We are all Jews now

Thousands of Parisians marched in the streets of their city yesterday to protest the rise of anti-Semitism in France. The march was occasioned by the kidnapping, torture and murder of a young French Jewish man by the name of Ilan Halimi. His torture apparently went on for three weeks and extended to the poor man's family who were forced to listen to his screams over the telephone as his tormentors read out verses of the Koran. If you're squeamish you may not want to know the details. It's difficult, but necessary reading. According to an article by Tom Gross in today's National Post (from my print copy).

On February 13 Halimi was found tied naked to a tree, handcuffed, gagged, hooded and starved, with severe burns and torture marks and cuts all over his body.

The French police officer leading the investigation said the gang "Kept him naked and tied up for weeks. They cut bits off his flesh, fingers and ears, and in the end poured flammable liquid on him and set him alight. It was one of the cruelest killings I have ever seen."

One of the cruelest killings? I wonder what this police officer has witnessed in his career that could surpass this ugly murder for its sheer, base brutality.

It seems that Mr. Halimi was kidnapped not because of any special qualities he possessed, other than his Jewishness. It could have been any Jew, really - an old Jew, a young Jew, a sick Jew, a healthy Jew, a male Jew, a female Jew, a Jewish infant - it's all the same. It is only necessary that the victim be one of that ancient tribe that God chose as His people so long ago.

A rich Jew would have been a preferred victim, of course. Who knew there were Jews of modest means? Those grotesque murderers apparently didn't. As they say in the army, time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted. Still, even an impoverished Jew can scream adequately over the phone as you read out verses from the Koran, while cutting off his fingers.

In a glaring instance of hypocrisy the very same people who claim to be marching in the streets over the publication of a dozen Danish political cartoons are utterly silent about this bestial torture and murder. Most Muslims in western countries would not likely support this murder, but neither are they prepared to demonstrate against this bloody blot on their religion.

They are not writing letters to the editor, they are not burning buildings, or rioting, or otherwise opposing what happened to Mr. Halimi. That, by the way, is why they have no credibility with the general population and why Islam itself is increasingly viewed with a jaundiced eye. In the deafening silence, the hard men do their work.

It is said that silence denotes consent. What is being consented to here? Is it the idea that is alright for fellow Muslims to treat people in such a sub-human manner - long as the victims are Jews? I pray that is not the case, but the evidence continues to mount.

Behold the face of evil incarnate. It has shown its face to us before - at Auschwitz and Treblinka - and it lurks in our cities today. Don't delude yourself into thinking this kidnapping and terrible murder is peculiar to Paris, or is confined to Jews. It's hatred is demonstrating its global presence every day now - in the murder of innocent Christian school girls in Indonesia, in the burning of churches in Pakistan and Nigeria, in the enslavement and genocide of tens of thousands of black Christian and Animist Sudanese, in the destruction of a Shiite mosque in Iraq, in the nuclear threats of mad Iranian mullahs, in the suicide bombing of buses and trains and nightclubs in Israel, Britain, Spain and Indonesia, in the destruction of Buddhist temples in Afghanistan and of office towers in New York City.

Radical resurgent Islam's stated purpose is to cow us, convert us, or kill us. This is a vicious and merciless enemy which, by its own cruel actions, pares down the choices before us. We must defeat them, submit to them, or perish. Ignoring them is not an option. I know where I stand on this continuum of terror. Do you?

The Gathering Storm

The signs are there to see. An Islamic storm gathers and will break upon our shores at some point. Are we prepared? A prudent people faced with such portents in the natural world will batten down hatches, board up windows, and move to higher ground. Those of us faced with hard political choices are seldom so immediately moved to action.

In Iran, the mullahs are racing to produce an atomic bomb. The mullah currently in charge of the country says that Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth. The Israeli government and military is beyond question, prepared to turn a goodly portion of the Islamic Middle East into glass should the Iranian try and make good on that threat. Europe is nervous. The United States is nervous. Blustering noises are heard on the diplomatic circuit. Bunker buster bombs are mooted about as a solution. But the disbursement of the Iranian nuclear weapons program makes tactical solutions very difficult. You should be nervous too, but you probably aren't.

