January 28, 2010

10 men were arrested in Malaysia on suspicion that they were somehow linked to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. All of but one of them foreigners. Several of them Nigerians.

Which is pretty much par for the course for countries like Malaysia which are always pointing the finger elsewhere, thus denying that they themselves are knee deep in jihadis.

This is not to deny that the 10 weren't real threats, only that the so-called "moderate" Islamic countries like to divert attention away from their own populations of which a large minority do, in fact, support terrorism. A recent example being in Kenya where the authorities are quick to blame Somali immigrants rather then their own Muslim populations for widespread acts of violence.

If the 10 really do have "links" to the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula plot to blow up an airplane, then what does this say about the international reach of al Qaeda's regional franchises? Let's not focus so much attention on the possibility of terror coming through Europe that we drop the ball and forget that the Salaafi jihad fan base can also be found in Southeast Asia, and thus planes coming from the East are just as vulnerable as planes coming from the West

Police last week acted quickly to forestall a serious threat to national security when they nabbed 10 terror suspects with links to international terrorist organisations.
The nine foreigners and a Malaysian were also believed to be linked to a Nigerian student who attempted to blow up a US-bound flight on Christmas Day.

Among the foreigners nabbed here were several Nigerians but the authorities are tight-lipped over the details.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said the nine foreigners had only just arrived here when they were nabbed....

The New Straits Times learnt that the 10 suspects were members of a religious group linked to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, the Nigerian who was arrested in the United States after he attempted to detonate explosives sewn into his underwear on board Northwest Airlines flight 253, which was bound for Detroit from Amsterdam.

January 21, 2010

Proving once again that the Jews can do anything they put their wascally minds to. James Cameron is Jewish, right?

“I am not sure now that Muslim terrorists carried out these attacks. There is evidence that the attacks were staged.

“If they can make Avatar, they can make anything,” the former prime minister [Dr. Mahathir Mohamad] told a press conference here yesterday after delivering his speech at the General Conference for the Support of Al-Quds to aid the Palestinians....

“It is quite easy to promise during election time but you know there are forces in the United States which prevent the President from doing some things. One of the forces is the Jewish lobby, AIPAC,” he said.

Thanks to Scott Thong.

August 07, 2009

Noordin Mohammad Top, who broke away from Jemaah Islamiya and in an internet statement claimed responsibility for the to now head al Qaeda in Indonesia, may have been captured!

First, news that the top Taliban commander in Pakistan may have been killed and now the top al Qaeda operative in Southeast Asia may have been arrested!

To quote Ice Cube: Today was a good day.

News.com (Aus):

THE mastermind behind last month's bombing of a hotel in Jakarta, which killed three Australians, has been arrested, according to reports.

Indonesian television said that police had been involved in a shoot-out in a village in central Java, and may have caught Noordin Mohammad Top....

[Al Jazeera] added that a "very reliable source" had confirmed his arrest.

Noordin Mohammad Top is reportedly an officer, recruiter, bombmaker, and trainer for the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) group that was involved in the bombings of a Bali nightclub, a Jakarta hotel, and the Australian Embassy in Indonesia between 2002 and 2004.

July 31, 2009

Click for more.

May 27, 2009

Good news: The Abu Sayyaf terrorists who had recently beheaded a farmer they were holding hostage and who had just released three female teachers have been captured and killed.

Philippine troops stormed a jungle hide-out of Muslim militants Wednesday, killing at least two rebel commanders and eight gunmen allegedly involved in a wave of kidnappings for ransom in the troubled south, officials said....

The target was a motley group of al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants and local gangsters believed to have been involved in the recent beheading of a kidnapped farmer and the abduction of three teachers who were freed Tuesday...

The Abu Sayyaf, blacklisted by Washington as a terrorist organization, is still holding at least seven hostages, including a Sri Lankan peace activist on Basilan and an Italian Red Cross worker on nearby Jolo, two predominantly Muslim areas where the militants operate.

March 26, 2009

This is just so rich, I don't know where to start? The guys at National Terror Alert sent the story, so I'll link to them:

A British charity worker twice cleared of terror charges in this country is being hunted in Bangladesh after explosives were seized at an orphanage he founded.

The good news? An update on the story from today is that Dr. Faisal Mostafa has been arrested in Bangladesh.

The bad news?

Mostafa was given a suspended sentence for trying to board a aeroplane at Manchester airport last November with a a gas-powered pistol in his suitcase.

In 2002, Mostafa was cleared of conspiracy to cause explosions, after a surveillance operation in Birmingham in 2000....

As well as being acquitted of the 2002 charges, Mostafa was cleared during a trial 13 years ago of conspiring to cause explosions.

