Who is Really Desecrating Holy Sites?

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  May 23, 2013 at 5:00 am

The ultimate goal is to turn the conflict into a religious war between Jews and Muslims. If anyone is desecrating the holy site, it is those who smuggle petrol bombs and stones into the compound to use them against visitors.

Tensions have been mounting in recent months in Jerusalem over visits by Jews to the Temple Mount, or al-Haram al-Sharif [the Noble Sanctuary].

There is nothing new about Jews visiting the holy site: this has been taking place since 1967.

The visits, which are being held in coordination with the Israeli authorities, have triggered many confrontations between the Israeli police and Palestinian protesters.

Palestinians claim that the mere presence of Jewish visitors is a "desecration" of the holy site.

That is why some Palestinians have been resorting to violence to stop Jews from visiting the holy site.

The Palestinians say they are only trying to prevent Jews from destroying the mosques and rebuilding the Third Holy Temple.

But the truth is that the vast majority of Jews visiting the holy site are no different from other non-Muslim tourists who come to the area every day.

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A Woman's Voice at the Mosque

by Raheel Raza  •  May 23, 2013 at 3:00 am

Most of all, we have to use reason and logic and broaden the use of ijtihad – individual reasoning in religious affairs.

In the aftermath of the Boston bombings, Toronto and Montreal saw arrests of two Muslims charged with terror related activities. There's been some hand-wringing and questions about "what leads Muslim youth towards violence?"

Amid an array of reasoning, one constant factor that has emerged is the possible influence of Wahhabi mosques. This is not new. For years after 9/11, we were concerned about possible seditious messages coming from the pulpit, some of which I have heard.

While the sermon every Friday in the mosque may not ask Muslims outright to commit violent acts, I believe that what is not being said is the issue here.

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The Sheiks and WMD

by Ali Salim  •  May 22, 2013 at 5:00 am

Any sheikh, acting as a mouthpiece for a Middle Eastern regime, will be able to provide an Islamic seal of approval for the use of chemical and nuclear weapons. Verse 60 from the Surah Al-Anfal of the Qur'an permits the use of any and every weapon a Muslim can acquire that can frighten and deter an enemy of Islam.

Every side in every conflict in the Middle East has its own mufti who will interpret Islam and hand down fatwas, religious injunctions, favorable to that side's interests. Using one approach or another to exploit Islam's complex, often contradictory, religious laws, every sheikh can find justification for the need and duty to carry out any act.

Any sheikh, acting as the mouthpiece for a Middle Eastern regime, will be able to provide an Islamic seal of approval, according to the whim of the regime's leaders, for the use of chemical and nuclear weapons. The muftis issue these fatwas relying on traditions handed down from the days of the prophet Muhammad (s.a.a.w.). Readers of Arabic who follow blogs and Internet sites are aware that for the most part, Islam authorizes the use of WMD against infidels and the Crusaders of the West -- that is, anyone who is not a Muslim.

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Switzerland: Multicultural Paradise?

by Soeren Kern  •  May 21, 2013 at 5:00 am

In March, the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service announced that a growing number of jihadists are being recruited in Switzerland. The number of robberies and assaults on Swiss trains has skyrocketed to such an extent that the Swiss government recently opted to equip transport police with firearms, and at least 1,400 women in Switzerland have been victims of forced marriages.

A controversial new report by the Swiss government claims that Muslim immigrants are so well integrated into Swiss society that no further federal policies or programs are needed to promote Muslim integration or to counter Islamic extremism.

Published by the Swiss Federal Council [Bundesrat] on May 8, the 102-page study -- known by the short title, "The Situation of Muslims in Switzerland" -- so completely downplays the countless problems associated with Muslim immigration in Switzerland that the report has been ridiculed as being worthy of a "case study in political correctness."

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Future Russian Strategic Challenges

by Peter Huessy and Mark B. Schneider  •  May 20, 2013 at 5:00 am

The current administration is in a poor position to negotiate with Russia. There are press reports that the administration will attempt to evade Congressional approval of a new arms control agreement.

Russia clearly represents an increasingly serious strategic challenge. Russia has steadily become more anti-democratic and hostile to the US. The Kremlin encourages nationalism; Alexei Kudrin, Russian Finance Minister until September 2011, has noted: "Xenophobia is widespread" in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin is militarizing the country; his regime voices "anti-Western rhetoric," and "a sizeable number of Russians…see neighboring countries as part of our zone of influence." Russia's nuclear weapons policy doubtless derives from these views.

