The Western Word

This Week's Editorial

THE HEAVY TREAD OF INTOLERANCE
By Avi Davis

Leftist academics are quite fond of proclaiming that freedom of speech in America is an illusion. Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Ward Churchill, Tariq Ali and many of their acolytes have consistently argued that their views are not given sufficient coverage in the press and that the doors of many institutions remain closed to the expression of their views.

The charge itself is notoriously off the mark. For not only are these doyens of the far left free to catapult their poisonous cocktail of anti- Americanism, anti-Semitism and general contempt for American exceptionalism into our academic institutions, they have also become campus media darlings, their pronouncements taken with the utmost seriousness and afforded standing ovations for their most prolix and incendiary comments.

Rather, it would seem that those who stand for true Western values of openness and debate have a much better case for alleging creeping censorship in the United States.

Cases in point:

On July 9, Robert Spencer was scheduled to speak at the American Library Association convention in Chicago but was canceled at the last minute after pressure from the Council on American-Islamic. Spencer, the editor of JihadWatch.com and an associate fellow of the American Freedom Alliance, was invited to join a panel forum at the ALA's annual General Meeting on the topic "Perspectives on Islam: Beyond the Stereotyping." According to his attorney, William J. Becker Jr., as he was leaving to catch a plane for the event, Spencer learned that it had been cancelled. According to reports he later read on the Internet, Ahmed Rehab, Chicago executive director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was responsible for bringing about the cancellation. In a letter to ALA, Rehab wrote: "I ask you to rescind the invitation to Mr. Spencer in order to maintain the integrity of the panel and the reputation of the ALA." Mr. Spencer, he argued, offered "grotesque viewpoints that lie well outside the bounds of reason and civilized debate.”

On September 20, an appearance the Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia by Brigitte Gabriel, a Christian Lebanese advocate for the rights of Muslim women and the President of Act for America! was cancelled. It appears that the decision was made after pressure was exerted by members of the Naval Academy amidst concerns about offending Muslims. It was not the first time Ms. Gabriel has been confronted by hostility to her appearances. In April 2006 she was invited to give a lecture sponsored by Professor David Patterson of the Judaic Studies Program. When news about of her appearance spread, the Muslim community both on and off campus launched a full-scale campaign to stop her lecture. They demanded that Dr. Patterson cancel her speech. E-mails flooded the University of Memphis administration and Dr. Patterson from Muslim students on campus and Muslims in the community and mosques.

On October 8, the well known blogger Pamela Geller was scheduled to appear on The Eddie Burke Show on WBYR, “the best news and talk in Alaska,” to debate the “freelance journalist” and anti-Semite Alison Weir. Because Weir made known her displeasure at the appearance of Geller known, Geller’s appearance was cancelled. Weir appeared on the show alone.

On October 12 David Horowitz, President of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, was scheduled to speak at St. Louis University but because of the title of his speech, “Islamo-Fascism Awareness and Civil Rights., he too was cancelled. Horowitz commented: “I have spoken at 400 universities. This is the first time my speech has been censored and stopped by an administration. And they are supposed to be the guardians of intellectual discourse.” Cary Nelson, the president of the American Association of University Professors, said that with this cancellation, St. Louis University “joins the small group of campuses that are universities in name only…. The free exchange of ideas is not just a comforting offshoot of higher education; it defines the fundamental nature of the enterprise.”

All of this follows hot on the heels of another outrage, this time perpetrated at Yale University. Just two weeks ago, on October 1, the University hosted both Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist who had penned the notorious “Bomber turban cartoon,” as well as Brandeis Prof. Jytte Klausen , author of The Cartoons that Shook the World.   The latter had been subject in August to a last minute decision by Yale University Press to remove not only the reprinted 12 cartoons but also all representations of Muhammad.   What was the reaction of the Yale Faculty to the appearances? As Peter Berkowitz recounts in Saturday’s weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal, while Westergaard's appearance prompted a small faculty-led panel, the same faculty remained entirely silent and unmoved by Yale's censorship of Ms. Klausen's book. Not one word of support was spoken on her behalf.

These acts of censorship, which smack of the violation of free speech in its most egregious form, may be endemic to the kind of intolerance we now see metastizing unchecked throughout our elite institutions.

This week the American Freedom Alliance learned of the spread of this disease through first hand experience. A premiere screening of the documentary Darwin’s Dilemma, at the Californa Science Center’s IMAX Theater, which was to be the kick off to our October Darwin Debates series, was cancelled by CSC on the claim that we had issued unapproved publicity for the event.   Nothing of the sort had occured. The alleged publicity had been distributed by a third party, and, as we soon gleaned from emails and other sources, was a mere pretext for the cancellation of a film whose message on intelligent design neither the California Science Center nor its national afilliate, the Smithsonian Institute, approves.

