Finally, all immigrants to Australia must agree to enter, without exceptions, on our terms as a Christian democracy that tolerates and accepts cultural and religious diversity. Michael Frame, South Perth.
    Their fault
       Like most of your letter writers, I am outraged at what happened in London. I must say that the politicians in the UK are not entirely blameless. They have allowed, in the name of being a democracy, nearly a million of these people to live and set up their own schools and separate communities. You only reap what you sow. My only wish is that we do not permit the same scenario in this country. Kenneth M. Gray, Warnbro.
    Too tolerant
       How sad it is that Britain has become one of the world centres for the recruiting of Muslim bombers and murderers. This is a country that was once proudly the world centre for everything that was good and decent about Western civilisation.
       Some of the blame must lie at the feet of the tolerance of the British people, the lost Left and the self-loathing handwringers who drove public policy from the 1960s. That is not to say that the murderers have cowed the British people. Far from it. The murderers are so lost in their hate-driven ideology that they have forgotten that the British didn't win one battle for the first two years of World War II, but refused to capitulate. The British may have lost some of their self-respect and pride, but they have not lost their will to succeed over intimidation and evil. Alan Wells, Wembley.
    Home grown
       There are now many calls not to blame ordinary Muslims for the attacks in London and quite rightly so. However, it is now clear that the terrorists were "home grown", something that was predicted many years ago by Enoch Powell, who must be smiling in his grave now that many of his predictions have come true.
       The blame can be placed on the explosion of multiculturalism in the UK which has now proved to be a dangerous, costly and irreversible concept. Humans are no different from dogs. Different breeds have different characteristics and for the same reasons you can't mix bull terriers with cocker spaniels, it is inconceivable to mix humans with vastly different cultures and not expect trouble. No doubt there is more to come for the Brits and unfortunately for us it will without doubt spread to this country. Those who support rampant multiculturalism take note. Jeff Butler, Leschenault.
       [COMMENT: Enoch Powell received an honourable mention in the last of these letters. COMMENT ENDS.] [Jul 14, 05]
    • [E-mail from London]. Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
    FROM LONDON
       The West Australian, Letter to the Editor, p 17, Thursday, July 14, 2005
       I received this email from my son who is working in London.
       "A minute is a day, a mile is half the world away. I was just off the train and riding up the escalator when the power went off. The escalator shuddered to an abrupt stop. Everybody lurched forward, blaming a typical London underground power failure. I was only three steps from the top, so allowed myself a little smile thinking about the poor suckers nearer the bottom who would have to walk up the rest of the way.
       Finding out what actually happened came slowly. Reports of a power surge that had spiked in three different tube stations. Three people slightly injured. Commuters annoyed at the delays. A bus exploded as well? Rumour. Rumour confirmed as fact.
       And then the detail; the death toll revises every so often. Confirmation of times, places, bus number, tube line. 8.56. King's Cross. Piccadilly Line. I had passed through King's Cross underground system at 8.51, five minutes before the bomb exploded there. But a minute is as good as a day away from the explosion. A mile down the track is as good as half the world away.
       And so I sat at work, unable to leave, on standby for possible drafting to a nearby hospital to assist staff with the impending influx of patients. I sat at my desk and looked out at the carpark and saw cars and the road and clouds. Nothing looked or felt different. It had happened one mile from my work, but I sat there numbed. I wasn't scared enough, I wasn't shocked enough, I wasn't horrified enough. I was watching television. And I felt half a bloody world away." Mary Throssell, Gooseberry Hill. [Jul 14, 05]
    • Why the surprise about home-grown Muslims?
    Why the surprise about home-grown Muslims?
       The West Australian, Various Letters to The Editor, p 19, Friday, July 15, 2005
    Why the surprise about home-grown Muslims?
       I cannot understand why there is so much shock and disbelief that the London bombers have turned out to be "home-grown" Muslims (report, 14/7). I witnessed second-generation Muslims applaud as the Twin Towers collapsed on September 11. Islam takes precedence over adopted countries for these people and it is passed down from generation to generation.
       When people realise this simple fact they will stop being influenced by the Moylans, Lawrences and Georgious of this country, but I just wonder how many people have to die or suffer serious injury in the meantime.
       In my mind's eye I can see an Australian icon being blown to bits and many people with it. It is ridiculous for Britain or Australia to "watch" known terrorists when they should be booted out with no recourse to taxpayer-funded appeals. They are a threat to our country - simple criterion. For God's sake, are we mad? We would not be allowed to threaten an Islamic country in their territory in the same manner.
       When I wrote a warning letter two years ago to these pages the executive chairman of the British Immigration Advisory Service, Keith Best, said that what I had written was "scary" and "ill-informed pub gossip". What I wrote, Mr Best, was the truth and London has just witnessed the ramifications of your and your Government's ignorance.
       To your correspondent, Ernest Della (It's a wake-up call for us, 9/7), keep your letters flowing. It is as if we write with the same mind and pen with the utmost love for Australia and a determination to preserve our way of life.
       To John Howard, please do not weaken on border protection and mandatory detention. Your stance is the reason you are still in office. S. Saunders, Victoria Park.
    They don't get it
       People from every corner of the globe look across the seas and envy America and Australia. They want what we have, but fail to understand what produced it. Even Australians who were born here fail to understand what has given them such privileges.
       They want the fruits of the Gospel of Jesus Christ while, at the same time, hating its principles and practising the religion that produced poverty and bondage in the land from which they fled. But it is these things that are protected and advocated, while biblical Christianity and the tranquillity, justice and morality that it produces are under attack from within and without.
       The fruit cannot long remain when the root is destroyed. The benefits of the Gospel that our forefathers advocated cannot long be enjoyed if the foundations are abolished. Malcolm Town, Ellenbrook.
    Islamic solution
       When Islamic countries take power away from Muslim clerics and give that power to an educated laity, when girls are educated to the same standards as boys, when human rights and justice with mercy are applied and when the ordinary person in the streets of these Muslim countries demands democracy and gets it, then fanaticism may disappear.
       An educated population can become a more tolerant one and greatly influence governments. Maybe one day the Muslims will realise that and hunt down their own fanatics. Mary Gregg, Bunbury.
    JOIN ME
       My family migrated to Australia from Lebanon in 1973. My parents realised this was the land of milk and honey with freedom of speech and human rights. They quickly swore their allegiance to Australia and took up Australian citizenship.
       We are of Muslim faith and we are disgusted by the actions of all Muslims anywhere in the world who believe terrorism is acceptable. We all escaped our motherland to come to the Western world for a better life and to have human rights.
       Have we forgotten that the Western world took us in when it was impossible to live in peace in our own countries? Have we forgotten the Western world for removing dictators who oppressed our people for decades and restored democracy? I will be the first to stand up as a Muslim and proud Australian to say no to terrorism and I call on all my fellow Muslims to join me. Advance Australia Fair. Maher Kassem, Redcliffe.
    TERRORISM
    Shall I just stay at home and watch TV?
       Next year I will be 65 years old and I want to travel the world. I was going to sell my three-bedroom home and buy an apartment in a retirement village and travel, travel, travel.
       But where do I travel to? I planned a world ocean cruise, European coach tour, weeks in London, travel to Canada and the US. However, it looks like I'll have to make do with the Indian Pacific train to Sydney or lock myself in my apartment and watch television.
       What a crazy world we live in. Please leave Iraq, give it no aid and ban imports and exports. But this will not happen. I will just sit in my apartment watching television as the world kills itself. Terence Anderson, Hillarys.
    No justice for Iraqi civilians
       The murder of more than 50 people and numerous injuries caused to others by terrorists in London have been rightly condemned by people all over the world. It is right that the authorities find these people and bring them to justice.
       People from many countries give their full support to this undertaking, except those from Iraq where America and its allies have caused a minimum verifiable 22,787 civilian deaths. No wonder there are people willing to do what the London bombers did because there is no one willing to bring the murderers of their innocent families to justice. Tym Thurling, Fremantle.
    Whose side are you really on?
       James Cameron (We must stop interfering in their countries, 12/7), what planet are you on? The allied nations are not in Iraq for economic reasons. Remember 9/11? How about Kuwait? Desert Storm? We have a history with Saddam Hussein. He was the initial protagonist in Kuwait for economic reasons, and this mustn't be forgotten.
       To suggest that in the wake of the London bombings Britain should vote the Blair Government out is shameful. Perhaps if Madrid's tragedy hadn't triggered that response London wouldn't be in the situation it is in now. Britain has more backbone than that.
       I was moved to tears to see the turnout for the World War II parade so soon after the terror. Good to see the Union Jack again after the recent popularity of the flags of the separate nations. And for once I haven't got a bad word to say about the Queen. Shereen Zaillanee (Letters, 12/7) is right; it is religious oppression, not poverty that creates these mindless murderers.
       And why isn't the so-called law-abiding Muslim community marching in solidarity with their adoptive host nations? When are you having your Peace For Non-Muslims Parade? Hello. Looks like there is a world war on, but this time the foe is insidiously secreted among our home communities.
       So come on all you Western-educated, civilised Muslims, you and your extended families have reaped the rewards of living outside a Muslim country and it's time to show us whose side you are really on. . Jo Tomlinson, Mandurah.
    Today's text
    Hatred stirs up trouble; love overlooks the wrongs that others do. -PROVERBS 10:12. (The "Bible for Today). From the Bible Society.
       [COMMENT: One letter-writer repeated a previous pinpointing of the cause as "religious oppression, not poverty". COMMENT ENDS.] [Jul 15, 2005]
    London blasts
    • Australian Muslims no threat, says imam.
    Australian Muslims no threat, says imam
       The West Australian, by SIMON PENN, p 10, Saturday, July 16, 2005
       PERTH: Behind the tall, white walls on Wil­liam Street up to 1000 Perth Muslims seek sanctuary from the bustle of the city every Friday afternoon.
       Loudspeakers carry the prayers of the leader, or imam, to the male wor­shippers spilling from the buildings on to the lawns outside where bare­foot latecomers bow in unison on hastily spread tarpaulins or their own jackets.
       Men of all ages, some dressed in business suits and others straight off building sites, greet one another with the traditional "peace be upon you".
       After yesterday's service the imam, Sheikh Omran, emphasised that peace and goodwill was the mes­sage that had been preached at the Perth Mosque for the past 100 years.
       An open day each year invites the wider community behind the walls but Sheikh Omran said visitors were welcome at any time to see for them­selves that the Muslim community had nothing to hide.
       He rejected claims by others such as Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Dr Ameer Ali that Australia could harbour potential suicide bombers.
       "I don't think for a moment that anyone from the Muslim commu­nity, whether it's here, Melbourne, Sydney or Darwin, would even think for a moment to harm this country," he said.
       "This is our country, this is the country of our children, this is a country we love and we spend all our lives in.
       "I'm amazed for someone to come and say there's a possibility - instead there's every possibility that every Muslim is contributing posi­tively to the welfare of the country."
    [Picture] Sanctuary: Shoes are left outside as up to 1000 of the city's Muslim community attend yesterday's afternoon prayers at the Perth Mosque.Picture: Lee Griffith
       All people had the capacity for good or evil and suicide bombers chose evil, acting outside the teach­ings of the Koran, which said that both suicide and murder were forbidden.
       Perth Mosque senior trustee Mohammad Ayub Khan said it was often overlooked that Muslims had helped build Australia since the late 1800s when migrants brought their camels from Pakistan and Afghani­stan to cart gold around Kalgoorlie.
       His own father came to Australia from Pakistan in 1895 and there had been four generations of his family in the country.
       "Our future is here, our children's future is here and we will try to pro­tect it from the evil," he said.
       "What he (Dr Ali) mentions about there being terrorists in the Muslim community, I'm very surprised and he should come forward and tell the Government so they can save the innocent people," Mr Khan said.
       Retrieving his footwear after prayers, 21-year-old Asad Igal said events overseas had ramifications for him as a Muslim in Perth.
       "As a community we're seen as different and outsiders but we're not, we're just like everyone else," he said. [July 16, 05]
    • Australia losing its identity: professor. Australia flag; Aust. Nat. Flag Assn. 

    Australia losing its identity: professor

       The West Australian, p 10, Saturday, July 16, 2005
       SYDNEY: A university academic has raised new questions about Australia's multicultural policies, saying non-white immigration will lead to violence and social problems.
       Macquarie University associate law professor Andrew Fraser said Australia must withdraw from refu­gee conventions to avoid becoming a colony of the Third World.
       The university is standing by Professor Fraser, who said that African migration increased crime, and high school results pointed to a rising ruling class of Asians.
       Canadian-born Professor Fraser, who opposes non-white immigration, believes cognitive and athletic abilities, testosterone and impulse control vary according to race, and civilisations should look after their own.
       After seeing a photograph of a Sudanese child in the Parramatta Sun, Professor Fraser wrote a letter to the paper saying "an expanding black population is a sure-fire recipe for increases in crime, violence and a wide range of other social problems".
       "The fact is that ordinary Austra­lians are being pushed down the path to national suicide by their own political, religious and economic elites," Professor Fraser said.
       In an email to Woollahra councillor David Shoebridge, Professor Fraser said that Chinese immigration directly threatened the "social political and economic interests of ordinary Australians and their children".
       "Look at the annual HSC results," he wrote. "The consequence of which is that Australia is creating a new heavily Asian managerial-professional, ruling class that will feel ho hesitation in promoting the narrow interests of their co-ethnics at the expense of white Australians."
       Professor Fraser said yesterday it was only the educated middle class who opposed his views.
       "I think most ordinary people would find what I'm saying more or less self-evident," he said.
    'Australia is creating a heavily Asian managerial-professional, ruling class that will feel no hesitation in promoting the interests of their co-ethnics.'
    PROFESSOR ANDREW FRASER

       A spokesman for Macquarie University said that it was distancing itself from Professor Fraser's views. But the university backed the right of academics to say what they wished in a responsible way.
       Acting vice-chancellor, Professor John Loxton, said there was no place for racism at the university, but it recognised and protected academic freedom as essential to the conduct of teaching, research and scholarship.# [July 16, 05]
    • Clerics' terror links add weight to fears.
       The West Australian, By SIMON PENN, p 10, Saturday, July 16, 2005
       MELBOURNE: Links between Australian Mus­lim leaders and overseas terrorists have lent weight to claims that radical groups could exist in Australia.
       One of the country's leading clerics, Sheikh Mohammed Omran, of Melbourne, has been linked to foreign terrorists several times. Sheikh Omran, head of the fundamentalist Ahl Sunnah wal Jama'ah Association, recently defended terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.
       "When you look at the man (bin Laden), from some part of his life, yes he is a great man," he was reported as saying.
       Sheikh Omran, who previously lived in Perth, also said he did not accept that Islamic extremists were responsible for terror attacks.
       "No one has proved that any Muslim was involved," he said. "How could I believe any Muslim could think to help his religion by doing an evil act like this?"
       Sheikh Omran and Sydney's Sheikh Abdul Salam Zoud were previously linked by court docu­ments and intelligence sources to some of Europe's top al-Qaida suspects.
    [Picture] Sheikh Mohammed Omran: Muslims not responsible.
       Australians were also rumoured to have links to Span­ish al-Qaida leader Abu Dahdah and Spanish terrorists believed to have plotted to blow up the coun­try's High Court.
       Intelligence sources had previ­ously confirmed that ASIO had known since 2000 that Sheikh Omran and Bilal Khazal, a leader of the Islamic Youth Movement in Sydney, were in frequent tele­phone contact with Dahdah. Sheikh Omran denied the allegation and Mr Khazal, a former Qantas baggage handler, denied ever travelling to Spain.#
    • Attacks will 'persist'
       Archbishop Desmond Tutu condemned last week's "dastardly acts of terrorism" but warned that attacks would persist as long as poverty and ignorance blighted the world.
       "We are not going to win the so-called war against terror as long as there exist conditions in the world, conditions of poverty and disease and ignorance that make people desperate and so cause them to perpetrate dastardly acts of desperation," he said in Cape Town yesterday.
       "We should feel equally outraged at the many innocent civilians who have been killed in Iraq in a totally unnecessary and immoral war and its aftermath."
    • Suicide support falls
       Support for suicide bombings has fallen in five mainly Muslim countries during the past two years, according to a survey carried out before the London attacks.
       In Turkey, Morocco and Indonesia, less than 15 per cent of those questioned said such violence was justified as a defence of Islam.
       The Washington-based Pew Global Attitudes Project survey found Pakistani Muslims' support for suicide bombing dropped to 25 per cent from 41 per cent last year. In Lebanon 39 per cent regarded such terror attacks as sometimes justified. [July 16, 05]
    • [Muslims fear backlash. Residents worry about rise in intolerance]
    Muslims fear backlash
    Perth's Islamic community is worried about a rise in intolerance after warnings about possible suicide bombings
       The West Australian, By NATALIE O'BRIEN (with TIFFANY LAURIE), p 9, Saturday, July 16, 2005
       PERTH: It was a casual late-night conversation that gave rise to the story. Did you hear about the Arabic taxi-drivers at Perth Airport who high-fived each other at the news of the London bombings, excitedly claiming they were taking over the world? Their licence plate numbers have been given to the Federal Police.
       The anecdote, whether real or a just a discriminatory urban myth, epitomises the fears in the Perth community. This has led to pressure on Muslims, particularly young men, after revelations that four young Muslim men were responsible for the London train and bus bombings last week.
    [Picture] Melting pot: The multicultural mix and racial unrest in Leeds, home to three of the suicide bombers, has led to fears of a similar backlash in WA. Picture: Associated Press
       Racist jokes are doing the rounds and some commuters are looking twice at Muslim passengers.
       "There is no doubt that people are looking at us suspiciously and differently since the latest attacks," said Keysar Trad, spokesman for the national Islamic Friendship Association.
       "Whenever there is an attack, Muslim victims are created at every level. People become less tolerant in these times. They become strangely inquisitive. But it is no longer a curiosity to know more about Muslims, but it's to see whether they should tolerate our presence."
       Rahim Ghauri, WA president of the Islamic Council, said so far nothing drastic had happened. "We get passing remarks all the time: 'You are the terrorists'," he said.
       Premier Geoff Gallop said yesterday he had been told by young Muslims that they were being harassed and were under enormous pressure. "They're part and parcel of our community," Dr Gallop said. Whilst we have an issue that we need to address, let's remember that these people are good Australians and part of our society."
       Warnings have already been sounded by Suresh Rajan, the WA Ethnic Communities Council president, who said that suspicion directed at young Muslims could further marginalise them and cause greater problems.
       Dr Ameer Ali, the president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils said this week radical splinter groups had already formed in the Australian Islamic community and it was impossible to rule out the pros­pect of a suicide bombing.
       Amid fears of a backlash against the Islamic community, the mufti of Australia Sheik Taj El-Din al-Hilaly devoted prayers yesterday at the nation's biggest mosque in the western Sydney suburb of Lakemba to denounce the bombings and explaining to followers the true meaning of jihad.
       Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said this week it was important to engage the Islamic community. But he also warned it was also equally "important that nobody apportions blame".
       In the 2001 census there were 281,600 Muslims identified as living in Australia, almost 20,000 of them in WA where police and intelligence officers keep in close contact with all the communities.
       They have built relationships with the Muslim leaders that they hope will enable them to keep in touch with what is happening behind the scenes in Perth. "We also use them as a sounding board," said one police officer.
       "Our biggest fear is the sleeper cell in the community and we are relying on community vigilance and the fact that they (the sleepers) might make a mistake and draw attention to themselves."
       Community Safety Minister Michelle Roberts said threats against the Muslim community in WA were of higher concern than the threat of a suicide bombing.
    'Let's remember that these people are good Australians and part of our society.'
    PREMIER GEOFF GALLOP

       "I do understand there are greater concerns of an attack in NSW, particularly in areas around Sydney, that have high Muslim populations who have more in common with some of the populations in the UK, but we don't have the same level of concern in WA," Mrs Roberts said.
       "The Commissioner of Police (Karl O'Callaghan) said we cannot discount it as a possibility but at this stage there is no evidence to support fears of an attack in WA."
       Unlike Sydney and Melbourne, Perth does not have the firebrand-style Muslim clerics that have been accused of preaching radical Islamic messages.
       There are only 13 mosques and a handful of Islamic schools and it is a tight community, according to Mr Ghauri.
       He said concerns in the Perth Muslim community were mostly about interlopers trying to entice their youth into "subversive activity".
       "We will be getting together to discuss how to curb this sort of infiltration," he said.
       Mr Ghauri said Perth Muslim leaders were particularly selective about which clerics were invited to speak to the community.
       "We will keep talking to our communities and to the authorities," he said. "If we stop doing that it is bad news for us and Australia."
       One of the most unsettling aspects of the London bombings was that no one could have picked the four perpetrators as potential suicide bombers, not even the authorities.
       That, according to one former intelligence officer, is because they could not detect "what doesn't exist. There is no intelligence radar that can do that".
       He said it was virtually impossible to identify such people without the "grossest invasion of privacy".
       However, Warren Reed, a former ASIS spy who was trained by MI6 in London, believes that Australia doesn't have enough counter-intelligence agents on the ground to gather the warning signs.
       "Intelligence can engage in telephone intercepts, car surveillance and watching homes, but it is all meaningless unless you have a sufficient number of human operatives building up networks in the community," Mr Reed said.
       Mr Reed, the author of a spy thriller Code Cicada, says the only way is to send out agents who gain people's trust and maintain it.
       "It is like sending out probes into the community that are sensitive enough to pick up the vibrations," he said. #

       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 22:19: "As for the disbelievers, for them garments of fire shall be cut ..." http://www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 022.qmt. html#022.019
    4 - 8:12: "I shall strike terror into the hearts of the infidels..." www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/008.qmt.html#008.012 . DOCTRINE ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: "... threats against the Muslim community in WA were of higher concern than the threat of a suicide bombing." - Minister Michelle Roberts. 'Nuff said!
       "Intelligence can engage in telephone intercepts, car surveillance and watching homes, but it is all meaningless unless you have a sufficient number of human operatives building up networks in the community," Mr Reed said. Well, this looks like another excuse to increase immigration - skills shortage! ENDS
       RECAPITULATION: "Amid fears of a backlash against the Islamic community, the mufti of Australia Sheik Taj El-Din al-Hilaly devoted prayers yesterday at the nation's biggest mosque in the western Sydney suburb of Lakemba to denounce the bombings." -- above article. END
       FLASHBACKS: "Australia's Muslim leader Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali's description of the September 11 terrorist attacks as God's work against oppressors was appalling, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday." -- The West Australian, AAP, p 27, Monday, March 1, 2004.
       "... In 2001, before 9/11 ... interview... SBS Insight program ... praised suicide bombers. The latter interview was not shown. ... Lebanon speech ... he declared: 'September 11 is God's work against oppressors'." -- The West Australian, "Multiculturalism shapes messages from a mufti," by Gerard Henderson, p 17, Tuesday, March 9, 2004. FLASHBACKS END.] [Jul 16, 05]

    • [Only a matter of time for Australia to have bombings]

    Only a matter of time for Australia

       The West Australian, Various Letters to The Editor, p 21, Saturday, July 16, 2005
    Only a matter of time for Australia
       I refer to your report (London bombers were home-grown, 14/7). I migrated from this "rundown area of Beeston", only a couple of streets away from where the bomber lived, nine years ago and I was not shocked at all that this has happened in a country which has allowed these people to create Muslim micro-states in every major city and town.
       They refuse to integrate and their hostility towards white Christian families living in these suburbs is frightening and disturbing. I also find it interesting that only since "finding religion" and being taught and advised within the sanctity of the local mosque did this westernised, "rebellious" teenager strap on a bomb and murder innocent commuters in London.
       Will this happen on Australian soil? You can be sure that it is only a matter of time because this same religious tolerance is happening here in Perth. Asylum should mean embracing the culture and way of life of the country that has been good enough to receive you, not a means to spread the terror and violence from which you have escaped. Karen Dubicki, Warnbro.
    It doesn't work
       If ever the fact that multiculturalism never has and never will work needs to be demonstrated, the London experience clearly has done this. The four men concerned, together with a mastermind, planned the attack and carried it out, resulting in scores of deaths and damage, proving, if it needs to be proved, that the two cultures will never safely mix.
       This is a fact that will not be faced. Multiculturalism, in any form, as history has proved, plays no part in any constructive format in nation building. London is a typical example and no matter how the effort is framed, the fundamentals never change. These young men, Pakistanis, carried out this bloodthirsty act in good faith in the belief the victims have committed a sin against their country, stressing again the multiculturalism factor.
       Our Prime Minister, competent as he may be, consistently proves this subject is way over his head. Multiculturalism is wishful thinking. John Allen, South Bunbury.
    True believers
       Words cannot even begin to describe the sheer horror and madness linked to the terrorist bombings in London. "It is a group of fanatical Muslims that has done this" say most. I am not sure if I quite agree. You see, if you are a true Koran-believing Muslim, by blowing up a bus full of infidels (unbelievers) in the name of Allah, you will be rewarded.
       Don't take it from me, read it word for word in the Holy book of Islam, the Koran: "Lo! the worst of beasts in Allah's sight are the ungrateful who will not believe." (8:55) "Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward" (4:74). Who do you think the ungrateful, disbelieving are? Anyone who is not a Muslim is my guess. Milan Pavkovic, Ballajura.
    FLASHBACK THURSDAY
    London bombers
    were home-grown

    Accept it
       I find it a worry that when Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty says that John Howard is "100 per cent correct" in suggesting that there could be suicide bombers in Australia, Kevin Rudd, Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, and Kim Beazley can't seem to comprehend the same possibility.
       If Labor wants to cast itself as being capable of defending Australians from terrorism, I think it needs to acknowledge what the PM and every other sensible Australian already accepts: Islamic fanatics do live in this country and just possibly, and quite secretly, are prepared to blow themselves up as a gesture of their "gratitude" for being allowed to hop off a boat on to our shores. David Sargent, Joondalup.
    Non-thinkers
       The only letter that came anywhere near to the truth about religious fanaticism was Shereen Zailanee's (12/7). But to complete the picture, it is the instigators, no matter what religion they claim, who are the ones not prepared to soil their own hands but are always ready to line their own pockets and give themselves power over the masses.
       Unfortunately, these masses, who are the perpetrators of such crimes, are made up of non-thinkers whose leaders tickle their ears with things they want to hear but are not prepared to search out the truth of the matters.
       Take the promise of heavenly bliss, with 50 virgins at their disposal if they become martyrs by blowing themselves and others to bits. Having thoroughly destroyed their bodies, their (falsely, so-called) immortal soul, which is immaterial, wafts off to heaven to receive their reward. But far from being the promised bliss, it must quickly turn to be an eternity of frustration, having successfully disposed of the only means by which their fleshly lusts can be satisfied. Or, another myth, who wants to spend an eternity endlessly plucking a golden harp, sitting on a fluffy white cloud with an immortal soul which has no body parts to pluck the harp with?
       When you look around the world, who can we say has peace? No one. What, then, do these words mean: "There is no peace, sayeth my God, unto the wicked" (Isaiah 57:21)." H.S. Peters, Tuart Hill.
    Not Christian
       Michael Frame (Letters, 14/7) writes that "all immigrants must agree to enter on our terms as a Christian democracy that tolerates and accepts cultural and religious diversity".
       While I applaud his support for the acceptance of cultural and religious diversity, I think he shoots himself in the foot by referring to Australia as a "Christian democracy". Most Australians are not practising Christians. Many have other religious beliefs and many, like me, don't have any.
       We should not try to enforce this misplaced notion of Australia as a Christian country. Let's preserve our shared values as Australians without insisting on attributing them to religion. Why exclude so many who don't deserve it? Tom Lynch, Coolbellup.
    It's our fault
       Columnist Gerald Henderson (Spiritual journey does not embrace Iraqi victims of insurgency, 12/7) and letter writers such as Alan Wells (12/7) like to scare everyone about the intentions of terrorists "who are against our way of life" and want us all to go back into the Dark Ages without any supporting evidence.
       This ignores reports and opinions from the FBI, CIA, MI5 and even bin Laden himself. The terrorism we see is retaliation for the atrocities committed by the West, including the war in Iraq. It was expected and will be expected to happen throughout the countries of the Coalition of the Willing. Perhaps those who envisage a "clash of the civilisations" like Wells portrayed should get away from fiction and into the reality that we caused this. Nathan Verney, Leeming.
    No ID solution
       James Turnbull (Letters, 14/7) rolls out the old furphy "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear", just in case those damned civil libertarians might pour cold water on his idea of an Australian ID card, complete with smiling visage.
       Well, James, how about a more pragmatic reason for demonstrating that such an ID scheme could weed out such "undesirables" and prevent things like the London bombings? ID cards do not and cannot prevent such acts.
       In London, the perpetrators were home-grown nationals with all "proper" documentation, as they so clearly demonstrated by leaving such documents on their bodies in the commission of the acts. The September 11 perpetrators had all "proper" documentation to pass any ID requirements. Ditto for those responsible for the Spanish rail acts.
       The simple fact is, once obtained legally or forged correctly, the possession of such a document automatically confirms "rights" to the bearer: according to your logic, they are then "desirables" and hence no risk of committing such acts.
       It's a general solution which has no answer to the particular problem, and carries another level of burden on the everyday citizen regarding protection of their reasonable privacy. Leonard Hannaby, Maylands.
    Racist views
       It seems (now that the London bombers have been shown to be British born and educated) that the kneejerk reaction has moved beyond illegal immigration and on to multiculturalism.
       Letters on these pages have included likening racial integration to dog-breeding, extolling the virtues of Enoch Powell and the absurd notion of reintroducing the death penalty to deter people who want to be martyrs anyway.
       I moved here two years ago from the UK. I am proud to come from a country that has made, on the whole, a pretty good effort at establishing a peaceful, multicultural society and proud to live now in another country that has done likewise. I find it hard to reconcile the views I read on your letters pages with the plethora of races and nationalities that work together in my office with absolutely zero racial tension.
       The views being expressed by many are offensive and racist. No one was suggesting purging Britain of Irish people during the IRA's mainland bombing campaign, but because the current campaign is conducted by people with darker skin, some members of the public are treating all Muslims as potential terrorists. The bombers were young men whose views of the world were perverted by Islamic fundamentalists, whose actions are completely at odds with the main teachings of Islam. Paul Fields, Canning Vale.
    OUR SOLUTION
       In the light of the London bombings I hope our State Government will take a good look at the Reed Report about hospital needs in the metro area.
       The idea of closing Royal Perth Hospital is utterly ridiculous. We need all the hospital beds we can get for a growing city and we certainly need one in the city centre. As we have seen on TV, London responded so quickly to recover the injured because there were five hospitals very close to the devastation and most injured were in emergency rooms within the hour. It is known that the survival rate drops dramatically if there are any delays.
       I have also read that the central fire station may close with removal of the fire appliances out of the city centre. With inner-city living being "all the go" and more people coming to live in Perth, this, too, sounds crazy.
       The square kilometre area of London is roughly the same as Perth and Fremantle combined, but with eight times more population. They have 32,000 police and 6000 firefighters. At the same ratio, we would need 4000 police and 750 firefighters.
       We have ambulances bypassing hospitals because the casualty departments are full, from time to time, and I shudder to think how our emergency services would cope with 700 casualties at once from four bombing attacks. Interestingly, London used double-deck buses as casualty stations for the walking wounded. Is the use of buses like that on our agenda?
       I sincerely hope that the authorities will get full reports on the way their British counterparts dealt with just such a problem so that they can be so well prepared in such an emergency. R.L.Dorn, Tuart Hill.

    Today's text
    Love rejoices in the truth, but not in evil. -- 1 CORINTHIANS 13:6. (The Bible for Today). From the Bible Society.
       [DOCTRINE: 4:74 - Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/004.qmt.html#004.074
    8:55 - Lo! the worst of beasts in Allah's sight are the ungrateful who will not believe. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/008.qmt.html#008.055 DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jul 16, 05]

    • [Enemy within. The biggest challenge.] Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
    SUICIDE BOMBERS OF THE FUTURE ARE LIKELY TO BE WELL-EDUCATED, WELL-HEELED AND HOME-GROWN. CAMERON STEWART REPORTS ON THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FACED BY OUR SPY AGENCIES AND POLICE  

    ENEMY WITHIN

       The Weekend Australian, by Cameron Stewart, pp 19 and 28, July 16-17, 2005
    IF their families did not know what they were planning, then how did the British secret service stand a chance? The London bombers have emerged as the West's worst nightmare, defying every stereotype and chilling the blood of those who thought they understood the psychology of the suicide bomber.
       The killers were not born into poverty. They had not witnessed first-hand violence, war or injustice. These men were babies of Britain, second-generation British nationals of Pakistani descent, home-grown and nurtured on Leeds United and fish and chips.
       One drove his father's Mercedes and spent his last night playing cricket in the local park. Another was an educated father with a baby who worked with immigrant children at a primary school. A third was considered so angelic that his mother feared the teenager had been a victim in the bombings rather than a perpetrator.
       Together they have sent a shiver through every spy agency in the West, including ASIO, which must now ponder whether the suicide bombers of tomorrow will be the boy or girl next door.
       Prime Minister John Howard was criticised this week when he warned that there could potentially be home-grown suicide bombers in Australia. But after Britain's experience, who is to say that a suicide bomber here would not be an Australian and living in a leafy suburb, driving a Holden and playing for their local football team?
    [Huge (37cm x 21.7cm) drawn picture above the article's headline across the top of the "Weekend Inquirer" cover page, showing flats and mosque to the left and Parliament House at right (with fish and chip shop in front). The ground is a huge Union Jack. A loose line of Muslims, some in Western attire and others in traditional attire, is walking along, but one youth, with backpack, has turned away from the direction the others are going.]
       With simple internet access, the poisonous theories and terrorist methods of radical Islam are available to every disaffected Muslim, no matter where they live, helping them to move to the dark side in almost total anonymity.
       News that three of the four London bombers were from outwardly respectable and comfortable families of Pakistani origin with no criminal records and no obvious history of Islamic extremism has helped slay one of the great myths of this era of terror: that it is the dirt-poor, the dispossessed and the desperate who are most likely to blow themselves up for Islam.
       "The most common stereotype of a suicide bomber is that of a young man or teenage boy who has no job, no education, no prospects and no hope," writes American academic Robert Pape in his new book Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. "[But] in general, suicide attackers are rarely socially isolated, clinically insane or economically destitute individuals but are mostly educated, socially integrated and highly capable people who could be expected to have a good future.
       "The profile of a suicide terrorist resembles that of a politically conscious individual who might join a grassroots movement more than it does the stereotypical murderer, religious cult member or everyday suicide."
    'Suicide attackers are rarely socially isolated, clinically insane or economically destitute individuals'
    Roger Pape
    Author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism
       And while they may kill in the name of Islam - or at least their toxic interpretation of Islam - many of today's suicide bombers have a surprisingly thin understanding of their religion.
       "They know very little about religion and what they do know is out of context," says terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna from Singapore's Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies. "They know selected passages of the Koran that the [radical] imams have told them."
       At least some of the London bombers paid scant attention to traditional Islamic dress, food or rituals. Their extremism did not follow set patterns that might have alerted others; it was silent, internal, undetectable and therefore truly deadly.
       The temptation is to view these men as deranged or mad because their brutal actions, which claimed 54 lives and maimed many more, lie so far outside our moral compass. How, for example, can we attribute any form of sanity to the suicide bombers who willingly blew up 24 Iraq children in Baghdad this week as they were receiving chocolates from US soldiers?
       But experts warn we are wrong to dismiss all suicide bombers as mentally ill because of our revulsion for their murderous plunder.
       "We should not think of these individuals as crazed fanatics," says Jerrold Post a CIA veteran who founded the CIA Centre for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behaviour. "Mental illness is incompatible with being a political terrorist; it is a security risk to have an emotionally unstable individual in your terrorist group, just as it would be in the Green Berets."
       However, it seems that the two youngest London bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, 23 and Hasib Hussain, 18, were at the very least emotionally vulnerable to being radicalised by older mentors. Both young men looked up to the older bomber, 30-year-old Mohammed Sadique Khan, as a father figure, and Tanweer had recently visited Pakistan, where he may have been indoctrinated by radicalised imams.
       Young Muslims seeking to become suicide bombers will rarely be able to carry out their plans without access to a well-connected mastermind who can provide them with explosives and reinforce their willingness to die for Islam.
       But what makes young Western Muslims, such as the London bombers, take the extreme journey from personal frustration or disaffection to terrorism?
       Experts believe the journey often begins when they feel a sense of alienation from their own moderate Muslim communities and from the culture of their own country.
       Olivier Roy, a French writer on global Islam, says such people, when adrift from both of their societies, are easily attracted by the simple, extremist version of their faith.
       Jason Burke, author of Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam, says that once indoctrinated, they see their actions merely as a war between faith and falsehood.
       "They do not see London's population as civilians but as accomplices to acts of murder and violence," he writes. "The bombers have long forsaken any national identity and no longer consider themselves as anything other than members of the ummah, the global community of Muslims, on whose behalf they are waging war."
       Most likely the London bombers - as with most suicide bombers - believed that their faith and their people had been humiliated by the West.
       Terror expert Mark Juergensmeyer argues that suicide bombing is largely an act of "dehumiliation" and personal empowerment. In his book Terror in the Mind of God, he says the most important motivator "is the intimacy to which the humiliation is experienced and the degree to which it is regarded as a threat to one's personal honour and respectability".
       But unlike many of the suicide bombers in Gaza or Iraq, the London bombers had no first-hand experience of such things, yet they still felt it strongly enough to blow themselves up on behalf of Islam.
       Nor is it certain that well-educated, British-born terrorists would necessarily be lured by the martyrs' promise of walking through the gates of paradise where they will be bedded by black-eyed virgins.
       Pape argues that suicide bombers are motivated by more than hatred, revenge, Islamic fundamentalism and the promise of virgins. He puts forward the controversial thesis that there is a more important strategic logic to their behaviour.
    Continued - Page 28

    The enemy lies within
    From Page 19

       "Islamic fundamentalism is not the primary driver of suicide terrorism," he says. "Nearly all suicide terrorist attacks are committed for a secular strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory the terrorists view as their homeland."
       If this theory is accurate, then Britain's military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than religion, was the likely catalyst behind the London bombings.
       "The vast majority of suicide attacks are not isolated or random acts by individual fanatics but occur in clusters as part of a larger campaign by an organised group to achieve a specific goal," Pape writes.
       These goals are primarily nationalistic rather than religious.
       "Prom Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hamas on the West Bank to the Liberation Tigers in Sri Lanka, every group mounting a suicide campaign over the past two decades has had as a major objective - or as its central objective - coercing a foreign state that has military forces in what terrorists see as their homeland," he says.
       Pape's study of suicide bombings is the most comprehensive yet and chronicles how they have flourished during the past 25 years to become the most devastating form of modern terrorism. It shows that suicide bombers span all the spectrums of age, sex, socioeconomics, politics and religion.
       But the London bombers have confirmed the ominous trend that those who carry out suicide terrorism against the West are increasingly likely to be well-educated, outwardly normal members of society rather than hardened criminals or social outcasts.
       Mohammed Atta, ringleader of the world's worst terror attacks, those of 9/11 in the US, was no desperate outcast but was the well-educated son of an affluent Egyptian lawyer.
       And in the blood-soaked Middle East, no one epitomised this new breed of suicide bomber more than Ayat al-Akhras, a popular, outgoing 18-year-old girl from Bethlehem. She was a straight-A student who was engaged to be married, but in 2002 she chose instead to walk into a Jerusalem supermarket and blow herself up.
       The lesson of London for the West is that the suicide bombers of tomorrow will be chameleons, blending into their environments like never before. They may profess to kill in the name of fundamentalist Islam but they are also likely to be clean shaven, wear baggy jeans and drink beer.
       What's more, they will probably be well-educated, well-heeled and, most likely, home-grown. It is a deadly cocktail that poses the ultimate challenge to our spy agencies, police and, not least, to sense of security.#
    [Bolding added]
       [COMMENT: One could ask, after reading, in the article "Don't dignify them by calling it war" in the same pages, about the "disgusting arrogance and condescension" which it says is widely supported in Koranic texts, how there could be a "moderate" Muslim community in Western or Buddhist countries.
       Worshippers who take religion seriously see many things in society they disagree with. They and some other religious communities say they see a moral decline and a clear attack on values they believe are essential to right living, an orderly healthy society, and adherence to heavenly law.
       But put yourself into the shoes of a Muslim in the alien "Western" environment of people drinking liquor, eating pigmeat, living with dogs, paying and receiving interest, and half-undressed women, to name just a few "abominations".
       The alienation of the Muslims as a community in Australia is easily seen by scanning, in vain, the births, deaths, and engagements columns of newspapers. They aren't with all the others who advertise there. Self-imposed apartheid? COMMENT ENDS.] [July 16-17, 2005]

    • Don't dignify them by calling it war.

    DON'T DIGNIFY THEM
    BY CALLING IT WAR


    Londoner Boris Johnson says the phrase war on terror helps incite terrorism
       The Weekend Australian, by Boris Johnson, a Londoner, The Spectator, pp 19 and 28, July 16-17, 2005
    IF we were Israelis, we would by now be doing a standard thing to that white semi-detached pebbledash house at 51 Colwyn Road, Beeston. Having given due warning, we would dispatch an American-built ground-assault helicopter and blow the place to bits. Then we would send in bulldozers to scrape over the remains, and we would do the same to all the other houses in the area thought to have been the temporary or permanent addresses of the suicide bombers and their families.
       After decades of deranged attacks the Israelis have come to the conclusion that this is the best way to deter Palestinian families from nurturing these vipers in their bosoms, and also the best way of explaining to the death-hungry narcissists that they may get the 72 black-eyed virgins of scripture, but their family gets the bulldozer.
       No doubt there are some people in Britain who would approve of such tactics; but we are not Israelis, and we are novices not just at dealing with suicide bombers but also with suicide bombers as British as the fish-and-chip shops in which they grew up. They were born in our national health system, these killers. They were coddled by our welfare state, they were fed on our butties, they played cricket on our glum streets.
       They were not metics or the second-class citizens of the Occupied Territories. We cannot build a wall against them or erect turnstiles on the way into London, foul-smelling pissoirs of the kind that connect the West Bank and Israel. So we have to focus on what we should do now to stop people like them hating us so much that they want to kill us. Something so scorched these fools in their young male psyches that they were prepared to take their own lives and those of dozens of other Britons.
       In groping to understand, the pundits and the politicians have clutched first at Iraq and the idea that this is "blowback", the inevitable punishment for Britain's part in the Pentagon's fiasco. It is difficult to deny that they have a point, the told-you-so brigade.
       The joint intelligence committee assessment in 2003 was that a war in Iraq would increase the terror threat to Britain. Anyone who has been to Iraq since the war would agree that the position is very far from ideal; and if any anti-Western mullah wanted a text with which to berate Britain and the US for their callousness, it is amply provided by Fallujah or the mere fact that Tony Blair cannot even tell you how many Iraqis have been killed since their liberation.
       Supporters of the war have retorted that Iraq cannot be said to be a whole and sufficient explanation for the existence of suicidal Islamic cells in the West, and they, too, have a point.
    Continued - Page 28

    Don't call it war
    From Page 19
    The threat from Islamicist nutters preceded 9/11; they bombed the Paris Metro in the 1990s; and it is evident that the threat to British lives predates the Iraq war.
       The Iraq war did not create the problem of murderous Islamic fundamentalists, though it has unquestionably sharpened the resentments felt by such people in Britain and given them a new pretext. And whatever the defenders of the war may say, it has not even come close to providing the beginnings of a solution. You can't claim to be draining the swamp in the Middle East when the mosquitoes are breeding quite happily in Yorkshire.
       The question is what action we take now. The first step is to ban the phrase war on terror. If we continue to say that we are engaged in a war, we concede several points to the enemy. For 30 years we fought something called the Irish Republican Army and we did not accept the self-description of these thugs as soldiers. This wasn't a war, we said; this was murder. So why do we now call it war? Why glorify the actions of these Yorkshire maniacs?
       At least the IRA had comprehensible objectives: to reverse the partition of Ireland. What do these folks want? Do they really want British troops out of Iraq, when most people I met in Baghdad secretly or openly want them to stay and help fight the insurgency? Is it really the injustices of Palestine that get their goat? Is that what makes a young cricket-loving Beeston lad go and top himself? Or were they all so seriously maladjusted to modern Britain and found it so hard to get girlfriends that they went in search of 72 black-eyed ones of paradise that some Islamic scholars believe to be not virgins but raisins?
    [Picture of King's Cross railway station, with ambulances and police street barrier.]