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Russia's Brinkmanship with US Clashes with Israel's Security

by Yaakov Lappin  •  May 20, 2013 at 3:00 am

Jerusalem will find Russia's delivery of the S-300 missile system to Syria to be an intolerable development; it is safe to assume that Israel will act to prevent this from happening.

Russia is aggressively squaring off with an indecisive and rather meek West about Syria, and in the process, is also threatening to undermine Israeli efforts to ensure that Iran and Syria do not ship strategic weapons to Hezbollah.

The Syrian civil war has become a dangerous and complex battle of multiple actors and their proxies: Sunni versus Shi'ite, Iran versus the Gulf states, Al-Qaeda versus Hezbollah, and on a global scale, the United States versus Russia.

Moscow is trying to deter a potential US or NATO-led initiative to set up a no-fly zone over areas of Syria, and is seeking to stop Western-led air strikes against chemical weapons sites.

Russia also seems concerned that recent air strikes in Damascus targeting Hezbollah-bound guided Iranian missiles -- strikes attributed by the foreign media to Israel -- will pave the way to such an intervention.

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Fatah's Drive Against "Normalization"

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  May 17, 2013 at 5:00 am

The Fatah activists who are threatening Palestinian teenagers for talking to Israelis and playing football with them are the same people who claim, at least in public, that they support the peace process with Israel. But how can there ever be a peace process when anyone who meets with an Israeli is immediately denounced as a traitor? It is worth noting that most of these denunciations are coming form the "moderate" Fatah, and not from Hamas.

While Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was meeting in his office in Ramallah with Shelly Yacimovich, chairwoman of Israel's opposition Labour Party, his Fatah faction was busy threatening Palestinians who meet with Israelis.

That Abbas continues to meet with Israelis on a regular basis in Ramallah does not seem to bother Fatah.

Nor does Fatah seem to be bothered that Palestinian security officers work closely together with their Israeli counterparts in the West Bank. That is called "security coordination" between the Palestinians and Israel.

But when Palestinian youths are invited to meet with Israelis as part of an interfaith dialogue project, Fatah is quick to issue denunciations and threats.

When Palestinian and Israeli teenagers are invited to play football together as part of a project to promote peace and coexistence, Fatah is also quick to react.

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The U.S. Role in the Sunni-Shi'ite Conflict
With Allies Like These...

by Harold Rhode  •  May 17, 2013 at 4:00 am

America should back only pro-American forces who do not privately finance or publicly promote hatred against the U.S. It is in America's interest to rid the Muslim world of the Islamic fundamentalist forces whose goals and actions are inimical to American and Western interests; not to cozy up to them.

You might think that what the United States should be doing in the Sunni-Shi'ite conflict -- in which it has no theological stake -- is working to eliminate all forces in the Muslim world, whether Sunni or Shi'ite, who want to bring down the U.S. You might also think that what the U.S. should not be doing is looking the other way when countries it calls allies -- and wealthy individuals from those countries -- support, with both money and arms, forces who kill U.S. soldiers and citizens.

At present, this is not what is happening.

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Growing Threats to Academic Freedom

by Edward S. Beck  •  May 17, 2013 at 3:00 am

Hawking's behavior is based on inaccurate, biased information. If he has insightful thoughts about resolving the Israeli-Palestinian issues, let him come and share them. Stating them at the conference is the way for them to have impact.

Two recent developments within the academic community have signaled a serious, new level of escalation of hostility towards academic freedom and integrity: the recent announcement of Stephen Hawking to withdraw from presenting a keynote address at a gathering of leading world figures in Israel and the resolution by the Association of Asian American Studies to boycott Israeli academics. Unfortunately, this highlights, in both instances, scholars swayed more by propaganda than facts, and growing attempts to stifle academic freedom of enquiry.

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The Interfaith Racket: Passport to Credibility

by Douglas Murray  •  May 16, 2013 at 5:00 am

Because Ahmed was the first Muslim peer, most people were eager to do anything they could to cover for him, forgive him, reinstate him time and again – and even now are not able to believe the words that came from his mouth in Pakistan because they differed from the words that came from his mouth at interfaith meetings in London.

Interfaith dialogue is one of those things it can seem impossible to be against. What reasonable, rational person could possibly object to people of different faiths coming together and discussing their differences? Well, as with any negotiation, the problem only really comes if one individual, or group of individuals, heads into the discussion ignorantly or naively while another knows exactly what he is planning to get from it.

Such is the case with much of the interfaith dialogue conversations in Britain today and there can be no better exemplar than that thrown up by an old friend of this column – the disgraced ex-Labour peer Lord Ahmed of Rotherham.

