The Western Word

This Week's Editorial

WHEN ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAWS DISCRIMINATE
By Avi Davis

You've got to hand it to the English. They sure can sniff out a good case of discrimination when they sense one.

Latest example of this prodigious olfactory power: The case of "M", the progeny of a non-Jewish mother and a Jewish father who lives in London. "M" sought admission to the Jewish Free School (now known by its acronym JFS) in North-West London, an institute which characterizes itself as an orthodox Jewish day school offering a high school education to a wide spectrum of practices within the British Jewish community. It has been doing so since 1732, making it the longest established Jewish educational institution in Europe.

" M" found himself on the wrong branch of the family tree when he applied for admission to the school. He was denied entry because it was determined that his mother's earlier conversion to Judaism had not been conducted by strict orthodox standards,. This rendered M technically non-Jewish, and therefore an inadmissible candidate.

A suit was launched on behalf of student M under the U.K.'s 1976 Race Relations Act, claiming that school's use of rabbinic law to determine the Jewishness of the student was discrimination based on the student's ethnicity - that is, the student's suitability for placement was based on the parentage and ancestry of the child and nothing more.

According to M's legal team, an act of discrimination had occured and the father ( who had long since divorced the mother) had decided to ask the English legal system to fix it.

For years the case dragged through the courts until the Court of Appeals finally held that the application of Jewish law in this case had indeed violated the Race Law. And last week the newly re-established Supreme Court, by a narrow majority, supported the earlier decision, mandating that M be allowed to attend the school.

While the nine esteemed justices all went out of their way to make it clear that JFS’ admission's policy was not ‘racist’ in the normal sense, the majority opinion nevertheless maintained that the observance of strict Jewish law by this school had infringed the rights of others. Therefore JFS's admission policies would not be allowed to stand.

Anyone with even an ounce of understanding of the operation and influence of common law must surely appreciate the seriousness of this assault on privacy and communal rights.

If not, then lets make it clear: This decision essentially amounts to a non-Jewish court defining Jewish identity, removing that privilege from the hands of the community's own religious leaders.

The implications of the interference of a secular court in a religious matter of this nature has telling consequences. I have alluded in an earlier piece Tyranny of the Minority, to the repercussions of religious institutions bowing to multicultural pressure. But with the Court now taking an interventionist role in a religious matter, all bets are off on the rights that will be trampled in the inexorable drive to build a just, diverse and truly multicultural British society.

Faith schools could lose not only their right to select pupils on religious grounds but could have the entire gamut of religious life opened to judicial review by secular judges who will bring their own prejudices, experiences and likely ignorance to bear on the subject.

So a Jewish woman objects to her synagogue's practice of dividing men and women during prayer services? No problem. Take it to the district judge who will review the case and decide it on the basis of common community practices. Unhappy with the absence of a kosher certification for certain favorite products? Well just hop down to your local attorney to file a complaint of discrimination and presto, you will have a non-Jewish judge determining what kind of food is kosher and what is non-kosher.

In the United States, the Jewish Reform Movement and certain members of the Conservative Movement, have long held that Orthodoxy's focus on matrilineal descent is discriminatory. But they should not be popping champagne corks any time soon. With the Supreme Court decison, arguably the most authoritative voice on common law in the world, schools, community centers, Jewish oriented social programs and even religious practices could all potentially come under the purview of secular law. What the decision amounts to, (notwithstanding the five majority justices' earnest hand wringing over the 'unimpeachable' and ' honest' actions of the JFS school), is an attack on Jewish identity itself. That is not a cause for any Jew to celebrate.

The decision could not have come at a worse time for the British Jewish community. According to commentator Gabriel Schoenfeld, anti-Semitic incidents in the first six months of 2009 alone - including vandalism, hate mail and direct attacks on Jews, exceeded the entire number for 2008. Antisemitism in Britain is higher than it has been in several generations and grows worse by the week with undisguised attacks on Jews from respectable publications such as the Times of London, the Guardian and numerous university student newspapers.

An example of how the British public is coming to view its Jewish citizens and its private religious schools, was given some illumination in a series of on-line comments which appeared with the report of the Supreme Court decision in the Daily Mail:

" Denominational schools should be totally banned and made illegal . There should be no place of any Religeous( sic) Denominational Schools, Jewish,Muslim, Catholic or Church of England etc., in this multi-cultural country. It only breeds racism and religeous( sic) hatred. ALL religious schools should be banned and made illegal. "

Chomskyite, London, United Kingdom,

"Of course parents should be free to bring up their children in whatever faith they wish - but outside of the education system. That way children of all faiths mix and make friends which makes for a more cohesive population."

