Religious Hate:

• The invaluable Zacht Ei has posted a translation of the five page bloody post-it note left attached by a knife to the body of Theo Van Gogh. The letter is a threat against Hirshi Ali, the Muslim apostate refusenic who wrote the script for Van Gogh’s film Submission. Hirshi Ali is now in hiding.

• Via LGF and Davids Medienkritik, evidence that the Germans are worried about Islamist violence spilling over into their country.

  With 3.4 million Muslims comprising 4 percent of Germany's population, the question was put this way by a banner headline in the conservative Bild newspaper: "Is the hate going to come here?" asked the biggest selling tabloid. The Berliner Zeitung, a left-leaning paper in the German capital where about 200,000 mainly Turkish Muslims live, claims to know the answer: "The feelings of hated against the majority Christian society are growing."

  Some public figures are taking strong stands:

  [German interior minister Otto] Schily drew headlines earlier this year with a harsh warning to Islamic fundamentalists: "If you love death so much, then it can be yours."

  Whoa there, cowboy. Then there’s this:

  Holland… now faces "the rubble" of its failed policy of tolerant multi-culturalism for which it was the European flagship during the past decades.

  Neo-con? No, an “old Europe” technocrat, who argues that Germany is better off for having enforced laws on cultural integration of Muslim immigrants. It seems the only players here who remember their lines are the clerics:

  “These Germans, these atheists, these Europeans don’t shave under their arms and their sweat collects under their hair with a revolting smell and they stink,” said the preacher at the Mevlana Mosque in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, in the film made by Germany’s ZDF public TV, adding: “Hell lives for the infidels! Down with all democracies and all democrats!”

  Funnier than Garrison Keillor, anyway (see below).

• MEMRI has translated a study of Saudi religious curricula at the Second Forum for National Dialogue, held almost a year ago. This study documents the “worst practices” of Saudi religious education. While other sources (notably Israeli) have documented these practices, it is instructive to see them enumerated and described by the Saudi’s themselves, in a forum under the imprimatur of the Crown Prince – nullifying the tactic of dismissing these charges as Zionist propaganda. Perhaps it is possible to make too much of this; disrespect for religious instruction by insufferable adults being a universal attitude among the world’s youth. But some attention is demanded:

  An example of this is the curricula's instruction to hate for the sake of religion. The curricula say: "Hate for the sake of Allah, that is, hate the others who oppose the commandments of the proper religion." The researchers state, "A declaration of enmity against those of his Companions who were lax [in their religious observance] is not among the traits of the Prophet – who [actually] was quick to forgive."

  NB: the emphasis here is that the curricula were deemed hostile to other Muslims, and this is the primary reason to reform. Complaints by non-Muslims about hostility are not seen as a reason to reform; rather reform should take place in spite of such requests. The study is quite long but worth reading in its entirety, as much for the perspective on the Saudi “reformers” as for the indictment of the Islamists.

• Anjem Choudary is a British Islamist, here interviewed by The Observer:

  Pressed on how Margaret Hassan could be a 'legitimate target' given her opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and her humanitarian work there, Choudary replied: 'She is aiding the occupying power. Even if someone gives an American or British soldier so much as a drink of water, they are backing the occupiers. If you look at the Koran, in one verse in particular it permits the seizure of hostages. Hostage-taking has been part of the Islamic tradition from the time of the Crusaders.'

  Western conservatives who advance such arguments about the Koran are often dismissed as bigots, so it is satisfying (in a dark, unattractive way) to hear the Islamists advance them. I don’t care about the “correct” exegesis of the permissibility of shooting hostages like Hassan. I care that the shooters believe that they are correct.

• More evidence that the situation for Christians in Iraq is deteriorating:

  "They say you have to cover your hair or we will kill you," [Ameera] Dawoud said by telephone from the northern city of Mosul. "If you don't wear a veil, people look at you as if you were naked."… "Things weren't like that. During last Ramadan, we used to wear what we wanted and to go out whenever we wanted," the 30-year-old Dawoud said. "Now, I'm terrified, very scared."

  How bad is it?

  Pascale Isho Warda, a Christian who is the interim government's minister for displacement and migration, has estimated as many as 15,000 out of Iraq's nearly 1 million Christians have left the country since the August attacks on churches.

