http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=113602
Exclusive: Joel Richardson covers prediction Ankara set to unite world's Muslim nations
Posted: October 22, 2009
1:00 am Eastern
In 2005, the National Intelligence Council, or NIC, produced a report called, "Mapping the Global Future: Project 2020." According to this report, within the next several years, we may expect to see the emergence of a fledgling caliphate, or revived Islamic empire.
For those unfamiliar with the NIC, below is a self-description from its website:
The NIC is a center of strategic thinking within the U.S. Government, reporting to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and providing the president and senior policymakers with analyses of foreign policy issues that have been reviewed and coordinated throughout the Intelligence Community. Our work ranges from brief analyses of current issues to "over the horizon" estimates of broader trends at work in the world.
What is interesting about the NIC's "over the horizon" assessment is that the coming caliphate would not be built on acts of terrorism, but instead would be established through peaceful means. By claiming to provide the Middle East with stability, peace and security, the emergence of the coming caliphate will be viewed positively by much of the world. Yet the conclusion of the 2020 report states that even a limited and moderate Islamic caliphate would pose problems for the United States and her global interests of immense proportions.
Understand the significance of the Muslim's Mahdi 'messiah' in Joel Richardson's new book, "The Islamic Antichrist: The Shocking Truth about the Real Nature of the Beast." Note: The book is also available in electronic form at reduced price through Scribd.
The truth is, even if al-Qaida succeeded in its dream of reviving a caliphate, it would only give the U.S. military a clearly defined target. But how would the U.S. to respond if Turkey, one of our historically greatest allies in the region, emerges as an Islamist superpower? What will our relationship be with a neo-Ottoman caliphate? Now, it is doubtful of course that such a historically loaded term would ever be used. Far more likely, we will see the use of a far less threatening term, such as the title championed by Adnan Oktar, a Turkish Muslim intellectual who has been calling for a "Turkish-led Islamic Union." Oktar, although a controversial figure, is highly respected in many circles and is the most published author in the Islamic world, with over 65 million of his works in circulation. I recently travelled to Istanbul to speak with Mr. Oktar about his vision for a Turkish-led Islamic Union. According to Oktar, the revival of a Turkish led-Islamic empire will be the defining development that will bring peace not only to the Middle East, but to the world:
Adnan Oktar's Vision of a Turkish-led Islamic Union
We should not take Mr. Oktar's vision lightly. For the past several years, I have been highlighting the merging of two very significant developments in the nation of Turkey – the first issue being the rapid Islamization of the nation. Much has been written concerning this development in recent months. But the second issue, perhaps of even greater significance, is Turkey's re-emergence as leader of the region. For over 500 years, the Turkish Ottomans ruled the Middle East, and in the years to come, they will arise once again as a regional superpower. And much of the world will welcome this as a positive development.
I also believe that a Turkish-led Islamic empire is clearly prophesied in the Bible. In my book "The Islamic Antichrist" (which was originally written in 2004), I walk through the biblical basis for such a claim. Five years later, despite Turkey's rapid ascension in the region and in the world, some still look with skepticism on such claims. Of course, time will either confirm or put to rest this idea. But for now, I want to bring to light some important voices that are confirming my predictions.
George Friedman is the CEO and founder of STRATFOR, the world's leading private intelligence and forecasting company. In his recent book, "The Next 100 Years," Friedman agrees in no uncertain terms that Turkey will soon emerge as a regional superpower: "[Turkey will] soon re-emerge in its old role, as the dominant force in the region." Speaking specifically of Turkey's coming leadership of a revived caliphate, Friedman makes the following very powerful observation and prediction:
The Islamic World is incapable of uniting voluntarily. It is, however, capable of being dominated by a Muslim power. Throughout history, Turkey has been the Muslim power most often able to create an empire out of … the Islamic world. …
According to Friedman, the past 80 or so years that Turkey has only controlled Asia Minor has been an anomaly. Soon we will see "Turkish power – the Ottoman Empire … begin to re-emerge."
In recent times, the world has been shocked to see Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reveal his true feelings toward Israel. In a fit or rage, in Davos, Switzerland, Erdogan shouted at the Israeli president: "You are old and your voice is loud out of a guilty conscience. When it comes to killing, you know very well how to kill! I know well how you hit and kill children on beaches!" This is the same Erdogan who actually spent time in jail for the writing the following overtly radical poem:
[The] Mosques are our barracks, [the] domes our helmets, [the] minarets our bayonets, [the] believers our soldiers. This holy army guards my religion. Almighty our journey is our destiny, the end is martyrdom.
This was not written by Osmam bin Laden. It was written by a man who is being taken seriously by much the world as one of the co-founders of the United Nations "Alliance of Civilizations," an intercultural dialogue, the purpose of which is to "overcome … prejudice, misperceptions and polarization that militate against [unity between the East and the West]. … The Alliance seeks to … establish a paradigm of mutual respect between civilizations and cultures."
(Column continues below)
Despite Erdogan's obvious bias, as well as his anti-Semitic streak and history of radicalism, many, including our own president, still view him as an honest broker and mediator between Israel and the Middle East. And Obama is not alone. In February of this year, the famous Orthodox Rabbi Menachem Fromen made the following statements in the Turkish Press:
It is an irrefutable fact that Turkey is the most natural mediator between Israel and Palestinian society. Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Erdoğan are the only two who can bring regional peace about.
Rabbi Fromen has also expressed his strong support for Mr. Oktar's vision of the Turkish-led Islamic Union.
And recently another very significant event took place that entirely escaped notice in the Western press. During a visit to Istanbul, Iranian President Ahmadinejad stood inside the Sultanahmet Mosque and prayed behind a Turkish Sunni imam. Ahmadinejad then stated, "The political meaning of this act is immense." Many within Turkey and the broader Islamic world took notice. According to Oktar, this was a sign that Ahmadinejad and the Iranian government are supporting the emerging Turkish-led Islamic Union. In an interview with the Iranian Press, Mr. Oktar said:
This act of Mr. Ahmadinejad, performing his prayers behind a Sunni imam, is very, very meaningful. Above all it means "if a Turkish-Islamic Union is to be formed, I will abide a Sunni imam, I will accept him as an imam." … This is what it means. … I mean it has a highly important significance.
So, has Iran truly expressed its support of Turkey's emerging regional power? Will more gullible Israelis believe as Rabbi Fromen does, that Turkey and Prime Minister Erdogan represent the only hope for the Middle East? Will STRATFOR and the NIC's vision of a revived Turkish Empire come to pass? Again, only time will tell. Next month, Prime Minister Erdogan will travel to Washington to meet with President Obama. As always, I'll be paying very close attention.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Islamic countries push a global 'blasphemy' law
As a new member of the UN Human Rights Council, the US must persuade other countries not to go along.
By the Monitor's Editorial Board
from the October 27, 2009 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1027/p08s01-comv.html
Remember the Danish "Muhammad cartoons" that set off riots by offended Muslims more than three years ago? The debate pitted freedom of press and speech against notions of freedom from insult of one's religion. It rages still – but now in a forum with international legal implications.
For years, Islamic nations have succeeded in passing "blasphemy" resolutions at the United Nations (in the General Assembly and in its human rights body). The measures call on states to limit religiously offensive language or speech. No one wants their beliefs ridiculed, but the freedom to disagree over faith is what allows for the free practice of religion. The resolutions are misguided, but also only symbolic, because they're nonbinding.
Symbolism no longer satisfies the sponsor of these resolutions – the Organization of the Islamic Council. Under the leadership of Pakistan, the 57-nation OIC wants to give the religious antidefamation idea legal teeth by making it part of an international convention, or legally binding treaty. Members of the UN Human Rights Council are passionately debating that idea in Geneva this week.
The United States under Barack Obama recently joined the UNHRC, maligned for years as the mouthpiece for countries that are themselves flagrant human rights abusers. A "new" council formed in 2006. President Obama's hope is that as an engaged member, the US can further reform – and its own interests. This case will test his theory.
Consider the wording put forth by Pakistan, written on behalf of the OIC. It proposes "legal prohibition of publication of material that negatively stereotypes, insults or uses offensive language" on matters regarded by religious followers as "sacred or inherent to their dignity as human beings."
This gives broad latitude to governments to decide what's offensive. Countries such as Pakistan already have national blasphemy laws, but a global treaty would give them international cover to suppress minority religious groups with the excuse that these groups offend mainstream beliefs.
And what about unpopular, even "insulting" dissenters within a majority religion – such as women who seek to interpret Islamic sharia law so that they may gain more rights?