Marie, Lancashire

"Faith schools foster division, you only have to look at Northern Ireland to see what they have done. Education should be purely that and not have anything to do with faith." John Wakefield, West Yorkshire

Don't think for a minute that devout Christians in the U.K. are not also suffering the same level of hositility to the practise of their faith. Last week Olive Jones, a 54-year-old math teacher who taught children too ill to attend school, was dismissed following a complaint from a sick girl’s mother. She was visiting the home of the terminally ill child when she asked her mother whether she could say a prayer on her behalf, The mother responded that they were not believers and that this would not be appropriate.

Jones was then called in by her managers who, she says, told her that sharing her faith with a child could be deemed bullying. They then informed her that her services were no longer required.

How ironic it is that the multicultural creed, with its unflinching emphasis on freedom of cultural expression, grows increasingly intolerant of any religious practice, even while it continues to extol the benefits of pluralism and diversity.

As a result of the Court decision, JFS has already changed its admission policies. Unable to give priority on the question of Jewish status, the School will now give priority to those who obtain a religious practice certificate, issued on the basis of a child's synagogue attendance,Jewish education and communal activities. Fifty other Jewish communal schools across the nation have followed suit.

To an outsider this might not seem to be such a remarkable change. But for the U.K. Jewish community, which has lived within English secular and Christian societies for 25 generations, and for whom the sense of Jewish identity is tied inextricably to the concept of Jewish nationhood, it prevails as a monumental challenge to its existence. It means that the community can no longer safely protect its own religious practices from outside scrutiny; It implies that those same practices may be subject to review by secular legal and political elites, who are indifferent to Jewish history and insensitive to Jewish tradition.

Across the Atlantic,religious communities should be no less concerned about these developments. With our local judges give increasing weight to the legal decisions of extra-territorial courts, this wind may indeed be blowing our way. Perhaps we should all be wondering if the day will come, when to be "Jewish" or "Christian", " Muslim" or "Bahai" will be regarded by our Courts as so inherently discriminatory that further laws will be needed to protect society from the attitudes, views and policies of those inflexible 'religious separatists.'

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

Sayyid Qutb and the Virginia Five
by Robert Spencer

When five young Muslims from northern Virginia were arrested in Pakistan for trying to join jihadist groups, the local Muslim community professed to be puzzled as to how it could have happened. Ashraf Nubani, an attorney for the mosque the five attended, said of their relatives and fellow worshippers: “There’s shock and disbelief in these families and in this mosque.” Mahdi Bray of the Falls Church-based Muslim American Society, sounded a plaintive note: “We want to know: What did we miss? We saw these kids every day. In hindsight, what could we have done?” If Mahdi Bray saw these young men daily, that might have been a clue right there as to what went wrong. For the Muslim American Society (MAS) is the American arm of the international Islamic supremacist organization known as the Muslim Brotherhood, the forefather of Al-Qaeda and Hamas. A captured internal Brotherhood document says that the Brotherhood’s mission in the U.S. is “a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” (Frontpagemagazine)

Military Denies Fort Hood Suspect Additional Lawyers for Defense- Ben Casselman
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 12 soldiers and a civilian at Fort Hood last month, won't get the two additional military lawyers his defense team has requested. John P. Galligan, the retired Army colonel who is representing Maj. Hasan, asked the Army earlier this month to add the veteran legal officers to the defense team. In addition to Mr. Galligan, Maj. Hasan has a military-appointed defense counsel, Maj. Christopher Martin. But Mr. Galligan said Friday night that the Army had denied his request, although he may be able to ask for different officers to join the defense. Officials at Fort Hood couldn't immediately be reached for comment. Maj. Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in the Nov. 5 shootings. Maj. Hasan has not entered a plea in the case. He was paralyzed in the shootout and, although no longer in intensive care, remains in a military hospital in San Antonio, Texas Military sources have said prosecutors will seek the death penalty. (WSJ)

France plans law to 'liberate' women from full-face veil-AFP
PARIS: The French Government will push for a law banning the full-face Islamic veil in order to defend France from ''extremists'', the ruling party's parliamentary leader has said. Jean-Francois Cope, the president of the Union for a Popular Movement, laid out his plans for new legislation in a newspaper article, which appeared just as three ministers were to testify before a parliamentary panel set up to consider whether to ban the full veil. ''The issue is not how many women wear the burqa,'' Mr Cope wrote in Le Figaro. ''There are principles at stake: extremists are putting the republic to the test by promoting a practice that they know is contrary to the basic principles of our country.'' The new legislation would be enacted after a period of consultation with French Muslims ''so that this measure is understood for what it is: a law of liberation and not a ban'', he wrote. (Sydneymorningherald)