  Bad, but perhaps not hopeless, and still possible to turn around. It’s legitimate to ask if this is all Islamist inspired violence:

  Bishop Moussa said some criminal groups mask their intentions in religious garb and make threats just to blackmail Christians. Others do it out of ideological stances or political beliefs.

  Perhaps, as in Nigeria, it’s the beer.

• “Christoph Luxenberg” is the pseudonym of a German scholar who has published research on the (non-divine) origins of the Koran. His reaction to the Van Gogh murder?

  "The safety of experts on Islam is topical again," he said -- in a surprisingly detached tone for the author of a critique of the Koran who fears it could one day spark similar anger.

  Why the pseudonym?

  The fate of Islamic reformers in the Arab world is sobering. In the 1990s in Egypt, the writer Faraq Foda was gunned down for criticizing fundamentalists and Cairo University professor Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid was forced to divorce his wife and flee abroad for examining the Koran in its historical context… although he originally thought he could publish under his own name, Muslim friends warned him not to. He said van Gogh’s murder "confirms how right they were"....

  Luxenberg’s book "The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran" appears in English translation next year.

• Kids these days:

  "I hate the U.S. gov't; I wish I could have been flying one of the planes on Sept. 11."

  Where could a kid get ideas like this?

  Mark Robert Walker, 19, of Rochester, N.Y., had become interested in Islam at a mosque in his hometown, said one official familiar with the case, according to the Washington Post.

  That one brainless young man would utter such a thing informs me of nothing – but Walker acted as well, and is now charged with aiding terrorists to institute Islamic government in Somalia.

• Pakistani activists caution against meaningless and symbolic “reform” measures regarding that countries blasphemy laws. Some interesting background on the persecution faced by religious minorities in Pakistan. The story is reported by a Christian evangelical organization.

Idiotarian Seethings:

• Robert Spencer on the arson against Dutch Muslim institutions in the wake of the Van Gogh murder:

  Vigilante attacks like these are always wrong.

  If only such straightforward moral clarity were more common. Spencer links to news of these attacks, and Slate has a roundup of the violence in the Netherlands. Between the utopian and naïve multiculturalism of the Left and the hateful xenophobic legacy of the Right, the need for a “third way” for Europe has never been more urgent.

• Reporting on the Van Gogh murder, The Guardian’s Jon Henley appears to blame the victim. Robert Spencer nails him in a brief Fisking which I cannot improve on:

  The centre-right Dutch government has only succeeded in fanning the flames by calling for greater integration of immigrants through language tests and citizenship classes, and recently fuelled even more controversy with plans to repatriate up to 26,000 failed asylum seekers.

  There goes the media again, turning the victim into the perpetrator and the perpetrator into the victim. The wicked Dutch fanned the flames. Is it any wonder that one of the poor immigrants snapped?

  In the midst of this tinderbox, insisting on their right to speak freely and with the support of many Dutch people, Hirsi Ali and Van Gogh scattered their sparks - a blistering critique of Islam - with magnificent disregard for the feelings they might be offending.

  Ah. Magnificent disregard for offended feelings. Old Theo had it coming, eh?Magnificent disregard for offended feelings” is something the Guardian is arguably guilty of itself, and impinging on its “insistence to speak freely” is not something it would suffer silently. Forbearance and discretion are for others, apparently. See also this Fisking of an AP story.

• It seems not every voice condemned Van Gogh’s killing:

  There was little sympathy to be found for Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh on a Danish internet forum posting by Danish Muslim pundit Omar Shah. Commenting on last Tuesday's killing of van Gogh on a closed Internet forum, Omar Shah reportedly wrote: ‘Too bad that he (van Gogh) no longer has the pleasure of practicing his perverse artwork, or rather Alhamdullilalh (Thank God).

  Then there’s this guy, who in an interview claims that “murder is normal”, a view he holds not because of his religious leaders, but in spite of them.

• There’s something not right about the European attitude towards the Palestinian Authority. Charles Johnson links to a pair of stories which illustrate part of the problem:

  The EU presidency is “very satisfied with the tranquil and peaceful temporary transfer of power,” Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot told reporters in The Hague.

