In response to the publication of cartoons, first published last September by the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, and later reissued by EU newspapers, some British Muslims at the rally on Friday vented their anger, shouting: "UK you must pray, 7/7 is on its way." Other slogans included "massacre those who insult Islam" and "Europe, your 9/11 will come".

The caricatures of Mohammad have sparked outrage in Muslims states and led to the death of at least five people yesterday. One of the cartoons shows Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, while another shows him holding a sword, with his eyes covered by a black rectangle.

Apparently succumbing to pressure from Muslim leaders, Mr Khayam yesterday told journalists outside his home in Bedford his protest was aimed at the insensitivities of those who practise their right to free speech while trampling on the feelings and beliefs of others. "A free media doesn't mean we may say or do as we please, and not take into account the effect it will have on others," he said.

Apologising to the families of the July 7th London bomb atrocities, he said: "My method of protest has offended many people, especially the families of the victims of the July bombings. This was not my aim.

"What happened in July was a tragedy and un-Islamic. I do not condone these murderous acts. I do not support terrorism or extremism. "I would like to apologise unreservedly and wholeheartedly to the families of the victims. I understand it was wrong, unjustified and insensitive of me to protest in this way." DeHavilland

Abu Hamza guilty of inciting murder

Tue Feb 7, 2006 LONDON (Reuters) - Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, accused by U.S. authorities of terrorism offences, was found guilty by a London court on Tuesday of inciting murder.

Egyptian-born Hamza, 47, who is also wanted by the United States on 11 charges including trying to set up a "terrorist training camp" in Oregon, faced 15 charges in Britain. - reuters

- this comes days after BNP were aquitted [for a retrial] of inciting racial hatred...and the resumption of the Theo Van Gogh trial [see above]

Furious muslim uproar continues over prophet cartoons

05/02/2006 -

Thousands of Syrians enraged by caricatures of Islam's revered prophet torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies yesterday - the most violent in days of furious protests by Muslims in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Faced by the spreading violence and international concern, top religious officials in Syria urged calm.

In Gaza, Palestinians marched through the streets, storming European buildings and burning German and Danish flags. Protesters smashed the windows of the German cultural centre and threw stones at the European Commission building, police said.

Iraqis rallying by the hundreds demanded an apology from the European Union, and the leader of the Palestinian group Hamas called the cartoons "an unforgivable insult" that merited punishment by death.

Pakistan summoned the envoys of nine Western countries in protest, and even Europeans took to the streets in Denmark and Britain to voice their anger.

At the heart of the protest: 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten in September and reprinted in European media in the past week. The cartoons have touched a raw nerve in part because Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad. Aggravating the affront: one caricature of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse.

Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he cannot apologise for his country's free press. But other European leaders tried yesterday to calm the storm.

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said she understood Muslims were hurt - though it did not justify violence.

"Freedom of the press is one of the great assets as a component of democracy, but we also have the value and asset of freedom of religion," Merkel told an international security conference in Munich, Germany.

US President George Bush's Press Secretary Scott McClellan said in a statement yesterday that "the Government of Syria's failure to provide protection to diplomatic premises, in the face of warnings that violence was planned, is inexcusable.

"We will hold Syria responsible for such violent demonstrations since they do not take place in that country without government knowledge and support," the statement continued.

The Vatican deplored the violence, but said certain provocative forms of criticism were unacceptable.

"The right to freedom of thought and expression ... cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers," the Vatican said in its first statement on the controversy.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who has criticised European media for reprinting the caricatures, said there was no justification for the violence.

"We stand in solidarity with the Danish government in its call for calm and its demand that all its diplomats and diplomatic premises are properly protected. It's incumbent on the Syrian authorities to act in this regard."

Poland's Foreign Minister Stefan Meller said he would tell Muslim ambassadors next week "how sorry he feels that these caricatures have been reprinted," his spokesman said.

But Denmark and Norway did not wait for more violence. With their embassies in Damascus up in flames, the foreign ministries advised their citizens to leave Syria without delay.

"It's horrible and totally unacceptable," Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said on Danish public television yesterday.

No diplomats were injured, officials said. But Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds - whose country, along with Chile, has an embassy in the same building - said she would lodge a formal protest over the lack of security.