The California Science Center, I should remind my readers, is a public institution, paid by and for with tax payer dollars. Its mission statement claims that the Center “aspire(s) to ……inspire science learning in everyone….. because we value science as an indispensable tool for understanding our world, accessibility and inclusiveness….”

One would that such ‘inclusiveness’ would incorporate views it does not, as an institution, necessarily embrace.

Stated baldly, this public institution had a responsibility to a California organization to allow free and open discussion of contoversial subjects of a scientifc nature, and no more so at an event that is actually labeled ‘a debate’, with both sides of the issue represented.

Needless to say, a law suit is pending.

AFA has found an alternative venue to replace the IMAX Theater, albeit at great expense and with a tinge of bitterness at being treated in such a reprehensible manner.

But the story is not over.

Those who live in the Los Angeles area now have an opportunity now to express their outrage, not just toward the California Sceince Center, but to the entire throng of elite institutions who demonstrate consistent denial of First Amendment rights.   Join us in attending the new location for the screening on Sunday night, October 25 at the Davidson Conference Center at USC.   Make clear your disgust with the way an elite and high profile institution handled a freedom one might have thought it was pledged to protect.

Who knows, if we cheer those films loudly enough maybe our voices will heard over the din of traffic at the California Science Center, just a quarter of a mile away.

Avi Davis is the President of the American Freedom Alliance.

Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ blog
Avi Davis is the president of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com

Obama Adviser Loves Sharia
by Robert Spencer

Dalia Mogahed, Barack Obama’s adviser on Muslim affairs, appeared on British television last week, where she said: “Sharia is not well understood and Islam as a faith is not well understood.” How have we misunderstood Islamic law? We have associated it with “maximum criminal punishments” and “laws that... to many people seem unequal to women.” The Western view of Sharia was “oversimplified,” saidBarack Obama’s adviser on Muslim affairs; most Muslim women worldwide, she said, associate it with “gender justice.” Here’s some gender justice straight out of the Koran, the Islamic holy book that forms the basis of Sharia. As I explain in my book The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran, the Koran declares that a woman’s testimony is worth half that of a man: “Get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her” (2:282). It rules that a son’s inheritance should be twice the size of that of a daughter: “Allah (thus) directs you as regards your children’s (inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females” (4:11).(Humanevents)

Two events last week serve as stark reminders that the U.S. and our allies are not politically prepared to deal with those who make war on us. On Monday, a court in Pakistan released Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the man who likely masterminded last year’s coordinated terrorist assault on Mumbai. Three days later, in a move cheered by the Obama Administration, the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives rejected a measure to prevent detainees at Guantanamo Bay from being transferred to the U.S. mainland. These events demonstrate the stark contrast between the brave efforts of those fighting for us on battlefields and the parlor games of the political class in Washington and some allied capitals. The release of Saeed is a stunning unforced error in the war. He is head of a front group for Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist group with expanding capacities for violence and subversion in South Asia. LeT’s assault on the Indian city of Mumbai last November paralyzed the city and cost 163 innocent lives. His release demonstrates once again the folly of using civilian courts to process those waging war against us.

Napolitano Says Al-Qaeda-Style Terrorists Are in U.S. (Update3)-By Jonathan D. Salant and Jeff Bliss
Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Homeland SecuritySecretary Janet Napolitano said law-enforcement authorities are tracking terrorists with al-Qaeda leanings in the U.S. “It is fair to say there are individuals in the United States who ascribe to al-Qaeda-type beliefs,” Napolitano said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “And so it makes information-sharing, it makes effective law enforcement and it makes the shared responsibility of law enforcement ever so important.” Information-sharing between federal, state and local law- enforcement agencies is “much improved” since the Sept. 11 attacks, she said. In September, U.S. authorities indicted Najibullah Zazi, 24, an Afghan immigrant and former Denver airport shuttle-van driver, on federal terrorism conspiracy charges. They said bomb-making instructions were found on a laptop computer in his rental car. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the case had connections to al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001. The threat of attack “is always with us,” Napolitano said today. Benchmark stock indexes trimmed gains after her comments. Napolitano, 51, made her remarks in an interview with Bloomberg reporters. She touched on a variety of areas she oversees. (Bloomberg)