Besides, international treaties are meant to protect the rights of people, not ideas. A legal defense of dignity – how a person is viewed – is not on par with a defense of a person's inherent identity and rights. And treaties already aim to protect individuals from discrimination and violence based on religion.
As a newcomer to the Human Rights Council, the US is vigorously arguing against the OIC's latest push, as are European countries. They may not get very far in changing minds in the governments of Egypt or Saudi Arabia. But human rights advocates such as Freedom House and the US Commission on International Religious Freedom say Latin American and sub-Saharan African countries could be persuaded to resist the OIC's push.
These largely non-Muslim countries have typically voted as a bloc on the nonbinding religious defamation resolutions. But the trend has shifted so that more of them are now either abstaining or voting against the resolutions. Chile, for instance, recently switched from abstain to "no" at the March Human Rights Council vote; Liberia switched from "yes" to "no" at the last General Assembly meeting.
These are democracies that understand that suppression of speech in the name of religion can come with a negative effect – suppression of people and theological fault lines that at some point will erupt. It is, conversely, open debate, interfaith dialogue, and righting of misconceptions that will allow religion to flourish – including Islam, whose many followers feel so maligned at the moment.
"Some claim that the best way to protect the freedom of religion is to implement so-called antidefamation policies that would restrict freedom of expression and the freedom of religion. I strongly disagree," said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton this week.
She went on to argue that the best antidote to religious intolerance is enforcement of antidiscrimination laws, government "outreach" to minority religious groups, and "the vigorous defense of both freedom of religion and expression."
The US is now in a position to persuade along these lines from inside the Human Rights Council. It should proceed with the vigor that Ms. Clinton talked about.
By the Monitor's Editorial Board
from the October 27, 2009 edition
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1027/p08s01-comv.html
Remember the Danish "Muhammad cartoons" that set off riots by offended Muslims more than three years ago? The debate pitted freedom of press and speech against notions of freedom from insult of one's religion. It rages still – but now in a forum with international legal implications.
For years, Islamic nations have succeeded in passing "blasphemy" resolutions at the United Nations (in the General Assembly and in its human rights body). The measures call on states to limit religiously offensive language or speech. No one wants their beliefs ridiculed, but the freedom to disagree over faith is what allows for the free practice of religion. The resolutions are misguided, but also only symbolic, because they're nonbinding.
Symbolism no longer satisfies the sponsor of these resolutions – the Organization of the Islamic Council. Under the leadership of Pakistan, the 57-nation OIC wants to give the religious antidefamation idea legal teeth by making it part of an international convention, or legally binding treaty. Members of the UN Human Rights Council are passionately debating that idea in Geneva this week.
The United States under Barack Obama recently joined the UNHRC, maligned for years as the mouthpiece for countries that are themselves flagrant human rights abusers. A "new" council formed in 2006. President Obama's hope is that as an engaged member, the US can further reform – and its own interests. This case will test his theory.
Consider the wording put forth by Pakistan, written on behalf of the OIC. It proposes "legal prohibition of publication of material that negatively stereotypes, insults or uses offensive language" on matters regarded by religious followers as "sacred or inherent to their dignity as human beings."
This gives broad latitude to governments to decide what's offensive. Countries such as Pakistan already have national blasphemy laws, but a global treaty would give them international cover to suppress minority religious groups with the excuse that these groups offend mainstream beliefs.
And what about unpopular, even "insulting" dissenters within a majority religion – such as women who seek to interpret Islamic sharia law so that they may gain more rights?
Besides, international treaties are meant to protect the rights of people, not ideas. A legal defense of dignity – how a person is viewed – is not on par with a defense of a person's inherent identity and rights. And treaties already aim to protect individuals from discrimination and violence based on religion.
As a newcomer to the Human Rights Council, the US is vigorously arguing against the OIC's latest push, as are European countries. They may not get very far in changing minds in the governments of Egypt or Saudi Arabia. But human rights advocates such as Freedom House and the US Commission on International Religious Freedom say Latin American and sub-Saharan African countries could be persuaded to resist the OIC's push.
These largely non-Muslim countries have typically voted as a bloc on the nonbinding religious defamation resolutions. But the trend has shifted so that more of them are now either abstaining or voting against the resolutions. Chile, for instance, recently switched from abstain to "no" at the March Human Rights Council vote; Liberia switched from "yes" to "no" at the last General Assembly meeting.
These are democracies that understand that suppression of speech in the name of religion can come with a negative effect – suppression of people and theological fault lines that at some point will erupt. It is, conversely, open debate, interfaith dialogue, and righting of misconceptions that will allow religion to flourish – including Islam, whose many followers feel so maligned at the moment.
"Some claim that the best way to protect the freedom of religion is to implement so-called antidefamation policies that would restrict freedom of expression and the freedom of religion. I strongly disagree," said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton this week.
She went on to argue that the best antidote to religious intolerance is enforcement of antidiscrimination laws, government "outreach" to minority religious groups, and "the vigorous defense of both freedom of religion and expression."
The US is now in a position to persuade along these lines from inside the Human Rights Council. It should proceed with the vigor that Ms. Clinton talked about.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Israelis Still Have The Power
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/israel/articles/20091026.aspx
October 26, 2009: Hamas police are increasingly enforcing lifestyle rules in Gaza, while they officially deny that there is any such policy. Gaza residents complain, often quietly (so the Hamas police do not hear) that the place is being turned into a little Iran. Religious intrusion into government administration is a growing problem in Israel as well, where Jewish religious conservatives increasingly use mob violence in an attempt to get all Israelis to conform to religious social customs. For example, there is a growing effort to have women kept out of the army.
October 25, 2009: A Lebanese court convicted six Palestinians, three Lebanese and two Syrians of terrorist activity, and working for al Qaeda, and sentenced them life in prison. This was done in absentia, because the accused had fled the country. Lebanon is still dealing with divided loyalties. Not just Hezbollah in the south, but there are many Christian and Sunni Arab factions that do not agree with each other (and some are allied with Hezbollah.)
Thwarted in their efforts to launch terror attacks inside Israel, Islamic radicals are trying to instigate Arab violence inside Israel. The most likely way to do this is via an uproar over rumors that Israeli radicals are secretly planning to take over the al Aksa mosque in Jerusalem (built on the site of ancient Jewish temples, but protected as an Islamic holy site by the Israeli government). Moslem men have been going to al Aksa and throwing rocks at Jews below, trying to start a riot. Police have been arresting anyone engaging in violence in the area.
A major battleground with Hamas is the Gaza-Egypt border, where Egyptian police report they have found and shut down 450 smuggling tunnels in the last year. But it is believed up to 200 tunnels are still in operation. The Egyptians are cracking down on the tunnels, because Hamas harbors anti-Egyptian Islamic terrorists. The crackdown includes Egyptian police who had long taken bribes from the smuggling gangs, to look the other way. Some cops are still on the take, but that is getting riskier. There is also a new American supplied sensor system, that makes it easier to detect tunnels. Still, the tunnels are so lucrative, that it still pays to dig and operate than for as long as you can, before being discovered and shut down.
Fatah is under increasing pressure, from Hamas and Islamic conservative groups, to resume support for terror attacks against Israel. At the moment, the Israelis have the Islamic terror groups under control. The ones in Gaza cannot get into Israel (except with occasional rockets or mortar shells), and the ones in the West Bank are constantly being chased by Israeli and Fatah police. Fatah is taking a lot of heat for supporting (ever-so-obliquely) the Israel invasion of Gaza last December, and for not working out a deal with Hamas to unite the Palestinians. But Fatah sees Hamas as being more smoke than fire. While the pro-Hamas European leftist groups make a lot of noise against Israel (or for Hamas), the Israelis still have the power.
October 21, 2009: U.S. and Israeli troops began a joint missile defense exercise, using real and simulated systems. The purpose was to see how effective a joint effort against Iranian and Syrian ballistic missiles would be.
October 26, 2009: Hamas police are increasingly enforcing lifestyle rules in Gaza, while they officially deny that there is any such policy. Gaza residents complain, often quietly (so the Hamas police do not hear) that the place is being turned into a little Iran. Religious intrusion into government administration is a growing problem in Israel as well, where Jewish religious conservatives increasingly use mob violence in an attempt to get all Israelis to conform to religious social customs. For example, there is a growing effort to have women kept out of the army.
October 25, 2009: A Lebanese court convicted six Palestinians, three Lebanese and two Syrians of terrorist activity, and working for al Qaeda, and sentenced them life in prison. This was done in absentia, because the accused had fled the country. Lebanon is still dealing with divided loyalties. Not just Hezbollah in the south, but there are many Christian and Sunni Arab factions that do not agree with each other (and some are allied with Hezbollah.)
