by Reza Molavi and K. Luisa Gandolfo*

In the 30-year reign of Iran’s Islamic Republic, there have been few controversies as serious as the one surrounding the 2009 elections. The votes that brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power for a second term have been challenged, not just on paper, but by citizens taking to the streets in angry protests that have only been quelled by brute force on the part of the establishment. Less well known is the upset that followed Ahmadinejad’s nepotistic appointment of Esfandiar Rahim Masha’i, the father of his daughter-in-law, to the post of first vice president. Not long after this, Iran’s supreme leader, ‘Ali Khamenei, demonstrated his personal authority over the entire political system by forcing Ahmadinejad to reconsider his appointee, leading to Masha’i’s dismissal. Masha’i had become controversial for his impolitic references to Israel and America. In a speech at a tourism convention in July 2008, for example, he had observed: “Not only we have no enemy, but we are friends with the American people, with the Israeli people, and we are proud that we are friendly with all the nations in the world.”[1]

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by Daniel Pipes*

Rashad Hussain, Barack Obama’s special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, has run into a problem: He appears to be an Islamist. The evidence largely concerns a public statement he made six years ago, as Josh Gerstein reports in Politico:

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by Michael Rubin*

After the Iraqi parliament banned 500 candidates from contesting the March 7 national elections, Vice President Joseph Biden rushed to Baghdad to urge Iraqi political leaders to reconsider. While the ban has fueled U.S. cynicism about Iraqi democracy, such cynicism is unwarranted, especially now.

The Iraqi parliament’s decision did not wipe out Sunni candidates. Even the majority Shia lists are multi-sectarian. Iraqis say the controversy is really about rule-of-law and sovereignty issues. Across the ethnic and sectarian spectrum — and even in senior Iraqi military circles — Iraqis consider it likely that there will be a Baathist coup attempt following U.S. withdrawal, even if they disagree about its chances of success. Indeed, it is no coincidence the current defense minister is among those banned by parliament.

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WASHINGTON (January 28, 2010) — The latest government data show that over one-fifth of incarcerated criminals in America are foreign-born. A large share of these individuals may have violated immigration laws and could be subject to deportation. Immigration status may be relevant to investigations of criminal activity, so officers in every police and sheriff’s department need a basic understanding of immigration issues and policies and how they intersect with public safety matters.

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by Daniel Pipes*

The Swiss Islamist Tariq Ramadan was about to take up a position at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana in 2004 when the U.S. government prevented him from entering the country on the grounds that he had funded two Hamas-related groups. For five years, his exclusion has been debated and tried. Finally, it was reversed today. The Associated Press explains:

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By David North, CIS.org

The headline above was not the headline used by the Washington Post of January 9 over an immigration policy story; the Post’s bland take was: “Immigrants invest in U.S. businesses in exchange for visas“, but either heading would have been equally accurate.

The rich have always had a way to avoid troublesome programs that weigh on the rest of us. During the Civil War, on the Union side, a young man could avoid the draft by hiring a substitute. During the Vietnam War, if you could afford to stay in graduate school for years, you could avoid that war’s draft, as former Vice President Cheney did. And it is true in the immigration process as well.

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by Daniel Pipes*

The near-success of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, to set off an explosive on Christmas Day should open the American public’s eyes to the sad state of counterterrorism eight years after 9/11.

The incident involved a Nigerian national in Seat 19A — ideally placed over the fuel tanks, atop the wing, and next to the exterior of the aircraft — of Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. As summarized by the Wall Street Journal, it:

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By R. A. Sprinkle

The edge of the abyss

Although the decline of the United States has taken place over a period of decades, in retrospect, critical moments provide the dots, which, when connected create on ominous picture of conspiracy. Yes, conspiracy — the “C” word — a word stigmatized to instantly conjure in the mind visages of paranoid schizoids in tin-foil hats with eyes darting to and fro frantically in search of secret enemy agents. There is no ‘man’ behind the curtain — or so they would have everyone believe. And, in a sense, they are right; for the ‘man’ is not behind the curtain, but working openly, convincing onlookers they are seeing something other than what is before them.

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By Phyllis Chesler

The Canadian government has just revamped its citizenship guide for immigrants. The document is titled “The Rights and Responsibilities of Canadian Citizenship.” According to Canada’s National Post:

“In Canada, men and women are equal under the law,” the document says. “Canada’s openness and generosity do not extend to barbaric cultural practices that tolerate spousal abuse, ‘honour killings,’ female genital mutilation or other gender-based violence. Those guilty of these crimes are severely punished under Canada’s criminal laws.”

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by Cinnamon Stillwell*

As reported last week by Campus Watch, Dalia Mogahed, appointee to President Obama’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, executive director and senior analyst of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, and co-author, along with Georgetown University’s John Esposito, of Who Speaks for Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think, appeared (by phone) earlier this month on the UK-based Islam Channel television program “Muslimah Dilemma” (view here and read the complete transcript here.) Ibtihal Bsis, the show’s host, is a member of the Islamist group Hizb ut Tahrir; Mogahed’s fellow guest, Nazreen Nawaz, is the group’s national women’s media representative. Given these affiliations, it’s no surprise that the discussion included such extremist fare as the promotion of sharia law for — of all things — protecting women’s rights, condemnation for secular pluralistic democracy, and the revival of a mythical caliphate as the answer to the Muslim world’s woes.

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By Andrew Whitehead

A group of investigative reporters have opened the proverbial can of worms for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The investigative team, organized by Dave Gaubatz and including his son, Chris, and a small band of researchers infiltrated CAIR’s national headquarters for six months and spirited away over 12,000 documents and 300 hours of video that has been compiled into a book that clearly demonstrates CAIR’s plan to cripple and destroy the constitution of the United States from within.

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By Barry Rubin

There’s nothing written about more often — and inaccurately — than the Palestinians, yet there is curiously little interest about the politics and ideology which governs their behavior. The same situation applies to the man s slated to become that movement’s next leader, only the third to hold that post in 50 years, after Yasir Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas.

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by Daniel Pipes*

Almost unnoticed, Binyamin Netanyahu won a major victory last week when Barack Obama backed down on a signature policy initiative. This about-face suggests that U.S.-Israel relations are no longer headed for the disaster I have been fearing.

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By Andrew Whitehead

For over fifteen years, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has spread its evil tentacles over our country. Our soldiers are currently fighting Islamist terror overseas and yet we face the ugly truth that not only do we have a foreign front for Islamist terror eating like a cancer from within, but that this terrorist-supporting “Muslim civil rights group” has been actively supported by a member of our own government.

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by Supna Zaidi*

Despite being born at the same time as India, Pakistan seems to be regressing while India becomes an increasingly influential player in global politics. This is because Pakistan has refused to end the feudal system unlike India. Pakistani land reforms were first attempted in the 1950s by General Mohammad Ayub Khan’s government, who wanted, among other social improvements, to increase “agricultural output, promote social justice, and ensure security of tenure”. However, the regulations didn’t really break up large land holdings or reduce the power of the zamindars. The ceiling was placed on individual ownership, not on families, so land was simply distributed among the family members, thus leaving all the power and control with the zamindars.

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