In Santiago, the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Chilean Embassy in Damascus was also torched, but nobody was injured.

Amid the furore, Syria's Grand Mufti urged calm, noting the demonstration had started in a "nice and disciplined way," but then turned violent because of "some members who do not understand the language of dialogue with others and turned it into destroying and burning of properties."

"We never expressed our anger in such a way, and we believe that dialogue should be done through guidance and teaching, not through killing, harming and burning," Sheikh Ahmed Badr-Eddine Hassoun said in remarks carried by state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, or SANA.

The country's minister of Religious Affairs, Mohammed Ziyad al-Ayoubi, also criticised what had happened, saying: "it is our right to demonstrate and express our anger over what some European newspapers published, but it is not our right to cross the lines that were drawn by Islam."

The demonstrations in Damascus began peacefully with protesters gathering outside the building housing the Danish Embassy. But they began throwing stones and eventually broke through police barricades. Some scrambled up concrete barriers protecting the embassy, climbed into the building and set a fire.

"With our blood and souls we defend you, O Prophet of God!" the demonstrators chanted. Some replaced Danish flag with a green flag printed with the words: "There is no god but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God."

Demonstrators moved onto the Norwegian Embassy, about six kilometres (four miles) away, also setting fire to it before being dispersed by police using tear gas and water cannons. Hundreds of police and troops barricaded the road leading to the French Embassy, but protesters were able to break through briefly before fleeing from the force of water cannons.

In Gaza, masked gunmen affiliated with the Fatah Party called on the Palestinian Authority and Muslim nations to recall their diplomatic missions from Denmark until the government apologised.

In the West Bank town of Hebron, about 50 Palestinians marched to the headquarters of the international observer mission there, burned a Danish flag and demanded a boycott of Danish goods.

"We will redeem our prophet, Muhammad, with our blood!" they chanted.

Mahmoud Zahar, leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, told the Italian daily Il Giornale that the cartoonists should be punished by death: "We should have killed all those who offend the Prophet and instead here we are, protesting peacefully," he said.

Hundreds of Iraqis rallied south of Baghdad, some carrying banners urging "honest people all over the world to condemn this act" and demanding an EU apology.

Anger swelled in Europe, too. Young Muslims clashed briefly with police in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, and some 700 people rallied outside the Danish Embassy in London.

A South African court banned the country's Sunday newspapers from reprinting the cartoons.

Iran's president ordered his commerce minister to study cancelling all trade contracts with European countries whose newspapers have published the caricatures, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the caricatures showed the "impudence and rudeness" of Western newspapers against the prophet, as well as the "maximum resentment of the Zionists (Jews) ruling these countries against Islam and Muslims."

The leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan denounced the publication of the cartoons. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry summoned nine envoys to lodge protests against the publication of the "blasphemous" sketches.

"Let the perpetrators of the insult see the gravity of their own mistakes which only they themselves can and should correct," Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said. IOL

Yahoo News report 6th February - Security forces open fire on demonstrators in Afghanistan, Somalia, Lebanon

at least four dead. The worst of the violence was outside Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, with Afghan police firing on some 2,000 protesters as they tried to break into the heavily guarded facility. Two demonstrators were killed and five were injured, while eight police also were hurt. No U.S. troops were involved in the clashes, the military said. Afghan police also fired on protesters in the central city of Mihtarlam after a man in the crowd shot at them and others threw stones and knives. Two protesters were killed, and three other people were wounded, including two police, officials said. The demonstrators burned tires and threw stones at government offices.

The unrest also spread to East Africa as police in Somalia fired in the air to disperse stone-throwing protesters, triggering a stampede in which a teenager was killed and raising to six the number of deaths in protests.

Lebanon, meanwhile, apologized to Denmark a day after thousands of rampaging Muslim demonstrators set fire to the building housing the Danish mission in Beirut. At least one person died, 30 were injured - half of them security officials - and about 200 people were detained in Sunday's violence. The arrested included 76 Syrians, 35 Palestinians and 38 Lebanese.

Danish lawyer shot & injured in Moscow as fury of Muslims sweeps world

The Threat of Islamism

by Flemming Rose Jyllands-Posten - October 29, 2004

Daniel Pipes's Introduction: This translation from Danish of "Truslen fra islamismen," was done anonymously and posted on the Internet. I am grateful for my translator into Danish, Mette Thomsen, for editing the text and improving it.

