A personal, historical vignette

By Cainnech Ó Sullibhain

In late October 1964 the M/V Kohinur (London Registry), fully loaded with general cargo, left Dunkerque, France headed for the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, and Shanghai, China. When we reached Shanghai, it was respite and a time to relax. I got in the small ferry that took me from the anchorage in the Yang-Tse River to Shanghai. There, I went to visit the People’s Friendship Store not far from the old Ellie Cadoorie Building, which was the tallest building in Shanghai then. It was built by Sir Ellie Cadoorie, a businessman and self-made millionaire, in the days of the British Concession in China.

(more…)

Response to Committee on Student Life’s decision against The Primary Source
To: The Primary Source
cc: Tufts University Committee on Student Life, and posted to the Intenet
From: Bill Levinson

Regarding:
TUFTS UNIVERSITY
OUTCOME OF THE COMMITTEE ON STUDENT LIFE’S HEARING OF COMPLAINTS BROUGHT BY DAVID DENNIS AND THE MUSLIM STUDENT ASSOCIATION AGAINST THE PRIMARY SOURCE
APRIL 30, 2007
Sophia Gordon Hall, 6:30pm-midnight

….The second [complaint], filed by the Muslim Student Association (“MSA”), represented by Shirwac Mohamed and Nayema Khan, charged The Primary Source with harassment and creating a hostile environment on campus through the publication of “Islam-Arabic Translation: Submission,” a commentary published in its April 11, 2007 edition that imitated the format of the MSA’s advertisement for events during Islamic Awareness Week.

…In the case of the Muslim Student Association (“MSA”) v. The Primary Source, by a vote of 7 to 0, we find that the MSA proved, by a preponderance of the evidence, that The Primary Source harassed Muslim students at Tufts, and created a hostile environment for them by publishing “Islam-Arabic Translation: Submission.” The Committee found that the MSA established that the commentary at issue targeted members of the Tufts Muslim community for harassment and embarrassment, and that Muslim students felt psychologically intimidated by the piece.

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

LGF has caught the Daily Kos community in the act: In an article entitled, “ME-Sen: Lieberman to raise money for Collins,” a commentator states, “Once we lock up a Majority where we don’t need Lieberman, I hope they will kick him to the curb like the dog he is.” This comment received 24 positive votes and 0 negative. A follow-up states, “Don’t insult dogs like that Given a choice between my dog and Lieberman, I’d gas him without thinking twice.” (4+ / 3-). A bit later, a commentator advises hiding the gas-the-Jew vitriol: “Sharon, jeez I know you didn’t mean it that way, but a reference to gassing a Jew needs to be hidden. I hope you will join me in asking that this comment be hidden and that there will not be a pile on. I will find some other comments of yours and uprate to make up for this.” (4+ / 0-). Too late, I’ve archived a copy for posterity. I’ll post the archived copy ASAP… Here’s the archive. See here for the Daily Kos’s mission statement.

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

A 17-year-old Japanese kid killed and beheaded his mother. He put her head in a bag and stopped by an internet cafe to watch a music DVD before turning himself in to police(!?!?!). But not to worry, “some [psycho-babbling] experts” have reassured the nation — the perp was “desperate:”

…While such gruesome killings have outraged the nation, some experts caution that the dismembering of victims is not always a symptom of deeper social disfunction.

“In many cases, they killed in a desperate situation and carried or hid the body by dismembering it to avoid being caught for homicide,” said Yoshikazu Yuuma, an expert in criminal psychology at Saitama Institute of Technology outside Tokyo.

Ya’ gotta consider all angles now…

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Today is Jerusalem Day, marking the 40th anniversary of the reunification of this great, ancient city. Under Israeli control, Muslims are allowed free access to the Temple Mount. Under Arab control, Jews were not afforded the same courtesy. Despite all the hysterical Palestinian claims to Israel, Jews have historically sound ties to the Holy Land. Even now, Muslims continue their “excavations” on the Temple Mount, destroying Jewish artifacts, or dumping archeological evidence in a trash heap. In fact, Palestinians are fleeing the West Bank for Israeli Jerusalem to avoid their own people’s societal and economic chaos (civil war). Please join me in celebrating a united, Israeli Jerusalem by watching this excellent short video from Aish.com:

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

While the Palestinian civil war rages on, Hamas fighters are such morons that they killed 5 of their own. Some Palestinians are fleeing this chaos for… Israel. A nurse tending to the wounded was shot in the head and is now brain-dead. Hamas is trying to drag Israel into their conflict with Fatah, as they cannot accept responsibility for their own chaos.

From the AP:

Hamas gunmen killed five of their own combatants in an ambush Wednesday on a Fatah vehicle that had been carrying Hamas detainees, Fatah officials said.