Exclusive: What do Mosques at German Schools Portend for Germany’s Future?-Dr. Sami Alrabaa
A German court ruled last week that Muslims have the right to have their own mosques at German schools. Hence, the series of Muslims infiltrating German courts continues. If things go on like this in Germany, Muslims, led by radicals, would demographically and “democratically-legally” take over by 2070. They are exploiting religious freedom and terrorism to advance their agenda. While Germany is receiving terrorist threats – the latest was two weeks ago – warning that al Qaeda would repeat 9/11 in Berlin and else where unless the German troops withdraw from Afghanistan, a German court in Berlin ruled that Muslim students have the right to have a separate room at their schools to pray, and critics of Muslim immigrants are severely attacked by both media and politicians. Bekkay Horrach, a Moroccan-German Muslim immigrant and now a Taliban terrorist in Afghanistan and Pakistan, posted several video clips on the Internet from Wazirstan/Pakistan urging the German government to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, otherwise “Jihad would come to Germany” and al Qaeda would activate its suicide and car bombers all over Germany. Last week, a German court in Berlin ruled that Muslim students have the right to have a special room at school for prayers. (Familysecuritymatters)

Canadian Muslim group calls for burqa ban-AP
TORONTO (AP) — A Canadian Muslim organization urged the Canadian government Thursday to ban traditional Muslim garments designed to cover a woman's face, saying they are medieval and misogynist symbols of extremism with no basis in Islam. The Muslim Canadian Congress has called on the federal government to prohibit the burqa and the niqab because it says that practice of covering one's face has no place in a society that supports gender equality. "Muslims around the world know that this attire is misogynistic dress for women that is being promoted by the Taliban and al-Qaeda," said Tarek Fatah, founder of the group. "It is a means of holding women back in society." The burqa is a head-to-toe gown with a mesh-like panel over the face that allows a woman to see and breathe. The niqab is a veil that leaves only the eyes exposed. Fatah said the ban should not extend to the hijab, a traditional head scarf that does not cover the face. (USAtoday)

Libyan Hurt After Throwing Bomb At Milan Barracks-Reuters
MILAN (Reuters) - A Libyan man threw a bomb at an Italian army barracks in Milan early on Monday and was injured in the explosion, losing a hand, police said, but there was no immediate explanation of the motive for the attack. An Italian soldier was slightly hurt in the attack at the Santa Barbara barracks near San Siro soccer stadium. Police said the man, carrying a small bomb in his bag, got into the barrack compound and threw the bomb while shouting in Arabic. An army corporal on guard duty managed to stop the man getting closer to the building, helping to avoid more damage or casualties, police said. Police identified the attacker as 35-year-old Mohammed Game and said he was a Libyan immigrant with a proper residence permit who was married to an Italian woman and has lived in Italy since 2003. Game prayed regularly at Milan's main Jenner Street mosque but did not appear to be an extremist, the mosque's president, Abdel Hamid Shaari, told Ansa news agency. "He dresses like a westerner, with a very short beard. If we had suspected anything we would have told the police," he said. (Reporting by Diana Bin and Massimiliano DiGiorgio; Writing by Stephen Brown; Editing by Janet Lawrence) (NYT)

Norway: Swimming classes for Muslim girls pose dilemma-Islam in Europe
The head of the youth committee in Bergen thinks that it's a dilemma that many Muslim girls don't learn to swim because they're not allowed to go into a pool with boys. "In Norway we're not allowed to separate boys and girls in education. I think that's a principle that we should adhere to and that also Muslims parents should accept," stresses Røssland. Yet she thinks it's necessary to find practical solutions so that Muslim girls would also participate in swimming classes. "It isn't just about integration. It's also a question of the girls' safety. We can't let the girls drown because we will force them to go to swimming class together with boys," says Røssland. She stresses that she won't support having girls and boys completely separated from each other in gym class. "The Norwegian study plans don't allow it. Muslim students must also follow the law," says Røssland. Education director Kjellbjørg Lunde in Hordaland county also thinks that girls should be able to have their own days in the swimming pool. (Islamineurope)

Barack Obama adviser says Sharia Law is misunderstood-Andrew Gilligan and Alex Spillius in Washington
President Barack Obama's adviser on Muslim affairs, Dalia Mogahed, has provoked controversy by appearing on a British television show hosted by a member of an extremist group to talk about Sharia Law. Miss Mogahed, appointed to the President's Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships, said the Western view of Sharia was "oversimplified" and the majority of women around the world associate it with "gender justice". The White House adviser made the remarks on a London-based TV discussion programme hosted by Ibtihal Bsis, a member of the extremist Hizb ut Tahrir party. The group believes in the non-violent destruction of Western democracy and the creation of an Islamic state under Sharia Law across the world. (Telegraph.co.uk)