Hague: Child abuse in Koran classes to be investigated
The prosecution in the Hague will investigate 49 cases of child abuse during Koran classes in mosques in the city, it was announced Tuesday. The local GGD (municipal health department) received so many reports of child abuse that according to the youth health department (JGZ), it's a pattern. This is because the number of reports (49), is almost equal to the number of indications of domestic child abuse (52). While generally, in 93% of the cases of child abuse the offender is a parent or somebody else directly in charge of raising the kids. In total, about 4,600 files were investigated. In April the Hague municipal council asked the city executive to study the problem after they got stories of children being beaten during Koran classes. Half of the reports of child abuse were linked to classes in the El Islam mosque. On Monday Mayor Jozias van Aartsen and Alderman (Education, youth and sport), had a pointed talk with the mosque administration. (Islamineurope)

MP condemns plan to build a 'Muslim Eton' for girls-Laura Clark
A Labour MP has bitterly attacked plans for a Muslim ‘Eton’ for girls.The college for 1,500 pupils would be both the largest Muslim faith school and the biggest boarding school in the country – larger than 1,330-pupil Eton. Yesterday Gordon Prentice, MP for Pendle, near the school site in Burnley, warned that it could damage existing schools and colleges in the area and stoke community tensions. The last thing we need is single-sex, single faith schools for girls,’ he told the Times Educational Supplement. ‘It pulls against community cohesion. It makes me weep to think so much time, energy and effort has gone into the community to get people to mix together. [This] goes against all public policy.’ The blueprint emerged after a proposal for a 5,000-place girls’ boarding school in Pendle was dropped amid public opposition.
The Islamic charity behind the Burnley project, the Mohiuddin Trust, insists its aim is to ‘strengthen inter-community relationships’. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Most Czechs, Slovaks would ban construction of minarets
Prague, Dec 16 (CTK) - Most people in the Czech Republic and Slovakia would ban a possible construction of minarets, the daily Lidove noviny (LN) reports Wednesday, referring to a poll conducted by the NMS agency simultaneously in both countries. The poll has reacted to the recent controversial referendum in Switzerland in which most people voted against the construction of more minarets, tall spires with onion-shaped or conical crowns used for the call to prayer, in their country. According to the NMS poll conducted on 424 voters in the Czech Republic and 502 in Slovakia, 78 percent of Czech respondents and 70 percent of Slovaks would vote against minarets in a referendum. Moreover, 54 percent of Czechs and 56 percent of Slovaks would ban the construction of both minarets and new mosques, Tomas Dvorak, from NMS, told LN. The poll also shows that Czechs and Slovaks mind new mosques less than minarets. Only one-third of the polled strictly oppose mosques, others do not want them only in "their surroundings." (Praguemonitor)

Honour killing: father convicted of murder of Tulay Goren
Mehmet Goren, the father of 15-year-old Muslim schoolgirl Tulay Goren, has been convicted of her murder and sentenced to serve a minimum of 22 years for the family "honour killing" in London.
Tulay, who had come to Britain from the Kurdish region of Turkey, was drugged, tortured and then killed by her father Mehmet Goren, over her relationship with an older man of whom Mehment Goren and his relations did not approve. Although Tulay’s body has never been found, her father Mehmet Goren, 49, was found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey after a 10-week trial. He was cleared of conspiracy to murder Halil Unal, Tulay’s former boyfriend who survived being attacked with an axe by Mehmet, two weeks after the schoolgirl vanished. Mehmen Goren's older brother Ali and younger brother Cuma were each cleared of charges of murder and conspiracy to murder. The trial heard how Tulay, who came to Britain at the age of 12, was assaulted by her father, a Shia Muslim, who was angered by her relationship with Mr Unal, who was twice her age and a Sunni Muslim. In the weeks before her disappearance, Tulay ran away from home twice and personally reported two attacks on her by her father. Her boyfriend also reported an assault. (Telegraph.co.uk)

Virginia Tech Reasserts 'Diversity' Folly: Part 1-Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University—better known as Virginia Tech—is in the midst of an extraordinary campaign to impose a comprehensive regime focusedon “diversity.” Reading through Virginia Tech’s official documents since March is something like watching a colonial power laying out a plan to force its language, culture, laws, religion, and ideals on a subject people. The put-upon natives in this case are, first of all, the faculty of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. But the imperial power, of course, doesn’t mean to stop with subordinating the faculty chiefs to the Empire. The rule of Diversity must ultimately extend to every student and every employee. Diversity? It must surely strike most readers that the ideological campaign for diversity on campus is by this point rather old-fashioned. Diversity as a rallying cry for the campus left took its initial impulse from Justice Lewis Powell’s opinion in the Supreme Court’s decision in the 1978 case, Bakke v. The Regents of the University of California. (NAS)

Politicization of Middle Eastern Studies – by Brendan Goldman
“We overthrew a dictatorship only to go from bad to worse,” said Mansour Farhang [1], a prominent figure in the early Islamic Republic of Iran who now serves as a professor at Bennington College. Farhang was speaking at a Columbia University conference held on December 12th entitled, “Iran After the Election” [2]. Green shirts and scarves, symbols of the Iranian opposition [3], permeated the audience of some 250 people that filled the sterile Altshul auditorium. Attendees included Iranian expatriates, prominent experts of the field, students, and members of the general public. The conference served to highlight the leftist politicization of Middle Eastern studies. With a few notable exceptions, the panels’ academics drew moral parallels between the Islamic Republic’s policies and those of the Bush and Obama administrations and encouraged an acquiescent American foreign policy in the face of Iran’s nuclear program. (Frontpagemagazine)

