by Daniel Pipes*

With a new law yesterday, the French salvaged an aspect of Western civilization.

The law prohibits “concealment of the face in public, especially by wearing a full body covering” (”dissimulation du visage dans l’espace public, en particulier par la pratique du port du voile intégral“). In other words, it does not explicitly mention the Islamist gear known as niqab (which covers a woman’s body except for the eyes) and burqa (covers the entire body).

Feminine beauty? Burqas on parade.

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By Jubin Afshar

Why would Iraq’s Prime Minister Al-Maliki order a heavy assault on 3400 unarmed, defenseless Iranian dissidents in a refugee settlement northeast of Baghdad? Reports reaching news agencies confirm that at least 31 Iranian dissidents have been killed and hundreds wounded. Medical supplies are being blocked as the critically wounded continue to die.

Ashraf has been home to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the most steadfast opposition force to Iran’s ruling theocracy since the late 1980’s, when the group’s thousands of members and supporters moved to Iraq. The residents of Ashraf have organized resistance to the Iranian regime since then. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Ashraf residents disarmed in a deal with the US military that pledged in return to protect them. Ashraf residents are internationally “Protected Persons” based on the Fourth Geneva Convention.

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By Fern Sidman

Russian born oligarch and Israeli billionaire, Dr. Alexander Maskevich, has recently announced his intention to create a pro-Israel international news network, similar to Al Jazeera and the BBC. Speaking at the United Israel Appeal’s annual conference of Jewish leaders in Washington last week, Dr. Mashkevich, who is president of the organization, said of the network, “It won’t be a propaganda channel, but will simply tell the truth. The most important thing is to represent Israel on an international level, with real information.”

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

The now infamous Koran burning by Florida pastor Terry Jones has created hysteria in the Muslim world. In Afghanistan alone, some twenty people, including U.N. workers, have been killed and beheaded to screams of “Allahu Akbar!” Western leaders around the globe — including Obama and members of Congress — have unequivocally condemned Jones’ actions (without bothering to point out that freedom of expression is a prized American liberty). Many are even blaming the deaths in Afghanistan directly on Jones; Bill O’Reilley says he has “blood on his hands.”

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By David North, CIS.org

The Board of Immigration Appeals did the right thing on April 8 – and I hope governmental publicists let the Muslim world know about it.

They probably won’t, partially because the Congress may be shutting down the government, and partially because foreign policy writers rarely pay attention to immigration issues, both unfortunate situations.

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by Phyllis Chesler

I have finally lived long enough to see some dreams come true.

A Russian billionaire, Alexander Mashkevich, has just announced that he will fund a pro-Israel, pro-truth television news channel, a “Jewish Al-Jazeera.” God bless him! I have been calling for something like this for seven years. I hope that Mr. Mashkevich and his advisors understand that this new channel must be far better than Al-Jazeera, not only in terms of truth-telling but in other ways as well. Al-Jazeera broadcasts only in Arabic and English, and is only now preparing to broadcast in Turkish and Urdu. The “Jewish Al-Jazeera” must appear in many more languages simultaneously: Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Kurdish, Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Bengali, Pashto, the Indonesian and Malaysian languages, as well as in all the European, East European, and former Soviet languages.

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

President Obama’s recent explanation for militarily engaging Libya is yet another example of how U.S. leaders increasingly rationalize their policies via sentimental and idealistic platitudes, rather than reality or the long view — or just plain common sense.

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by Daniel Pipes*

When Pastor Terry Jones, 59, announced an intent to burn a Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 in 2010, the U.S. government, fearing attacks on American troops abroad, put intense pressure on him to desist and eventually he called off his plans.

Jones, however, did not cancel the ceremonial judgment of the Islamic scripture — he only delayed it by six months. On March 20, in a six-hour ceremony called “International Judge the Koran Day,” he convened a mock-judicial process in Florida that deemed the book “guilty of crimes against humanity,” then set a copy on fire.

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By Fern Sidman

“How can we remain silent when there is the possibility that the Jewish community of Hevron will be uprooted?” queried Rabbi Simcha Hochbaum, Director of Tourism for the community of Hevron on Tuesday evening, April 5th in New York. Several hundred people gathered at the West Side Institutional Synagogue on Manhattan’s upper west side to attend a special presentation on the timeless legacy that Hevron represents for the Jewish people.

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by Steven Shamrak

After many years of advocating for Zionism and the rights of the Jewish people to live on their ancestral land, nobody can say that I am a Qaddafi sympathizer. During decades of his reign in Libya he has proven himself as an egomaniac dictator who has skilfully combined, as all Arab rulers do, brutality with tribal autonomy in order to stay in power. He used terror and Islamic terrorism, as most of the Muslim despots are guilty of this “cultural behaviour” and have been sponsoring Islamic terrorism openly or in stealth, in order to raise his status among Muslim leaders!

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by Alexander H. Joffe*

The initial spasm of images from the Cairo Museum shocked observers. As tens of thousands of demonstrators confronted the security forces in what quickly evolved into the first popular revolution in Egypt’s history, the museum was ransacked in a scene reminiscent of the looted tombs of ancient Egyptian kings. A statue of Tutankhamun astride a panther was ripped from its base but then cast to the floor when thieves discovered it was gilded and not solid gold. A boat model from a tomb was smashed, the figures huddled in the boathouse pulverized but the navigator at the bow still pointing sadly forward. Two mummies were beheaded, mouths agape; it was rumored that they were Tut’s grandparents.

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By Ronald W. Mortensen, CIS.org

When employers exert their power and influence to safeguard their access to an unlimited supply of illegal alien labor, they put profits ahead of principle and sacrifice millions of American children to identity theft. These employers are like war profiteers who put profits ahead of the interests of their nation and its people.

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A briefing by Dirk Vandewalle*

On March 11, before the United States and its allies launched attacks against Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, Dirk Vandewalle, a professor in the department of government at Dartmouth College and author of A History of Modern Libya, spoke to the Middle East Forum via conference call, explaining why it is not in U.S. interest to engage Libya militarily.

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By Fern Sidman

Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis, founder and president of Hineni, the internationally renowned Torah outreach organization made a special appearance on the hit television talk show, “Tuesday Night Live in Jerusalem” on March 29th at the Majestic Theater in Dallas, Texas. TNL is the first ever Jerusalem based, English language television show to broadcast internationally. Hosted by recognized TV and radio personalities Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel, TNL highlights the widespread support for Israel that can be found throughout the US. Dallas is just one of the cities that the program is broadcast from during their 2011 US tour.

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By David North, CIS.org

The Department of Labor can bar companies from participating in foreign-worker programs due to misconduct. While the total number of such debarments is small, many of the individual cases are fascinating and grim stories of corporate greed and worker abuse. A state-by-state listing of violators is attached at the end of this report. It should be a tempting menu for investigative reporters seeking good stories and/or for graduate students looking for research topics.

While there are large numbers of employers participating in the various foreign-worker programs run by the U.S. Department of Labor, all starting with the visa letter H, DoL rarely finds one of them violating the rules seriously enough to even temporarily suspend their participation. We have, using various federal sources, compiled an annotated list of the misbehaving companies that have been debarred by DoL: in many cases the nature of the abuse is both fascinating and depressing.

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