Monday, July 1, 2013

Gatestone Update :: Anat Berko: The Arab Spring in Europe, Robert Ellis: The Ottoman Slap, and more



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The Arab Spring in Europe

by Anat Berko
July 1, 2013 at 5:00 am
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It is not difficult to portray Western women as licentious whores. For Muslim men, the West has no honor whatsoever. Even if immigrants try to adopt the culture of their new countries, the cultural and religious indoctrination breeds only the rejection of all the values of the host countries. What we are witnessing is not multiculturalism; it is a violent attempt by guests to devour their hosts, along with their houses, property, culture and legacy.
In a 1996 interview, Hamas founder and leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin stated that "every Arab rule that does not rule by the law of Allah and his religion is to be rejected." That was 17 years ago, long before the so-called Arab Spring, the terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe and the "days of rage" declared by Muslim rioters worldwide; now the breathing spaces between the attacks get shorter, and turn into years of rage.
One would expect that Muslim immigrants, whose children were born in the West, would adapt, become part of the Western society and partake of its freedom -- otherwise, why did they immigrate? What we see, however, is the opposite. The beheading of a British soldier in London, and the murder of a soldier in France, are only the beginning of a wave of violence and a dictatorship of fundamentalists who will call the tune. The wave of riots and vandalism carried out by Muslim immigrants in France in 2005 was just a hint at what is to come. The immigrants are brainwashed in the mosques, the madrasas [Islamic religious schools] and informal discussion groups, all of which represent the West as worse than Sodom and Gomorrah.
Western women in particular are easy prey; it is not difficult to portray them as licentious whores. Since in Muslim culture the honor of a man is dependent on the behavior of his woman (like chattel), especially when it comes to accepting the laws of modesty, chastity and sexual conduct in general, for Muslim men the West has no honor whatsoever. The face of Europe is changing rapidly, as is clear to anyone walking along a street in Paris, London or Berlin. The veiled women are immediately obvious, their hair covered by hijabs or their faces covered with niqabs; their personalities, identities, features and femininity obliterated, their freedom of movement hindered, ground under the heel of religious dictates chained to the past, despite their living in enlightened, progressive Western countries.
Even if immigrants try to adopt the culture of their new countries, the cultural and religious indoctrination breeds only the rejection of all the values of the host country. As Sheikh Yassin put it, "Islam rejects all the cultural and social aspects of the West that contradict Islam and its religious laws [the sharia], for example, we reject women going with the faces uncovered, prostitution and all the immoral aspects of life in the [Western] world."
It was not by chance that the pepper-sprayed "woman in red" became the icon of the struggle against Islamization in Turkey. We saw women at the demonstrations in the main square of Istanbul shouting "Run, Erdogan, run, the women are coming!" The Western world, until now nodding sagely and saying it is a matter of cultural differences, is beginning to realize that it will have to pay a heavy price for its tolerant approach to the murders, "honor killings," rapes, oppression, abuse of and traffic in women and girls -- not only in the Islamic countries but among the Islamic immigrants in the West.
There are, broadly, two different movements, heading in opposite directions: The West looks forward and seeks progress, the welfare of the individual and scientific achievements. The Muslim immigrants, on the other hand, look longingly backward, their faces turned resolutely to the days of Muhammad. For both, the status of women is an indication of the struggle for the face of the West. The gap is widening and the liberal approach is collapsing along with its hypocritical double standards, political correctness and submission to multiculturalism. What we are witnessing is not multiculturalism, it is a violent attempt made by guests in various countries to devour their hosts whole, along with their houses and property, culture and legacy. For anyone who has not been paying attention, the Arab Spring has arrived in Europe, and it would be a good idea to get ready to deal with it.
Anat Berko, Ph.D, , conducts research for the National Security Council, and is a research fellow at the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel. She was a visiting professor at George Washington University and has written two books about suicide bombers, "The Path to Paradise," and the recently released, "The Smarter Bomb: Women and Children as Suicide Bombers" (Rowman & Littlefield)
Related Topics:  Anat Berko