Israelis View Foreign Media as ‘Anti-Semitic’-Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Israelnationalnews.com) Nearly three-quarters of Israelis view the foreign media as being negative towards Israel, according to a recent poll revealed by Professor Avraham Tzion of Ariel University Center, located in Samaria. Speaking at the annual conference on media and communications held there, he said the survey also showed that 88 percent of the respondents cited anti-Semitism as the main reason for Israel's negative image. The Palestinian Authority’s information campaign and poor public relations by the Israeli government were close behind as reasons for the bad image. The poll of 500 Jews from all sectors of society also revealed that about two-thirds view foreign reports in Judea and Samaria as being unfair and unreasonable. Left-wing groups, such as Peace Now and B’Tselem, were viewed as contributing to Israel’s negative image by 64 percent of the respondents, while residents of Judea and Samaria (“settlers”) and nationalists, known as the “right wing,” were blamed by 58 percent. (INN)

Islamic plan to criminalize Gospel message crumbling-Bob Unruh
U.N. vote shows 'continuing pattern of growing opposition' to proposal
Support for a United Nations proposal that critics contend would be used to ban criticism of Islam, censor the message of Jesus Christ and attack and kill Christians and members of other faiths is plunging, according to the newest vote totals. A resolution has been pending in one form or another since 1999 and originally was called "Defamation of Islam." The name later was changed to "Defamation of Religions," but Islam remains the only faith protected by name in the proposal. It is being sought by the 57 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to "protect" Islam from what OIC members perceive as "criticism," which could include anything referencing Christianity since that could be considered a challenge to the beliefs of Muslims. The latest vote on the nonbinding proposal came as the U.N. headed into the weekend, with 80 votes in favor of the proposal, 61 against and 42 abstentions. (WND)

Britain's judicial system is being used to help the bad guys
The state's ability to defend itself against militant Islam is now at risk, says Benedict Brogan
How far would you go if your home was threatened and your loved ones were in danger? If the people who depended on you for protection were attacked, how would you respond? Munir Hussain reacted as most parents would, with a cricket bat and a burst of rage that has cost him his liberty. While the thug who held his family at knifepoint has gone free, the 53-year-old businessman is starting a 30-month sentence. And justice is left looking unjust, a friend of the bad, an enemy of the good. Apply the same questions to the state and you get to the heart of the debate about Britain's role in the global effort to counter the threat posed by militant Islam. To what lengths should the authorities go to protect us? If the first duty of the government is the defence of the realm and its citizens, then what limits should we place on those who stand guard in the night against those who are sworn to destroy us? (Telegraph.co.uk)

Death of free speech: Is Britain becoming the censorship capital of the world?-Melanie Phillips
Britain has a historic and international reputation as the home of free speech.
Yet in recent times it has been developing an altogether contrary reputation as the country where free speech is being steadily suppressed, courtesy of the English legal system and in particular the law of libel. The latest victim of this phenomenon is a Danish radiologist, Dr Henrik Thomsen. At a scientific congress in Oxford, he claimed that some kidney patients at his hospital had contracted a potentially deadly condition after taking the drug Omniscan. As a result, he found himself being sued for libel by the makers of the drug, a subsidiary of General Electric called GE Healthcare.
The company has denied that it suppressed information about the drug and said it is safe for 99 per cent of patients. This is merely the latest in a string of alarming cases in which the English libel law has been used to gag debate that is overwhelmingly in the public interest. Several of these cases involve scientific or medical issues.
Simon Singh, a science writer, is being sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association for describing some of its treatments as 'bogus'. And Peter Wilmshurst, a consultant cardiologist, is being sued by a U.S. company, NMT Medical, after he questioned the effectiveness of a new heart implant device. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Anti-Israel attacks spread across web-Martin Bright
Anti-Zionist activists are increasingly turning their attention to a web-based de-legitimisation campaign against Israel rather than high-profile public protests against individual politicians. The Community Security Trust is particularly concerned about the organisation Redress, which highlights alleged injustice across the Middle East via its website and social networks Facebook and Twitter. The editor of the site is not identified although it is thought to be Nureddin Sabir, and there is no information about how Redress is funded. But it provides regular stories hostile to Israel and acts as a conduit for well-known anti-Zionists including Israeli musician and activist Gilad Atzmon, who writes a significant proportion of the articles on the site. There is considerable crossover of content with the Middle East Online website, another focus of anti-Zionist material. The full name of the organisation is Redress Information & Analysis, which says it is “an independent, privately-funded, non-profit-making website dedicated to exposing injustice, disinformation and bigotry, and to providing thought-provoking interpretations of current affairs”. In one posting, Mr Atzmon criticises the appointment of Matthew Gould as Britain’s first Jewish ambassador to Israel, an appointment first revealed in the JC last week. (Thejewishchronicle)