Schoolgirl 'was tortured by her father' before she was murdered in honour killing-Daily Mail Reporter
A 15-year-old schoolgirl allegedly murdered for falling in love told her boyfriend that she had been 'tortured' by her father, a court heard today. Tulay Goren went missing in January 1999 and her body has never been found, jurors have been told. She is alleged to have been killed by her father Mehmet Goren, after he consulted with his brothers, over her relationship with Halil Unal. A week later Goren, 49, plunged an axe into Mr Unal's neck in a desperate bid to restore his family's honour, the court heard. Mr Unal, speaking from behind a screen, told the Old Bailey about a time when they met up at Stratford bus station in east London. He said: 'When I saw Tulay there I looked at her face and I saw that she had bruising to her eye. 'She told me that her father tortured her and beat her and that her uncle Cuma was pressuring her. 'I said 'all this will pass, don't worry'. She said to me, "really, genuinely, I hate these people, I hate the house". 'In fact she said she didn't have much time, she said she had to go. She said "because my father follows me all the time".' Mehmet Goren, 49, of Navestock Crescent, Woodford Green, and his brothers, Cuma Goren, 42, of Evesham Avenue, Walthamstow, and Ali Goren, 55, of Brettenham Road, Walthamstow, deny murdering Tulay on January 7 1999. They also deny conspiracy to murder Mr Unal, between May 1998 and February 1999. (Dailymail.co.uk)

The Rise and Fall of Academic Abstention-Stanely Fish
As recently as 1979, legal academics Virginia Nordin and Harry Edwards were able to say that “historically American courts have adhered fairly consistently to the doctrine of academic abstention in order to avoid excessive judicial oversight of academic institutions” (Higher Education and the Law). Academic abstention is the doctrine (never formally promulgated) that courts should defer to colleges and universities when it comes to matters like promotions, curricula, admission policies, grading, tenure, etc. The reasoning is that courts lack the competence to monitor academic behavior; they should get out of the way and let the professionals do the job. “Courts are particularly ill-equipped,” Chief Justice Rehnquist declared in 1978, “to evaluate academic performance.” (Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz) In 2009, courts still pay lip service to this doctrine but in practice, Amy Gajda tells us in her terrific new book, “The Trials of Academe,” they now boldly go where their predecessors feared to tread. Once, “if a student or faculty member had the temerity to bring a grievance to court, is was likely to be bounced out in short order.” Now, however, “courts feel free to enter . . . from the ground up, parceling out the right and obligations of each disputant down to the last dollar.” Indeed, “litigation and ‘rights talk’ have permeated every crease and wrinkle of academic life.” (NYT)

Politicizing the NEH-Peter Wood
Do Americans under-appreciate Muslim contributions to world culture? The National Endowment for the Humanities thinks so. NEH has launched a major initiative titled “Bridging Cultures” which aims at changing the “disrespectful” attitudes of many Americans toward Muslim contributions. NEH Chairman Jim Leach, speaking at the Carnegie Corporation of New York on September 29, described his plan for the humanities to help change “the temper and the integrity of the political dialogue” in the United States in a manner that sends, “an implicit message to Muslims in our country and in other parts of the world that we deeply value the contributions of their diverse and fascinating cultures.” The speech, titled “Bridging Cultures: NEH and the Muslim World,” is posted on the NEH website. Leach’s remarks are surprising on several counts. In tone, they depart from NEH tradition, which has generally celebrated American cultural achievement rather than castigate Americans for their failings. In substance, his speech amounts to an indictment without any evidence. (NAS)

The White House’s War Against Fox News-Ron Radosh
No wonder the Obama administration has decided to single out Fox News as its major opponent [1], and to wage war against it. Almost everyone acknowledges that with its signal slogan, “We Report: You Decide,” the network in fact leans towards the conservative side, particularly when it comes to its array of on the air pundits and commentators. But what particularly must rankle the White House is that Fox’s ratings are growing daily, and at present during Obama’s first year in office, are the highest it has ever achieved. I have addressed this question earlier [2], in a blog in which I paid special attention to the forced resignation of Van Jones and to the expose of ACORN’s wrongdoings. Fox News was also the only network to consistently play the videos prepared by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, which quickly became so popular that not only did the other media outlets have to treat it as a legitimate news story- which it was- but was also taken up by the nation’s most popular comic talent, from Jay Leno to Jon Stewart. (Pajamasmedia)

Criticizing Islam? Sorry, You're Cancelled-Pamela Geller
Conservative warrior David Horowitz was scheduled to speak at St. Louis University this month. But he won’t be. University officials canceled his speech because of its title: “Islamo-Fascism Awareness and Civil Rights.” Horowitz commented: “I have spoken at 400 universities. This is the first time my speech has been censored and stopped by an administration. And they are supposed to be the guardians of intellectual discourse.” Cary Nelson, the president of the American Association of University Professors, said that with this cancellation, St. Louis University “joins the small group of campuses that are universities in name only…. The free exchange of ideas is not just a comforting offshoot of higher education; it defines the fundamental nature of the enterprise. But the free exchange of ideas is something that is increasingly denied to conservative voices. Robert Spencer was set to speak at the American Library Association convention last summer but was canceled at the last minute after pressure from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Michael Savage was set to participate by means of a video link in a debate next Thursday at Britain’s Cambridge Union, but last Wednesday the debate was canceled. Julien Domercq and Jonathan Laurence of the Cambridge Union claimed that “there are numerous legal issues with Dr Savage speaking here.” (Humanevents)