Thwarted in their efforts to launch terror attacks inside Israel, Islamic radicals are trying to instigate Arab violence inside Israel. The most likely way to do this is via an uproar over rumors that Israeli radicals are secretly planning to take over the al Aksa mosque in Jerusalem (built on the site of ancient Jewish temples, but protected as an Islamic holy site by the Israeli government). Moslem men have been going to al Aksa and throwing rocks at Jews below, trying to start a riot. Police have been arresting anyone engaging in violence in the area.
A major battleground with Hamas is the Gaza-Egypt border, where Egyptian police report they have found and shut down 450 smuggling tunnels in the last year. But it is believed up to 200 tunnels are still in operation. The Egyptians are cracking down on the tunnels, because Hamas harbors anti-Egyptian Islamic terrorists. The crackdown includes Egyptian police who had long taken bribes from the smuggling gangs, to look the other way. Some cops are still on the take, but that is getting riskier. There is also a new American supplied sensor system, that makes it easier to detect tunnels. Still, the tunnels are so lucrative, that it still pays to dig and operate than for as long as you can, before being discovered and shut down.
Fatah is under increasing pressure, from Hamas and Islamic conservative groups, to resume support for terror attacks against Israel. At the moment, the Israelis have the Islamic terror groups under control. The ones in Gaza cannot get into Israel (except with occasional rockets or mortar shells), and the ones in the West Bank are constantly being chased by Israeli and Fatah police. Fatah is taking a lot of heat for supporting (ever-so-obliquely) the Israel invasion of Gaza last December, and for not working out a deal with Hamas to unite the Palestinians. But Fatah sees Hamas as being more smoke than fire. While the pro-Hamas European leftist groups make a lot of noise against Israel (or for Hamas), the Israelis still have the power.
October 21, 2009: U.S. and Israeli troops began a joint missile defense exercise, using real and simulated systems. The purpose was to see how effective a joint effort against Iranian and Syrian ballistic missiles would be.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Producers of THE THIRD JIHAD Support Calls from Congress to Investigate Activities of CAIR
Congresswoman Sue Myrick, who is leading calls against CAIR says The Third
Jihad 'presents clear picture of the threat of radical Islam' in our borders
NEW YORK, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The producers of the hard-hitting
documentary The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision for America, applaud the
demand of Congressmen Sue Myrick (NC), Trent Franks (AZ), John Shadegg (AZ),
and Paul Broun (GA) to open an investigation into the activities of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Capitol Hill.
This past week, the new book 'Muslim Mafia' charges CAIR with planting interns
in the House Homeland Security Committee, Intelligence Committee and Judiciary
Committee to affect legislative policy by acting as "spies" for CAIR.
In a letter sent to the U.S. Congress earlier this year, Congresswoman Myrick
warned her fellow colleagues to cut all ties with CAIR, noting, "The FBI has
cut ties with them."
CAIR claims to be America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, but its
founders have allegedly been linked to radical organizations. CAIR was
publicly named as one of 306 unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land
Foundation trial, the largest terror funding trial in the United States. An
exclusive clip from The Third Jihad about the founders of CAIR, and the Holy
Land Foundation trial can be viewed at:
www.thethirdjihad.com/exclusive_clips_test.php.
Upon watching The Third Jihad, Congresswoman Myrick stated that, "All
Americans should see this DVD. It presents a clear picture of the threat of
Radical Islam--even within our own borders."
"Many Americans remain unaware of the threat that radicals present to our
civil liberties and the American way of life," stated Raphael Shore, Executive
Producer of The Third Jihad.
Executive Producer Raphael Shore and Director Wayne Kopping are available for
interviews.
The Third Jihad, the newest offering from the producers of the award-winning
documentary film, Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, explores
the growth of radical Islam in America.
The film, narrated by devout Muslim American Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, opens with the
following statement: "This is not a film about Islam. It is about the threat
of radical Islam. Only a small percentage of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims
are radical. This film is about them."
CONTACT:
Alex Traiman, 646-308-1230 x214, alex@clarionfund.org
SOURCE The Clarion Fund
Alex Traiman, +1-646-308-1230 x214, alex@clarionfund.org
Jihad 'presents clear picture of the threat of radical Islam' in our borders
NEW YORK, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The producers of the hard-hitting
documentary The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision for America, applaud the
demand of Congressmen Sue Myrick (NC), Trent Franks (AZ), John Shadegg (AZ),
and Paul Broun (GA) to open an investigation into the activities of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Capitol Hill.
This past week, the new book 'Muslim Mafia' charges CAIR with planting interns
in the House Homeland Security Committee, Intelligence Committee and Judiciary
Committee to affect legislative policy by acting as "spies" for CAIR.
In a letter sent to the U.S. Congress earlier this year, Congresswoman Myrick
warned her fellow colleagues to cut all ties with CAIR, noting, "The FBI has
cut ties with them."
CAIR claims to be America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, but its
founders have allegedly been linked to radical organizations. CAIR was
publicly named as one of 306 unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land
Foundation trial, the largest terror funding trial in the United States. An
exclusive clip from The Third Jihad about the founders of CAIR, and the Holy
Land Foundation trial can be viewed at:
www.thethirdjihad.com/exclusive_clips_test.php.
Upon watching The Third Jihad, Congresswoman Myrick stated that, "All
Americans should see this DVD. It presents a clear picture of the threat of
Radical Islam--even within our own borders."
"Many Americans remain unaware of the threat that radicals present to our
civil liberties and the American way of life," stated Raphael Shore, Executive
Producer of The Third Jihad.
Executive Producer Raphael Shore and Director Wayne Kopping are available for
interviews.
The Third Jihad, the newest offering from the producers of the award-winning
documentary film, Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, explores
the growth of radical Islam in America.
The film, narrated by devout Muslim American Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, opens with the
following statement: "This is not a film about Islam. It is about the threat
of radical Islam. Only a small percentage of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims
are radical. This film is about them."
CONTACT:
Alex Traiman, 646-308-1230 x214, alex@clarionfund.org
SOURCE The Clarion Fund
Alex Traiman, +1-646-308-1230 x214, alex@clarionfund.org
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Prevent Swine Flu
The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.
While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):
1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).
2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe, etc.).
3. *Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.
4. Similar to 3 above, *clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water.. *Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but *blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.*
5. *Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). *If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.
6. *Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. *Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm..
While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):
1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).
2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe, etc.).
3. *Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.
4. Similar to 3 above, *clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water.. *Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but *blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.*
5. *Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). *If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.
6. *Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. *Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm..
Sunday, October 11, 2009
The Religious Left Discovers Radical Islam
http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36281
By: Mark D. Tooley
Monday, September 14, 2009
Could it be that Christians are victims and not victimizers?
Amazingly, the recent Islamist atrocities in Pakistan have compelled some left-leaning church groups in the West to admit problems with radical Islam, a difficult admission for many. The current visit to the U.S. by a Pakistani Protestant bishop on behalf of besieged Pakistani Christians is helping to fuel the catharsis.
"Unfortunately, the (anti-Christian) mindset is not restricted to Pakistan but to the whole Arab-Muslim world," Bishop Alexander John Malik told the National Council of Churches (NCC) during a recent visit with them in New York. "It's the same from the Sudan to Somalia, from Iraq to Indonesia. This is the mindset of Muslims who consider their religion to be of the utmost importance." Malik represents the united Church of Pakistan, which is a merger of Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Lutherans.
Naturally, liberal Protestant groups in the U.S. are accustomed to thinking of Christians as victimizers, not as victims. The typical response of Western church groups towards Islam is to apologize for the Crusades of 1,000 years ago. So having to consider that Christians and other religious minorities in Islamic governed lands must routinely endure discrimination, threats, legal restrictions on worship, arrest, and death is eye-opening. The August attacks on two Christian villages in Pakistan by Islamist mobs motivated by an alleged “desecration” of a Koran resulted in dozens of homes, shops and churches burned, and 7 Christians, including 2 children, killed.
U.S. NCC chief Michael Kinnamon, hosting bishop Malik, insisted that NCC member denominations are “acutely aware of the pressure Christian minorities are under around the world and we stand in solidarity with all our sisters and brothers,” according to an NCC news release. Many members of NCC churches might be surprised to learn of Islamist violence against Christians, since the NCC and most of its member communions have hardly ever discussed it before. But it’s a constructive start.
