October 07, 2004

Hostages Recite Koranic Versus to be Released

How do you say, "I'm a Muslim, I swear" in Arabic. Oh wait, that one doesn't always work--ask Frank Gardner. The Jakarta Post:

In order to prove that the two hostages were Indonesian Muslims, the kidnappers asked them to recite the Koran, and they passed this test.

The kidnappers also accused the women of being the wives of Western men. "I don't know who were the men they were referring to. Luckily, I brought a photo of my husband. I showed them his picture and they believed me," Istiqomah said.

After being convinced, the captors treated them well. Istiqomah said she and Casingkem were released after the kidnappers saw President Megawati Soekarnoputri make an appeal on Al-Jazeera.

Maybe we can get the good Pres to put in a good word for some of the other hostages on al Jazeera, too?

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Hotel Explosion in Egypt Kills Vacationing Israelis

I would note that today is the 60th anniversary of the Auschwitz uprising. Half a century after the Halocaust and Jews are still the victims of those that wish to see a final solution.

UPDATES ONGOING: 23 Dead 29 DEAD 35 Dead and rising

JPOST: Dual homicide bombing at one bombing location. Over 100 wounded. Doctors being flown in from around Israel

Ha'aretz (via Brain Shavings): 10 floors of hotel collapse, still digging people out. Pic of what the hotel looked like pre-explosion here.

Daily Telegraph, AU (via Michele Catalano): Jamaa Al-Islamiya Al-Alamiya (World Islamist Group) claims responsibility for the explosion using car bomb.

Israel Insider (via Darleen): Street celebrations in Gaza and in Cairo.

Channel News Asia: After first trying to blame the explosions on a gas leak (see below) Egypt now admits probably a bomb.

3 Explosions in different locations. Reuters:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Explosions rocked two resort towns in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, shortly after a massive blast in the Hilton Hotel near Israel killed at least 23 people, Israeli radio stations reported.

The radio stations reported explosions in the Egyptian resorts of Nueiba and Ras al-Sultan dozens of kilometers (miles) to the southwest of Taba where the first explosion occurred. Thousands of Israelis have been vacationing in the Sinai Peninsula over the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

Notice how this, the first Reuters report, goes out of it's way to mention that it might have been a gas leak. UPDATE: Al Jazeera repeating al Reuters party line: "Police sources said that a car bomb caused the blast, however the Egyptian television reported that a gas leak caused the explosion." Reuters:
An explosion has torn through an Egyptian hotel used by many vacationing Israelis at the Red Sea border resort of Taba and Israeli witnesses reported seeing dozens of bodies from a possible bomb attack.
more...

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Homeland Security After Beslan: Keep an Eye on Schools

AP via Robert Spencer:

The Education Department has advised school leaders nationwide to watch for people spying on their buildings or buses to help detect any possibility of terrorism like the deadly school siege in Russia.

The warning follows an analysis by the FBI (news - web sites) and the Homeland Security Department of the siege that killed nearly 340 people, many of them students, in the city of Beslan last month.

more...

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Electoral-Vote.com Hacked?

I snapped this photo from electoral-vote.com earlier. It seems that they got hacked. The map shows a clear Bush lead, but if you look at the total it shows Kerry every electoral vote.

Charles over at LGF theorizes that the site got hacked. My theory? Let's just say I'm not ruling out a prank by the leftist asshat who runs the site. Note to Charles: the person/persons who run the site make Michael Moore look mainstream. Just click around the links some and you'll see why. I also have an earlier post on the site's moonbattishness here.

electoral2.jpg

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We've got a piper down!

Yes, the blog was down all day. No idea what happened. Just found out the server went down. See what happens when you move to a more powerful server with a bigger pipe.

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The utes of America are getting me down

Light posting--stupid job wants me to work for my money! Just graded tests. Only half of students could identify the Attorney General of the US. One student thinks the Sec State is 'Colin Pile'. These are all Juniors and Seniors. I've decided to stop passing out voter registration cards to all my students. Seriously.

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BIG MISTAKE: Sadr Aide Freed

Sadr aide freed as Iraq seeks pre-election calm. Remember the whole 'fool me once' thing? Now, change that to 'fool me umpteen times'. I swear, if we 'loose the peace' or whatever in Iraq it will be because of bunch of tools in the State Department believed the piles of crap their IR Profs doled out on a daily basis. If this was the decision of a military leader then God help us.