Back to National Terror Alert:

‘The matter is of serious concern to us.’Mostafa, who has a PhD in chemistry from Manchester Polytechnic'

February 23, 2009

Dozens of headlines over at Google News today tell us that Thai "insurgents" and "separatists" are suspected of beheading a number of people over the past week.

M&C:

Suspected separatists on Sunday shot dead and beheaded a couple working on a rubber plantation in Yala province, part of Thailand's troubled deep south where an estimated 3,300 people have died violently over the past five years.

In Pakistan two lovers were beheaded for no particular reason.

And in Saudi Arabia two police officers were beheaded for raping a girl. Which is good news, I guess, given that its usually the rape victim that is punished. I'm actually pretty surprised that the author of this story -- in very un-MSM fashion -- mentions what else will get your head severed from your neck in the Kingdom:

Rape, like apostasy, adultery, armed robbery, and drug trafficking, carries the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, where executions are held in public.

Hat tip to ROP which noticed the trend.

February 16, 2009

In keeping with Stable Hand's Valentine's Day theme, here's the latest news from Malaysia:

Authorities in Malaysia arrested 26 unmarried Muslim couples in hotel rooms during Operation Valentine - aimed at curbing illegal premarital sex in this conservative country, an officer said Monday.

The couples, most under 30 years old, were detained for sharing rooms early Sunday in the beachside town of Kuantan in eastern Pahang state, said Badaruddin Ahmad Bustami, enforcement assistant director with the state’s Islamic department.

State authorities carry out raids each year on Valentine’s Day in this Muslim-majority country, where sharia laws make it illegal for unmarried Muslims to meet behind closed doors, Badaruddin said. Doing so constitutes a crime known as “khalwat,” or “close proximity,” which carries a maximum fine of 1,000 ringgit (US$280) and up to six months in prison.

February 02, 2009

I just love this Earth Times article reprinted by Rantburg. It notes that those doing the beheading are "separatists" and "insurgents", no religion is mentioned:

Suspected separatists shot dead two militia volunteers Monday in a rubber plantation in the violence-plagued province of Pattani, before slicing their throats and burning their bodies. The ambush occurred at 1:30 pm in Yanrang district of Pattani, 750 kilometres south of Bangkok, a notorious hotbed for insurgents.

The assailants, armed with AK 47s, shot dead Nihasan Niarae, 30, and Chuea Choktirat, 56, as they drove through a rubber plantation on a motorcycle. They then decapitated Nihasan, a Thai-Muslim, and sliced Chuea's throat, poured petrol on both bodies and burned them. Both men were volunteer militia.

It was the latest atrocity in the five-year-old conflict in Thailand's deep South that has cost the state an estimated 109 billion baht (3.1 billion dollars) and lost 3,287 lives. Deep South Watch, an independent research group that monitors the conflict, has put the southern death toll since January 2004 at 3,287 lives, of whom 1,788 were Thai Muslims and 1,348 Thai Buddhists, with another 5,405 people wounded

The only problem is that the separatists in question are seeking a Muslim state based on Islamic law. There are no Buddhist separatists in Thailand. And, like most victims of Islamist aggression, at least one of the victims here was also Muslim.

Nearly half of Southern Thailand's Buddhists have been ethnically cleansed since 2004. Forced to leave for fear of retribution by Islamists bent on yet another state to call their own.

Where are the San Francisco marches in support of Thai Buddhists?

January 26, 2009

After fleeing oppression in Burma, refugees were rounded up by the Thai military in a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Mainly Rohingya Muslims from western Burma, about 1,000 refugees were detained on the island of Koh Sai Baed before being towed into international waters and allegedly abandoned at sea.

About 500 men are now missing and feared drowned, and Thailand faces the possibility of bodies washing up on popular tourist beaches in Phang Nga and Phuket.

Since media reports began circulating about the mistreatment of the refugees, Thailand has faced international condemnation, and the Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, has promised an investigation.

January 16, 2009

Saw this over at MilitaryPhotos today. Luckily no one was killed, but four of the victims were civilians.

Thai police officers inspect the site of a motorcycle bomb outside a hospital in southern Thailand's Yala province, south of Bangkok on January 15, 2009.

Muslim terrorists, Buddhist victims = no press coverage. No Jews or Americans involved here. Nothing to see folks, move along....

December 19, 2008

According to Press TV a senior LeT commander has been killed by the Indian Military.

LeT and their "charity" Jamaat-Ud-Dawa is responsible for the Mumbai terror attack.

The Indian military says it has killed a senior military commander of banned Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Kashmir region.

The militant commander was identified as Iqbal Malik, the LeT's southern Kashmir commander, the military said in a statement released on Friday.

It added that Malik and two other insurgents were killed earlier in the day as they were trapped in a cave during an exchange of fire in mountainous Doda district, south of Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir.