According to Daniel Pipes, the Muslim world at the moment is trying, for the third time, to define itself in relation to the West. The two first attempts aimed at (or resulted in) imitating various aspects of the West. The third represents a totalitarian ideology, commensurate to fascism and communism.

Philadelphia - There is no name sign on the door, and it is locked. The visitor must pop in at a neighbor's to verify that the address is correct. Yes, that it is for sure. The Middle East Forum and Daniel Pipes are on the tenth floor of an anonymous skyscraper, just a stone's throw away from the building where the Fathers of the Nation assembled in 1787 to set down the country's foundation. Down on the street, a few middle-aged women are trudging away with voting posters in favor of John Kerry, who is in town to kick off the finish of his campaign. Pennsylvania is one of the so-called "swing states" that may well determine the outcome of the presidential election next Tuesday.

For Daniel Pipes himself, there is no doubt where his sympathy lies. He will vote for George W. Bush and describes himself as conservative. The 54-year-old historian, whose areas of special interest are the Middle East and the Middle Ages, has since 1994 headed the think tank "The Middle East Forum" which aims at "defining and facilitating American interests in the Middle East." Pipes spoke and wrote about the threat of Islamists long before September 11. Already in 1995 he observed that they had initiated an undeclared war on the U.S. and Europe.

Pipes' voice is so quiet that it is almost drowned out by the buzzing noise of the air conditioner in the modest office, but nevertheless, this voice, soft as velvet, has caused an uproar in academic, left-wing and certain Muslim circles. When Pipes talks about militant Islam at universities, his critics threaten with uproar and boycott. His appointment last year by President Bush to the board of the government's think tank, US Institute of Peace, triggered great clamor, and it is not coincidental that there is no name sign on the front door of the think tank's office.

A totalitarian ideology

For 20 years, Pipes has written and talked about militant Islam as a totalitarian ideology, commensurate to fascism and communism. His perspective on ideas, history and politics does not stem from far away. Daniel Pipes' father is Richard Pipes, one of the 20th century's foremost experts on Russian and Soviet history, who, opposed to the spirit of the 1960s and 1970s, insisted on the totalitarian nature of the Soviet regime and its hostile attitude towards the liberal democracies of the West.

The son recognizes his father's influence. "The Islamists' agenda is way different from that of communists or fascists. It is about belief, and as opposed to communism and fascism, they don't have large countries such as the Soviet Union or Germany behind them; but if you look at their methods and their goals, the likenesses are striking," Daniel Pipes says. "All three ideologies are radical utopias which, at their core, have a theory for how the human race can be improved. No more, no less. All three are dominated by a small, chosen elite that shall bring substance to the great idea. They are ready to resort to all conceivable means; they are true believers, fanatics, and they don't hesitate to resort to force and brutality to accomplish their project. They do not respect other perspectives and wish to control all areas of life. Once they have succeeded in one country, their ambition is to extend their control to other [countries]", he adds. "It makes sense to look at the current conflict between the civilized world and militant Islam in the light of the two earlier confrontations with communism and fascism. One we managed to defeat in a total war over a relatively short period of time, whereas the other conflict, the Cold War, lasted for decades. In this third confrontation, militant Islam is the challenge. The core of militant Islamic ideology is hidden in the expression "al-Islam huwwa al-hall", which means: Islam is the solution. No matter the context - education, upbringing, romance, work, public or private matters - Islam has the answer. This is a recipe for a totalitarian ideology."

Other than terror

Daniel Pipes' fascination with Islam and the Middle East started when he lived in Egypt in the early 1970s. Back then, he did not perceive Islamism as a threat. That did not happen until the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, the assassination of the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat two years later and a surge of violations of American interests in the region.

Pipes thinks that it is misleading to speak of the current conflict with Islamists as a war against terror. He points out that wrong definitions and terms lead to erroneous proposals for a solution. When President Bush cites the numbers of killed Al Qaida leaders to state how well the war on terror is going, he misses the point. "It does not say anything - or at least very little. It is a euphemism, a paraphrase, to speak of a "terror threat" or a "war against terror". Terror is a tactic, not an enemy. We don't say either, here in the U.S., that the Second World War was against sneak attacks. It was a war against fascism", argues Pipes.

