News from the Caliphate

It's been a strange week for Islam. Lot's of news, some of it potentially very scary. The founder of an upstate New York television station aimed at rehabilitating the image of muslims in this country has confessed to beheading his wife.

Muzzammil Hassan was charged with second-degree murder after police found the decapitated body of his wife, Aasiya Hassan, at the Bridges TV station in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, said Andrew Benz, Orchard Park's police chief.

Now, spouse killing has become standard fare in this country, unfortunately, and occurs in a multitude of creeds and skintones. But there is something a bit medieval and extra gory with beheading that trumps lets say a good ol' American overdose of arsenic or a 38 calibre slug to the temple.

Hassan is definitely in deep doo doo but I think if he would just listen up he might be able to get a little leniency. He should hire one of those slick jewish publicity firms in Manhattan to do battle with the Zionist media empire. Fight fire with fire. Play the cultural insensitivity card. Might just work.

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On a serious note, Pakistan has just agreed to a truce with the Taliban in the Swat Valley. Many have thought that our whole ire in the mideast has been misplaced and that the focus should have been on Pakistan from the beginning. Their security apparatus started Lashkar e Taiba, the largest and most potent terrorist organization in asia and the group responsible for the recent Mumbai brutality. They allowed Abdul Khan to spread his nuclear technology to North Korea and freed him from house arrest this week. They have allowed the province of Waziristan to become a terrorist hotbed and are probably shielding Osama bin Laden. All financed on billions of American dollars of American aid. Now they are going to play nice with the Taliban and create an official haven with full Sharia law? Read the NYT article here.

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Reports today in the New York Times that Pakistani immigrants are facing kidnapping, brutality and threats when they return home from the United States. Link to the article here. How soon before the punitive actions reach our soil?  Word is that one of the Mumbai planners was located in Texas.  The Al Qaida handbook now urges their adherents to start massive forest fires in their adopted countries as a new addition to their bag of tricks.

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It's amazing that 12,000 Pakistani government troops could not take on a reported 3,000 taliban in Pakistan. Why do the government troops in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan all seem like fumbling Barney Fifes while their opposition displays such meticulous precision and derring do?

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The Taliban are burning down schools that teach females. Honor killing goes on unabated in the Islamic world, including in our country. Often a woman who is raped is stoned to death or killed by her own family. Genital mutilation is the norm for females, the removing of the clitoris assuring that females do not receive any sexual pleasure. Women are not allowed to drive in the most conservative of cultures like Saudi Arabia.

Now a typical feminist will say that the whole system is promulgated by evil men. But the mutilations are all performed by women. In secular Turkey women are demanding the right to wear head scarves. Is it a fair question to ask if they are pure victims in this tragedy or if they have some complicity in perpetuating their own repressive bondage?

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Afghan courts have just upheld a twenty year sentence for two men for their crime of translating the Koran without the original arabic verses. Religious scholars had called for their execution so you  see that we don't have the only justice system that is soft on criminals.

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In Britain today, eight men go on trial for a 2006 plot to blow up multiple airliners with explosives hidden in soft drinks.  Now I don't think I have to disclose their nationality or religion, do I? With the very occasional exception of the Tamils, ETA and IRA, it seems like you can safely stereotype the offender. Unless it's another horrible Mossad trick, that is.

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Israel is of course at the front lines in defending themselves from Islamic fundamentalism.

And they are continually blasted for their attempts to defend themselves from missile attacks and suicide bombers, especially from european intellectuals.  How soon before France, Spain, England and Denmark have their own homegrown war?  Will the tune change?  When will people get the message that religious fanaticism can not be fought by make nice rational western methods.  If they could we could send Drs. Phil and Laura over (might not be a bad idea - if they agree to keep them.)