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Spain Pours Salt On Wounded US Relationship

U.S. Marines Replaced by French Troops in Spain's Columbus Parade

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Ha-Ha, funny guys (not)

Come on, fess up. Which one of you signed me up for this? Copy of the e-mail I got this morning:

Hello mypetjawa@yahoo.com,

We have received your request to join the haltWAR group hosted by Yahoo! Groups, a free, easy-to-use community service.


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October 06, 2004

The Case for Nuking Mecca

In this post I make the case that nuking Mecca would be a rational deterrent to radical Islamists bent on using WMD against American civilians. However, even if there is no deterrent effect, attacking Mecca and wiping out the central locus of Islamic ritual worship may be in the long-term interests of the US and Occidental world.

Ace: What would we do if we get nuked? Continue to "hunt down the terrorists" who nuked us? At what point does the desire to survive outweigh the desire to be merciful and sparing in the use of force?

Bill Whittle: If a suitcase nuke detonates in Times Square, or Long Beach harbor, or outside the Capitol building, what do we do? Nuke Mecca? Incinerate Damascus? Because – so help me God, I tremble to say it – that is exactly the response our enemies would hope for. They care not a whit about their own people because they have no allegiance to anyone but themselves and their vision of a vengeful and bloodthirsty Allah.

In response to Bill Whittle's and Ace's considerable thought on how you deter terrorists, I thought I'd add a couple of thoughts that have been ruminating between my ears for awhile now.

Let me make a couple of points first. One: I do not advocate using nuclear weapons. Two: I do not advocate killing Muslims or any other follower of any religion. Three: I do not imagine in any way possible the US government actually doing this--or even thinking it. Four: These are rudimentary thoughts. This post is used as a sounding board only. Much of what I say may be wrong and all is subject to revision. The purpose of this post is to start a conversation.

First point: Bill's major argument about deterring terrorists is well taken and mostly on the money. I think he's right, for the most part: you cannot deter these guys, only defeat them. And if incinerating Damascus were the only threat we could use to deter terrorists then certainly a MAD scheme would not work in this new Cold War we find ourselves in.

However, Mecca is not Damascus. It plays a central role in Muslim worship. Five times a day Muslims pray toward it. All Muslims who have the means are expected to make the Hajj--a pilgrimage to Mecca which revolves around the Kaaba stone. The Kaaba stone is really the reason Mecca is considered holy. Muslims believe the site was used for worship as far back as Adam and that the shrine around the stone was first placed there by Abraham (Ibrahim). There is a 12 mile zone around the stone that infidels are restricted from entering. It's that holy. No non-Muslims near it. In fact, without Mecca and the Kaaba stone, Islam would be very different.

Mecca, then, is quite unlike any other place in the world for Muslims. It is an entire city dedicated to Muslim worship. A place set apart. A holy place. It is an entire city that is thought to be the Temple of God.

Islamist terrorists also consider Mecca the holiest place in the world. It is central to their mode of worship. They face it when they pray. They too believe they must make the hajj. If we take them at their word, then the reason they commit terrorist acts is because they take their religious convictions so seriously. When they kill us, it is because they believe that this is what their God wants them to do.

So, ask yourself the question again: Can terrorists be deterred from using WMD against American targets?

Maybe they can. If Islamic extremists really love their religious institutions in the way that they claim they do, then pointing an ICBM at Mecca may not be the most irrational thing to do. They may not care if the rest of the world goes up in a nuclear mushroom cloud, as Bill points out, but Mecca is not the rest of the world. Would they really risk blowing up New York City if they believed the consequences of such an action would be a 30 kiloton nuclear explosion over the Kaaba stone? After all, the nuclear destruction of Mecca would end Islamic forms of worship as they presently exist.

If I might misquote Sting for a moment, "Is it such a crazy thing to do, if the Terrorists love their Mecca too?"

Second point: Why would destroying Mecca have potentially beneficial long-term affects to US and Occidental interests?

I have already made the case that Mecca is central to Islamic forms of worship. Mecca, I have argued, is a Temple City. Although many Muslim theologians will deny that any place is holy in Islam, there is at least a de facto holiness ascribed to the area surrounding the Kaaba stone. In many ways the city of Mecca is central to Islam in just the same way that the Temple of Solomon was central to ancient Judaism. It is this similarity which is so striking, and why the destruction of Mecca might do to Islam what the final destruction of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem did to Judaism. While the bloody events surrounding Rome's sacking of Jerusalem are indeed disgusting and tragic, that event forced Jews to rethink their relationship with God. More importantly, that event forced Jews to rethink their relationship with their fellowman.