Moderates must be supported

He stresses that the conflict is not directed at Islam as a personal belief, but at militant Islam, an aggressive political ideology striving for the establishment of Islamic law, sharia, throughout the world. This difference bears in it the seed of the conflict's solution. "If militant Islam is the problem, then the opposite, namely moderate Islam, must be the solution," Daniel Pipes concludes. "I don't mean to say that Islam, once and for all, is condemned to be on a collision course with the modern world. The majority of Muslims do not wish to live the sort of life as under the Taliban in Afghanistan. We have millions of Muslims on our side. If you look deeply into this matter, the current conflict is one that must be fought out and won within the Muslim world." According to Daniel Pipes, it is now important to find alternative leaders and ideas that can take up the fight against militant Islam. "In the confrontations with fascism and communism, we were victorious because we managed to marginalize the enemy's ideology, making it look repulsive in the eyes of the majority. In 1991, the Soviet leaders no longer believed in their system. We are also obliged to convince the Islamists of the fact that they are wrong. We have to find alternative leaders in the Islamic world, in the same way that Konrad Adenauer emerged in Germany and Boris Yeltsin in Russia. There are two steps: on the one hand, we must overthrow the ideology by force of arms and by means of education, media, and information; and on the other hand, we must support anti-Islamist Muslims, who wish to keep their faith, but do not wish to live under Islamic law - in much the same way that we supported anti-Communists and anti-Nazis in the Soviet Union and Germany respectively. In the end, it is a battle between two conceptions of the Muslims' place in the world."

Not the true nature of Islam

Daniel Pipes recognizes that the current situation does not exactly give rise to optimism, but he is nevertheless convinced that the Muslim world will, sooner or later, define itself in a positive way in relation to the modern world. "The current situation does not originate in the true nature of Islam. In principle, Judaism is also a law-shaped religion, just like Islam, but it has managed to coexist with modern life. Islam's current situation is the result of a historical development. If you and I were having this conversation in the 1930s, we would have pointed at Germany's and Japan's problems with modern life, but those were temporary. We may also have focused on the Turk leader Kemal Atatürk's attempt to build an alternative secular model for the Islamic world. Unfortunately, at the moment this idea is not considered very attractive in the Middle East. The ideas of the Islamists sound much more timely and attractive," Pipes explains.

A third attempt

Pipes subsequently delivers a cram course in the history of the Islamic world. "During the first 600 years of the history of Islam, being a Muslim was like playing on a winning team. It was an advanced society that got along well, materially as well as spiritually. It was a rich, powerful and healthy world. During the next 600 years, the Islamic world shut itself in and lost all connection to what happened elsewhere, not least in Europe. When Muslims in the 19th century discovered the wealth and power of the West, they asked themselves, perplexed and shocked: What went wrong, and how do we fix it? During the first 120-130 years, i.e., until the 1930s, they tried to imitate the liberal West, most of all France and Great Britain. During the next 60 years, on the contrary, they tried to imitate the non-liberal West, i.e. fascist and communist movements. Today, for the third time, they try to respond to the challenge of the West, and this time they have turned to early, non-liberal Islam. This also shall have its time and fail, and then they will try something different again. I believe that the next attempt will resemble the first one - the imitation of the liberal West - more closely than the other two", says Pipes with moderate optimism.

Europe baffles

But this should not give us reason to lean back and wait for things to happen by themselves, Pipes thinks. He is amazed that Europe is not more alarmed about the challenge that Islam poses, considering plummeting birth rates and a weakened perception of its own history and culture. "This is one of the biggest stories of our time. The reactions in Europe are bafflingly relaxed. There is much denial at work. It is paradoxical that Muslims, coming from countries that are weaker in economic and political terms, within rich and strong Europe show more cultural ambition than the Europeans themselves. That baffles me as an American. Europe has been the driving force of history throughout the past 500 years, but now it looks as though that era has come to a close. Here in the U.S., the situation is far less dramatic." According to Daniel Pipes, Muslims do not account for more than about one percent of the (U.S.) population, 3 to 4 million people, and their social status differs from that in Europe. "There are groups calling for Islam in schools and intimidating politicians and Muslims who insist on their right to freedom of speech. Militant Islam has an extensive non-violent agenda. Muslims in the U.S. consist of two groups, immigrants and Americans converted to Islam. Muslim immigrants have a higher social and economic status than they have in Europe. There are doctors, engineers and others with a professional education, making serious money."