Man jailed for belt bomb plot against Jews-Jonathan Kalmus
A 30-year-old Albanian Muslim who wanted to see Jews killed has been convicted of terror offences after Hizbollah instruction manuals on making missiles and suicide bomb belts were found in his home. Krena Lusha, from Derby, was jailed for seven years on Tuesday at Preston Crown Court for five counts of possessing items connected with terrorism. These included petrol, Hizbollah military instruction manuals on how to make detonators, explosives, a missile and a suicide bomber belt, and a video entitled Mobile Detonators. On Lusha’s computer were video clips of live beheadings of hostages or prisoners, exploded US military vehicles and ideological material from organisations promoting violent jihad. He told people on a chatline that he wanted to see Jews and Americans killed. Mr Justice Butterfield told Lusha: “To the outside world you were the cheerful, hard-working helpful man whose only interest was to build a better life for yourself and find a Muslim bride. “But behind that facade, in my judgment, there was a much darker side to you, a side that positively revelled in violence, death and destruction.” Lusha, who entered the UK in 2000 concealed in a lorry, was sentenced to five concurrent jail sentences of seven years each and will be returned to Albania thereafter. (Thejewishchronicle)

THE PRICE OF NEGLECTING JEWISH VALUES-Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein
As Israel braces for the next round of pummeling courtesy of the Goldstone report, its security and standing in the international community are impaired not only by terrorists and hostile regimes, but also by two different sets of highly motivated Jews prepared to endanger Israel in the name of "Jewish values." Our forefather Jacob recognized them both in his prayer before meeting his brother Esau. "Protect me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau." Jacob could not be sure if Esau might arrive with murderous designs or might be moved to respond as a loving sibling. According to the Talmud, Jacob feared the hand extended in brotherliness more than the hand of the enemy. Israel today is forced into both encounters, simultaneously, with highly motivated Jews. Once again, the hand proffered by a brother may prove more deadly. One type of brother has been around since antiquity. As far back as the Roman era, a small number of Jews turned their backs on their own people, some who traded in the Jewish faith for another, others who made common political cause with the enemy. Throughout history there have been Jews who reacted to anti-Semitism by absorbing its message instead of railing against it. (Jewishpress)

Our human rights culture has now become a tyranny-Charles Moore
The Supreme Court this week effectively made the Jewish religion illegal, argues Charles Moore.
Strange things happen in the English law, but I have seldom read a stranger opening to a judgment than the following, handed down this week by Lord Philips of Worth Matravers, the President of the Supreme Court.
"The seventh chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy records the following instructions given by Moses to the people of Israel, after delivering the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai," Lord Philips began. Then he plunged into how God, having smitten the enemies of Israel – Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites – in a manner highly satisfactory to the Jews, now demanded that His people observe proper marriage customs in return. How did a question which involved only God and the Jews, and which was decided roughly 3,500 years ago, come before Lord Philips and his eight fellow jurists sitting in 21st-century London? The answer is that sacred text of modern times, the Race Relations Act of 1976. (Telegraph.co.uk)

The Myth about Israel and the Shoah-Tzvi Fleischer
One of the enduring myths put forward by those who question Israel’s right to exist is that Israel was established essentially to compensate for the Holocaust. According to a narrative very common both in the Arab world and also among Western opponents of Israel’s existence, Palestine was given to the Jews by the West in compensation for the Nazi destruction of European Jewry. However, the narrative continues, this is unjust because the Palestinians, who had nothing to do with the Holocaust, are being made to pay the price of European, especially German, crimes. This argument is absurd on a number of levels. One is that, if you look at history carefully, it is almost impossible to plausibly sketch an alternate historical scenario in which, in the absence of a Zionist presence in Palestine, an independent Palestinian Arab state would have been created there. So this was not the alternative to Israel’s creation. I may discuss this point in more detail in future “Scribblings” but I actually wanted to make a more fundamental point. While the Holocaust certainly makes the moral case for Israel stronger, it was by no means the reason for Israel’s creation, either in Jewish eyes or in the eyes of the international community. It’s worth reviewing a bit of history. (AIJAC)