Without wishing to reduce all of Jewish history or life to one paragraph, and thus leaving out the many facets of ancient Hebrew worship, let me go ahead an do that anyway (with many apologies up front--and welcoming any corrections or differing opinions). Ancient Judaism had a legal structure which was similar to Islamic sharia in that they both unify the religious codes thought to be handed down by God with secular authority. In fact, the Old Testament laws seem just as draconian as any I would find in sharia. There is just something about stoning adulteresses that I kind find of harsh, that's all. I know such applications of Mosaic law were probably rare, but Muslims would argue the same thing about the strict application of sharia law in the ideal Islamic state.

Ancient Judaism also had another commonality with Islam: worship was centered on a holy place of ritualistic practice. After the destruction of the Temple, though, Jews had to ask new questions about the meaning of being holy. Stateless, they found that strict religious codes of conduct could not be enforced in the same way as before. While the Jewish Diaspora had already begun the process of transforming Judaism, the final destruction of Temple centered worship forced this transformation on a broader scale.

Jews found that God no longer had a place to reside in. Jews found that they could no longer perform the rituals required by God to be purified. Jews found that they could no longer enforce God's law. Jews found that their specialness was different than they had previously supposed. Worship changed. Everything changed.

What I propose is simply this. Would destroying Mecca begin a similar process for Muslims? Perhaps only the threat of destroying Mecca would be enough.

Radical Muslims believe they are in a race to bring about the world wide Caliphate. They believe that Muslims are destined to rule the world. What I propose is simple: show them that they cannot rule the world. Show them that Allah is not on their side--at least, not in the way that they believe.

Osama bin Laden once famously said that people will choose the strong horse over the weak horse. What if Islam is shown to be the weak horse? What if one of the central tenants of Muslim worship, the hajj, was gone? Would this not force some serious rethinking in the Islamic world?

Today we are told by Muslims that the true meaning of jihad is internal struggle. Unfortunately, the actions of too many Muslims shows that they believe jihad means armed struggle against the infidels. Destroying Mecca may have the long-term affect of convincing radical Muslims that Allah really doesn't want sharia law around the world. That all that stuff about killing the infidels in the Quran--that's all metaphor.

After all, if Muslims can be convinced that the whole hajj thing is just metaphor, then what else might they consider as metaphorical? Perhaps jihad. Perhaps sharia. Perhaps the global Caliphate.

These are just some thoughts. No one should take them too seriously.

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Beslan Terrorist's Mother Banished from Village

Mosnews:

A peopleÂ’s gathering in the village of Elkhotovo in the Russian internal republic of North Ossetia, has ruled that Aleksandra Samoshkina, the mother of Vladimir Khodov, must leave the village where she lives as well as the republic, the Itar-Tass news agency reports.
more...

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French Hostages now in Syria?

WashTimes:

The French Democratic Union Party said Wednesday the French government fears two French nationals kidnapped in Iraq may have been taken to Syria.

Update: Leopold Stotch reminds me that hostages aren't the only things terrozombies are good at moving from Iraq to Syria.

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Kos flunks my Introduction to American National Government Class

Note to my students: the 'President of Senate' doesn't really do anything. He doesn't even preside. When he does show up, he bangs the gavel and then gives it to a Senator chosen to preside for the day.

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Zarqawi in the News

Leaders of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist organization bombed during meeting (via Matt Cardens). Let's just hope Zarqawi didn't draw the short straw and was out getting the pizza.

Zarqawi's Tawid and Jihad group targetting Jewish sites and discos in Germany. That whole appeasement strategy is really working out for Germany I'd say.

Sympathy for al-Zarqawi grows among Iraqis amid US airstrikes. This after a report yesterday that Zarqawi was becoming more unpopular.