    Disaster: The bombings show Britain has a serious problem with its youth

       To the paranoid Muslim mind, the evident bogusness of the war on terror, insofar as it applied to Iraq, suggested that it was about something else - about oil, about humiliating the Islamic world - and because they make no separation between religion and politics, it seemed to imply an undeclared war on Islam, and that was an impression that neither George W. Bush nor Blair corrected.
       There has been a fatal elision between the war on terror and the campaign to democratise the Arab world, and many Muslims can be forgiven for thinking that this is really a war to democratise the Middle East in the interests of General Motors, evangelical Christianity, Hollywood and global pornography. No wonder they dislike it; and if we use the vocabulary of war, it gives the maniacs all the more excuse to wage war on us.
       When Bush said "if you are not with us, you are against us", then invaded Iraq on charges that were frankly trumped-up, he co-opted tens of millions of Muslims into the camp of his enemies, even though they might loathe Saddam Hussein. They had nowhere else to go.
       To talk of war, since it is a key point of Islamic theology that the suicide bomber may not be called a martyr, and therefore entitled to his ration of virgins-raisins, unless he dies in war, we are offering these people an incitement to murder and a laissez-passer to paradise.
       Above all it is a distraction from the real disaster, which is that we have a serious and long-term security problem among young men with Yorkshire accents.
       Non-Muslims cannot solve the problem; we cannot brainwash them out of their fundamentalist beliefs. The Islamicists last week horribly and irrefutably asserted the supreme importance of that faith, overriding all worldly considerations, and it will take a huge effort of courage and skill to win round the many thousands of British Muslims who are in a similar state of alienation, and to make them see that their faith must be compatible with British values and with loyalty to Britain. That means disposing of the first taboo and accepting that the problem is Islam. Islam is the problem.
       To any non-Muslim reader of the Koran, fear of Islam seems a natural reaction and, indeed, exactly what that text is intended to provoke. Judged purely on its scripture, it is the most viciously sectarian of all religions in its heartlessness towards unbelievers. As the killer of Theo van Gogh told his victim's mother this week in a Dutch courtroom, he could not care for her, could not sympathise, because she was not a Muslim.
       This disgusting arrogance and condescension is widely supported in Koranic texts and we look in vain for Islamic teachers and preachers who will begin the process of reform. What is going on in these mosques and madrassas? When is someone going to get 18th-century on Islam's medieval ass?
       It is time that we start to insist that Muslim councils and all the preachers in all the mosques, extremist or moderate, begin to acculturate themselves more closely to our values. We can't force it on them, but we should begin to demand change in a way that is friendly and outspoken, and by way of a first gesture the entire Muslim clergy might announce, loud and clear, for the benefit of all Bradford-born chip-shop boys, that there is no eternal blessedness for the suicide bombers, there are no 72 virgins, and that the whole thing is a con.
    The Spectator

       [RECAPITULATE: 4th last paragraph: "The problem is Islam. Islam is the problem."
    3rd last par: "Judged purely on its scripture, it [Islam] is the most viciously sectarian of all religions in its heartlessness towards unbelievers. "
    Last par: "... the entire Muslim clergy might announce, ... that ... there are no 72 virgins, and that the whole thing is a con." RECAPITULATION ENDS.]
       [DEFINITION: 4th par: "Metic" not found in three dictionaries. "Pissoir" is hard to define. - jcm 17 July 05. DEFINITION ENDS.] [July 16-17, 2005]

    • Test of ideological will.

    Test of ideological will

       The Weekend Australian, by Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor, p 22, July 16-17, 2005
    THE discovery that several of the London suicide bombers were British-born has shocked the West. That these young men were not immersed in great poverty and had not apparently suffered terrible trauma does render ridiculous the root causes branch of the argument that terrorism is caused by poverty or general Western wickedness.
       But really there should be no surprise in this aspect of the London tragedy. Britain has previously provided Islamist suicide bombers who have carried out missions in Kashmir and Israel and attempted to blow up passenger jets. Nor is radical Islamism the only cause to have inspired suicide bombings. The Tamil Tigers made it a kind of speciality. Japan's kamikaze pilots adopted it as a conscious military tactic during World War II.
       None of this is to minimise the threat of radical Islamist terrorism in the form of the suicide bomb. Prime Minister John Howard and NSW Premier Bob Carr warned this week that there was no reason to think it wouldn't happen in Australia.
       They were not giving away any intelligence secrets but merely stating the obvious. There have been repeated terrorist attacks or attempts on Australia or Australians. There are likely to be more, and suicide bombing is a favoured and devastating tactic.
       But the key ingredient is missing in most analysis. The key is ideology. Because most Western intellectuals and commentators are infused with a sort of postmodern moral relativism, they find it exceptionally difficult to come to grips with an absolute and evil ideology.
       There is an extreme distaste, especially among academics, for even using terms such as good and evil. Extreme behaviour is much more comfortably dealt with if it is explained away by sociology, or even psychological dysfunction, than if it is a logical outcome of a coherent ideology.
       Dennis Richardson, the former director-general of ASIO, gave several speeches in which he gently made this point. He was addressing the vexed question of whether Australia is a target because of who we are or what we do. The truth is we are a target because we fit into the cosmology of the terrorists' ideology. Richardson's explicit point was that the terrorists closely follow a "positive ideology" that is completely independent of us.
       This cosmology does not depend very much on our specific actions, such as having troops in Iraq or, as the cause Osama bin Laden originally claimed against us, having had troops in East Timor. Rather, it is simply that we are part of the West and the West is an enemy. (So, of course, are moderate Muslim governments.) None of this is to suggest that terrorists will not pick particular tactical targets in which a big calculation may well be to affect our behaviour.
       But in all the screeds written on terrorism, and certainly all the vast denunciations of George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Howard in the Western media, there is actually very little on what al-Qa'ida and other radical Islamist groups actually believe. This is partly because their beliefs at one level are often so crazy. The US Navy did the bombing in Bali, the Jews were behind 9/11, AIDS was invented by the US military, and so on.
    [Picture of people sitting around a table]
    Root cause: Kim Philby, pictured with his mother-in-law, wife Rufina and author Phillip Knightley, after defecting to the Soviet Union

       But history has taught us time without number that a positive, clear ideology will attract people, no matter how extreme it is. Just as it is incredible that a young British-born man, of whatever origin, could become a suicide bomber on the London Underground, so it is incredible to think that in the 1930s some of Britain's elite, best educated and most privileged students and academics could sign up to communism and the service of the Soviet Union.
       Marxism-Leninism was always a completely insane ideology, with its historical determinism and dreary and dogmatic materialism. Its monstrous amorality - anything was justified in the name of the revolution - is at least as perverted as anything al-Qa'ida has come up with. And in Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot it produced three of the greatest mass murderers of the 20th century (their only rival is Hitler).
       Yet at the very time Stalin was murdering countless innocents in the Soviet Union, some among the most privileged of Britain - Burgess, Philby, MacLean, Blunt et al - became Soviet spies and undertook actions that saw many of their countrymen killed. Although communism's twin, Nazism, never had anything like the sway in the Western mind that Marxism had, it too produced loyal and devoted Western servants.
       What successful extremist ideologies often have in common is that, though based on a false premise, they proceed from that premise with often Euclidean logic. Thus extremist ideologies often share a certain scripturalism as, enlightened by the single key "insight" at the ideology's core, there are then spirited, and in a sense genuinely learned, debates over interpretation and application.
       That's also why it's quite wrong to describe recent terrorism as mindless or irrational. Although the key proposition may be irrational - that the West has destroyed authentic Islam or some such - as with the communists, the tactics and grand strategy may be highly rational and effective. Looking for the psychological pathology of terrorists is necessary but less enlightening than looking at their strategy.
       Extremist Islamist ideology can be debated effectively by moderate Muslims, but it also demands a certain ideological response from the state, namely an insistence on support for certain norms - democracy, rule of law and so on - for any institution that is allowed to function in a free society.
       These are almost exactly the same debates we had about communism 50 years ago. Of course terrorism, and the prospect that we must eventually face of nuclear terrorism, makes it much more urgent today than it was then.
       There need be no threat to genuine civil liberties in any of this, though there may be inconveniences, but the state does have to stand for something. There has to be an ideological content in the state.
       The war on terror is going to be with us for a long time. The underlying challenge is neither religious nor sociological but ideological. Ideologies answer basic human needs - the need to know right from wrong, the need to feel part of a functioning group, the need to feel that life has a purpose.
       In the end, you can't beat something with nothing. Whether the West has the ideological strength to respond to a deadly challenge was a question the communists and the Nazis both asked, and al-Qa'ida and its fellow travellers ask it today.#
       [RECAPITULATE: "Japan's kamikaze pilots adopted [suicide bombings] as a conscious military tactic during World War II."
    "Al-Qa'ida and other radical Islamist groups ... their beliefs at one level are often so crazy."
    "In the 1930s some of Britain's elite, ... sign[ed] up to communism and the service of the Soviet Union."
    "Stalin was murdering countless innocents in the Soviet Union ... Burgess, Philby, MacLean, Blunt et al - became Soviet spies ..."
    "Marxism-Leninism ... completely insane ideology ... historical determinism ... dreary and dogmatic materialism ... monstrous amorality ... is at least as perverted as anything al-Qa'ida has come up with. And in Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot it produced three of the greatest mass murderers of the 20th century (their only rival is Hitler)."
    "Communism's twin, Nazism, ... too produced loyal and devoted Western ser­vants."
    "You can't beat something with nothing". RECAPITULATION ENDS.] [Jul 16-17, 2005]

    • [Why? The question that has stumped world experts. Raceophobia and political correctness stifle knowledge, while wild imams preach hate. While crime was being hatched, British Government was planning a law to make it illegal to say there's a link between terror and Islam].

    WHY?


    | Hussain | Tanweer | Khan | Jermaine |

    The question that has
    stumped world experts
     | Fear | Racism | Appeasement | Tolerance | Acceptance | Religion |  
     | Hate | Sanctions | Illegal immigration | Extremism| Lies |  
     | Seduction | Immigration policy | Segregation| Denial | 
     
       The Sunday Times, Perth, W. Australia, by Ben English, p 40, 42-43, July 17, 2005
    A YOUNG man wields a bat in a suburban cricket game late on a balmy July evening in Beeston, Leeds. You would often find him here, the central figure in a portrait of an English summer.
       In the colder months, you'd see him kicking a soccer ball in the same park or chanting with his mates at Elland Rd for his beloved Leeds United.
       To those who know him, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, is a model of multicultural Britain.
       A university graduate and the eldest son of respectable Pakistani immigrants, he is the sort of man authorities point to as a shining success story of ethnic diversity.
       But barely 12 hours after his cricket game, the studious boy who could make his friends laugh would turn himself into a human bomb on the London Underground to kill himself and as many of his countrymen as possible.
       Young, handsome, intelligent and from a seemingly close-knit and happy home, Tanweer had everything to live for.
    Four seemingly normal, young, educated men walk around London carrying 4kg of explosives on their backs to blow up themselves and anyone around them. In London, Ben English dissects the reasons that could motivate such madness
    [Picture of man's face, presumably that of the author.]
       Yet he hid a hatred of his homeland so deep it could only be satisfied with an act of unspeakable evil committed on an industrial scale.
       Now, as the shock of Europe's first suicide bombing dissolves into a well of grief, anger and defiance in the British capital, a burning question looms large over Tanweer's grisly deathbed beneath Aldgate Station.
       Why?
       Beyond the manhunt for the mastermind who engineered the murderous rampage of Tanweer and his fellow bombers, this is the question most troubling Britain. It is troubling the Government, which has admitted there are at least 50 more Shehzad Tanweers ready and willing to launch suicide attacks on their compatriots in Britain.
       Another attack, warned Home Secretary Charles Clarke, was likely and imminent.
       And it is troubling the Muslim community, which has distanced itself from the bombers with mantras of condemnation and the repeated claim that the murderers were not true Muslims because Islam is a faith of peace.
       Yet an examination of how suicide bombers have been allowed to develop in Britain sheets home much of the blame to both parties - the Islamic community and the Government.
       Nobody other than the four bombers - Jermaine Lindsay (19), Mohammed Sidique Khan (30), Hasib Hussain (18) and Tanweer - and their helpers committed the July 7 outrages.
       But others made them easier to occur.
       In modern, pluralistic and vehemently secular Britain, there is one ethical taboo that reigns above all others: racism.
       The fear of being branded racist runs through every strata of British Government and its institutions.
       It is reflected in a whole series of daft but essentially trivial policy decisions, such as the High Wycombe church that was told by the local council it could not publicise its Christmas services to avoid offending other religions, or the school that dropped the word saint from its name for fear of causing the same offence.
       In another instance, Britain's advertising watchdog earlier this year banned a series of television commercials featuring bikini-clad women because they were offensive to Muslims.
       But the racism phobia has had other, more sinister consequences that are more related to the events of July 7. In Britain, as in no other European or indeed Western country, extremist Muslim clerics have been tolerated and even protected from criticism.
       Preachers of hate, such as Omar Bakri Mohammed, Abu Qatada - known as one of al-Qaida's European generals - Hassan Butt, Abdulla El-Paisal and Anjem Choudray have been given free rein to spout their anti-West, pro-Osama vitriol.
       Butt boasts to have recruited hundreds of British Muslims for the Taliban.
       Young Muslim Muhammed Yusuf this week revealed how as a 14-year-old he was approached in a North London mosque by two strangers who tried to recruit him as a suicide bomber.
       The authorities, shamed by human rights lawyers, have failed to curb their inflammatory rants that are invariably directed at the Islamic community's impressionable youth. The climate of appeasement reached its zenith this week with the words of police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick who said, "Islam and terrorists are two words that don't go together".
       The BBC instructed journalists not to refer to the London bombings as terrorism because this was a subjective value judgment.
    Continued Page 42

    Brits search their soul
    Extremist clerics target young
    • From Page 40
       Even as the bombers were planning and executing their mass murder, the Government was drawing up a law against incitement to religious hatred, the aim of which is to prevent links being drawn between Islam and terror.
       What it was not designed to stop was hate-filled Islamic extremists spouting mistruths about the so-called evils of the West and Western life. And research shows these clerics are finding a willing audience.
       An ICM poll revealed 13 per cent of Britain's 1.6 million Muslims support al-Qaida: a staggering 206,000 people.
       This may explain government fears that up to 3000 young British Muslims have been radicalised enough to consider terrorist acts.
       On the streets of Hackney, Whitechapel, Leeds and Luton, young men are seduced by the hard­line mullahs from Pakistan who flock to Britain.
       It is why the British capital has been dubbed Londonistan: militants can enter Britain confident they will not be stopped at the border as they have been elsewhere.
       Police have argued it is better to have the clerics visible, so they can monitor those who follow them. That approach appears to have come spectacularly unstuck on July 7.
       In recent years, as Britain's right-wing media publicised some of the pro-terror sermons, extremists turned from mosques to universities.
       It is here that many intelligent, well-educated young British Muslims have been converted to the fundamentalist cause.
       Britain's immigration policy has also been questioned. Again, fear of racism has stopped authorities taking a harder line on illegal immigrants and phoney asylum-seekers.
       By the Home Office's own estimate, there are 430,000 illegal immigrants and 250,000 failed asylum-seekers living in Britain.
       At the same time, for all its talk, Britain - unlike Australia - has never actively encouraged immigrants to integrate.
       Citizenship ceremonies, which have taken place in town halls around Australia since World War II, were introduced only last year.
       As a result, Britain's ethnic communities are far more "ghettoised" than those in Australia.
       A government-commissioned report into 2001 race riots involving sub-continental youth and police in West Yorkshire - home county of the four suicide bombers - found that whites and non-whites in the UK were leading separate lives, with no social or cultural contact and no sense of belonging to the same nation.
       Meanwhile, the British Muslim community stands accused of falling to confront militant elements.
    [Pictures:] TERROR FROM WITHIN: The remnants of the No 30 bus after the London bomb attacks, left, and, right, police cordon off a Leeds street.

       Britain's first home-grown Muslim MP, Shaid Malik, says the Islamic community needs to do more to drive "evil and extremism" from its midst.
       Other Muslims say their leaders can no longer stick to the shibboleth that Islam has nothing to do with the atrocities.
       "I stand with those Muslims who insist that certain passages (of the Koran) are being politically exploited," said Irshad Maji, author of The Trouble with Islam: A Wake-Up Call for Honesty and Change.
       Leading London Muslim spokesman Al-Faliq believes extremism appeals to Muslims who feel alienated by British culture and caught between their traditional family ways and Western life.
       One teenager this week summed up the dilemma facing Muslim youth: "We are being forced by the system to make a choice - either assimilate, compromise ourselves, or choose separatism whereby we create our own institutions."
       Al-Faliq said that for many young Muslims who were unemployed and poorly educated, joining a jihad sounded "exciting and glamorous".
       "Our challenge is to get to them before they drift to extremism," he said.
       Economics may play a part, too. Research shows that Muslim Pakistanis and Muslim Bangladeshis are among the least qualified, least upwardly mobile and poorest of ethnic minorities in Britain.
       Eighty per cent of Muslims live in households with incomes below the national average, compared with 25 per cent in non-Muslim households.
       The problem for British Islam, said Al-Faliq, was that its imams were too poorly educated to dissuade the young from extremism.
       "We definitely do not have credible leadership in this country," he told The Sunday Times at Britain's biggest and oldest mosque at Whitechapel in London's East End.
       "In this mosque we have good leadership, but across Britain up north in smaller mosques most imams can't speak English for a start, so they struggle to engage with the young kids.
       "So, who do they go to? They find the likes of (Abu) Hamza (Britain's notorious Dr Hook)."
       Shehzad Tanweer appears to have been one such young person.
       Britain can only pray others won't soon follow.#
       [RECAPITULATE: "The fear of being branded racist ... is reflected in a whole series of daft but essentially trivial policy decisions, such as the High Wycombe church that was told by the local council it could not publicise its Christmas services to avoid offending other religions, or the school that dropped the word saint from its name for fear of causing the same offence."
    "Preachers of hate, such as Omar Bakri Mohammed, Abu Qatada - known as one of al-Qaida's European generals - Hassan Butt, Abdulla El-Paisal and Anjem Choudray have been given free rein to spout their anti-West, pro-Osama vitriol."
    "An ICM poll revealed 13 per cent of Britain's 1.6 million Muslims support al-Qaida: a staggering 206,000 people."
    "... whites and non-whites in the UK were leading separate lives, with no social or cultural contact and no sense of belonging to the same nation."
    "'I stand with those Muslims who insist that certain passages (of the Koran) are being politically exploited,' said Irshad Maji, author of The Trouble with Islam: A Wake-Up Call for Honesty and Change." ENDS.] [Jul 17, 05]

    • [Mother of Satan bombs homemade TATP]
    Mother of all bombs
       The Sunday Times, Perth, W. Australia, p 43, July 17, 2005
       LONDON: THE explosive used in the London bombings was a favourite of al-Qaida known as the "Mother of Satan" because of its devastating power.
       Police believe up to 4.5kg of the crudely made explosive was packed into each of the rucksacks carried by the suicide bombers.
       At first, it was believed the explosives were military stock smuggled in from the Balkans, but forensic examination has now confirmed the devices were homemade, probably mixed in the bath of one of the houses raided by police in Leeds.
       Officials say the material found was TATP, a highly volatile explosive. While the ingredients are easily obtained chemicals, including drain cleaner and acetone, it takes considerable expertise to turn them into an explosive mix.
       TATP stands for triacetone triperoxide.
       It is used almost exclusively by terrorists and favoured by al-Qaida and Palestinian bomb makers. [Jul 17, 05]

    • Killers' images chill Britons.

      Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Pakistan flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Jamaica flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Spain flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Iraq / Irak flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Egypt flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The West Australian, p 6, Monday, July 18, 2005
       LONDON: Britain awoke yesterday to the chill­ing image of the four London bombers taken as they headed to the scene of the attacks.
       Sunday newspapers plastered across their front pages a security camera picture, released by Scotland Yard, showing the men toting big backpacks, about to head from Luton station, north of London, to King's Cross station, where they were again fumed just before the bombings.
       Scotland Yard made a fresh appeal to witnesses for information that could help unravel the events leading to the July 7 bombings.
       At a Labour Party conference in London yesterday, in his most forceful speech since the attacks, Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "What we are confronting here is an evil ideology. It is not a clash of civilisations - all civilised people, Muslim or other, feel revulsion at it.
       "But it is a global struggle and it is a battle of ideas, hearts and minds, both within Islam and outside it."
       With the death toll from the attacks at 55, with about 700 injured, police confirmed for the first time the identity of the last two bomb suspects: Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, and Islam convert Germaine Lindsay, 19.
       Police believe Khan set off the explosion at Edgware Road, while Lindsay is thought to have caused the explosion between King's Cross and Russell Square Underground stations - the most deadly of the four rush-hour attacks. Both died in the bombings, along with the other two bombers Hasib Hussain, 18, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22.
       Khan, Hussain and Tanweer were Britons from Leeds but had family roots in Pakistan, while Lindsay, a Jamaican immigrant, lived in Aylesbury, north-west of London.
       Lindsay's 22-year-old wife, Samantha Lewthwaite, issued a statement saying she was horrified, describing Lindsay as "a good and loving husband and a brilliant father, who showed absolutely no sign of doing this atrocious crime".
       Investigators reportedly found another nine bombs in Lindsay's red Fiat, which had been parked at Luton station.
       Khan's grief-stricken family claimed he had been brainwashed into terrorism, expressing their deepest sympathy for the victims.
       Britain is linking the London bombings to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, which notoriously carried out the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001 as well as the Madrid commuter train bombings in March 2004.
       Mr Blair strongly rejected claims that the London bombings were a response to his decision to take Britain into the Iraq war.
       But in a significant break with Labour Party ranks over the bombings, former British Cabinet minister Clare Short said yesterday she had no doubt the bombings were linked to the Iraq war.
       The fast-moving investigation has shifted to Cairo in recent days, where British officials were expected to inquire into an Egyptian arrested on Thursday on suspicion of involvement in the bombings.
       But Egypt's Interior Minister Habib Adly dismissed reports linking Magdy Mahmud Mustafa Nashar, 33, a chemistry doctorate student at Leeds University, to the attacks as "unfounded and only hasty deductions".# END
       [RECAPITULATION: Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "What we are confronting here is an evil ideology. It is not a clash of civilisations - all civilised people, Muslim or other, feel revulsion at it." ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 22:19 -- "As for the disbelievers, for them garments of fire shall be cut and there shall be poured over their heads boiling water whereby whatever is in their bowels and skin shall be dissolved and they will be punished with hooked iron rods" ( www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 022.qmt.html#022.019 ).
       4 - 8:12 -- "I shall strike terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers!" ( www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 008.qmt.html #008.012 ).
       4 - 5:33 -- "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides ..." ( www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 005.qmt.html #005.033 ). DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jul 18, 05]

    • Bombers 'duped'.
       The West Australian, p 6, Monday, July 18, 2005
       LONDON: Police are investigating the possibility that the London bombings were not suicide attacks.
       Senior officers said they were examining claims that the four bombers had been duped into killing themselves.
       "We do not have hard evidence that the men were suicide bombers," a police spokesman said, a "It is possible that they did not intend to die."
       One hypothesis is that the bombers' al-Qaida "controller" told them that timers would give them a chance to flee, but that in fact the devices were always primed to go off immediately.
       None of the men was heard say "Allah Akhbar" (God is great) which suicide bombers usually scream as they detonate their bombs.# [Jul 18, 05]
    • Boxer unites Britons.
       The West Australian, p 6, Monday, July 18, 2005
       BRITAIN: The newest face of Britain's united front against terror is Amir Khan, an 18-year-old Muslim boxer from Bolton.
       The Olympic silver medallist decked Londoner David Bailey in just 69 seconds on his professional debut on Saturday.
       Khan entered the ring attended by a big Union Jack and with the strains of Land of Hope and Glory ringing though the Bolton Arena.
       And then, after taking care of business, he dedicated the victory to London.# [Jul 18, 05]
    • Tourists are back.
       BRITAIN: Britain's tourism industry has quickly recovered from the bomb attacks, with most visitors deciding against cancelling holidays.
       But Stephen Dowd, chief executive of trade association UKinbound, said the medium to long-term impact was not so clear.
       But tourism groups are pleased that United States travellers, who along with Japanese, tend to spend the most during holidays in Britain, do not appear to have been put off by the blasts.
       London's open-top bus tours are also back on course after a few slow trading days.# [Jul 18, 05]

    • Religions 'have much in common'.


       The West Australian, by Sarah Roberts, p 6, Monday, July 18, 2005
       PERTH (W. Australia): Acts of terrorist violence have no basis in theology and all forms should be condemned, according to visiting religious studies lecturer and author Jamal Badawi.
       Speaking at the University of WA last night, Dr Badawi, of St Mary's University in Nova Scotia, Canada, said people of goodwill, clergy and politicians should join in their condemnation of terrorist attacks, including what he called acts of terrorism against Muslims which pushed them to commit acts of terrorism.
    'The Koran contains positive references to Jesus' -- JAMAL BADAWI
       "To me terrorism could be committed by individuals, groups or states, which is more dangerous because they (the states) have access to destructive weapons," he said.
       Responding to questions after his address on the similarities between Islam and Christianity, he said Muslim clerics had widely condemned acts of terrorism such as the London bombings but there had been a lack of reporting of this by the Western media.
    [Picture] Common ground: Jamal Badawi says people of goodwill should join together to condemn terrorism. Picture: Rob Duncan
      In his presentation, he discussed common elements of the two religions and the Koran and Bible.
       He said Jesus, who was referred to in both texts, was a common link between the religions and the Koran contained positive references to Jesus.
       Jesus appeared in more than 10 chapters and 90 verses of the Koran.
       "Find one single negative term," Dr Badawi asked the audience. "There is none." He said both faiths worshipped the same God, whether known as Allah or God, and despite some differences, he said the commonalities could provide a foundation for mutual co-operation between the religions.# END.
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 5.51 - O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 005.qmt.html #005.051 .
       4 - 9.30 - And the Jews say: Uzair [Ezra] is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away! www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 009.qmt.html #009.030 .
       4 - 19.88-93 - They say: "(Allah) Most Gracious has begotten a son!" Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous! At it the skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin, That they should invoke a son for (Allah) Most Gracious. For it is not consonant with the majesty of (Allah) Most Gracious that He should beget a son. Not one of the beings in the heavens and the earth but must come to (Allah) Most Gracious as a servant. [Yusufali's translation]. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 019.qmt.html #019.088 . DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jul 18, 05]

    • Spy agency decided bomber did not pose a threat. Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Israel flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Pakistan flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Palestine Authority flag; Palestine Authority website 
       The West Australian, p 6, Monday, July 18, 2005
       LONDON: Britain's domestic intelligence agency MI5 opened a file on the Edgware Road station bomber last year but closed it after ruling he posed no threat, it was reported yesterday.
       In London's Times and Telegraph newspapers, an unnamed senior government official claimed Mohammed Sidique Khan's name cropped up during an investigation into an alleged plot to explode a 270kg truck bomb outside a nightclub in London's Soho district in 2004, but security services decided not to put him under watch.
       MI5 learnt that Khan, who worked as a learning assistant to troubled children in his home town of Leeds, had visited a house used by a man who had met one of the suspected truck bombers, it was reported.
       But a Government official said that like hundreds of others linked to the inquiry, Khan was judged to be on the fringe of the terrorist cell.
       It is believed that Khan, 30, went to Israel two years ago to help two fellow Britons of Pakistani origin, Asif Hanif and Omar Sharif, carry out a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv bar that killed three Israelis.
       However, a senior Israeli security source said the report, which cited no evidence, was unsubstantiated.
       Israeli officials are under orders from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to link the London attacks to Palestinian militants to avoid offending British sensibilities.# [Jul 18, 05]
    • Fuel truck blast kills 98 in Iraq.
       The West Australian, p 7, Monday, July 18, 2005
       BAGHDAD: Stricken townspeople swept away the wreckage of a fuel truck bomb that killed 98 people south of Baghdad as three more suicide bombers struck the Iraqi capital yesterday in a relentless new campaign.
       ... highway south of Musayyib, was the deadliest since the new Iraqi government took power ... near a Shi'ite mosque ... near a crowded vegetable market ... at least 95 ... wounded ...
    [Picture] Death scene: Musayyib's square, where a suicide bomber killed 98 people in the worst blast since the new Iraqi government came to power. Picture: Reuters.
       Apart from the Musayyib blast, strikes throughout Iraq at the weekend killed at least 16 people, including three British soldiers in Amara in the south and one American soldier near Kirkuk in the north.# [Jul 18, 05]
    • Enoch Powell's words prophetic

    Enoch Powell's words prophetic

       The West Australian, Various Letters to The Editor, p 18, Monday, July 18, 2005
    Enoch Powell's words prophetic
       In the late 1950s, an "outspoken" Conservative politician, Enoch Powell, paid dearly for having the temerity to voice his opinion that the impending multicultural (one-way) social program in Britain was proceeding at an unsustainable rate and was heading for disaster.
       The "correct ones" who hounded and vilified Mr Powell into undignified submission then smugly returned to their imperious residences; safe in the knowledge that this unasked-for invasion would not, in any form, touch their cocooned existences.
       For decades this remained largely true. The immigrant population "knew their place" and got on with their lives in small enclaves within dreary areas of towns like Bradford, Leeds and Birmingham. The communities they developed were by no means salubrious, but they were a vast improvement on the squalor they were grateful to escape.
       Not any more though. The new generation of "Brits" are a far more aggressive, non-subservient, dissatisfied and demonstrative group, who find themselves in the curious position of not actually belonging anywhere.
       They emphatically reject the cultural practices and values of their country of birth and are, consequently, vulnerable and easy prey for the recruitment tentacles of the ghouls who wish to preside over a world of absolute dictation, oppression, subversion and utter bloody misery. All, apparently, in the name of some bunkered and contorted version of a book of fairy stories written a long time ago when the world was a vastly different place and people were even more gullible than they are today.
       So the recruitment process escalates and this "lost" generation find themselves a home - in the evil clutches of demonic creatures whose only pleasure in life is, seemingly, the pain of others.
       So now, no one is safe from these deranged fanatics whose ability to hate knows no bounds. Not even the slick and mealy-mouthed politicians who so enthusiastically engineered this irretrievable situation.
       No doubt a number of readers will vent their "correct" spleens at such a view. Don't bother, save it for that Aussie lady who had her shattered legs amputated the other day after being caught in the London "demonstration" last week. Michael Crosthwaite, Craigie.
    Christian killers
       Malcolm Town (They don't get it, 15/7), your thinly veiled attack on Muslims and others who do not follow the Christian path cannot go unchallenged.
       Your head must be so far into the sand that at a guess I'd say only the soles of your sandals must be visible.
       Have you any idea of the amount of blood spilt on this planet in the name of Jesus Christ? I dare say you don't, otherwise you would not have the audacity to suggest that biblical Christianity brings "tranquillity, justice and morality" to this world.
       Do us all a favour and have a read of actual history books, Mr Town (not bits and pieces of script, written 100 years or more after the death of Jesus Christ, carefully edited, canonised in the third century and then rewritten again and again) and see how the so-called Christians betrayed Muslims during the crusades, how they murdered and pillaged the most civilised people of that time - people who created street lighting, algebra and textiles (to name a few) and a civilisation which was a tolerant one - a civilisation happy, before they were so brutally betrayed, to allow Christian churches to be built in their cities.
       No, I am not protecting those Muslims who harm their own and others but you are wrong to suggest that all Muslims, because of their faith, promote poverty and bondage.
       Put simply, your point of view is an ignorant one based on pure and blind faith - one of the very reasons (along with oil - or "geopolitical considerations" as it is so quaintly put) the world is in such a mess.
       And no, I am not a Muslim. I was raised a Catholic and attended a private Catholic school for eight years. Having done so, and having read the Bible, I can assure you, it is a very frightening read - and not recommended if you want a balanced, sensible perspective - a perspective you seem to lack, Mr Town.
       I note with some irony that on the day your letter was published, the regular column On This Day in 1099 (15/7) said "the Christian army stormed Jerusalem and put its Muslim inhabitants to the sword". James Davies, Bunbury.
    PLEASE EXPLAIN
       What exactly is a "terrorist"? Is it a person with a bag of hidden explosives, a religious fanatic to boot, or a patriotic one, or a schizophrenic let loose by the aforementioned?
       When did "terrorists" first make their presence felt? Was it in the "Holy" land when Jews of the Stern gang lobbed hand grenades into movie theatres to drive Britain out of Jerusalem? Following that, the Irish commenced a program of fire-bombing, assassinations and knee disjointing with equal enthusiasm once again, against Britain.
       Maybe the Mau Mau in Kenya or Pol Pot could claim their bestial killings would cement their name for ever as the masters of terrorism.
       Of course, "terrorists" have been around since man fell out of the trees; evolution did the rest melding terrorism into a wartime art form.
       We cannot forget Rotterdam, Coventry, Stalingrad, Dresden, or Hiroshima, surely, nor the children torpedoed in mid-Atlantic on the way to Canada, or those poisoned by gas on the Somme.
       War is nothing more or less than "terrorism" on a grand scale.
       Religion, patriotism and the three isms - communism, socialism and now capitalism - have failed. How about trying love again? Ian Hills, Lower King.
    [Discuss loyalty to country that embraces you]
       The London blasts should be a message for the Muslim families residing in the West. These families should discuss with their children that the foreign policies of the West should not impact on us. We need to be loyal to the country which has embraced us as their family members. Nahid Kabir, Churchlands.
    [Jul 18, 05]
    • Nuclear bombings by terrorists are a real threat
    Nuclear bombings by terrorists are a real threat
       The West Australian, Various Letters to The Editor, p 19, Monday, July 18, 2005
       The London bombings were only a pinprick, as were the Twin Towers, Madrid and Bali, compared to what may happen soon. When terrorists get hold of nuclear bombs we will have not 50 or 200 or 2000 deaths but a million or more, with half of London, New York or Sydney gone.
       It's not difficult to drive a truck with a good-size nuclear bomb into the heart of a city. When this scenario is mentioned most people say, "It's too horrible, it couldn't happen". Well, nobody dreamt that the Twin Towers could fall down.
       As we speak, Iran is busily preparing to build nuclear weapons. It is also national policy (constantly proclaimed in their media and on billboards) to destroy the US, Israel and Western nations generally and impose Islamic rule on the world. It seems reasonable to believe them; accordingly, Iran would be more than happy to supply nuclear bombs to terrorists and to deny any culpability after an attack.
       There is also the chance that terrorists with unlimited oil money could at some point purchase nukes from North Korea, Pakistani militants or even the Russian mafia.
       The situation is extremely frightening but it must not be regarded as alarmist and simply put out of sight; we do that at our peril. Dan Leighton, Ardross.
    Unwinnable war
       Had George W. Bush not been in such a hurry to bring "democracy" to Iraq, he might have maintained troops in Afghanistan at a level needed to stabilise that poor country. As it was he left the job half-done, lost the sympathy of most of the world and has mired his troops in an unwinnable war.
       Needless to say, our own "man of steel" followed suit and now after yet again sidelining any public debate, has committed our troops to fighting in an area where we have no right to be. I assume all this is to get his pat on the head at the annual barbecue in Midland, Texas, where Mr Bush reassures little John that he is a valued ally.
       However, I read numerous mainstream magazines and newsletters from the US that never mention our role in the "coalition of the willing". What is it about our politicians that they cannot wait to attempt to become world statesmen, when history proves that all they will be is minor footnotes, if that, to world events?
       In the meantime, the long-suffering public have become unwitting footsoldiers in the war on terror each time they set foot on public transport, a mode of travel little used by our politicians. I just wish our leaders would let this country run its own race instead of being at the beck and call of a super-power that is displaying all the trappings of Victorian imperialism. Geoff Dunstone, Palmyra.
    Space invader
       Last week I was minding my own business and enjoying the music of a busker in the Fremantle Mall. An older man of Caucasian descent with an English accent came close to me and asked gruffly: "Are you a Pakistani in Australia with a bomb?"
       I looked at him and responded: "No, are you a Pom with a bomb?" He swore at me.
       The funny thing is, I do not look remotely Pakistani - more Chinese, actually. The dangerous thing is he invaded my space based on an assumption.
       Sounds familiar, doesn't it? John McCumiskey, East Fremantle.
    IN SHORT
       We have been warned that it is only a matter of time before we experience some sort of terror attack on our shores. Surely then it is time for our Government to introduce an identity card-DNA system to cover us all, including all visitors to this country. I am quite sure that most Australians would welcome this.
       It would also be of great assistance to the authorities when trying to identify victims of any atrocity or accident. Let's be prepared. Barry Solomon, Karrinyup.
    [SAS always enough]
       One hundred and fifty SAS troops are never a "piddling little number" no matter how many enemy they face. This has been proved time and again (SAS back to 'sharp end' of war, 14/7). I think I know who has jelly between his ears, Mr Francis (Letters, 14/7). Joy McDonald, Coogee.
    [Publishing builds martyr image]
       I take exception to The West Australian publishing the names of the latest terrorists involved in the London bombings. These people want to be martyrs to their cause and can only do this if their names are published. Let them remain anonymous. S. Jones, Bayswater.
    [Fight where elected governments ask]
       To Craig Bradshaw and W. J. Francis (Letters, 14/7) please remember that the tentacles of terrorism reach around the world and Australians have died as a result of terrorist attacks. The centres of major terrorist activities are in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are therefore obligated to be involved in countering terrorism at these places and our help has been requested by the democratically elected governments of these countries. Deric Davidson, Bunbury.
    Today's text
    God blesses those people who are humble. The Earth will belong to them! - MATTHEW 5:5. (The Bible for Today). From the Bible Society.
    [Jul 18, 2005]
    • $8 for pro-jihad book by bin Laden's mentor
    News London blasts

    $8 for pro-jihad book
    by bin Laden's mentor

       The West Australian, by SIMON PENN, p 12, Tuesday, July 19, 2005
       PERTH (W. Australia): A book promoting jihad and endorsed by Osama bin Laden in which the author glorifies war is being sold in Perth.
       The book, Join the Caravan, by Sheikh Abdullah Azzam was available for $8 from the Islamic Centre of WA in Maylands yesterday.
       Sheikh Azzam was touted as bin Laden's spiritual mentor and the book, written in 1987, incited its readers to join the fight against the Russians in Afghanistan.
       Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the Australian Federal Police and other agencies would investigate whether any laws had been breached through the sale of such material.
       A spokesman at the Islamic centre said the manager was interstate and could not be contacted.
       Two Muslim bookshops in Sydney are being investigated by the AFP and NSW anti-terrorism police for selling the same book and others by the author.
       People convicted of collecting or making documents likely to facilitate terrorist acts face up to 15 years jail.
       Acting WA Attorney-General John D'Orazio said the Government strengthened the State's racial vilification laws last year - with a 14-year maximum sentence for people inciting violence or racial hatred - but any decision to prosecute would be up to the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions.
    WORDS OF WAR THE TEACHINGS OF SHEIKH ABDULLAH AZZAM
    Anybody who looks into the state of the Muslims today will find that their greatest misfortune is their abandonment of jihad due to their love of this world and their hatred of death'. Because of that, the tyrants have gained dominance over the Muslims in every aspect and in every land. The reason for this is that the disbelievers only stand in awe of fighting.
    Jihad is the most excellent form of worship and by means of it the Muslim can reach the highest ranks.
    Do not think glory to be a wine-skin and a songstress, for glory can only come through war and severe fighting.
    Join The Caravan front cover: Islamic Centre of WA

       Mr D'Orazio said he hoped that the community would demand that books promoting suicide bombing or other violence be withdrawn.
       In London last week, British police closed an extremist bookstore in Leeds which was visited by at least two of the bombers believed respon­sible for the July 7 attacks.
       Police Minister Michelle Roberts said she would seek advice from police about the matter.
       Police spokesman Sgt Graham Clifford said the situation in NSW would be monitored and Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan would speak with his NSW counterpart.
       Islamic Council of WA chairman Rahim Ghauri said he had not read the book but it should be banned if experts considered it a risk.
       "If these books are read by learned people from both sides and they agree that they're dangerous then I agree they should be banned," he said. "If the book is not good for the youngsters of the country then all those books should be banned."
       Mr Ghauri said the topic of jihad was often misunderstood and taken out of context by non-Muslims and did not necessarily mean violence.
       Daawah Association of WA spokesman Abid Goraya said he had not read the book but it was a matter of taking the material in its historical context.             with AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS #
       [CONTACT: Islamic Centre of WA, 238 Guildford Rd, Maylands, WA, 6051; Tel. 08 9271 3332. CONTACT ENDS.]
       [LATER NEWSITEM: About July 2006 the Australian Government started moves to ban Join the Caravan and another book.] [Jul 19, 05]