Mumbai Defendant Recants Confession- ARLENE CHANG and ERIC BELLMAN
MUMBAI -- The Pakistani man captured during last year's terrorist attacks retracted his confession Friday, saying he had been framed and tortured. Mohammed Ajmal Kasab told a special court in Mumbai that he arrived in the city well before the attacks, intending to pursue an acting career. Twenty days before the November strikes, Mr. Kasab said, he was picked up by police while looking for a hotel and thrown in jail because he is from Pakistan. He said it was only during the attacks that he was brought out to take the blame because he resembled one of the gunmen photographed attacking commuters at a rail station with an AK-47. He said he then was tortured and forced to sign a confession. "I have never seen an AK-47 in my life," the 21-year-old told the court. "I saw it only when the police produced it." (WSJ)

Police expect Mumbai-style terror attack on City of London-David Leppard
Scotland Yard has warned businesses in London to expect a Mumbai-style attack on the capital. In a briefing in the City of London 12 days ago, a senior detective from SO15, the Metropolitan police counter-terrorism command, said: “Mumbai is coming to London.” The detective said companies should anticipate a shooting and hostage-taking raid “involving a small number of gunmen with handguns and improvised explosive devices”. The warning — the bluntest issued by police — has underlined an assessment that a terrorist cell may be preparing an attack on London early next year. It was issued by the Met through its network of “security forums”, which provide business leaders, local government and the emergency services with counter-terrorism advice. During a “commando-style” raid by 10 gunmen on hotels and cafes in Mumbai in November 2008, 174 people were killed and more than 300 injured over three days. Officials now report an increase in “intelligence chatter” — communications captured by electronic eavesdropping agencies. One senior security adviser said the police warnings had intensified and become much more specific in the past fortnight. (Timesonline.co.uk)

Indian official warns of terror attacks in Goa-Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST
Pakistani terror groups are planning attacks against tourist sites frequented by Israelis, British and Americans in Goa, a top Indian government officials warned on Friday. Home Minister Rabvi Navik said that the terrorist groups were planning "spectacular violence" in Goa, which was a prime target due to the large presence of tourists from Israel and the United States. Attracted by its beautiful beaches, hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Goa annually. December and January are popular months to visit due to the area's open-air Christmas and New Year parties. "Available intelligence inputs indicate that a strong desire is entertained by various Pakistan-based terrorist groups to indulge in spectacular violence in Goa," Navik was quoted as saying in Indian press reports. Israeli defense officials said that they believed the threat was genuine. In October, Israel's Counterterrorism Bureau issued a travel advisory regarding India, claiming that the threat against Israelis was "concrete" and recommended that Israelis refrain from congregating in synagogues, Chabad centers and other popular tourist spots. (Jpost)

NatWest handed Al Qaeda terrorist 100% mortgage to buy £93,000 home he turned into a bomb factory-Daily Mail Reporter
A bank has sparked outrage by handing over a 100 per cent mortgage to an Al Qaeda terrorist who smuggled himself into Britain. Albanian Krenar Lusha, 30, was given £93,000 after NatWest failed to complete full checks on his UK status. He used the cash to buy a house in Derby, where he stored bomb-making equipment and information on how to carry out attacks. The illegal immigrant also managed to get a UK driving licence, secure a £30,000-a-year engineering job and was even offered a second mortgage - which he declined. Lusha opened a NatWest bank account in 2000, soon after he sneaked into Britain on the back of a lorry. When bank staff were asked about its dealings with Lusha, one mortgage advisor told Preston Crown Court: 'He was just a pleasant natured person and there was nothing untoward.' Yesterday Lusha was jailed for seven years after he was convicted of five out of 10 terror charges following a three-week trial. Tory MP David Davies said: 'It is extraordinary that a major high street bank gave a mortgage to an illegal immigrant. 'This has only come to light because terrorism charges have been brought against an individual so can we assume that hundreds of other illegal immigrants have also been given mortgages? (Dailymail.co.uk)

NIE Crippling US Policy on Iran- Rowan Scarborough
The disclosure this week that Iran is secretly trying to assemble nuclear-bomb triggers should convince the Obama administration to retract, once and for all, the United States' official assessment that Tehran stopped working on atomic weapons in 2003, intelligence experts say. The 2007 assessment, called a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE,) has done great harm to U.S. security during its two-year existence. It blunted President Bush's efforts, in Washington and the international community, to stop the radical Islamic regime from becoming a nuclear power. The NIE also influenced the 2008 presidential run of Barack Obama, who made it a hallmark campaign position to negotiate face-to-face with hardline Iranian leaders. That effort now appears to have been a waste of time. "I think every day that goes by shows the 2007 NIE to be politicized," John Bolton, Bush's United Nations ambassador in 2005-06, told HUMAN EVENTS. Long an advocate for a tough approach to Iran, Bolton added, "That's what I thought at the time, as did many others. And this is just more evidence of it. It's an embarrassment for the U.S. intelligence community, and they ought to be working on ways to do a new estimate and repudiate that one. (Humanevents)