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British Author Proclaims Hatred for America

How did I miss the original Guardian piece? Thanks to reader JSmith for pointing this Jewish World Review article out. In the original article Margaret Drabble says:

"My anti-Americanism has become almost uncontrollable. It has possessed me, like a disease. It rises up in my throat like acid reflux, that fashionable American sickness. I now loathe the United States and what it has done to Iraq and the rest of the helpless world. I can hardly bear to see the faces of Bush and Rumsfeld, or to watch their posturing body language, or to hear their self-satisfied and incoherent platitudes."
Mona Charen, the author of this article, adds:
Drabble is right to compare her America-hatred to a disease. There is something sickly about the European approach to the world. There may even be something suicidal in it. Europeans excoriate America even as they stand on quicksand. In what Middle Eastern scholar and JWR columnist Daniel Pipes calls the biggest story of our time, Europe is disappearing.

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Republicans Glad to Lose on Bill to Start New Draft

Actual headline over at the LA Times. Amazing.

Bloggers with more to say than me: more...

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Asian Athlete Marries Hot Supermodel

Golf legend Tiger Woods, America's most famous Asian athlete, marries Swedish supermodel Elin Nordegren in Barbados. News here. Images and pictures of Elin Nordegren here.

I think Tiger must have just got through reading this book.

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Mount St. Helens Update

I just checked the latest live pic from Mount St. Helens. Either she's blowing her top again, or it's really-really foggy.

UPDATE: Ricky V. drops this comment: I found this at the bottom of the volcano cam picture...

Weather Note - October 06, 2004 at 9:00 am PDT - There is nothing wrong
with the above image. You are viewing rain and clouds at Mount St.
Helens right now as a weather front moves through the Pacific Northwest.

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Muslim Colonial Imperialism

What is that tired Santayana line about repeating history and such? Richard C. Csaplar in CBN News:

Imperialistic

The Muslim wars of imperialist conquest have been launched for almost 1,500 years against hundreds of nations, over millions of square miles (significantly larger than the British Empire at its peak). The lust for Muslim imperialist conquest stretched from southern France to the Philippines, from Austria to Nigeria, and from central Asia to New Guinea. This is the classic definition of imperialism -- "the policy and practice of seeking to dominate the economic and political affairs of weaker countries."

Colonialist

The Muslim goal was to have a central government, first at Damascus, and then at Baghdad -- later at Cairo, Istanbul, or other imperial centers. The local governors, judges, and other rulers were appointed by the central imperial authorities for far off colonies. Islamic law was introduced as the senior law, whether or not wanted by the local people. Arabic was introduced as the rulers' language, and the local language frequently disappeared. Two classes of residents were established. The native residents paid a tax that their colonialist rulers did not have to pay.

Although the law differed in different places, the following are examples of colonialist laws to which colonized Christians and Jews were made subject to over the years:


Christians and Jews could not bear arms -- Muslims could;
Christians and Jews could not ride horses -- Muslims could;
Christians and Jews had to get permission to build -- Muslims did not;
Christians and Jews had to pay certain taxes which Muslims did not;
Christians could not proselytize -- Muslims could;
Christians and Jews had to bow to their Muslim masters when they paid their taxes; and
Christians and Jews had to live under the law set forth in the Koran, not under either their own religious or secular law.

In each case, these laws allowed the local conquered people less freedom than was allowed the conquering colonialist rulers. Even non-Arab Muslim inhabitants of the conquered lands became second class citizens behind the ruling Arabs. This is the classic definition of colonialist -- "a group of people who settle in a distant territory from the state having jurisdiction or control over it and who remain under the political jurisdiction of their native land."

There is more. Read it. Hat tip: Robert Spencer

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What movie did the Veepbate most remind you of?

Wall Street, Cheney as Gecko; Rocky, it's a draw; Rocky III, Cheney as Clubber Lang; Star Wars, Cheney finds Edward's lack of faith in the Dark Side of the Force disturbing; The Empire Strikes Back, evil wins--but only temporarily; Return of the Jedi, Cheney takes off mask; Spaceballs, Cheney as Dark Helmut; Turner and Hooch, aka Cheney and Edwards; Happy Gilmore; Godzilla vs. Bambi; Terminator, and not the gay part 3; The Godfather;Godfather II; Vision Quest, VP wrestler barely outmaneuvers skilled opponent; Jaws, Edwards as the Mayor; Alive, Cheney eats Edwards. A little salty; Memento; Being John Malkovich, puppetmaster he aint; The Day After, Cheney as da bomb; Used Cars, Edwards as Rudy Russo.

And what movie did the debate remind me of the most? The Big Sleep.

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