Gibson Reaches Back to Teddy Roosevelt to Tout 'Universal Health' as Closer Than Ever-Brent Baker
ABC's Charles Gibson and CBS's Katie Couric led their newscasts on Tuesday night in a manner which suggested they are along for the ride with President Barack Obama as they celebrated how a Senate committee's vote moved Obama's quest to impose ObamaCare closer to reality. “In 1912, almost a hundred years ago,” Gibson trumpeted at the top of World News, “Teddy Roosevelt called for universal health care. It now may be closer than at any time since then.” Couric championed “a major victory for President Obama” and how “health care reform cleared a major hurdle today” so “health care reform is closer than it's ever been,” but, she warned, “the battle is still far from over.” Gibson teased: “Tonight, vital vote. A key Republican joins with Democrats in an historic move forward on health care. We cover today's vote, and talk with Senator Olympia Snowe.” With “Crucial Vote” on screen, he led: (Newsbusters)

Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders wins appeal against exclusion from UK-Matthew Hickley
The Home Office faced a fresh blow tonight as an immigration tribunal overturned its ban on far right Dutch politician Geert Wilders from entering Britain. Mr Wilders, a highly controversial figure who admits he 'hates Islam' and has described the Koran as a 'fascist book', was barred from the UK earlier this year on ministers' orders as he arrived to show a controversial film at Westminster. Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith used her powers under immigration law to exclude him on the grounds that he 'threatened community harmony and therefore public safety.' But yesterday lawyers acting for Mr Wilders, leader of the Dutch Freedom Party who is facing prosecution in his home country, successfully persuaded the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in London that Mrs Smith's decision had been flawed, and breached his human rights. The Home Office said tonight it was 'disappointed' by the ruling but insisted any attempt by Mr Wilders to enter Britain would be treated on a case-by-case basis, and that immigration staff would still have the right to turn him back at a port or airport if they saw fit. However officials conceded that they were likely to have to let him enter the UK. He is planning to visit London next week. (Dailymail.co.uk)

CAIR spent $160,000 to silence Savage-Art Moore
New book reveals memos behind campaign to run radio star off the air
An explosive new book based on a daring six-month undercover operation exposing the subversive agenda of the Council on American-Islamic Relations reveals the Muslim group spent $160,000 in an unsuccessful effort to run top-rated nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage off the air. Internal CAIR documents uncovered in "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America" show that despite its high cost and the continued success of Savage's show, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad believed the campaign was "worth every penny," because, he says, the radio star lost at least $1 million in advertising. Authors P. David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry recount how CAIR ran out of money before it could crack Savage's most loyal sponsors. As WND reported, Savage sued CAIR in December 2007, two months after the Muslim lobby group began urging "people of all faiths" to contact Savage's advertisers to protest "anti-Muslim bigotry" on the air. CAIR cited Savage calling the Quran "a throwback document" and "a book of hate" and demanding CAIR be thrown out of the country for promulgating it. (WND)

Goldstone's human wrongs-Melanie Phillips
In the theatre of the absurd that now passes for international relations, a Jewish human-rights lawyer takes the side of those who wage genocidal war against the Jews. This is in turn deemed profoundly unhelpful to a “peace process” that is attempting to reward with territory others waging the same genocidal war — albeit with better manners — against the same Jews, a process that now expects those Jews to make concessions to their assailants, who will themselves be exempt from making reciprocal gestures to their victims. Judge Richard Goldstone can hardly have expected that some of the strongest revulsion against his UN Human Rights Council-sponsored blood libel against Israel over its military action against Hamas in Gaza would have come from his own supposed allies. The human-rights lawyer Alan Dershowitz said Goldstone’s name will be “forever linked in infamy” with the most notorious haters of Israel because he “abandoned all principles of objectivity and neutral human rights”. (TheJewishChronicle)

New York-Based Muslim's Web Site Calls for God to 'Kill the Jews'-Joshua Rhett Miller
A New York bicycle cabbie who last year used his Web site to mock the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl posted a prayer calling for the murder of Jews and exhorting Muslims to “throw liquid drain cleaner in their faces." And there's nothing authorities can do about it. Yousef al-Khattab, who runs RevolutionMuslim.com and pedals a pedicab in New York City, insists the words he has posted on his Web site are a prayer, and not a threat — and that his hatred is protected by the First Amendment. "If it was a threat, I'd be in jail," the 41-year-old al-Khattab told Foxnews.com from his home in Queens. "I'm asking my God, that's what it is. Every supporter of Israel is an enemy combatant and the immune system is not anti-Semitic for resisting disease."
(Foxnews)