In Iraq, Islamofascists have blown up an 1,100 year old Shiite Muslim shrine which, is the burying place of two of the most revered Shiite clerics. This action was calculated to precipitate civil war between the Shiites and the Sunni Muslims. The tactic is probably going to work. Daytime curfews are being imposed, folks are being dragged from cars and shot and dozens of Sunni mosques are being torched in retaliation for the Askariya shrine bombing. The newly elected Iraqi government is nervous. The United States and it coalition partners are nervous. They should be. This is going to get really ugly.

In Afghanistan, the Canadian army is in the process of assuming command of the NATO Forces in the Kandahar area. In the past couple of weeks our troops have come under fire from jihadists. Some were wounded. The troops are worried, but continue with their mission. That's what good soldiers do. Meanwhile, today's release of a CTV/Globe & Mail poll indicates that 62% of Canadians oppose sending Canadian troops to Afghanistan. Oops. My friends, it's too late. They're already there; having been deployed oversees by the former Liberal government, which was no doubt trying to keep our soldiers' combat boots and guns from sullying the streets of cities here at home.

The Danish cartoon fiasco goes on and on and on and on. Pakistan is under virtual military lockdown, (that is to say, those areas of the country under the control of the military government are in lockdown). Apparently, the regime initially supported the street protests, until the street protesters turned against the regime. It is an open question how far this will go.

In northern Nigeria, home to the majority of Muslim Nigerians, Islamic mobs protesting the Danish cartoons, saw no contradiction in demanding greater religious sensitivity by burning Christian churches and murdering Christians. Danish intolerance apparently cannot be tolerated. Nigerian Christians must suffer.

In Canada protests by Muslims over the cartoons received little media attention because they were peaceful. In my view that circumstance was very newsworthy, but I am not a member of the main stream news oligarchy. After all, I only have around 40 visitors a day. Wait a minute. Those numbers must rival the number of viewers of CBC TV. Maybe I am a media oligarch after all.

The Right to Offend

A clear demarcation exists in this civilization between those who cherish and defend the right to free speech and those who believe that the public good is served by constraining its public exercise in instances where certain groups may take offence.

This latter view lies at the very heart of what we call political correctness. Political correctness is pernicious in its nature and must be eradicated if we wish to bequeath our liberties to our children and our childrens' children.

Jewish store clerk tortured and murdered

According to Sebasian Rotella, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times:

PARIS - - In a new case of strife and brutality in France's immigrant neighborhoods, authorities alleged Monday that anti-Semitism influenced a gang that kidnapped a Jewish store clerk, tortured him for more than three weeks and
killed him. ......

The kidnappers, who called themselves "The Barbarians," beat, burned and mutilated Halimi during 24 days of captivity in the cellar of a tough housing project in Bagneux, southwest of the capital, according to investigators.

The gang taunted Halimi's family and a rabbi with anti-Semitic epithets and recited Koranic verses during telephone calls and e-mails demanding wildly diverging amounts of ransom that never were collected, investigators said. The kidnappers also sent photos of the victim with a gun to his head, bound and blindfolded, apparently mimicking images of hostages and abused prisoners in Iraq. Those actions and others led prosecutors to add aggravating circumstances of anti-Semitism to the charges sought against some of the suspects.

"When the family said they didn't have money, they told them to go to a synagogue to get the money," said Sammy Ghozlan, a Jewish leader who is a retired police chief and has campaigned against anti-Semitic crime here in recent years. "This gang massacred this young man. They cut off ears and fingers. It was like they had a trophy, a Jewish kid, and everybody abused him."

According to Monday's edition of Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Halimi's mother criticized the police for moving too slowly and for ignoring the anti-Semitic motives.