  Of course a shootout between security forces leaving two dead would not be considered “tranquil” in any western country. What Minister Bot is guilty of here is the soft bigotry of low expectations.

• Carol Gould, writing in Frontpage, shines the light on a British TV documentary “The New World War” by Jonathan Dimbleby. Gould claims the piece whitewashes the terrorist group Hezbollah. I’ve not seen the documentary, but her charges are damning. I’d be interested if readers had any more information.

• Seen in the small Spanish town of Oleiros:

  “Let’s stop the animal, Sharon the assassin, stop the neo-Nazis”.

  Graffiti? No, an official municipal sign, with bright red letters. It’s just anti-Zionism, you see. Check out the sign - spiffy for a town of “a few thousand”. Every town needs an anti-Zionism display – yours has one, doesn’t it?

• Garrison Keillor, speaking at the University of Chicago:

  “I’m trying to organize support for a constitutional amendment to deny voting rights to born-again Christians,” Keillor smirked. “I feel if your citizenship is in Heaven—like a born again Christian’s is—you should give up your citizenship.

  Snark though it may be, Keillor’s “wit” has crossed the line of civility, as the analogies raised by Eugene Volohk demonstrate.

Race and Culture:

• Norwegian authorities have apparently prevented Jews from participating in march commemorating the 66th anniversary of Kristallnacht. Andrew Sullivan’s friend Bruce Bawer reports from Norway:

  On the TV2 evening news, a group of Jews and their friends who wanted to take part in the commemoration were shown being firmly told by a policeman to "please leave the area." This in a city where Muslim demonstrations take place on a regular basis, and include signs and banners bearing hateful, barbaric slogans.

  Not hatred perhaps, but an inexplicable and indefensible double standard. More at LGF.
  [Update: commenter David Fleck links to a Bjørn Stærk post which presents evidence contradicting this interpretation of the events.]

• Frontpage’s Lee Kaplan reports on ugly incidents at SFSU in the wake of the elections. [Hat tip: LGF]

  Lee Wolf, another College Republicans member, described one of the women on Monday as shouting, “The only way we can defeat you is to kill as many as possible! I’d rather die a suicide bomber’s death than to call myself an American!”

  Fortunately for this woman, no-one is demanding she call herself an American. Check out the pictures.

• The story is sad and familiar: a synagogue, a museum and cultural center, a cemetery – all defaced with black swastikas. But according to this article in the Guardian, the tiny Jewish community in Dublin, Ireland has never known this kind of vandalism. It appears fine folks at Stormfront have moved in.

• Perhaps not persuaded by some popular claims regarding Bush’s Nazi affiliation, The National Socialist Movement will field actual Nazis for the 2008 election. Just more practitioners of “white identity politics”, I suppose. What to do about Godwin’s Law?

A Hopeful Note:

• Via Jihadwatch: a group of Muslims in France calls for secularism within the traditions of Muslim culture to counter political Islam:

  “We are of Muslim culture, we oppose misogyny, homophobia, anti-Semitism and the political use of Islam. We reassert a living secularism”

  What I find encouraging is that while I might argue with some of the points contained in the manifesto, I get the feeling that such an argument is possible, which is more than half the battle.

• I like this idea, even if the implementation would prove intractable: A group of Arab liberals have proposed to create an international tribunal to prosecute terrorists and those that incite terror, e.g. radical Islamist clerics. They cite examples, including:

  "On February 13, 2002, the London-based Al-Hayat newspapers published a fatwa issued by the Saudi Sheikh Ali Bin Khodair Al-Khodhari approving and condoning Al-Qa'ida's 9/11 terrorist acts in New York and Washington. In his fatwa, the Sheikh said, 'It is astonishing to mourn the [American] victims as being innocents. Those victims may be classified as infidel Americans which do not deserve being mourned, because each American, as to his relation to American government, is a warrior, or supporter, in money or opinion. It is legitimate to kill all of them as combatant; or non-combatant, such as the old, the blind, or non-Muslims…'

  There ought to be a law… problematic, but I like the sentiment. Daniel Pipes is pleased to note that the petition has received 2,500 signatures from people in 23 countries.