Collaborators in the Campus War against Israel and the Jews: Mark LeVine – by Steven Plaut
Over the past decade the University of California at Irvine has become a center of Israel hatred and Jew bashing. It hosts countless radical Islamist events, many openly supportive of terror and jihad. Its chapter of the Muslim Student Union [1] may be the most openly jihadi and pro-terror in the country. Its anti-Israel and anti-Jewish events have included a conference on the “Holocaust,” the one its organizers claim Israel [2] is perpetrating against Palestinians. UCI holds regular events in which anti-Semitic speakers call [3] for Israel’s annihilation. Moslem students walk about campus with signs [4] that read: “Death to Infidels. Death to Israel.” Faculty and students attend UCI rallies [5] that openly support the Hamas. Anti-Semitism at UCI has been so blatant that it was the subject of an official investigation by the US Office for Civil Rights [6]. The atmosphere at UCI is so rancid that few eyebrows were raised when an impersonator of a Holocaust Survivor [7] brought in to bash Israel. (Frontpagemagazine)

FM summons ambassador in Turkey over anti-Israeli TV show-Herb Keinon An
An inflammatory anti-Israeli television show in Turkey on Tuesday did what Ankara's cancellation of Israeli participation in an international military exercise last week failed to do - lead the Foreign Ministry to call in Turkey's envoy to register a protest. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman issued a statement Wednesday night announcing that the Turkish envoy would be summoned to protest the "inciting" television program that appeared Tuesday evening on prime time on the government-controlled station TRT1. In the first episode of a series on a Palestinian family living in the West Bank, IDF soldiers are variously seen killing a baby and a young girl, and lining up Palestinians to be shot before a firing squad. Lieberman, currently holding meetings in Austria, issued a statement saying the airing of this show, on a government-controlled station, represented the "gravest form of incitement.""This series, which has absolutely no connection to reality, and which presents IDF soldiers as murderers of innocent children, is not fit to be broadcast even in the most hostile countries, and certainly not in a country that has full diplomatic relations with Israel," he said. (Jpost)

TERRORISM, security and policy

In the Shadow of the War on Terror-Salena Zito
The "Overseas Contingency Program" – the "war on terror" – is back at the center of the political world, thanks to the uncertain prosecution of the war in Afghanistan. As President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Congress and the generals in the field contemplate the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't consequences of Afghanistan, terror has reappeared in the American vernacular. "America is still a salient target and attractive target for terrorists," says Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA counterterrorism official who heads security studies at Georgetown University. And while such terms as "Islamic terrorist," "jihad" and "Muslim extremist" have been scrubbed from administration chatter, we remain at risk. Pillar points out that this administration continues the commitments and policies of the Bush years.
Those security and intelligence programs irritate radicalized Muslims who want to harm Americans – and chill left-leaning Democrats who fervently opposed Bush. (Familysecuritymatters)

Threat Persists in Yemen, Somalia-GERALD F. SEIB
While Washington obsessed Monday over President Barack Obama's plans in Afghanistan, as well as over a new burst of violence next door in Pakistan, some unsettling news arrived to remind everyone that the extremist threat isn't limited to those troubled countries. Reports from Yemen said government forces had killed 59 Shiite rebels in the country's north. The death toll is a sign of the intensity of the government's current fight against a Shiite revolt that has forced tens of thousands of Yemenis out of their homes. Combine that revolt in the north with separatist unrest in the south and a growing al Qaeda movement, all in the Arab world's poorest country bordering Saudi Arabia, and you have a recipe for the kind of incubator for trouble that Afghanistan became before the 9/11 attacks. Lest we forget, barely a year has passed since al Qaeda forces struck the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. Meanwhile, a second nation, this one in Africa, is moving much further down the track toward failed-state status and becoming a haven for Islamic extremists. It's Somalia, where Islamist militias are not only battling a virtually powerless central government, but over the weekend threatened to advance across the border to hit targets in Kenya as well. (WSJ)