"If Ilan hadn't been Jewish, he wouldn't have been murdered," Ruth Halimi told Haaretz.

The fact that the group has no known ties to Islamic extremist groups does not mean they don't. On the other hand I am no longer sure that is a prerequisite for what is unfolding within Islam today.

Well, at least in this case, the excuse for murder and mayhem is is naked greed and hatred and not some Danish political cartoons.

Murder and Mayhem

The Islamic anti-west hate campaign continues. Anyone who continues to hold to the view that the current murders and riots by hundreds of thousands of Muslims around the globe is more than peripherally connected to a half dozen political cartoons in a Danish newspaper is thick beyond belief.

This situation has nothing to do with insults directed at the Islamic prophet Mohammed. It has everything to do with a visceral hatred and intolerance of millions of Muslims towards Christianity and the West and a bullying attempt to make us adhere to the rules of Dhimmitude. A reasonable person will find it hard to credit the oft repeated mantra that Islam is a religion of peace. Actions speak for themselves.

Last week a leading Islamic cleric in Pakistan issued a fatwa calling on all good Muslims to kill the Danish political cartoonists. On Saturday, Nigerian Islamic mobs killed 15 Nigerian Christians and burned 11 Christian churches to the ground. I gather the sectarian murders and the church burnings was intended to avenge the cartoon insult in far off Denmark.

Think about that. It certainly says a lot about the Islamic views of tolerance and peace.

In a related event, the United Church of Canada (for my non-Canadian readers - this is a very liberal Christian church which is rapidly becoming extinct) has condemned the publishing of the cartoons as a racist act. This is the text of the church's letter.

Dear Imam Patel and Imam Slimi;

Greetings in the name of Jesus, whom both Christians and Muslims honour.

On behalf of The United Church of Canada we wish to express to you and through the Council of Imams, to the Islamic communities of Canada, our deepest regret that the name of Muhammad has been so tragically misused in the depictions of cartoons first published in Europe, but now also in Canada.

We believe that the intention of publishing the cartoons has little to do with freedom of expression and much to do with incitement to racial and religious hatred. As you have noted in your recent press release, the cartoons suggest that Islam itself teaches, condones and encourages violence, bombings and the mistreatment of women. Furthermore, the implication is that all Muslims believe so as well. This we know to be untrue. The answer to your question of "why publish such cartoons?" we believe is simply racial hatred. In other forms it has been called Islamophobia.

These attitudes should have no place in Canada. Because we all share responsibility for the society in which we live, we wish to offer our sincere apologies that such attitudes can persevere in a country that we believe can and should be a model for the world of racial and ethnic respect.

May God's peace be with you.

The Muslim world could certainly do with some peace right now.

Up to this point the United Church of Canada has failed to denounce the evident bigotry, hatred and "Christianaphobia" that underlies Muslim murders, death threats, riots and church burnings around the world. Don't hold your breath until it does. You'll explode for sure.

Oh yes, ten people were killed in Libya and five in Pakistan.

From CNN News

An angry but peaceful protest in the British capital Saturday drew more than 15,000 people to Trafalgar Square. They prayed before marching through Hyde Park. Many carried placards.

"Europe lacks respect for others," stated one placard. "Don't they teach manners in Denmark?" asked another.

There were no arrests or reports of violence Taji Mustafa, a spokesman for the Muslim Action Committee, said the protests are sparked by the Muslim people's reverence for the prophet.

"So when he is demonized, the young and old are deeply affected," Mustafa said. "As long as the abuse is ongoing we will continue to rise up in protest."

The general anger over the cartoons was stoked when several newspapers reprinted the cartoons and by Calderoli revealing the T-shirt on television, he said.

Mustafa added that the cartoons were reminiscent of attacks on Jews in European publications in the 1930s.

"Now there is a demonization of the Muslim community, so we have to speak up to prevent something like the Holocaust from happening," he said.