    • Terrorist hunter Bruguiere in Australia

    Australia flag; Aust. National Flag Assn.  France flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Tunisia flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The West Australian, "Terrorist hunter in Australia," by CHRIS JOHNSON, p 12, Tuesday, July 19, 2005
       CANBERRA: French terrorist hunter Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere interviewed convicted Perth terrorist Jack Roche last week during a 10-day Australian visit to investigate several al-Qaida related cases.
       The judge was hoping to further establish a link between Roche and Osama bin Laden and learn more about al-Qaida's global network.
       He interrogated Roche about his claims that Christian Ganczarski planned the suicide bombing of a synagogue in Tunisia that killed 21 people in 2002.
       In Canberra yesterday to meet Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, Mr Bruguiere would not discuss his investigations in Australia.
       But Mr Ruddock confirmed that he and the French judge discussed the possibility that terrorism cells could be operating in Australia. It was on the record that France-Australia terrorism links existed.
       "He is aware of it, I am aware of it, you are aware of it. So it would be foolish to say that there isn't an awareness of such linkages between Australia and France. There clearly is," Mr Ruddock said.
       The pair agreed not to discuss specific cases such as Roche or Willie Brigitte, who was deported to France in 2003. Mr Bruguiere said he could not legally comment on Brigitte.
       "I am in Australia firstly because we have a common interest (in fighting terrorism)," he said.
       [CONTACT: A website stating that another suspect, "Jihad" Jack Thomas, has been, and is being, unjustly treated, is at www.justice 4jack. com/ . Petitions can be sent to Justice for Jack campaign, c/- 1/85 Paisley St, Footscray, 3011. See The Big Issue No. 233, July 18 to August 2, 2005, pp 10-13. (inserted July 25, 2005). ENDS.] [Jul 19, 05]

    • Fear lurks in shadow of defiance.
    London blasts

    Fear lurks in shadow of defiance

       The West Australian, By ELIZABETH GRICE, p 10, Wednesday, July 20, 2005
       LONDON: It may be the multiple wail of police and ambulance sirens that causes a heightened sense of anxiety. Perhaps the sight of a swarthy young man straining forward under the weight of a rucksack, the backfiring of a London bus, the sudden, unex­plained halt of a train between stations.
       Any of these triggers is now enough to remind Londoners of the impossibility of defending them­selves against random attack and to produce, even in the most outwardly defiant, a frisson of fear.
       The capital's resolute return to something approaching normality masks the deeper effects of the trauma of the London bombings.
       Stoicism and necessity are power­ful disguises, especially among adults who remember the historical impor­tance of not caving in to the enemy.
       In this recent outrage, it was left to young people to articulate the fear that runs underneath the bravado.
       They didn't mind admitting that they were afraid of the Tube, wary of the buses, reluctant to congregate in public places.
       Days after the bombs went off, the British Psychological Society's web-site listed the likely physical and emotional reactions to such a disas­ter.
       Physical signs include breathless-ness, upset stomach and "sudden racing of the heart". The psychologi­cal fall-out covers everything from nightmares and temper outbursts to feelings of helplessness, panic and being out of control.
       The advice is to talk, to cry, to share experiences, to rest, to eat sen­sibly and on no account to tell some­one to "get over it".
       Fear is an emotional response to a direct perception of threat. But it can be visceral, too, and that is why peo­ple become unwell. With phobia, the threat is imaginary but no less under­mining.
       The London explosions were cal­culated to cause fear and to set up what psychotherapist Alexander Gardner calls "a type of trauma which is in essence a phobia".
       The natural consequence is known as "avoidant behaviour"- such as shunning the Underground.
       "The imaginary threat is some­times worse than the real one," he says.#
    • Islamic schools deny link. Pakistan flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
    Islamic schools deny link
       The West Australian, p 10, Wednesday, July 20, 2005
       PESHAWAR - Religious schools in Pakistan deny any links to the London bombings.
       Western leaders have claimed that the 8000 madrassas are breeding grounds for violent extremists.
       One alleged bomber - Shahzad Tanweer, 22, a Briton of Pakistani origin - is said to have visited two.
       Pakistani intelligence agents have questioned people at three centres.
    [Picture] Terrorism denied: Islamic religious schools in Pakistan teach only the Koran but are free and parents who cannot afford state school fees send their children.
       "This is Western propaganda to defame Islam. They blame Muslims for everything," said Maulana Rahat Gul, 85, who runs the Markaz Ulum-e-Islamia Islamic school in Peshawar.
       He condemned the bombings.
       "Raiding madrassas and blaming them for involvement is like interfer­ing in Pakistan's internal matters,' said Riaz Durrani, a senior pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party member who runs a 200-student school in Lahore.
       In the 1980s, some madrassas sent students to fight the Soviet occupa­tion of Afghanistan - co-ordinated by Pakistani intelligence agencies with US CIA support and money. Now many are threadbare operations that take in poor children whose par­ents cannot afford state school fees.
       "Enemies of Islam and hypocrites have been trying for a long time to eliminate the status of madrassas and change their syllabus," Mr Gul said. "Our schools are open for everyone. Islam strongly opposes terrorism. We give only moral and religious education based on the Koran. Islam means peace.# END.
       [COMMENT: "Islam" in Arabic, its original and training language, means surrender, not peace. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 2:193 - "Fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left." www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 02.qmt.html# 002.193 .
       5 - Volume 9, Book 84, Number 57: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him." www.usc.edu/dept/ MSA/fundamentals/ hadithsunnah/bukhari/ 084.sbt.html#009. 084.057 .
       5 - Vol. 9, Bk 84, No. 58:- [Regarding a Jew who had become a Muslim, then returned to Judaism:] "I will not sit down till he has been killed." And he was killed. www.usc.edu/dept/ MSA/fundamentals/ hadithsunnah/bukhari/ 084.sbt.html#009. 084.058 . ENDS.] [Jul 20, 05]

    • Scientists barred | All-clear 'premature' | Bag check mooted


       The West Australian, p 10, Wednesday, July 20 2005
    Scientists barred
       Security services have barred more than 200 foreign scientists from studying at British universities in the past four years, fearing they could present a terrorist threat
       The Guardian newspaper reported yesterday that the scientists were among more than 2000 vetted after applying to universities to do postgraduate or post-doctoral research in fields such as chemistry, microbiology and biotechnology.
    All-clear 'premature'
       Britain's top intelligence and law enforcement officials concluded less than a month before the London bombings that there was no group with current intent and the capability to attack Britain, according to the New York Times, which quoted a confidential intelligence report.
       The paper said authorities made their conclusion in the wake of a terror threat assessment by the Joint Terrorist Analysis Centre, which includes officials from Britain's top intelligence agencies. It prompted the British Government to lower its formal threat assessment one level.
    Bag check mooted
       Security chiefs on the Washington subway system are considering the introduction of random bag searches as they review anti-terror precautions. City authorities sent machinegun-toting police and sniffer dogs into stations and trains after the London blasts. [Jul 20, 05]
    • Afghan warlord guilty of torture: British jury Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Afghanistan flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 

    Afghan warlord guilty of torture: British jury

       The West Australian, By SALLY POOK, p 10, Wednesday, July 20, 2005
       LONDON - In the world's first successful prosecution of its kind, a former mujahideen commander from Afghanistan who settled in Britain was convicted this week of waging a campaign of torture and kidnap in his homeland.
       The Crown Prosecution Service said the historic conviction at the Old Bailey clearly demonstrated that there was no hiding place for torturers and hostage takers.
       Faryadi Sarwar Zardad, 42, was sentenced to two 20-year jail terms to run concurrently. The judge, Mr Justice Tready, recommended he be deported after serving his sentence.
    [Picture] Guilty of torture: Afghan warlord Faryadi Sarwar Zardad was tried in Britain.
       Zardad controlled a key road linking Pakistan with the Afghan capital, Kabul, setting up military checkpoints that enabled him to steal money and goods from travellers.
       With up to 1000 men under his command, he ordered the torture of civilians, who were beaten, hung from ceilings and threatened with rape. Some witnesses said they had been tortured by Zardad himself.
       Many hostages were exchanged for members of his militia taken prisoner by rival factions. Others were kept and large sums of money were demanded from their families.
       The jury was told of summary execution and the slaughter of 10 or 11 men in a minibus. A seven-year-old boy said he had seen his father's ear being cut off. A witness spoke of a "human dog" kept in a hole who bit people and ate testicles on the orders of soldiers at one checkpoint.
       The crimes took place between 1992 and 1996 after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and during the rule of rival warlords.
       Zardad had significant political influence at the time because of his position in the Hizbhi-I-Islami organisation, led by Afghanistan's then prime minister, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
       He entered Britain seven years ago and claimed asylum on the grounds that his association with the Hizbhi-I-Islami would endanger his life under the Taliban regime that had taken over.
    > AL-QAIDA ARRESTS          29
       [COMMENT: You bad boy, Afghan warlord! Meanwhile, our glorious allies are torturing, and hiding some of their many torture chambers from the Red Cross / Red Crescent. And Australia trots along with less ability to think for itself than the most charming and obedient lapdog in the world! COMMENT ENDS.] [Jul 20, 05]
    • Troops out or more bombs: al-Qaida United Arab Emirates / UAE flag; Flagspot http://flagspot.net/flags/ae.html  Iraq / Irak flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Denmark flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Netherlands (Holland) flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Italy flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Spain flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Turkey flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Australia flag; Aust. National Flag Assn.  United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 

    Troops out or more bombs: al-Qaida

       The West Australian, p 11, Wednesday, July 20, 2005
       DUBAI: Al-Qaida has warned European nations to pull their troops out of Iraq within a month or face more attacks like the London bombings.
       An internet statement by the terrorist network said: "This message is the final warning to European states. We want to give you a one-month deadline to bring your soldiers out from the land of Mesopotamia (Iraq).
       "After August 15, there will be no more messages, just actions that will be engraved on the heart of Europe," said the message, dated July 16.
       "It will be a bloody war in the service of God.
       "It's a message we are addressing to the crusaders who are still present in Iraq - Denmark, the Netherlands, Britain, Italy - and those other countries whose troops continue to crisscross Iraqi territory.
       "These are our last words. The mujahideen, who are on the lookout, will have other words to say in your capitals."
       The statement was issued in the name of the Europe division of the same al-Qaida group which claimed responsibility for the London attacks. The same group also claimed responsibility for the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the 2003 attacks attacks in Istanbul.
       However, yesterday Australia, Britain and the United States were standing firm on their rejection of a report that said their involvement in the war in Iraq had raised the risk of terrorist attacks.
       The respected Royal Institute of International Affairs said the invasion of Iraq and its bloody aftermath had boosted recruitment and fundraising for al-Qaida.
    [Picture] Flying the flag: Iraqi and British flags fly at a memorial near Edgware Road station. Picture: Associated Press
       When he was asked about the British report while meeting with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Washington yesterday, John Howard said Australia was a terrorist target "well before the Iraq operation".
       "No country can allow its foreign and defence policy to be malleable in the hands of terrorists," the Prime Minister said.
       Mr Rumsfeld said: "People who think they could make a separate peace with terrorists will find that it's very danger­ous. It's a little like feeding an alligator, hoping it eats you last."
       In Brussels, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the time for excuses for terrorism was over.
       "The terrorists have struck across the world, in countries allied with the United States, backing the war in Iraq, and in countries which had nothing whatever to do with the war in Iraq," Mr Straw said.
       However, in Canberra yesterday, shadow foreign affairs minister Kevin Rudd said Australia's involvement in the Iraq conflict had made it a much bigger target.
       Mr Rudd said Australa's role in the Iraq war and occupation had turbocharged Australia as being a terrorist target for al-Qaida.
    [Jul 20, 05]
    Victims all identified
       All the bodies which were removed from the bombed Lon­don Underground trains and a double-decker bus and taken to a makeshift mortuary have been identified, a coroner said yesterday.
       "Inquests into most have already been opened and adjourned at either Westminster Coroner's Court or St Pancras Coroner's Court," Dr Paul Knapmanhe said.
       Last night, police confirmed the blasts killed 57 people. [Jul 20, 05]
    • [Pakistani raids snare 5 top Taliban] [Qadeer, Kabir] Pakistan flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Afghanistan flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 

    Pakistani raids snare top Taliban

       The West Australian, p 29, Wednesday, July 20, 2005
       ISLAMABAD - Pakistani intelligence agents have arrested five senior Taliban leaders, including a deputy to fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar, two security officials said.
       The arrests were on Monday after security agents raided several homes in north-western Pakistan, the most senior of the two intelligence offi­cials, who was involved in interrogat­ing the suspects, said.
       Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
       The officials identified two of the captured men as Maulvi Abdul Qadeer, a deputy to Omar and formerly chairman of the Taliban Special Council, and Abdul Kabir, a former governor in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.
       They would not disclose the names of the other three leaders, but one official said "they are also impor­tant Taliban leaders who are in our custody and being interrogated in Pakistan".
       Government officials were not available to confirm the arrests.
       Pakistan, a key ally in the United States-led war on terror, has arrested more than 700 Taliban and al-Qaida members, including high level oper­atives, since the hard-line Taliban was ousted from power in Afghanistan in 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden.
       Bin Laden and Omar have so far eluded capture, but US and Afghan officials believe they are hiding in Pakistan's rugged tribal belt on the border with Afghanistan.
       Pakistan has deployed more than 70,000 troops to that region to flush out remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida.
       The arrests on Monday came hours after Pakistan's Foreign Minis­try spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz would travel to Afghanistan on July 24 to discuss with Afghan Presi­dent Hamid Karzai how the two countries could improve economic relations and ensure better co-ordi­nation in the fight against terrorism.
       Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has made several public promises to crack down on militants who preached hatred and violence against the West.
       However, analysts say that such pronouncements, while soothing to Western ears, have had little visible success since September 11, 2001.
       More than 40 people, including women and children, were killed at the weekend in gunbattles between Pakistani troops and al-Qaida sym­pathisers along the border with Afghanistan.#
       [COMMENT: The Western allies, while the Soviet Union was occupying Afghanistan under a puppet regime, helped Arabia by paying huge sums to train people in Pakistan to be resistance fighters. The selection was of Muslims with such belief that they were ready to die for their faith. They are known to history as the Taliban, who teamed up with the millionaire Arabian leader Usama Bin Ladin (Osama bin Laden), whose family has been dealing with leading United States business and political figures for years.
       A few brave Westerners opposed the training and the money spent, warning that to train religious fanatics could end up in "Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind."
       When the Taliban and Soviet citizens' opposition caused the Communists to leave Afghanistan, the Taliban proved to be puritanical fanatics, who not only policed women's clothing and behaviour, but even the length of men's beards. They blew up ancient statues of Buddha, and public executions horrified the civilised communities of the world.
       Some of the Taliban started exporting terror, using the huge stocks of weapons given to them by the Western allies, under the name of Al Qaida (Al Qaeda). This phenomenon of the "biter bitten" was named "blowback" by some commentators. Criticism of arming and training fanatics has been reported for years, but usually politicians act as if they had never heard of such ideas.
       The article ought to have stated that before the attack on Afghanistan began, President George W. Bush and his allies gave the Taliban notice to stop harbouring Osama bin Laden, but they declined on the grounds of "hospitality" to a guest! It is now a matter of history that Bush and Blair, instead of persisting in the search for Bin Ladin, only "won" because they allied themselves to the warlords who had cruelly misgoverned the country before the Taliban arrived from Pakistan. The allies shifted forces to Iraq - which was under secular rule, allowing only Saddam-led terrorism, not secret Islamist groups like Bin Ladin's, although Saddam had stupidly given publicity to his giving money to the surviving families of Palestinian suicide bombers. COMMENT ENDS.] [Jul 20, 05]

    • The Real Suicide Bomb

      Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  
       Cox & Forkum, www.coxand forkum.com/ archives/ 000627.html , July 20, 2005
    The Real Suicide Bomb. www.CoxAndForkum.com
       This cartoon was inspired by a line from Mark Steyn in A victory for multiculti over common sense: [In The Telegraph, Britain, July 19, 2005.]
       It has been sobering this past week watching some of my "woollier" colleagues (in Vicki Woods's self-designation) gradually awake to the realisation that the real suicide bomb is "multiculturalism". Its remorseless tick-tock, suddenly louder than the ethnic drumming at an anti-globalisation demo, drove poor old Boris Johnson into rampaging around this page last Thursday like some demented late-night karaoke one-man Fiddler on the Roof, stamping his feet and bellowing, "Tradition! Tradition!" Boris's plea for more Britishness was heartfelt and valiant, but I'm not sure I'd bet on it. The London bombers were, to the naked eye, assimilated - they ate fish 'n' chips, played cricket, sported appalling leisurewear. They'd adopted so many trees we couldn't see they lacked the big overarching forest - the essence of identity, of allegiance. As I've said before, you can't assimilate with a nullity - which is what multiculturalism is. [...]
       It To live among the believers -- the multiculturalists -- is to watch the assault, the jihad, take place un-repulsed by our suicidal societies. These societies are not doomed to submit; rather, they are eager to do so in the name of a masochistic brand of tolerance that, short of drastic measures, is surely terminal. [...] [Jul 20, 05]

    • Muslims worried by visit of cleric


       The West Australian, By NATALIE O'BRIEN, INVESTIGATIONS EDITOR, Page One, Thursday, July 21, 2005
       AUSTRALIA: A hardline Islamic cleric accused of making divisive religious statements is due to visit Australia next month for a series of lectures, prompting serious concerns from sections of the Muslim community.
       Abdur Raheem Green was criticised last year during a speaking tour for reportedly making inflammatory comments about Christianity, claiming it was a religion to be "mocked".
       Abdur Green, the Dawah administrator of the Islamic Education Centre in London, is due to give three talks in Sydney, which are expected to be attended by Muslims from around the country.
       But some Muslims have questioned whether Abdur Green, a convert from Catholicism, should be allowed into Australia to deliver his lectures.
       Dr Ameer Ali, the president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, said while he did not know of Abdur Green, he believed it was best to "keep controversial people out of Australia". He had worked hard with other religions to build a harmonious community in Australia.
       "I don't want that to be jeopardised by any visiting cleric ranting and raving," he said.
       "Visiting clerics can often be charismatic but not learned," said another Muslim spokesman who did not want to be identified.
       The revelations come after the country's highest profile Islamic leader, Sheikh Taj el-Din Al-Hilaly, said that clerics who preached violence should be deported to stop the spread of fundamentalism. Keysar Trad, a spokesman for Sheikh Al-Hilaly said the imam believed that anyone who preached hate and caused terror like the London bombings should have their freedom of speech restricted.
       Abdur Green has not been accused of preaching hate, but his visit has prompted a flurry of emotional exchanges, including in the online Muslim Village chat room. "I also think it's dangerous for outsiders to come to Australia and break ties between Muslims and other faith groups," wrote one. Another who attended Abdur Green's lecture last year said he lost his temper and became so emotional he forgot the "basic etiquettes" of Islam.
       Sheikh Mohammed Omran, one of the country's senior Islamic clerics, said it was up to the authorities to decide whether people such as Abdur Green should visit Australia. If visiting clerics promoted hate messages, it was up to the community to stop it.
       [RECAP. Christianity ... was a religion to be "mocked". -- Abdur Raheem Green RECAP. ENDS.] [Jul 21, 05]

    • London rocked by new terror attacks.

    London rocked by new terror attacks

       The West Australian, Page One, Friday, July 22, 2005
       LONDON: Three London Underground stations were evacuated and a bus damaged after a series of new attacks on the capital's transport system last night.
       There were initial reports of some injuries but not on the scale of the July 7 attacks.
       The apparent explosions sent screaming passengers fleeing in panic and wounded at least one person.
       Emergency services rushed to the stations after the reports of explo­sions, which came just two weeks after bomb attacks killed 56 people. Parts of the Underground system were shut and traffic jams snarled the city.
       Police said that no chemical agents had been found in the four incidents. There were initial reports of shots fired at one underground platform.
    [Picture] Deva vu: A fortnight after the blasts that killed 56 people, police enter Warren Street Tube station, one of three in which explosions were reported yesterday. Picture: Reuters
       Confusion surrounded early reports, but police eventually confirmed that there had been four attempted explosions about 12.30pm local time.
       The incidents occurred at Warren Street, The Oval and Shepherds Bush Underground stations and on a bus in Hackney, in the east of the city. A fourth Underground train line was shut.
       London police chief Ian Blair described the explosions as the result of "a very serious incident". He said there were four explosions or attempted explosions but they appeared to be smaller than the ones which killed 56 people in the city two weeks ago.
       Soon after the initial incident, armed police entered a hospital near the Warren Street station. "Three armed policemen just ran into the major incident area entrance of University College Hospital," a reporter said.
       Several of the victims of the July 7 bombings, including Australian Louise Barry who met John Howard there yesterday, are in the hospital.
       Police were said to be searching for a man wearing a blue shirt with wires protruding from a hole in the back.
       Later, armed police arrested a man near Downing Street.
       Sky TV showed footage of a double-decker bus parked by the side of the road and said its windows been blown out.
       One witness said he had been by another passenger that a rucksack had exploded on a train.
       Mr Howard was at lunch with British Prime Minister Tony Downing Street at the time of the attacks.
       British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw arrived at Downing Street about an hour after the first reports.
       "People were panicking. But very fortunately the train was only 15 seconds from the station," witness Ivan McCracken, who was on the Warren Street Tube train, told Sky News.#
    > NEW ATTACKS           13 [Jul 22, 05]
    • Howard may adopt Britain's tough laws.
       The West Australian, Page One, Friday, July 22, 2005
       AUSTRALIA: Australia will consider adopting ele­ments of Britain's new anti-terrorism regime, including stripping people of bad character of their citizenship.
       Attorney-General Philip Ruddock raised the possibility after NSW Premier Bob Carr called on the Federal Government to consider copying Britain's anti-terrorism laws.
       The proposed laws would make it an offence to provide or receive terrorism training in Britain or abroad and outlaw indirect incitement to carry out terrorism.
       Mr Carr, who has just returned from a visit to London, has written to John Howard, urging him to look closely at the British experience.
       The Prime Minister was expected to discuss the laws with his British counterpart, Tony Blair, last night.
       Under the laws, Islamic militants could be excluded or expelled from Britain if their inflammatory lan­guage or behaviour was judged to foment or provoke terrorism.
       If adopted, an index would be drawn up of unacceptable behaviours, including preaching hatred or running websites and writing articles intended to incite terrorism.
       Mr Ruddock said Australia was ahead of Britain in keeping out people of bad character and had pre­vented "radical sheikhs" getting into the country.
       He said he would examine British legislation allowing citizenship to be stripped under certain circum­stances, but revoking citizenship did not mean automatic deportation.
       The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils has invited Mr Howard to a summit in Sydney aimed at heading off extremist elements of the faith in Australia.
       Muslims yesterday joined Christians and Jews in a joint appeal for the withdrawal of hate literature from religious bookstores and an apology from the booksellers. [Bolding added]
       [COMMENT: Ruddock had overturned a Departmental decision to deport Al Hilali (Alhilaly), who had been asked to leave two other countries, and has said that 9/11 was Allah's work, so why is he saying Australia is ahead of Britain in such matters? The High Court in Britain has been frustrating the Government's attempts to remove some unsuitable "refugees," so how do the Australian leaders think Britain is ahead in this sort of thing? Decadence is -- decadence. The tough laws, if put into effect, are more likely to hamper patriots trying to warn their countrymen, than those who teach young people to kill people of other faiths to get a quick ticket to a place of intense pleasure beyond the grave. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [RECAP.: "Muslims yesterday joined Christians and Jews in a joint appeal for the withdrawal of hate literature from religious bookstores and an apology from the booksellers. " RECAP. ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: But, it's been recently shown in a Victorian hearing that the main books contain hate! But the ruling was that to read it out was offensive to the tribunal! ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 5:51 -- O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 005.qmt.html #005.051
       4 - 3:118 -- O ye who believe! Take not into your intimacy those outside your ranks: They will not fail to corrupt you. They only desire your ruin: Rank hatred has already appeared from their mouths: What their hearts conceal is far worse. We have made plain to you the Signs, if ye have wisdom. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 003.qmt.html #003.118
       4 - 33:1 -- O Prophet! Keep thy duty to Allah and obey not the disbelievers and the hypocrites. Lo! Allah is Knower, Wise. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/033.qmt.html#033.001
       4 - 2:193 -- Fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/02.qmt.html#002.193 . DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jul 22, 05]

    • Egypt hunting Pakistani blast suspects. - Sharm al-Shaikh bombings murder 88. Egypt flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Pakistan flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 

    Egypt hunting Pakistani blast suspects

       Aljazeera Net , http://english. aljazeera.net/NR/ exeres/48C5D913- 2961-4ED6-82EB- 913E42EEA5F8.htm , 15:16 Makka Time, 12:16 GMT, Monday, July 25, 2005
       EGYPT: Egyptian security officials have released a list of names and photographs of Pakistani nationals, suspected of playing a major role in the Saturday bombings at Sharm al-Shaikh, Aljazeera has learned.
       A group of about five to nine Pakistanis are said to have disappeared from the hotel they were staying in and where they had left their passports, Aljazeera's correspondent in Egypt, Hussain Abd al-Ghani, reported.
       The list was distributed and the authorities have begun searching for the suspects, who are now believed to be directly responsible for the blasts.
      Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman has, however, said that it is unlikely that the Pakistanis were involved in the attacks.
       Muhammad Naeem Khan said a media report had created an impression the Pakistanis were prime suspects in the attack, but the Egyptian authorities had not passed on any such information to Pakistan's embassy in Cairo.
       "I think that there is no connection between these nine Pakistanis and the bomb blasts in Egypt," Khan said at a regular weekly news conference.
    Arrests
       Egyptian police have already arrested 95 people in connection with the Sharm al-Shaikh blasts that killed 88 people in the Red Sea resort - the deadliest bombing in the country's history.
       The latest information is a blow to security officials, reported the correspondent, as investigators already had leads suggesting the attacks could be connected to the deadly 7 October bombings in Taba, further north on the Sinai coast.
       In those attacks, car bombs hit hotels in Taba and Ras Shitan - resorts near the Israeli border - nearly simultaneously, killing 34 people.
    Aim to destabilise
       Saturday's pre-dawn attacks, which analysts said were an attempt to destabilise Egypt in the run-up to the first-ever competitive presidential election just weeks away, were claimed by an al-Qaida-linked group.
    [Picture] Saturday's blasts killed 88 people and injured nearly 200.
       Security sources said DNA samples from the remains of one of the car bombers would be compared to those of detained Taba suspects to establish whether they were related.
       At least nine foreigners were killed, dealing a heavy blow to the tourism industry, a vital revenue earner for the Arab world's most populous nation. Nearly 200 people were injured in the blasts, most of them Egyptian.
       Security forces have been sweeping the Sinai peninsula since the explosions struck a luxury seafront hotel, a car park and a busy market area.
       "This cowardly and criminal act, which is aimed at destabilising Egypt, will reinforce our determination to press the battle against terror through to its eradication," President Hosni Mubarak said on Saturday.
       The bombings, which turned the jewel of Egypt's tourism industry into a nightmare of blood and destruction, were claimed by a group citing ties with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
    Identifying bodies
       Meanwhile, forensic scientists continued to identify the victims of the blasts, the largest of which destroyed the Ghazala Gardens hotel and accounted for about half of the victims.
    [Picture] Egyptians took to the streets to voice their anger
       Medics said some bodies were burnt or mangled beyond recognition and that the identification process could take some time, while also warning that the toll could rise further as many wounded were in a critical condition.
       "I've never seen so many eviscerated people and terrible wounds in my life," said Rabab, 19, a nurse at the International hospital in Sharm al-Shaikh.
       While the Egyptian authorities said thousands of tourists continued to pour into the Red Sea resort, thousands of others were cutting their holidays short and fleeing the carnage.
       About 700 Sharm al-Shaikh residents and foreigners working in the resort held a peace demonstration, chanting: "We are against terrorism" and: "United we will win."
    Global criticism
       Condemnation of the blasts came from all over the world with the White House denouncing "in the strongest possible terms" the "barbaric" attacks.
       UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke of his "sorrow and anger". While deploring the blasts, Iran pointed a finger at US counter-terrorism policy in the region.
       Arab newspapers also printed unequivocal condemnations of the bombings.
       A new scare on Sunday hit Egypt's capital, Cairo, scene of deadly attacks against tourists in the 1990s, where police initially said a man was critically wounded by the accidental explosion of his own bomb.
       However, the Interior Ministry released a statement denying there had been a bomb and explaining that the 33-year-old man was "an avid collector of vintage items" and was wounded by the explosion of one of his objects. #
    [July 25, 2005]
    • Tougher migrant laws would target radicals.

    Tougher migrant laws would target radicals

       The West Australian, By BEN RUSE, Page One, Tuesday, July 26, 2005

    He refuses to
    condemn the New
    York, Bali and London
    terror attacks, his
    party calls on Muslims
    to rise up against
    Western oppression
    and some members
    even liken suicide
    bombings to the
    French Resistance. He
    also wants to convert
    the world to Islam
    and says it is
    impossible to prove
    past suicide bombers
    were Muslims. And oh,
    he is happy to live in
    Australia and enjoy its
    huge benefits.


    An Australian's story, P6
     

       CANBERRA: The Federal Government is studying ways to make it tougher for political and religious extremists to enter Australia in the wake of terror attacks overseas.
       But it has backed the policy of multiculturalism, saying to abandon it would be a win for terrorism.
       A spokesman for Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said yesterday that the Government was reviewing its powers in response to recent acts of terrorism even though the Immigration Department could already refuse visas to people deemed not of good character.
       News of the review came as NSW Premier Bob Carr was criticised by Muslim leaders for suggesting Australia adopt tougher immigration laws.
       Lebanese Muslim Association spokesman Abdul El Ayoubi said leaders would urge Mr Carr at a meeting on Thursday to address the root of the problem -- bringing back on to the agenda acts being committed against innocent Palestinians and Muslims in Iraq.
       He said the issue was not tougher immigration laws.
       Mr Ayoubi asked why Australian governments ignored attacks on Palestinian civilians. "Is it because the blood of Muslims weighs less than the blood of a Westerner?" he said.
       Supreme Islamic Council of NSW president Gabr El Gafi said there was a big difference between conveying and applying philosophies, and that should be recognised.
       Conveying ideas was a freedom of speech issue. "We just have to follow the law and rules of the country," he said. Recent statements by politicians just seemed to be inflaming the situation.
       Mr Carr yesterday said that people should be denied visas if they refused to integrate. Interviewed on ABC radio, he said: "A personal opinion, if someone has a record of saying everything your country stands for is wrong . . I don't think they have a role here."
       There were reports last night that Attorney-General Philip Ruddock will deliver a speech in New York today and refer to Article 3 of the Human Rights Convention as the Federal Government considers the national implications of the war on terror and likely opposition from civil libertarians. Article 3 says that everybody has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
    [Picture of young man's face with short beard and moustache.]
       John Howard has signalled that the Government would confront Australian extremists head-on, branding Melbourne Sheikh Mohammed Omran inflammatory for claiming Osama bin Laden was not responsible for terrorism.
       Multicultural Affairs Minister John Cobb said non-discriminatory immigration would continue. Calls to end it were short-sighted.
       WA Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot said he agreed with moves to tighten the laws.
    > EDITORIAL          16
    > OPINION          16-17 ENDS #
       [RECAPITULATION: Supreme Islamic Council of NSW president Gabr El Gafi said ... Conveying ideas was a freedom of speech issue. "We just have to follow the law and rules of the country" ENDS]
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 33:1 -- O Prophet! Keep thy duty to Allah and obey not the disbelievers and the hypocrites. Lo! Allah is Knower, Wise. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/033.qmt.html#033.001 .
       4 - 33.48 -- And obey not (the behests) of the Unbelievers and the Hypocrites, and heed not their annoyances, but put thy Trust in Allah. For enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/033.qmt.html#033.048 . ENDS.]
       [RECAPITULATION: Lebanese Muslim Association spokesman Abdul El Ayoubi said leaders would urge Mr Carr at a meeting on Thursday to address the root of the problem -- bringing back on to the agenda acts being committed against innocent Palestinians and Muslims in Iraq. [...]
       News of the review came as NSW Premier Bob Carr was criticised by Muslim leaders for suggesting Australia adopt tougher immigration laws. ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: Within days Premier Carr made a surprise announcement that he was retiring from Parliament. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [RECAPITULATION: John Howard has signalled that the Government would confront Australian extremists head-on, branding Melbourne Sheikh Mohammed Omran inflammatory for claiming Osama bin Laden was not responsible for terrorism. ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: Well, Omran is no orphan! Osama bin Laden is an Arabian millionaire (whose family has long-term links to the US millionaire Bush family), whom the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) backed in training mujahadeen in Pakistan "religious" schools to attack the Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan many years ago. Why wouldn't many people from various points of view put some or most of the blame onto the USA and its CIA? The phenomenon of the fanatics some countries have helped train, who later start attacking the trainers, has been called "blowback." The Pakistani dictatorship has only just now, in July 2005, dared to try to expel all non-Pakistanis from the religious schools (madrassas). (Terrorists had tried twice to blow up the Pakistani dictator.)
       Students of recent history also remember the secretive Iran-Contra deal done illegally by agents of the US government. (Oliver North who did much of the arranging has written a book defending his actions.) The results are NOT a sensible law-abiding Iran regime, nor the relief of the miseries of the country whose guerrillas were armed by the money thus raised.
       Looking at the Abu Ghraib torture pictures, where Westerners were (and probably still are) torturing the Muslim prisoners, one has to ask, "How many sets of terrorists are there?" ENDS.] [Jul 26, 05]

    • Howard meets troops in top-secret Iraq visit

    Howard meets troops in top-secret Iraq visit

       The West Australian, by ANDREW PROBYN, FEDERAL POLITICAL EDITOR, p 6, Tuesday, July 26, 2005
       ABU DHABI: John Howard has made a top-secret visit to Australian troops in Iraq.
       Amid tight security and a media blackout, the Prime Minister was on the ground about seven hours.
       Mr Howard was flown into Bagh­dad by RAAF C130 Hercules from Kuwait before being taken by Black Hawk helicopter into the city's Green Zone to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari.
       After three hours in the capital he flew to Camp Smitty in the southern province of Al Muthanna, the base for 450 Australian troops protecting Japanese engineers and training Iraqi security forces.
       Australian Defence Force chief Angus Houston, the Commander of Australia's Al Muthanna task force Lt-Col Roger Noble and the PM's international affairs adviser Nick Warner went with him.
       Australia has 1370 troops in Iraq, including 200 in Baghdad. It was Mr Howard's first visit since Anzac Day last year, when he attended a dawn service at Baghdad Airport with 90 air traffic controllers.
    [Picture] Camp visit: Prime Minister John Howard surprised Australian troops in Iraq yesterday with a secret visit to Camp Smitty, their southern base.
       For security reasons, Australian journalists travelling with Mr Howard were sworn to secrecy about the Iraq visit.
       An Australian official said Mr Howard's 45-minute meeting with Dr Jafari was cordial and warm.
       Mr Howard told him Australia wanted Iraq to be free, independent and strong.
       "We want Iraqis to run Iraq's affairs and we see our role as an assistant to the people of Iraq and the Iraqi Government toward achieving that goal. We want to see in the future a strong economic and political relationship with Iraq."
       Mr Jafari praised Australian troops in Iraq and said they played a crucial role in the country's reconstruction.
       "The Australian troops are backing the security process in the southern city of Muthanna and are playing a very important role," he said.
       Mr Jafari told Mr Howard Iraq needed allies like Australia.
       "The Iraqi Prime Minister was extremely complimentary about the critical support he had seen Australia give to Iraq," a spokesman said.
       He was greatly impressed with what Muthanna citizens had told him about how the Australian defence force related to the local community and their distinctive approach.
       Mr Howard also reaffirmed Aus­tralia's commitment to the multinational forces in Iraq and expressed gratitude to Dr Jafari for concluding a wheat deal with Australia.
       The visit coincided with two suicide car bombs at Baghdad police checkpoints which killed at least nine people and was a day after a suicide truck bomb with 220kg of explosives killed at least 25 people.
       In Washington last week. Mr Howard reaffirmed Australia's military commitment to Iraq and said there would be no time limit on it.# END.
       [RECAP.: Mr Howard also reaffirmed Aus­tralia's commitment to the multina­tional forces in Iraq and expressed gratitude to Dr Jafari for concluding a wheat deal with Australia. ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: Iraq has declined to pay for wheat bought under the Saddam Hussein dictatorship. The Howard Government wants the Australian wheatgrowers to bear the loss. And Mr Howard "expressed gratitude"! It's a bit like the Saudi Arabian live-sheep trade. Arabia refused sheep shipments, Australia lost huge sums, ages later Arabia accepts Australia's requests to resume the trade. How can overseas people have any respect for Australia? COMMENT ENDS.] [Jul 26, 05]

    • Police seek power to see and search


       The West Australian, by SIMON PENN, p 6, Tuesday, July 26, 2005
       PERTH (W. Australia): WA police will ask the State Government for greater powers to deal with the threat of terrorism as Geoff Gallop announced an investigation into expanding the use of closed-circuit television.
       Senior police held separate meetings yesterday with the Department of Premier and Cabinet and Police Minister Michelle Roberts to discuss WA's response to the London bombings.
       Police Deputy Commissioner Tim Atherton was reluctant to give details of proposed changes but said they included streamlining access to evidence caught on CCTV and expanding powers to search people suspected of terrorism activities.
       He said police were not pushing for "shoot to kill" powers like those used in London.
       The Premier said the Government would look at the type of CCTV needed. Checking the bags of everyone entering big sporting events was an option but doing it for everyone on public transport would be difficult.
       Perth Lord Mayor Peter Nattrass said the city already led the nation in the use of CCTV, with 135 cameras and nine full-time operators.
       [COMMENT: Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. COMMENT ENDS.] [Jul 26, 05]

    • [Firebrand Wassim Doureihi refuses to condemn attacks]

    Firebrand refuses to condemn attacks

       The West Australian, By BEN MARTIN, p 6, Tuesday, July 26, 2005
       SYDNEY: The young firebrand leader of a hardline Islamic group has refused to condemn the Bali, September 11 or London terror attacks and has defended Muslims' right to fight Western oppressors.
       Wassim Doureihi represents the Australian arm of Hezb ut-Tahrir -- the Party of Liberation -- which aims to create a global state with strict Islamic law.
       Born in Australia, Mr Doureihi said he was Muslim first, Australian second and wanted to impose a strict brand of Islamic law here.
       The 28-year-old accountant said Islam forbade attacks on innocent civilians but he refused three times to condemn the London bombings, the World Trade Center attacks or the Bali bombings which killed 88 Australians.
       Mr Doureihi said suicide bombings were the reaction of Muslims to Western forces occupying their land before claiming it was impossible to prove suicide bombers were Muslims because they were dead.
       "Whether these reactions are right or wrong ... what we can say is that a lot of the time the exact identity of the perpetra­tors is unknown and the reality is we will never know," he said. "In London the alleged perpe­trators are dead. We can draw any conclusion."
    'Because Muslims were born in Australia doesn't mean we have to accept these conditions.'
    WASSIM DOUREIHI
       He stopped short of calling the bombings a Western con­spiracy, instead asserting Mus­lims' rights to fight the occupa­tion of Islamic land, including Iraq and Afghanistan, where Australian forces are stationed. "There's a global struggle against Islam and Muslims."
       He said Western nations could cry for those killed by ter­rorists but they needed some perspective on the Muslims killed by their forces in the Mid­dle East so they could "develop a balance and sense of justice".
       He claimed his party was per­secuted and members tortured and boiled alive.
       Mr Doureihi, who has Leba­nese parents, said just because Muslims were born in Australia "doesn't mean we have to accept these conditions".
       Though Hezb ut-Tahrir's aim is to convert the world, Mr Doureihi would not predict Australia would become a Muslim state but he lamented the fact Australian tourists in Muslim countries committed "certain practices that would not conform with Islam" such as drinking alcohol and dressing immodestly.
       Though it was impossible to limit where people travelled, his organisation's website focuses on getting Muslims to rally their governments to enforce strict Islamic law.
       Hezb ut-Tahrir is banned in Russia, where it is suspected of supporting Chechyn fighters, parts of the Middle East and Germany, under strict laws against anti-Semitic groups.
       It also came under the eye of investigators trying to solve the London bombings.
       In 2003, more than 2000 sup­porters turned out to support the party in Birmingham, Eng­land, where speakers said sui­cide bombings were comparable to the French Resistance during World War IL Its website denies it advocates violence but calls on Muslims to rise up against Western oppression. # END
       [RECAP. Mr Doureihi said suicide bombings were the reaction of Muslims to Western forces occupying their land ... ENDS]
       [COMMENT: Iraq was NOT Muslim land before the Arabs invaded it centuries ago. And, Palestine that in previous centuries had been pagan, then Israelite, had become part of the Christianised Roman Empire in the East when the Arabs attacked. In fact, much of the early conquests by the newly Islamicised Arabs were of Christian lands. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [RECAP: ... he refused three times to condemn the London bombings, the World Trade Center attacks or the Bali bombings which killed 88 Aus­tralians. ENDS] [Jul 26, 05]

    • Islamic school on quest for peace.


       The West Australian, p 10, Thursday, July 28, 2005
       PERTH (W. Australia): Perth's Australian Islamic College has joined Muslim leaders around Australia in calling for their communities to oppose extremists.
       College director and founder Abdalla Mager said the faculty, students and the community condemned recent attacks in London and Egypt.
       "As Australian Muslims we unequivo­cally state that we denounce these wicked acts and condemn their perpetra­tors," Mr Mager said.
       In a statement yesterday, he said Islam opposed extremism and terrorism and that the attacks were designed to drive a wedge between all people who sought peace and harmony.
       He called on the Australian commu­nity to co-operate to combat extremists.
       "The building of tolerance, justice, peace and multiculturalism is the key to combating terrorism at home and abroad," Mr Mager said. "We must put our hands together to stamp out extrem­ist ideology while reinforcing the univer­sality of our moral value system."
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 9.5 -- So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captive and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 009.qmt.html#009.005
       4 - 9.73 -- O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 009.qmt.html#009.073
       4 - 9.123 -- O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil). www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 009.qmt.html#009.123 DOCTRINE ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: How can the general community square these texts with the sentiments in the newsitem? ENDS.] [Jul 28, 05]

    • Ruddock cool on deportation push.