Afghan Hezbollah? Be Careful What You Wish For- Matthew LevittThe Washington Post reports that some in the administration see the Lebanese Hezbollah as a possible model for transformation of the Taliban. Describing the Taliban as a movement "deeply rooted" in Afghanistan, much like Hezbollah is in Lebanon, proponents of a Hezbollah model for the Taliban see a scenario in which the Taliban participates in Afghan politics, occasionally flexes its military muscles to benefit its political positions at home, but does not directly threat the United States even if it remains a source of regional instability. According to the Post, while the idea has been discussed informally "outside the Situation Room meetings," it has not yet been presented to President Obama. That's a good thing because the notion is deeply flawed, and its implementation would have dire consequences for Afghanistan, the region more broadly, and U.S. counterterrorism efforts all. Hezbollah in Lebanon is a destabilizing force, as is the Taliban in Afghanistan. Not only does Hezbollah maintain an independent militia in explicit violation of United Nations resolutions, it uses this private army to create semi-independent enclaves throughout the south of Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley where Lebanese Armed Forces are not allowed. In these spaces, Hezbollah maintains training camps, engages in weapons smuggling and drug trafficking, and maintains tens of thousands of rockets aimed at its neighbor to the south, Israel. Hezbollah collects intelligence on people traveling through Beirut international airport, and has built its own communications infrastructure beyond the reach of the national government. (Washingtoninstitute)

Hugo Chávez's Criminal Nuclear Network: A Grave and Growing Threat-Roger F. Noriega
The dramatic showdown between Western nations and Iran over the disclosure of a clandestine nuclear facility run by the radical Iranian regime stirs faint hopes the United States may be prepared to get tough with other rogues threatening U.S. security. One example is Hugo Chávez's Venezuela. Last month sources disclosed a Caracas-Tehran conspiracy to harvest uranium in Venezuela, setting off a series of clumsy cover stories and unconvincing denials that tend to confirm the worst fears about Chávez's intentions.[1] The uranium connection is only the tip of the iceberg, and the U.S. intelligence and defense community has known of these troubling operations for years. Venezuela's supporting role in Iran's nuclear program may finally force the United States and other countries to confront the grave and growing threat of Chávez's regime, and not a minute too soon. For the past decade, Chávez has provided financial, material, and political support to a global network of anti-U.S. regimes and criminal organizations--from the nuclear rogues in Iran to the narcoterrorists in Colombia. (AEI)

In the Pakistani mountains of Waziristan, young jihadis wait for martyrdom-Arif Janjua in South Waziristan and Nick Meo
In the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, a massive battle looms.
Thousands of Pakistani soldiers are waiting for orders to launch an offensive that could change the course of their country's bloody struggle against the Taliban. The operation is an attempt to end Pakistan's escalating terrorist violence, which last week alone saw 50 people killed in a carbomb that ripped through a marketplace. A brazen attack yesterday on the army's headquarters also left six soldiers dead. The army's target is South Waziristan, a lawless tribal region. It is the headquarters of the jihad against Islamabad's rulers and a key training ground for fighters in the war against British and American troops across the frontier. Waiting to do battle with government soldiers is an army of 10,000 local fighters, along with thousands of foreign jihadists allied to al-Qaeda, for which the area has long been a refuge - possibly even for Osama bin Laden himself. (Telegraph.co.uk)

IPT Report Documents Viva Palestina's Hamas Support-IPT News
In the U.S. and England, organizers are laying the groundwork for a convoy of relief aid destined for Gaza. It would be the third such venture by a group calling itself Viva Palestina. Its two previous trips saw the group deliver medical supplies, ambulances and other goods. They also included meetings with senior Hamas officials. In March, Viva Palestina's leader, British MP George Galloway, defiantly handed a bag of cash directly to a Hamas minister (click here to see the video from the Middle East Media Research Institute):"I, personally, am about to break the sanctions on the elected government of Palestine. By Allah, we carried a lot of cash here. You thought we were all fat. We are not fat. This is money that we have around our waists ... We are giving you now 100 vehicles and all of the contents. And we make no apology for what I am about to say: We are giving them to the elected government of Palestine; to the Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh." Galloway was a little more circumspect on the second trip to Gaza in July. There was no public ceremony showing the donations. A group of Viva Palestina convoy participants did meet with Haniyeh, however, who praised them "as heroes; you are opening the eyes of the world to the siege in the Strip." The Investigative Project on Terrorism has found ample evidence that Viva Palestina's ultimate objective is political – with the elevation of Hamas at its core. How can we be so sure? (IPT)

Climate Myths and National Security-Viscount Monckton of Brenchley
The President of the United States recently told the United Nations that "global warming" poses a threat to national security and may engender conflicts as populations are displaced by rising sea levels, droughts, floods, storms etc. etc. etc. However, it is now clear that there is no basis for the notion that the barely-detectable human influence on the climate is likely to prove a threat to climate, still less to national security. The first principle to which any national security advisor must adhere is that of objective truth. Though he must have an understanding of politics, he is not a politician: he is a truth-bearer. Therefore, he begins by narrowing down the issue to a single, central question whose answer determines whether the suggested threat is real. He then tries to find the truthful answer to that question, and draws his conclusion from that. Quid enim est veritas? What, then, is the truth? The single question whose answer gives us the truth about the climate question is this: (Americanthinker)

