Religious Hate:

• Arrested by Britain for inciting hatred, indicted and sought for extradition by the US, Abu Hamza al-Masri leaves no doubts about his views on suicide bombing: no squeamish equivocation, this:

  "And he wrote a will and said how much his mother she was encouraging him. And she was waiting all night and after that he went for his mission. Waiting all night, not for the news that her son had passed his A-level [British school exam] or he has got his degree, or he has married the most beautiful woman in the club, but he was shaheed [martyred] and he inflict a lot of suffering and terror in the hearts of Zionists!

  Hamza was caught on tape delivering this homily by investigative journalist Neil Doyle. Hamza’s label for these mothers? “Women of Mass Destruction”. Cute.

• Again, we are lectured on the legitimacy conferred on murder and terror by the Prophet Mohammed himself – this time the lecture comes from Magdi Ahmad Hussein, the Secretary-General of the Egyptian Labor (Islamist) Party. Interviewed on Al-Jazeera, he displays impatience with his interviewer, and with “mainstream” Muslim clerics:

  Sir, why do the government clerics ignore the killing of the prisoners during the time of the Prophet? 600-700 prisoners were killed in the raid on the Qurayza tribe.

  "Why do they conceal this? Why do they hide the fact that the Prophet gave the order to assassinate some poets – to assassinate! Not in military operations, but rather by individual assassination.

  "Why did he order the assassination of K'ab Ibn Ashraf, the Jew, leader of Khaybar ? And then he ordered the assassination of the leader who successive him. As a result, the Jews became fearful and terrified."

  For Hussein, the acts of the Prophet, disassociated from any framework of moral reasoning, justify terror as “Islamic”.

• I dare anyone to make it through to the end of this screed. The “author” of this article in the Saudi based Al Qaida journal Sawt Al- Jihad praises the beheading of an Egyptian in Iraq and calls for more. Once again, we are reminded that loyalty is commanded not by nations, or families, but by Islam alone. One word: BOR-ING. Someone should create a “jihadi rant” template for the Dada Engine so these things will just write themselves.

• A soap opera produced in Qatar, which depicts the rise and fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan has been canceled in Jordan, due to the violent threats of jihadhis. This phenomenon perhaps explains a good deal of the reticence of moderate Muslims to engage in any kind of religious or cultural criticism.

• First, a bomb was lobbed two weeks ago at the seat of the Orthodox church. Thankfully, no-one was hurt. Then the beginning of Ramadan saw the bombing of five churches around Baghdad, in what appeared to be a coordinated attack. Meanwhile, tiny Zanzibar is apparently not too small to attract the attention of Islamist extremists: last week a Roman Catholic church was burned. Nobody was hurt, but the priest is pessimistic:

  "What is sad is that there is no official condemnation of the attacks," Shiyo said. "Both the police and government officials appear reluctant to condemn attacks on Christians."

• Charles Johnson at LGF has compiled some background on Swiss-born Islamist intellectual Tariq Ramadan. Ramadan was recently denied a visa to enter the United States, but soon may be granted one. I’ll not excerpt because frankly I don’t have enough of a handle on this guy yet to do a fair summary, so I’ll just contribute this fixed link to the NYT profile on Ramadan.

Idiotarian Seethings:

• Ibrahim Nafi, edits the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram and claims to have discovered the origins of hatred. He shares these insights in his new book The Road to Madness

  Muslims do not hate the U.S. and the West without reason. They hate the West because of its attempts to marginalize, oppress, and exploit them and to give Israel power over them. Hatred is manufactured in the West. It sprouted during the Crusades, matured during the colonialist invasion, and flourished with the drive to Americanize the world. Hatred is the engine driving domination and hegemony and it is the tool used to denigrate Muslims in order to facilitate this quest.

  We’re the ones preaching jihad. We had it coming, you see.

• Holocaust denial is so five minutes ago. Welcome to Al-Qaida denial. Adam Curtis, writer and producer of the upcoming BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics, has this to say about Al-Qaida:

  The Power of Nightmares seeks to overturn much of what is widely believed about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. The latter, it argues, is not an organized international network. It does not have members or a leader. It does not have "sleeper cells". It does not have an overall strategy. In fact, it barely exists at all, except as an idea about cleansing a corrupt world through religious violence.

  So it’s a war on bad philosophy after all. According to Curtis, fear of terror is irrational. Dirty bomb? No big deal, probably won’t even kill anybody. And why are we fearful?