    Ruddock cool on deportation push

       The West Australian, By BEN RUSE, p 10, Thursday, July 28, 2005
       CANBERRA: Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has thrown cold water on suggestions that Australia should increase its power to deport foreign-born citizens who support terrorist groups, saying that the plan might not work in practice.
       The Government will include the citizenship system in its review of Australia's anti-terror laws and may tighten the process that tries to weed out potential extremists before they become citizens.
       Liberal backbenchers have spoken out in favour of making it easier to deport people, with Queensland MP Steven Ciobo saying that people who preach hatred and have contempt for Australia's democratic values had effectively turned their back on Australia and should be stripped of citizenship.
       Mr Ruddock said while "everything is on the table" as far as new anti-terrorism reforms being considered by the Government, Mr Ciobo's plan might not be effective.
       "The wider issue is always a difficult one because the prospect is that if people have taken out your citizenship they could have also forfeited any other nationality they had," Mr Ruddock said
       "If the objective is to get people who pose a risk to the Australian community out, then you might not achieve it in any event."
    NEW START
    TAKING AN OATH
    [Australian coat of arms]
    "From this time forward (under God), I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect and whose laws I will uphold and obey." *
    CITIZENSHIP CRITERIA
    Applicants must:
  • Have a basic knowledge of English.
  • Understand the responsibilities and privileges of Australian citizenship.
  • Be of good character (defined as not having a serious criminal record, links to criminal groups, or being likely to incite violence or discord within the community).
  • Be likely to live permanently in Australia or maintain a close and continuing association with Australia.
    * Text of the pledge of commitment new citizens must make. The words "under God" are optional.
    SOURCE: DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS

  •    Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Minister John Cobb has defended Australia's non-discriminatory migration system and said yesterday that any plan to deport Australian citizens hit "a very real problem" when it came to deporting someone who would become stateless if they left Australia.
       Former Liberal senator John Stone has said Australia should respond to the London attacks by severely limiting Muslim migration.
       But his views have not found support among current Liberal politicians, with none publicly questioning the value of a non-discriminatory migration policy.
       Treasurer Peter Costello said yesterday that he supported the idea of cultural diversity in Australia -- provided that people accepted the Australian way of life.
       "If multiculturalism means coming to Australia but not accepting democracy and the rule of law in our court system, then that is not a good idea," he said.
       "We ask people when they become Australian citizens to make an oath, pledging themselves to Australia and its laws and its values,"
       WA Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot said that he would support tougher powers to expel people who did not support democratic values but said the multicultural nature of the migration program should continue, especially in the case of refugees.
       At present, virtually the only way a person can be stripped of citizenship is if they lied on their application -- meaning that migrants who espouse extreme views or speak in. favour of terrorism cannot be expelled from Australia once they have been granted citizenship.
       Generally people who apply for Australian citizenship have been in the country for several years and have the status of permanent residents.
       This means that they have passed the "character test" for residence in Australia, which excludes people with criminal records, links to criminal groups or who are considered likely to incite violence or discord.
       To become a citizen they must satisfy the Immigration Department that they have reached a basic level of English and understand the responsibilities and privileges of Australian citizenship.
    'If people have taken out your citizenship they could have also forfeited any other nationality they had.'
    ATTORNEY-GENERAL PHILIP RUDDOCK
       Australia maintains a non-discriminatory immigration policy and potential immigrants are not asked to declare their religion dur­ing the process.
       Migrants in the skilled migration program need to reach a higher level than refugees, who are given 500 hours of English training as part of then: settlement in Australia.
       English skills are formally tested using an international system.
       Potential citizens are also required to complete a course "Let's Participate", which teaches them the values and principles of Australian society, Australian law and Australia's parliamentary system of government.
       Of course, this does not mean that they will necessarily agree with those values. #
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 3.73 -- "And believe no one unless he follows your religion." Say: "True guidance is the Guidance of Allah: (Fear ye) Lest a revelation be sent to someone (else) Like unto that which was sent unto you? or that those (Receiving such revelation) should engage you in argument before your Lord?" Say: "All bounties are in the hand of Allah: He granteth them to whom He pleaseth: And Allah careth for all, and He knoweth all things." www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/003.qmt.html #003.073 .
       4 - 33:1 - O Prophet! Keep thy duty to Allah and obey not the disbelievers and the hypocrites. Lo! Allah is Knower, Wise. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/033.qmt.html #033.001 . DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jul 28, 05]

    • WA 'lags behind on terror response'

    .
       The West Australian, By JESSICA STRUTT, p 10, Thursday, July 28, 2005
       PERTH (Western Australia): WA did not have an organisation to co-ordinate the management of a terrorist attack because the State Government had put vital legislation to deal with a state of emergency on the backburner, the Opposition claimed yesterday.
       Opposition Leader Matt Birney said the Government announced the Emergency Management Bill with much fanfare last October but had since allowed it to languish.
       He said every other State had legislation and an organisation to co-ordinate a response if a terrorist attack occurred and WA was lagging.
       The legislation would have set up a State disaster council -- to be chaired by the Premier -- and given WA the capacity to co-ordinate a comprehensive response to emergencies and disasters.
       The legislation would also make the police commissioner the State emergency co-ordinator and give police more powers in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack.
    [Picture] Power play: Tactical Response Group officers could be in the front line against terror attacks.
       Mr Birney said Geoff Gallop's push for a national leaders' summit on terror showed his priorities were wrong.
       "My message to the Premier today is don't worry about running off to Canberra to engage in some kind of talkfest, just have a look at your own backyard," he said.
       "Quite simply he's either been lazy or negligent with respect to allowing this Bill to fall off the parliamentary notice paper."
       The Government claimed yesterday the Bill did not refer to terrorism.
       But Mr Birney said Police Minister Michelle Roberts specifically referred to the fact the Bill dealt with acts of terrorism during her second reading speech.
       Mr Gallop said the legislation lapsed when the State election was called and since February's election the Government had worked on strengthening the legislation to include terrorism.
       The Premier accused the Opposition of using the serious issue of counter-terrorism for cheap political point scoring.# [Jul 28, 05]

    • ['Houses of Parliament or Downing Street ... military targets ... to paradise']

      Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The West Australian, "Police arrest suspected bomber," p 11, Thursday, July 28, 2005
       LONDON: Police arrested a man suspected of being one of the failed London sui­cide bombers in Birmingham yester­day but -- after finding their make­shift explosives factory in a north London flat -- warned that the other terrorists might be armed and poised to strike again.
       Anti-terrorist police used a stun gun to subdue the man, believed to be Yassin Hassan Omar, during a 4.30am raid on a Birmingham address where they also found a suspect package. They made three other arrests in Birming­ham, another at Luton airport and two more on a train travelling to London's King's Cross station.
       London is on the highest levels of alert as police fear the would-be bombers have already returned to the flat in New Southgate, north Lon­don, and re-equipped themselves with explosives after their failed attacks last Thursday. [...]
       Omar arrived in Britain from Somalia in 1992 at the age of 11. The 24-year-old, a Somali citizen with British residency, is suspected of attempting to blow up an Underground train near Warren Street station.
       Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, also known as Muktar Mohammed Said, came to Britain in 1990 from Eritrea. He was granted residency in 1992 and citizenship in September 2004.
       Ibrahim's family -- the first to report his name to police after his CCTV image was released -- said that he had not visited their home in Harrow for many months.
       A friend of Ibrahim, who would give his name only as Kawser, praised the actions of the would-be suicide bombers. Speaking outside the flat Ibrahim and Omar shared, he said: "As a Muslim I believe it's one of the most honourable ways to die, defending your beliefs.
       "You shouldn't do it because people will think you are brave, but for Allah.
       "It depends on the situation, but if someone gave me a bomb and said, 'Go and do it' I would have to consider it. If I was in a situation at a time of war to go and blow up civilians, I don't think I would do it. But to go and attack the Houses of Parliament or Downing Street, they are military tar­gets. I hope the bombers go to paradise after giving up their lives as martyrs." #
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 22.19 -- ... But as for those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them; boiling fluid will be poured down on their heads. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/022.qmt.html#022.019 .
       4 - 33.61 -- Accursed, they will be seized wherever found and slain with a (fierce) slaughter. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 033.qmt.html #033.061 .
       4 - 58.22 -- You shall not find a people who believe in Allah and the latter day befriending those who act in opposition to Allah and His Apostle, even though they were their (own) fathers, or their sons, or their brothers, or their kinsfolk; … www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 058.qmt.html #058.022 . DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jul 28, 05]

    • [EU treaty more important than orderly safe society; USA waffling.]

      Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  European Union flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  United States of America flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The West Australian, Various newsitems, p 11, Thursday, July 28, 2005
  • Blair's anti-terror legislation runs into trouble and strife.
       LONDON: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has called on judges to respond to public concern over suicide bombings by upholding new laws to deport or detail Islamic extremists. [...] Last December ... Lord Hoffman said the real threat to the life of the nation came not from "terrorism but from laws such as these".[...] After the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act was ruled incompatible with the [European Convention on Human Rights] ... in December, 17 foreign suspected Islamist radicals were released on bail. Some are now subject to new "control orders".
  • Bombing suspect got British passport despite criminal record.
       LONDON: One of the four suspects in the attempted suicide bombings in London last week spent several years in prison as a mugger.
       Despite his record, Eritrean-born Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, ... was granted a British passport less than a year ago. [...]
  • 'War on terror' gets bullet as al-Qaida battle widens.
       WASHINGTON: The "war on terror", the catchphrase of the Bush administration for four years, is to be phased out.
       ... re-branding ... officials are starting to favour the less snappy phrase "struggle against violent extremism" [...]
       [COMMENT: Does orderly government and culture lead to softness? COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 9.123 -- O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil). www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/022.qmt.html#009.123 . DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jul 28, 05]

    • Who are the terrorists?

    Who are the terrorists?

       The West Australian, Letters to Editor, p 20, Thursday, July 28, 2005
       Congratulations to your correspondents R. Roberts and Michael Giles (Letters, 25/7) for highlighting the ridiculous imbalance in facing the real world issues. The Western world and your newspaper and the media in general should focus on that imbalance.
       We were all quite properly horrified at the London bombings and the deaths of 58 innocent people and the injury to more than 700. Yet while our leaders are now discussing ID cards and attending church services to celebrate the goodness and works of Christ, managing to fit in visits to the Ashes and planning to combat the growing mayhem in Iraq, 2.6 million people, mainly women and children, are about to die of starvation in Niger, central Africa.
       Say it slowly, readers of The West Australian -- 2.6 million There are also more than a million displaced people in the Darfur region of Sudan, there is chaos and mayhem developing in Zimbabwe, with hundreds of thousands of innocent people homeless and facing starvation. In years of tribal warfare in the Congo, more than three million people have died.
       The British Foreign Minister has recently returned from apologising to the people of Bosnia for our inaction over the large-scale ethnic cleansing in that country several years ago. We could go back further -- Rwanda, the ethnic cleansing in Burma, the killing fields of Cambodia and so on and so on. And let us not dwell for a moment on the 20 million-plus destined to die of AIDS.
       Yet still the "civilised" and "Christian" Western world does nothing. Spending billions on phoney "wars" in Afghanistan and Iraq is OK. Spending billions on new "permanent" air force bases in and around the Middle East is OK. Spending billions on internal and external measures to fight the other phoney war, the "war on terrorism", is OK. But galvanising the world and providing leadership to prevent this ongoing, horrendous and unnecessary loss of life (to prevent future terrorism) is something the leaders of the Western world will do only when they have time. Until then, ageing pop stars and do-gooders can tell us the obvious.
       The final irony is that we then have the temerity to accuse the suicide bombers, the extremists of this or that, of "inhuman, uncivilised and undemocratic" behaviour (and, yes, it is), but who is the greater terrorist? Could it be the wise men who know what is happening and do nothing? Could it be you and me who do nothing? Sidney R. Steam, Como.
    Well of anger
       John Howard is quite right when he says the terrorists should take responsibility for their actions. We rightly condemn the bombing of innocent people in a political cause, but this shouldn't stop us from questioning why these attacks are happening.
       The technique of suicide bombing is used in many parts of the world by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It is selected because it is the most effective way to destroy lives, not because it is part of a mainstream religious faith. To successfully recruit those who carry the bombs, extremists need a well of anger to draw on.
       In providing our country's support for the unwarranted invasion of Iraq by the Coalition of the Willing, we have deepened that well of anger. The bombing carried out by US forces has killed thousands of innocent Iraqis and unleashed a wave of terrorism that has caused many more deaths. Their deaths are just as wrong, just as distressing and just as useless as those caused in London and Egypt. When will we learn that violence never solves anything? And when will we take responsibility for the bombs we have allowed to fall?
       The greatest danger we face from the terrorists is in reacting to their attacks with anger and ill-informed prejudice, allowing it to polarise our society and produce further cycles of violence. Jean Foster, Dianella
    Today's text
    I pray that the Lord, who gives peace, will always bless you with peace. -- 2 THESSALONIANS 3:16. (The Bible for Today). From the Bible Society.
    [Jul 28, 05]

    • [Backing for "deport" editorial.]


    WE AGREE
       The West Australian, Letters to Editor, p 21, Thursday, July 28, 2005
       I applaud your editorial (Rhetoric is not enough: deport sympathisers with the enemy, 26/7). It is a sorry day for Australia when people, whatever their religious beliefs or colour, are welcomed as refugees or immigrants to our democratic country and then discharge not only hateful scorn but also agitation to violence on the host.
       Our immigration policy is being perverted by the bleeding-hearts brigade. Perhaps it's time to follow many countries around the world (particularly the Middle East) and now withdraw our signature from the United Nations charter for refugees because it was originally founded in 1951 only as a temporary agency to resettle 1.2 million European refugees who had fled their homes during World War II.
       It is also a sad day for Australia to have free speech (not incitement to violence as some people of religious persuasions are prone to spew) threatened when an academic is asked to leave his university because of his views. The Gestapo is obviously alive and well. Where next? I. Clark, Brentwood.
    [If Koran doesn't teach acceptance, no place]
       The majority of Australians are tolerant people who are prepared to welcome others from a diversity of cultures. However, to accept teachings that refer to us as "infidels" is stretching our level of tolerance.
       The holy book of Islam is well overdue for a makeover in this day and age, especially for the teaching of young Australians in Islamic schools.
       If the Koran cannot teach a level of acceptance of others, then it has no place in Australia. Robert Ruse, Denmark. [Jul 28, 05]
    • No place for these Muslim radicals

    No place for these Muslim radicals

       The West Australian, Various Letters to The Editor, p 21, Thursday, July 28, 2005
    No place for these Muslim radicals
       For years I have voiced my strong objection to people like Mohammed Omran and Wassim Doureihi being allowed to live in our country, let alone being allowed to become Australian citizens. This lot, and many more as yet unnamed Muslims (but hopefully known to the Federal police), are a distinct threat to our safety and happiness.
       They all belong, without exception, to aggressive organisations that all have the same aim -- to introduce Islam into our country as the leading and all-pervasive religion, something 90 per cent of the population does not want.
       Islam, according to these firebrands, is a religion of attack, of subservience and obedience. You do as the imam tells you -- or else. These brainwashed radicals have neither the courage nor the brains to question the blabberings of some of their leaders, like the above-mentioned itinerants.
       I am willing to believe that a big majority of Muslims, whether living in Australia or elsewhere, are peace-loving, but recent happenings have proved without a shadow of doubt that among Muslims the world over are hidden cells of radicals whose aim is to fight for total obedience to the Koran. This, to true Australians, is totally unacceptable.
       We must, with all our power and resources, support the Federal Government and its agencies in the stance against these unwanted people and their nefarious actions. I hope and trust that the Opposition will see the light of day and support our elected Government to the hilt in this move. Peter S. Boam, Leederville.
    [Pictures] Wassim Doureihi; Sheikh Omran
    Get the message
       The major issue many second-generation Australians have with our immigration management style is that new arrivals are not told to leave their social and political hang-ups in those countries they have, for whatever reason, abandoned.
       It really is disappointing when governments of all persuasions seem to take more notice of the recently arrived than they do of those who have, in their own small ways, made this country an attractive place to call home. It is difficult for many of us to reconcile the freedom and subsidies we give our visitors to establish themselves here against the lack of any requirement to speak our language, to commit themselves to Australia by becoming Australian and to adopt the values and mores that make the rest of us truly Australian.
       In the current environment of terrorism you do not need to be racist to object to people of any background (home-grown or otherwise) camouflaging their identities in public. Neither should you sit back when you hear people claiming a greater entitlement to all that Australia has to offer simply because they chose to come here, while those born locally are not here by choice and are therefore more or less second-class citizens.
       Assuming we intend to continue allowing people to come here to live, let's get the message across that although Australia is multiracial, it is also English-speaking and mainly ghetto-free with a culture of its own that, as well as not being steeped in all sorts of colourful dogma, is overwhelmingly free of any links to the chains of intolerance, bigotry and violence. Russell J. Smailes, North Lake.
    Another power
       "Our policies will not be influenced by acts of terrorism" said John Howard in London after the bombings. Bombs have their uses for making news but they also expose who the potential enemy is.
       One thing more far-reaching is the power of the vote. The ever-increasing numbers of immigrants in Australia who cannot or who will not assimilate already have a controlling influence on Federal and State governments, as can be seen by the race laws implemented to defend them against dissenting white Australians. These same people have the power of the vote that could allow them to form a government and give them the legitimate authority to pass any law they chose.
       If Australia had been attacked with guns and bombs, it would have been far easier to form a defence. What we fought in war to keep, we lost in peace. Immigration and the power of the vote has been far more effective to the invader than a bomb. Is this also the democracy John Howard is talking about? W.F. Morris, Joondanna.
    [Jul 28, 05]

    • [Enjoy freedom; turn off fundamentalists; maintain different cultures; Enoch Powell?]

    .
    IN SHORT
       The West Australian, Letters to Editor, p 21, Thursday, July 28, 2005
       That's right, Wassim Doureihi, you do not have to accept the conditions in Australia (report, 26/7), but isn't it nice to know that in this democratic society we can enjoy the privilege of being able to say so? Wendy Stewart, Hocking.
       I fail to see what all the drama is about with the Muslim fundamentalist cleric. Every religion has its extremists. Jesus was considered one in his day by the establishment.
       Why is it that no one is concerned about the Christian fundamentalists broadcasting their views and opinions early each morning on the TV? They have views different from the majority's but I just choose not to watch them, a relatively simple solution that more people should try. Michael Watters, Tuart Hill.
       So what is so wrong with people of different races and cultures coming to this country and maintaining their way of life?
       Haven't most of us or our ancestors come to this country and turned it into a little bit of Europe, making no attempt to change our ways to suite the true Australian -- and that, of course, is the Aboriginal. So how about getting off your soapboxes and showing a little bit of understanding and respect for our fellow humans? Gordon Read, Karawara.
       Although I do not agree with all of associate professor Andrew Fraser's comments, I wonder whether he will be Australia's Enoch Powell? lan M. Macpherson, Osborne Park. [Jul 28, 05]
    • ['Immoral' Western attacks driving young Muslims towards Australian terror attacks.]

    Top Muslim warns of Australian terror

       The West Australian, by Natalie O'Brien, Investigations Editor, Pages One and 12, Friday, July 29, 2005
       AUSTRALIA: Young Australian Muslims are increasingly angry and radical because of the "immoral" military attacks by Western nations against the Islamic world, a controversial missive from one of Australia's leading Islamic bodies has warned.
       In an open letter to the nation's 200 Muslim clerics and community leaders, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, which declared the war in Iraq was "unjust and illegal", said many Muslims believed the fight against terrorism was really a war against Islam and Muslims.
       AFIC president Ameer Ali said yesterday young Muslims were becoming angrier and may "feel they have to take things into their own hands".
       And while Dr Ali does not believe they are at the point of carrying out London-style attacks in Australia, he said nothing could be guaranteed when people were desperate.
       "You don't know what they will do," he said. "They are accusing the West of double standards in global politics and lack of justice for the sufferings of the Islamic world and the immorality of military attacks against Islamic nations," the AFIC wrote.
       Dr Ali said the letter, which has been endorsed by the Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Taj el-Din Al-Hilaly, sounded a "warning bell" about the problems in the community and the possibility of terrorist acts in Australia could not be discounted.
       The letter acknowledges some Muslims have been accused of preaching intolerance and hatred and calls for all Muslim leaders to act with responsibility to ensure their actions were beyond reproach.
       "There is a growing and justifiable criticism that we are not doing enough to deal with extremist individuals and groups within the Muslim community," it said. "We are aware of the danger that looms ahead for our vulnerable and impression­able youth."
       The letter calls on Muslim leaders everywhere to "disown and denounce terrorism and violence" and was written after a torrid week in which Muslims were roundly attacked in the wake of the second bombing attempt on the London transport system. Continued on page 12
     Bomb in a bottle: how they planned to shred Londoners 
    [Picture] Deadly find: An X-ray reveals the inside of a nail bomb found in the boot of a car used by one of the London bombers on July 7. Report, P13 Picture: Associated Press
    [Page 12] Top Muslim warns of Australian terror   From page 1
       It also calls on clerics and community leaders to acknowledge that some Muslims have been involved in terrorism attacks, including September 11.
       Sheikh Mohammed Omran, who is regarded as the country's most fundamental Islamic cleric, has been at the centre of controversy after claiming the attacks on the United States were masterminded by the US Government.
       His comments made on a 60 Min­utes program, which also quoted US-born Sheikh Khalid Yasin saying that the Koran considered homosexuality a crime punishable by death, caused a public outcry and led to the Australian Federal Police reviewing their statements. Both were cleared of making any comments that might constitute an offence.
       The AFIC letter said the views of a small group, of Muslims who blame the West for terrorist attacks were misguided and unhelpful.
       "Muslims cannot put their head in the sand and pretend that this is all a conspiracy theory," it said. "The reality is that those acts of violence and terrorism did take place and Muslims have been implicated in those acts."
       The letter calls on all Muslim leaders to unite to condemn the killing of innocent people and win back the "hearts and minds of our youth". #

       [RECAP.: AFIC president Ameer Ali said yesterday young Muslims were becoming angrier and may "feel they have to take things into their own hands". [...] Dr Ali said the letter, which has been endorsed by the Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Taj el-Din Al-Hilaly, sounded a "warning bell" about the problems in the community and the possibility of terrorist acts in Australia could not be discounted. ENDS.] [Jul 29, 05]

    • We help students resist lure of radicals: college. - Abdallah Magar (ex- industrial chemist)

    We help students resist lure of radicals: college

       The West Australian, by Simon Penn, p 12, Friday, July 29, 2005
       PERTH (W. Australia): The true spirit of Islam -- freedom, justice and democracy -- exists in the West while many so-called Muslim countries are now Muslim in name only, according to Australian Islamic College director Abdallah Magar.
       Mr Magar says equipping young Muslims to resist the lure of radicals and extremists is an important part of the college's work.
       He said Australia's military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan was not a subject that was covered with students but he believed Australia would be better playing a role as a mediator rather than by taking a side in the conflicts.
       It was the failure to teach values and morality at school which led to many of the world's problems and which the college tried to address.
    [Picture] Local lessons: Australian Islamic College director Abdallah Magar with Year 5 students at the Kewdale campus. Picture: Nic Ellis
       "I felt that we (Australia) were succeeding a lot on the technology side but we're missing on the values and morals," he said.
       "It's about time we tried to wake up our youth to try to do something more ... I think we (the college) succeeded in achieving this -- high secular results with values and morals."
       Mr Magar established the college in 1986 after working in industry and seeing how reliant Australia was on other countries.
       He wanted to see Australia develop its own industries and make full use of its talent and resources.
       A former industrial chemist, he came to Australia in 1966 from Egypt with his wife and three children, two of whom are now also industrial chemists and the third a pharmacist.
       The college now has more than 2300 students from 30 nationalities at campuses in Kewdale, Thornlie and Dianella.
       The college covers ages from kindergarten through to Year 12 and employs 262 Muslim and non-Muslim teachers.
       The college's junior school co­ordinator, Yahya Ibrahim, said acts of terrorism such as the London and Bali bombings and September 11 could not be shied away from and needed to be discussed openly and frankly with young Muslims.
       Mr Ibrahim said terrorist acts were condemned by the college and students were taught they were un-Islamic.
       It's something we treat with a very frank and open discussion because everyone witnesses it on the television and in the media so it's an area where we need to shed some light," he said.
       "We make sure that we have a staff that's representative of the senior clerics of Perth who are part of our school and who are advisers to our school so we make sure that our education is rounded and balanced . . . it's a very trying time that we live in these days." # [Jul 29, 05]
    • Deadly stash revealed as suspect grilled.

    Deadly stash revealed as suspect grilled

       The West Australian, p 13, Friday, July 29, 2005
       LONDON : Police are grilling a prime suspect behind last week's failed terrorist attacks on London, as it was revealed that a stash of 16 bombs had been left in a car by the first wave of suicide bombers who struck the city on July 7.
       British newspaper reports said the nail-studded devices were probably made by the same person who armed the second squad of would-be attackers, who tried but failed to blow up three Tube trains and a bus in London a week ago.
       The reports came as anti-terrorist officers investigating the July 21 failed attacks on the British capital arrested nine men in south London yesterday.
       Scotland Yard police headquarters said the men were arrested under the Terrorism Act at two properties in the neighbourhood of Tooting. They were being held at a central London police station.
    [Pictures] Cache: Devastation to a London Tube caused by a July 7 bomb thought to be like the one above, found in a car boot.
       Police at Scotland Yard have refused to comment on the chilling X-ray photographs of a bottle-shaped, nail-studded bomb that were plastered across the front pages of most British newspapers after being leaked to the ABC television network in the United States.
       The bombs were found in a rental car abandoned at a railway station in Luton, north of the British capital, by the four suicide bombers who boarded trains to King's Cross exactly three weeks ago, the newspapers reported.
       Some of the home-made explosives, thought to be a mix of acetone-based chemicals, are in bottle-shaped containers with dozens of nails packed around them and held in place by what looks like cling wrap.
       The nails were designed to act as shrapnel, the Guardian said. Others are flat pancake-shaped bombs.
       Three members of the second gang of bombers remain at large but one suspect -- Somali-born Yasin Hassan Omar, 24 -- was arrested by police in a dramatic pre-dawn raid on Wednesday in a house in the central city of Birmingham where he was found alone.
       Officers zapped Omar with a Taser stun gun before overpowering him and driving him back to London where he is being held at the top-security Paddington Green police station for interrogation. However, detectives have a race against time to persuade the naturalised Briton to inform on his alleged co-conspirators.
       Current anti-terror laws -- which have yet to be toughened by the British Parliament -- allow a terror suspect to be held for a maximum of two weeks without charge. Police chiefs want Prime Minister Tony Blair to extend the detention time to up to three months.
       Dozens of anti-terrorist police and bomb disposal experts, some in heavy body armour, swept into a Birmingham neighbourhood to arrest Omar, a Somali citizen with British residency who is suspected over the botched July 21 attack on the Warren Street subway station. Police also detained three other men at a house about 3km away.
       Other raids were carried out yesterday in south London's Stockwell district, where officers arrested three women on suspicion of "harbouring offenders". #

       [COMMENT: "Shredding" Londoners. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 8.12 -- ... I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 008.qmt.html #008.012 . DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jul 29, 05]

    • [Converting Muslims forbidden in Indonesia.]

    Indonesia flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The West Australian, 'Alarm' at spread of Christianity, p 13, Thursday, July 29, 2005
       JAKARTA: Indonesian clerics are calling for strong measures to prevent Muslims from converting to other religions, especially Christianity.
       Indonesia is the world's biggest Islamic nation.
       But the influential Indonesian Ulema Council, at its national con­gress, expressed concern that the percentage of Muslims has dropped in some parts of the country.
       They said Christian preachers had penetrated some provinces at "an alarming rate", according to The Jakarta Post.
       The congress is expected to issue edicts discouraging religious conversions, including statements against mixed marriages and television shows that promote mysticism.
       Indonesia recognises five religions, including Christianity.
       Attacks against Christians -- who make up 8 per cent of the population of 210 million -- have increased since former dictator Suharto's downfall in 1998.
       Muslim groups say evangelical Christians are partly to blame for rising religious tensions, accusing them of trying to convert Muslims, which is illegal in Indonesia.# [Jul 29, 05]
    • [Multiculturalism - cynical policy to change way of life]
       Have the media finally seen the light?

    MULTICULTURALISM

       The West Australian, Various Letters to The Editor, p 23, Friday, July 29, 2005
    Cynical and manipulative policy
       There has been much mention on these pages of multiculturalism. Many of your readers seem to assume that this policy was introduced for ethical or humanitarian reasons. Far from it. The policy arose during the period of the Whitlam government and is particularly associated with Al Grassby.
       After so long in the political wilderness, the ALP sought some way of ensuring that its future chances of achieving government would be enhanced. Knowing that any disadvantaged minority would always vote Labor rather than Liberal, this political party, in what must be one of the most cynical, manipulative moves ever, decided to open the immigration floodgates to unskilled people who could not even read or speak English. The dangers that Australians may face here may thus be attributed directly to the Labor Party.
       Incidentally, the reason so many humanities-department academics are in favour of this kind of pluralistic social environment is that with things nice and complex the possibilities for theory-formation and research-paper publication are considerably enhanced. Ultimately, of course, this means promotion and prestige. There's extra money too, of course, but that is accepted only grudgingly.
    What does this word really mean?
       What a wonderful word is multiculturalism. What does it mean for us? Does it mean we lose freedom of speech for fear of offending someone? Does it mean if I say what I think I am a racist? Does it mean I should be sacked because of a point of view?
       Does it mean we lose our culture, our way of life because it's different from the way others do things? Does it mean we have to have cameras watching our every move? Does it mean we have to have more violence, hate and terror?
       By the way, I don't remember being asked whether I wanted multiculturalism, but that's probably because I am a racist and don't deserve an opinion.
    Let us put a smile on your face
       Have the people supporting the views of associate professor Andrew Fraser ever spent an hour with an African migrant? I wish I could invite you to my home or my church or my business to see how people who come from other countries, and now call Australia home, look, act and relate to each other.
       I migrated to Australia 16 years ago and became a citizen 12 years later. I donate regularly to community needs and charities, pay taxes, donate blood, work and raise four beautiful, law-abiding children. I have never been charged with any criminal offence.
       I live well with my neighbours and my children have never been suspended from school. I am an Australian who just happens to be black. If you see a van full of children of all colours with an Australian flag on the back, please say g'day and let our beautiful smiles bless your day. Mary Ouma, Redcliffe.
    Why the strange terminology?
       It has been interesting to see that many people who have written letters to this newspaper have been referring to Australian-born citizens of Asian decent [descent] as "Asians". I find this odd because even though I am of English ancestry, I am still referred to as an "Australian". Wouldn't it be more "correct" to call me English?
       In fact, following this new system that certain readers have been using, it should actually be only Aboriginal people who should be called "Australian", the rest of use are descendants of migrants.
       Even Aboriginal people migrated to Australia 80,000 years ago. Can they still be "Australian"? It seems, if we then follow this system of referring to people by their heritage, that nobody can call themselves Australian. I prefer to accept all people born in Australia as Australian. Kathryn Exell, City Beach.
    They're using fear to vilify others
       It is disturbing to see how Muslim fundamentalist-inspired terrorism is being used as a pretext to attack the policy of multiculturalism and to glorify the old White Australia Policy. In such instances, Aboriginal culture, the basic component of Australian multiculturalism, is not surprisingly often ignored or derided.
       As a survivor of apartheid, I find it criminal that people like Andrew Fraser should capitalise on Aussie fears of terrorism to vilify Africans and Asians. Ironically, the Sudanese refugees being targeted by white supremacists fled from Muslim extremists. Steve Rametse, Langford.
    Today's text
    Be friendly with everyone. Don't be proud and feel that you are smarter than others. Make friends with ordinary people. -- ROMANS 12:16. (The Bible for Today). From the Bible Society.

    Have the media finally seen the light?


       Well, well, after delighting in mocking Pauline Hanson as a xenophobe, wrongly labelling anyone who criticises Islam as racist and constantly criticising John Howard's detention policy, the media have finally realised that they were all correct -- we do have something to fear from certain newcomers to this country.
       The media refused for years to acknowledge the obvious link between Islam and terrorism, preferring to believe the Islamic lie that the problem was Israel and US foreign policy.
       The left-wing media have always sided with the Muslims because of their common hate for the US and Christianity, but have only now found out that they want to turn Australia into an Islamic state.
       The Left has constantly espoused the benefits of multiculturalism, but now sees it has set an irreversible and disastrous change in motion and wants out. It's too late to shut the gate -- the horse has bolted
       Many have blamed the evils in the world on all religions, but the Allah of Islam is not the same deity as Jehovah the Jewish-Christian God: you can't lump all fundamentalists together as dangerous, neither can you blame all of Christendom for the sins of the Catholic Church.
       If we don't return to our Christian roots, we will follow Holland, France and the UK and be swallowed up by this pagan religion. For years you've had open slather on Christians; but would you rather live in a Christian or an Islamic country?
       You cannot believe those who say terrorists have hijacked a peaceful religion, or Muslims when they say terrorism is against Islamic belief -- the Koran and Hadith (accounts of the sayings and doings of Mohammed) are saturated with it -- only they don't call it terrorism, they call it a legitimate struggle for their rights.
       Besides, in Islam it's OK to lie if it furthers the cause of the religion. As we now know, they aren't lying when they say they want Islamic law enacted here.
       [RECAP: " ... the Koran and Hadith (accounts of the sayings and doings of Mohammed) are saturated with it -- only they don't call it terrorism, they call it a legitimate struggle for their rights." ENDS.]

    It's arrived
       Fred Chaney says he is concerned that a Pauline Hanson political party look-alike promoting anti-Muslim sentiment could rise up in Australia (report, 27/7). He also said there was a threat of right-wing political groups bubbling to the surface.
       Perhaps Fred has been spending a lot of time overseas in his retirement years and hasn't noticed that such a group has arrived: the Liberal Party; I don't know why it is still permitted to use the word Liberal. Perhaps Bob Menzies thought the nazis got away with using the word "socialist" in its title, so why shouldn't the Liberal Party get away with a similar degree of inventiveness. Desmond Head, Palmyra.
    No right
       There are some who come to our country, accept our hospitality, keep their culture alive but accept ours, enjoy the freedom of our democracy and live in peace with their neighbours.
       However, there are some who feel the need to "take over" all that we are and have. These people have no right to all that this generous and blessed country offers.
    [Jul 29, 05]
    • Muslims sound alarm over schools.
      Australia flag; www.flagaustnat.asn.au/   

    Muslims sound alarm over schools

     
       The Sunday Age (Melbourne, Vic., Australia), www.theage. com.au/news/ war-on-terror/ muslims-sound- alarm-over- schools/2005/ 07/30/11221 44058379.html , By Russell Skelton, July 31, 2005
      [Picture] Islamic school Werribee College, where a visiting imam is alleged to have told students Jews were poisoning their bananas.    Photo: Craig Abraham  
       The teacher could not believe what he overheard. The "visiting" imam was launching into a tirade against the Jews and Americans that bordered on the ludicrous.
       But then came the clincher, he recalled. "The imam told the students that the Jews were putting poison in the bananas and they should not eat them."
       The imam was told to ease up on the inflammatory language after staff objected.
       Werribee [Islamic] College is from all accounts an Islamic school with a difference. According to former staff it was a longstanding practice of the school principal, Omar Hallak, to have Muslim staff sleep on the premises after big international terror attacks such as those in Bali and the London tube bombings to prevent retributive attacks.
       The Sunday Age has been told that Werribee College appears intent on exporting its particular brand of Islam to Indonesia, an achievement made possible by generous commonwealth and state grants - estimated to be in excess of $3 million a year.
       Canberra's big spending laissez-faire approach to non-government school funding, intended by former education minister David Kemp to boost the numbers of Christian schools, has fuelled an increase in community-based Islamic schools across Australia which qualify for the same subsidies. AdvertisementAdvertisement
       Although the vast majority of these schools - established schools such as King Khalid Islamic College in North Coburg or newer schools such as Mount Hira College in Keysborough - are run openly and with regular contact and activities with students from non-Muslim schools, there are a small number, including Werribee, that shun scrutiny and contact.
       Last week, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils warned that young Muslims were prey to visiting imams and religious scholars. Council president Ameer Ali said Muslim extremists were posing a problem for "vulnerable and impressionable youth". Visiting imams were being brought to Australia by new and emerging groups unknown to the community, he said. His words were endorsed by outspoken Sydney cleric Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali, who said the Muslim community had not done enough to confront extremists.
       Inquiries by The Sunday Age last week revealed an alarming lack of official scrutiny not just of Muslim schools but of a plethora of non-government schools advocating all manner of religious faith. State and federal education departments have little idea of the curriculum content for junior grades, the quality of education being offered or extremist views that may be perpetuated in the name of religion.
       Werribee College appears to be the domain of Mr Hallak and his family, who last week declined invitations to talk to The Sunday Age about the above incident involving the visiting imam and the school's management practices.
       As with all non-government schools, Werribee College is subject to few checks. It is not a member of the Australian Council for Islamic Education in Schools that has a charter to promote tolerance, oppose violence and condemn hatred. Although children at year 12 perform well above average, there are concerns among former teachers and members of Melbourne's Islamic community about the overall quality of education the 600-plus students receive.
       The treatment of female staff and students has become an issue over recent years, with attempts to pay female teachers less, prevent them from sharing offices with male teachers and the imposition of strict dress codes.
       While such practices have alarmed education professionals, teacher unions and the broader Muslim community, there is a reluctance to deal with them and regulatory hurdles that make this difficult. Cultural and religious sensitivities make investigations tricky unless there has been an official complaint. "Without somebody making a sworn statement, it is hard to act without being accused of racial or cultural bias," said a prominent education professional who declined to be identified.
       Although the Federal Government seeks to promote "a pluralist and tolerant society" in providing hundreds of millions of dollars to non-government schools, it carries out no day-to-day monitoring of courses or management standards. This is left to the states, whose monitoring is at best cursory.
       Even then, there is little direct state control over the quality of teaching or the content of courses except at year 11 and 12 level. Like the Christian schools the funding regime was intended to encourage, Muslim schools are free to shape and direct students in a religious environment of their choosing. And there is nothing illegal about teaching students about the Taliban, Osama bin Laden or extreme interpretations of Islam.
       Keysar Trad, the founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, says the proliferation of Islamic schools is causing concern in the Muslim community. "This proliferation means that small groups can go and set up schools and run them in the name if Islam. They are accountable to nobody but themselves. But the problem is that the argument can also be made about oddball Christian schools as well," he said. "Political, religious and ethnic divisions within the community also make it hard to agree on standards. There are groups out there we know nothing about."
       Dr Fethi Mansouri, associate professor of internal and political studies at Deakin University, says it would be a mistake to cut off funding to Islamic schools - such a move could force the schools and visiting imams into remote corners of society where there was no scrutiny or accountability. "In France and Holland there is no funding for religious schools and that has led to serious problems," he said.
       "A better idea is to have non-government schools sign off on an agreed set of principles which would be conditional for funding. The state school system has identified a set of values, there is no reason why they could not be applied to non-government schools."
       There are seven known Islamic schools in Victoria employing about 360 teachers - including a significant number of non-Muslims - teaching an estimated 5000 students. With combined state and federal funding averaging about $7000 for each student, the total taxpayer commitment is more than $32 million a year.
       Prejudice in a class of its own
       The teacher was alarmed by what she discovered in the school library. An image of Christ in a book on comparative religion had been defaced.
       When she asked students to explain, they told her that another teacher, a devout Muslim, had asked them to demonstrate that Islam was the one true faith by striking the picture with sharpened pencils.
       "They told me they had been made to line up and one by one stab the picture," the teacher told The Sunday Age. "As far as I know, the book is still in the library."
       It was not the first incident or the last that would disturb this teacher - and several others - during her two years at one of Melbourne's lesser-known Islamic schools.
       At the same school, the teacher said, complaints by the science co-ordinator about an incompetent year 12 physics teacher were dismissed by the principal on the grounds that the teacher "was hired to teach about Islam, which he was very good at". At other Muslim schools, The Sunday Age has been told, administrators banned all overt signs of other faiths.
       In one case a non-Muslim member of staff was told to remove a crucifix from the dashboard of a car parked in view of the students and a female Hindu teacher was ordered to remove marriage jewellery.
       The teacher, who was dismissed from the school because she was "over qualified", is now employed at a Christian faith-based school.
       She says she has no regrets about leaving. "The atmosphere at the school was unhealthy," she said. "When you asked children to write about their favourite hero, they nearly always wrote about Osama bin Laden."
       Many of these incidents have been reported to the Australian Federal Police, who interviewed the teacher. ASIO also knows about the claims, and is believed to regularly make background checks. #
    http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/submit/subchron3.htm#muslims
       More news    [RECAPITULATION: "The imam told the students that the Jews were putting poison in the bananas and they should not eat them." ...
       The Sunday Age has been told that Werribee College appears intent on exporting its particular brand of Islam to Indonesia, an achievement made possible by generous commonwealth and state grants - estimated to be in excess of $3 million a year. ...
       Inquiries last week revealed an alarming lack of official scrutiny not just of Muslim schools but of a plethora of non-government schools advocating all manner of religious faith. State and federal education departments have little idea of the curriculum content for junior grades ...
       When she asked students to explain, they told her that another teacher, a devout Muslim, had asked them to demonstrate that Islam was the one true faith by striking the picture of Christ with sharpened pencils. ...
       "When you asked children to write about their favourite hero, they nearly always wrote about Osama bin Laden." ENDS.]
       [REPRODUCED in "Jews are Poisoning Bananas says Imam," http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/007468.php , Aug 1, 2005. ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE (Koran): 4:91 (or 89):- ... Take therefore none of them for friends ...  If they turn back, then seize them, and slay them wherever ye find them ... www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/ quran/004. qmt.html #004.089 .
       5:59-60 (or 64-65):- O people of the Book! ... some of them hath he changed into apes and swine ... www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/ quran/005. qmt.html #005.059 .
       5:51:- O you who believe!  do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/ quran/005. qmt.html #005.051 .  ENDS.]
       [TRADITION (Hadith): 41:6985 (Sahih Muslim's collection):- ... Allah's Messenger ... saying 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 ... www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/ fundamentals/ hadithsunnah/ muslim/041. smt.html #041.6985 .  ENDS.] [To this webpage 14 Apr 07, upgraded 19 Jul 09] [Jul 31, 05]

    • Caught in their undies Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Italy flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
      LONDON TERROR  

      Caught in their undies  

       The Sunday Times (Perth, W. Australia), By BEN ENGLISH in London, p 10, July 31, 2005
      WARREN ST BOMBER  
    Yasin Hassan Omar (24) Arrested in a raid on his Birmingham hideout at 4.30am Wednesday. Reported to be clutching a rucksack when armed police surrounded him, he was pinned down by several officers and shot with a laser stungun, which delivered a disabling 50,000-volt shock.

      SHEPHERDS BUSH BOMBER  
    Hussain Afimed Osman (27) Arrested at a relative's home in Rome by Italian police after a mobile phone was tracked, following a tipoff from Scotland Yard. Osman is understood to have travelled from London to Paris, then on to Milan and Rome.

