The Religious War in the Middle East

by Ali Salim  •  June 19, 2013 at 5:00 am

The proposal of the United States for a Palestinian state and a joint Palestinian, Jordanian and Israeli policing mechanism in the Jordan Valley seems like a pipe dream. That sort of suggestion, disconnected from reality, clearly indicates a dangerous lack of awareness concerning the increasing militant Islamic aggression toward Israel and the West.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been doing a lot of soul-searching these days. He has been assessing his options and those of his terrorist organization and wondering about the outcome. Despite his usual smug boasts, in his last speech he could not quite hide his fears, even though he was being recorded deep in his bunker in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahia.

Nasrallah is worried. Even though the forces of the Syrian regime, supported by armed Iranians and armed gangs of Hezbollah operatives, continue to slaughter their Sunni citizens using poison gas to realize local achievements, as in the city of Al-Qusayr, he is worried. Despite the state-of-the-art arms Russia recently presented to the Syrian regime, some of which are supposed to be delivered to him as well, he is worried. Despite victory propaganda spread by the Syrians and their collaborators, the man radiates pessimism

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Tayyip Erdoğan, "God's Gift to Turkey"

by Robert Ellis  •  June 19, 2013 at 4:00 am

"In the Islamic world, democratization has led to an increasing role for theocratic politics." — Fareed Zakaria

The Turkish Minister for EU Affairs, Egemen Bağış, has declared that Prime Minister Erdoğan is a gift sent by God to Turkey and to humanity. But what do half the Turkish electorate do – as well as the rest of humanity – when the gift is unwanted?

There is no doubt that the Almighty has bestowed upon the world a special gift.

We have ex-Libyan leader Colonel Mohammed Gaddafi's word for that: in November 2010 the Turkish prime minister was awarded with the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights for "distinguished service to humanity."

During the award ceremony Prime Minister Erdoğan declared that Islamophobia was a crime against humanity and that Muslims come from a tradition that also regards anti-Semitism as a crime against humanity. At a meeting of the Alliance of Civilizations in March, however, he added Zionism to the list, together with fascism.

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Hassan Rouhani, In His Own Words

by Banafsheh Zand  •  June 19, 2013 at 2:30 am

"Nuclear weapons have no role in Iran's national security doctrine; therefore Iran has nothing to conceal." — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

The following are excerpts from interviews with Iran's new President, Hassan Rouhani, all within the last three weeks, in Asharq Al-Awsat and a few live television debates with the other candidates in Iran's recent election:

Iran's nuclear program and talks between Iran and the P5+1:

"A politically motivated campaign of misinformation has persistently attempted to cast doubts on the exclusively peaceful nature of this program. This campaign is being fueled and directed first and foremost by Israel, to divert international attention not only from its own clandestine and dangerous nuclear weapons program, but also from its destabilizing and inhuman policies and practices in Palestine and the Middle East. Regrettably, the Security Council has discredited itself by allowing the United States to impose this counter-productive Israeli agenda.

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And the Winner is... Iran's Nuclear Program

by Harold Rhode  •  June 18, 2013 at 5:00 am

Khamene'i has again proven what a great master strategist he is. He has succeeded in pacifying the West and his own people, thus buying the time his scientists need to complete his nuclear project.

The Iranians are the best strategists in the Middle East, better than those in the West, and the reason the Iranians constantly succeed in out-maneuvering the West.

In the West, we constantly look for ways not to engage in military conflict; the Iranians are more than willing to offer us those ways. We will almost assuredly give the new president Hasan Rouhani time to "consolidate" his position, thereby granting Iran even more time to develop its nuclear weapons capability. That is the meaning of this Iranian presidential "election."

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Beheading, According to the Koran

by Lawrence A. Franklin  •  June 18, 2013 at 4:00 am

Saladin even ordered each cleric in his army personally to behead at least one knight. We should expect no less gruesome a fate than the Knight warriors of Christendom, the townspeople of Otranto or British Sergeant Lee Rigby.

"So when you meet in Jihad in Allah's cause those who disbelieve, smite their necks till when you have killed and wounded many of them…"

— Surat 47, al-Qital (The Killing), Ayat 4

The May 12 canonization by Pope Francis of more than 800 Catholics martyred -- by decapitation -- by Turkish invaders in Otranto, Italy in 1480, and the May 22 beheading of a British soldier in London, recall an event in the life of medieval Muslim hero Saladin.