Failed research

Daniel Pipes has fallen out with a large part of the academic world. He is critical of much of the research undertaken in Middle East Studies and thinks it has neglected or ignored important movements, while in other areas it has too quickly ascribed a modernizing or democratizing effect to the fundamentalists. It has, he thinks, often politicized with a (liability to) penchant for a left-wing twist. "Left-wingers are dissatisfied with the societies formed in the West, while conservatives are content. The discontent and feelings of guilt among left-wingers often make them go too far in their accommodation of opponents. They seek understanding and compromise, whereas conservatives are more inclined to take on a confrontation. People in Middle East studies have not perceived the hostile and violent elements in radical Islam. They have ignored Saddam Hussein's brutal regime, widespread anti-Semitism, slavery in Sudan, cultural repression of Berbers in North Africa, and they have attempted to convey the impression that the word jihad means something entirely different than military efforts to extend Islam's territory. Some even believe that jihad is about becoming a better person. As if Palestinian Islamic Jihad uses the word in the sense of becoming better men."

Biographical facts ("Blue Book")

Daniel Pipes, 54 years. Educated in history at Harvard University. He has held positions in the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Defense. Since 1994, he has concentrated on the operation of the think tank "Middle East Forum", as well as on an unusually popular website, www.danielpipes.org, that receives more than 2 million hits per year. Pipes also has 20.000 subscribers to a free newsletter on the web. He established the Middle East Forum at his home with two friends, but today his office is run from a select address in central Philadelphia, has 15 employees, and a budget of more than 1 million dollars. Pipes has authored 12 books, the latest being Miniatures: Views of Islamic and Middle Eastern Politics.

danielpipes.org

Weblog
The State Department Promotes Islamist Organizations
February 25, 2004

Not only does the U.S. government build mosques but it posts official pages on the Department of State website celebrating "Muslim Life in America" - something no other religion in the United States benefits from. In addition to the predictable feel-good writing and photography, the website also has a bibliography with select readings, Internet sites, and nongovernmental organizations. All of the sections hold interest, but the organizational one does most of all. A close look finds that the State Department provides links to and thereby endorses groups that the federal government has either effectively shut down (the American Muslim Council), is currently investigating (Islamic Society of North America), or has arrested multiple employees of (Council on American-Islamic Relations). Additionally, other organizations on the list (Council on Islamic Education, Islamic Institute, Muslim Public Affairs Council) were long ago exposed as sympathetic to militant Islam.

It's hard to win a war, you know, when one's foreign ministry publicly endorses the enemy's friends and agents. It's dispiriting and confusing. So, how about it, State Department, and take down the offending web pages? (February 25, 2004)

February 26, 2005 update: Quite the reverse: rather than take the offending names down, the State Department chooses to endorse Islamists in a new way. On a page listing "Selected Non-Governmental Organizations," the only two Muslim ones honored to be named are CAIR and MPAC.

April 28, 2005 update: Not content with promoting the likes of CIE, ISNA, CAIR, and MPAC, the State Department is also now in the business of promoting Muslim exchanges. "Islamic Life in the United States" is the title of a $300,000 grant announced today that has four objectives:

1) to enhance the non-American participants' understanding of the place of religion, particularly Islam, in American life;

2) to broaden participants' awareness of and appreciation for the serious religious study conducted in the United States particularly the study of Islam;

3) to provide a forum for examination and discussion of the compatibility of religious practice and democratic social and political structures; the social benefits produced by mutually respectful coexistence among diverse religious communities; ways in which Islamic practice in the United States, in particular, functions in a multi-cultural, multi-religious context; and

4) to broaden the understanding of American scholars, clerics, and laypersons of the place of Islam in the societies of the Middle East.

Comment: (1) I find it hard to imagine the courts would allow such a program for any other religion beside Islam. (2) If this is not da`wa, it is coming awfully close.