Egypt: Christians Being Threatened Not to Join Protests

by Raymond Ibrahim
July 1, 2013 at 4:30 am
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Sadly, not only do some Islamic leaders insist that Egypt's Christians have no right to protest, but apparently so does the current U.S. administration: Days before the protests, U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson asked the Coptic Pope to urge the Copts not to protest – thus validating Sharia law's position concerning subjugated Christians.
Hours before the June 30 protests began against Egyptian president Muhammad Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood party, the nation's Christians were once again singled out for behaving like citizens who have the right to participate in the protests.
In Minya, Upper Egypt, where millions of Christians live, letters addressed to the Copts threatened them not to join the protests, otherwise their "businesses, cars, homes, schools, and churches" might "catch fire." The message concluded by saying, "If you are not worried about any of these, then worry about your children and your homes. This message is being delivered with tact. But when the moment of truth comes, there will be no tact." It's signed by "People zealous for the nation."
Such threats are not limited to anonymous letters. During a recent TV interview, Sheikh Essam Abdulamek, a member of the parliament's Shura Council, warned Egypt's Christians against participating in the June 30 protests. "Do not sacrifice your children," he said, as "general Muslim opinion will not be silent about the ousting of the president [Morsi]."
Notable in all these threats is that Christian children are specifically mentioned as targets— the easiest and most effective way at punishing "uppity" Copts who think they, too, along with the millions of other Egyptians, have the right to protest the Brotherhood and Morsi. These threats are not empty; since the rise of Morsi and the Brotherhood, the targeting of Coptic children has been on the rise. Some, especially young girls, are regularly abducted, raped, shamed into converting to Islam and then "marrying" their rapists. Coptic boys have increasingly been abducted from the doorsteps of their churches and held for ransom. Most recently, a 6-year-old Christian boy was murdered by his kidnapper— after the boy's family paid the ransom. (Read more about the jihad on Egypt's Christian children.)
The number of notable Islamic personages on record threatening Egypt's Christians is significant: in December 2012, Safwat Hegazy, a prominent Brotherhood figure and preacher, threatened every Christian who dared vote against Morsi's Sharia-heavy constitution. In a video, speaking before a throng of Muslims, he said:
A message to the church of Egypt, from an Egyptian Muslim: I tell the church—by Allah, and again, by Allah—if you conspire and unite with the remnants [opposition] to bring Morsi down, that will be another matter [screams of "Allah-hu Akbar!" ("Allah is Greater!") followed by chants of "With our soul, with our blood, we give to you, O Islam!"]… [T]here are red lines—and our red line is the legitimacy of Dr. Muhammad Morsi. Whoever splashes water on it, we will splash blood on him" [followed by more wild shouts of "Allah-hu Akbar!"]
Around the same time, Dr. Wagdi Ghoneim -- who earlier praised Allah for the death of the late Coptic Pope Shenouda, cursing him to hell and damnation on video -- made another video, entitled, "A Notice and Warning to the Crusaders in Egypt," a reference to the nation's Christians, or Copts, which began with him saying, "You are playing with fire in Egypt, I swear, the first people to be burned by the fire are you [Copts]." The heart of Ghoneim's message was genocidal:
The day Egyptians -- and I don't even mean the Muslim Brotherhood or Salafis, regular Egyptians -- feel that you are against them, you will be wiped off the face of the earth. I'm warning you now: do not play with fire!"… "What do you think -- that America will protect you? Let's be very clear, America will not protect you. If so, it would have protected the Christians of Iraq when they were being butchered!"
Later, a few months ago, while discussing the ongoing protests against Morsi, Sheikh Abdullah Badr, an Al Azhar trained scholar and professor of Islamic exegesis, made the following assertion on live TV:
I swear to Allah, the day those who went out [to protest], and at their head, the [Coptic] Christians -- I say this at the top of my voice -- the day they think to come near Dr. Morsi, I -- we -- will pop their eyes out, and the eyes of all those who support them, even America; and America will burn, and all its inhabitants. Be assured, the day Dr. Morsi is touched by any hand whatever, and connected to whomever, by Allah it will be the last day for us. We will neither leave them, nor show them any mercy.
Of all of Egypt's citizens, its indigenous and original inhabitants -- the Christian Copts -- are also the most denied equal rights; a revealing reminder of how Islam entered Egypt, with the sword and violence, and why most Christians, over the centuries, converted: to remain Christian was to remain a third-class, barely tolerated "citizen," who paid extra taxes, jizya, and was denied any equality with Muslims.
Sadly, not only do some Islamic leaders insist that Egypt's Christians have no right to protest, but also, apparently, so does the current U.S. administration. Days before the June 30 protests, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson asked the Coptic pope to urge the Copts not to join the protests -- thus validating Sharia law's position concerning subjugated Christians: they must never complain against their Islamic overlords, in this instance, Morsi and the Brotherhood.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of the new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone Institute, 2013). A Middle East and Islam expert, he is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and associate fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Related Topics:  Egypt  |  Raymond Ibrahim