You understand now? Muslims have to rage about the world destroying Christian businesses (Pakistan, Nigeria, Libya etc.), burning embassies (Beruit and Damascus), burning churches (Nigeria) killing priests ( Turkey) and other Christians (Nigeria) and threatening to murder the political cartoonists (Pakistan and India) so that we won't treat them like the Nazis treated the Jews!

And we are expected to hang our heads and offer contrite apologies.

Manners indeed.

Support Denmark.

I bought some more Danish Havari cheese today and I'm eating it while sipping on a robust Australian red.

Mmmmmmmmmm good.

Prime Minister Harper Going to Afghanistan?

Fri Feb 17, 6:30 PM ET Yahoo News

OTTAWA (CP) - Stephen Harper is considering one of the most chaotic corners of Afghanistan for his first foreign trip as prime minister.

The Taliban stronghold of Kandahar is being weighed against a more genteel option - visits with the presidents of the U.S. and Mexico - for Harper's first trip abroad in office. Harper began considering Kandahar late last month after his federal election win, at the urging of senior military brass.

He was told that such a visit would send a strong message about his commitment to the Armed Forces and about Canada's desire to make a difference in the world.

Canada's military presence in Kandahar is being increased to 2,200 this month in an effort to improve security in the longstanding Taliban bastion.

A suicide bomber killed a Canadian diplomat there and seriously injured three Edmonton-based soldiers when he attacked their convoy last month.

What a great idea!

Gadzooks - What's This?

This afternoon I watched the Canadian Olympic men's hockey team crash and burn whilst playing Finland. Finland has yet to taste defeat in this tournament. Canada has yet to score a goal.

Please do not adjust your computer. We control the horizontal. We control the vertical. You have plunged unwittingly into the Outer Limits.

Yikes!

Wayne Gretzky thinks he's seen pressure from the gambling ring affair? (For the record, I believe him innocent.) Wait t'ill the crows pick the flesh from his bones over this. This stuff is important! And the Great One selected the team.

The rich ain't like us

Last week (February 13, 2006) I read an article from the Ottawa Citizen, quoting a study done by the Vanier Institute for the Family, that shocked me. I meant to post on it sooner, but haven't found the time until now.

Cash-strapped Canadian families are racking up debt at an alarming rate and the record number of households declaring bankruptcy will continue to rise unless people tighten their belts now, a new report warns.

"The alarm bells are ringing louder than ever," says the Vanier Institute for the Family, in a report on the state of family finances in Canada released on the weekend.

"They rang for governments and for many businesses and they did something about it. It is now time for families to do something about their own situations."

The average household income is now about $55,000 a year, roughly the same as at the start of the decade and up only one per cent, or about $500, from 1990.

In contrast, average household debt now stands at about $70,920, up 16 per cent from 2000, and 40 per cent from 1990.

"On average, households are putting nothing away for a rainy day, for a bout of unemployment, or for retirement," the report says.

That Canadian families are facing escalating debt does not surprise those of us raising families. What shocked me is the very little increase in average family incomes since 1990.

Those of us who pay attention, even peripherally, to the grotesque increases in executive pay packages over the past 15 years cannot help but compare what (often unsuccessful) captains of industry are earning in comparison to the average Joe and Jane. A $500.00 increase for families since 1990! That's it.

This is really appalling. We are getting tossed the crumbs.

Bill Graham Passes Wind

(The Honourable Bill Graham, Leader of Her Majesty's Arrogant Opposition)





In today's Globe and Mail (hat tip to Neale News) we read that Bill Graham, the Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition is saying the Liberals will not vote with the minority Conservative government in parliament, laying the onus on the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois to keep the government afloat.

Ottawa -- Opposition Leader Bill Graham said he will not be afraid to defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government, even though the Liberal Party will spend much of the year in a leadership race.

Mr. Harper must either accommodate Liberal positions on key issues such as child care and income-tax cuts or turn to the New Democratic Party and Bloc Québécois for support in the House of Commons, Mr. Graham said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.