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Muslims Demand Germany "Make Islam Equal to Christianity"

by Soeren Kern  •  May 15, 2013 at 5:00 am

Muslims attending the German Islam Conference were apparently offended by the insinuation that Islam could be radical or violent.

A major conference on German-Muslim relations has ended in failure after Muslims attending the event refused to acknowledge the government's concerns about the threats to security posed by radical Islam.

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich had wanted the eighth annual German Islam Conference, held in Berlin on May 7, to focus on finding ways the government could work together with "moderate" Muslims in Germany to combat Islamism and extremism.

But Muslims attending the gathering were apparently offended by the insinuation that Islam could be radical or violent, and demanded instead that the German government take steps to make "Islam equal to Christianity" in Germany.

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Scottish Universities Hotbeds of Anti-Jewish Sentiment

by Samuel Westrop  •  May 15, 2013 at 4:00 am

The greatest problem to tackling anti-Jewish incitement is the denial that there is any such problem. The facts, as we have seen, tell a rather different story.

A charity ball organized by the University of St. Andrew's Jewish Society, guarded by plain-clothes police officers, was held in secret last week after threats were made against staff at the original venue. The increasing security and secrecy surrounding this annual student event is an illustration of the sentiments aimed at Jewish students in Scotland.

The ball was originally supposed to be held at the Golf Hotel in St. Andrews, a small University town on the east coast of Scotland. After a campaign organized by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a number of threats were directed at the hotel's staff, and a number of violent comments were posted on social media, with one protester writing: "Friday we send them into hell."

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Al-Qaradawi and the New Religious Conflict With Israel

by Khaled Abu Toameh  •  May 14, 2013 at 5:00 am

Had the Muslim Brotherhood's al-Qaradawi visited the Gaza Strip to urge the Palestinians to recognize Israel's right to exist, he would have been received with shoes and rotten eggs.

As US Secretary of State John Kerry pursues efforts to resume peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, the world's leading Islamic scholar of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, arrived in the Gaza Strip to express support for Hamas.

The Egyptian-born al-Qaradawi, who has in the past justified suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, came to the Gaza Strip at the head of a delegation consisting of some 50 senior Islamic figures from 14 countries.

The high-profile visit is seen as a major victory for Hamas and its supporters and a severe blow for Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and his "moderate" Fatah faction.

Al-Qaradawi, who heads the International Union of Muslim Scholars, came to the Gaza Strip to urge Palestinians to continue the struggle against Israel.

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Blasphemy Laws Coming to Bangladesh?

by Mohshin Habib  •  May 14, 2013 at 4:00 am

There are currently about 125 terrorist groups operating throughout Bangladesh, most under the control of Bangladesh's largest Islamic party, the Jamaat-e-Islami.

On May 5, hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi Islamists marched on the capital city of Dhaka, to protest the government's failure to fulfill their demands. Under the banner of a non-political forum, supporters of the Islamic Hefajat-e-Islam [Protectorate of Islam], formed in 2009 and led by 93 year old cleric Allama Shafi, declared they would not leave the capital until their demands were met.

An estimated 200,000 Islamists positioned themselves at the country's most important commercial area, Matijheel, as well as other parts of the city, and vandalized dozens of government offices, shops and vehicles.

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Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East
Not an American Western

by Ali Salim  •  May 13, 2013 at 5:00 am

There exists in the Middle East a basic willingness to use WMD against civilians -- with no hesitancy involved -- and with full Islamic religious justification. The US and the EU are trying to find a diplomatic solution to a problem that does not have one. It is Iran that must be struck. If it is, the other players will get the message. There is nothing to fear from an Iranian military retaliation so long as Iran does not have an atomic bomb. Once it does, it will be too late.

Political scientists and orientalists in the West who think that the nuclearization of the Middle East is containable, and not an existential threat to them, are making a serious mistake. These political scientists seem to think Iran's nuclear weapons, Pakistan's bomb and Syria's chemical arsenal are just local problems. Most of these scholars do not speak Arabic and do not understand the Middle Eastern mindset: they deeply wish to believe it is a mirror image of how they think.

It is not. Had Hitler possessed weapons of mass destruction, does anyone doubt that he would have used them against the Russians and Americans? In north Yemen in 1967, Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser sprayed poison gas on civilians; in Halabja in 1988, Iraq's Saddam Hussein sprayed poison gas -- including mustard gas and sarin -- on his Kurds, and now Bashar Assad is pouring chemical weapons on his fellow Syrians.

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