About 3-4 million Pakistanis are Christian, about evenly divided between Catholics and Protestants. About 800,000 belong to the Church of Pakistan. After the Islamist attacks last month, Catholic and Church of Pakistan schools in Karachi and Balochistan were closed for 3 days "in condolence" for the Christian victims of mob violence. Bishop Malik wants a special judge appointed to investigate the mob attacks. He also is asking the Pakistani government to amend or revoke its Blasphemy Law, which radical Islamists exploit to justify violence against religious minorities, and which of course can justify government prosecution of perceived critics of Islam. In Pakistan, death is the official penalty for defaming Islam’s founder or scripture. Additionally, the bishop is suggesting the Pakistani government create a new police force of Christians to guard Christian property and churches. Obviously, this last recommendation strongly implies a lack of confidence that Pakistani police will act assertively against Islamist violence when Christians are the victims.
"If someone in Denmark publishes a cartoon under freedom of speech … it is blasphemy and they attack us and target us," Bishop Malik told an audience at the Episcopal Church headquarters in New York, according to Episcopal Life. "The fanatics are attacking minorities, which is a deplorable act. [The] government should take serious action against these extremists who are targeting Christians and burning their houses," Malik has said. "It is the duty of the state to ensure that life and properties of minorities should remain safe from such fanatics." But in many Islamic dominated countries, such as Pakistan, especially where Islam is codified into civil law, suppressing Islamist violence against religious minorities can be politically difficult.
Bishop Malik reported that international events since 9-11 have left Pakistan’s Christians even more vulnerable. "In this whole war on terror, Pakistan is a frontline partner with the United States," he told the NCC. “But this has led to difficulties generated mostly by religious fanatics who have a mindset that all Westerners are Christian and all Christians are Westerners,” and putting “the church under pressure.”
When President Obama insisted that the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are not a “war on Islam” in his June speech in Cairo, most Muslims do not believe him, Malik told his Episcopalian hosts. "The 'war on terror' needs to be reviewed and revisited," he said, according to Episcopal Life. "To capture Osama [bin Laden] alive or dead will not benefit [anyone]. Osama is an institution, an ideology of violence, terror and extremism. That ideology has to be replaced with another ideology."
The bishop, on behalf of vulnerable Christians in Pakistan, is understandably squeamish about the war on terror. Christian minorities in Islamic controlled countries must often accommodate their rulers, and even Islamist groups, to survive. Unfortunately, the bishop’s Western church hosts likely will be tempted to latch onto his comments to justify their own pseudo-pacifist response to 9-11. But for now, at least by their standards, Malik’s interlocutors are sounding more bold than ever before on Islamist violence and persecution of Christians.
Malik also visited the United Methodist mission agency headquarters while in New York. As a result the President of the Board of Global Ministries, Bishop Bruce Ough of Western Ohio deplored the “growing pattern of violence over the past few years against religious minorities in Pakistan,” the “climate of fear” generated by the Blasphemy Law, and “legal pressure” against Pakistani church leaders who dare to complain publicly. He urged pressure against Pakistan to ensure “protection to all religious minorities.”
Will left-leaning U.S. church groups continue their new found concern about Christians and other religious minorities suffering under theocratic Islam in Pakistan and elsewhere? And will such attention lead to wider understanding of the threats posed by radical Islam globally? The recent history is not promising, but Christianity always promises the opportunity for a fresh start.
Mark D. Tooley is president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. He is the author of Taking Back the United Methodist Church.
By: Mark D. Tooley
Monday, September 14, 2009
Could it be that Christians are victims and not victimizers?
Amazingly, the recent Islamist atrocities in Pakistan have compelled some left-leaning church groups in the West to admit problems with radical Islam, a difficult admission for many. The current visit to the U.S. by a Pakistani Protestant bishop on behalf of besieged Pakistani Christians is helping to fuel the catharsis.
"Unfortunately, the (anti-Christian) mindset is not restricted to Pakistan but to the whole Arab-Muslim world," Bishop Alexander John Malik told the National Council of Churches (NCC) during a recent visit with them in New York. "It's the same from the Sudan to Somalia, from Iraq to Indonesia. This is the mindset of Muslims who consider their religion to be of the utmost importance." Malik represents the united Church of Pakistan, which is a merger of Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Lutherans.
Naturally, liberal Protestant groups in the U.S. are accustomed to thinking of Christians as victimizers, not as victims. The typical response of Western church groups towards Islam is to apologize for the Crusades of 1,000 years ago. So having to consider that Christians and other religious minorities in Islamic governed lands must routinely endure discrimination, threats, legal restrictions on worship, arrest, and death is eye-opening. The August attacks on two Christian villages in Pakistan by Islamist mobs motivated by an alleged “desecration” of a Koran resulted in dozens of homes, shops and churches burned, and 7 Christians, including 2 children, killed.
U.S. NCC chief Michael Kinnamon, hosting bishop Malik, insisted that NCC member denominations are “acutely aware of the pressure Christian minorities are under around the world and we stand in solidarity with all our sisters and brothers,” according to an NCC news release. Many members of NCC churches might be surprised to learn of Islamist violence against Christians, since the NCC and most of its member communions have hardly ever discussed it before. But it’s a constructive start.
About 3-4 million Pakistanis are Christian, about evenly divided between Catholics and Protestants. About 800,000 belong to the Church of Pakistan. After the Islamist attacks last month, Catholic and Church of Pakistan schools in Karachi and Balochistan were closed for 3 days "in condolence" for the Christian victims of mob violence. Bishop Malik wants a special judge appointed to investigate the mob attacks. He also is asking the Pakistani government to amend or revoke its Blasphemy Law, which radical Islamists exploit to justify violence against religious minorities, and which of course can justify government prosecution of perceived critics of Islam. In Pakistan, death is the official penalty for defaming Islam’s founder or scripture. Additionally, the bishop is suggesting the Pakistani government create a new police force of Christians to guard Christian property and churches. Obviously, this last recommendation strongly implies a lack of confidence that Pakistani police will act assertively against Islamist violence when Christians are the victims.
"If someone in Denmark publishes a cartoon under freedom of speech … it is blasphemy and they attack us and target us," Bishop Malik told an audience at the Episcopal Church headquarters in New York, according to Episcopal Life. "The fanatics are attacking minorities, which is a deplorable act. [The] government should take serious action against these extremists who are targeting Christians and burning their houses," Malik has said. "It is the duty of the state to ensure that life and properties of minorities should remain safe from such fanatics." But in many Islamic dominated countries, such as Pakistan, especially where Islam is codified into civil law, suppressing Islamist violence against religious minorities can be politically difficult.
Bishop Malik reported that international events since 9-11 have left Pakistan’s Christians even more vulnerable. "In this whole war on terror, Pakistan is a frontline partner with the United States," he told the NCC. “But this has led to difficulties generated mostly by religious fanatics who have a mindset that all Westerners are Christian and all Christians are Westerners,” and putting “the church under pressure.”
When President Obama insisted that the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are not a “war on Islam” in his June speech in Cairo, most Muslims do not believe him, Malik told his Episcopalian hosts. "The 'war on terror' needs to be reviewed and revisited," he said, according to Episcopal Life. "To capture Osama [bin Laden] alive or dead will not benefit [anyone]. Osama is an institution, an ideology of violence, terror and extremism. That ideology has to be replaced with another ideology."
The bishop, on behalf of vulnerable Christians in Pakistan, is understandably squeamish about the war on terror. Christian minorities in Islamic controlled countries must often accommodate their rulers, and even Islamist groups, to survive. Unfortunately, the bishop’s Western church hosts likely will be tempted to latch onto his comments to justify their own pseudo-pacifist response to 9-11. But for now, at least by their standards, Malik’s interlocutors are sounding more bold than ever before on Islamist violence and persecution of Christians.
Malik also visited the United Methodist mission agency headquarters while in New York. As a result the President of the Board of Global Ministries, Bishop Bruce Ough of Western Ohio deplored the “growing pattern of violence over the past few years against religious minorities in Pakistan,” the “climate of fear” generated by the Blasphemy Law, and “legal pressure” against Pakistani church leaders who dare to complain publicly. He urged pressure against Pakistan to ensure “protection to all religious minorities.”
Will left-leaning U.S. church groups continue their new found concern about Christians and other religious minorities suffering under theocratic Islam in Pakistan and elsewhere? And will such attention lead to wider understanding of the threats posed by radical Islam globally? The recent history is not promising, but Christianity always promises the opportunity for a fresh start.
Mark D. Tooley is president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. He is the author of Taking Back the United Methodist Church.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
The incitement towards a third intifada
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/5404046/the-incitement-towards-a-third-intifada.thtml
There are clear attempts being made to spark a third intifada in Jerusalem. Violence by Israeli Arabs started two weeks ago in the wake of the meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Obama and the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Obama’s inflammatory call at the UN for a Palestinian state
that ends the occupation that began in 1967.