"Three LeT militants, including senior commander Iqbal Malik, who got holed up in a mountain cave were killed after a fierce eight-hour-long encounter today," Reuters quoted an unnamed army spokesman as saying.

May the martyrs enjoy their goat virgins. Allah knows best.

November 11, 2008

(Rangoon, Burma) A 28-year-old Burmese blogger, Nay Phone Latt, has been sentenced to 20 and one-half years in prison after questionable charges were rammed through a one-sided court proceeding.

Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association have expressed outrage and called for Nay Phone Latt's immediate release. They have also asked for bloggers worldwide to exhibit solidarity with Nay Phone Latt.

Posting of photos and writing to Burmese embassies are encouraged. (more)

May 31, 2008

For those voices who constantly complain about the conditions in the United States, check out this report from the Bangkok Post.

Rangoon - The military junta began evicting destitute families from cyclone relief centres on Friday and rejected foreign food aid - because people can survive perfectly well by hunting "large, edible frogs."

An accurate final tally may never be known, but so far it's estimated that 134,000 are dead or missing.

May 10, 2008

(Yangon, Burma/Myanmar) The military thugs running the country of Burma/Myanmar have finally allowed some international relief efforts to commence, but not without propagandizing the situation to their benefit.

"We have already seen regional commanders putting their names on the side of aid shipments from Asia, saying this was a gift from them and then distributing it in their region," said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, which campaigns for human rights and democracy in the country.

"It is not going to areas where it is most in need," he said in London.

State media say 23,335 people died and 37,019 are missing from Cyclone Nargis, which submerged entire villages in the Irrawaddy delta.

April 08, 2008

Here's video of the annual Japanese Penis Festival.

(Unfortunately, it appears that most of the penis-worshippers are men.)

h/t : Ace.

March 06, 2008

Do the Filipinos have a CAIR of their own-- FAIR, maybe? You know, the kind of group that screams racial profiling every time a Muslim is detained for some suspicious activity or another? Even though Islam, you know, isn't a race.

But I digress, 3 Middle Easterners arrested in Philippines over plot to attack the U.S., British, Australian and Israeli embassies in Manila. Can you call it racial profiling when one group of brown people is suspicious of another group of brown people? I'm kinda unclear on the social norms governing the use of race baiting, especially when said race baiting has nothing to do with race.

Haaretz:

Philippine authorities say they have arrested three suspected Middle Eastern militants suspected of involvement in a plot to bomb the Israeli and three other foreign embassies in Manila....

Ermita refused to provide details, but two senior Filipino security officials told The Associated Press that investigators were verifying intelligence information that the three may have been involved in an active plot to bomb the U.S., British, Australian and Israeli embassies in Manila.

Thanks to multiple readers.

February 22, 2008

Mysterious religiously unaffiliated "insurgents" bomb a class of female students in Thailand. Nowhere does the article let you know that these insurgents are Muslim Islamist separatists:

Two students and an official were wounded when suspected insurgents detonated a bomb at Yala Rajabhat University in Thailand's southern province of Yala on Friday morning....

The victims, all female, were rushed to Yala Center Hospital.

November 27, 2007

Cross posted for BWI at Juba Sucks.

(Hey it had Jawa in it, a must post)

October 10, 2007

(Yangon, Myanmar) There appears to be disagreement in the ranks of the Myanmar's military junta.

Myanmar's ruling junta have detained five generals and more than 400 soldiers for disobeying orders to shoot and beat monks and other activists who took part in recent protests in Yangon, an official said Monday.

The official, who asked for anonymity out of fear he would be punished by the junta, said it was the first sign of divisions in the country's secretive establishment.

"The five generals expressed their refusal to deploy their troops against the monks openly. They were then quickly put into detention by the junta.

"Some 400 soldiers of the Sikai Division near Mandalay (Myanmar's second largest city) also put down their guns in front of the monks, and asked for their forgiveness as they fully realized they had committed the biggest sin," he told The Jakarta Post.

The official refused to disclose the names of the generals or give further details on where the generals and the soldiers were detained.

August 15, 2007

A new video release from the Filipino arm of the global jihad movement, Abu Sayyaf, is entitled "Asian Jihad Champions". The video can be downloaded here.

Thanks a lot you filthy terrorist bastards, now I can't get that damn song out of my head! For that alone you should be summarily executed.....

Bonus video below.

June 15, 2007

Earlier this week we announced the capture of Abu Dujana, the top military leader of Jemaah Islamiyah. Today it was announced that the head of Southeast Asia's al Qaeda affiliate organization was also arrested. He is known simply as Zarkasih.

CNN:

Indonesian police said Friday that one of a group of suspected terrorists seized in a raid is the head of Jemaah Islamiyah -- the al-Qaeda-linked terror network blamed for attacks including the deadly Bali bombings.