Guantanamo North, and East
Al Qaeda detainees move to Illinois and Yemen.
President Obama's scramble to close Guantanamo is picking up speed as his arbitrary one-year deadline approaches, with Yemen and Illinois as the latest detainee destinations. Neither decision will enhance U.S. security. The government of Yemen announced yesterday that it will take six detainees, and more could follow if this transfer goes smoothly. Yemenis account for 97 of the 210 men still left at Gitmo, and 34 have been cleared for release. The problem is that Yemen is emerging as one of the world's sanctuaries for al Qaeda, and its government has essentially run a nonaggression pact with the terrorists. The U.S. says it will closely monitor the transfer, but once the detainees are in Yemen their treatment will be impossible to control. Several former Gitmo detainees from other countries have moved to Yemen to rejoin the global jihad, and one of them, Said Ali al-Shihri, turned up in a January video as al Qaeda's No. 2 man on the Arabian peninsula. Adding to al-Shirhi's potential recruitment pool seems a high price to pay for the alleged "global good will" for closing Guantanamo. (WSJ)

MPAC's Flawed Prescription for Fighting Homegrown Terror-IPT
Following the news that five Americans had traveled from the United States to Pakistan to attend terrorist training camps, a coalition of representatives from the American-Muslim community has come out denouncing the alleged plotters. From this chorus, groups such as the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) have promised to redouble efforts at combating radicalization and to renew cooperation with law enforcement. Indicative of these efforts, according to MPAC, is a recently released report entitled Building Bridges to Strengthen America: Forging an Effective Counterterrorism Enterprise Between Muslim Americans and Law Enforcement (MPAC Report). The report was written to provide a "blueprint for how Muslim American communities can be an asset in securing our nation and preserving the rights of all Americans, as defined by a Muslim American perspective." Despite this laudatory mission statement, a review of the report reveals that MPAC is simply continuing to engage in the same tactics which it has always relied upon—calling for greater cooperation between the American-Muslim community and U.S. law enforcement while undermining U.S. counter-terrorism efforts. (IPT)

Dead Wrong Durbin-Andrew C. McCarthy
The law will not stop the courts from releasing foreign jihadists in the United States.Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) is the leading congressional advocate of the plan to ship the terrorists being detained at Guantanamo Bay to a prison in his (and the president’s) home state — i.e., the scheme to redistribute federal taxpayer money to Illinois to buy a jail the state barely uses and should never have built. As detailed in my column on Thursday, he is also a leading proponent of the purported imperative to close Gitmo, based on the canard that its existence drives terrorist recruitment, resulting in more terrorism. The senator has written an op-ed for The Hill arguing his case. He makes some extravagant claims designed to assure Americans that the transfer of detainees from Cuba to a prison inside our country will not result in their being released here. As he puts it: (Nationalreview)

Column One: Reconsidering the Suez Campaign-Caroline Glick
It is hard to seize the initiative. The consequences of acting are frightening. It is always better to let others go first. But sometimes that is impossible. Today it is becoming clear that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has no choice but to lead. The stakes have never been higher. Every day we are beset by an avalanche of evidence that Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear armed state. From the secret uranium enrichment facility in Qom, to Iran's solid fuel missile test this week to the disclosure that Iran is developing a trigger device to detonate nuclear bombs, it is clear that Teheran is building a nuclear arsenal and that - at a minimum - it is determined to use it to force the nations of the Middle East to bend to its fanatical will. Until now, as Israel faced this growing threat, it has tried to avoid leading by seeking to convince the US to act against Iran. Since US President Barack Obama took office 11 months ago, Israel's desire to convince the US to act against Iran has driven Netanyahu to take drastic steps to appease the White House. (Jpost)

It’s All a Lie: Copenhagen and Global Warming-Alan Caruba
As delegates in Copenhagen wrap up the greatest fraud perpetrated worldwide in the modern era, there is only one thing you need to know. It is all a lie. It was a lie from the first moment a scientist like James Hansen told Congress on June 23, 1988 that the planet was going to be roasted by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and it was a lie when Al Gore wrote Earth in the Balance and there were still more lies in his Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. A British court banned the documentary from being shown in their schools unless a long list of disclaimers was read to the students before his lies were inflicted on them. American students were not so fortunate. Indeed, as I have said many times before, global warming has been a form of child abuse, causing needless anxiety and fear for countless children on whom it was inflicted. But how could such a lie be perpetrated on such a vast stage and for so long? My answer to you is “the Soviet Union.” From its inception in 1917 when the czarist monarchy was overthrown and Marxist theory, Communism, was imposed on Russia, whole generations were forced to suffer under this huge lie that the state would provide everything for everybody. (Familysecuritymatters)