Saladin has long been romanticized -- by Western biographers, Hollywood producers, and "anxious-to-please" Christians -- as a paragon of chivalrous virtue. England's King Richard, leader of a Crusade that failed to recapture Jerusalem from Saladin, often suffers in comparison to his contemporary Muslim rival, Saladin.

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Who Is Hassan Rouhani?

by Banafsheh Zand  •  June 18, 2013 at 3:00 am

In April 2006, Rouhani was caught on tape, boasting that while talks [on Iran's nuclear program] were taking place, Iran was able to complete installing equipment for the conversion of yellowcake -- a key stage in the nuclear fuel process -- but at the same tine convince the Europeans that nothing was afoot.

The eleventh Iranian elections are over but were not really open and fair. No election can be fair when the candidates have been handpicked and propped up by one man: the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. The entire event, mostly a show for international consumption, was orchestrated within a police state. "I recently heard," Khamenei said, "that someone at the U.S. National Security Council said, 'We do not accept this election in Iran.' We do not give a damn."

Khamenei has often said, "Any vote that is cast for the candidates who have been picked, is a vote for the Islamic Republic. In fact all voting is a vote of trust and support for the regime." Iranians who voted were not electing a president but validating the Velayat'eh Faqih (the absolute mandate of jurists).

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They Voted for a Moderate; Now What?

by Shoshana Bryen  •  June 17, 2013 at 5:00 am

The bad news is that Rouhani has little influence on the three major power centers in Iran. Rouhani, who knows for whom he works (and it is not the Iranian people), will try to use his negotiating skills to effect changes in American behavior toward Iran.

The 686 men who expressed their desire to run in Iran's presidential election were whittled down to 8 -- not by primaries, debates and polls, but by the six theologians and six jurists on the Guardian Council. The candidates had to be Iranian-born, over 21, and believe in "God, Islam and the Iranian Constitution." Education, military service and "public service" were also taken into account by the Council. So while in the West much has been made of the differences among them, similarities rule.

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Prominent British Charity "Linked to Hamas"

by Samuel Westrop  •  June 17, 2013 at 4:00 am

The British charity, Human Appeal International, seems more than happy to use democratic means, such as the courts, to silence its critics.

Britain's leading Jewish newspaper, The Jewish Chronicle, issued an apology recently to Human Appeal International, a British charity with a number of worldwide affiliated branches, all particularly active in the Palestinian territories.

The apology was issued after Human Appeal objected to an article published in The Jewish Chronicle in February 2012. The newspaper claimed Human Appeal was "linked to Hamas" and was on the "US State Department's list of charities connected to terrorism."

The mistake was mentioning the US State department. Human Appeal has never been officially designated as a supporter of terrorism, although a number of US government institutions have referred to Human Appeal as a supporter of terror.

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National Defense vs. the Ideology of Jihad

by Clare M. Lopez  •  June 14, 2013 at 5:00 am

It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the deliberate blinding of our homeland security defense capabilities, perpetrated by the Muslim Brotherhood in close cooperation with the witting, willing assistance of our own national security agency leadership , is propelling the U.S. towards catastrophe.

Counterterrorism expert Patrick Poole has compiled a meticulously-documented record of disastrous U.S. policy behavior that is as chilling as it is comprehensive. In "Blind Terror: The U.S. Government's Muslim Outreach Efforts and the Impact on U.S. Middle East Policy," published 4 June 2013 in the MERIA Journal, Poole describes the aggressive efforts of successive U.S. administrations dating back at least to the Clinton years to forge conciliatory relationships with American Muslim individuals and groups that are legally, openly on record as known supporters of jihadi terrorism and Islamic shariah law.

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The Other Battlefront: The Propaganda War

by Samuel Westrop  •  June 14, 2013 at 4:00 am

Raw footage of the event establishes that the Al-Durah affair is a prime example of Palestinian organizations' manipulating the media with falsified footage and incorrect testimony.

In 2000, a French television station, France 2, broadcast footage of a gunfight between Palestinian terrorists and Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip. Caught in the middle, a father shields his young son, Mohammed, as bullets rake the air around them. Seconds later, the edited footage shows Mohammed Al-Durah draped lifelessly over his father's knees.

Thirteen years later, an increasing number of commentators believe that the Al-Durah affair, as many now label it, was staged. A number of organizations -- such as the Al Durah Project, which has obtained raw footage of the event and highlighted the countless contradictions in a number of the Palestinians' statements -- establishes that the Al-Durah incident is a prime example of Palestinian organizations' manipulating the media with falsified footage and incorrect testimony.