Known simply as Zarkasih, the alleged leader of the Southeast Asian terror groupwas apprehended at the same time as its confessed military leader, Abu Dujana, whose arrest was announced on Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Surya Dharma said .

June 13, 2007

Judith Apter Klinghoffer notes that over 70 Buddhist teachers have been murdered in cold blood by Islamists in Thailand. Three this week. Where is the outrage?

Despite a Muslim now in charge in Thailand after a coup which ousted the democratically elected Buddhist head of government, the 'insurgents' are still not satisfied. And what, exactly, are the 'insurgents' demanding? Sharia law.

Quran Sura 8:60:

"The only person who matters is Allah--and the only question he will ask me is 'How many infidels did you kill?'"

(AP photo)

June 05, 2007

(Fresno, California) Although it may sometimes appear that plotting to overthrow the U.S. government is an everyday political exercise, plotting to overthrow a foreign government while on U.S. soil is a serious felony.

Neighbors said federal agents swarmed a house about 10 Monday morning. Those who live on the street say they showed up in military type vehicles with full body armor on and large guns.

It's just one of 8 places searched in the Central Valley in an investigation that has international ties. One by one FBI and ATF agents raided several homes and at least one business.

Government Officials are tying together an investigation that has spanned 6 months. Under arrest are 8 people, including several prominent Hmong leaders.

77 year old General Vang Pao is being charged as the ringleader for plotting to overthrow the communist government of Laos. Also charged are Lo Cha Thao of Clovis, Hue Vang of Fresno, Lou Tao of Sacramento, Youa True Vang of Sanger, Chung Yang Tao of Fresno, Chue Lowe of Stockton and Seng Vue of Fresno.

Federal Officials say the group was planning to make an initial purchase of 125 AK-47 assault rifles, 20 thousand rounds of ammunition and crates of smoke grenades.

May 02, 2007

You. Can't. Make. This. Stuff. Up. CNN:

Three simultaneous bomb blasts rocked separate railway terminals in Bangladesh on Tuesday, with militant slogans claiming to be from al Qaeda found at two of the sites.....

"... If Hazrat (Prophet) Mohammad is not declared the superman of the world by May 10, all non-governmental organizations will be blown up," the slogans on the metal sheets read in the Bengali language. They were signed "the al Qaeda network" in English.

By the authority vested in me by the Halliburton Corporation, the Illuminati, and various other Zionist-Crusader fronts, I solemnly declare Muhammed to be the Superman of the World.

Do you promise not to blow me up now?

A PS to our new Mohammed-superman-of-the-world overlord below:

Cartoons: Mohammed-superman-of-the-world's kryptonite!

Just call me Rusty Lex Luthor Shackleford.

Thanks to Holland Studios for the Mo image.

Hat tip: Doctor Bulldog

March 08, 2007

(Kelang, Malaysia) The theft of four-wheel drive vehicles by organized crime syndicates has been big business in Malaysia with buyers typically in Thailand and other southeast Asian nations. In the latest news, however, buyers in other destinations have emerged for the stolen 4WDs and transshipment is through the ports of Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

According to Police Chief Assistant Commissioner Rodwan Mohd Yusof:

"We believe the UAE is a point of transit before the stolen vehicles are shipped to new markets and this is said to include Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa," he said.

If the management controls over Dubai ports fail to prevent international trade in stolen, difficult to conceal, goods, one must wonder what other contraband makes it through. Also, is it logical to assume that the Dubai swag-movers are the same crowd that last year wanted to take over the operation of American ports?

February 17, 2007

After showing up to a Thai movie awards show in a sexy black dress (photos here) Thai actress Chotiros Suriyawong has found herself in hot water:

BANGKOK, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The Thai actress known as "Amy" has been ordered to perform community service for wearing a dress deemed too revealing at an awards ceremony.

Chotiros Suriyawong, 22, has also been axed from her latest movie project amid the uproar over her couture at Thailand's version of the Academy Awards.

The Independent described the daring frock as one based on "Elizabeth Hurley's well-known safety-pin number." The Versace number Hurley wore to a premier in 1994 featured a neckline that didn't so much plunge as free fall.

The newspaper said Amy was caught up in a "morality drive" launched by the military government that seized power in Thailand last fall.

January 16, 2007

You'd better watch your step if you're surfing the internet for Tammy NYP (or anything else, for that matter) in Singapore. They have some pretty harsh penalties for "creative" methods of internet access over there:

A Singaporean teenager who illegally tapped into a neighbour's wireless Internet network - an offense the city-state deems punishable by jail - was placed on 18 months' probation by a district court on Tuesday.