  In an age when all the grand ideas have lost credibility, fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain their power.

  And the promoters of the phantom enemy? The “Straussians” (read: neo-cons). Just don’t compare Curtis to Michael Moore:

  “My hope is that you won't be able to tell what my politics are.”

  Curtis certainly is full of hope. Or something. Read a review of the first installment over at Colt’s Eurabian Times.

• Two cheers for the New York Times coverage of the recent Frankfurt book fair and the “anti-Zionist” books on display:

  On the cover of one of the books, displayed by the Dar Tlass publishing house of Damascus, Syria, was a photograph of the World Trade Center exploding in flames during the 9/11 attacks. Overlaying the photo of the Twin Towers is a Star of David and a fingerprint.

  Nearby, another book showed a Star of David covering the Statue of Liberty, which held, instead of a torch, a sword that dripped blood.

  German prosecutors claimed there was insufficient evidence that the books violated German law; Shimon Samuels of the Wiesenthal Center disagreed:

  In an interview on Friday Mr. Samuels expressed outrage at the decision. "If they did a real analysis, the evidence would have been prima facie," he said. He cited a display sponsored by Horus Publications of Egypt that included one book claiming that the Koran calls for the extinction of the Jewish state by the year 2021 and includes a CD-ROM intended for schools.

  What’s with the name “Horus Publications”, anyway? Doesn’t sound too compatible with Tawhid… And what about Islamist terrorism? According to this article in Haaratz, the topic was taboo:

  Arab speakers on the dais blamed terrorism on colonialism, or on Washington's Middle East policies, or on other external factors, but certainly not on "us". That would have been painful in front of a German audience.

  Ah, the Bart Simpson strategy – not me man! Still, some of the public wasn’t buying this line – namely some of the Arabs themselves.

  Question time was a shock for an academic who is probably used to awed students. Arabs living in Germany were in the audience, and they were angry. Some wildly exaggerated in their torrent of complaint.

  "The education system in Saudi Arabia can only produce blindness, stupidity and terrorism," said one man furiously."What about the terrorism practiced by Arab regimes against their own people?" said another."You can't beat the Islamists with a security clampdown, but only with democracy," said a third.

  I’d quibble a bit with Haaretz here: Exaggerations? Maybe, but hardly “wild”… N.B.: The Arab delegation to the Frankfurt Book fair was sponsored by the Arab League.

• Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai has won the Nobel Peace Prize for her environmental activism. Her political outlook is arguably – how to say this – problematic. Some may disagree, but to me the notion that HIV is a bio-weapon invented by Western scientists to decimate black Africans is a kind of latter-day blood libel.

• Would be leader of France’s far right, Bruno Gollnisch, believes the existence of the Nazi gas chambers is a matter of legitimate debate. A senior figure of a French political party suggested that Gollnisch “only needs now to put on a hood and dress like the Ku Klux Klan.” The party in question is Gollnisch’s own, the neo fascist National Front! Looks like the actual fascists are busy fighting themselves. Faster, please.

• In Frontpage, expat playwright Carol Gould regales us with stories of vicious anti-Americanism in polite society. Perry de Havilland at Samizdata is skeptical – good discussion in the comments. Besides, there are some indications that the atmosphere is improving:

  And in London on Sunday fellow journalists publicly condemned the notorious Robert Fisk, The Independent’s Mideast correspondent. The associate editor of the (London) Times said Fisk’s coverage “masquerades as reporting but is, in fact, polemic.”

  Brilliant.

• Here’s another essay critical of virulent anti-Zionism, this time in Italy. This anti-Zionism recapitulates the classical tropes of anti-Semitism, not with the objective of criticizing the conduct of Israel within the community of nations, but to expel her from that community as illegitimate. The author, Sergio Itzhak Minerbi, uses the writings of those he is criticizing in order to advance his own ideas and historical assertions on Israel and Zionism – and please note that I’m not endorsing all of these. However the indictment of the Italian intellectuals he skewers is compelling. The ignorance and caricature of Judaism, the idea of the Shoa as a diplomatic weapon, Jews as racial supremacists, Israelis as the new Nazis, it’s all here. Is this the new anti-Semtism? If so, how does it connect to the old? Minerbi explains:

  For someone who cannot accept that the victim-era of the Jews is over, it is probably necessary to accuse the Jews of having become executioners themselves.

