By Bill West*

Lately, we hear much from supporters of detained ex-University of South Florida computer engineering professor Sami Al-Arian, who pleaded guilty to (was convicted of) the Federal felony violation of providing assistance and support to members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization. Al-Arian was sentenced to 57 months prison time for his crime. He was also ordered to be deported from the United States at the completion of his criminal incarceration.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

In Saudi Arabia, you can get killed just for suggesting that religions besides Islam be respected. From the McClatchy-Tribune News Service:

… A few weeks ago, one of the nation’s most senior religious authorities directed that two reporters for a mainstream Saudi newspaper be executed for publishing stories suggesting that religions other than Islam are worthy of respect. …

Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak, a 75-year-old sheik, issued the fatwa calling for the journalists’ death. …

“It’s disgraceful that articles containing this kind of apostasy should be published in some papers in Saudi Arabia,” he wrote last month. If the reporters do not repent, they “should be killed.”

Barrak is not just some cranky old miscreant. He is a member of the Saudi legislature, appointed by the king. Barrak spent a long career in senior positions at a respected government-funded university.

Soon after, 20 other senior Saudi clerics stood up to endorse enthusiastically Barrak’s fatwa. Later, about 100 human-rights advocates from across the region condemned the edict, calling it “intellectual terrorism.” That had little visible impact in Riyadh.

But a striking feature of this episode is that the Saudi government has not said or done anything about it — probably because King Abdullah realizes that many and perhaps most members of Saudi Arabia’s religious establishment agree with Barrak. After all, two weeks after he issued that fatwa, the legislature soundly defeated a proposal, favored by the Arab League, to adopt a law promoting respect for other religions. The vote was 77 to 33. …

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by Michael Rubin*

The legal case against the AKP is an affirmation of democracy rather than an assault upon it. Democracy rests upon the rule of law and constitutionalism. Neither plurality support nor a majority in parliament should place any politician or party above the law.

The AKP deserves credit for the economic growth that has occurred under its stewardship and for supporting Turkey’s accession into the European Union. There is no doubt that the AKP has revolutionized Turkish politics. In the 2002 election, it trounced the more established parties by out-campaigning them. The AKP has earned its reputation for serving its constituents.

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By Andrew Whitehead

In an article carried by MyrtleBeachOnline.com, Rep. Sue Myrick says she wants America to “wake up” and do something about terrorism. To that end, Rep. Myrick has introduced a ten-point plan apparently designed to both alert Americans to the threat of terrorism and also lay out a blue-print for taking action now to hopefully prevent incidents in future.

Among Myrick’s points (”Wake Up America”) is a call for examining the tax exempt status of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) a Washington, D.C. based front group that supports Islamist terrorism and Islamist terrorists in North America.

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By Andrew Whitehead

Omer Subhani, the communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) South Florida, authors a blog. On April 16, he wrote that he had “serious doubts” about Sami Al-Arian, the disgraced former college professor and Islamist terrorist. Read his post here.

In his blog entry, Subhani attempts to come across as an impartial observer of the trial who was swayed by the outcome of the case. If his claim weren’t so biased, it’d be funny. But when it comes to CAIR and radical Islam, nobody is laughing.

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By Andrew Whitehead

On Wednesday, 26 March, a grand jury indictment against Muthanna Al-Hanooti was unsealed in Michigan. The indictment accuses Al-Hanooti of violations of 18 and 50 United States Code. The specifics include allegations that Al-Hanooti provided information on members of the congress who were of interest to the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS), acted under direction of the IIS, accepted payments in oil (two million barrels) from the Iraqi government for acting as its agent, and provided a written brief to the Iraqi government outlining methods that could be used to lift the sanctions then in place against Iraq.

The indictment may be read here (PDF):
http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/misc/112.pdf

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By Phyllis Chesler

“I have been warned to shut up. But when Yasser Abdul Said killed those girls he did not just spill Muslim blood on American soil. He shed my blood. I am not going to be quiet. I made a promise at their funerals that I would speak out.”

I am talking to Gail Gartrell, the great-aunt of Amina and Sarah Said who were honor-murdered by their father, Yasser Said, on New Year’s Day, 2008. (I have written about this tragic case before for Pajamas Media HERE.)

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PHILADELPHIA* — The Muslim Weekly, a London-based publication, issued an apology today to Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, concerning a defamatory article it published in February 2007.

That article repeated a false allegation made by Tariq Ramadan that Daniel Pipes had lied to a conference hosted by London mayor Ken Livingstone in January 2007. (For details of what did occur, see the article by Mr. Pipes, “Is Tariq Ramadan Lying [about Magdi Allam]?“)

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by David J. Rusin*

Myra Morton approached her sleeping husband on the morning of August 5, 2007, with pain in her heart and a gun in her hand. Once the smoke had cleared at the couple’s upscale home just outside Philadelphia, a man would lie dead, a family secret would be exposed, and a spotlight would shine on the emergent phenomenon of Islamic polygamy in the Western world.

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by Daniel Pipes*

This month, Denmark’s police foiled a terrorist plot to murder Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who drew the strongest of the Muhammad pictures, prompting most of the country’s newspapers to reprint his cartoon as an act of solidarity and a signal to Islamists that their threats and violence will not succeed.

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by R. John Matthies*

Not long ago a list of “unique issues affecting Muslim Americans” was posted at the Muslim Americans for Obama ‘08 website. This describes a number of “recommendations” drafted to advance the discussion of lawful Islamism and exceptional accommodation in the United States. These suggest both that “Islamic” comportment is beyond reproach, and that one is always correct to press the case for inviolable “Muslim” space.

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by Daniel Pipes*

Westerners opposed to the application of the Islamic law (the Shari’a) watch with dismay as it goes from strength to strength in their countries — harems increasingly accepted, a church leader endorsing Islamic law, a judge referring to the Koran, clandestine Muslim courts meting out justice. What can be done to stop the progress of this medieval legal system so deeply at odds with modern life, one that oppresses women and turns non-Muslims into second-class citizens?

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By Andrew Whitehead

On January 31, 2008, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) posted a press release from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/01/30-0

In the press release, CAIR Legal Counsel Hadhira Al-Khalili stated: “Michael Savage’s frivolous and baseless lawsuit is a direct attack on First Amendment freedoms and on any citizen’s right to comment on public issues…his suit is an abuse of the judicial system and a transparent attempt to punish those who challenge his hate-filled rhetoric.”

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By Phyllis Chesler

My headscarf is giving me a headache! What I mean, is that the issue of the Islamic headscarf is a tricky, thorny one with no hard-and-fast solution in sight precisely when one is required. Just yesterday, a dear friend challenged me on this very subject.

She said: “How can you favor the state forbidding women from doing something that they want to do for religious reasons?”

A fair enough question.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

“The Dutch government is set to impose a ban on the Muslim burqa in schools and government offices,” reports Reuters. While some argue this is strictly a safety issue — a prophylactic against terrorists who would hide bombs under the Islamic head-to-toe women’s coverall — there is more to the ban: a very subjective, non-”practical” side. This is about cultural reassertion (preserving liberal democracy) as much or more so than it is about pragmatism (preventing bombings).

Many Dutch believe their European roots are being threatened by all their new Muslim immigrants. Their concerns are based in firm reality, e.g., the savage murder of Theo van Gogh in downtown Amsterdam. Many Muslims have expected that their host countries will adapt (submit) to them, as opposed to them assimilating European values (e.g., where stoning your wife is illegal, where drawing a picture of a religious figure is not punishable by death, where other religions are tolerated, etc.).

Yes, this is a limitation on free expression, but in a war to preserve civilized values, a necessary one.

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