      HACKNEY BUS BOMBER  
    Muktar Said Ibrahim (27) Arrested with Ramzi Mohammed at a west London flat on Friday where he had been hiding. Ordered to strip to his underpants and move on to a balcony, where the guns of dozens of police marks­men were trained on them.

      THE OVAL TUBE BOMBER  
    Ramzi Mohammed. Arrested with the Hackney bus bomber in a dramatic Friday lunchtime operation by anti-terror investigators in west London. Because of fears they could have explosives strapped to their bodies, the pair were ordered to strip to their underpants and move on to a balcony.

      FIFTH MAN  
    Wahbi Mohammed (23), brother of Ramzi Mohammed. Less than 2km from the west London raid, armed officers arrested another member of the cell who had abandoned his bomb in a hedge near Wormwood Scrubs, west London on July 21.

       LONDON: ALL the would-be suicide bombers behind the failed July 21 attacks on London are being interrogated in custody after a stunning coup by British and Italian police.
       After eight days on the run, the gang was rounded up in lightning raids in London and Rome on Friday.
       Two arrests were dramatically caught on amateur camcorders after a tense siege in west London. The pair surrendered in their underpants after police stormed their apartment with hand-held stun and gas bombs.
       The two were Muktar Said-Ibrahim, 27, a naturalised Briton from Eritrea who is the alleged Hackney bus bomber, and a man who gave his name as Ramzi Mohammed, the so-called "New York bomber" accused of trying to blow up a train near Oval Tube station.
       Ironically, it was discovered that both men who sought to bring hell for a second time to Britain's transport system were bus drivers.
       A third suspect, Hussain Osman, 27, a naturalised British Somali, was arrested in Rome. Police believe he tried to detonate a device on a train near Shepherds Bush. Osman has been held under a European arrest warrant and will be extradited to Britain.
       According to reports in Italian newspapers, Osman -- in an apparent confession -- said he and his accomplices wanted to spread fear in London. "We wanted to make an attack, but only as a demonstration," he was quoted as saying.
       The fourth suspect, Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, a Somali, was arrested on Wednesday and is alleged to have made his attempt on a train near Warren St.
       Police also arrested a man sus­pected of being a fifth suicide bomber in a second raid in west London on Friday. He allegedly dumped a device in a rucksack on open ground in West London.
       Osman was caught when police traced a phone call from the mobile phone he borrowed from his London-based brother-in-law.
       He was tracked via Paris and Milan to an apartment in Rome where he was staying with his brother, who was also arrested.
       Osman's phone blunder prompted some critics to suggest the bombers were more amateurish than originally thought.
       Said-Ibrahim and Mohammed were captured in a raid at a block of flats near Wormwood Scrubs Prison.
       After they refused to come out, police fired volleys of CS gas. Footage filmed by a neighbour showed the two shiftless men emerging from a flat on to a walkway as armed officers shouted orders at them.
       The images showed both men with their hands above their heads, spitting and clearing their noses after being gassed.
       Explosions and shots were reported by witnesses, but sources said they were the sounds of officers blowing off the door to the suspects' flat and firing stun grenades and gas canisters.
       Neighbour Nicolas Holliman said he saw four officers with guns and rifles and a specialist firearms officer in a gas mask who were focusing on a top-floor flat and kept asking for "Mohammed" to come out.
       Australian-born witness Lisa Davis phoned Sky News and while she was talking on live television, police could be heard in the background shouting at "Mohammed", telling him: "You must do what we say. You will be safe if you do what you are told."
       Despite the arrests, the head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke remained cau­tious. "We must not be complacent. The threat remains."
       Scotland Yard was said to be ecstatic at the speed with which its hunt was wound up.# [Jul 31, 05]
    • Mum's the ticket
      LONDON TERROR  

    Mum's the ticket


    Brave bomb survivor says: I'm so lucky
       The Sunday Times, By PETER LAW, p 11, July 31, 2005
       PERTH (W. Australia): PERTH mother Janne van Wulfften Palthe will never board another Underground train.
       A victim of London's terrorist bombings, she now suffers panic attacks on buses and elevators.
       But Mrs van Wulfften Palthe has kept her ticket from that fateful train ride on July 7, believing she is "one of the lucky ones".
       She boarded at Edgware Rd station when a bomb exploded, killing seven people in the front connecting carriage.
       The brave mum -- widowed this year when her husband, Paul, died of cancer -- wrote a text message to her nine-year-old daughter, Katerina, after the bombings, fearing she would become an orphan.
       Katerina was staying with family friends outside London at the time of the terrorist attack.
       "When I was underground I was thinking about my daughter and how she couldn't cope losing me, too. I told another passenger that I had to get through for her," she said.
    [Pictures] EVER HOPEFUL: London bombings survivor Janne van Wulfften Palthe, with daughter Katerina. BELOW: A picture she took of passengers after the blast. Picture: JODY D'ARCY
       The pair returned home this week. Mrs van Wulfften Palthe, a marketing manager for a baby-wear company, said Katerina was unaware of how close she came to losing her mum.
       "I consider myself very lucky that I got out with just scratches to my leg," she said. "I'm so lucky I can be with my daughter again."
       Three weeks on, she still suf­fers nausea, hearing loss and flashbacks to the terrifying hour trapped underground.
       "I suddenly remembered one morning last week that I heard someone die while we were on the train," she said.
       "It was a horrible recollection of hearing someone saying, 'Can we find a pulse? No, we're losing her, she's gone'.
       "I try not to think about a lot of the sights that I've seen, but I know they're there. It's not as if I've forgotten them."
       The second London terror bid was a savage reminder of the ordeal.
       "The smoke was billowing in and there was no escape, that's when I started thinking about Katerina and thinking I was going to die," she said.
       "Then my husband came to me and said QHSE, which is quality, health, safety and envir­onment. So I crouched down low and tried to breathe cleaner air.
       "I looked behind me and saw a number of body parts. A passenger said, 'Look at me, don't look around again, you've already seen enough'."
       Mrs van Wulfften Palthe has vowed to return to London, but condemned the bombers.
       "I think anyone who knowingly takes another person's life for whatever reason is beyond con­tempt," she said.
       "I can't be underground in a structure any more and also at the moment I can't get into lifts or anywhere that I don't have control of my destiny." [...] [Jul 31, 05]

    • Ban on radical clerics


       The Sunday Times, By PETER LAW, p 11, July 31, 2005
       PERTH (W. Australia): CURTIN University has stopped fundamentalist Muslim clerics preaching to students on its campus.
       Curtin pro vice-chancellor Jane den Hollander said the university, which had one of the largest Muslim student populations of any university in Australia, was aware that its campus could be used as a recruiting ground for young Muslim fundamentalists.
      "While we are obviously aware that this is possible in the current climate we have no evidence that it is occurring," she said.
       Hundreds pray daily at the campus prayer area, called a mushalla.
       Guest international and interstate clerics often visit Curtin to preach to students.
       Prof den Hollander said some clerics had been stopped from speaking at Curtin because of "past behaviour or past outcomes from meetings".
       Curtin Muslim Students Association president Taufiq Rind said he had never turned away a cleric from speaking at Curtin, but he knew of clerics who preached politics who were not welcome.# [Jul 31, 05]

    • Call for WA anti-hate law


       The Sunday Times, By PAUL LAMPATHAKIS, p 11, July 31, 2005
       PERTH (W. Australia): MUSLIM and ethnic community leaders want the State Govern­ment to pass religious vilifica­tion laws to help stop the rise of terrorism in WA.
       Australian Federation of Is­lamic Councils president Ameer All said such laws would mean neither Muslim clerics nor preachers from Christian and other religions would be able to openly advocate hatred.
       Dr All and Islamic Council of WA chairman Rahim Ghauri said the move would lead to fewer disaffected people who could be enlisted to support terrorist groups.
       The Government proposed religious vilification laws along with racial vilification legislation last year, but in November only race laws were passed after pressure from Christian groups to drop the religious provisions.
       The proposed laws would have made it an offence to defame, abuse or taunt people because of their religion, not only their race.
       "This problem of terrorism cannot be solved with draconian and colonial measures like threatening to deport people or military action," Dr Ali said.
       "It can only be solved with sensible laws and by the co-operation of the community, having a dialogue with people, and understanding their main concerns."
       He said an even-handed, sensi­ble approach would maintain harmony.
       "The latest I have heard about the London bombings is about one cause being a revolt against oppression in Muslim areas in London, where people have been discriminated against and youngsters are angry," he said.
       "That's why if people from whatever background -- Chris­tian, Islamic or Jewish, whoever they are -- advocate hatred, they must be brought to justice through the law."
       He said measures such as stripping citizenship would also be viewed unfavourably by Aus­tralia's Muslim neighbours.
       Ethnic Communities Council president Suresh Rajan said amending race laws to ethno-religious legislation would make it much easier for the Govern­ment to control the actions of people who preached messages of hate because they would be liable for conviction.
       Premier Geoff Gallop said the Government had introduced Australia's toughest racial vilifi­cation legislation, but was not convinced of the need for reli­gious vilification laws.
       "In the eyes of some, one person's promotion of their reli­gion could be viewed as the vilification of another," he said. "It is too hard to devise laws that would be fair and effective."
       [COMMENT: Premier Gallop shows more sense than the Victorian Parliament, whose anti-vilification law so far has not snared one hate-merchant, but two preachers teaching how to understand Islam in order to love Muslims. Furthermore, under Italy's "humanistic" anti-vilification law, the Pope is being prosecuted for saying that his religion is the best!!! ENDS.]
       [RECAP.: "This problem of terrorism cannot be solved with draconian and colonial measures like threatening to deport people or military action," Dr Ali said.[...] He said measures such as stripping citizenship would also be viewed unfavourably by Aus­tralia's Muslim neighbours. ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 2:193 -- Fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/ quran/ 002.qmt.html #002.193
       4 - 9.123 -- O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil). www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 009.qmt.html #009.123 DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Jul 31, 05]

    • [Get used to it]
       Television, a message to the TV station after a news analysis on extremist bombings in London, and related matters; late July or early August 2005.
       AUSTRALIA: [The message said that Islam was planning to take Australia over.] "Get used to it." [Jul or Aug, 2005]

    • The Banner has been risen for Jihad inside the UK

      Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       British Broadcasting Commission, By courtesy of www.information clearinghouse.info/ article9644.htm , August 1, 2005
       BRITAIN: Islamists in Britain have declared democracy "harab" or forbidden, and one is quoted as saying that British people, who previously were protected because they offered sanctuary to Muslims, have since the attack on Iraq been declared to be enemies.
       A speaker praised suicide bombers.
       Another speaker said that there were two million Muslims in Britain.
       There was an interview with a London bombing suspect who has been arrested in Italy.
       After other news, there is a newsitem of a prisoner of the USA CIA claiming that his captors were cutting his penis as part of torture.
    Click the link to play the video of the extensive interview. [Forgive the grammar of the headline. That was the wording of one of the interviewees.] [Aug 1, 05]
    • In the dark over terror motives

    In the dark over terror motives

       The West Australian, by Tony Rutherford, p 27, Wednesday, August 3, 2005
    Perhaps the one thing that can be said with any confidence in the aftermath of the two rounds of bombings in London is that our confusion in most relevant areas is almost complete. Even if most of the perpetrators still alive are in custody, along with at least some of their colleagues, we are not yet in a position to say who exactly was ultimately responsible, and why they did what they did.
       Indeed, one of the hallmarks of this terror campaign that has been going on since well before September 11 is that we are all too often ignorant of the affiliations and motives of the criminals involved. There is an attack; a few days later a cryptic statement appears on a website; but we are not in the end much wiser. If we look back, for instance, at the terrorist attacks of the 1970s, the matter of identity was never much of a problem: the various claims of the IRA or the Baader-Meinhoff or Red Brigade groups were relatively easily verifiable -- indeed, the IRA for some time went to some trouble to make sure that Scotland Yard was reliably informed. And in the case of the IRA, the grounds for the attacks -- the justifications for the terrorism -- were crystal clear in the long and sorry history of Northern Ireland.
       This confusion may well be deliberate, of course: part of the effectiveness of terror comes from uncertainty itself'.
       Most of us have pet theories of one kind or another. To many in Australia, the United States and Britain (not least in the media), it's all fairly obvious: we are paying the price for our intervention in Iraq, perhaps, too, for our support for Israel. But, as the Prime Minister and many others have pointed out, that's not historically very satisfying, since both 9/11 and the Bali bombings occurred well before the invasion.
    [Picture] Targeted response: Part of the effectiveness of terror, such as the Tube blasts, comes from uncertainty itself.
       At most, the question in this case is not whether we became a target because of Iraq, but whether Iraq has been added to the list of grievances that continue to make us a target. And the answer to that question depends on what we think were the original motives of al-Qaida and all its shadowy associates.
       Perhaps it really is all about history; about recovering the lost lands of the mediaeval Arab empire. The suggestion that the Madrid bombings, for instance, were to be seen as staking a claim on Al Andalus certainly fitted with quite a lot of what al-Qaida had already said on the subject. And there are those who believe that it is even bigger than this -- a long-term project to convert the entire world to Islam.
       At the moment, perhaps the only rational response to this is, who knows? It might be of interest if we could engage in some kind of constructive argument about motive. But we can't, for instance, abandon Israel to a murderous extinction; nor, indeed, can we now leave Iraq to much the same sort of fate.
       So for a long time yet we will remain in the dark, enlightened from time to time by the educated guesses of "experts", many of whom may not actually know much more than we do.
       The least we can do, then, is remain as unconfused as we can about appropriate responses.
       That might seem obvious enough, but times like this can all too often bring out the worst in politicians. There quickly arises a feeling that the tried and trusted rules of both law and economics have no role to play in our responses.
       A neat example of this is going on in the US at the moment, where various (mostly Democrat) senators are urging the spending of many billions on upgrading security on various mass urban transit networks, in response to fears generated by the bombs in the London Underground.
       Understandable enough, but not exactly well thought through. In terms of lives saved, it is a lot less sensible than quite a number of other things, such as aeroplane security or improving technology to detect the movement of radioactive materials.
       Applying standard cost-benefit analysis to such things may seem just a bit hardhearted, but even in the wealthiest country on Earth, resources are limited.
       The same sort of consideration probably applies to the idea now being vigorously promoted that we need vastly more closed-circuit television in our public spaces here in Australia. It might make some people feel a little safer, and it might make some think of the obvious Big Brother connotations.
       As London demonstrated, it certainly seems to make it easier to track down the perpetrators; but, as London also demonstrated, it's not much use in preventing attacks. Within present technological constraints, that is likely to be true for some time yet.
       We need to bring the same sort of rigour to changes in the law.
       We have already had quite a rush of changes to various State and national security laws aimed at helping police and national intelligence agencies do their job more easily, in dealing with a singularly difficult enemy. More changes, not least a national identity card, are being discussed.
       Perhaps such changes are necessary; but the case for them has yet to be made clearly by those responsible. The worrying thing is that by talking so glibly about "the war on terror", we may think that standard wartime measures are appropriate.
       The suspension of habeas corpus, for instance, is a fairly standard practice in times of real war, such as World War II. But we are not quite at that stage of this conflict yet. In the unlucky event that we do arrive at that point, we can think again.
       In the meantime, whatever changes are made need to be subject not only to prior public discussion, but to constant review. Any legislation which restricts civil liberties must have an effective sunset clause, to guarantee open legislative review. And actions taken under such legislation (unusual detention, for instance) must be subject to review by the judiciary and by a responsible body delegated from the Federal Parliament.
       It may be trite, but it's still well worth repeating: anything that gives the enemy the satisfaction of seeing us lessen the liberties which they find so repellent needs to be very carefully thought through indeed. #
       [COMMENT: This seems to be a sensible article. Most importantly, Tony Rutherford sees the need to defend civil liberties, and his last sentence sums up one reason why this is important. Australian politicians have already sold out on defending Australians from the torturers in the United States system, so let us hope that a few politicians will at least put a sunset clause on any more betrayals of democracy.
       He mentions the mediaeval Islamic empire, and names some of the Communist and one of the religious terrorist groups.
       He mentions that there are some who believe that the terror is a long-term project to convert the entire world to Islam. The perpetrators certainly have scriptural permission for this -- but, alas, the scripture authors seem to have no idea of how humanity actually operates. It is only another empty myth, for which hundreds of thousands have already been killed since 610 A.D. "Al Andalus" seemed to be a very learned term which nearly every reader would be unable to decipher. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 2:193 -- ... Fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 002.qmt.html #002.193 . ENDS.] [Aug 3, 05]

    • Muslims also guilty of double standards

    Muslims also guilty of double standards

       The West Australian, Various Letters to The Editor, p 28, Wednesday, August 3, 2005
       After reading your report (Top Muslim warns of Australian terror, 29/7) I was puzzled, even angry. It was stated that many Muslims believed that the fight against terrorism was a war against Islam, but that is hardly consistent with the restrained British response to the terrorist acts in London. It was never directed at the millions of Muslims in that country.
       The report also declared that Western nations were guilty of double standards, that young Australian Muslims were becoming angrier and might feel they have to take things into their own hands and that terrorist acts here could not be discounted.
       Perhaps the authors of that open letter from one of Australia's leading Islamic bodies should be informed that many non-Muslim Australians also might feel disquiet in regard to events in the Middle East. As well, those other Australians might also have held strong opinions about the slaughter of Muslims by Muslims in Iraq during the previous regime.
       They might also have held very grave concerns about the despicable acts and the abuse of women by the Muslim Taliban during its reign of terror in Afghanistan, but despite their concerns no one bombed innocent commuters.
       So where were these vulnerable and impressionable Muslim youth while those crimes were being committed against fellow Muslims? Or is their anger only to be expressed when a Western nation is perceived as the guilty party? If that is the case, then could it not be claimed that they also are guilty of double standards?
       During my education I learnt that there are many ways to express my anger and opinions, but none of them involved harm to others or terror. I would have expected that all Australian youth would have learnt this. If that is not the case, then what has failed them that they could possibly entertain a belief that acts of terror are options? V.J.McCudden, Bayswater
    It's appalling
       The attempt by Macquarie University to stop discussion on immigration, as raised by Andrew Fraser, is appalling.
       Its fear that his opinions may stop fee-paying foreign students from enrolling is unfounded. Professor Fraser's beliefs were met with aggressive Marxist drivel, not facts to disprove his theory.
       The public has seen a university acting like a government department or thought police. Craig Bradshaw, Thornlie
    ISLAM
    No link to suicide bombers?
       Sidney Sheath (Letters, 28/7) defines terrorism in such a broad manner that in the end every man and his dog is a terrorist. According to Sidney, the Western democracies (strangely enough the refuge for many of the politically and religiously persecuted) are the worst offenders. By his definition historically, the Anzacs would have been terrorists, the allies fighting Hitler were terrorists and the final defeat of Japan was an act of terrorism.
       Somehow in his mind the despots and tyrants who control many of the African nations are blameless for the human tragedy that pervades their countries. I doubt whether Sidney would draw much support for his view that suicide bombers are only lesser players in the world of terrorism and are in fact creations of Western profligacy. Apparently for him, Islamic fundamentalism plays no role in the formation of terrorist suicide bombers. Deric Davidson, Bunbury.
    We don't want this attitude here
       In response to the 60 Minutes item, The Dark Side, how dare this Muslim leader say that he is "more entitled to be in this country" because he "chose to be here" than my children "because they were born here"?
       My children are seventh-generation Australians whose ancestors were pioneers of this great country. These pioneers would be turning over in their graves listening to this man's lunacy. I'll bet I am not the only one fuming after listening to that story. This is the sort of attitude that is not wanted here. Vicki Hunter, Nedlands.
    Facing up to terrorist challenge
       So yet another Western country has banned items of clothing covering the face. Very sensible in this day and age, but I can already hear the cries of "discrimination".
       But wait, could my wife or I walk into a bank wearing balaclavas, visored motorcycle helmets or, indeed, any form of facial covering and remain unchallenged? Of course not. And could a thousand CCTV cameras identify a person wearing a burka? Highly unlikely.
       In today's climate of terrorism, even religious observances have to be tempered by the need for public safety. Tony Adams, Parkwood.
    It's a religion of peace
       I'm sorry, Peter S. Boam (No place for these Muslim radicals, 28/7), but I have never read such a load of ignorant ramblings before in my life. You want to persecute and evict from Australia all Muslims just because some of them (a very few of them) have committed terrible atrocities.
       Okay, by going on that logic, all young people should be put in rehab for drug use, all elderly drivers should not be allowed to drive and all men should never be allowed to go near women because some have been raped.
       I am sure that these people who are on their soapbox and inciting religious intolerance have never read the Koran, have never met a true Muslim and will never understand what Islam is truly about -- peace. Ben Clapton, Greenwood.
    They want the world
       Lin Brown (Have the media finally seen the light? Letters, 29/7) hit the nail on the head fairly and truly. Under their emperor, the Japanese had a divine mission to conquer the world. The nazi regime and the communists had similar missions.
       There is a strong element in Islam that is doing the same thing overtly and covertly. Until we realise this, no amount of pathetic political correctness or muddled multicultural thinking will stop that mission from being accomplished.
       Deporting extremists is one way, but we need to expose the ideology behind it. It is totally unacceptable to allow Sheikh Omran to indoctrinate his subordinates in a spirit of hate while in the same State of Victoria two Christian pastors were judged guilty under the religious vilification law over their comments about Islam. We need to be allowed do some serious homework in an open and honest way. Jim Dawson, Kewdale.
    Today's text
    But those who trust the Lord will find new strength. They will be strong like eagles soaring upward on wings; they will walk and run without getting tired. -- ISAIAH 40:31. (The Bible for Today). From the Bible Society.
       [COMMENT: Ben Clapton's letter doesn't even attempt to put up one atom of proof that Islam is a religion of peace. Is he parroting Western "leaders", who are seemingly oblivious to the suicide attacks on peacekeeping efforts in Lebanon and Africa, the destruction of welfare agencies in Iraq, and the burnings of churches and murders in the Moluccas (Spice Islands, Indonesia), Sudan (south and west), and several countries in Africa and central Asia? Such people ought to ask themselves why the murderous rampages by supposed Muslims in East Timor were not condemned all around the Muslim world, instead of being tacitly supported. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 2.191 -- And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers. http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/002.qmt.html#002.191
       4 - 9.5 -- So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captive and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/009.qmt.html#009.005ENDS.] [Aug 3, 05]

    • Banned teapot sect faces wrath of law

      Malaysia flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The West Australian, p 42, Wednesday, August 3, 2005
       KUALA LUMPUR: Authorities tear down a house-sized teapot, umbrella and boat, [pictured in the newsitem] above, that gained nationwide notoriety after a banned Malaysian religious sect built them in its commune in the north-east of the country.
       The structures, built by the Sky Kingdom sect to represent interfaith harmony, were reduced to rubble by bulldozers sent by the Terengganu State Government, allegedly for flouting an edict from Islamic officials that accused them of spreading teachings that run contrary to Islam.
       Newspapers published photographs of the structures in ruins.
       Police and officials in Terengganu State refused to comment.
       [COMMENT: Please note, "spreading teachings that run contrary to Islam." The sect promoted interfaith harmony. Yet apologists tell us that Islam is a religion of peace, and that Muslims will settle into the nations that have allowed them into their countries! And we are told that they will practise tolerance. If they can't tolerate the teapot sect, what religions could they? Note the destruction, similar to the Taliban in Afghanistan destroying two gigantic world-renowned statues of Buddha. "Destruction" is in one of the strands from which Islam originated. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 2.193 -- ... Fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 02.qmt.html #002.193 DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Aug 3, 05]

    • Saudi king struggled to keep the balance Saudi Arabia flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 

    Saudi king struggled to keep the balance

       The West Australian, The West obituaries, Daily Telegraph, p 66, Wednesday, August 3, 2005
    KING FAHD IBN ABDUL AZIZ
    Born: Riyadh, 1923; Died: Riyadh, August 2005
       King Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia was the mastermind behind the modernisation of his desert kingdom; but by allowing American forces into his country in 1990 he provoked the hatred of Osama bin Laden, the world's most dangerous terrorist.
       After decades of an indulgent and unhealthy lifestyle punctuated by periods of hard work, Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke in 1995, withdrawing from public life three years later and nominating as his successor his half-brother, Crown Prince Abdullah. The reins of government were effectively assumed by Abdullah.
       As one of the world's last absolute monarchs, the 11th son of the kingdom's founder, Ibn Saud, often found it difficult to project himself as a man with the soul of a Bedouin. More of a city-dweller, Fahd, the fifth ruler of his country since 1932, took pride in his status as Custodian of the Two Holy Shrines of Medina and Mecca, the most sacred places in Islam.
    Repeatedly using language that evoked images of the medieval holy war against Islam, bin Laden asserted that King Fahd had "sided with Jews and Christians' and committed 'an unforgivable sin'.
       The biggest crisis of his reign came in August 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Under pressure from Washington, Fahd persuaded reluctant senior Saudi clerics to sanction Western forces being stationed on his territory. But the arrival of American and British troops opened bitter wounds in the Muslim world dating back to the Crusades. ; Repeatedly using language that evoked images of the medieval holy war against Islam, bin Laden, the Saudi-born leader of the terrorist movement al-Qaida, asserted that King Fahd had "sided with Jews and Christians" and committed "an unforgivable sin".
       Although bin Laden initially directed his anger towards America rather than the House of Saud, his secondary intention became the destruction of the Saudi royal elite with a plan to turn Saudi Arabia into an Islamic theocracy.
       Under Fahd, Saudi Arabia walked a difficult balancing act. In the West, the kingdom proudly paraded its alliance with the United States and its balanced policy on oil pricing as a sign of stability. On the Arab street, Fahd downplayed the links with Washington and tried to promote Islamic piety and defence of the holy places.
       The alienation of bin Laden and his followers gave Fahd's successors a tricky hand to play, especially after terrorists repeatedly struck in Saudi Arabia itself as Fahd lay incapacitated on a life-support machine.
       As crown prince under his elder half-brother, King Khalid, Fahd had presided over a country whose oil reserves produced riches so great that they were capable of undermining the Western economy. But he had the misfortune to become king in 1982, as Saudi Arabia's oil bonanza was coming to an end, due to a collapse in the world price of oil, and as Islamic extremism was becoming an increasingly destabilising force in the Middle East.
       He strove to keep his country out of direct involvement in Middle Eastern conflicts; however, he found it more and more difficult to walk the tightrope between maintaining cordial relations with the West and retaining Saudi Arabia's independent status in the Islamic world.
       He responded to the growing threat of Islamic extremism with repressive application of Islamic Sharia law and strict censorship.
       Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud was born in 1923, the 11th of 43 sons of Ibn Saud, who united the kingdom by conquest during the 1920s and became the first king of the new state of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
       Fahd received a traditional, but limited, court education in religion, hawking, chivalry and politics. He led a dissolute life as a young man and became a familiar figure at the casinos along the French Riviera.
       In the spring of 1953 he was appointed minister of education, a role in which he pursued the cause of schooling for women. He was part of the family group which pressed for the abdication in 1958 of his brother, the wastrel King Saud, in favour of the worthier Faisal.
       Four years later, Fahd was given the key post of minister of the interior and in the mid-1960s he began a program of self-education, working his way through a reading list which included the works of Winston Churchill, whom he greatly admired.
       As second deputy premier from 1967, Fahd arranged a scheme for training Saudi technicians in the West so that they could become responsible for the development of new industries in Saudi Arabia.
       He continued to indulge his taste for gambling. But in 1974, after a series of spectacular losses on the French Riviera, he received a severe reprimand from his brother, King Faisal, and mended his ways.
       In March 1975, Faisal was assassinated by a deranged nephew and the ulama (religious scholars) approved the succession of Khalid Ibn Abdul Aziz, with Fahd as crown prince and first deputy prime minister.
       During Khalid's reign, which lasted until his death in June 1982, Fahd was the real power behind the throne. It was a time of extravagant spending and massive development.
       The most lasting monuments to Fahd's success are the twin industrial cities of Jubail, on the Gulf, and Yanbu, on the Red Sea.
       It was during Khalid's reign that the Saud family began to move closer towards religious orthodoxy. The seizure of the Grand Mosque by Sunni Muslim extremists in 1979, and sympathy demonstrations by Shi'ite extremists in the Eastern Province, resulted in the execution of 63 rebels.
       While providing generous financial support for the PLO, Fahd played a leading role in attempts to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict.
       During the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, terrified of the threat from Islamic fundamentalists in Iran, Fahd provided generous financial backing to Saddam Hussein and in 1989 signed a pact of non-aggression with him.
       The deaths in Mecca in 1987 of 403 people in riots instigated by Iranian pilgrims led the next year to diplomatic relations with Tehran being severed altogether. But in 1990, when Saddam turned his military might on Kuwait and proceeded to deploy armed forces along the Kuwaiti-Saudi border, Fahd came to regret his earlier support for Iraq.
       At first, he tried to put together a united Arab response. When this failed, he was forced to take the gamble of calling in the West to Saudi Arabia's aid, a move which infuriated many Arabs. The war was followed by a sharp economic turndown. Billions of dollars of debt accumulated yet Fahd continued to spend money on palaces all over Europe.
       Growing fundamentalist opposition culminated in November 1995 with the bombing of the Saudi National Guard Headquarters in Riyadh.
       King Fahd had three wives, one of whom predeceased him. He is also survived by seven sons and several daughters. [Picture: The King.]
       [COMMENT: He aided the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which practices terrorism and suicide bombing, and supported Saddam Hussein, Iraq's bloodthirsty dictator. In earlier years he practised an unholy lifestyle. He built palaces all over Europe.
       Osama Bin Laden, it is well to remember, originated as an Arabian millionaire's son. His comments against the Arabian king echoes the Koran, which originated in one man's war against neighbouring groups, then his followers against their neighbours, then Arabia against nearby Christian and other nations.
       All this was centuries before there were the Crusades, "the mediaeval holy war against Islam," which could, from another point of view, be described as campaigns to regain stolen Christian lands.
       Some people of the Western world can't conceive of an "unforgivable sin," because of a veneer of literature such as "The Merchant of Venice" and "King Arthur's Knights," plus the main Western sects' teachings. Read on. Some will detect the nuance of "70". COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE (Koran): 9:80:- Whether thou ask for their forgiveness, or not, (their sin is unforgivable): if thou ask seventy times for their forgiveness, God will not forgive them: because they have rejected God and His Messenger: and God guideth not those who are perversely rebellious. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/ quran/009.qmt. html#009.080 . DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Aug 3, 05]

    • Al-Qaeda warns US, UK of attacks

      [al-Zawahri]
       News.com ; www.news.com. au/story/0,10117, 16159230-23109, 00.html , From correspondents in Dubai, Reuters, August 05, 2005
       MIDDLE EAST: AL-QAEDA'S second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri has warned the United States and Britain of more attacks, singling out London for the first time since suicide bombings on its transport system killed 52 people.
       Zawahri, in the video aired by Al-Jazeera television today, said British Prime Minister Tony Blair's policies would bring more "destruction" to London, which was rocked by July 7 attacks on Underground trains and a bus.
       Osama bin Laden's deputy also repeated previous threats against the United States, saying it and other Western nations would not live in peace until they withdraw their troops from Iraq and other Muslim countries.
       "Blair's policies brought you destruction in central London and will bring you more destruction," said Zawahri who stopped short of directly claiming responsibility for the London blasts.
       At least two groups linked to al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for the London bombings.
       "What you have seen in New York, Washington and Afghanistan, are only the initial losses," Zawahri said, referring to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States for which al Qaeda claimed responsibility.
       "Our message to you is clear, strong and final: There will be no salvation until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and resources and end support for infidel, corrupt (Arab) rulers," he said.
       "If you continue the same hostile policies you will see something that will make you forget the horrors you have seen in Vietnam," he said.
       US President George W. Bush dismissed Zawahri's threats, saying the United States would stand its ground in Iraq.
       "The comments by the number two man of al Qaeda make it clear Iraq is a part of this war on terror, and we're at war," he told reporters at his Texas ranch.
       "People like Zawahri have a ideology that is dark, dim, backwards."
       Zawahri said the United States was lying about its losses in Iraq as it had in Vietnam and called on Washington to immediately withdraw its troops.
       "There is no way out for Washington except by immediate withdrawal. Any delay in this decision means more killing and losses. If you don't withdraw today you will inevitably withdraw tomorrow, but only after tens of thousands are killed and injured."
       The tape appeared recent because the London bombings took place in July. Zawahri, wearing a black turban and a white robe, looked older than in previous tapes.
       He said Western nations would not live in peace as long as they ignored a truce offer made by bin Laden in April last year.
       "To the people of the crusader coalition ... our blessed Sheikh Osama has offered you a truce so that you leave Muslim land. As he said, you will not dream of security until we live it as a reality in Palestine and until all your infidel armies leave Prophet Mohammad's lands," he said.
       Zawahri last appeared in a video aired by Al Jazeera in June in which he called for an armed struggle to expel "crusader forces and Jews" from Muslim states and said peaceful change was impossible.#
       [COMMENT: Western nations and the former Soviet have been training people (who are susceptible to dogmas like Zawahri's) in nuclear science for about 50 years. "Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind."
       "Prophet Mohammad's lands" is an interesting rewrite of history. Mohammad was born in a part of Arabia, so how on earth could his supposed followers claim Palestine and Iraq, which are many kilometres away, as his lands? COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 05, 05 ]

       [Read Aljazeera report, with pictures, at http://english. aljazeera.net/ NR/exeres/41F1 4605-4546-4EFA- 9DFF-41E356 B3CBFB.htm , "Al-Zawahri warns UK of more attacks," 11:07 Makka Time, 8:07, Friday 05 August 2005

    • [60 known Islamists working in cells in Australia]


       The West Australian, "Extremists in WA under close watch," By NATALIE O'BRIEN and LUKE ELIOT, Page One, Friday, August 5, 2005
       PERTH: Potential terrorists with links to extremist organisations, including the radical group Jemaah Islamiyah, are living in Perth and are under close surveillance by authorities.
       WA Police Deputy Commissioner Operations Tim Atherton confirmed yesterday that several properties had been raided in the past few months.
       "There is some activity in WA that we are aware of, and the good thing is we are aware of it and it is being very closely monitored," Mr Atherton said. "(These are) people we believe would have allegiances to fundamental religious (organisations) or possible terrorism."
       The president of the Federation of Islamic Councils, Dr Ameer Ali, attacked Mr Atherton's decision to publicly reveal the surveillance operation, warning they could cause problems for Muslims who had no interest in terrorism.
       This week, former ASIO officer Michael Roach warned that about 60 Islamic extremists were known to be operating cells in Australia. Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty confirmed that this was close to the number known by authorities.
       Authorities believe al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah is the orga­nisation of most interest in WA because of the State's, proximity to South-East Asia and the higher pop­ulation in Perth of people from that region.
       Mr Atherton said it was possible some of the extremists in WA had been trained by terrorist organisa­tions overseas, but some might be just sympathetic to the cause. Those being watched had come to the atten­tion of authorities because of their overseas contact and movements, the countries they came from and the associations of those countries with terrorist cells.
       It was difficult to say whether WA extremists were at the front line of terrorist activity, but "they are cer­tainly worthy of our close attention".
       Prime Minister John Howard will host a meeting with his senior ministers today to discuss new counter-terrorism measures.
       Yesterday, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said Australians should be nervous about the prospect of a terrorist attack.
       He would not comment on the number of extremists living in Aus­tralia but acknowledged there were people here who had trained with terrorist organisations.
       In a speech last night, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said Australians must rally behind the Islamic com­munity to ensure nobody was lured into terrorism.#
       [COMMENT: Did any famous author say that the breaking down of borders would eventually end in the breakdown of civilisation? And, has anybody asked Mr Beazley how can Australians rally behind a community which keeps itself to itself? Check the Births, Deaths, and Marriages advertising if you doubt this. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 5:51 "O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people." ( www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 005.qmt.html #005.051 ) .
       4 - 5:80 "You will see many of them befriending those who disbelieve; certainly evil is that which their souls have sent before for them, that Allah became displeased with them and in chastisement shall they abide." (www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 005.qmt.html #005.080) . ENDS. ] [Aug 5, 05]

    • [He doesn't like regional titles of other religions]


       The West Australian, "We don't like these titles," by Philip Achurch, West Perth, p 18, Friday, August 5, 2005
       PERTH: A recent report referred to an organisation called Islam Australia and how it organised a meeting on July 31 of about 40 Muslim clerics and community organisations to discuss ways to stop the "vicious attacks" on Islam following last month's bombings and attempted bombings in London.
       It was reported that the meeting talked about how to make people understand that "we are peaceful people, we are proud to be Australians and we are not here to take over".
       In Australia, and possibly in many other Western countries, I think it would bring positive benefits if people who specifically want to identify themselves by their religion, as opposed to their nationality or individuality, thought a bit more about the possible implications and consequences of the words they choose to describe the organisations they set up and the titles they confer on themselves. In my view, organisations and titles with names such as Islam Australia and Mufti of Australia do not resonate well with many Australians.
       For example, how would the local indigenous peoples of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Yemen or Afghanistan feel if some new immigrant or temporary resident Christians set up organisations called Christianity Saudi Arabia or Christianity Afghanistan, or gave themselves titles such as Archbishop of Pakistan or Archbishop of Yemen? These examples, of course, assume that they would be allowed to do such things in these countries.
       With a little thought the probable response would be self-evident. A lot more consequential thought needs to take place.
       [COMMENT: Oops! The Roman Catholics took territorial titles when they re-instituted their hierarchy in the Protestantised England and Wales, and there are people holding the titles of Primate of India, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and so on. However, we have to give this man, who has proved his public-spiritedness for years, top marks for trying. COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 5, 05]

    • Britain-Israel nuclear deal exposed.

      Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Israel flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Norway flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The West Australian, p 25, Friday, August 5, 2005
       LONDON: Britain secretly sold Israel a key ingredient for its nuclear program in the 1950s, according to official documents reported by the BBC.
       The Newsnight television program said it had unearthed papers in the British National Archives that showed a deal was done to export 20 tonnes of heavy water.
       Ministers in the government of prime minister Harold Macmillan apparently were not aware of the deal, which was also kept secret from the United States, the program suggested.
       And no "peaceful use only" conditions were placed on the heavy water, which was vital for the production of plutonium at the top-secret Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert, after officials decided that to do so would be "overzealous".
       Former Conservative defence and foreign office minister Lord Gilmour said the revelations were "quite extraordinary".[...]
       (A fuller version is at Contents 17.) [Aug 5, 05]

    • [Terror laws; radical scoundrel; lying to ASIO; extremist Green coming; 'shared values'; Hicks deserves trial; Israeli-style]


       The Weekend Australian, Various pages, August 6-7, 2005
       Various items:-
  • P 1: Howard to strengthen terror laws.
  • Pp 1 and 9: Refuge of a radical scoundrel, by Cameron Stewart, Additional reporting: Kimina Lyall.
       HE preaches that Osama bin Laden is a great man and he does not oppose local Muslims travelling to Iraq to fight Aus­tralian troops.
       But 15 years ago, self-styled Melbourne Islamic radical Nacer Benbrika told a very different story to Australian authorities when pleading to stay in this country.
       He told them it was "his love of the Australian lifestyle" that made him want to live here.
       What is more, Benbrika, who now openly supports violent jihad overseas, told authorities in 1990 that he feared for his life if he were sent back to the "dangers" of his native Algeria.
       Since then, Benbrika has freely roamed the dark side of Melbourne's Muslim commun­ity, teaching a radical inter­pretation of Islam to young, impressionable Muslim youths. [...]
       ASIO has twice raided his Broadmeadows home in con­nection with an investigation into suspected plots to blow up prominent Melbourne land­marks, including Flinders Street railway station.
       In the face of dwindling community and political toler­ance of such extremist views, Prime Minister John Howard yesterday criticised radical clerics such as Benbrika who openly supported jihad.
       "A jihad is the epitome of intolerance, is the epitome of the negativity and darkness which we do not want in this country," Howard said.
       But if this "darkness" was inside Benbrika when he arrived as a visitor to this country in 1989, he hid it well.[...]
       Benbrika lives with his pregnant wife and their six children in a working-class suburb in Melbourne's north.[...]
       "Osama bin Laden, he is a great man," he said. "Osama was a great man before 11 September, which they said he did it, and until now, nobody knows who did it"
       Benbrika also said be would not stop any Australian Muslim from going to Iraq and fighting Western troops including Australian troops- 'According to my religion, jihad is part of my religion, and what you have to understand that anyone who fights for the sake of Allah, the first when he dies, the first drop of blood that comes from him out, all his sin will be forgiven."
       But will Benbrika be easily forgiven for making such comments? As the Government prepares for a terror summit and considers tougher anti-terror laws, tolerance for such extrem­ist statements is running low. Even moderate Muslims have experienced a backlash. The Preston mosque, with which Benbrika is no longer associated, was flooded with hate calls yesterday.
       Meanwhile, Benbrika remains at liberty to spread his divisive messages and enjoy the Australian lifestyle he once claimed to cherish but now seems to despise.#
  • P 9: Butcher in Brigitte's circle: AFP by Martin Chulov and David King
       ANTI-TERRORISM police say a Sydney man found three safe houses in the city's southwest for accused French terrorist Willie Brigitte and spoke with him at least 23 times while Brigitte plotted a terror attack in late 2003.
       The allegations are detailed in an Australian Federal Police statement of facts that explains two charges laid against former butcher Abdul Rakib Hasan, of lying to ASIO during secret interrogations two years ago.
       The facts sheet says ASIO believed Mr Hasan was likely to have known about aspects of Brigitte's alleged plans for a terror attack from May 2003.
       The first charge centres on Mr Hasan's claims to ASIO that he had minimal contact with Brigitte and had spoken to him only three times before he was deported that October.
       However, according to the facts sheet, ASIO had been monitoring phone calls for at least three months to and from his then-workplace, the Indo-Malay Halal Butchery in the southwest Sydney suburb of Lakemba.
       The monitoring revealed Brigitte had made 42 calls to the butcher's shop between June 12 and September 30, asking to speak to Mr Hasan.
       The AFP alleges Mr Hasan was at work on 24 occasions that Brigitte called and was able to take his call on all but one occasion.
       The second charge centres on claims Mr Hasan allegedly made under interrogation that he played no role in helping Brigitte find accommodation.
       "It is alleged the defendant made misleading statements in ... relation to this role," the AFP alleges. Mr Hasan admitted that he had helped Brigitte move in with Mohammad Farooq Shaikh at Donald Street, Lakemba, when he arrived in Australia on May 16. It was the first of three addresses used by the Frenchman.
       However, police say he then denied having helped him move to a second home in nearby Boorea Avenue. He later changed his statement.
       It is alleged Mr Hasan then denied helping Brigitte move to a third address in Wiley Park in August that year. A property manager from Ray White real estate confirmed that Brigitte had signed up for the lease with a second man identified as "Abdul Hassan".
       At one stage during Mr Hasan's interrogation, the supervising judge said he was satisfied that Mr Hasan had provided many answers that "may be inconsistent and misleading".
       He was interrogated by ASIO four times between November 8 and December 1, 2003, for a total of 10 hours. In February this year, the AFP asked him to participate in a taped record of interview. He declined.
       Mr Hasan, out on bail, is due to appear in Downing Centre Local Court on August 16. He faces a maximum of five years in prison if convicted.
       Yesterday, a worker at the butcher's shop said Mr Hasan had not worked there for many months. He could not be found at his nearby Sydney home.
       The butcher's shop has previously been linked to terror allegations with its owner, Kusmir Nesirwan, an Indonesian-born Australian, accused of being a leading supporter of an Australian branch of outlawed Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiah. Customs officers, acting on ASIO advice, seized Mr Nesirwan's passport last year as he tried to fly to Jakarta.
       ASIO officers allegedly found handwritten notes during a raid in late 2002 linking Mr Nesirwan to JPs former operational chief Hambali, who was captured in Thailand in 2003. Mr Nesirwan has repeatedly denied sup­porting terrorism.#
  • P 9: UK extremist to lecture on jihad, by Caroline Overington
       ONE of Britain's most radical Muslim Converts, Abdur Raheem Green, will visit Australia later this month to lecture on the importance of jihad.
       Mr Green -- a British citizen born Anthony Green, who has two wives and six children -- was invited to Sydney by the Islamic Development Centre of Australia. In previous speeches, he has said Muslims and Westerners "cannot live peaceably together".
       "The truth is that Islam teaches its followers to seek death on the battlefield, that dying whilst fighting jihad is one of the surest ways to paradise and Allah's good pleasure," he said.
       He says conflict between Islam and the West Is "not only sanc­tioned but ordered in the Koran".
       Mr Green's visit will be preceded by another seminar on August 13 when three local sheiks, including a cleric accused of having links to terrorist organisations, will speak on the topic "Jihad: Terrorism? Or a Muslim's Highest Aspiration?".
       Tickets for the events are being distributed by Muslim bookshops, mosques and welfare agencies.
       Sheik Abdul Salam Zoud, who has twice been accused of having links to terrorism, will speak at the event organised by the Muslim Women's Association.
       Spanish authorities claimed last year that Sheik Zoud had been in contact with al-Qa'ida leaders in Europe. American authorities say he is linked to a cleric recently charged with attempting to wage war on the US. The sheik denies the charges.
       A Muslim Women's Association spokeswoman said the group chose the word "jihad" as the topic of the lecture because it gets attention.
       "We want this forum to be a success," she said. "We hope it brings out the best in people. We don't condone terrorism or vio­lence. We just want Muslims to take control of the debate."
       The organiser of Mr Green's tour sought to defend him yesterday. "He does not condone violence," Mohammed Masri said. "He's got long blond hair, blue eyes. He's not a dark-skinned, hairy-face guy that frightens people."
       John Howard yesterday signalled tougher laws for people who incited terrorism, saying current laws "at least require a further review".
       Opposition leader Kim Beazley said visitors should not be permitted to "come into this country and preach a hatred of another person". #
  • P 10: 'Shared values' push for migrants, by Elizabeth Colman.
       THE Howard Government will overhaul its policy of multiculturalism, with a new emphasis on shared values and secularism.
       As John Howard and his senior ministers sent their toughest message yet to migrants, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Minister John Cobb told The Weekend Australian of plans to remodel the Government's key multiculturalism program.
       Announcing a terrorism summit with state and federal leaders next month, the Prime Minister foreshadowed tougher penalties for inciting terrorism and longer detention for terror suspects, and warned Australians that further curbs on civil liberties would be needed to thwart terrorism.
       Treasurer Peter Costello went further, saying migrants who disagreed with Australian laws should leave "Don't come here if you don't accept the parliamentary system and democracy," he said. "If you want to look for other models of government, go and find countries where they are practised."
       Underlining the Government's new approach, Mr Cobb said that integrating isolated youngsters would help head off a national security incident in Australia.
       Recruiting high-profile immigrant or multi-faith sports stars was one strategy the Government was looking at, while a television advertising campaign would also aim to coax segregated commun­ities out of isolation.
       Improving adult migrant English education would also improve communication with isolated communities. "It's a very big time for multiculturalism, that's for sure," Mr Cobb said. "The only way to break down barriers is by association."
       Sporting stars such as rugby league's Hazem El Masri and soccer's Ahmed Elrich, who have a profile in the Muslim community, may be asked to participate.
       Mr Cobb said the program would have a stronger emphasis on reaching long-term migrants, building on past efforts to help recent arrivals settle into Australia. "We want people in Australia, be they recent arrivals or long-term arrivals, to know they've got a place here," he said.
       "At the moment we're having meetings around Australia... (to) advise us how effective our programs are, how we may need to do more, (and the) areas where we can improve it"
       The campaign -- a rebranding of the Living in Harmony pro­gram due for review before next year's budget -- would also aim to improve take-up of citizenship. There are about 900,000 people living in Australia who have not taken up citizenship.
       Mr Cobb has spent the weeks since last month's London bombing receiving advice from the Council for Multicultural Affairs and community leaders about how to better reach second-generation migrants. He said Aus­tralian multiculturalism had taken a battering in recent times.
       "There are people who are calling (multiculturalism) into question in Australia, it would be stupid to suggest otherwise. (If) people feel wanted, they feel this is their home. You don't want to destroy your home ... so why in the hell would you want to become involved in what's happening around the world.
       "As to whether or not anything happens within Australia or people slip into Australia -- and they're not likely to be able to do that without the help of someone in here -- our defence against that is the fact that no one wants to be involved in it.#
  • P 16: Editorial - a fragment.
       [...] There is no obvious answer as to how we can defeat or contain the terror threat. But the atrocities committed over a decade by al-Qa'ida and its evil ilk make it a debate we have to have. Do we seek to treat with terror, to appease Osama bin Laden and his confederates in the hope that if we feed the crocodile it may eat us last, or do we defy their awful ideas with all the accompanying risk of mass slaugh­ter? Do we have the courage to do whatever it takes to defend our values and way of life against the latest murderous ideology? [...]
  • P 16: Cartoon. [Teacher in Arabic robes holds book titled "The bomb at Pooh Corner," and says to class of children: "Christopher Robin is an infidel and must die: Discuss." Title at the foot: "Post-Medievalism."
  • P 16: Detainee tests truth, justice and the American way. Best of the letters concerning David Hicks, illegally held at Guantanamo Bay.
       • THERE seems to be some confusion in relation to the Hicks matter and the democratic transgressions it represents. The principles of democracy and the rule of law are unequivocal. This issue is not about the person charged but the transparency of the legal process of democratic nations and their officials. In this case nations that are spreading democracy.
       Members of the Howard Government have shown appalling bias in continually making statements about the alleged circumstances in which Hicks was apprehended and then continually repeating further allegations against the prisoner in what can only be described as a high-level smear campaign.
       Unfortunately, some have taken the bait and been hooked on the "he's guilty anyway" line.
       Some criticise the exponents of due process saying that to criticise the lack of it is in some way condoning illegal behaviour. This could suggest a pretty poor understanding of democratic principles or a crude attempt to undermine transparent legal proceedings.
       Quite frankly, I am very alarmed at the selective nature in which due process and the principles of democracy are being dealt with in this country. Constant tweaking of the fear factor with the malicious use of what we are told are the facts in relation to terrorism may give incumbents short-term power gains but once rights are trampled on, they are a long time being rebuilt. Rory O'SuIlivan, Victoria Park, WA.
       • WHILE the "trial" of David Hicks takes on more and more Alice in Wonderland aspects, Mr Howard maintains that the US military commission will produce a fair result He also claims that Australia's involvement in Iraq has not made us more of a terror target, and that removing unfair dismissal rights from workers will make their lives better. Just how many impossible things can Mr Howard believe before breakfast? Bruce Hogan, Cloisters Square, WA
       • THE thing that puzzles me is, if John Howard, Philip Ruddock and Alexander Downer are as convinced as they seem of David Hick's guilt, why on earth aren't they doing everything possible to ensure he receives a fair trial in a civil court? A conviction from the tarnished Military Commission might be the end of the road for Hicks but it will do nothing to allay the concerns of those concerned about the fairness of the process.
       The idea that every citizen, no matter what the alleged crime, is entitled to a fair trial stands at the heart of a justice system in a democratic country such as Australia.
       In so casually dismissing the legal opinions of Sir Ninian Stephen, former High Court judge, Mary Goudron, the Law Council of Australia, and other prominent lawyers, in­cluding, three Americans charged with prosecuting Guantanamo detainees ("No, Prime Minister, injustice is inexcusable", 5/8), our Prime Minister and his colleagues not only betray David Hicks, they shame us all.
       The New York Times reported this week that three senators from President Bush's Republican Party are pushing for legislation outlawing cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees in US custody.
       Answering critics who objected that the Guantanamo detainees were terrorists, Sena­tor McCain of Arizona declared that it's "not about who they (the detainees) are. It's about who we are". Something for all of us to reflect upon, particularly Mr Howard, Mr Ruddock and Mr Downer. Agnes Mack, Chatswood, NSW
       • Israeli-style tactics. ... tragic shooting ... innocent ... British police ... Israel ... regularly capture suicide terrorists alive, and successfully remove the bomb belt ... shooting suspected terrorists in the head is not standard Israeli practice and should not be our standard practice either. Andrew Hamilton, Coogee, NSW.
       [RECAP.: ... it's "not about who they (the detainees) are. It's about who we are". -- Senator McCain of Arizona. ENDS.] [Aug 6-7, 05]

    • Hicks trial needs Australian judge: Robertson.


       The Weekend Australian, by Nick Leys, p 10, August 6-7, 2005
       AUSTRALIA: LEADING human rights lawyer and UN war crimes judge Geoffrey Robertson QC has said the Howard Government should ensure an Australian judge is involved in Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks's trial.
       The British-based barrister described the US military commission as a star chamber, not a real court, and said it had lost the confidence of Britain and the American Bar Association.
       "It is not a court, it is a panel of three military officers, employees of the same authority that detains and prosecutes the defendants," he told The Weekend Australian in Sydney yesterday.
       "I would be surprised that Mr Howard and the Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, cannot at the very least achieve an Australian judge on the tribunal.
    [Picture] Demanding a fair trial: Geoffrey Robertson In Sydney yesterday
       "I would be surprised if at this stage they could not make that request and it would provide an element of independence and reassurance that Hicks would get a fair trial."
       Mr Robertson - who is back on home soil to launch his book The Tyrannicide Brief, about the 1649 trial of Charles I that set a precedent for future war crimes prosecutions -- suggested that UN International Criminal Tribunals judge David Hunt and international tribunals judge and former governor-general Sir Ninian Stephen were well-qualified candidates.
       "Australian judges are internationally renowned for their work in The Hague," he said. "Ninian Stephen and David Hunt are shining examples of who the Americans would respect."
       British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Attorney-General Peter Goldsmith QC have argued that the [US military] tribunal does not meet international standards. Last year they successfully sought the return of British Guantanamo Bay detainees, as did the French and German governments.
       "The Australian Government should be demanding a fair trial," Mr Robertson said. "They have certainly not achieved the result their British counterparts achieved, namely the return without conditions of UK nationals.
       "If the reason for that is the charges against Hicks are more serious, it is all the more important that an Australian judge he part of the panel."
       This week it emerged that three senior US government prosecutors on the military commission had moved on, saying the process was unjust.
       Mr Robertson joins retired Australian High Court judge Mary Gaudron in questioning the legitimacy of the process.
       He said he understood that one piece of evidence against Hicks involved a comment made on his flight to Cuba.
       "The issue for the court is whether that comment was ironic Australian humour or whether it was a genuine threat," Mr Robertson said. "American colonel with their legendary irony deficiency are not the right tribunal to take this decision."
    Inquirer - Page 20# [Aug 6-7, 05]

    • Muslim-exposing appropriate.

    To The Record (Western Australian Roman Catholic newspaper), Letter to The Editor (name withheld), posted August 7, 2005
       WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Once again I shook my head in bewilderment at reading a letter, like the anonymous one objecting to "Muslim-bashing" in a 60 Minutes TV programme (Aug 4, "Don't attack").
       For years missionary groups have been informing the faithful of the murder of clergy and nuns, but our political leaders have been carrying on with trade agreements, loans, and diplomatic visits, while Indonesia and Sudan burn. In Kosovo, the Orthodox monasteries and churches are being blown up, and the icons pulverised.
       The letter reminded me of the infamy of Howard inviting the Chinese Communist dictator to visit Canberra Parliament with all the dignity afforded to the US President.
       Maybe your correspondent ought to read the bloodthirsty attacks on Jews and Christians in the official scriptures of Islam, such as at 5:51, 8:12, 9:30, and 22:19 (surahs differ in various books).
       Link up on the internet to read, in English translation on Aljazeera, the latest West-bashing, larded with scriptural allusions and "God willing," by Al-Qaeda.
       Surely even the most forgiving reader this week ought to have frowned, after an initial smile, at the bulldozing in Malaysia of the structures built by the Sky Kingdom religion (the teapot sect), because Islamic officials said it spread teachings contrary to Islam (The West Australian, p 42, Aug 3, 2005). That religion taught interfaith harmony, and the structures were a house-sized teapot, umbrella, and boat, which all seemed fairly harmless to me.
       Or perhaps read a thorough history of how the Holy Land and the other heartlands of Christianity were raided, pillaged and conquered in the 600s by the earliest followers of Mohammed, who like their Christian counterparts carried on slave raids and rape of captured women for centuries. Belloc wrote a book about it.
       Let's not forget that Islam was labelled as paganism in Christian centuries. Even ballroom dancing and dogs are forbidden, while suicide bombing and murderous fatwas and jihads are praised!
       Did past voters clamour for cultural enrichment such as female circumcision, head-to-foot shrouding of women and girls, and polygamy? And, ought the doctrine of 72 virgins in paradise if you shed your blood while killing disbelievers or defending "Muslim land," be taught with the aid of government subsidies in Western countries?
       In spite of some Golden Ages in Islam, for most of its existence it has been used as a rallying doctrine for war against civilisation and an orderly society.# [Aug 7, 05]

    • [Howarth, MP, says 'Don't like it? Then get out']

      Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags
       The International Express (Britain), West Australian edition, "Don't like it? Then get out," p 4, Tuesday August 9, 2005
       BRITAIN: MUSLIMS who do not like the British way of life should leave the country, a senior Tory MP has said. Gerald Howarth sparked a fierce debate by comparing those who despised British values to the traitors who spied for Russia.
       "There can be no compromise with these people," he said. "If they don't like our way of life, there is a simple remedy - get out."
       Asked about those born in Britain, Mr Howarth replied: "Tough. If you don't give allegiance, then leave. There are plenty of countries whose way of life would be more conducive to what they aspire to. They would be happy and we would be happy."
       He added that most people in Britain shared his view, while stressing that the majority of British Muslims adhered to Western values. Mr Howarth's comments were branded "arrogant and naive" by Muslim leaders.
       They came as new figures showed religious hate crimes have rocketed by 600 per cent since the London suicide bombings. Scotland Yard recorded 269 "faith crimes" since July 7.
       Shadow Home Secretary David Dayis added that there was now an "obligation" on British Muslims to confront the terrorist threat within their community.#
       [COMMENT: Old saying: "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure." The British politicians were given the warning decades ago, but preferred to brand Enoch Powell, MP, who opposed unassimilable immigrants coming, as a "racist". This new statement is branded "arrogant" by Muslim leaders. The next newsitem has the humorously-named "Islamic Human Rights Commission", which is obviously powerless to allow Christians to build churches in Arabia, or to give women equal rights with men in Muslim countries and communities. COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 9, 05]

    • [Minister U-turns, goes politically correct over stop and search] Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
     WAR ON TERROR 

    Shambles over stop and search

       The International Express (Britain), West Australian edition, p 4, Tuesday August 9, 2005
       BRITAIN: THE war on terror was in disarray last week after the Minister in charge of national security made a U-turn on stop and search powers.
       Hazel Blears said police should not use racial profiling to stop and search terror suspects.
       But only two days earlier she defended British Transport Police Chief Constable Ian Johnston, who said he would be concentrating on particular groups and not "waste time searching old white ladies".
       She said she believed the Asian community would accept that stop and search is a "necessary response to the security threat".
       Last week Ms Blears said she was "the boss" while Home Secretary Charles Clarke is on holiday.
       But Tory MP Ann Widdecombe said: "If you are in charge it means exactly that. You have to know what is going on and you should be giving out the proper information."
       And Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said: "It is not the first time she has done this. It is totally unacceptable and it is the job of people in responsible positions to think before they open their mouths.
       "In some ways I am glad she has changed her tone, but surely she should think first."
    [Picture] Hazel Blears
    'Targeting someone of a particular description or wearing particular clothing is absolutely the right thing for the police to do' -- July 31
    'I don't think you should be ruling out anybody. I don't agree it is right simply to target groups' -- August 2

       As early as March, Ms Blears said Muslims should accept they are more likely to be stopped and searched by police because laws are geared to tackling Islamic extremists.
       But last week she said: "Listen, I have never, ever endorsed that. Stop and search is there to be used on the basis of the intelligence about the threat that is facing us.
       "I do not think you should be ruling out anybody in terms of how you exercise a stop and search power. You could equally have white people who could be the subject of intelligence that you have got so I don't accept it is right simply to target groups.
       "Just picking people up on the basis that they are Muslim is never going to get the result that we want."
       Meeting Muslim leaders in Oldham, Ms Blears said: "The counter-terrorism powers are not targeting a particular community but are targeting terrorists."
       Ms Blears also dismissed rumours that former Home Secretary David Blunkett was to fill in while Mr Clarke was away and said she was in charge as the biggest terror investigation Britain has seen continued.
       She said: "It is absolutely clear that in the absence of the Home Secretary I am responsible for matters in the Home Office, obviously including the counter-terrorism area."
       Asked if that meant she is "the boss", she said: "Indeed."
       But she did not appear to know the exact status of Osman, the man suspected of the attempted bombing at Shepherd's Bush Tube on July 21 and still held in Rome.
       Osman became the first suspect charged with terror offences and was accused in Italy of "association with the aim of international terrorism" and pos­sessing false documents.
       But Ms Blears said: "It is my understanding there are no domestic charges and we will be trying to get extradition as quickly as we can."
       Also it has emerged that crimes motivated by religious hatred have rocketed by nearly 600 per cent in London since the July 7 bombings. There were 269 incidents reported since the attack, say Scotland Yard.#
       [RECAPITULATION: Also it has emerged that crimes motivated by religious hatred have rocketed by nearly 600 per cent in London since the July 7 bombings. ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: Was it "religious" hatred, or "racist" hatred, or any other of the politically-correct political "swearwords" that could be applied to the July 7 bombings of people in Britain, by people supposedly part of the "multicultural mix" so beloved of the inept chattering classes?
       As for deporting dangerous preachers, the judges and the European Union's anti-Caucasian leaders will ensure that it will cost millions of pounds, or be prevented. COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 9, 05]

    • Fury over BBC Muslim bias

    Fury over BBC Muslim bias

       The International Express (Britain), West Australian edition, p 5, Tuesday August 9, 2005
       BRITAIN: BBC bosses faced a furious backlash last week after they packed a TV terror debate with Muslims.
       Angry viewers complained that the programme was anti-British and failed to offer a balanced view on the danger posed by Islamic extremists.
       They were incensed that the opinions and feelings of the victims of the London bombings, which claimed 52 innocent lives and left 700 injured, were not given enough airtime in BBCl's Questions of Security.
       Instead, the "news special", which was watched by millions, was dominated by militant factions in the audience who were critical of the police and security services. BBC bosses admitted they deliberately set out to give Muslims a louder voice in the debate hosted by Huw Edwards.
       One irate viewer told the BBC: "I felt that the audience for this programme was not representative of the British public.
       "What methodology was used to recruit the audience? And why were the views and concerns of the victims of the bombings, as well as the public and commuters, so down-played?"
       Another added: "I did not pay my licence fee to watch an unrepresentative Muslim audience like this." Despite Muslims making up only 2.7 per cent of Britain's population, 15 per cent of the audience were from the Islamic community.
       A BBC spokesman said the intention had been to ensure as "wide ranging a debate" as possible. But last week the Corporation was accused of insensitivity and failing in its duty to be impartial.
       The criticism came weeks after the BBC was roundly con­demned, following reports that its news presenters had been told not to use the word "terrorist" when referring to the bombers.
       Shadow Culture Secretary Theresa May said: "At such a difficult and sensitive period, the BBC has a duty to present the issues in a balanced manner.
       "There is a heightened sense of tension in all communities, and a great deal of distress and anguish for the victims and their relatives.
       "The BBC has already faced criticism over its coverage of the terrorist attacks, and it must take the utmost care when dealing with these issues."
       John Beyer of the pressure group Mediawatch UK added: "It is plain that one has to talk about these issues, but the BBC is required under the Royal Charter to ensure that programmes are presented with due impartiality.
       "If they have set out to have an audience which does not reflect society as a whole then one could legitimately ask whether it has fulfilled this important obligation.
       "While it may make provoca­tive television, broadcasters have a responsibility to create light as well as heat." More than 50 people complained to the BBC about the tone of the programme.
       In response, Sue Inglish, head of political programmes, said the audience had been picked from a range of communities, particularly those most affected by the attacks of July 7 and July 21.
       She said: "The aim was to gain by a wide-ranging discussion on the key issues like police powers, the role of Muslim leaders, preventing more terror, the Iraq war, asylum procedures and so on." # [Aug 9, 05]

    • Suspect 'scared' to return


       The International Express (Britain), West Australian edition, p 5, Tuesday August 9, 2005
       BRITAIN: TERROR suspect Hussain Osman has begged his lawyer to fight to keep him in an Italian jail because he is "too scared" to return to Britain.
       Osman, 27, is said to be depressed at the thought of having to spend the rest of his life in prison if he is extradited and convicted.
       He was arrested at his brother's flat in the Italian capital in connection with the abortive attempt to set off a bomb on a Tube train at Shepherd's Bush, west London, on July 21.
    [Picture] WORRIED: Hussain Osman, above, is wanted over the Shepherd's Bush bombing
       Last week his lawyer Maria Antonietta Sonnessa said: "My client is scared to go back. He is scared of what might happen to him in prison and he is worried he may have to spend the rest of his life in prison.
       "My client has continued to make declarations to the investigators. He has insisted that he never intended to kill anyone, let alone himself. He has explained the events of July 21 were just a demonstrative gesture and he has told the authorities the rucksacks were full of flour. They were just supposed to make a bang."
       Ms Sonnessa added: "The fact that I am a woman has not affected his attitude towards me. He has been in isolated confinement for nearly a week. I am trying to do what I can for him. He has nothing to read, no books or newspapers, and he has been on his own the whole time.
       "He has not asked for anything specifically but because he is in isolated confinement it's very unlikely any requests would be granted." Ms Sonnessa also dismissed reports that she was trying to "cut a deal for her client" in return for Italian residency permits. She said: "That is not true. I am speaking with the prosecutors about my client.
       "For the time being if my client is being kept on charges related to allegations in Italy then he should be kept in Italy." A date was due to be set for Osman's extradition hearing which is likely to take place later this month.# [Aug 9, 05]

    • Galloway's bile 'putting our troops in danger'


       The International Express (Britain), West Australian edition, p 6, Tuesday August 9, 2005
       BRITAIN: GEORGE Galloway was last week accused of putting British soldiers' lives at risk by describing terrorists in Iraq as "martyrs".
       In a series of rants on Arab TV channels the maverick MP said Tony Blair and US President George Bush were the real terrorists, and that insurgents in Iraq who are killing coalition forces and Iraqis almost daily were waging a "liberation struggle".
    [Picture] RANT: Galloway says the killers targeting UK forces are 'martyrs'
      The outbursts from the former Labour MP who now represents the anti-war Respect party he founded, provoked outrage.
       Labour MP Eric Joyce, a former Army major, said: "Passing comments like this puts the lives of British soldiers at risk and devalues the lives of British soldiers."
       Former Labour MP and president of the Zionist Federation, Eric Moonman, echoed the warning. He said Mr Galloway was "throwing petrol on the flames and putting at risk the soldiers who serve the country he is supposed to represent".
       Shadow Foreign Secretary Liam Fox added: "Even by George Galloway's standards, this is a particularly bilious outburst."
       But Mr Galloway called the accusations "absurd", adding: "The people who have put British troops' lives at risk are the people who sent them to war on a pack of lies."
       In one outburst, he told Syrian TV: "The idea that Muslims have some kind of sickness in their bodies, which must be cured...It must be resisted. It's not the Muslims who are sick." In a speech broadcast by Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera, he said the. US was being defeated by the "martyrs" of the Iraqi insurgency.
       On Arabic News Broadcasting TV he said most of the children who had died in Iraq were the victims of Mr Bush, not Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man blamed for bombings and murders - including beheading Briton Ken Bigley.#
       [RECAPITULATION: ... president of the Zionist Federation, Eric Moonman, echoed the warning. He said Mr Galloway was "throwing petrol on the flames and putting at risk the soldiers ... RECAP ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: The pot calling the kettle black. ENDS.] [Aug 9, 05]

    • The Islamization of Europe

      European Union (EU) flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       Barnabas Fund (Britain) www.bamabasfund.org , info@barnabasfund.org , by Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, August 11, 2005
       BRITAIN: On Friday 20th May 2005 a crowd of some 300 Muslims burned a wooden cross outside the Ameri­can embassy in London. This was part of a protest against the rumoured desecration of a Koran by American soldiers in Guantanamo Bay. British and American flags were also burned. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this event was that it was not deemed to be newsworthy, receiving little attention in the national press. [...]
       Britain's Muslim population (variously estimated at between 1.6 and 3 million) is concentrated in three areas: north-west England, the midlands and London. In some of these areas Muslims are now targeting the remaining Christian presence, arsoning churches, physically attacking church leaders and their property: the aim seems to be to "cleanse" these areas of non-Muslins. [...] The ultimate goal of taking control of society, as depicted by the Islamic Council of Europe in 1980, is clearly in the minds of at least some Muslim leaders. A Dutch Imam has stated that Islamic law is superior to other forms of legislation so there is no need to obey other laws. Some Finnish imams preach on the Islamic duty to kill a Muslim who converts to another faith, adding that it is difficult to carry this out in Finland at present because Muslims do not yet "own the state". [...]
       [REPRINTED in Fidelity magazine (Australia), fidelity@j23.com.au , pp 18-20, November 2005 issue. For full version, click subchron4.htm#islamization .] [Aug 11, 2005]

    • Re-thinking Australia's response to terrorism
       News Weekly, Australia, by John Miller, pp 12, 13, 16, August 13, 2005
       ENGLAND / AUSTRALIA: ... The single outstanding feature of the first series of attacks is the fact that these young men were well-educated, second or third-generation migrants, apparently assimilated into British so­ciety. [...]
       John Stone, a former Australian senior public servant and later a senator, has recently challenged some long-held shibboleths in The Australian (July 23, 2005). His conclusion? At present, Muslim migration should virtually cease. Rod Liddle, writing in the UK Spectator magazine (July 16,2005), has said pithily:
       "Truth is, Islam is not remotely a peaceable religion, compared with, say, paganism, Zoroastrianism, or Bud­dhism and Sikhism or Judaism [...]

          NATIONAL SECURITY        

    Re-thinking Australia’s response to terrorism

    "The purpose of terror is to terrorise" -- Vladimir Ilich Lenin on the formation of the CHEKA, forerunner of the Soviet KGB.

    "The objective of Arab terrorism is to terrorise the civilian population, traumatise their norms and values, rock the economic and political establishment and destroy the modernism that threatens the Islamic world. (Author unknown)

    A few weeks ago, on July 7, terrorists attacked London's public transport. In the ensuing days, it became clear that this was in fact a well-organised terrorist attack. As a former professional intelligence officer, I looked at the map of London and the Tube map with the attack points, highlighted by red stars.
       It appeared to me that this was in fact half an operation. Had it been thor­oughly professional, the explosions would have struck the South Bank of London, almost certainly blown up an underground train under the Thames River and looped back to form a crude circle. Had the timing of the London attack been 30 minutes earlier than 08:50am, it would have been more ef­fective and devastating, being then at the height of the rush-hour.

    Chaos

    These attacks were designed to terror­ise and paralyse the commuting public, engender chaos, and slaughter as many people as the devices used would per­mit.
       The single outstanding feature of the first series of attacks is the fact that these young men were well-educated, second or third-generation migrants, apparently assimilated into British so­ciety. In other words, the authorities have to deal with the scenario where just about anybody could be a bomb-carry­ing terrorist.
       The new population of London -- and we
    NEWS WEEKLY, AUGUST 13, 2004 -- PAGE 12
    should not make the mistake of calling it homogenous -- will be look­ing at each other, their complexion, their luggage and body language with suspicion.
       The tragic shooting at Stockwell station of an innocent Brazilian, as a result of the police shoot-to-kill policy towards anybody who looks and be­haves suspiciously enough that he could be a bomber, makes the situation harder to control than the race riots of a dec­ade or so ago.


    There is a very strong need to re-examine the oath of citizenship in an attempt to make it a genuine commitment to
    Australia.

       These facts alone will make polic­ing and security work a more difficult proposition, with more officers needed on the street. It is time to dispense with the notion of a police service -- it is a police force and it is high time that the politically correct are finally brought into line.
       More evidence of the nature and organisation of the July 7 attacks points to recruitment of the erstwhile British citizens by radical clerics with the full panoply of support organisations in the form of mosques, madrassas (Islamist training schools), bookshops, discus­sion centres and so on.
       I concluded at the time that it would be sheer madness to believe that July 7 was a one-off operation. Not being privy to intelligence reports, I conjectured a second attack within a fortnight; but that of July 21 was more of a warning than an attempt at mass murder.
       The July 21 attacks roughly fit the paradigm mentioned earlier, namely that of an operation encircling London; but it is not possible to
    conclude that the same group was involved in the planning and execution of the affair.
       This type of terrorism invites comparisons with Hamas operations in the Middle East, but the targeting has a resonance of Soviet attack plans on Lon­don during an anticipated period of ten­sion before World War III.
       Such plans -- revealed by a Soviet KGB defector, Oleg Lyalin, in 1969 -- were later matched by confirmation that the Soviet military had parallel plans. In fact, al-Qaida manuals are little more than Soviet GRU Spetsnaz (Special Forces) manuals with Arabic injunctions, usually of a religious nature, inter­spersed.
       There is very little point in argu­ing about the causes the London bomb­ings and how such contributory factors can be curbed. It is a fact that they are happening, probably on the basis of the clash between civilisations, as foreseen in part by Samuel P. Huntington in an influential essay in Foreign Affairs (vol. 72, no. 3, Summer 1993), which he later expanded into a book, The Clash of Civi­lizations and the Remaking of World Order (1998).
       To date, it has been taboo, if not tantamount to a crime, to criticise cer­tain aspects of official multiculturalism, which have created the terror threat in our midst.

    Shibboleths

    John Stone, a former Australian senior public servant and later a senator, has recently challenged some long-held shibboleths in The Australian (July 23, 2005). His conclusion? At present, Muslim migration should virtually cease. Rod Liddle, writing in the UK Spectator magazine (July 16,2005), has said pithily:
       "Truth is, Islam is not remotely a peaceable religion, compared with, say, paganism, Zoroastrianism, or Bud­dhism and Sikhism or Judaism or mod-
    WWW.NEWSWEEKLY.COM.AU

    ern Christianity for that matter, and still less humanism. Nor is it particularly well integrated, compared with say, Hinduism or Sikhism or Judaism.
       "But that does not mean we, there­fore, hold all Muslims responsible for the outrages of that Thursday morning or wish to exact revenge on the Muslim community. As I say we are not stupid."
       The same can be said, in many re­spects for Australia. Security checking of migrants from many parts of the world is very difficult today, owing to a mas­sive run-down many years ago in ASIO's role in the migrant-vetting process.

    Keeping records

       And one would hazard a guess that a great number of old records on would-be migrants have been destroyed in the bureaucratic mania to minimise paper storage because of age.
       Dewy-eyed proponents of multiculturalism will have to face the fact that more draconian security meas­ures will need to be instituted.
       We will have to seriously consider cessation of migration from certain countries and heightened screening of visitors and tourists.
       At present, the oath for Austral­ian citizenship barely means anything in terms of values and norms, but it pro­vides the would-be terrorists with con­siderable advantage in terms of move­ment and legality. It can facilitate move­ment overseas for training and indoc­trination.
       There is a very strong need to re-examine the oath of citizenship in an attempt to make it a genuine commit­ment to Australia and Australian societal goals. It would be useful to re-examine the processes of stripping citi­zenship from people who are undesir­able and smoothly deporting them, without the noise of the claqueurs.
       Hotbeds of Islamic radicalism in this country are not as numerically strong as in the United Kingdom, but in proportional terms represent a con­siderable threat.

    WWW.NEWSWEEKLY.COM.AU
       The skirmishing over Islamic dress for females has barely begun here but it is noticeable that Muslims are claiming the right to wear traditional dress, keep their daughters out of school and to live in virtual enclaves around mosques and schools, with street signs in Arabic.
       Australia has another problem wherein there are so many police, secu­rity and intelligence bodies advising the federal and state governments. Each or­ganisation seeks to justify and prolong its own existence and carve out consid­erable areas in turf wars.
       This is no time to post recruit­ment notices for senior administrators at exorbitant salaries and remarkably generous allowances. People are needed on the street and mingling in the com­munities, and we should determine which of those oppose the concept of a unified Australia.
       There is a great deal to recom­mend technical penetration of all sus­pected centres of extreme activity.
    [Picture] London: July 7, 2005
       We have to recognise now that police and security forces face probably one of the most difficult tasks since their inception. We are a target, not just be­cause the Howard Government has taken our armed forces into Iraq and East Timor. Senior Muslims around the globe have specifically named Australia as an enemy of Islam.
       A report in The Australian (July 26,2005) announced that there will be "no (so-called) counter-terror czar to lead response" in the event of a terror­ist attack.
       The article was accompanied by a two-dimensional organisational chart. It failed to reflect the current state of our intelligence organisations, which over the past few years have been turned into the form of an inverted pyramid with a top-heavy layer of bureaucrats, while the numbers of those on the street, doing the hard job of gathering intelligence, have been greatly reduced.
       The extremely difficult job of re­cruiting and retaining loyal interpreters should be a premium. If it is good enough for them to be Australian citi­zens, then surely it is not beyond the whit of authorities to use the "citizen­ship card" as a bargaining chip.
       The biggest risk with such a far-flung bureaucracy is that in the event of a terrorist alert or incident, the first line of defence appears to lie with state police forces.
       This matter deserves a great deal of examination to determine whether state police are sufficiently armed and trained to contain a terrorist scenario in the way so graphically depicted in London.
       On the day of his recent resigna­tion, former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr called for a conference of all state police chiefs to determine their approach to terrorism. His remarks re­veal, that to date, there has been a lack of consultation.
       In Pogo's immortal phrase, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
       The last thing that Australia needs is precipitate action. Nevertheless, there is a good case for the Prime Minister to recall Federal Parliament:
  • to suspend further Muslim im­migration;
  • to review our ludicrously low level of security;
  • to ensure that our security and police force hierarchies are no longer an inverted pyramid dominated by bureau­crats;
  • to spell out clearly for those forces involved in containing an inci­dent or attack, who ultimately is respon­sible;
  • to ensure that state police are suitably armed, trained and prepared for a terrorist incident.
       We need swift action, not procras­tination and endless discussion. How­ever, sunset clauses should be consid­ered for some legislation.
       There needs to be a diminution in
    Continued on page 16
    NEWS WEEKLY, AUGUST 13, 2004 -- PAGE 13

  • (Continued from page 13)
    the number of intelligence organisations and a high priority placed on intelli­gence-gathering, analysis and advice.
       It is not a question of if, but when, one of our major cities is attacked.
       Distasteful and unpalatable though it may seem, in circumstances of doubt in dealing with multicultural matters, the Government must be seen to have all necessary power to deal with terrorism in all its aspects, from the school, the reading-room, the madrassa, through to the mosque.
       The doublespeak employed by certain Islamic clerics should be identi­fied for what it is -- coded instructions for jihad or support thereof.
       New laws prohibiting the distri­bution of radical Islamic texts should be enacted

    NEWS WEEKLY, AUGUST 13, 2004 -- PAGE 16
    forthwith; bookshops should be judged on what is on the shelves and in the back rooms; and those convicted of inciting racial hatred should be stripped of their citizenship, jailed for a prede­termined period and then deported to whence they came.
       At all times, we should remember that we are battling thugs and terror­ists who happen to be of the Islamic faith. We must not allow our feelings when the first attack occurs on Austral­ian soil to go out and get even.


    Bleeding-heart stories

    As for the media, we need no more bleeding-heart stories about ASIO ar­rests and harassment or raids. Those legally-sanctioned raids have been based on information received
    and, as with the police force, are not conducted on the basis of a knee-jerk reaction. The media has a great capacity to undermine public confidence in the forces of law and order and national security. Such action in itself should be prohibited and the D notice system should be updated and applied to all forms of the media, including the Internet.
       So-called whistleblowers should face the courts if their leaks jeopardise our national security, something that Australia has "wished away" in the past.
       Australia has often been called the lucky country but there is a time, as eve­ryone knows, when luck runs out. It might not be tomorrow, but who knows when?

    -- John Miller is a former senior intelligence officer.
    WWW.NEWSWEEKLY.COM.AU


       [RECAPITULATE: John Stone, a former Australian senior public servant and later a senator, has recently challenged some long-held shibboleths in The Australian (July 23, 2005). His conclusion? At present, Muslim migration should virtually cease. [...]
       To date, it has been taboo, if not tantamount to a crime, to criticise cer­tain aspects of official multiculturalism, which have created the terror threat in our midst. RECAP. ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: " ... official multiculturalism ... created the terror threat ..." In Australia, the Victorian State administration has the problem that two pastors (who issued information that Islam had in its scriptures threats to other religions) in 2005 were found to have broken a statute. The London bombing, and the closer attention to the cultural causes of it, have awakened even Australian Prime Minister Howard to make enquiries as to what is taught in Islamic schools in Australia (which amazingly are receiving government funding, with the hearty approval of the Christian "Establishment" clergy!) . An increase in Federal funding for non-government schools was announced on February 29 or March 1, 2004. ENDS.]
       [RECAPITULATE: Islam is not remotely a peaceable religion, ... RECAP. ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: But neither are some of the others compared. Paganism usually is worshipping and sacrificing to a god to give one victory in conquest or defence. Sikhism, which orders every man to carry a knife and wear soldier's shorts, is listed by the author as a peaceable religion! Judaism, as is seen in the three terrorist gangs that operated in Palestine before World War II, and many readings in its two holy books, is quite warlike in parts. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE:
       1 - 5 - 11:24-25 -- "24. Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.
       "25. There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you." -- Hebrew Torah, www.biblegateway. com/cgi-bin/ bible?passage= DEUT%2B11%3A24-25 &showfn=on&showxref= on&language=english &version=KJV&x= 15&y=4
       4 - 2:193 -- Fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran /002.qmt.html #002.193 .
       4 - 8:12 -- I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 008.qmt.html #008.012:
       4 - 22:19: "As for the disbelievers, for them garments of fire shall be cut ..." http://www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 022.qmt. html#022.019 DOCTRINE ENDS.]
       [RECAPITULATE: ... those convicted of inciting racial [sic] hatred should be stripped of their citizenship, jailed for a prede­termined period and then deported to whence they came. ENDS.] [Aug 13, 05]

    • Pakistani intolerance condemned.

      Pakistan flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  The Tablet (RC paper, Britain), www.thetablet. co.uk/cgi-bin/ citw.cgi/ past-00243 #ASIA , by Ellen Teague, World Church News, Asia, Saturday, 13 August 2005
       GENEVA: DOMINICANS and Franciscans have used a meeting at the United Nations Office in Geneva to condemn religious intolerance and discrimination on the basis of religion, singling out Pakistan for particular criticism. Addressing the UN Human Rights Commission earlier this month, they said Pakistan is an example of a country where religious discrimination is embedded in its legislation, "so promoting a culture of intolerance, division and extremism".
       According to the June report of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) of the Bishops of Pakistan, which they quoted, the rights of minorities in Pakistan are continually undermined. Christians are one such minority, accounting for less than three per cent of Pakistan's estimated 162 million population, 95 per cent of whom are Muslim. Pakistan was urged to invite the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief to look into the situation, and also to ratify major human rights treaties that provide protection to religious minorities.
       Dominicans for Justice and Peace, Dominican Leadership Conference, and Franciscans International addressed the Human Rights Commission through their spokesman, Fr Philippe LeBlanc, who is the Permanent Delegate of the Dominican Order at the UN. He told The Tablet on Tuesday that they had picked up on the NCJP's statement, issued in Lahore, which demanded effective measures to check violence in the name of religion, reiterating previous demands for repeal of Pakistan's blasphemy laws.
       Fr LeBlanc said that Dominicans for Justice and Peace "have been one of their key proponents at the UN, working closely with our Dominican and Franciscan families in Pakistan". The blasphemy laws carry a range of penalties up to and including the death penalty. In a study by the NCJP of the 647 blasphemy cases reported in the Pakistani media since 1988, it was noted that nearly 90 cases were against Christians.
       In an earlier statement, Fr LeBlanc reminded the Human Rights Commission that since 2003, there has been no UN procedure for monitoring the human rights situation in Iraq, nor a UN presence on the ground there, and called for action to rectify this.# [Aug 13, 05]

    • [If immigrants won't assimilate, then cut off intake.]


