Islam

Okay, having just made fun of Italian fascists for being terrified of Christmas ornaments that emphasize commonalities between Islam and Christianity, I come across an even more disgusting phobia. The Taliban are so terrified of school girls that they are declaring jihad against them:

Taleban militants in the Swat valley in north-west Pakistan have threatened to kill girls who attend school.

A local Taleban commander ordered parents to stop sending their daughters to school by 15 January.

In comments broadcast on an illegal radio station, he threatened to blow up schools which enrolled female students.

This year alone, Taleban militants have destroyed more than 130 schools in the Swat valley. They want to bring in Islamic sharia law in the region.

Militant attacks on schools in the region have deprived more than 17,000 students of education.

What fucking dickheads! There is something deeply pathological about people who are terrified of school girls. It would be outright pathetic if it wasn't for the fact that they actually carry out violent attacks on children for simply wanting an education.

Fascism in Italy got its ass kicked in WW II. In fact, unlike German fascism that took the combined efforts of the US, Great Britain and the Soviet Union to defeat, Italian fascists were even fought to a standstill by the Greeks in WW II and had to have their sorry asses saved by the Germans.

But even today there are Italian losers who are so scared of anyone different from themselves that they follow the failed, stupid and loser ideology of Mussolini.

Their latest cause seems to have some resemblance to Bill O'Reilly having his panties in a bunch over an imaginged "war on Christmas." The Italian fascists have their collective panties in a bunch over...Christmas decorations. Yes, Italian fascists are such losers that they are terrified of Christmas decorations! From BBC news:

Right-wing politicians have protested at the inclusion of Islamic symbols in nativity scenes in northern Italy.

Elaborate cribs with figurines enacting the nativity decorate most Catholic churches in Italy at this time of year.

A priest at a Genoa church put a mosque and minaret in his crib, while a crib at a Venice school also had a mosque.

The Genoa branch of the anti-immigrant Northern League reacted with fury. But a senior church figure said there are no firm rules on what can be included.

In my continuing coverage of Republican racism and anti-Semitism, one of the stupidest Republican memes was "gee, uh, duh, isn't Obama a Moooslim?"

My first reaction was "so what if he was?" Why couldn't a Muslim be an American leader? But that is beside the point. There has never, ever been the slightest evidence that Obama was Muslim.

Those who listen to this lie and believe it are, quite honestly, abyssmally stupid or amazingly gullible.

But who originated the "duh...Obama is a Moooslim" lie?

Seems an unstable anti-Semite, named Andy Martin, started it. And Fox News let this unstable anti-Semite assert lies without questioning him...yet another connection between Fox News, lies, and anti-Semitism.

In 2005 there was much sound a fury about a series of Danish Cartoons portraying the prophet Mohammed. The bottom line was that several Danish cartoonists drew cartoons including the prophet as part of a newspaper's publicity stunt. Two of the cartoons were making fun of the newspaper's publicity stunt itself. Two were, arguably, based on racial stereotypes. At least one specifically addressed Western stereotypes of Muslims. In other words, the cartoons were a mixed bag of attitudes towards Islam and the West's attitudes towards Islam.

The overwhelming reaction in the Muslim world was of outrage, often with no real knowledge of the actual cartoons.

This controversy has come back. One of the cartoonists, Kurt Westergaard, was targeted for death by Muslim terrorists. This plot was stopped by the Danish police. In response to the terrorist threat 11 Danish newspapers reprinted Kurt Westergaard's original cartoon...further pissing off Muslim nations.

Again...much sound and fury, signifying nothing.

In response to this new controversy, I want to show all 12 of the original Danish cartoons followed by my public response to the cartoons and the controversy. Folks, there are major issues of tolerance, freedom of expression, and basic human decency involved here. When someone insults you (which MOST of the cartoons were NOT doing) you don't kill them or threaten them with death. If you do, you are essentially a psychopath. You can insult them back, boycott them, sue them...whatever. But to kill someone or threaten someone with death over a cartoon is insane. So, here are the cartoons and my original comments:

I just received an email alert saying that Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, was assassinated today. Bhutto had returned to Pakistan after eight years of a self-imposed exile in Dubai, with the hope to becoming Prime Minister for a third time and with the election, restore democracy in Pakistan.