The court also ordered Garyl Tan Jia Luo, 17, to carry out 80 hours of community service after he admitted linking his computer to his neighbour's wireless router to access the Internet without permission.

Tan could have been jailed up to three years and fined $S10,000. ...

[Judge] Reddy said Tan should seek "disciplined and structured psychiatric and psychological intervention" to cure his [internet] addiction.

what's potentially worse is the fact that he is not allowed to access the internet during his stint. Apparently, the judge felt this was the best way to break him of his internet addiction...

November 25, 2006

Madrassas will surely follow:

BANGKOK, Thailand - Hundreds of schools in Thailand's restive south will shut their doors in response to increasingly vicious attacks by suspected Muslim insurgents against teachers and schools, a regional education representative said.

The closure, which begins Monday, affects all 336 primary and secondary schools in the province of Pattani, where two teachers were shot and killed by suspected insurgents in the past two days. In one of the killings, attackers shot a school principal Friday, and then set his body on fire.

"Teachers can't bear what has happened," said Bunsom Thongsriprai, president of Teachers' Association in Pattani. "They are paranoid, worried and afraid." He said the schools will reopen when teachers feel safe.

October 18, 2006

Journalist advocates ties with Israel. Moderate Muslim country puts him on trial for sedition.....because having an embassy in Tel Aviv is, er, you know, treason. Not content, members of ruling party form mob and beat him to a pulp.

Religion of something something something........

JPOST:

A Muslim journalist facing charges of sedition for advocating ties with Israel was recently attacked and beaten by a crowd in Bangladesh that allegedly included leading officials of the country's ruling party, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the Weekly Blitz newspaper, an English-language publication based in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, was working in his office on October 5 when nearly 40 people stormed the premises.

The mob beat Choudhury, leaving him with a fractured ankle, and looted cash that was kept in the company safe. Choudhury was briefly hospitalized.

According to a statement appearing on the Web site of the Weekly Blitz, the attackers were led by Helal Khan, international affairs secretary of Jasas, and included Babul Ahmed, Jasas's secretary-general. Jasas is the cultural wing of the ruling Bangladeshi National Party (BNP).

During the assault, Ahmed is said to have shouted at Choudhury, labeling him an "agent of the Jews."

September 19, 2006

State of emergency declared in Thailand. Possible coup attempt. If successful, I've no idea what this would mean to the war on terror. Thailand is in a hot war with Muslim rebels in the south.

Mary Katherine is covering.

September 16, 2006

Buddhist teachers arming themselves against Muslim mobs. Religion of Peace and all that.

CNN:

Teachers have one of the deadliest jobs in southern Thailand, with 44 killed by the bombs and bullets of an Islamic insurgency since 2004.

So the teachers are learning how to shoot back.

The Chulabhorn naval base, on the Gulf of Thailand in Narathiwat province, opened its heavily guarded gates on a recent weekend to a training course for 100 public school teachers, mostly Buddhist men and women who say bringing a gun to school has become essential.

"You'd never see a teacher anywhere else in Thailand carrying a gun," said Sanguan Jintarat, head of the Teachers' Association that oversees the 15,000 teachers in the villages and towns of the restive south. "But, we need them, or we'll die."

That teachers -- not to mention Buddhist monks, bank tellers and motorcycle mechanics -- have become targets in the insurgency illustrates how badly law and order has degenerated in southern Thailand since the violence flared in January 2004.

At first insurgents targeted mainly civil servants, soldiers and police officers. Attacks then spread to businesses that serve soldiers: restaurants, outdoor markets, garages. And now come attacks that seem to have no rationale at all, such as the murder last month of an elephant trainer who was shot seven times by gunmen who had lined up with children to buy tickets for a show.

More than 1,700 people have been killed across Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat -- the only Muslim-majority provinces in this otherwise peaceful, tourist-friendly Buddhist country.

Among them was a teacher gunned down at his blackboard in July as his 4th graders watched in shock, and a Buddhist art teacher clubbed by a village mob in May until her skull shattered.

UPDATE: ROP strikes again in Thailand.

May 08, 2006

No word from PETA yet on whether or not the sheep is claiming the relationship was consensual.

Interested Participant:

.... heard the frantic bleating of her ewe. The sound came from beneath the lower portion of her house, which is built on stilts, where she kept her livestock.

On checking, the woman found the youngster naked with one of her ewes.

"When she screamed, the youth jumped up and fled. She lodged a police report," Nazley said.

UPDATE: The wisdon of Khomeini:

"The meat of horses, mules, or donkeys is not recommended. It is strictly forbidden if the animal was sodomized while alive by a man. In that case, the animal must be taken outside the city and sold."

"If one commits an act of sodomy with a cow, a ewe, or a camel, their urine and their excrements become impure, and even their milk may no longer be consumed. The animal must then be killed as quickly as possible and burned, and the price of it paid to its owner by him who sodomized it."