  [Hat tip – Rochi Ebner]

• Honest Reporting documents instances of gratuitious Israel bashing in academic journals. Even if, arguendo, these diatriblets get it half right, including them in this way in academic journals is all wrong. [Hat tip – Rochi Ebner]

Race and Culture:

• I’ve read several conjectures about the “root causes” of the Darfur conflict, but it is right and necessary to give a voice to the victims themselves. Via Instapundit comes this story where the victims of rape testify on the ethnic (as opposed to religious) motivation for the conflict:

  An immeasurable problem will be the impact of so many babies born due to rape. While the women eventually opened up about the attacks by the militias, they would not even discuss what the future holds for the children. "They want to dilute our blood," one woman said. "They hate black people."

  I’m glad the Independent published this, but consider that the Guardian (same paper) published this.

• After the Taba bombing came another terrorist act which received less publicity – a bombing at the Red Sea resort of Ras Shytan, 30 miles south of Taba. This excellent Washington Post article shows how the tragedy extends beyond the loss of human life, now that the young Israelis which frequented the area have left:

  With their departure came the end to, or at least the suspension of, a rare relationship between Arabs and Israelis in the region. Many said that scores of friendships between young Egyptians and Israelis dissolved in the ash and anguish of the blast that struck the Moon Island Resort soon after dinner on Thursday… "This was a very special place between us and them, a place to throw your mobile phone in the sea and be friends," Amin said. "Whoever did this did it because they didn't like the peace between us."

  Whatever alienation cannot be accomplished by incitement and lies is left to bombs, apparently.

• There have been anecdotal reports that Egypt hindered Israeli rescue efforts in the immediate aftermath of the recent terrorist bombing at Taba. Some Israeli officials were later conciliatory:

  It was emphasized this morning, however, that the lack of cooperation was not due to malice on the part of the Egyptians, but rather to their lack of experience and general confusion that reigned. "They are not used to this type of events," some Israeli officials said, and another added, "They are not working at the pace to which we are accustomed, but they're showing good will."

  Peraps – or perhaps this is the bitter fruit of the culture of hatred against Israelis which is promoted within Egyptian society. I doubt the absence of alacrity on the part of the Egyptians was entirely due to inexperience. [Hat tip – Rochi Ebner]

A Hopeful Note:

• MEMRI publishes excerpts of an article by the director-general of Al-Aribiya TV, Rahman Al-Rashed, writing in an Arab language London daily. It sounds like Al-Rashed “gets it”:

  "The danger of extremism threatens almost all the Arab and Islamic societies. There is no difference between the suicide attacks in Kabul, Al-Anbar, Islamabad, Riyadh, Algiers, Paris, Damascus, Tripoli, or Taba. They all embody one reality: that their perpetrators hold extremist views."

  If the Director General of Al-Arabiya can be this unequivocal in his condemnation of terrorism, why can’t the U.N.?

• The positive side of MEMRI’s roundup on the reaction of the Egyptian press to the Taba bombing: consider this from progressive columnist Mamoun Fandy in the Arabic-language London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.

  "… The TV hostess [on Al-Arabiya ] provokingly asked another sharp-witted commentator if he thought that this action should be considered a terrorist act?!... I smiled to myself when I saw this drivel and asked myself: what does she think, that this was an act of charity?! It is clear that this was an evil terrorist act, whatever the nationality of the victims, whether Jewish Israelis or Indian Buddhists. Terrorism is terrorism and the killing of peaceful vacationers is terrorism; of this there can be no doubt.

  Shockingly absolutist morality. More, please.

• One man’s comment on his vote in the recent Afghan elections:

  "I am voting for Massooda Jalal [a woman]," said Fazel Rahman, 35. "I have come here to pray. I don't care what the mullah says about politics."

  A familiar sentiment in the west; perhaps this will spread, inshallah, despite propaganda to encouraging the opposite.

• Via Jihadwatch, an amazing exchange between ex Muslim Ibn Warraq and Muslim convert Thomas Haidon, President of the New Zealand Chapter of the Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism. There’s actually good news and bad news here: good news in that a Muslim [Haidon] gives an account of his faith which is sincere, authentic, and consonant with the principles of humanism. The bad news is that he acknowledges he’s in the minority. Read the whole thing. Haidon lends support to a conjecture I’ve been developing, which is that the problematic aspects of the Islamic faith arise not so much from the Quran as from the Hadith...

Finally, in fairness, I’d have to say my impression of the media is improving as it relates to coverage of these topics. If this keeps up I will have to change my prologue – but it stays as is for now.