In an ominous echo of the ‘spontaneous’ rioting over Ariel Sharon’s walk on the Temple Mount in 2000 which was used as the pretext for the mass murder of Israelis through years of suicide bombings (Palestinian leaders later admitted the riots had been part of a planned strategy) the current spate of riots followed all-too familiar and demonstrably spurious claims that Israel was threatening the al Aqsa mosque. Last Sunday, after Palestinian Authority calls for Arabs to flood the site of al Aksa to protect it from so-called Jewish extremists (of whom, it goes without saying, there has been no evidence whatever) Israel barred men between the ages of 18 and 45 from ascending the site, whereupon Arabs hurled rocks and bottles at the police.
In the Jerusalem Post, Aaron Klein identifies the instigators of the unrest as Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority:
The riots are being directly incited by the PA, whose official media outlets and institutions are stoking Arab flames by claiming right-wing extremist Jews are attempting to threaten Al-Aksa Mosque - a decades-old blood libel that should be easily dismissible in light of heavy Israeli restrictions on Jews and Christians from ascending the Mount during most hours of the day, whereas Muslims are usually free to access the site 24/7.
Indeed, Israeli law prohibits Jews and Christians from praying on the site. If any so-called extremist Jew attempted to enter Al-Aksa, he or she would likely be immediately removed from the Temple Mount by Israeli police, who follow Jewish tour groups very closely and coordinate with the Wakf, the Islamic custodians of the site.
The PA is not just inciting violence; its officials also assist the riots. On Monday Israeli security forces released from custody Jerusalem's senior PA official, Khatem Abed Al-Kadr, who had been detained on suspicion of inciting riots. The PA-aligned Islamic Movement is reportedly even sponsoring buses to transport young, riled-up Israeli Arabs to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount from Umm el-Fahm.
Klein identifies two reasons for Abbas’s incitement:
It seems the PA, emboldened by Obama's speech, may be using the riots as a pressure tactic to send a clear message to Israel - if negotiations do not create a state in the near future, expect another intifada. The PA under Arafat was notorious for negotiating on the one hand while leading a violent campaign against Israel on the other.
Already, some of Obama's policies have hardened Palestinian bargaining positions. Most notably, the PA is now demanding a complete halt to Jewish construction in the West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem in line with the US president's same demand. The PA never before set a settlement freeze as a prerequisite for talks.
The second suggested reason is that Abbas is trying to deflect Palestinian anger over his decision to call for a delay in the proposed UN show-trial of Israel over the Goldstone report.
Let us not forget that it is the ‘moderate’ Abbas and the forces he leads who America and the west say are ‘entitled’ to a state of their own, to which Israel is unreasonably providing obstacles. Without any doubt, Obama’s bullying of Israel has strengthened Arab rejectionism, undermined any fragile moves towards moderation and helped incite the Arab mobs to further hysteria. This is particularly irresponsible since Jerusalem’s Arabs, along with the rest of the region (as with Muslims in the rest of the world, including Britain), are steadily being radicalised by jihadi influence.
On Tuesday night, the Israeli Islamic leader Raed Salah was arrested on charges of inciting the rampage on Temple Mount. The flashpoint now threatens to be this Friday’s prayers after Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood (and the ‘moderate’ infamously embraced in London by Ken Livingstone), called for Arabs and Muslims to make next Friday a
day of anger... to confront the ferocious Zionist attack against the Aqsa Mosque and the occupied city of Jerusalem.
We hold our breath.
There are clear attempts being made to spark a third intifada in Jerusalem. Violence by Israeli Arabs started two weeks ago in the wake of the meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Obama and the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Obama’s inflammatory call at the UN for a Palestinian state
that ends the occupation that began in 1967.
In an ominous echo of the ‘spontaneous’ rioting over Ariel Sharon’s walk on the Temple Mount in 2000 which was used as the pretext for the mass murder of Israelis through years of suicide bombings (Palestinian leaders later admitted the riots had been part of a planned strategy) the current spate of riots followed all-too familiar and demonstrably spurious claims that Israel was threatening the al Aqsa mosque. Last Sunday, after Palestinian Authority calls for Arabs to flood the site of al Aksa to protect it from so-called Jewish extremists (of whom, it goes without saying, there has been no evidence whatever) Israel barred men between the ages of 18 and 45 from ascending the site, whereupon Arabs hurled rocks and bottles at the police.
In the Jerusalem Post, Aaron Klein identifies the instigators of the unrest as Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority:
The riots are being directly incited by the PA, whose official media outlets and institutions are stoking Arab flames by claiming right-wing extremist Jews are attempting to threaten Al-Aksa Mosque - a decades-old blood libel that should be easily dismissible in light of heavy Israeli restrictions on Jews and Christians from ascending the Mount during most hours of the day, whereas Muslims are usually free to access the site 24/7.
Indeed, Israeli law prohibits Jews and Christians from praying on the site. If any so-called extremist Jew attempted to enter Al-Aksa, he or she would likely be immediately removed from the Temple Mount by Israeli police, who follow Jewish tour groups very closely and coordinate with the Wakf, the Islamic custodians of the site.
The PA is not just inciting violence; its officials also assist the riots. On Monday Israeli security forces released from custody Jerusalem's senior PA official, Khatem Abed Al-Kadr, who had been detained on suspicion of inciting riots. The PA-aligned Islamic Movement is reportedly even sponsoring buses to transport young, riled-up Israeli Arabs to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount from Umm el-Fahm.
Klein identifies two reasons for Abbas’s incitement:
It seems the PA, emboldened by Obama's speech, may be using the riots as a pressure tactic to send a clear message to Israel - if negotiations do not create a state in the near future, expect another intifada. The PA under Arafat was notorious for negotiating on the one hand while leading a violent campaign against Israel on the other.
Already, some of Obama's policies have hardened Palestinian bargaining positions. Most notably, the PA is now demanding a complete halt to Jewish construction in the West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem in line with the US president's same demand. The PA never before set a settlement freeze as a prerequisite for talks.
The second suggested reason is that Abbas is trying to deflect Palestinian anger over his decision to call for a delay in the proposed UN show-trial of Israel over the Goldstone report.
Let us not forget that it is the ‘moderate’ Abbas and the forces he leads who America and the west say are ‘entitled’ to a state of their own, to which Israel is unreasonably providing obstacles. Without any doubt, Obama’s bullying of Israel has strengthened Arab rejectionism, undermined any fragile moves towards moderation and helped incite the Arab mobs to further hysteria. This is particularly irresponsible since Jerusalem’s Arabs, along with the rest of the region (as with Muslims in the rest of the world, including Britain), are steadily being radicalised by jihadi influence.
On Tuesday night, the Israeli Islamic leader Raed Salah was arrested on charges of inciting the rampage on Temple Mount. The flashpoint now threatens to be this Friday’s prayers after Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood (and the ‘moderate’ infamously embraced in London by Ken Livingstone), called for Arabs and Muslims to make next Friday a
day of anger... to confront the ferocious Zionist attack against the Aqsa Mosque and the occupied city of Jerusalem.
We hold our breath.
New Shar'iah Charity Fund: Underwriting Radical Islam?
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133707
Tishrei 17, 5770, 05 October 09 05:10by Hana Levi Julian
(Israelnationalnews.com) A new global Islamic charity fund set to launch in early 2010 may become the vehicle to support something entirely different, according to Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, who warned that the new charity must be watched carefully.
In an exclusive interview Monday with Israel National News, Jasser expressed deep concern that the World Zakat Fund, established in part by the Malaysian government, may be "nothing more than a ruse to give transnational Islamist movements and their controlling Muslim theocrats an economic power base."
The new fund will collect donations from the 2.5 percent "zakat" set aside under Shar'iah law by observant Muslims who have the wherewithal to save money. According to a statement released to the media, it is the first Islamic charity fund ever to be established.
The fund is hoping to raise nearly a billion dollars by the end of its first year. Humayon Dar, CEO of BMB Islamic, the Shar'iah adviser to the fund, said last week that donors have made soft commitments of approximately $50 million thus far.
That could grow to as much as $10 billion within the first decade, however: Dar estimated there are some 40,000 high-net-worth Muslims in the Middle East alone, including 400 billionaires. He added that between $20 billion to $30 billion in zakat is distributed in the Muslim world each year.
'Giving the Fox the Keys to the Henhouse'
Jasser told INN that he believes the fund would simply serve to consolidate financial power "in vast orders of magnitude" and then hand it over to the member nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
These are countries that have refused to abide by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, he pointed out, "and do not adhere to the same standards of human rights as Western nations."