April 27, 2006

Muslim scholars ask the tough questions. Not content with exploring the deep mysteries of whether or not it is forbidden to take a dump facing Mecca or whether the sunna forbids talking while taking a wiz (no word yet on whistling) comes news that Malaysians are worried about Sharia in outer space.

TMC:

How do Muslim astronauts pray five times a day in space when a "day" in orbit is only 90 minutes? How does one determine where Mecca is in a constantly moving space station?

These were some of the questions Islamic scholars and scientists wrangled with in a seminar Tuesday, as Malaysia, a Muslim country, prepares to send its first citizen into space next year....

"Our astronaut will stay in the International Space Station for about seven to eight days. Among the important needs of this astronaut, should he be a Muslim, is a guide on how to perform the prayer ritual in space," Mohamad Ruddin Abdul Ghani, permanent secretary of Malaysia's Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, said in a speech at the "Islam and Life in Space" seminar.

But as Zainal Abidin Abdul Rashid of Malaysia National University pointed out at the seminar, the space station circles the Earth 16 times in 24 hours, with a sunrise and sunset occurring about every 90 minutes.

"Does this mean we have to perform 80 prayers a day," he said in his seminar paper.

He proposed that Earth time, especially the time zone in Mecca, be used as the reference point to determine the prayer schedule.

On the issue of "qiblat" or the direction of Mecca, suggestions range from installing a special rotating seat so that the Muslim astronaut could turn easily toward Mecca, to using calculator that can determine qiblat direction and the prayer schedule.

Then there is also the question of how to perform ablution, a ritual cleansing of the body, with water-rationing in space.

Also, how does one do the prayer ritual of kneeling and prostrating under zero gravity?

Brilliant.

This goes a long way in explaining the myth of the 'Golden Age of Islam'. Never. Happened.

One important question not addressed at the conference is this: Does the prohibition against eating pork extend to outer space? And if it does, is there at least a Miss Piggy exception?

Hat tip Joel who found it at Nobody's business.

April 08, 2006

One of the stories being widely circulated right now is that the King of Nepal has ordered that protesters would be shot on site. What the headline does not say, is that Nepal is in the midsts of a civil war with Maoist rebels. And that no protesters have, in fact, been shot on site!Guardian:

Protesters demanding a return to democracy postponed a rally that had been expected to draw thousands on Saturday, after the king imposed an all-day curfew and ordered violators shot on sight.

One person was killed and at least two wounded when security forces fired at demonstrators in Pokhara, a resort town 125 miles west of the capital, Katmandu, said Gangadhar Baral, who was among those wounded.

"We were protesting and some of us were throwing stones at the soldiers. Suddenly, the soldiers fired shots at us. One of my friends was killed instantly,'' Baral said. He spoke from the town's main hospital.

And why the imposition of the restrictions?

The rebels bombed government buildings and attacked a jail in the southwestern town of Taulihawa on Friday night, freeing 104 prisoners, officials said. Insurgents also attacked security bases in the nearby town of Butwal.

Officials said the curfew was in response to information that the rebels would try to infiltrate the rallies and wage terror attacks against government targets.

Impending geek alert: Interestingly enough, last night's episode of Dr. Who featured a Prime Minister of England ordering the Doctor shot on site. Which is neither here nor there, but I just figured you ought to know a little about Macktastick Rusty Wicked's geek factor. It's off the scale.

March 10, 2006

While the Dark Lord of the Sith has been away, we’ve had a pretty good week here. Lot’s of posts, hits, comments, trolls, annoying annoyances, the whole bit. Feels like the good old days before the dark times, before the Empire!

Thanks to Demosophist.
Vinnie.
Mike Pechar.
See-Dubya who also posts here.
Chris Short.
Traderrob.
The Dread Pundit Bluto.
Chad Evans.
Drew.
Richard.
Jane from Armies of Liberation.

Thanks also to all our regulars and trolls as well for taking things out on each other and keeping us entertained in the process. As Rusty says, “You came here for the insults didn’t you Howie?� Howie Says blushing shamefully, “Of course.� So I’ve saved up some linky, linky for you. Rusty says if the hotel has free internet we would hear from him. Apparently they don’t but I expect my master will return on Monday.

New York Jail Imam opens mouth, inserts foot via Jihadwatch

Umar Abdul-Jalil via NYPOST : "greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House," Jews control the media, and Muslims are being tortured in Manhattan jails... ...the Zionists of the media to dictate what Islam is to us" and said Muslims must be "compassionate with each other" and "hard against the kufr [unbeliever]."

