by Judith Greblya*

Should an academic lecture on Sharia (Islamic law) become a platform for promoting fear of “Islamophobia”? This is exactly what occurred on April 14, 2011, when the University of California, Los Angeles, held the third and final lecture from Khaled Abou El Fadl — Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor in Islamic Law and chair of the Islamic Studies Interdepartmental Program at UCLA — in the series, “Sharia Watch: A View from the Inside.” The lecture was cosponsored by UCLA’s School of Law, Center for Near Eastern Studies, Journal for Islamic and Near Eastern Law, and Islamic Studies Interdepartmental Program.

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By Gary Gerofsky

Ayn Rand wrote a book which I read long ago called The Virtue of Selfishness which makes clear that altruism has many flaws and that acting in one’s own self-interest benefits not only the individual but, in the end, all society. I was intrigued by the book because it convincingly broke some sacrosanct ethical guidelines that had been drilled into my own moral conscience. Unnaturally and selflessly sacrificing one’s own beliefs and interests to benefit others can sometimes backfire and do damage to both the individual, those whom the person is trying to help and those who are part of his/her life.

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by Phyllis Chesler

Freedom of speech and women’s rights just took a major hit in Denmark earlier today when the public prosecutor found Lars Hedegaard, the President of the Danish (and International) Free Press Society, guilty of “hate speech” under section 266b of the Danish penal code.

Hedegaard’s crime was to note “the great number of family rapes in areas dominated by Muslim culture in Denmark.”

The prosecutor’s crime is far greater. Now, courtesy of this prosecution, it is officially “racist” to tell the truth about sexual violence against women in Denmark, at least when that violence is perpetrated by Muslim fathers, uncles, or cousins.

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by Daniel Pipes*

Moment Magazine asked: “In recent months, the Middle East has been set aflame by democratic uprisings, popular protests, brutal crackdowns, political upheaval and international military intervention, shattering conventional wisdom about the region. Israel — surrounded by a newly unstable Arab world and confronting a Palestinian march toward statehood — faces uncertainty on every front. Moment speaks with an array of leading Middle East experts and thinkers to examine how Israel should weather the storms unleashed by the ‘Arab Spring’.” For all sixteen replies, click here. Daniel Pipes’s response:

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By Fern Sidman

There is no doubt that the infamous attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 constituted the most definitive moment in modern history. On that frenetic day the world stood still; frozen in time as gruesome memories were etched in our collective psyches for eternity. It was on that day that an elusive, shadowy figure named Osama bin Laden, (who hitherto was considered a parenthetical nemesis) was suddenly and unceremoniously plucked from historical obscurity and catapulted head first into the global amphitheater.

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By Gary Gerofsky

Like the many-headed Hydra of Greek mythology, the al-Qaeda terror network does not have just one head. The heroic slaying of Osma bin Laden by American forces in an up-scale neighborhood near Islamabad and in sight of a Pakistani military base will be the stuff of legend but will not, as the facile pronouncements on CNN say, be the end of the war on terrorism. The Hydra will grow back its head or be replaced with many heads.

As President Obama basks in the glory of a well-planned military mission, taking ample credit for the hit, we must remind ourselves that his foreign policy is in disarray. The mission in Libya is terribly flawed — with its reluctance to honestly target Gadhafi and the joining of forces with those insurgents-come-terrorists in Libya responsible for a significant number of American soldiers’ deaths at the hands of the Taliban terrorist network. The situation in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt, Nigeria, and in many Islamic countries worldwide is in a state of confusion and bloody insanity.

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

With the killing of Osama bin Laden, we return to the age old question: which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Or, in our context, which came first — the jihadist vision or the jihadist? The ideology or the ideologue?

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By Fern Sidman

Several hundred people gathered for a solemn vigil at the Iranian Mission to the United Nations on Sunday afternoon May 1st in New York City to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day. Snapping in the breeze was an Israeli flag held aloft by participants, and several feet away stood six burning torches representing the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War II. Single handedly spearheading the event were Lynne Bursky Tammam and her husband Nessim of Great Neck, New York who organized buses from Long Island and other points outside of New York City to transport rally participants as well as arranging for a sizable contingent of Jews from the former Soviet Union to be present.

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Osama bin Laden Dead was killed today by American troops in a firefight. That means he knew he was going to die, which I find immensely more satisfying than if he were to have been instantly incinerated by a Predator-launched missile and spared pain. Congratulations to our brave men and women in the American military.

Why was bin Laden able to “hide,” basically out in the open, in Pakistan? There must’ve been collusion between Pakistan’s Islamist elements and al-Qaeda. In his announcement of bin Laden’s death tonight, President Obama said Pakistan had cooperated in the operation to kill al-Qaeda’s leader. My gut tells me that was political lip-service to Pakistan. More likely, the U.S. military told Pakistan, “Get out of our way or else!”

And why did Obama have to mention the, “We’re not at war with Islam,” bull-sh*t. Bin Laden was an evil criminal. All free-thinking people should be relieved. The U.S. certainly doesn’t have to cater to any special interest group and/or apologize for killing the world’s #1 scum-bag.

We’ll see as more info comes out. Justice has been done. G#d bless America.

By Barry Rubin

Remember when we were told that the Muslim Brotherhood was moderate and weak? Why it was so benign that the Brotherhood had even promised only to contest one-third of the seats. And a revolutionary Islamist, antisemitic and genocide-oriented, anti-American, anti-Western, and anti-Christian organization would never lie to us, right?

I mean you can call for all of the Jews in the world to be wiped out; demand a jihad against America; and work day and night for decades to bring to power a totalitarian Islamist state that would chop off limbs, stone people, and murder anyone who didn’t want to be a Muslim any more. But you would never, ever deceive an American reporter!

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by David J. Rusin*

Law enforcement scrutiny, detainment by police, and a court date to answer trumped-up charges: these are the consequences of preaching Christianity to Muslims not only throughout much of the Islamic world, but sometimes even in America as well.

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