He placed the onus for avoiding a quick election on the New Democrats and the Bloc, saying they triggered the last election out of political opportunism.

"We're not in the business of propping up the government," he said. "We're the Official Opposition. And that is our role, and we will stick to our points where they are important to the future of the country.

"Other parties will have to decide whether they want to compromise on this, because they're the ones - the Canadian public very well knows - that put us in this position. They're the ones that created the Harper government. They're the ones that are going to have to accommodate it."

Mr. Graham said he believes Canadians do not want to go to the polls again soon, and he recognizes the possible consequences of his warning: "It could lead to an election."

Consider that statement carefully. Mr. Graham is saying that it is other opposition parties that "put us in this position." He says they're the ones that created the Harper government.

No Mr. Graham. That is all wrong. It shows that you have learned nothing from your electoral defeat. Let us be plain spoken here. The opposition merely toppled your arrogant and corrupt government (Goodness gracious, it wasn't their role to prop up your government either.) But more importantly, the opposition did not, as you say, create the Harper government.

THE PEOPLE OF CANADA CREATED THE HARPER GOVERNMENT!

And a Decima poll just released says we would bloody well do it again if a vote were to be held today. You windbag.

Saddam on Hunger Strike

Well, well, well. Apparently Saddam Hussein doesn't like the "tough" way the new chief judge, Raouf Abdel-Rahman, is running the trial. Poor lad. No more tantrums and histrionics are allowed. What's a former murderous dictator to do? The grotesque master of feeding political opponents into industrial shredders, and his henchman half brother, have gone on a hunger strike, that's what.

According to Associated Press reporter Hamza Hendawi, the infamous prisoners are protesting the proceedings by refusing to attend court and by wearing pajamas. Judge Abdeel-Rahman has hauled them into court anyway. Good for him.

Let's hope Saddam keeps at it. It will save everyone a lot of trouble if he shrivels away to the miserable death he so clearly deserves.

Carbuncle's clarion cry!

Occam of the Carbuncle is a tad steamed. He should be.

I don't believe what they believe and I'm not about to start. Ever. More importantly, I will read what I want to read and I will express myself as I see fit, not within the strictures of Sharia, but according to my rights as a citizen of a liberal democracy. That means Muslims do not have the right to impose upon me their own views of what is or is not proper, what is or is not sacrilege or blasphemy.

Their sacrilege is not mine. Their God is not my God. They may not damage my property or my person as reprisal for anything I might say or write. They may express themselves as freely as I. They may insult me. They may shun me. They might even consider ignoring me. But they may not threaten me. They may not do harm in furtherance of the precepts of their religion, just as I may not do harm to show my objection to their dogma.

That about sums it up, folks. Go read the rest.

Islamic mobs continue riots

World wide protests by Muslims protesting the Danish cartoon incident continue.

Thousands of demonstrators attacked Western-owned businesses in the eastern city of Lahore, set dozens of vehicles on fire and staged a sit-in at the provincial legislature. Guards at a bank that was attacked shot two men dead, said Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao.

Police used tear gas, fired into the air and swung batons to try to control the crowd. In Islamabad, about 400 students stormed into the city's diplomatic enclave and were repelled by tear gas. Outside the enclave, water cannons were turned on the crowd.

The demonstrations were among the most violent in Pakistan over the publication of cartoons in a Danish newspaper in September. The caricatures have been reprinted by several European publications and recently by a few Canadian publications.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Canadian Minister of National Defence, Brigadier General (Ret'd) Gordon O?Connor has stated that the publication of the Danish cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammed is placing Canadian Forces troops deployed in Afghanistan at greater risk. According to today's National Post (hat tip to Neale News), he said:

"It doesn't help. Radicals in Syria and Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq, they get people roused up because their religion's being offended," Mr. O'Connor said in an interview. "We don't need any more risk in the area than we have."