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The Palestinian Authority's Reign of Terror

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  June 13, 2013 at 5:00 am

The Fatah thugs are regularly sent by the Palestinian Authority, which is funded by the West, to threaten and batter journalists, writers, university students and political opponents -- driving them into the open arms of Hamas and other extremist groups.

Until recently, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank used to arrest Palestinians who criticized its leaders, especially Mahmoud Abbas.

But now the Palestinian Authority has resumed using thugs to break the bones of its critics.

It is an easy and quick way to deal with the critics and deter others from speaking out against Palestinian Authority leaders.

The thugs are often members of Abbas's ruling Fatah faction. However, they do not hold any official position in the Palestinian Authority; they do not belong to Palestinian Authority security forces or any government-related agency in the West Bank.

This allows the Palestinian Authority to distance itself from the thugs each time they perpetrate a crime.

But the thugs, who are referred to by Palestinians as "Shabbiha," are known to act on instructions from top Palestinian Authority leaders.

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New Iran Crisis Looming

by Yaakov Lappin  •  June 12, 2013 at 5:00 am

Confirmed: Iran has installed hundreds of additional centrifuges for uranium enrichment, while continuing enrichment activities, and is creating a plutonium enrichment plant at Arak.

At a time when news headlines from the Middle East are dominated by battles in Syria, growing Sunni-Shi'ite conflict in Iraq and Lebanon, and mass disturbances in Turkey, it is easy to forget about Iran's nuclear program; but early warning indicators are signaling an impending, explosive crisis over Iran's refusal to halt its covert nuclear weapons program.

At enrichment facilities in Natanz and Fordow, Iran is continuing to inch closer to the point of nuclear breakout, as a report by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently noted.

The report confirmed what defense analysts had been saying for months: that Iran installed hundreds of additional centrifuges for uranium enrichment, enhancing its nuclear program, while continuing enrichment activities.

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U.S. Defends "Human Rights" of Persecutors of Christians
Muslim Persecution of Christians: March, 2013

by Raymond Ibrahim  •  June 12, 2013 at 4:30 am

Sweden to send Iranian Christian asylum seekers back to Iran to be tortured and possibly executed for the crime of leaving Islam. Also, the Nigerian government recently did go on the offensive to try to contain the jihadis [of Boko Haram], only to be chastised by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, saying he was "concerned by credible allegations that the Nigerian security forces are committing gross human rights violations" against the jihadi mass murderers.

The Islamic jihad against Christians in Nigeria is proving to be the most barbaric. A new report states that 70% of Christians killed around the world in 2012 were killed in that African nation. Among some of the atrocities committed in March alone, at least 41 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack at a bus station in a predominantly Christian neighborhood. According to the Christian Association of Nigeria, these attacks "were a signpost of the intended extermination of Christians and Christianity from northern Nigeria."

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The Middle Eastern Hornets' Nest

by Douglas Murray  •  June 12, 2013 at 4:00 am

We live with an intellectual class so used to poking at empty hornets' nests while awarding prizes for bravery to each other, that they have no idea at all what to do when an actual hornet's nest comes along. In Islam, our age finds an actual hornet's nest — filled with difficult, painful, but not necessarily insoluble problems.

"Islamophobia" is a word about which we have heard plenty over the last decade. It can include saying anything about Muslim behavior, Muslim scripture or Muslim history of which any Muslim anywhere disapproves. If you say that you do not think that massacring your enemies is a good thing, for example, you can easily be accused of "Islamophobia." So far, I have defined "Islamophobia" as absolutely anything that any Muslim anywhere at any time may find offensive.

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Why Does the New York Times So Hate Missile Defense?

by Peter Huessy  •  June 11, 2013 at 5:00 am

Recent news is that both North Korea and Pakistan have sought help in developing EMP weapons; Iran has launched its missile tests in an EMP mode. The U.S. could, for a small additional expense, protect the country from EMP and nuclear threats through the production of short and medium defense radars and interceptors, now available and in the U.S. inventory.

In nearly two thousand stories and editorials since President Reagan identified missile defense as a critical new capability needed for America's security, the New York Times has rarely found anything positive to say about America's first line of defense against enemy missiles.

In the past few weeks, editors of the New York Times continued, announcing their opposition to the newly considered East Coast missile defense site, and describing it as "unnecessary." [June 4, "An Unnecessary Military Expense"]

Contrast this to how they report on other offensive missile developments by America's enemies.

North Korean threats to launch offensive rockets at America and its allies, for example, are described as "puzzling" [May 21, 2013, "N Korea Launches Missiles for Third Straight Day"].

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