Clinton W Taylor asks we send our “trimmings to Yale�

Clinton via Townhall : Referring to the Taliban’s policy of pulling the fingernails off of Afghani women who dared to wear fingernail polish. Some of these women even had their thumbs sliced off as punishment. To date, Mr. Rahmatullah has not apologized or taken responsibility for his support of this brutal regime, though he told the Times he wished he’d been "a little bit softer" in his advocacy.
If you’d like to show your outrage at Yale’s decision to admit the Taliban’s spokeman, join us in "giving Yale the finger." It would be disgusting– not to mention really painful — to mail your own fingernails, but you can buy glamorous, decadent, shameless-hussy-scarlet press-on nails (ask for "nail tips") from any drug store or beauty shop. They’re cheap; a box costs about $5.00. (Caution to Harvard-educated readers: do not eat the press-on nails. Sure, they look tasty, but they will make you sick.)

If you have not read all Michael Totten’s latest report from Iraq clickety click here!

Totten : “Zarqawi destroyed the tombs,� the caretaker said. “He and his men turned this room into a toilet.� He shook his head in disgust at the filthy Islamists who fouled their Islamic shrine. Muslims who say Al Qaeda is not really Islamic may have a point.
“You see that there in the floor?� he said. “That’s where they began to install plumbing.�
I braced myself. “How do you feel about the U.S. bombing this mosque?� I said.
“I don’t know,� he said, as if he had never even pondered the question. “It’s okay, I suppose. I am grateful. If they had not done it this place would still be a toilet.�

All those hours spent killing space bastards can pay off!

Living under Democratic leadership, what it’s really like. Sorry Gov Rod you suck buddy.

NPR : Five Jewish members of Illinois' hate-crimes commission have resigned in protest over another commissioner who is an official with the Nation of Islam. Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, rails against Jewish and gay people this week in front of commissioners. Chicago Public Radio's Catrin Einhorn reports.

Bad, bad gay terrorists in love never underestimate a terrorist in love!

Filthy’s post on how returning soldiers should be treated.

The Filthy Report : Hundreds of people, including Girl Scout troops, Vietnam Veterans of America chapters, senior citizens clubs and individuals wanting to give personal thanks to America’s returning troops lined the terminal exit and filled the airport with deafening cheers from the first service member to the last.

Giggle, giggle times four = one happy group!.(just click)

I’ll try and update with more linky, linky later. Busy, busy.

February 28, 2006

With the Cold War over and a new Cold War between civilizations brewing, India has become our natural ally in Southeast Asia. Pakistan is only a reluctant ally which only supports the war on terror to the extent that it prevents a U.S. invasion. Pakistan cannot even control vast areas of its own territory. There is little doubt in my mind that a coup or pupular uprising will eventually remove the present pro-U.S. military dictatorship and replace it with an even more overtly Islamist regime.

To prepare for that day, we must earnestly cultivate our friendship with India. India and the U.S. have had shaky relations in the past--especially given our Cold War alliance with Pakistan--but the relationship between us and the Subcontinental state have improved drastically in the past 15 years. Not only do we have strategic mutual interests with India, but our cultures and civilizations both emphasize democracy, pluralism, and tolerance. India is fast becoming more than an ally, they are becoming our friend.

It's good to see that Bush is cultivating this relationship and a pity that the NY Times is such a partisan rag. Instead of focusing on the flowering relationship between our two countries, they instead lay into Bush for neglected issues such as "poverty", "the search for renewable energy", and reaching out to India's Muslim minority. What idiots:

Relations between the United States and India have never been more important, thanks to global terror in the post-Sept. 11 world, the search for sustainable energy resources and the United Nations' pledge to halve world poverty by 2015. More than 500 million of the world's poor are Indian villagers. India is also home to one the largest Muslim populations in the world.

So it's a pity that this trip, which should focus American attention on such a rich array of issues, now revolves largely around whether India and America will manage to conclude a nuclear deal that shouldn't have been initiated to begin with.

President Bush's wrongheaded decision last year to make an end run around the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty by agreeing to share civilian nuclear technology with New Delhi took America's contain-China-by-building-up-India strategy a step too far. The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty's basic bargain has been to reward countries that renounced nuclear weapons with the opportunity to import sensitive nuclear technology to help meet their energy needs. For decades, America has imposed nuclear export restrictions on India — and Pakistan, for that matter — in response to those countries' refusal to sign the nonproliferation treaty and their open development of nuclear weapons

This carrot-and-stick approach has dissuaded many other countries capable of building or buying nuclear arms from doing so, from South Korea to Turkey to Saudi Arabia. Now President Bush wants to carve out an exception for India. That's the worst possible message to send to other countries — Iran comes to mind — that America and its nuclear allies in Europe are trying to keep off the nuclear weapons bandwagon. Already, Pakistani officials are requesting the same deal for their country, although it is a request that is unlikely to be granted.