The Ottoman Slap

by Robert Ellis
July 1, 2013 at 2:00 am
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The Turkish government intends to maintain its control. Both Facebook and Twitter have refused to provide user data to the authorities, so the Transport and Communications Minister has warned that social media websites refusing to cooperate will receive an "Ottoman slap."
You have heard of the Cairo quickstep, the Judas kiss and the Giocanda smile. Now we have the Ottoman slap.
In the April issue of The Atlantic, King Abdullah of Jordan in an interview spoke of the emergence of a new, radical alliance – one that both complemented and rivaled the Iranian-led Shia crescent: the development of a Muslim Brotherhood crescent in Egypt and Turkey. It was no accident that President Morsi spoke at Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party's congress last September, where Prime Minister Erdoğan declared that the government was following the path of the Ottoman sultans Mehmet II and Selim I. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, was also present and hailed Erdoğan as "not just the leader of Turkey but also the leader of the Islamic world."
According to King Abdullah, Erdoğan's AK Party was promoting a softer-edged version of Islamism. He regarded Erdoğan as a more restrained and savvy version of Mohamed Morsi, who instead of following the Turkish model and taking six or seven years, wanted to change things overnight. Now, as present events show, things are unravelling for both Morsi and Erdoğan.
The broad-based Tamarod ["Rebel"] movement in Egypt has in common with the Turkish "çapulcu" [marauders], as Prime Minister Erdoğan contemptuously called the Gezi Park protesters, that they want their country's leader removed; and in both instances, the government has cracked down on dissent. The Tamarod movement claims to have 15 million signatures calling for President Morsi's resignation; and, according to an official estimate, two and half million Turks, mostly under 30, took part in the country-wide protests.
In March, Egypt's popular comedian, Bassem Youssef, who has his own show modeled on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show," was arrested for allegedly insulting President Morsi and Islam. In the first 200 days since Morsi came to power, there have been two dozen similar cases, more than in the 30 years Mubarak ruled, a pattern that liberal politician Mohamed Elbaradei said was characteristic of "fascist regimes."
In Turkey, this is nothing unusual: over the years, its notoriously thin-skinned prime minister has earned a tidy sum from suing those he claims have defamed him. In April, Turkish concert pianist Fazıl Say was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence for a number of tweets considered to have denigrated Islam. Reporters Without Borders has, in its 2013 World Press Freedom Index, ranked Turkey at number 154 (last year it was 148) out of 179 countries, as it is currently the world's biggest prison for journalists.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called Bassem Youssef's arrest "evidence of a disturbing trend of growing restrictions on the freedom of expression," which Morsi's Freedom and Justice Party considered "blatant interference in the internal affairs of Egypt."
In February, the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Francis Ricciardone, created a furore, when, at a discussion with Ankara bureau chiefs, he stated, "you have members of Parliament who have been behind bars for a long time, sometimes on unclear charges. You have your military leaders, who were entrusted with the protection of this country, behind bars as if they were terrorists. You have professors. You have the former head of YÖK [Higher Education Board] who is behind bars on unclear charges [….] You have non-violent student protesters, protesting tuition hikes, behind bars."
Ambassador Ricciardone concluded, "When a legal system produces such results and confuses people like that for terrorists, it makes it hard for American and European courts to match up." Nuland then stated that Ricciardone had said nothing new; however Prime Minister Erdoğan angrily responded, "Turkey is not anybody's scapegoat."
A study by New York University describes the role played by the social media in the recent unrest as "phenomenal," but Prime Minister Erdoğan has declared Twitter to be "a menace," and the social media as "the worst menace to society." During his election campaign, Erdoğan branded Facebook as "ugly technology;" nevertheless, there are 2.1 million "likes" on his official Facebook page.
Erdoğan's senior advisor, Yalçın Doğan, has said that a tweet containing lies and slander is much more dangerous than a vehicle loaded with a bomb, although perhaps this view is not shared by the victims of the U.S. Embassy bombing or the victims of the car bombs in Reyhanlı near the Syrian border.
Consequently, the Turkish government is believed to be working on plans to restrict the social media there, and a state department on cyber crime has already started to investigate some 5 million tweets about the Gezi Park protests. CIA News reports that Prime Minister Erdogan has instructed the head of Turkish intelligence [MIT], Hakan Fidan, to activate two secret web tracking centers, code-named "ahtapot" [octopus], that can monitor most IP telecommunication between Turkish ISPs [Internet service providers], and between Turkish ISPs and the outside world.
Already in 2007 the Turkish Security Directorate obtained a blanket court permit to monitor and record all communications in Turkey, including mobile and land-line phones, SMS text messaging, e-mail, fax and Internet communications. In this connection, Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yıldırım remarked, "It is not possible to prevent being listened to; the only way is not to talk [on the phone]. If there is nothing illegal in our actions, we should not be concerned about such things."
Two years ago Former President Süleyman Demirel stated in an interview that the press and judiciary were no longer free in Turkey but stifled by "an empire of fear." A fortnight ago, however, an academic who took part in a rally in Kuğulu Park in Ankara said, "The circle of fear is broken."
For this reason, the Turkish government intends to maintain its control. Both Facebook and Twitter have refused to provide user data to the authorities, so Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yıldırım has warned that the social media websites refusing to cooperate will receive "an Ottoman slap" from 76 million Turks.
It is still unclear what form this slap will take, but perhaps the Minister will call in the janissaries and have the uncooperative beheaded. Whatever happens, there will be ample room for creativity.
Robert Ellis is a regular commentator on Turkish affairs in the Danish and international press.
Related Topics:  Turkey  |  Robert Ellis

Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Champions Iranian Dissident Filmmaker Jafar Panahi

by Banafsheh Zand  •  Jul 1, 2013 at 1:45 am
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On Friday, the Los Angeles-based Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences (AMPAS), home of the Oscars, announced the 2013 Academy member invitees. This year, after unprecedented support for the Iranian dissident filmmaker, Jafar Panahi, AMPAS has included him in the exalted list.
Panahi's films have earned international acclaim over the last two decades.
Panahi, who was arrested in 2010 for supporting the 2009 protests in Iran, spent several months in prison and is now prohibited from leaving Iran. His passport was confiscated by the Iranian judiciary, and he faces a twenty year ban on writing, producing and directing films.
Panahi's name appears in the Documentary division of the list for his notable film, "This is not a Film", which is a diary of his house arrest. The film was shot during a single day at Panahi's apartment in March 2010, by his longtime friend and collaborator, Mojtaba Mirtahmasbi.
Panahi is one of the three new members (out of the 276) to have his name accompanied by an asterisk on the AMPAS list, a mark indicating that he was invited to join by multiple branches of the Academy. The initiation reception for the new members will be held in September. He will not be able to attend the ceremony, due to the Iranian regime's restriction of his movements.
Related Topics:  Iran  |  Banafsheh Zand

The Iran Regime's Tehran-DC Fantasy Flight

by Banafsheh Zand  •  Jul 1, 2013 at 1:30 am
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Last week the Iranian regime's English language news outlets, Press TV and Fars News both gleefully reported that finally, after 34 years, direct flights between Tehran and DC were to resume. The flights are said to have been arranged between Delta Airlines and IranAir (Homa).
According to the Iranian regime's Persian-language media (omitted from the English reports) Najib Javedani-Tabrizi, a Tehran-based representative for the DC law firm Venable, LLP had represented Iran in the bilateral negotiations between Iran and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and that the final letter of agreement was being drafted. Javedani-Tabrizi said that the start of talks on the resumption of direct flights between the USA and Iran was Tehran's decision, and that Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi also welcomed the possibility of re-establishing direct flights, saying, "Launching flights is for people's welfare and we have no problems with it."
The International Relations division of the FAA denied knowledge of any such report, and Delta spokesman Anthony Black emphatically rejecting such news, asserting that, "Providing service to Iranian airports would violate sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assistance Control. What has been heard, seen or read is untrue. We have done nothing on our part to engage in any service to Iran."
Calls to Venable, LLP have so far gone unanswered.
Related Topics:  Iran  |  Banafsheh Zand