Moreover, he said, "As far as I know, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mohamed Mahathir, has never retracted his comment from 2002 where he stated, 'A universal Islamic banking system is a jihad worth pursuing to abolish this slavery [to the West].'"
Giving OIC nations the collective ability to determine the distribution of "Muslim charity," he said, is "the epitome of giving the 'fox the keys to the henhouse.'"
'Benign Distribution of Funds by Radical Islamists?'
It is not yet clear where and how the funds from the new charity will be distributed, Jasser noted. "At this point, the effort is in its infancy, and the important details of where their monies will go is unknown."
However, he said, the controlling members of the fund's Shar'iah finance board merit some concern:
Dr. Ali al-Quradaghi is a member of the European Council of Fatwa Research, and a colleague of the global spiritual guide of the radical Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Yusuf Qaradawi, who has sanctioned terrorist activity in Israel and Iraq. Qaradawi has also called for the murder of Muslim apostates, and has expressed the intention of replacing Western capitalism with "integrated Islamic philosophy."
Syria's Abdul Sattar Abu Guddah, is closely affiliated with Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Usmani, who has been removed from numerous boards of Western banks, according to Jasser. Abu Guddah was on the board of the al-Baraka Bank, which was implicated in the financing of the 9/11 al-Qaeda terrorist attack on the United States. The allegations against the bank were later dismissed.
Abdul-aziz Fawzan Saleh Al-Fawzan is a Saudi Arabia-based Wahabi Islamist whom Jasser calls "a self-proclaimed hater of Christians."
In addition, the management board of BMB Islamic includes three members who hail from the International Islamic University in Pakistan. Jasser noted that in a seminar held recently by the university on Israel and Gaza, "The speaker provided an interpretation of the Koran, Chapter 5, which is anti-Semitic and incites violence."
University president Anwar Siddiqui led a discussion at the same conference with a panel of radical Islamists, Jasser said, "who called for the Islamic state in Gaza and the West Bank and for a boycott of America and Israel," among others.
"I cannot imagine how individuals as radical as this are going to distribute billions in funds in a 'benign' method globally," he said pointedly.
www.IsraelNationalNews.com
© Copyright IsraelNationalNews.com
Tishrei 17, 5770, 05 October 09 05:10by Hana Levi Julian
(Israelnationalnews.com) A new global Islamic charity fund set to launch in early 2010 may become the vehicle to support something entirely different, according to Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, who warned that the new charity must be watched carefully.
In an exclusive interview Monday with Israel National News, Jasser expressed deep concern that the World Zakat Fund, established in part by the Malaysian government, may be "nothing more than a ruse to give transnational Islamist movements and their controlling Muslim theocrats an economic power base."
The new fund will collect donations from the 2.5 percent "zakat" set aside under Shar'iah law by observant Muslims who have the wherewithal to save money. According to a statement released to the media, it is the first Islamic charity fund ever to be established.
The fund is hoping to raise nearly a billion dollars by the end of its first year. Humayon Dar, CEO of BMB Islamic, the Shar'iah adviser to the fund, said last week that donors have made soft commitments of approximately $50 million thus far.
That could grow to as much as $10 billion within the first decade, however: Dar estimated there are some 40,000 high-net-worth Muslims in the Middle East alone, including 400 billionaires. He added that between $20 billion to $30 billion in zakat is distributed in the Muslim world each year.
'Giving the Fox the Keys to the Henhouse'
Jasser told INN that he believes the fund would simply serve to consolidate financial power "in vast orders of magnitude" and then hand it over to the member nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
These are countries that have refused to abide by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, he pointed out, "and do not adhere to the same standards of human rights as Western nations."
Moreover, he said, "As far as I know, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mohamed Mahathir, has never retracted his comment from 2002 where he stated, 'A universal Islamic banking system is a jihad worth pursuing to abolish this slavery [to the West].'"
Giving OIC nations the collective ability to determine the distribution of "Muslim charity," he said, is "the epitome of giving the 'fox the keys to the henhouse.'"
'Benign Distribution of Funds by Radical Islamists?'
It is not yet clear where and how the funds from the new charity will be distributed, Jasser noted. "At this point, the effort is in its infancy, and the important details of where their monies will go is unknown."
However, he said, the controlling members of the fund's Shar'iah finance board merit some concern:
Dr. Ali al-Quradaghi is a member of the European Council of Fatwa Research, and a colleague of the global spiritual guide of the radical Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. Yusuf Qaradawi, who has sanctioned terrorist activity in Israel and Iraq. Qaradawi has also called for the murder of Muslim apostates, and has expressed the intention of replacing Western capitalism with "integrated Islamic philosophy."
Syria's Abdul Sattar Abu Guddah, is closely affiliated with Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Usmani, who has been removed from numerous boards of Western banks, according to Jasser. Abu Guddah was on the board of the al-Baraka Bank, which was implicated in the financing of the 9/11 al-Qaeda terrorist attack on the United States. The allegations against the bank were later dismissed.
Abdul-aziz Fawzan Saleh Al-Fawzan is a Saudi Arabia-based Wahabi Islamist whom Jasser calls "a self-proclaimed hater of Christians."
In addition, the management board of BMB Islamic includes three members who hail from the International Islamic University in Pakistan. Jasser noted that in a seminar held recently by the university on Israel and Gaza, "The speaker provided an interpretation of the Koran, Chapter 5, which is anti-Semitic and incites violence."
University president Anwar Siddiqui led a discussion at the same conference with a panel of radical Islamists, Jasser said, "who called for the Islamic state in Gaza and the West Bank and for a boycott of America and Israel," among others.
"I cannot imagine how individuals as radical as this are going to distribute billions in funds in a 'benign' method globally," he said pointedly.
www.IsraelNationalNews.com
© Copyright IsraelNationalNews.com
One in four people is Muslim, says study
One in four people is Muslim, says study
World Muslim population estimated to be 1.57 billion
Peter Beaumont
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 October 2009 17.35 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/08/muslim-population-islam-survey
Islam may be most closely associated with the Middle East, where it emerged in Arabia in the seventh century, but today the region is home to only one in five of the world's Muslims, according to a study of the religion's global distribution.
The world's Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly one in four people practise Islam, according to the US Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which published the survey. This compares to 2.25 billion Christians.
The top five Muslim countries in the world include only one in the Middle East ‑ Egypt ‑ behind Indonesia, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, in that order. Russia, the survey shows, has more Muslims than the populations of Libya and Jordan combined. Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon. China has a bigger Muslim population than Syria.
The work, the largest of its kind, was the result of three years of research examining data from 232 countries and territories.
The portrait it provides of Islam's distribution could have a profound influence on public policy in the west, and on attempts by the US, British and other governments to reach out to Muslims.
Extrapolating the figures from the survey, the Islam that is largely practised around the world, particularly in large swaths of Asia, is more moderate and integrated than its stereotypical characterisation as an often militant and intolerant faith.
The reality, as described by Mapping the Global Muslim Population, is that two out of three Muslims are Asians, while the 38 million Muslims in Europe, if treated as a separate group, would be the ninth largest in the world, behind Turkey, with a population of 71 million, and ahead of Algeria, with 34 million.
Pew Forum, in consultation with nearly 50 demographers and social scientists at universities and research centres around the world, analysed about 1,500 sources, including census reports, demographic studies and general population surveys, to arrive at their figures.
The research is the first step in projecting growth trends in the world's Muslim population, and a similar survey is planned by the Pew Forum on the distribution of Christians.
"This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report," said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University.
"There are these countries that we don't think of as Muslim at all, and yet they have very sizeable numbers of Muslims," said Alan Cooperman, associate director of research for the Pew Forum, naming India, Russia and China.
Islam had a huge geographic reach ‑ from the Atlantic coast to central Asia ‑ within a century of the prophet Muhammad's death, but until now its modern global profile was based on rough estimates.
The Pew Forum study depicts the world's second largest religion as complex and nuanced, challenging the notion that its trajectory is defined by a minority of Islamists.
Significantly, one in five of Muslims now lives in a country where they are represented as a religious minority, with three-quarters of that number concentrated in five countries: India (161 million), Ethiopia (28 million), China (22 million), Russia (16 million) and Tanzania (13 million).
The survey also attempted to quantify the relative sizes of the two main branches of Islam - Sunni and Shia - but came up against the difficulty that many national demographers did not distinguish between the two. It ended up suggesting that Shias, concentrated largely in four countries including Iran and Pakistan, probably made up between 10 and 13% of Muslims.