Idiots.

John O'Sullivan, of course, gets it right. Chicago Sun Times:

President Bush arrives Wednesday in New Delhi for a state visit that he hopes will fasten down the strategic partnership between America and India that former U.S. Ambassador Robert Blackwill began to forge five years ago. Bush's first order of business will be to sign a civilian nuclear agreement with India to supply it with nuclear materials.

That agreement will both reward India for refraining from nuclear proliferation to third powers and remove what has been until recently a large obstacle to good Indo-U.S. relations -- treating India and Pakistan as equal violators of nuclear proliferation agreements. Bush's change of policy here reflects two facts: First, we know that "rogue" Pakistani scientists have passed nuclear know-how onto other Islamic countries; second, U.S. policy distinguishes between democratic states like India, judged reliable enough to be trusted with nuclear secrets and material, and despotic states like Iran judged dangerous on that score....

India is not a neurotic superpower but it is still an ambivalent one. Almost all the economic and political developments cited above point the country toward adopting an economy strategy of free market globalization and a political one of alliance with the United States. The two countries share a common language, common liberal democratic values, similar legal and political institutions (inherited in both cases from the British), a common strategic rival in China, and a common enemy in al-Qaida. These similarities help to explain the growing Indian diaspora in America, the boom in U.S. companies outsourcing to India's own Silicon Valleys, the ease of military cooperation between Indian and U.S. military forces, and the fact that America is more popular in India than in any other country.

Altogether, India's progress is bottom-up rather than top-down. It is also bipartisan. Both government and opposition have advanced the economic reform agenda in the last 14 years. So a change of government would probably not mean a drastic change of policy. It is likely to last.

February 14, 2006

The two ringleaders of the Bali 9 drug smuggling ring have been sentenced to death by an Indonesian court. Get that? In Indonesia they kill you for smuggling drugs.

Compare that sentence to this one. Abu Bakar Bashir is the head of Southeast Asia's al Qaeda affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyaah. He is the Osama bin Laden of Southeast Asia. It was Bashir's terrorist group that murdered 202 people at a night club in Bali. For that, Bashir was senteneced to 25.5 months in prison.

That's about 765 days.

That's 3.8 days per victim.

Drug dealers, though, are put in front of a firing squad. Our friends in the war on terror in a moderate Muslim country. Indeed.

January 12, 2006

Allahpundit points out that Malaysia's impending law legalizing polygamy is on hold--for now. Personally I think polygamy ought to be legal (but only good polygamy--two hot chicks), but Islamic law's version of unfair to women at best and a license for masogony at worst. AFP:

Malaysian women's groups claimed victory after the government put on hold contentious legislation which would have helped Muslim men to take multiple wives and claim property after divorce.

The government agreed to review the Islamic Family Law bill after it triggered a public outcry last month by forcing it through the upper house over the protests of women senators and civil society groups....

Malaysian Muslim men are allowed four wives under Islamic law, but under the new amendments they would no longer have to prove they are financially capable of treating all their wives equally before taking on another.

On taking a new wife, men could seize property belonging to existing wives, and they would be given new rights to claim assets after a divorce, as well as less obligation to pay compensation and maintenance.

November 17, 2005

(Jawa, Indondesia) A new video from Jemaah Islamiah. al Qaeda's Southeast Asia counterpart, warns Australia to pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq or faced renewed acts of terrorism. The video was found ten days ago in a cave on the Island of Jawa (Java in English) after a top Jemaah Islamiah was killed there. The man on the video (shown right) is believed to be Malaysian national Noordin Top, a senior operative of Jemaah Islamiah.

Jawas on Jawa? Indeed.

The Age:

SOUTH-EAST Asia's most wanted terrorist has warned in a video message seized by Indonesian police that Australia will be the prime target of new "intimidation and terror" attacks while its troops remain in Iraq.

In an apparent copy of al-Qaeda tactics, the video features a masked man believed to be Jemaah Islamiah mastermind Noordin Top urging strikes against Australia and claiming Prime Minister John Howard is leading the nation into tragedy.

The video threat, a first for Jemaah Islamiah, was seized when police raided Noordin's Central Java hide-out 10 days ago, soon after his bomb-making partner, Azahari Husin, was shot dead. Farewell video messages from the three suicide bombers who struck Bali in October were also recovered.

Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla played the videos to Islamic leaders, saying police believed the man issuing the warning was Noordin.

"America, Australia, England and Italy are all our enemies," says the militant. "We especially remind Australia that you, Downer and Howard, are killing Australia, leading it into darkness and tragedy and into mujahideen terror.

"Know that as long as you continue to colonise the land of Iraq and Afghanistan and intimidate Muslims then you, too, will feel our intimidation and terror."