An al-Qaeda terrorist packs his clothes at Guantanamo Bay, while a political activist slowly expires from torture endured at a Zimbabwe jail. The first is a plotter of mass murder, the second a democracy advocate in a nation that sits on the UN Human Rights Commission.  Which is the UN the most concerned with?

Previous:  Talk about selling your enemy the rope...  Russia announces that it may provide arms to the terror group Hamas a day after it says that its law enforcement community prevented 450 terror attacks by the Mujahideen last year.

Current:  Watching Pakistanis protest Denmark by burning American flags and American restaurants reminds us that common sense isn't one of the five pillars of the religion.  Nevertheless, this article on moderates in Denmark is further proof of why stereotyping Muslim individuals (or any individuals, for that matter) isn't all that smart either.

Current:  Let the patronizing begin.  CNN won't show cartoons of Muhammad because they fear offending unbalanced Muslims, yet they do show pictures of Abu Ghraib that are three years old and are inspiring some in the Arab world to pledge more suicide attacks against innocent troops.  The news network knows that American military families, whose loved ones are imperiled by such irresponsible journalism, are too developed to resort to violence, as many Muslims, unfortunately, are not - even under far less provocative circumstances.

Note that the sensibility of a Muslim is apparently of more concern to CNN than a flag-draped casket. 

Previous:  First spotted on Clarity and Resolve is a farewell video of a Saudi man who is preparing to blow himself up in Iraq (and kill as many others in the process as possible).  What makes this unusual is that he apparently thinks that Allah has betrothed him to a woman who was "martyred" at Abu Ghraib, whom he will "marry" once he gets to paradise.

Of course, the only women killed at Abu Ghraib were those that died at the hands of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen, back when torture there was much harsher and more deadly, but also more acceptable to international tastes.  The joke is on our young bachelor... and the families of those killed at his Islamic stag party.

Previous:  New photos of Abu Ghraib abuse are being used by the Arab media to inflame anti-American passions in the Middle East.  Outlets such as al-Jazeera are not only saturating their audience with the images, but doing it in a manner that is leading many viewers to think that these are fresh incidents that have occurred since the abuses were first discovered and ended in 2003. 

In fact, the nine individuals who were involved in the abuse scandal have been convicted, and the behavior that they engaged in was not only against policy, but was extremely trivial compared to what happened to political prisoners under Saddam Hussein, when the lives of thousands were swallowed up in his torture chambers.  Of course, the news channels don’t show images from that era.

Kudos to the Arab media for stirring the pot and solidifying the distortion and paranoia that keeps maturity, moderation and moral discernment entirely out of reach in the Muslim world.

Previous:  Here is the Muslim mind at work:  Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Conference (billed as a moderate Muslim organization) has compared the twelve cartoons printed in a Danish newspaper to the mass murder of 3,000 people on 9/11.

There is something profoundly wrong with this religion.  It clouds the judgment, dulls the moral sensibilities, and instills a deep sense of horrible narcissism.  To these sorts of people, there are no innocent infidels, since rejecting Muhammad is a sin.  Therefore the lives of unbelievers are essentially worthless, and Muslims emphasize this by yawning at Islamic terror while expressing the deepest indignation for slander and insult, even to the extent that the slaughter of thousands is trivialized.

Where is the common denominator for dialogue with this religion... when even the most reasonable among them do not know right from wrong?

Don’t we teach our children not to be selfish and apathetic?  Yet, we continue to negotiate the surrender of our culture and heritage to the most egocentric and self-indulgent of all religions.

Previous:  It’s interesting how the media declines to remind us of the running total of U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan the way that they have done from the very beginning in Iraq.  As four more Marines were killed by Taliban terrorists on Monday, our illustrious warriors of objectivity are screaming – literally screaming – about not being told immediately of Cheney’s weekend hunting accident.

Speaking of Afghanistan, a recent World Public Opinion poll showed that only 5% of Afghans have a favorable view of Osama, al-Qaeda and the Taliban, while about 80% approve of U.S. operations and have a favorable opinion of the American military.

Yet, we still get e-mail from Western Muslims who insist that the Taliban terrorists are “freedom fighters” trying to "liberate" their country from the Americans.  We can’t think of a better illustration of the one-sided nature of Muslim thought – the ability to segregate the world into non-Muslim and Muslim, and apply contrary standards and sympathies to each.

Previous:  If we were a bit handier with Photoshop, then you might see the famous picture of Jane Fonda sitting behind a Hanoi anti-aircraft gun with Al Gore’s face morphed on it.  The former Vice President and 2000 nominee to the Oval Office whipped up anti-American passions in Saudi Arabia yesterday by telling the audience how poorly America treats Arabs (“unforgivable,” in his words).

This is what the Saudis want to hear, of course, and it gives them confidence that their own barbaric treatment of political dissidents and religious minorities (if there are any left) will go unchallenged.  Saudi Arabia is one of the worst abusers of human rights on the planet, with an official policy of religious intolerance that makes Iran feel like Denmark.

A real man would have pointed that out, rather than look for reason to trash his own country.

Previous:  Let's say you're a guy who's gotten tired of the young child with which you've been having sex and you want to divorce her.  You're a good Muslim, however, so you want to do it in the proper way.

Now, Muhammad says that you can't divorce a pregnant woman, and that there needs to be a three month waiting period if she's recently missed a cycle, but you think that you might have found a loophole.  It seems that the girl you've married is too young to have even started menstruating. Problem solved?

Not so fast!  Muhammad says that the same rule applies.  According to the prophet of Islam, even if your young sexual partner has not yet reached the age of menstruation, you still need to wait three months before kicking her out of the house (Sura 65:4).

But on the bright side, keep in mind that there's nothing stopping you from bringing in another girl (or woman) in the meantime, as long as you stay at or below four wives at a time (Sura 4:3).

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