Brian Grim, one of the researchers, said: "We started on this work because the estimates for the number of the world's Muslims ranged so widely, from 1 billion to 1.8 billion. For people who do this kind of work, perhaps the figures are not surprising but there are a lot of highly educated people who do not know that one in four are Muslim."
Grim believes that the methodical demographic nature of the survey, identifying each Muslim population, may help to challenge preconceptions and prejudices about Islam. For Grim, one of the most surprising figures to emerge was just how many of the world's Islamic population is living as a minority.
Maha Azzam, an associate fellow of Chatham House and an expert on Islam, said : "I think the survey is excellent and does help with the understanding of Islam. It is still associated for too many people with politics and conflict ‑ issues such as Palestine and Iraq and more recently Afghanistan and Pakistan. What it shows is that Islam exists in many countries but crucially across many different cultures ‑ some where it is tolerated and some where it is not.
"The sheer scale of the world's Muslim population and its spread should encourage people to ask more questions about why so many people are Muslims and what they really believe. It shows there are Muslims in societies and areas that people don't immediately think of. But there are still many people who assume the majority of Muslims are Arabs."
She cautioned, however, saying: "I feel that any report can be alarmist in the minds of some people. They see the numbers and see how many there are of 'them'. It depends on the reader."
World Muslim population estimated to be 1.57 billion
Peter Beaumont
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 October 2009 17.35 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/08/muslim-population-islam-survey
Islam may be most closely associated with the Middle East, where it emerged in Arabia in the seventh century, but today the region is home to only one in five of the world's Muslims, according to a study of the religion's global distribution.
The world's Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly one in four people practise Islam, according to the US Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which published the survey. This compares to 2.25 billion Christians.
The top five Muslim countries in the world include only one in the Middle East ‑ Egypt ‑ behind Indonesia, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, in that order. Russia, the survey shows, has more Muslims than the populations of Libya and Jordan combined. Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon. China has a bigger Muslim population than Syria.
The work, the largest of its kind, was the result of three years of research examining data from 232 countries and territories.
The portrait it provides of Islam's distribution could have a profound influence on public policy in the west, and on attempts by the US, British and other governments to reach out to Muslims.
Extrapolating the figures from the survey, the Islam that is largely practised around the world, particularly in large swaths of Asia, is more moderate and integrated than its stereotypical characterisation as an often militant and intolerant faith.
The reality, as described by Mapping the Global Muslim Population, is that two out of three Muslims are Asians, while the 38 million Muslims in Europe, if treated as a separate group, would be the ninth largest in the world, behind Turkey, with a population of 71 million, and ahead of Algeria, with 34 million.
Pew Forum, in consultation with nearly 50 demographers and social scientists at universities and research centres around the world, analysed about 1,500 sources, including census reports, demographic studies and general population surveys, to arrive at their figures.
The research is the first step in projecting growth trends in the world's Muslim population, and a similar survey is planned by the Pew Forum on the distribution of Christians.
"This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report," said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University.
"There are these countries that we don't think of as Muslim at all, and yet they have very sizeable numbers of Muslims," said Alan Cooperman, associate director of research for the Pew Forum, naming India, Russia and China.
Islam had a huge geographic reach ‑ from the Atlantic coast to central Asia ‑ within a century of the prophet Muhammad's death, but until now its modern global profile was based on rough estimates.
The Pew Forum study depicts the world's second largest religion as complex and nuanced, challenging the notion that its trajectory is defined by a minority of Islamists.
Significantly, one in five of Muslims now lives in a country where they are represented as a religious minority, with three-quarters of that number concentrated in five countries: India (161 million), Ethiopia (28 million), China (22 million), Russia (16 million) and Tanzania (13 million).
The survey also attempted to quantify the relative sizes of the two main branches of Islam - Sunni and Shia - but came up against the difficulty that many national demographers did not distinguish between the two. It ended up suggesting that Shias, concentrated largely in four countries including Iran and Pakistan, probably made up between 10 and 13% of Muslims.
Brian Grim, one of the researchers, said: "We started on this work because the estimates for the number of the world's Muslims ranged so widely, from 1 billion to 1.8 billion. For people who do this kind of work, perhaps the figures are not surprising but there are a lot of highly educated people who do not know that one in four are Muslim."
Grim believes that the methodical demographic nature of the survey, identifying each Muslim population, may help to challenge preconceptions and prejudices about Islam. For Grim, one of the most surprising figures to emerge was just how many of the world's Islamic population is living as a minority.
Maha Azzam, an associate fellow of Chatham House and an expert on Islam, said : "I think the survey is excellent and does help with the understanding of Islam. It is still associated for too many people with politics and conflict ‑ issues such as Palestine and Iraq and more recently Afghanistan and Pakistan. What it shows is that Islam exists in many countries but crucially across many different cultures ‑ some where it is tolerated and some where it is not.
"The sheer scale of the world's Muslim population and its spread should encourage people to ask more questions about why so many people are Muslims and what they really believe. It shows there are Muslims in societies and areas that people don't immediately think of. But there are still many people who assume the majority of Muslims are Arabs."
She cautioned, however, saying: "I feel that any report can be alarmist in the minds of some people. They see the numbers and see how many there are of 'them'. It depends on the reader."
Global Muslim population hits 1.57 billion
(Hat Tip to Christopher Logan of Islam In Action)
http://islaminaction08.blogspot.com/2009/10/global-muslim-population-hits-157.html
Report: Global Muslim population hits 1.57 billion
By ERIC GORSKI (AP)
The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam, according to a report Wednesday billed as the most comprehensive of its kind.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long has been subject to guesswork, with estimates ranging anywhere from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.
The project, three years in the making, also presents a portrait of the Muslim world that might surprise some. For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.
"This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report," said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University who reviewed an advance copy.
Pew officials call the report the most thorough on the size and distribution of adherents of the world's second largest religion behind Christianity, which has an estimated 2.1 billion to 2.2 billion followers.
The arduous task of determining the Muslim populations in 232 countries and territories involved analyzing census reports, demographic studies and general population surveys, the report says. In cases where the data was a few years old, researchers projected 2009 numbers.
The report also sought to pinpoint the world's Sunni-Shiite breakdown, but difficulties arose because so few countries track sectarian affiliation, said Brian Grim, the project's senior researcher.
As a result, the Shiite numbers are not as precise; the report estimates that Shiites represent between 10 and 13 percent of the Muslim population, in line with or slightly lower than other studies. As much as 80 percent of the world's Shiite population lives in four countries: Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.
The report provides further evidence that while the heart of Islam might beat in the Middle East, its greatest numbers lie in Asia: More than 60 percent of the world's Muslims live in Asia.
About 20 percent live in the Middle East and North Africa, 15 percent live in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2.4 percent are in Europe and 0.3 percent are in the Americas. While the Middle East and North Africa have fewer Muslims overall than Asia, the region easily claims the most Muslim-majority countries.
While those population trends are well established, the large numbers of Muslims who live as minorities in countries aren't as scrutinized. The report identified about 317 million Muslims — or one-fifth of the world's Muslim population — living in countries where Islam is not the majority religion.
About three-quarters of Muslims living as minorities are concentrated in five countries: India (161 million), Ethiopia (28 million), China (22 million), Russia (16 million) and Tanzania (13 million).
In several of these countries — from India to Nigeria and China to France — divisions featuring a volatile mix of religion, class and politics have contributed to tension and bloodshed among groups.
The immense size of majority-Hindu India is underscored by the fact that it boasts the third-largest Muslim population of any nation — yet Muslims account for just 13 percent of India's population.
"Most people think of the Muslim world being Muslims living mostly in Muslim-majority countries," Grim said. "But with India ... that sort of turns that on its head a bit."
Among the report's other highlights:
_ Two-thirds of all Muslims live in 10 countries. Six are in Asia (Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey), three are in North Africa (Egypt, Algeria and Morocco) and one is in sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria).
_ Indonesia, which has a tradition of a more tolerant Islam, has the world's largest Muslim population (203 million, or 13 percent of the world's total). Religious extremists have been involved in several high-profile bombings there in recent years.
_ In China, the highest concentrations of Muslims were in western provinces. The country experienced its worst outbreak of ethnic violence in decades when rioting broke out this summer between minority Muslim Uighurs and majority Han Chinese.
_ Europe is home to about 38 million Muslims, or about five percent of its population. Germany appears to have more than 4 million Muslims — almost as many as North and South America combined. In France, where tensions have run high over an influx of Muslim immigrant laborers, the overall numbers were lower but a larger percentage of the population is Muslim.
_ Of roughly 4.6 million Muslims in the Americas, more than half live in the United States although they only make up 0.8 percent of the population there. About 700,000 people in Canada are Muslim, or about 2 percent of the total population.