Bhutto was killed after a suicide bomber opened fire and then blew himself up at a rally. This was the second suicide bombing attack on Bhutto since her return to the country of her birth.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday outside a large gathering of her supporters where a suicide bomber also killed at least 14, doctors and a spokesman for her party said.

While Bhutto appeared to have died from bullet wounds, it was not immediately clear if she was shot or if her wounds were caused by bomb shrapnel.

President Pervez Musharraf held an emergency meeting in the hours after the death, according to state media.

Police warned citizens to stay home as they expected rioting to break out in city streets in reaction to the death.

During the 1980s I had a roommate whose boyfriend at the time was a "renegade" of the Pakistani elite. It was incredibly interesting and enlightening to talk about Pakistani politics with my roommates boyfriend because it gave me a "real life" insight to the folly that was even then Pakistani politics.

Awhile back I wrote about an anti-Semtitic incident in Indiana where a Republican politician told a group of Jews that they didn't count because they only made up 2% of the Indiana population. I called this the Republican "2% solution." This is how the incident appeared to the Jewish group:

[In Feb. 2006], the Indianapolis JCRC’s Jewish Lobby Day was held. Around 40 Jews from around the State of Indiana came to Indianapolis to lobby our state senators and representatives on a number of issues.

The day ended with a private meeting with Speaker of the House Bosma meeting our group in the beautiful House chambers. We asked questions about full day kindergarten, about the clinics, and a young member of the delegation asked about providing sexuality education in public schools that is more than abstinence based. He responded to everything we asked. Sometimes we liked what he said and sometimes we didn’t. Speaker Bosma wondered why we hadn’t discussed the controversy surrounding the issue of prayer in House chambers. He told us his version of what happened and what he believes, and a passionate exchange took place. The end of this exchange left us, the Jewish delegation, in shock. Speaker Bosma, defending the prayer issue, asked, “How many Jews are there in Indiana? About 2%? There are at least 80% Christians in Indiana."

Even mass murdering lunatics can feel insecure about their looks --and use the Q'ran to hit the Grecian Formula. Yet what counter-terrorism" "experts" are reading into Osama's metrosexual attempt to hide his graying hair reads like a Seinfeld parody of the H.A.T.M or hot ass terrorist mess :

Bin Laden appears in the video with a trimmed beard that is apparently dyed black, hiding the streaks of gray seen in previous footage, and wears a beige cloak over a white robe.

According to Azzam Tamimi, head of the London-based Institute of Islamic Political Thought, the beard dye is a "sign of war."

The rigorous Salafi Islamic school to which bin Laden belongs "condones this dye only in preparation for war," he said.

A US intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity said agencies believe the video is authentic and was produced as recently as August because of a reference to the 62nd anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6.

Down to the snickering of Bin Laden's metrosexual ... ahem ... impotence.

The Manolo, the vast right wing's conspiracy answer to the pinko commy Blackwell, doesn't think Osama is rocking the aging metrosexual look at all. Meanwhile, others think he looks like he is not only dyeing, but dying as well; while the rest of us find a reason to die laughing.

I have been discussing for more than a year now how Bush's horrible foreign policy is enabling the rise of a Fundamentalist Islamic Caliphate, uniting fundamentalist Sunnis against us world wide.

I discussed this regarding Somalia and its neighbors (which got me invited onto BBC Radio twice, though I only went on once,

I discussed this regarding Pakistan, our supposed ally which Barack Obama is right not to trust (remember, the elite forces of the Pakistani army put the Taliban in place in Afghanistan and are probably sheltering them now),

And even regarding such normally stable nations like Morocco, Bahrain, and