       The Australian, "The case for assimilation," by John Stone, August 15, 2005
       AUSTRALIA: Since London's July 7 bombings, the Federal Government has been under pressure to address Australia's rapidly growing Muslim problem.
       But it clearly still wants to avoid the real issues: the need to abandon outright our official multiculturalism policies and the need to sharply reduce, to the point of virtually halting, further inflow of people whose culture (Islam) is such that there can be no realistic hope of them ever integrating into Australian society.
       Recently, I proposed six measures to begin addressing those issues. Even as that went to press, further London bomb attacks were attempted. A retired senior ASIO officer (backed by the Federal Police Commissioner) now says ASIO knows of about 60 Muslims resident here who have received training in terrorist activities such as bomb-making.
       Before I am accused of stirring up race hatred, the multiculturalism industry's invariable response when it lacks reasoned arguments, consider some figures.
       In my article I mentioned "roughly 330,000 Muslims in Australia today". That was based on the 282,000 self-declared Muslims in the 2001 census (81,000 more than in 1996). But the census religious affiliation question is optional; 1,835,000 people did not answer it in 2001. So 330,000 clearly understates the reality.
       A YouGov poll among Britain's Muslims immediately after the July 7 bombings (London's The Daily Telegraph, July 23) found 6 per cent believed them fully justified. A further 24 per cent, while not condoning the bombings, expressed sympathy with the feelings and motives of their perpetrators. Some 32 per cent believe "Western society is decadent and immoral" and "Muslims should seek to bring it to an end".
       If we (complacently) assume that Britain's Muslim problem is three times as bad as ours, then "only" 2 per cent of our Muslims would find London-type bombings here fully justified. Even on that understated 330,000 figure, that means 6,600 murder-approving Australian Muslims. Likewise, another 8 per cent (26,400) will feel sympathy with the feelings and motives of those who, one day, will commit such atrocities here. On the same assumptions, more than 10 per cent (35,200) believe that Muslims should seek to bring our society to an end.
       How do our multiculturalism apologists ignore such figuring? Even if they feel their own, typically comfortable lives aren't in much danger, don't they care about other Australians (for example, those using public transport) likely to be killed or maimed when calamity strikes? Don't they have children, or grandchildren, who will live in an increasingly Muslim-influenced Australia?
       Here then are some more measures to help deal with the problem. First, cut back hard on giving welfare benefits to immigrants (genuine refugees excepted). The most powerful inducement to Muslim (and other) immigration into Britain has been the sheer munificence, for those involved, of social security benefits they receive. Anyway, why should Australian taxpayers foot such bills for those who, having chosen to live among us, then batten upon us?
       Second, debar funds from any country that denies genuine religious freedom coming to Australian religious institutions. Saudi Arabia, whose oil moneys have funded fundamentalist Islamic mosques, schools and media outlets throughout the world, is the obvious example.
       Third, the Australian Defence Force should be ordered to put more resources (and be given the necessary extra funding) into sealing our wide-open back door across Torres Strait from Papua New Guinea (the route taken, incidentally, by Peter Qasim seven years ago).
       Fourth, government spokespeople, federal and state, must stop bowing to political correctness and start calling ethnically-based crime by its real name. The Sydney Morning Herald editorialists tut-tutting about such truth-telling should read their own Natasha Wallace's chilling report (SMH, July 22) on the horrific series of 2002 Ashfield gang rapes by four brothers of Pakistani origin.
       Fifth, state governments (whose jurisdiction it is) should follow the Italian Government's recent lead and forbid the public wearing of identity-concealing garments such as the burka or the chador, which not only exclude Muslim women from society but can also cover bomb belts. If that were to deter Muslims from coming here, or induce some existing Muslim residents to go home, both results could be borne with equanimity.
       Finally, make the 2006 census religious affiliation question compulsory.
       In short, we must fundamentally rethink our immigration policies and our official policies of multiculturalism (that is, non-assimilation). Our future immigration policy should focus on whether those concerned are capable of assimilating into an Australian culture shaped by, and part of, a Judeo-Christian Western civilisation.
       Our outstandingly successful wave of postwar immigration clearly passed that test. Equally clearly, Muslim immigrants more recently have not. Australians generally, I believe, have had enough of this. If the government won't deal with it, they will soon have had enough of it, too.
    John Stone is a former Treasury Secretary, and former National Party senator.
    Other Articles by this Author
    One nation, one culture - July 26, 2005
    All articles by John Stone
    By courtesy of On Line Opinion (Australia's e-journal of social and political debate), www.online opinion.com. au/view.asp? article=2719 , of Friday, 19 August 2005
       [COMMENT: "Genuine refugees excepted," Mr Stone wrote. Many of the refugees come to Australia to escape from the degrading depressing results of their cult, but the lack of jobs and opportunities for landless skilless migrants drives the second or third generation to espouse the very policies that made their progenitors refugees! COMMENT ENDS.]
       [RECAPITULATION: Judeo-Christian Western civilisation. END.]
       [COMMENT: Take that with a pinch of salt! Please click Submission Texts. ENDS.] [Aug 15, 05]

    • Who judges? Trinity truth?

     Who judges? Trinity truth? 

       The Record (Western Australian Roman Catholic newspaper), Letter from James David Lees, Mt Claremont, pp 6-7, August 18, 2005
       PERTH: I write in reply to the let­ter in The Record of August 4 2005 headed "Don't attack." The writer complains regarding the "ill-intention of 60 Minutes' reporting" about Muslim women and domestic violence".
       The letter infers that Australians should not judge as we ourselves have huge social problems, with domes­tic violence being a major issue costing Australia $8 billion a year. Rather than the media choosing "the ignoble path of prejudice, ignorance and harmful reporting," journalists should "thoroughly investigate and report the truth," it says.
       Well, what is the 'truth'? True, the level of domestic violence in Australia is deplorable. It is not tolerated by our society and certainly not by followers of Jesus. Jesus went against the culture of his time in his attitude towards acknowledging the sanctity of womanhood. Domestic violence occurs in Christian society in spite of the example and teachings of Jesus in the Gospels.
       Is that true of Muslim society? Some Muslims will declare that their men hold women in an elevated regard. Yes, there are Islamic women who are well-educated and successful. However, many Islamic women remain illiterate, hidden and treated as property.
       The sad reality is that this is because of the example and teachings of Muhammad in the Qu'ran and through the Hadith. Women are inherently inferior to men - Surah 2:228. How is this subordinate status defined? According to hadith 3.826, Muhammad said that women are genetically and legally inferior by half.
       One of the admonitions in the Qur'an actually recommends domestic vio­lence. "As to those women on whose part you fear disloy­alty and ill-conduct, admon­ish them, refuse to share their beds, beat them." - Surah 4:34. Further abuse is given in Surah 4:43 which says that a woman is by nature unclean. In protocols before prayer, a man is considered unclean if he touches a woman, even if it's his wife or daughter.
       One glaring example of Muslim male dominance over their women, seen more and more in Western countries, is the way Muslim women have to dress in public - Surahs: 24:31 and 33:59. In my opinion, this is just another form of abuse.
       The intent is to 'protect' women from the lustful gaze of men. I have seen Muslim women wearing masks to make themselves look absolutely ridiculous and hideous. It would be more to the point for Muslim males to seek sex counselling, sex therapy and appropriate positive education.
       I have attended quite a few lectures and talks by Muslim clerics and lectures [? lecturers]. One very big issue that Muslims have with Christians involves the Trinity.
       Muslims regard Christians as blasphemers because we adore Jesus as God and Saviour. Be that as it may, Muslims define the persons that they believe Christians revere in the Trinity as the follows: a) Allah God b) Jesus Christ c) His mother Mary - Surah 5:119. So much for 'TRUTH'. #
       [DOCTRINE:
       Koran 2.228:- ... And they (women) have rights similar to those (of men) over them in kindness, and men are a degree above them. ... (Pickthal's) http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/002.qmt.html#002.228 . (Shakir's is similar; Rodwell's "... in all fairness, but the men are a step above them. ..." (p 24)
       Hadith 1.6.301:- ... The women asked, "O Allah's Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion?" He said, "Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?" ... www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/ fundamentals/ hadithsunnah/ bukhari/006. sbt.html #001.006.301
       Koran 4.34:- ... As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them (first), (Next), refuse to share their beds, (And last) beat them (lightly); ... www.usc.edu /dept/MSA/ quran/004. qmt.html #004.034 . (Yusufali's; instead of "beat" the word is "scourge" in Pickthal's, Shakir's, and Rodwell's translations. Rodwell's verse number is 39.)
       Koran 4.43:- ... and if you are sick, or on a journey, or one of you come from the privy or you have touched the women, and you cannot find water, betake yourselves to pure earth, then wipe your faces and your hands; ... www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/ quran/004. qmt.html #004.043
       5.72-73:- Infidels now are they who say, 'God is the Messiah, Son of Mary;' ... They surely are infidels who say , 'God is the third of three;' -- The Koran, J.M.Rodwell's translation, 2001, Phoenix Press, London; Sura 5, "The Table", page 75. (Verses 76-77 in Rodwell's.) www.usc.edu /dept/MSA/ quran/005. qmt.html #005.072 .
       5.116:- And when God shall say -- 'O Jesus, Son of Mary: has thou said unto mankind -- "Take me and my mother as two Gods, beside God?" ' -- Ibid, 116, page 79. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/ quran/005. qmt.html #005.116 . (Because verse numbering is different in different versions, this could be the 5:119 quoted in the last words of the above article.)
       19.88-92: - They say: "(Allah) Most Gracious has begotten a son!" Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous! At it the skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin, That they should invoke a son for (Allah) Most Gracious. For it is not consonant with the majesty of (Allah) Most Gracious that He should beget a son. Not one of the beings in the heavens and the earth but must come to (Allah) Most Gracious as a servant. ... [Yusufali's translation]. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 019.qmt.html #019.088 . (Verses 91-94 in Rodwell's.) DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Aug 18, 05]

    • Australia is a secular country: PM


       Australian television news, approx. Aug 18, 2005
       AUSTRALIA: Prime Minister John Howard, discussing the extremist threats and his plan to talk with selected Muslim leaders on August 23, said that Australia was a secular country. [~ Aug 18, 05]

    • Some Muslims have misinterpreted Koran


       The West Australian, Letter from A. Gabriel, Willetton., p 20, August 18, 2005
       PERTH: I refer to the letter by A. Grey (Muslim parents reject my daughter, 11 /8). Being a devout Muslim, I consider it my duty to convey my apologies to A. Grey and his or her family for what happened to their young daughter.
       I have to explain that many Muslims do not understand the difference between the text and the context of the revelation. It is not understood that Islam came to a community that worshipped idols.
       Because there was considerable opposition to the message of the prophet (who preached monotheism) and many of the pagans used every ruse to waylay the Muslims, even using friendship to plot against them, God instructed the prophet and his flock not to befriend the unbelievers.
       Many Muslims misinterpret this command, forgetting the context - hence the incident that A. Grey's daughter experienced.
       My wife converted to Islam. Had I followed the narrow interpretation, I would never have met her.
       Half our family is Christian, and so are half our friends. It is important for me to explain to the Grey family that their experience has nothing to do with the Muslim faith.
       We are all God's servants. We should not create divisions between us. The Koran says: "The best of you in the sight of God is he who is most pious."
       [DOCTRINE: 5 - 9. 84.58:- [Regarding a Jew who had become a Muslim, then returned to Judaism:] "I will not sit down till he has been killed. ... and he was killed." www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/funda mentals/hadith sunnah/bukhari/ 084.sbt.html #009.084.058 .
       4 - 8:12: I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them. www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 008.qmt.html #008.012 . DOCTRINE ENDS]
       [COMMENT: It's hard to explain that "not to befriend" and being "pious" could be interpreted as "kill" or "strike off their heads" and "every fingertip." Could there be dissimulation here? COMMENT ENDS.]
       AL-TAQIYYA: Australia's Muslim spiritual leader, Sheikh Taj Alddin Hamed Al Hilali, according to an opponent on a Website, "is a masterful manipulator of al-taqiyya -- what some in Islam call the moral right of Muslims to mislead and lie to non-Muslims." -- The Weekend Australian Magazine, p 18 b, September 14-15, 2002. (See also: www.hraic.org/ taqiyya_taqqiyya_ and_dissimulation. html .
       OTHER SPELLINGS: Sheikh Taj Din Al Hilaly, Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali, Sheikh Taj Alddin Hamed Al Hilali, Sheikh Taj Aldin Al Hilali, Sheikh Taj El-Din Al Hilaly, Mufti of Australia Taj Aldin Alhilali, Imam Taj Aldin Alhilali, mufti Taj el-din al-Hilaly, mufti of Australia Sheik Taj El-Din al-Hilaly, Sheikh Taj el-Din Al-Hilaly. Using "hilal" in Search Engines usually finds most newsitems about him.
       "ABROGATION": Muslim theology holds that later revelations negate previous revelations -- this is the doctrine of abrogation. Muslim scholars date the "peaceful" revelations as coming early in Muhammad's career as "prophet." The hostile verses date later. In fact, as reported by Umar b. Abd al-Aziz, Muhammad's last words on his death bed were, "Perish the Jew and the Christians ... Beware, there should be no two faiths in Arabia." -- GB Gaskin, www. daniel pipes.org/ comments/1596 , August 1, 2002. A better-known example of the use of "abrogation" was that Muhammad said the heavenly being told him that men could have two wives. Later he said the number had been changed to four. In his own case, from having one wife, the word gradually increased them to 11. [Aug 18, 05]

    • [Don't show extremists talking their garbage on TV]


       The West Australian, "Ignore garbage," Letter from Phil Dennis, Lower Chittering, p 20, Thursday, August 18, 2005
       MIDLAND: Why is it that when we are being urged to "dob in a terrorist" and report suspicious activity to the authorities, whenever some clown wearing a mask and holding a rifle starts spewing forth his hate on Arab television our networks here in Australia fall all over themselves to broadcast it uncut into our homes?
       Maybe this time the thug had an Australian accent, so what? All this has done is given all the local university "accent" experts a shot at the big time on the box. Who really cares? Just because Arab television is being used as a conduit to get this garbage out, there is absolutely no reason to give these scum any victory by broadcasting it in our society. Leave it on Arab television.
       Surely if it is necessary to report this nonsense, it could be adequately and articulately described rather than shown. This type of reporting does nothing for me and tends to make me look elsewhere for news. What about it, news editors, how about showing a little moral courage and ignoring this garbage?
       [COMMENT: Surely it is better to see them quoting their books and calling on Allah as they pour out hate against other people, so that we are sure we are getting the truth. Who knows, the depth of the twisted thinking might wake up the West's leaders! Let's hope it is not too late. COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 18, 05]

    • [Warning for warnings]


       The West Australian, "Be warned," Letter from D.Fluellen, Bedford, p 20, Thursday, August 18, 2005
       PERTH: I am thoroughly sick and tired of the likes of Waleed Kadous from the Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network threatening us if Muslims don't get their way (Muslims warn of backlash as cleric banned, 13/8).
       People like him come here begging for sanctuary then turn on their hosts. Mr Kadous needs to realise that we don't want his religious fanaticism in this country.
       Australians are pretty slow to get riled, but we will not just lie down and be walked over. So, Waleed Kadous, you be warned. [Aug 18, 05]
    • Way of life threatened

    Way of life threatened

       The West Australian, Letter from Marie Slyth, West Perth, p 23, Friday, August 19, 2005
       PERTH: It has become evident that the philosophy of multiculturalism, because it provides such an open door to liberal interpretation without constraints of any kind, has assisted in creating a very damaging impact on our Australian way of life.
       I am very concerned about the way we Australians are put down by being frequently told we have no culture and that Australia is not a Christian country. That is a real insult, especially to veterans of wars in which Australians have been involved.
       While new arrivals from many other cultures today quickly claim they must not be insulted in any way, those who are born in Australia can be insulted without restraint and the voice of anyone who protests is quickly stifled.
       As a fourth-generation Australian, I do not consider myself an immigrant from another country. Although my ancestors may have been British and Irish, my roots are in this country and I am concerned about its future. I believe it is high time immigrants to my country were required to learn Australian history as a prerequisite to settling here and consequently develop a deep respect for our Australian culture.
       Multiculturalism actually prevents this happening. It permits any powerful culture to simply move in and impose its way of life and belief system on us.
       Enculturation is the answer. This sound philosophy welcomes people from other cultures, but requires they accept our Australian culture and the fact that we are a Christian country and learn to blend in with our way of life, yet at the same time are able to retain their own cultures and religious beliefs without seeking to take over.# COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE: 4 - 2:193 - "Fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left." www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/quran/ 02.qmt.html# 002.193 . [Aug 19, 05]

    • [Backs anti-Australian, blames xenophobia]


       The West Australian, Letter from Ted Collett, Bassendean, p 16, Monday, August 22, 2005
       MIDLAND: The letter from D. Talbot (Hysterical view, 10/8) gives support for at least one Muslim religious anti-Australian zealot given refuge in Australia.
       "Xenophobic hysteria" is "sweeping the country". What rubbish this person writes to justify a point of view. Australians love our country very much but it would seem that D. Talbot is a fence-sitter.
       If and when, God forbid, terrorists strike here, which side of the fence will D. Talbot support? [Aug 22, 05]

    • Immigrants, please respect our ways


       The West Australian, "Please respect our ways," Letter from Rob Brown, Waikiki, p 17, Monday, August 22, 2005
       ROCKINGHAM: I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individuals or their cultures.
       Since the terrorist attacks on Bali, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by most Australians. But the dust had barely settled when the politically correct crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others.
       I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone seeking a better life in Australia. But there ate a few things those who come to our country need to understand.
       This idea of Australia being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and national identity. We have our own culture, society, language and lifestyle. This culture was developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by men and women seeking freedom.
       In God we trust is our national motto. This is not some Christian, right-wing, political slogan. We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then consider another part of the world your new home.
       If the Southern Cross offends you, or you don't like a fair go, then seriously consider a move to another part of this planet. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things in your home country. This is our country, our land and our lifestyle and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this.
       But once you are finished complaining, whining and griping about our flag, our pledge, our national motto or our way of life, I highly encourage you to take advantage of one other great Australian freedom -- the right to leave. If you aren't happy here then go. We didn't force you to come here.
       [COMMENT: "In God we trust" is the national motto of another country, not of Australia. COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 22, 05]

    • Stop the Anglo myths


       The West Australian, Letter from Bruce Joseph, Swanboume, p 17, Monday, August 22, 2005
       PERTH: Marie Slyth (Way of life threatened, 19/08), exactly what history do you propose is taught to develop a deep respect for Australian culture? Our current general history is Anglo-centric and conveniently glosses over long contributions that other cultures have made in this country.
       "Australian" history tends to portray a country that has only been contributed to by those of Anglo-British descent -- while ignoring the history and treatment of the indigenous as well as the major contributions of the Afghans, Chinese, Japanese, Malays, Indonesians, Germans, Italians, Greeks and others.
       If you're concerned we don't have an identifiable culture, I suggest you stop being so insecure about accepting other cultures and also stop being so selective in your version of our history. Australia never has been mono-cultural -- but most choose to believe that it has been and should be.
       I personally don't believe that teaching a truthful version of our history will give new immigrants a deep respect for our country. We have a terrible record concerning the treatment of the indigenous from the first day of settlement to the present, and have always held contempt and suspicion for people who arrive in noticeable numbers.
       Our insecurities about ourselves have allowed us to be manipulated into thinking we should be worried. If history is to give us a lesson that we should be proud of, it is that accepting people of different cultures has enriched Australian society and that immigrants have contributed a great deal.
       [COMMENT: This writer is either someone who denies history, and/or has "self-dislike" which is a symptom of a culture in decay. Either way, he will probably want Australia to go the way of the proud civilisations of Persia and Byzantium. Many scholarly books will be burnt! COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 22, 05]

    • Ways will change by force unless halt is called


       Letter sent to The West Australian, Letter sent August 22, 2005
       AUSTRALIA: Come on, Bruce Joseph (letters, 22/8), Marie Slyth isn't the only one seeing that our way of life is threatened by opening our doors to multiculturalism. Several Muslim leaders have said the same, in their own way.
       For example, Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammad of London was reported on April 20 2004 (yes, last year) as saying that attacks in England were inevitable. He also said:
       "We don't make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents," he said. "Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value." . . .
       "... Terrorism is the law of the 21st century. It's legitimate."
       The fruit of such religious teaching are the cowardly suicide bombings such as at Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt), Bali, and the London Underground Rail and a bus, and the weekly toll in Iraq, and now Afghanistan. As they kill infidels there is no guilt, and as they kill Muslims they can console themselves with saying they were polytheists, or if not, would go straight to paradise.
       The murderers go to a paradise which provides 72 self-renewing virgins each day. (What reward do the female suicide bombers get, I wonder?)
       One result of the imams who teach suicide bombings is that the London police, who years ago went unarmed, now have a unit that rushed onto a railway station and shot a Brazilian in the head several times.
       This month a person who objected to an Australian television programme about Islamist extremists, said Australians must amend their ways, and ended "Get used to it."
       In Europe, political and religious leaders haven't yet explained why they didn't know 50 years ago that there would be problems from locals when immigrants arrived, who are taught in school that God has ordered that there be no dogs, alcohol, loan interest, gambling, ballroom dancing, free speech on religious matters, mixed bathing, or changes to the laws unless the imams approve, to name a few restrictions.
       From childhood they are taught that women have no right to obtain a divorce, or walk in the streets unhampered with voluminous robes, and that every holy Muslim must fight until no other religion is left except Islam.
       Of course there will be people who think this will fade away, as did the Roman supremacism of past centuries. But judging by letters to newspapers, many other Australians want to stop importing hotheads who want to teach such dangerous stuff.
       Australian ways will be changed by force if we don't call a halt. Remember, "The life of an unbeliever has no value." [Aug 22, 05]

    • [Muslim intrusions supported, opposed]


       The West Australian, "In short," Letters, p 19, Tuesday, August 23, 2005
       PERTH: While being sympathetic towards Marie Slyth's way of life, which is being destroyed by the intrusion of foreign cultures (Way of life threatened, 19/8), and which has been carefully protected and nurtured for four generation of Slyths, shouldn't the same rules have applied when the original Slyths intruded on the indigenous Aboriginal cultures in Australia of not just four but thousands of generations?
       I agree wholeheartedly that "any powerful culture should not be permitted to simply move in and impose its way of life and belief system" on anybody, as the Slyths' forefathers did on the indigenous people of Australia. Nalin Gunasekera, Winthrop.
       It is a great idea for our Prime Minister to have a meeting with Muslim leaders. But this meeting should include all Muslim groups, including the ones that believe that Osama bin Laden is a "great man".
       Finding out why they believe he is a "great man" could lead to the solution to the war against terror. Before a doctor can cure an illness, first he has to know what the cause is. Karl Frick, Langford.
       Reading about the reduced sentence for the Bali bomber made me sick. The Government says it is powerless to do anything and it hasn't spoken to the Indonesian Government expressing our concerns.
       There is one thing the Government can do to help. Stop giving Indonesia millions of dollars in aid. R. Lloyd, Balcatta. [Aug 23, 05]
    • [Clitoris removal without painkiller back in Tanzania - "culture ceremony"] Tanzania flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       New Idea (Australia), "Please, no torture!" By Amanda Goff, p 43, August 27, 2005
       AUSTRALIA: Tanzania's Saada Masolwa fears she will be subjected to a genital mutilation rite if forced to leave Australia. Her husband from the Mgogo tribe pressured her to undergo the procedure. It involves cutting away the clitoris and/or the lips of the vagina, and sometimes sewing the cut surfaces together - without anaesthetics or antiseptics!
       She pretended she was coming here on a holiday, although she was running away, so now she is on a bridging visa - supposed to return to Tanzania sooner or later.

     PLEASE 
    NO TORTURE!


    Tanzania's Saada Masolwa fears she will be subjected to a genital mutilation rite if forced to leave Australia
       New Idea (Australia), By Amanda Goff, p 43, August 27, 2005
    F or most Australians, freedom is taken for granted. Freedom to work, study and live in a beautiful country where we feel safe. But for Saada Masolwa, 27, every day is possibly a step closer to a terrible fate, genital mutilation.
       Saada fled the African country of Tanzania in May 2003 after her husband and his family, from the Mgogo tribe in the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam, pressured her to undergo the procedure.
       'I told my husband I didn't want this done, but in Africa he has more power than me,' Saada says. 'I had to run away. Because circumcisions are usually done in groups, diseases like AIDS are easily passed on and I was scared for my life.'
       Luckily, Saada worked as a cleaner for an immigration expert, who helped get a three-month holiday visa to Australia. She packed a small suitcase and flew to Sydney, staying with her step-sister.
       'I told my husband I was going on a short holiday and would come back in three months, but I knew I could never come back. It is too dangerous to go back now - even my mother told me to stay away. That makes me very sad, but she is happier I am safe.'

    [Pictures] 1st: Ms Saada Masolwa. 2nd: Sudanese model Abang Othow has supported Saada's fight to remain in Australia. Pictures: Nigel Wright
       Saada has been granted new bridging visas since her arrival, but says she got a letter from her husband's family saying they'd organised a circumcision ceremony.
       She is also scared of being punished by her tribe for leaving. 'If I go back, my life would be finished,' she adds.
       Saada has until November 1 before Immigration Minister Senator Amanda Vanstone will decide whether Saada is eligible for a protection visa.
       Until then it's a waiting game. On her current visa Saada can't work, study or have a Medicare card. She survives on charity - particularly from friend and model Abang Othow, 23, who she met at the Asylum Seekers Centre in Sydney's Surry Hills. 'My whole life is relying on Senator Amanda Vanstone. I feel she could either save me or destroy me.
       'I have no life here. I can't work -I love being creative and want to be a hairdresser. I can't go to the doctor if I am sick. My life is so dismal,' Saada says.
       Yet a spokesperson from the Department of Immigration told New Idea Saada has previously sought ministerial intervention, which was turned down.
       'Saada holds a bridging visa and is lawfully in the community. She has had her claims for protection assessed by the Minister and by the Refugee Review Tribunal, who have decided Saada is not a refugee,' the spokesperson says.
       But her lawyer Austin Punch is battling on. 'I just can't believe that if this was put to the Australian people, they wouldn't say yes, let's protect this young woman.'
    WHAT IS GENITAL MUTILATION?
    Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is an invasive surgical procedure that's often performed on girls before puberty. It includes cutting or removing the clitoris and/or the labia minora and majora, and the sewing together of the cut surfaces.
    WHERE IS IT DONE?
    It's widely practised in Africa and is common in the Middle East. Around 135 million women and girls have undergone FGM, and two million girls a year are at risk of mutilation - about 6000 per day.
    HOW IS IT PERFORMED?
    Because of lack of medical facilities, the procedure is often done in unhygienic conditions, without anaesthesia or proper medical training. Razor blades, knives or scissors are commonly used. .
    ARE THERE HEALTH IMPLICATIONS?
    Side effects can include haemorrhage, shock, scars, clitoral cysts and chronic urinary and pelvic infections. Later in life it can cause sterility, sexual dysfunction, kidney stones, depression, and various gynaecological and obstetric problems
       [COMMENT: Also note the newsitem about the cruelty to animals slaughtered for human food. (Such practices are not unique.) COMMENT ENDS.] [August 27, 2005]
    • [What names do you think terrorists have for us? School content?]

    [What names do you think terrorists have for us? School content?]

     
       The West Australian, Various Letters to The Editor, p 21, Saturday, August 27, 2005
    I DISAGREE
       What do you want us to think about Kim Beazley's words, Alison Sexton-Green (Harsh words, 24/8)? He was referring to the people responsible for carrying out the attacks that have recently rocked parts of the world.
       A touchy-feely approach to this kind of filth is what is driving them on, knowing that there are goody-goody individuals out there who prefer to see them treated like modern-day criminals, which they are not, or live in fear in case one of them hears or reads about us calling them names.
       What names do you think they have for us? Mr Beazley was not referring to all who believe in such a religion or who hail from that part of the world, but those to are forcing themselves and their beliefs on us by injuring, maiming and killing to get their point across, not all Muslims.
       Alison, they are "sub-human" and (block your ears), they are "scum", there is no other description for them, which means it is my opinion which I am free to express as long as I am not injuring or hurting anyone in the process, which I am not.
       I am sure a few names is not what adds fuel to their fire, they have much more extreme means. Mr Beazley has this same right, regardless of his position. There should be more who are willing to stand up and tell it like they think it is and not fear the reprisals from a community that is becoming soft by breaking down everything someone says to ridicule or gain, rather than building a bridge and accepting that people have opinions in this world and we are free to express them. Toughen up. Funny thing is, Alison, that is what these letters pages are all about. S. Clugston, Rockingham.
    It's too late
       There is one consistent thing about the Federal Government -- it knows no shame and is never embarrassed by any of its devastating blunders.
       For purely ideological reasons, this Government has promoted and underwritten an endless maze of small businesses, also known as private schools. It has promoted educational "choice" ad nauseam and has no accountability from any of these private schools.
       Now John Howard and Brendan Nelson are worried that there may be inappropriate curricula in Islamic schools. There is now so much concern from this same Government that it is having panic meetings with Islamic leaders about what young Muslims are being taught.
       Well, too late, Mr Howard and Dr Nelson. A decade of denigrating and under-funding State schools -- the only schools that have curricula determined by State and Federal governments and which are totally accountable to the taxpayers and which are able to give us the Australian togetherness that you have now realised you want -- has resulted in a plethora of unaccountable and well-funded small businesses (schools) teaching, one might be forgiven for saying, God knows what. David S. Balfour, Beckenham.
    Today's text
    The Lord will protect you and keep you safe from all dangers. -- PSALM 121:7. (The Bible for Today). From the Bible Society.
       [GUIDELINE: 5:64-65:- O people of the Book! ... some of them hath he changed into apes and swine ...
       5:85:- Of all men thou wilt certainly find the Jews, and those who join other gods with God, to be the most intense in hatred of those who believe; and thou shalt certainly find those to be nearest in affection to them who say, 'We are Christians.' ...
       33:48 (or 47):- And obey not (the behests) of the Unbelievers and the Hypocrites, and heed not their annoyances, but put thy Trust in God. For enough is God as a Disposer of affairs. www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/033.qmt.html#033.048 .
       9:28:- O Believers! only they who join gods with God are unclean! ...
       9:29:- Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given ...until they pay tribute out of hand, and they be humbled. GUIDELINE ENDS.]
       [SCHOOL CURRICULUM NOTE: In the "It's too late" letter the writer said that there was a plethora of unaccountable schools teaching God knows what. The Reader's Digest Australian edition of February 2003, pp 119-125, "Saudi Arabia's deadly export," by Brian Eads, claimed:
      A textbook funded free under this programme, set for year 9, declares, "The last hour will not come before the Muslims fight the Jews." Another announces, "It is allowed to burn or destroy the bastions of kufar (infidels)." (p 121 a)
      A graduate of the Imam Ibn Saud University in Arabia is Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born British convert to Islam. Among audiotapes he has made are "No Peace With the Jews" and "Jihad." (p 124 a & b)
    ENDS.] [Aug 27, 05]

    • [Bronwyn Bishop backs school headscarf ban]


       The Weekend Australian, "Bishop backs school headscarf ban," By Samantha Maiden and Paige Taylor, p 2, August 27-28, 2005
       AUSTRALIA: LIBERAL MP Bronwyn Bishop has backed a push to ban Muslim girls wearing headscarves to school.
       Speaking in support of her like-minded colleague Victorian Liberal MP Sophie Panopoulos, Ms Bishop yesterday warned it was time to debate the issue.
       "When you have a clash of cultures, the dominant culture is the one that you follow and that's ours," she told the Nine Network's A Current Affair.
       "That's the one that makes us free, and I'll fight for it."
       The Australian reported yesterday that Ms Panopoulos was leading the push to debate the issue, warning "politically correct" ideas should not stop debate over girls wearing Muslim headscarves. "For a lot of younger people it seems to be more an act of rebellion than anything," she said.
       "My personal view is I would put a ban on those headscarves, as governments have overseas. That's up to individual schools and state governments but if a school has a uniform that's pretty much it."
       Ms Panopoulos also warned she was concerned about Muslim women not showing their faces when they posed for photographic identification.
       Last year France's parliament voted overwhelmingly to outlaw the wearing of Islamic head-scarves in state schools.
       Education Minister Brendan Nelson said this week he did not support a ban on headscarves.#
       [COMMENT: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." - Old saying. COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 27-28, 05]

    • Sydney on al-Qaida attack list: judge


       The West Australian, p 13, Saturday, August 27, 2005
       CANBERRA: Sydney is one of three financial centres named yesterday as potential targets for an al-Qaida attack.
       France's top anti-terrorist judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, believes the terror organisation is preparing to attack a big financial centre in Asia to undermine investor confidence in the region.
       "We have elements of information that make us think that countries in this region, especially Japan, could have been targeted," he said.
       "Any attack on a financial market like Japan would mechanically have an important economic impact on the confidence of investors," he said. "Other countries in this region, such as Singapore and Australia, are also potential targets."
       Mr Bruguiere, who interrogated terror suspect Willie Brigette, warned of the September 11,2001, attacks on the United States and the London July bombings.
       He said Asian countries were less prepared than Britain or the United States for such an attack.
    [Picture] Threat: Sydney has been named as a target for an al-Qaida attack.
       "We are somewhat neglecting the capacity or desire of the al-Qaida organisation to destabilise the region," he said.
       An Australian Federal Police spokesman said it investigated all matters referred to it "and it would be inappropriate to comment on any ongoing investigation that we have".
       Australian Strategic Policy Institute security analyst Aldo Borgu said it was possible terrorists could shift their focus to financial markets but it was more likely they would continue to aim for a big impact by killing people.
       "They've basically been more concerned about getting mass casualties than they have on putting a blip on your trade deficit or balance of accounts or anything like that," he said.
       "It doesn't mean that they won't in the future but so far they're sticking to their current repertoire, which is casualty attacks rather than attacks on economic infrastructure."
       Nicknamed Le Sheriff, Mr Bruguiere has been warning about the threat of Islamic terrorists since a string of bombings rocked Paris in the mid-1980s.
       He heads a specialist team of judges who work alongside anti-terrorist police and intelligence agents who have overseen the arrest of more than 500 terrorism suspects in 20 years.
       He warned of the danger of terrorists hijacking aircraft well before the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, after foiling a 1994 attempt by Algerian radicals to crash an Air France jet into the Eiffel Tower in Paris.# [Aug 27, 05]

     • [Easing animals' suffering makes meat unfit to eat] 

    Malaysia flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The West Australian, "Malaysia cites halal violation for Aussie beef ban," p 14, Saturday, August 27, 2005
       KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has declared some Australian beef no longer fit for its Muslims to eat, saying slaughtering methods designed to ease an animal's suffering do not comply with Islamic strictures.
       In mainly Muslim Malaysia, animals must die from a single slice to the throat for the meat to be deemed halal, or fit for Muslim consumption, but under Australian animal-welfare rules, cattle are sometimes "stunned" before their throats are cut.
       Another method, in which a separate cut is made to the thoracic artery to speed up death, is also deemed non-halal.
       Malaysia revealed its stance yesterday after bilateral trade talks in Kuala Lumpur, saying it had withdrawn halal certification from 15 Australian abattoirs and processing plants.
       The issue has already riled the New Zealand meat industry, which says some of its abattoirs have also lost Malaysian halal certification despite meeting their own domestic halal rules.
       Australia, a major beef exporter, is estimated to earn about $20 mil- lion a year from halal exports, Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile said after the talks with his Malaysian counterpart, Rafidah Aziz.
       "We slaughter and sell an enormous amount of red-meat product under halal certification and supervision in Australia," Mr Vaile said.
       Australian veterinary experts and Malaysia's halal certification body are looking at ways of meeting both Islamic strictures and animal-welfare considerations, he said.
       "I'm quite confident that we will be able to resolve it," Mr Vaile said. [Bolding added]
       [COMMENT: Can't every elector see how ignorant of other cultures were and are the empty-headed people who made propaganda for multiculturalism, and still do? If anyone expects that people of this robust culture will allow the laid-back "Aussie" way of life to continue, read about what a Malaysian state did to the Sky Kingdom religious structures (the "teapot sect"), reported August 3, 2005.
       And, how many so-called leaders and scholars could tell us the origin of the idea that animals should die, painfully bleeding to death, to be "fit" for human consumption? COMMENT ENDS.] [Aug 27, 05]

    • Islamic balance rests on old pillars

    Islamic balance rests on old pillars

       The West Australian, "The Human Spirit" segment, by Keith McDonald, page 7 of "Weekend Extra" section, Saturday, August 27, 2005
       PERTH (W. Australia): Religion's struggle with modernity is a challenge for all major faiths, but none more so than Islam. With 1.3 billion followers, including up to 8 per cent of some Western countries' populations, it is the world's second biggest religion. Yet the average Australian probably knows very little about it.
       "Understanding" doesn't extend much beyond media images of suicide bombings and the idea that this is all Islam's fault.
       So, as distinguished Islamic scholar Akbar Ahmed asked at a University of WA symposium this month: "How are we to live together as a multicultural, multireligious society in the 21st century?"
       Dr Ahmed, chair of Islamic studies and professor of international relations at American University, was speaking via digital video conferencing from his office in Washington DC. He gave a stark reminder of how far Islam has gone astray by describing the initial impact of the Prophet Mohammed.
       "Islam came to the world in the 7th century with its idea of how to live as a world society," he said. "It rested on the notion of justice. This is central to Islam.
       "The second feature is the notion of compassion or balance. Society can't be a just society without balance or compassion. You must feel for your neighbours. The third important pillar is the notion of ilm - knowledge. Ilm is the second most used word in the Koran after the word for God.
       "Add these three up and you will see that you have a classic Islamic civilisation which was able to produce a sophisticated idea of human rights and ways of living with non-Muslims. We saw a human rights system that was the best in the world."
       Islam then was an egalitarian society. "There was no hierarchy, no priesthood so you spoke directly to God, and there were no kings or dynasties," Dr Ahmed said.

    [Picture of woman, wearing blue headscarf, carrying a sign "I am a Muslim for Peace".] Dialogue vital if we are to avoid the abyss of despair, says Akbar Ahmed.
       Women were given unprecedented rights over property, they could divorce, lead armies and be writers. "Women were given a very high status in Islam, which is not to say they have that status today," he said. "The struggle to reclaim the rights of women is on and needs to be fought and won."
       He saw the past 200 years as a time of "great crisis and uncertainty" for the Islamic world, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire, European colonisation of Muslim lands and the failings of independent Muslim states.
       In a Washington Times article a few days earlier, Dr Ahmed and Susan Bradford wrote that Islamic societies had suffered from tyrannical leadership and chaos, illiteracy, self-mutilation and violence. "The Muslim world has fallen hopelessly behind as the rest of the world races ahead towards globalisation," they said.

    THE HUMAN SPIRIT
    KEITH
    McDONALD


       "Unsettled by changes and not perceiving many options, Muslims are desperately holding on to obsolete traditions which no longer serve them and view Islam as a cultural, political identity as opposed to faith to draw one closer to God, to lead a righteous life."
       Dr Ahmed told his Perth audience the Muslim world urgently has to start a "dialogue of civilisations". "Events are overtaking the Muslim world," he said. "Bombings will happen in future and make things worse for Muslims. They have to begin to respond to the challenges they are facing."
       Dr Ahmed said interfaith dialogue was needed: "It can sound like a cliche, an empty word, but it does have an impact," he said.
       People also needed to read for themselves about each others' cultures: "You will be amazed how little we know. There are so many stereotypes in the media."
       Above all, friendships had to be created: "It's absolutely crucial in any dialogue. Often you go home or back to the office and nothing much changes, but with friendship things do change."
       Dr Ahmed felt that the voice of moderation needed to be heard. He regretted that often Muslims appearing in the media were not scholars, had agendas and spread misinformation.
       Also, as he wrote in the Washington Times: "Often the rhetoric of radical imams, which is highly politicised and deeply rooted in prejudice, is cited as the true face of Islam."
       But he also criticised Christian evangelists like Franklin Graham. "Prominent figures have attacked the God of Islam," he said. "(Their comments) are not based on scholarship but are more based on prejudice or ignorance.
       "To call them (Muslims) Satan worshippers or idol worshippers leaves me astounded. These people should do a little bit of reading; discover for themselves that Islam is not a religion of idol worshippers or Satan worshippers."
       He appealed for moderates to make sacrifices and build bridges of understanding. "We mustn't allow people of violence from whatever civilisation to set the agenda," he said. "It is crucial we don't allow societies to sink into a hopeless abyss of despair."
       The symposium was organised to celebrate the launch of UWA's Centre for Muslim States and Societies. The centre aims to increase understanding of the beliefs and practices of our Muslim neighbours as well as the identities, cultures and values of Muslim communities in liberal democracies such as Australia.
       Samina Yasmeen, director of the centre, said that most moderate Muslims were busy getting on with their lives and this had left the field open to orthodox Muslim ideas, including militant ideology. She blamed culture for distancing Muslims from the original principles of their faith.
       "The challenge is to understand the spirit of the religion," she said. "We need to go back to the original inner meaning of the religion... everyone knows about prayer but what does it inculcate in you? There is a general tendency to have moved away and got stuck with the form. We need to look at the essence and ask what is the meaning."

    keith.mcdonald@wanews.com.au #
       [RECAPITULATION: "Add these three up and you will see that you have a classic Islamic civilisation which was able to produce a sophisticated idea of human rights and ways of living with non-Muslims. We saw a human rights system that was the best in the world."
       "Unsettled by changes and not perceiving many options, Muslims are desperately holding on to obsolete traditions which no longer serve them and view Islam as a cultural, political identity as opposed to faith to draw one closer to God, to lead a righteous life." ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: Who could believe Dr Ahmed's theories about Islam, if one was steeped in the Koran, the Sunnah, and Shariah? Or if one studied the bloodsoaked history of conquest by Mohammed and his successors? COMMENT ENDS.]
       [RECAPITULATION: Samina Yasmeen, director of the centre, said that most moderate Muslims were busy getting on with their lives and this had left the field open to orthodox Muslim ideas, including militant ideology. She blamed culture for distancing Muslims from the original principles of their faith. ENDS.]
       [COMMENT: The idealised society without kings etc. never occurred, judging by the martyrdoms of the early leaders, and the idea that it was a non-aggressive society is belied by the distance from Mecca of their early leaders' tombs, which are honoured by one of the major sects to this day.
       To pretend that women gained rights from Mohammed's teachings is belied by every move he made, from his rules for killing male prisoners-of-war but sexually using the females, to his gradually granting his male followers four wives and himself 11 wives including a child. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [RECAPITULATION: The symposium was organised to celebrate the launch of UWA's Centre for Muslim States and Societies. ENDS.] [Aug 27, 05]

    • Australian Complicity in Iraq Mass Mortality Iraq / Irak flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       Ockham's Razor, Radio National, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, www.abc.net. au/rn/science/ ockham/stories/ s1445960.htm , by Dr Gideon Polya (presented by Robyn Williams), Sunday, August 28, 2005
       AUSTRALIA: Former Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Dr Gideon Polya researched and analysed avoidable global mass mortality. He also talks about the refusal of Anglo/American media to report avoidable mass mortality and other atrocities linked to Western activities.
       The post-1950 avoidable mortality has been 1.3-billion for the world, 1-billion for the Third World and 0.5-billion for the Muslim World, a Muslim Holocaust 100 times greater than the Jewish Holocaust or the contemporaneous but 'forgotten' Bengal Famine in British-ruled India.
       The latest UNICEF report in 2005 estimates that for the year 2003 the under-5 infant mortality was 110,000 in occupied Iraq, 292,000 in occupied Afghanistan and 1,000 in the invading and occupying country Australia (noting that these countries have populations of about 25-million, 24-million and 20-million respectively).
       Using publicly available United Nations and medical literature data one can readily calculate that there have been about 0.4-million avoidable deaths in post-invasion Iraq.
       The War on Terror has substantially helped to produce a post-9/11 extra profit for the US military-industrial complex of about $US500-billion. The annual World death toll from car accidents and smoking-related causes is about 1-million and 5-million respectively. One can see why there is no War on Cars nor a War on Cigarettes.