A future Pew Forum project, scheduled to be released in 2010, will build on the report's data to estimate growth rates among Muslim populations and project future trends.
A similar study on global Christianity is planned to begin next year.
http://islaminaction08.blogspot.com/2009/10/global-muslim-population-hits-157.html
Report: Global Muslim population hits 1.57 billion
By ERIC GORSKI (AP)
The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam, according to a report Wednesday billed as the most comprehensive of its kind.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long has been subject to guesswork, with estimates ranging anywhere from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.
The project, three years in the making, also presents a portrait of the Muslim world that might surprise some. For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.
"This whole idea that Muslims are Arabs and Arabs are Muslims is really just obliterated by this report," said Amaney Jamal, an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University who reviewed an advance copy.
Pew officials call the report the most thorough on the size and distribution of adherents of the world's second largest religion behind Christianity, which has an estimated 2.1 billion to 2.2 billion followers.
The arduous task of determining the Muslim populations in 232 countries and territories involved analyzing census reports, demographic studies and general population surveys, the report says. In cases where the data was a few years old, researchers projected 2009 numbers.
The report also sought to pinpoint the world's Sunni-Shiite breakdown, but difficulties arose because so few countries track sectarian affiliation, said Brian Grim, the project's senior researcher.
As a result, the Shiite numbers are not as precise; the report estimates that Shiites represent between 10 and 13 percent of the Muslim population, in line with or slightly lower than other studies. As much as 80 percent of the world's Shiite population lives in four countries: Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.
The report provides further evidence that while the heart of Islam might beat in the Middle East, its greatest numbers lie in Asia: More than 60 percent of the world's Muslims live in Asia.
About 20 percent live in the Middle East and North Africa, 15 percent live in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2.4 percent are in Europe and 0.3 percent are in the Americas. While the Middle East and North Africa have fewer Muslims overall than Asia, the region easily claims the most Muslim-majority countries.
While those population trends are well established, the large numbers of Muslims who live as minorities in countries aren't as scrutinized. The report identified about 317 million Muslims — or one-fifth of the world's Muslim population — living in countries where Islam is not the majority religion.
About three-quarters of Muslims living as minorities are concentrated in five countries: India (161 million), Ethiopia (28 million), China (22 million), Russia (16 million) and Tanzania (13 million).
In several of these countries — from India to Nigeria and China to France — divisions featuring a volatile mix of religion, class and politics have contributed to tension and bloodshed among groups.
The immense size of majority-Hindu India is underscored by the fact that it boasts the third-largest Muslim population of any nation — yet Muslims account for just 13 percent of India's population.
"Most people think of the Muslim world being Muslims living mostly in Muslim-majority countries," Grim said. "But with India ... that sort of turns that on its head a bit."
Among the report's other highlights:
_ Two-thirds of all Muslims live in 10 countries. Six are in Asia (Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey), three are in North Africa (Egypt, Algeria and Morocco) and one is in sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria).
_ Indonesia, which has a tradition of a more tolerant Islam, has the world's largest Muslim population (203 million, or 13 percent of the world's total). Religious extremists have been involved in several high-profile bombings there in recent years.
_ In China, the highest concentrations of Muslims were in western provinces. The country experienced its worst outbreak of ethnic violence in decades when rioting broke out this summer between minority Muslim Uighurs and majority Han Chinese.
_ Europe is home to about 38 million Muslims, or about five percent of its population. Germany appears to have more than 4 million Muslims — almost as many as North and South America combined. In France, where tensions have run high over an influx of Muslim immigrant laborers, the overall numbers were lower but a larger percentage of the population is Muslim.
_ Of roughly 4.6 million Muslims in the Americas, more than half live in the United States although they only make up 0.8 percent of the population there. About 700,000 people in Canada are Muslim, or about 2 percent of the total population.
A future Pew Forum project, scheduled to be released in 2010, will build on the report's data to estimate growth rates among Muslim populations and project future trends.
A similar study on global Christianity is planned to begin next year.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Prophecy News Watch: Analysis: The Islamic republic of Gaza
Sep. 29, 2009
JONATHAN SPYER , THE JERUSALEM POST
Deriving accurate and reliable information from within the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip is not easy. The Strip is largely closed to journalists, and its inhabitants are reluctant to speak in detail of events there.
Nevertheless, reliable sources confirm that one observable trend taking place there is the growing dominance of Islam. This process is being driven forward by the growing strength of Salafi and extreme Sunni elements.
A slow introduction of Islamic norms and practices into society began immediately following the Hamas victory in PLC elections in January 2006. This process was accelerated following Hamas's seizure of exclusive control of Gaza in 2007.
However, there are clear internal differences in the movement regarding the pace of change. Hamas's current leadership has tended to favor a slow encouragement of Islamic practices and rules, without straying too far from the desires of the broader public.
More hardline and Salafi elements within the movement want a stricter and more formal introduction of Islamic norms. Events over the last 18 months indicate that the latter camp is now making the running, with Hamas's leadership under pressure from extreme forces both within the movement and beyond it.
This change is being felt in the very fabric of daily life in Gaza. A transition of the status of Islamic observance from social norm to legal compulsion is under way.
The most obvious sign of this is the creation of the new "Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" security force, which operates under the command of the Ministry of the Waqf (Islamic Endowment).
This force is tasked with enforcing Islamic codes of behavior. Its members patrol beaches, parks and public areas, ensuring proper Islamic modesty.
One source describes how a man wearing shorts while sitting on his own balcony in southern Gaza was spotted and advised that this must not happen again. Rules banning men from bathing topless, and women (who may still bathe separately from men and fully covered) from laughing or smiling while bathing, are also in the process of enforcement.
A special all-female unit within the police has also been created, with responsibility for enforcing female modesty and handling female suspects. This force, numbering 100-150 officers, wear niqab and gloves, with only an eye slit visible.
Other forms of social control are also being strengthened. Every mosque now has an Amir al-jamia or "head of the community" who according to sources functions as a kind of political commissar on behalf of the authorities. It is his task to observe the prayer habits of all members of the mosque, and to intervene and offer help where insufficient devotion is diagnosed.
More familiar methods of increasing public dependence on the authorities may also be observed. Preferential access to desperately needed social services for those close to the rulers of the Strip is becoming increasingly apparent. In the spring of 2009, Hamas established the "Islamic National Bank."
An Islamic insurance company and Islamic investment bank have since also been set up. Increasingly, Hamas's ample social welfare budgets are channeled through these bodies. Similarly, Islamic charity organizations are increasingly replacing elected local governments as the providers of social services. The result is to establish channels of material dependence between the public and the Hamas organization.
Few women may now be seen in Gaza without the hijab. More and more are now wearing the jilbab (the long, shapeless black dress associated with Islamic piety).
The wearing of the hijab is now said to have become an accepted social norm - perceived as a requirement when outside of the home even by Gaza's few remaining Christian women. From the summer of 2009, the wearing of the hijab and jilbab became required in Gaza's secondary schools (according to some sources, certain schools have chosen to ignore this instruction).
It is not only dress in schools, but also the content of study which is becoming increasingly religious in character. Many secular teachers have been fired. Hamas summer camps, which provide cheap alternatives for poor families in the summer months, involve intensive Koran study and competitions which again can provide access to much-needed funds and jobs.
The promotion of Islamic norms in Gaza extends to the widespread banning of books and restricting of access to "immoral" internet sites. In 2007, there was an outcry when a book of Palestinian folk-tales, "Speak bird, speak again" was banned in the Gaza Strip because of its supposedly lewd content.
Today, such bans are the norm, and no longer merit much attention. The increasing use of Islamic Sharia law in judicial proceedings in Gaza is an additional facet of the growing influence of Islam on life there. The formal judicial system remains in existence. But it is being filled with Islamic content.
For example, the local reconciliation committees, which were once a forum where clans resolved issues by mediation, have now largely been transformed into Islamic reconciliation committees concerned with the dispensing of advice and guidance based on Sharia law.
It is important to note that these developments do not represent the playing out of some Hamas master plan for the creation of an Islamic republic. Rather, they are taking place because of grass-roots agitation and insistence on the part of ultra-religious elements both within Hamas and outside it.
The Hamas leadership depends on Islamic legitimacy, and is thus vulnerable to claims that is it is merely a nationalist group waving the flag of Islam. Hamas jealously guards its political power - also from its Salafi rivals. But in matters of Islamic observance, it appears willing to bow to their wishes and pressure.
The result is that without any recognized body deciding upon it, an Islamic mini-state in the full sense is currently emerging in Gaza.
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