CLIMATEGATE: THE LAWYERS MOVE IN – THOSE SCIENTISTS ARE TOAST! -James Delingpole
God bless America and – can I really be saying this? – God bless the legal profession! Despite the best efforts of the Obama administration, most of the world’s other governments (save the plucky Canucks), the United Nations and the Mainstream Media (MSM) to sweep Climategate under the carpet, the lawyers are putting this shoddy scandal where it belongs: in the dock. (Hat tip: Platosays) The US Department of Energy (DOE) – under pressure, most likely, from Senator Inhofe – has issued a “Litigation Hold Notice” to its various sub-departments asking them to retain any documents pertaining to the Climatic Research Unit at University of East Anglia. Below – reports Watts Up With That - is a copy of the notice sent to the DOE’s Savannah office in South Carolina: (Scienceandpublicpolicy)

100 REASONS WHY GLOBAL WARMING IS NATURAL- Martyn Brown
CAMPAIGNERS yesterday attempted to pour scorn on “tenuous” global warming theories by issuing a dossier detailing 100 reasons why climate change is natural and not man-made. The list includes the controversial claim that there is “no scientific proof” that rising levels of greenhouse gases are caused by human activity.
**SEE THE 100 REASONS HERE** The report, by the respected European Foundation, also argues that a higher level of carbon dioxide (CO2) – the main greenhouse gas – is not a problem because it helps to boost crop yields.
And it claims that the warming we are now experiencing is “mostly natural”, pointing to historic shifts in the climate such as when Vikings farmed on Greenland in medieval times. (Dailyexpress.co.uk)

Marijuana could alleviate symptoms of PTSD
An Israeli study finds that the cannabinoids in cannabis provide anxiety relief, could affect emotional memory and may enhance PTSD treatments.
Back in the early Sixties when the Flower Children were getting high, parents in the US government were consulting Prof. Raphael Mechoulam from Israel about the effects of pot smoking on their teens. Mechoulam, an organic chemist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was the first to isolate the psychotropic element THC in the cannabis plant. He dubbed its active chemical components 'cannabinoids.' Ever since his discovery, the medical community has recognized and lauded the importance of cannabinoids in alleviating chronic pain and nausea in cancer patients and modulating the symptoms of HIV/AIDS. A new study, this time at Israel's University of Haifa, has found a reason to legalize the use of cannabinoids, assuming that its benefits outweigh the potential risks. According to the study by Dr. Irit Akirav from the Department of Psychology at Haifa University, cannabinoids may relieve the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a debilitating disorder that strikes 10 to 30 percent of people who suffer from a traumatic event such as war, a car accident, rape or a terrorist attack. In her study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, Akirav used an animal model and a synthetic form of marijuana that didn't induce psychotropic effects, to measure the compound's efficacy at reducing the effects of PTSD. (Israel21c)

What the Late Middle Ages Wrought-Julia Vitullo-Martin
King's College Chapel is the product of royal favor, religious politics, civil wars, labor strife and superb craftsmanship
Praised by the poet William Wordsworth in 1820 as "this immense and glorious work of fine intelligence," King's College Chapel in Cambridge, England, is the product of an extraordinary combination of royal commitment, turbulent religious politics, violent civil wars, vicious labor disputes, superb medieval craftsmanship, and engineering that has never been replicated and is still not fully understood today. The historian Francis Woodman, author of "The Architectural History of King's College Chapel," calls it "the English building of the late Middle Ages, every element capturing the artistic and political revolution of its time." The chapel is indeed immense, with an outside measurement of 310 feet from turret to turret, each of which is 146 feet high. The interior—289 feet long and 40 feet wide—is dominated by the celebrated fan vault ceiling, whose equidistantly spaced curved ribs radiate up and away, forming a series of huge half cones. The largest fan vault in the world and estimated to weigh 1,875 tons, it is "an unfathomable piece of beautiful technology," Mr. Woodman says. Modern engineers have not been able to work out how the master-mason John Wastell put the fan vault into place, though Mr. Woodman says "we know he built it from the top down." Wordsworth poetically described the engineering feat as "that branching roof self-poised." (WSJ)

The Venezuelan-Alex Ross
Gustavo Dudamel takes over the L.A. Philharmonic.
The classical-music world has a fraught relationship with fame. On the one hand, people are always pining for the days when Arturo Toscanini, Leonard Bernstein, and Leontyne Price dominated the airwaves and appeared on the covers of magazines. On the other hand, whenever a contemporary classical musician brushes up against celebrity—this usually entails a segment on “60 Minutes,” a Rolex ad, a photograph in People, and possibly the final slot on the “Tonight Show”—skeptics start to worry that the supposed avalanche of hype will wipe out any trace of artistic integrity. Such anxiety is not entirely misplaced: Luciano Pavarotti went from being the finest lyric tenor of the modern era to serving as the punch line for fat jokes. Then again, notions of the irreconcilability of commerce and art smack of college-dorm Marxism, and run counter to the spirit of Beethoven, Verdi, and Mahler, who addressed themselves passionately to the general public. Surely it is possible for a classical composer or performer to attain celebrity without surrendering to celebrity culture. (Newyorker)