Also killed were two members of the Fatah-affiliated Preventive Security force that had been guarding the detained Hamas members, the officials said. …

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Our sons and daughters are risking their lives in places in Iraq and Afghanistan. When they come home, they should be well taken care of. But we found out in March how wounded veterans were being (mis)treated. Has anything changed since then? No. How do you define corruption? Just ask the people who run the VA:

Nearly two dozen officials who received hefty performance bonuses last year at the Veterans Affairs Department also sat on the boards charged with recommending the payments.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press raise questions of conflicts of interest or appearances of conflicts in connection with the bonuses, some of which went to senior officials involved in crafting a budget that came up $1.3 billion short and jeopardized veterans’ health care. …

(more…)

by Jeffrey Azarva*

On November 6, 2006, Egyptian security forces in Alexandria arrested 22-year-old Abdul Karim Nabil Sulayman, better known by his pen name Karim Amir, for posting articles critical of the state and Islam on a personal blog. His arrest occurred the same day Reporters without Borders added Egypt to its “worst suppressors of Internet expression” list.[1]

(more…)

By Barry Rubin
Palgrave-Macmillan, 2007

Among the biggest world problems and greatest threats are terrorism, radical Islamism, and Middle East crises. Among its greatest challenges are the Iraq issue, the growing power of Iran, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. In all of these issues, Syria plays a central role; in most of them it is one of the greatest or the number-one obstacle. Today, Syria sponsors terrorist groups that attack the United States, Iraq, Israel, and Lebanon.

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Here we go again — Palestinians killing each other, and preparing for an escalation of the conflict — as Hamas and Fatah vie for power:

Palestinian gunmen from militant group Hamas have attacked pro-Fatah forces near the Gaza-Israel border, killing at least eight people, reports say. …

At least 16 people have died in Gaza since Sunday in the worst outbreak of factional violence in several months.

Meanwhile a 500-strong contingent of fighters has entered Gaza from Egypt, thought to be pro-Fatah reinforcements. …

(more…)

by Daniel Pipes*

My visit to Istanbul this week comes in the midst of the greatest challenge to the Turkish secular republic since its creation in 1923.

Founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire, the republic came into existence at about the high-water mark of Western confidence, when it appeared that European ways would become the global template. Atatürk imposed a dizzying array of changes, including European laws, the Latin alphabet, the Gregorian calendar, personal last names, hats instead of fezzes, monogamy, Sunday as the day of rest, a ban on dervishes, the legal right to drink alcohol, and Turkish as a liturgical language.

(more…)

By Bill Levinson

The United Muslims came to our attention through this posting:

Muslims on YouTube have formed several groups where users and videos that criticize Islam (which they define as “Hate Speech”) are listed and mass-flagged as abuse. YouTube seems to remove videos and sometimes even ban users automatically. Muslims claim that they only flag videos that have violated YouTube’s TOS, but this has been been proven false

A group on Youtube called United Muslims put up a hit list of Youtube members they wanted to ban. The thing is, that they can’t handle the truth. Sure, some of the videos go overboard, but so do many anti-Christian, anti-Israel, etc. videos that don’t get banned by agenda. And as far as I’m concerned, shouldn’t get banned. I’ve even seen Holocaust denying videos on Youtube. I’m all for free speech, and as I’ve said before, the nuts (like the YECs) will find that the internet is their worst enemy.

(more…)

by Barry Rubin

Last month, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress visited Damascus, flattered their hosts, and called for talks with the Syrian dictatorship. Last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice broke the previous boycott by meeting her Syrian counterpart.

What has happened since then shows this approach to be totally wrong.

As demonstrated in the state-controlled Syrian media, the regime took all the calls in America for U.S. concessions as a victory proving that it could continue its policies. There is nothing subtle about it.

(more…)

By RA Sprinkle

A synopsis of world history paints a dark picture of humanity, or rather, of mankind’s inhumanity. The weak have never been secure, insomuch, that survival in the animal kingdom is a suitable allegory to that of the kingdom of men.

On the other hand, strength alone does not ensure peace. To the contrary, more often than not strength has been used as an oppressive force to conquer and subdue, to kill, spoil and plunder.

Whatever peace the world will know will only come by way of strength with principles, not by an equilibrium of shared power among nations, nor by agreement upon common interests, but by the power of a greater power, which, guided by principles and values exerts the proper degree of force as a counter weight to arrest hostile and aggressive forces.

(more…)

By Andrew Whitehead

The recent arrest of the “Fort Dix Six” has shocked (shocked!) the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), North America’s premier defender of Islamist terrorism in North America. CAIR, the only Muslim organization in North America certified by Allah to determine just who is and who is not a “True Muslim”, is apparently upset that the Fort Dix Six, without permission from CAIR’s Saudi taskmasters, dared to invoke Islam as justification for the planned attack on Fort Dix:

Link

CAIR sent a statement to the press asking:

“Media outlets and public officials refrain from linking (the Fort Dix) case to the faith of Islam.”

(more…)