Hassan Rouhani to Again Take Over as Nuclear Negotiator

by Banafsheh Zand  •  Jul 1, 2013 at 1:00 am
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Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced on Wednesday that newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will once again head up Iran's nuclear negotiation team. The next negotiation round of the P5+1 group [the five permanent members of UN Security Council plus Germany] will also be overseen by an investigative body, all of whom will be personally handpicked by Rouhani. During a joint press conference with the Foreign Minister of Tajikistan, Salehi responded to questions regarding the next steps toward nuclear negotiations. "Mr. Rouhani will make the decision on when the next round of talks will occur and when he has the intention of meeting with the P5+1," he said.
On April 6, Iran and the P5+1 group held nuclear talks in the capital of Kazakhstan, Almaty, with no practical results. The next talks on the nuclear program between Iran and the P5+1 might again be held in Kazakhstan.
During her June 17 press conference in Baghdad, Baroness Catherine Ashton told reporters, "Now we will wait for the establishment of the new government. I will continue with my work to urge Iran to work closely with me and the European community to build confidence in the nature of a nuclear programme."
In a report regarding the nuclear negotiations, the Iranian regime's daily newspaper Tehran'eh Emrooz cited Javier Solana's fawning declaration to and about his familiar negotiating counterpart. According to this daily, Solana's letter is a carte blanche approval of Rouhani, and claims that Solana is, in effect, guaranteeing that the West would comply should the Iranian regime's actions, represented in the negotiations by Rouhani be "transparent."
It is important to note that after Ahmadinejad's presidential victory in 2006, when Rouhani was replaced as nuclear negotiator, his actions and negotiation tactics truly became "transparent" when, during a speech at the assembly of clerics, he was caught on tape, showing off about duping the EU. He admitted that while the negotiations were taking place in Teheran, Iran was able to complete the installation of equipment for the conversion of yellowcake uranium, make backdoor deals with Pakistan's A.Q. Khan for importing centrifuges, while at the same time appeasing European diplomats by convincing them that nothing was afoot. "From the outset, the Americans kept telling the Europeans, 'The Iranians are lying and deceiving you and they have not told you everything.' The Europeans used to respond, 'We trust them,'" he said.
Related Topics:  Iran  |  Banafsheh Zand

Iran & Russia to Hold Joint Naval Maneuvers in Caspian Sea

by Banafsheh Zand  •  Jul 1, 2013 at 12:30 am
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On June 28, the Lieutenant Commander of the Russian Navy stationed in the Caspian Sea, Nikolai Yakubovsky, announced plans for a joint exercise of the Russian and Iranian Navies in the Caspian Sea, in the second half of 2013. The announcement was made after a meeting with the commander of Iranian guided-missile boats then visiting the port of Astrakhan. Iran has dispatched two domestically manufactured missile-launching frigates to Astrakhan.
Iranian naval officers are scheduled to inspect several Russian military and port facilities and meet with a number of Russian officials.
In mid-April, a group of Russian Navy warships docked at the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas. The fleet, which consisted of an anti-submarine destroyer, logistic ships and a frigate with a crew of 712, claimed to be on a mission to promote bilateral naval cooperation to maintain maritime security.
Iran's Navy has been increasing its presence in international waters. Iran claims that these deployments are to protect naval routes and provide security for merchant vessels and tankers specifically doing business with the Iranian regime.
During their first Iran-Russia joint naval maneuvers, held in the Caspian Sea in 2009, 30 ships were involved in the exercise.
Related Topics:  Iran, Russia  |  Banafsheh Zand

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