What happened to global warming?-Paul Hudson Climate correspondent, BBC News
This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998. But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures. And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise. So what on Earth is going on? Climate change sceptics, who passionately and consistently argue that man's influence on our climate is overstated, say they saw it coming. They argue that there are natural cycles, over which we have no control, that dictate how warm the planet is. But what is the evidence for this? During the last few decades of the 20th Century, our planet did warm quickly. Sceptics argue that the warming we observed was down to the energy from the Sun increasing. After all 98% of the Earth's warmth comes from the Sun. (BBC.co.uk)

Your handwriting never lies-ISRAEL21c Staff
A computerized system developed by Israeli scientists can detect if people are lying, just by analyzing their handwriting.
When you tell a lie, you don't just give yourself away with your voice, but with your writing too, according to new research by Israeli scientists. Researchers at the University of Haifa have discovered that when we write a falsehood the pressure of our pen, the duration of time when the pen is on and off the page, and even the flow of our writing, changes - and that these alterations can be detected by a computerized writing-analysis system. "It seems that the act of writing a false text involves extensive cognitive resources and the automatic act of writing is thereby affected," says Dr. Gil Luria of the university's Department of Human Services who carried out the research with Dr. Sara Rosenblum of the Department of Occupational Therapy. Identifying a lie is a difficult and complex task. The tools available today, such as the polygraph, which is widely used by police and security forces worldwide, are still problematic and not always accurate. (Israel21c)

German-Turkish Author Seyran Ates
'Islam Needs a Sexual Revolution'
In the run-up to the Frankfurt Book Fair, German-Turkish writer Seyran Ates discusses her new book, which describes the necessity of a sexual revolution in the Islamic world, the recent integration debate in Germany and the arrogance of German women's rights activists.
SPIEGEL: Ms. Ates, in your controversial new book, you call for a sexual revolution in the Islamic world.
Ates: You don't know how necessary that is.
SPIEGEL: But what exactly do you mean by a sexual revolution?
Ates: My use of the term is based on Wilhelm Reich and his book about the sexual revolution. I believe that the Islamic world must grapple with the consequences of rigid sexual morals, not unlike the way, as he describes, the Soviet Union dealt with its own circumstances. It must pursue the path of change, just as any totalitarian system must do when it wants to become a democratic society. Part of the process is that sexuality has to be recognized as something that every individual determines for himself or herself. Institutions like moral and religious police must be abolished. People who have sex before marriage cannot be punished or ostracized by society. Parents must be confronted with the question of why they do not allow their 16-year-old daughter to have a boyfriend, while their sons can brag about how many girlfriends they have. Sex education must be taught in the classroom. Parents shouldn't have to do it, but they should accept it when the schools do it. Young and old people who are already living a self-determined sexuality in the Islamic world have to be more confident and make their voices heard. (Spiegelonline)

Viggo Mortensen v the apocalypse-Kevin Maher
The actor Viggo Mortensen talks about The Road, a post-apocalyptic story about survival and death
Viggo Mortensen has always had a thing about death. The 50-year-old Lord of the Rings star has never liked it. Always feared it. Hated the fact, even as a child, that his life would one day, arbitrarily, end. “It is unfair,” thought the mini-Mortensen, at six years old, “that someday I am going to die.” This knowledge spurred him forwards through the variegated careers of an artist, poet, painter and eventually a blockbusting actor. But still the death thing remained. “I no longer resent death,” thought the grown-up Mortensen. “But it won’t go away.” And then came The Road, a movie utterly steeped in, well, death. A bold and faithful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Road tells the post-apocalyptic tale of a father, simply called The Man (Mortensen), and his son, The Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and their brutal journey down through the perilous Eastern Seaboard. Here, while dodging the last few demented and mostly cannibalistic denizens of a physically ravaged planet (the cause of the destruction is never explained), the emaciated father must try to impart to his son the essential need for human goodness in the face of abject nihilism and savagery. (Timesonline.co.uk)

TV will never poison my children’s minds-Roger Scruton
Australia has come out against television – but some of us have known of its dangers for years
To my amazement the Australian Government has come out against television. Admittedly its report is confined to the effect on small children, and takes the form of undemanding guidelines: the report says that no child under the age of 2 should be allowed to watch telly. But no section of the population is more addicted to the telly than politicians, who vie with each other for a place on the screen, and I have despaired of hearing the truth about this ubiquitous poison from someone with the power to control it. Governments that take a stand against television are as unlikely as distillers who oppose the use of alcohol or dairy farmers who campaign against milk. It has been known for 20 or more years that television induces mental disorders, such as enhanced aggression, shortened attention span and reduced ability to communicate, and that these disorders involve an even greater social cost than the obesity and lethargy that are TV’s normal physical side-effects. . (Timesonline.co.uk)