    Australian Complicity in Iraq Mass Mortality

    Sunday at 8.45am, repeated Wednesdays at 9.45pm
    Presented by Robyn Williams
    Sunday 28 August 2005
    Summary
       Former Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Dr Gideon Polya researched and analysed avoidable global mass mortality. He also talks about the refusal of Anglo/American media to report avoidable mass mortality and other atrocities linked to Western activities.
    Program Transcript
       Robyn Williams: Today's talk will make uncomfortable listening. You may disagree with some of the learned Professor's conclusions, even some of his terms. But Gideon Polya, who has been a Professor of Biochemistry at a university in Melbourne for many years, has taken the trouble to do some original research, this time on the deaths of children and their significance.
       The science is straightforward, if chilling. It's the political consequences one can argue about.
    Professor Gideon Polya.
       Gideon Polya: The fundamental process of science successively involves considering all the data, setting up testable models of reality, gathering new data to test such potentially falsifiable hypotheses, and then refining our models to accommodate the new data set.
       A fundamental rule for scientists is that you cannot rub out the data; this will simply derail the scientific process.
       'Rubbing out' is particularly dangerous when the data have a direct bearing on human mortality. History ignored yields history repeated, and a 'rubbing out' or denial of huge mortality events such as the Jewish Holocaust will surely greatly increase the probability of their recurrence.
       Indeed some countries, notably Germany, have made Holocaust denial illegal, albeit only in relation to the Jewish Holocaust.
       Nevertheless an extraordinary feature of the post-war world has been the resolute refusal of Anglo-American media to report avoidable mass mortality and other atrocities linked to Western activities. Thus in 1943-44 a man-made, market-forces famine killed an estimated 4-million Hindu and Muslim Bengalis in British-ruled India, but most Australians will simply never have heard of this 'forgotten holocaust'.
       According to Amartya Sen, the 1998 Economics Nobel Laureate, prosperous, wartime Calcutta sucked food out of a starving countryside, those who could not afford the fourfold increase in the price of rice simply perished. Civilian and military sexual abuse of starving females involved some 30,000 victims in Calcutta alone and probably hundreds of thousands throughout Bengal. The famine-enforced sexual exploitation of starving women and girls in the British Military Labour Corps demands comparison with the 'comfort women' abuses of the Japanese Imperial Army.
       To reiterate, history ignored yields history repeated, but unfortunately lying by omission is entrenched in Anglo-American mainstream media.
       I have been researching and writing a book on post-1950 avoidable global mortality. This has involved using United Nations data to calculate the avoidable mortality, (or technically, excess mortality) for every country in the world since 1950. Avoidable mortality is the difference between the actual deaths in a country and the deaths expected for a peaceful, decently-run country with the same demographics.
       The post-1950 avoidable mortality has been 1.3-billion for the world, 1-billion for the Third World and 0.5-billion for the Muslim World, a Muslim Holocaust 100 times greater than the Jewish Holocaust or the contemporaneous but 'forgotten' Bengal Famine in British-ruled India.
       These figures are horrendous and demand some kind of corroboration. To achieve this I have independently calculated the post-1950 under-5 infant mortality for every country in the world. The post-1950 under-5 infant mortality has totalled about 0.9-billion for the world, 0.8-billion for the non-European World and 0.4-billion for the Muslim World. One can calculate from United Nations demographic data that about 90% of the non-European under-5 infant mortality has been potentially avoidable.
       When considered country by country, the horrendous post-1950 'avoidable mortality' and 'under-5 infant mortality' correlate with impositions of First World countries (principally the UK, US, France, Portugal and Russia) that have variously included colonial occupation, neo-colonial hegemony, economic exclusion, economic constraint, malignant interference, corrupt client regimes, militarisation, debt, civil war and international war.
       Time does not permit a detailed analysis here of avoidable global mortality. However I have written widely on this matter and a Google search for 'Gideon Polya' will allow ready access to this information.
       For example, the post-1950 infant mortality in Asian and Pacific countries in which Australia has been involved militarily in that period totals 34-million.
       Australia is involved militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it is important to assess the human cost of the US-led intervention in these countries. However, when questioned at a recent Senate Estimates Committee hearing, both a Minister and a top Intelligence Chief denied knowledge of such information.
       The top ABC journalist, Tony Eastley, concluded: 'The Australian Government has admitted it doesn't know how many civilians have died in the Iraq war, and neither it, nor US authorities, are trying to find out.'
       Indeed US authorities have repeatedly stated that they do not keep records of civilian casualties. However as with the children overboard, the weapons of mass destruction and the torture of Iraqi prisoners, the truth eventually emerges.
       The latest UNICEF report in 2005 estimates that for the year 2003 the under-5 infant mortality was 110,000 in occupied Iraq, 292,000 in occupied Afghanistan and 1,000 in the invading and occupying country Australia (noting that these countries have populations of about 25-million, 24-million and 20-million respectively).
       Using publicly available United Nations and medical literature data one can readily calculate that there have been about 0.4-million avoidable deaths in post-invasion Iraq.
       In 1991 the UK recommenced military action against Iraq that had kicked off in 1914. In 2003 the US, UK and Australia illegally invaded and conquered Iraq. I have calculated that the under-5 infant mortality was 1.2-million for Iraq since 1991; 0.2-million for Iraq since the 2003 invasion; and 0.9-million for Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.
       US military technologies and strategies minimise politically unpopular military casualties at the expense of civilian deaths in US-invaded countries. There have been about 1,000 US combat deaths in post-invasion Iraq and Afghanistan and one can accordingly calculate that the ratio of avoidable, post-invasion under-5 infant deaths to US combat deaths has been about 1,000 to 1.
       The US, UK and Australia are clearly complicit in horrendous avoidable mortality and infant mortality in a swathe of invaded Asian countries in the post-1950 era. This now raises the philosophic issue of responsibility.
       The occupying ruler is responsible for the ruled, (noting 'occupation' includes military, economic and political hegemony and rule by client indigenous regimes). Further, whether an adult or child is killed violently or dies non-violently from deprivation or avoidable disease, the end result is the same and the culpability the same.
       In 2004 the estimated per capita medical expenditure was only $US37 in occupied Iraq, but $US3,100 in the invading and occupying country, Australia. This roughly one-hundredfold difference in per capita medical expenditure is reflected in a one-hundredfold difference in under-5 infant mortality. The provision of grossly inappropriate medical assistance in occupied Iraq at only about 1% of the per capita level in the occupying Coalition countries is criminal and genocidal.
       Professor Peter Singer, formerly at Monash University Melbourne, and now Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University in the US, has been widely acclaimed as the most influential living philosopher.
       Professor Singer has generated enormous controversy over his advocacy of 'active', painless, non-voluntary euthanasia for severely disabled infants. However his comments over 'passive euthanasia' are relevant to 'passive genocide' by the Coalition in Iraq. 'Doctors who deliberately leave a baby to die when they have the awareness, the ability, and the opportunity to save the baby's life, are just as morally responsible for the death as they would be if they had brought it about by a deliberate positive action.'
       Professor Peter Singer has further stated the following moral generality 'We are responsible not only for what we do but also for what we could have prevented … We could consider the consequences of what we do and what we decide not to do.'
       Jihadist violence has taken roughly about 5,000 Western civilian lives over the last 20 years, with most of the victims dying on 9/11 (about 3,000) and the remainder including murdered Israeli civilians and the victims of atrocities such as Madrid, Lockerbie and Bali.
       However this jihadist violence has had immensely bloodier consequences through the hysterically and dishonestly promoted War on Terror that has been associated with post-invasion avoidable deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan alone that total 1.6-million.
       The War on Terror has substantially helped to produce a post-9/11 extra profit for the US military-industrial complex of about $US500-billion. The annual World death toll from car accidents and smoking-related causes is about 1-million and 5-million respectively. One can see why there is no War on Cars nor a War on Cigarettes.
       To conclude, rubbing out the facts prevents rational, scientific solutions to major problems, including avoidable mass mortality. My solution to the continuing global mass mortality holocaust can be summarised by the acronym CAAAA: Cessation of the violence and the lying; Acknowledgement of the human cost: Apology for First World complicity in continuing Third World mass mortality; Amends by aid, debt relief and economic decency; and Assertion that this holocaust will stop and never be repeated.
       Silence kills. Silence is complicity. Please inform everyone, discuss this with your associates and then act as responsible citizens. We cannot walk by on the other side.
       Robyn Williams: That entreaty from Gideon Polya, who was until recently Associate Professor of Biochemistry at one of our universities in Melbourne.
       Next week, if you are sent away as part of the Australian Army in, say Afghanistan or maybe East Timor, what's in your kit for breakfast, lunch or dinner? Chris Forbes Ewan in Launceston presents a menu for your delectation.
       I'm Robyn Williams.
    Guest on this program:
       Dr Gideon Polya, Author and Former Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Melbourne
       Presenter: Robyn Williams
       Producer: Brigitte Seega #

    [Robyn Williams on ABC Radio National: The Science Show: Saturday Midday, rpt Monday 7pm. Ockham’s Razor: Sunday 8.45am, rpt Wednesday 9.45pm. In Conversation: Thursday 7.40pm.]
    [Aug 28, 05]
    • Al-Qaida claims London bombing.

    Al-Qaida claims London bombing

       Aljazeera Arabic TV, http://english. aljazeera.net/ NR/exeres/B22D0 ADF-D0EB-4DC0-9C6E- 7671F19CD589.htm , By Lawrence Smallman, 23:37 Makka Time, 20:37 GMT, Thursday 01 September 2005,
       Aljazeera has aired a clip from an al-Qaida video in which one of the London bombers explains his reasons for the July attacks on the British capital.
       Al-Qaida's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, also appeared on the video on Thursday, promising similar attacks in the future.
    [Picture] Muhammad Sadiq Khan said Westerners should not feel safe.
       London bomber Muhammad Sadiq Khan, a 30-year-old British national from West Yorkshire, said responsibility for the attacks on European and US cities fell squarely on the shoulders of the West.
       He explained the West was backing governments that were carrying out crimes against humanity.
       "Your [the West's] democratically elected governments continue to perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world.
       "Your support for them makes you directly responsible ... until we feel security, you will be our targets. Until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people, we will not stop."
       In four bombings on the London transport system on 7 July, 56 people were killed. London police believe Khan was the leader of the suicide bombers.
    Slap for Blair
       Al-Zawahiri also spoke at some length on the reasons for the London attacks, and described them as "a slap to the policy of British Prime Minister Tony Blair".
       "And just as Blair makes light of the blood of our brothers in Chechnya, Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, so he also makes light of your blood too when he drew you into this war in Iraq."
       The al-Qaida deputy characterised the blasts as a response to UK foreign policy "just as 9/11 was a response to America's".
       Further, al-Zawahiri promised similar operations in "enemy territory" in the near future, particularly Europe - because it had ignored an offer of truce from al-Qaida's leader, Osama bin Ladin.
       The deputy commander also directly addressed Muslim scholars in the West who condemned al-Qaida's attacks, asking them why they did not protest so loudly when "a million people starved in Iraq and when warplanes dropped bombs on innocent communities in Afghanistan ... and when Crusader forces bombed women and children in Falluja?"
       Neither the British Metropolitan police force, not London's Foreign Office were prepared to comment on the video, though both said they were aware it had been broadcast.
    July blasts
       Khan, along with two other young British Muslims of Pakistani origin and a fourth Jamaican-born Briton, blew themselves up on three underground trains and a bus in London on 7 July.
       Khan visited Pakistan along with another of the bombers last year, where religious schools have been under scrutiny after some were accused of breeding extremism.
       Pakistani security forces have also been searching for members of al-Qaida in remote areas of the country recently.
       London's police chief Ian Blair said the bombings bore all the hallmarks of an al-Qaida operation as it was a multiple coordinated attack on a city's transport system.
    Previous al-Qaida message
       Last December, in a similar broadcast made by Aljazeera, bin Ladin called for a boycott of Iraq's elections and endorsed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as his deputy in the country.
    [Picture] Al-Zawahiri vowed 'more attacks in enemy territory in near future'..
       The audio message condemned the 30 January elections to elect a national assembly that drafted the new constitution.
       "In the balance of Islam, this constitution is infidel and therefore everyone who participates in this election will be considered an infidel," he said.
       "Beware of henchmen who speak in the name of Islamic parties and groups who urge people to participate" in the election.
       He also described al-Zarqawi as the "amir" of al-Qaida in Iraq and called upon Muslims there "to listen to him".
       Bin Ladin had added that his al-Zarqawi announcement was "a great step on the path of unifying all the mujahidin in establishing the state of righteousness and ending the state of injustice". #
    [Sep 01, 05]

    • Jakarta Cardinal calls on police to protect churches from attacks

      Indonesia flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       CathNews (from Church Resources, Australia), www.cathnews.com/news/509/39.php , Sep 7, 2005
       JAKARTA, Indonesia: Cardinal Julius Darmaatmadja, Archbishop of Jakarta, yesterday visited Indonesian Police Chief General Sutanto, to demand that the security forces protect every faith group in case of new attacks by religious extremists.
       AsiaNews reports that Cardinal Darmaatmadja was accompanied by Kiai Haj Hasyim Muzadi, chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim organisation in the country, and Rev Andreas Yewangoe, chairman of the Indonesian (Protestant) Synod of Churches.
       After the meeting, Cardinal Darmaatmadja said that whatever problem may exist between religious denominations should be dealt with peacefully.
       "The problem should not be kept alive by the violence of illegal groups," he said.
       Kiai Muzadi further reiterated that the police must intervene whenever Muslim fundamentalists try to forcibly close down churches. "They should not take the law into their own hands," he said. Instead, the "police should assist in clearing up any problems. Dialogue is a more appropriate way."
       The move by the three religious leaders comes after a statement by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in which he pledged his government's resolve to guarantee religious freedom.
       In the statement released on Sunday, the President called on the national police to prevent any acts of violence against any religious denomination.
       Mr Susilo also ordered Minister for Religious Affairs Haj Maftuh Basyuni and local leaders to quickly find a solution to the violence in Bandung (West Java).
       With the backing of former President Abdurrahman Wahid (aka Gus Dur), thousands of Christians demonstrated in Jakarta on Saturday against the closure of 23 churches in the aforementioned province by the Islamic Defender Front (IDF), an Islamic fundamentalist group.
       IDF chairman Habieb Rizieq retorted that none of the buildings shut down were churches but houses where religious services and prayers were organised without a permit.
       Mr Rizieq recently received Fr Franz Magnis-Suseno, a Jesuit priest and peace activist and Reverend Sairin.
       During the meeting, Mr Rizieq expressed his group's willingness to "prevent any attack against legal churches as long as they stay legal".
       SOURCE: Cardinal of Jakarta calls on police to protect churches from attacks by fundamentalists (AsiaNews.it 6/9/05)
       MORE STORIES:
    Three Christian women jailed for "proselytising' (AsiaNews.it 6/9/05)
    Indonesian Muslim Assails Forced Closure of Churches (Zenit 4/9/05)
      HAVE YOUR SAY   Click here    [Sep 7, 05]

    • Sharia proposal spurs protests

      Canada flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Netherlands (Holland) flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  European Union (EU) flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The West Australian, p 28, Friday, September 9, 2005
       TORONTO -- Protesters were expected yesterday in cities from Amsterdam to Toronto because of a proposal that would allow Islamic law to be used in Ontario to settle civil and marital disputes.
       The Canadian province would become the first Western jurisdiction to allow Muslims to use sharia if the Ontario Government followed recommendations by former Ontario attorney-general Marion Boyd.
       She has recommended that Ontario allow Muslims to establish sharia-based tribunals similar to Jewish and Catholic arbitration bodies that have operated there since 1991. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty offered no clues this week on whether the province would act on her report, which was delivered in December.
       Opponents of sharia say it discriminates against women. Almost 100 organisations have banded together to oppose the proposal and were to march in six European cities and at least five in Canada yesterday. # [Bolding added]
       [COMMENT: Marion Boyd seems to be one of the "trendies" who are willing to drag modern humanity back to primitive traditions, in vain attempts to adopt multiculturalism even at the risk of human rights. COMMENT ENDS.]
       [DOCTRINE:
       Surah 2 "The Cow", aya 282 -- O ye who believe! when ye contract a debt ... call to witness two witnesses ... but if there not be two men, let there be a man, and two women of those whom ye shall judge fit for witnesses ... -- (J.M.Rodwell's translation, pp 30-31, The Koran, 2001 - originally 1909 - , Phoenix Press, London.)  www.usc.edu/ dept/MSA/ quran/002. qmt.html #002.282) .
       Surah 4 "Women", aya 3 -- ... marry but two or three or four ... -- (Rodwell's translation, p 49.)
       4:12 -- With regard to your children, God commandeth you to give the male the portion of two females ... (Rodwell's, p 50)
       4:19 -- If any of your women be guilty of whoredom, then bring four witnesses against them from among yourselves ... shut them up within their houses till death release them ... (Rodwell's, p 51)
       4:38 -- Men are superior to women ... chide those for whose refractoriness ye have cause to fear ... and scourge them ... God is High, Great! (Rodwell's, p 53) DOCTRINE ENDS.] [Sep 9, 05]

    • [Pro-terrorist imam Bakri cost £250,000 so far, now plans terror school] Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The International Express (Britain), West Australian edition, "Hate cleric's vow for a school for UK fanatics," p 6, Tuesday, September 13, 2005
    6       INTERNATIONAL EXPRESS       Tuesday September 13, 2005

    Hate cleric's vow for a school for UK fanatics

    LONDON: BANNED cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed has vowed to set up a training camp for British Muslims in his first repulsive rant since fleeing the UK
       The extremist, who backs terror attacks, wants to teach British Muslims his perverse brand of Islam before sending them home from Beirut as "ambassadors".
       The pledge sparked widespread condemnation last night and demands for the Government to crack down on anyone who takes up his offer and even bar them from the UK.
       Shadow homeland security minister Patrick Mercer said: "I very much resent Omar Bakri carrying on his stream of abuse towards this country and the idea of youngsters going to him to be instructed, I find both laughable and worrying. Were this ever to happen the Government has a duty not only to monitor individuals on these courses but also to question whether they should be allowed back in the country to continue Omar Bakri's stream of hatred."
    [Picture] EVIL ON THE RUN: Bakri in Beirut
       Bakri, dubbed the Tottenham Ayatollah, was finally banned from the UK last month by Home Secretary Charles Clarke who used existing powers to exclude the 46-year-old, confirming his presence was "not conducive to the public good". During almost 20 years living off UK benefits, Bakri was responsible for a stream of hate-filled rants against the country and its leaders.
       He has also described the 9/11 terrorists as "magnificent", claiming the voices of dead terrorists were calling young Britons to fight. Declaring Britain a "land of war" he urged Muslims to join Jihad "wherever you are".
       And last week he vowed: "I am going to open a school for teaching Arabic English to foreigners who come from Britain to study Arabic English in Beirut. I would like, myself, to see most of the Muslims join me here in Beirut, study Arabic English, study religion and after that become the best ambassadors back home when they go back to Britain."
       Inayat Bungawala, of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, said: "This proposal would be welcome if it was coming from someone who was sane but at the hands of Omar Bakri with his background of provocative rants against our country and our people here in the UK, this must be naturally a cause for concern." He added: "If any British Muslim is duped into attending this man's programme that would be of immense worry to us."
       Shadow home secretary David Davis added: "It is vital that the Government does all it can to make sure young British Muslims are not exposed to extremist teaching. This is why, for example, we urge the Government to ensure Imams [Muslim clerics] are trained in Britain."
       Syrian-born Bakri fled to Lebanon last month when he feared he could face treason charges for his views. Syria has made a request to the Lebanese to extradite him there.
       Bakri's Lebanese wife and seven children still live in the UK and enjoy £300 a week in State benefits. The family, who live in north London, have received more than £250,000 in unemployment, child and disability handouts since arriving in 1986.#

       [COMMENT: The Conservatives, who at times presided over the influx of millions of non-British immigrants, didn't set such rules about training Muslim clerics in place when they were in Government. Funny how wise they are now! Did Mr Davis or his ilk condemn Tories of past decades who opposed the policies? COMMENT ENDS.]
       [NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL: And see the Editorial on p 10. ENDS.] [Sep 13, 05]

    • [Britain's open-door heading towards Britons in minority] Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The International Express (Britain), West Australian edition, "Migration map shows how UK is changing," p 14, Tuesday, September 13, 2005 LONDON: Rising numbers are putting a strain on the country's services. A quarter of the population in the nation's capital is now made up of immigrants and in at least one area they account for more than half. ...
       Between the 1991 and 2001 Census, the increase of 1,147,905 accounted for half the rise in the total British population over that period. And at least another 600,000 have moved to the UK in the past four years, based on the Government's own estimate that 150,000 are arriving annually. ...
    14       INTERNATIONAL EXPRESS       Tuesday September 13, 2005

    Migration map shows how UK is changing

    LONDON: BRITAIN'S open door on immigration means one in 13 people living in the UK was born overseas and more than a million migrants have swelled the population in just a decade.
       A quarter of the population in the nation's capital is now made up of immigrants and in at least one area they account for more than half.
       New research also revealed huge differences in the migrants' contribution to Britain's economy with some groups showing appalling employment rates.
       Critics have warned that rising numbers are putting a strain on the country's services and accused Labour of running an immigration system in chaos.
       Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "While a certain amount of immigration may help the economy, it must be controlled. Sadly, in Britain, Labour has lost control of the immigration system which has descended into shambles."
       The extensive study by the Institute of Public Policy Research, which shows where migrants are based, said the immigration population grew from 3,153,375 to 4,301,280 between the 1991 and 2001 Census.
       The increase of 1,147,905 accounted for half the rise in the total British population over that period. And at least another 600,000 have moved to the UK in the past four years, based on the Government's own estimate that 150,000 are arriving annually.
       The figures come just a week after pressure group MigrationWatch UK claimed the immigrant population had increased by 1.2million since Labour came to power in 1997 - enough to fill two large cities. #

       [COMMENT: London's imbalance is well past the figure which would support a successful coup, as is Washington in the USA. COMMENT ENDS.] [Sep 13, 05]

    • [Letters exposing policies on attacking Iraq, clerics preaching against whites, and the European Union]


       The International Express (Britain), West Australian edition, from "Letters", p 36, Tuesday, September 13, 2005
    Other duties. POLICE in New Orleans and Biloxi had to stop their rescue efforts to concentrate on the looters. Whatever happened to the National Guard? Far too late on the scene. I always thought their prime objective was care and safekeeping of the local populace. I wonder how many lives have been lost because so many National Guardsmen are getting shot up in Iraq to keep Bush's oil buddies happy and Halliburton making billions in profits out of our taxes. Isn't it about time all those politicians began to get some backbone and remove this person from the White House? A very sad day for this country. Owen Clarke, Des Moines, Washington, USA
    PC disease. AFTER reading Neil Clark's article "Was life really better in the 1940s" (September 6), I suggest most Britons look back nostalgically to that time not only because they were the greatest generation, but also because they would never have allowed the disease called political correctness to corrupt their country. This process has been going on for the last 30 or so years and now native Britons appear to feel like strangers in their own country! Unfortunately, as we in Australia follow British law, what has happened in the UK is beginning to happen here with Muslim clerics, living off our generous welfare system, preaching hatred towards white Australians and demanding we follow Islamic law. Michael Monroe, Perth, Western Australia
    Changed Ken. I OWE Ken Clarke an apology ("Has Ken Clarke got the Winston factor?" September 6). Years ago, in your columns, I lambasted him for his pro-Europe views and expressed the hope that he would be thrown out at the next election. It seems to me that at the time he supported the ideals upon which the EU was founded - which, after all, was a valid point of view. Years later, having seen what a rotten, corrupt monster it has become, he has altered his stance. Thus, he is in my book a man of honour and a statesman. I have the exciting feeling that here at last is a worthy successor to Winston Churchill. John C Tysoe, Cheltenham, Ontario, Canada
       Write to: intexletters@aol.com . [Sep 13, 05]

    • [Forced marriages, 'honour' killings, ramping up immigration and culture change -- law may slow 250 p.a.]

      Britain and Northern Ireland, United Kingdom of, flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Pakistan flag; Mooney's MiniFlags  Bangladesh flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The International Express (Britain), West Australian edition, "New law to end hell of forced marriages,", p 41, Tuesday, September 13, 2005
       LONDON: PARENTS who force children into arranged marriages could face criminal charges under proposals unveiled by the Government.
      Thousands of Britons are believed to be coerced into marriages abroad every year so their "spouses" can move to the UK.
       But ministers will announce plans to create a criminal offence of forcing people into wedlock. Shadow home secretary David Davis welcomed the move, saying: "Forced marriages cause misery. The principles of personal freedom must prevail."
       A three-month joint consultation by the Home Office and Foreign Office will determine the best way to tackle the growing menace. Government officials have dealt with 1,000 cases in the past four years and police forces around the country deal with many more.
       It is seen as a major cause of so-called "honour" violence among some ethnic cultures, and the majority of cases involve girls and young women forced into marriage in Pakistan and Bangladesh. # [Sep 13, 05]

    • [Multiculturalism, Muslim headscarfs in schools, and India]


       The West Australian, "In short," Various letters on multiculturalism and Islam, p 22, Thursday, September 15, 2005
       PERTH (W. Australia):
    Country towns, overseas immigrants. Country towns which are struggling to survive will come good in a few years. The cities, like Perth, are full of overseas immigrants. It will be a relief to go to the country and feel like an Aussie. Edna Hocking, Cottesloe.
    French banned all religions' paraphernalia in public schools. Kate Hilgendorf (Letters, 14/9), nobody has suggested that Muslim girls be prevented from wearing headscarfs in public. The proposal was for a ban on headscarfs in government schools. Last year the French Government banned the wearing of any religious paraphernalia in government schools. Bob Stephen, Hillarys.
    No others hid face or identity. A number of correspondents have been likening the headscarfs worn by Muslim women to items worn by other faiths. Examples cited have included the so-called Jewish skullcaps, a priest's dog collar and even the wearing of a cross. None of the items they have used as "overt signs of one's faith" hides the wearer's face or identity. Ross Hawes, Clarkson.
    Strong faith prevents take-over. I have been reading the letters from people concerned about Muslims taking over Australia. For hundreds of years Muslims tried to take over India and it never happened Why? Because the Hindu faith is very strong. It is the same with the Jews in Israel and the Buddhists in Thailand. Islam can dominate only where there is a weakness in tie faith of a society. Maureen Haynes, High Wycombe.
       [COMMENT: The last letter shows lack of historical knowledge. The Muslims dominated India for a long time. The Mogul empire that had begun to fragment, and that various European traders and raiders gradually weakened and the British finally overthrew, was led by Muslims, seemingly of a tolerant nature. COMMENT ENDS.] [Sep 15, 05]

    • A Critical Analysis of ‘Real Islam’. Its People, Culture, Philosophy, and Practices Yesterday and Today.


       Islam Undressed website, http://www. islamundressed. com , by: Vernon Richards, Islam_ Undressed@ yahoo.com , Sept 19, 2005
       [...] Following September 11th, many Muslims living in the West defended Islam, stating that it is a religion of peace. At the same time there were many other Muslims in Islamic lands, and even some in America (living in predominately Muslim communities as well as Muslim students on American campuses) who openly celebrated the deaths and destruction. Many throughout the Islamic world were observed rejoicing and calling for the continuing destruction of America chanting "Death to America", and "America is the Great Satan". Huge numbers openly or quietly rejoiced, with the absence of sincere and coherent outrage palpable. In the West, Muslim spokesmen were much more muted; some proclaimed that "the Muslim terrorists have hijacked our faith" and that real Islam is a kind, tolerant religion not associated with terrorist individuals or events. A claim oft repeated in defense of Islam was that "Islam' is a word which literally means 'Peace'". In response it was pointed out that the Arabic word for peace is salaam, and that Islam is Arabic for surrender or submission, quite a different concept than peace, and that even Muslim means one who submits. Now the official line from Islam is that "Islam means Peace through submission to Allah's will", but the opposite camp points out that the newly created definition is illusory in that it does not mention what 'Allah's will' is with respect to Jihad and its role in the advancement of Islam. [...]
       [The mini-book goes through from the earliest days of Mohammed and the beginning of Islam, showing the killings and conquests, into current times.] [Sept 19, 2005]

    • Tales of abuse at Pakistan's Islamic schools come to light

    . - Islam / Moslems. > 500 boys. Pakistan flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       Houston Chronicle, www.chron.com/ cs/CDA/ssistory. mpl/world/3357477 , By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press, ~ September 18, 2005
       ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - The accounts are disturbing: beatings, forced sex and imprisonment with shackles and leg irons. Abuse accusations from hundreds of children sent to study at Islamic schools are increasing the calls from parents and rights groups for a full-scale investigation.
       But officials have moved slowly and cautiously in probing the charges of mistreatment in Quranic schools, or madrassas - pointing to a paradox across much of the Muslim world. It's often easier to tackle Islamic militants than to confront the cultural taboo on publicly airing alleged sex crimes and challenging influential clerics.
       Still, if Islamic institutions ever face a reckoning over sexual abuse - as the Roman Catholic Church has in recent years - it could begin in Pakistan where institutions are under unprecedented scrutiny by anti-terrorism agents.
       "We are forcing people to look this problem in the eye," said Zia Ahmed Awan, whose group Madadgaar, or Helper, compiles reports of sexual abuse of children in Pakistan. "It is not anti-Muslim. It is not anti-cleric. We are looking out for the most vulnerable in society."
       Last year, a Pakistani official stunned his nation by officially disclosing more than 500 complaints of sexual assaults against young boys in madrassas. [~ Sep 18, 05]

    • ['Apart from the Kurdistan area, Iraq is in a state of total anarchy and chaos' - Robert Fisk]

    - 50,000 - 60,000 dead a year now. Iraq / Irak flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       Democracy Now!, Partial transcript -- Robert Fisk: War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit", www.democracy now.org/article. pl?sid=05/10/ 20/1411211 , Amy Goodman interviewed Robert Fisk, September 21, 2005.
       We play an interview with veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk of the London Independent, speaking last month in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fisk says, "The Americans must leave [Iraq]. And the Americans will leave but the Americans can't leave. And that's the equation that turns sand into blood. Once you become an occupying power, you take on the responsibilities for the civilians, which we have not done. But you also have a responsibility to yourself. You have to keep justifying, over and over and over again to your own populations, you were right to do it." [includes partial transcript]
       Veteran Middle East correspondent, Robert Fisk of the London Independent discusses Iraq, the media and what gives him hope. During the thirty years that he has been reporting on the Middle East, Fisk has covered every major event in the region, from the Algerian Civil War to the Iranian Revolution, from the American hostage crisis in Beirut to the Iran-Iraq War, from the Russian invasion of Afghanistan to Israel's invasions of Lebanon, from the Gulf War to the invasion and ongoing war in Iraq.
       Amy Goodman interviewed Robert Fisk in Santa Fe, New Mexico last month at an event sponsored by the Lannan Foundation. He was in a studio in Toronto, Canada and was brought in by satellite into a packed Lensic Theater on a huge screen. Fisk is author of the new book, "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East." * Robert Fisk, speaking in Santa Fe, New Mexico, September 21, 2005.
       SANTA FE, New Mexico, USA: RUSH TRANSCRIPT
       AMY GOODMAN: I asked him his assessment of the current situation there and what needs to be done.
       ROBERT FISK: Three days after the Americans came to Baghdad, I said the real story is about to begin and that is the story of war against American occupation. A lot of my colleagues thought that was very, very funny -- they hooted at me with laughter. But they're not anymore. Look, apart from the Kurdistan area, Iraq is in a state of total anarchy and chaos. No roads are safe outside Baghdad. Much of Baghdad is in insurgents' hands. Only the little green zones, the armored hotel areas where the westerners live and swim, and some cases don't even leave their rooms, and that applies to many journalists, only here are people allowed to have the illusion that things are getting better, things are improving. Outside in the streets where some journalists still go, including, for example, my colleague Patrick Cockburn of the Independent and myself and the Guardian Newspaper, not most Americans though one or two. Out in the streets where few of us go is hell on Earth.
       I managed to get, a couple of weeks ago, to the mortuary in the city of Baghdad. As I often go in the past, counting the bodies of midday and midsummer out in the heat. There were 26 by midday. Nine had arrived by nine in the morning. I managed to get the official figures for July for the total number of violent deaths in Baghdad alone. The figure was 1,100 violent deaths, men, women and children. Shot, butchered, knifed, executed, death squad killings. A figure which, of course is not given out by the Iraqi Health Ministry and certainly not by the occupational authorities.
       We now have a situation in Iraq where there is a full scale insurgency by both the Shiites and the Sunnis against western forces. Once an insurgency of that kind starts in a Muslim country, it is impossible to quench it. Sorry, you guys can we put the book back? Let's start again, we got it wrong at one point. You can't do that. You can't do that. I was discussing with an Iraqi friend three weeks ago in Baghdad what he thought the answer was. He said, There is no answer. You've got to go. You've got to go. I wrote at the time that I thought it was a terrible equation in Iraq. It goes like this. The Americans must leave. And the Americans will leave but the Americans can't leave. And that's the equation that turns sand into blood.
       Once you become an occupying power you take upon the responsibilities for the civilians which we have not done but you also have a responsibility to yourself. You have to keep justifying over and over and over again to your own populations. You were right to do it: ok, there were no weapons of mass destruction but we got rid of Saddam; ok, we haven't gotten the electricity yet but there will be a constitution. Well, we hope. And we did have elections. Remember them in January? And all the time people die in ever greater numbers. Remember that figure for July, that's just Baghdad. What does that mean for the whole country? 5,000 dead? In July? What does that mean in the whole of Iraq in a year? You see the problem? We're talking a 50,000, 60,000 dead a year now. The worst figure we've heard is 100,000 since 2003 yet still we don't get statistics. When individual journalists have to go to hospital mortuaries and count the bloated corpses on the floor, you know you've got problems.
       The last time I was in Baghdad I began to ask myself whether the dangers -- and I've never done this on any other war except for the Algerian war which was very similar in many ways, questioning whether the dangers of covering Iraq are any longer worth the story. I suppose I think they are. But I guess having looked at my face in the mirror occasionally and seeing the gray hairs, I wonder if I should keep going. I probably will, but I'm not sure.
       AMY GOODMAN: Robert, what about the number of journalists who have died? This weekend there's going to be a major anti-war protest in Washington, on the 24th, and all over the country. One of the people or two of the people who will be there are the mother and brother of Jose Couso, who is the Spanish cameraman killed at the Palestine Hotel, the day before the U.S. Forces pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Fardus Square.
       ROBERT FISK: No, it was the same day. It was the same day. The same day. It was the first armored division tank. It was the American tank that killed him absolutely, but it was the same day.
       AMY GOODMAN: Now, he is one of scores of people, of journalists who have died most recently. Reuters photographer killed, his colleague arrested by U.S. Forces and held, another is being held at the Abu Ghraib prison. Dozens of journalists. What about your colleagues in Iraq right now?
       ROBERT FISK: The total figure of journalists who have died during and after the 2003 invasion up to date is now 68. The most recent being an Iraqi stringer again from The New York Times in Basra who was found dumped in a waste heap, executed with three bullets through the back of his head. I suspect the Iraqi police killed him like I suspect the Iraqi police killed the American journalist in Basra. Look, there's no doubt it's becoming the most dangerous story for journalists anywhere ever.
       If you want to look at the worst period it would be in Bosnia in 1992 when a lot of journalists who had never been in wars before were sent in to Bosnia and were dying at the rate of dozens a month. That was primarily, I think, because they were sending in very young men whose experience of war was Hollywood where the hero, of course, always survives. And what is shocking about this is that almost all the journalists are being killed, almost without exception in Iraq, are experienced in many cases, middle-aged guys who have been under fire many times before, who know about the lethality of weapons and whose jobs and lives are simply no longer respected. I've never been in a war like Iraq war in which our lives are so endangered, so targeted by all sides it sometimes seems. And I'm not sure what we can do about it.
       The American correspondents, some of them are guarded by armed Iraqis. The New York Times has a compound with four watch towers and armed Iraqis with NYT New York Times on their black t-shirts. NBC lives in a hotel in the Karada District with iron grills. The A.P. lives in the Palestine Hotel with two armored walls. Very rarely do they ever venture out and never do the American staffers go in the streets. As I say, we still go out with Iraqi friends. We actually go out to lunch in restaurants in Iraq. But I think that's probably because as long as we're with Iraqis and we look at our watch and say, 20 minutes, finish the meal, half an hour, got to be out. You're ok but it's a calculated risk.
       As I said, I'm not sure the risks are worth it any more. Our lives are worth nothing to the insurgents. Our lives appear to be worth virtually nothing to the Americans or the British. I think that when you reach a stage where our lives and our jobs are simply no longer respected, you do have to ask the question, is it worth it anymore.
       I think it is because I think Iraq is an appalling tragedy. Primarily for Iraqis, of course, who we don't put at the top of our list. We say 1,900 Americans, 93 Brits or whatever it may be. It's the Iraqis doing the suffering and the dying in fast numbers. Many of them because they trusted us and took our shilling and wanted to work for the police or wanted to work for construction companies building landing strips for the Americans or fortresses for the Americans.
       But I think the whole Iraqi story for us as journalists is becoming almost impossible to cover. Certainly if you have a journalist who lives behind two armored walls of the hotel who just used a mobile phone to call British or American diplomats behind another concrete wall, you might as well live in County Mayo, Ireland or Santa Fe, New Mexico. There's no point in being there.
       And for example, the last trip I made outside Baghdad it took me two weeks to arrange it to go down to Najaf. It was the most fearful trip. I drove the road with three Iraqi friends. One of them a Shiite proleter, a clergyman, a religious man. All the checkpoints of the Iraqi army had been abandoned. This just after George Bush says the Iraqi army is in the field. There were up-turned Iraqi police cars, burned-out American vehicles. I didn't see a member of the Security Forces until I reached the outskirts of Najaf about 80 miles from Iraq.
       The whole of the countryside outside Baghdad is under the control, is now the property of the armed insurgents both Sunni and Shia. This, we are not being told. This, president Bush will not acknowledge. This, our own dear Mr. Blair will not acknowledge. And that is part of the tragedy. And it seems now to be part of our life that New Orleans flooding is not real until it's real, that the collapse of Iraq is not real until it's real.
       With such poor television coverage, although we did get good pictures I noticed, of the British soldiers on fire, for heavens sakes in their armored vehicles. I don't know if it's possible to explain what is happening in Iraq anymore. Most journalists, western journalists are relying upon Iraqi stringers, Iraqi correspondents to risk their necks on the streets. And they are risking their necks and they are dying for it to bring in the news. But there are no by and large -- by and large there are no westernized, independently journalists on the streets unarmed. My newspaper does not have protection. We do not carry weapons.
       But my goodness, as I say, I don't know how long we can continue doing this. Each time Patrick and I go to Iraq it's a little bit worse. And when we look back at what it was like a year ago, which was considered appalling, we're amazed at how free we were, how easily we went grocery shopping. I still go grocery shopping-- for six minutes only. Grab the bread, push my way to the front of the queue, pay, out. You learn a lot.
       I went out to my favorite restaurant, the Ramaya, the other day to find it was no longer the Ramaya. It was now given an Islamic name and had a green neon sign. When I went inside, the menu was no longer in English, French, and Arabic. It was only Arabic. No more bottles of Lebanese red wine. It been totally Islamicized. You need to see this and understand it. But the problem is most of our colleagues are not permitted even by their head offices to do that.
       AMY GOODMAN: Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk of Britain's Independent newspaper. [Break] (by courtesy of Michael P) [Sep 21, 05]

     • Iraqi bishops concerned 

      Iraq / Irak flag; Mooney's MiniFlags 
       The Record (Western Australian Roman Catholic newspaper), CNS, p 9, September 22, 2005
       BAGHDAD, Iraq: Catholic bishops in Iraq are seeking last-minute changes to their country's draft constitu­tion amid "grave concerns" that it would lead to discrimination against Christians.
       Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad, Iraq, met Iraqi inter­im President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari on September 18 and asked them to remove Article 2.1 (a) from the document.
       The article states that "no law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam," and Christian leaders fear it will inevitably lead to the country being governed by Shariah, or Islamic law.
       Church leaders in Iraq are opposed to Shariah because it demands inequalities between Muslims and non-Muslims and between men and women.
       Christians say it will make them second-class citizens and spark an exodus of the faithful from a country where Christian communities have existed since the first century.
       "The bishops' conference expressed a grave concern and fear ... about Article 2.1 (a)," the statement said.
       "This opens the door widely to passing laws that are unjust toward non-Muslims. This con­ference insists that this clause is amended or deleted." The constitution will be put to a vote in a referendum on October 15.
       [RECAPITULATION: Church leaders in Iraq are opposed to Shariah because it demands inequalities between Muslims and non-Muslims and between men and women. Christians say it will make them second-class citizens ... This opens the door widely to passing laws that are unjust toward non-Muslims. ... ENDS.] [Sep 22, 05]

    ANCHOR LIST (After reading an article, use Browser's "Back" button to return to Anchor List)
    * Land Row = Greek Orthodox church mired in Jerusalem land row. JERUSALEM: The Greek Orthodox church in the holy land, already mired in financial and political scandal, has been accused of secretly selling off a prime Arab area of Jerusalem's old city to Jewish settlers. The properties were allegedly sold by the church's treasurer in Jerusalem, Nicholas Papadimas, before he disappeared when he was charged in Greece with stealing church funds in a separate case. Mar 22, 2005.
    * Muslims sound alarm over schools.  The Sunday Age has been told that Werribee College appears intent on exporting its particular brand of Islam to Indonesia, an achievement made possible by generous commonwealth and state grants – estimated to be in excess of $3 million a year. July 31, 2005
    * Torturers = "We Are All Torturers Now," By Mark Danner, New York Times, Thursday, January 6, 2005. NEW YORK: The United States senators are likely to give full legitimacy to a path that the Bush administration set the country on more than three years ago, a path that has transformed the United States from a country that condemned torture and forbade its use to one that practices torture routinely. Jan 6, 2005
    * Yasin = Sheikh Khalid Yasin (inspired by Malcolm X) - "The historical Jesus, a Prophet of Allah; Islam, the true religion". Public lectures at Winthrop Hall, UWA, Perth, March 6 and 7, 2005
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