General O'Connor is no doubt only trying to minimize the real danger facing our soldiers in Operation Enduring Freedom and he has a point. But realistically, Islamists are currently doing their level best to kill our troops, however and whenever they can. If there is an increased operational risk to our soldiers arising from the publication of these cartoons it is surely minimal in comparison to the political risks being run by Western governments kow-towing to the manipulations and bullying arising from the Danish cartoon incident.

It is in this context that Gordon O'Connor has got it all wrong.

Mr. O'Connor said there's little that can be done to prevent the Western Standard from reproducing the cartoons.

"I have a bit of concern but it's freedom of the press. Just like Denmark, we can't control what's in the press. If people do it, we have to live with the consequences," he said.

"I'm hoping that religious groups around the country, around the world will understand that our government does not countenance ridiculing anybody's
religion."

Is that what is happening here? Ezra Levant and the National Post is ridiculing another religion by printing the cartoons? I think not. It would take better writers than those employed by the National Post (and they are fine scribes) to ridicule Islam in this affair. Frankly, a great segment of Islam is doing that job quite well all on its own. The Canadian Islamic Conference, led by Mohamed Elmasry (who asserts that Israeli civilians are legitimate targets) continues his efforts at invoking Canada's hate laws against the Western Standard for publishing political cartoons.

"I think there is a fine line between freedom of the press and freedom to incite hate. These cartoons cross that line," said Mohamed Elmasry, the CIC's national president. "Canada has a hate literature law and we will be able to test it to see indeed if the law protects the well-being of minorities."

What gross hypocrisy! Why doesn't the news media remind its readers/listeners just who this guy is and what he preaches?

Let us accept that Muslims do not like having the man they assert to be the greatest and final prophet being the object of political cartoons emanating from a non-Muslim source. Fine. None of us likes having our faith criticised or attacked.

I am deeply offended when my Catholicism is viciously attacked under the guise of art by a man who dunks a crucifix in a jar of urine. I am further offended when the main stream media publishes photos of this desecration. Yet the main stream media does not censor itself when it faces editorial decision respecting this, and like matters. It is only when we come to matters concerning Islam where the media withholds the offending images. Why? Because the media flaks fears for their lives in such situations (as well they should).

I am very deeply offended as a Catholic when a young Muslim man in Turkey shoots a priest in the back as the priest kneels in prayer after mass and runs from the scene screaming Allah Akbar. I am very aggrieved when I see Christian churches frequently burned or ransacked in Muslim countries by Islamic mobs. I am further aggrieved when the main stream media glosses over such attacks. I could go on. In fact, I shall.

How about the beheadings of innocent young girls on their way to school; girls whose only discernable crimes is that they happened to offend Muslims by being Christian girls who attend school. Or is it that just that they were Christian? .... or girls? .... or were being schooled? It's hard to know for sure. All the aforementioned appears to offend much of Islam.

You get my drift. What I do not do is demand an apology from democratic Arab governments for the actions of private citizens. Of course, I couldn't even if I wanted to. I don't go about threatening death to Muslims and burning Arab consulates to the ground in order to enforce the provisions of canon (Church) law on non-Catholics. Nor do I invent and circulate cartoons much more offensive than the bland Danish originals for the express purpose of inciting riots, as is the case in this affair.

Let us get some important matters straight. We non-Muslim Canadians may choose not offend Muslims in this affair as an act of simple courtesy. I have not published any of the cartoons on my blog for this reason alone, although as the protests continue and develop I may change my mind. I have no duty in law to withhold offensive commentary. None at all. I am a free man living in a free country. And if you don't like it, well .... tough titty.

Have a go at my faith, if you choose. It is resilient and I'm more than capable of defending it. I won't threaten you with death. I won't burn your home or your car. I won't march in the streets, which are too slushy for good protesting, anyway.

But whatever you do, don't ever ask me to be a willing Dhimmi. Won't happen. Not now. Not ever.

Now where is that Tuborg? This Havarti cheese is really quite delightful ......

Happy Saint Valentine's Day

I wish everyone well on this ancient Catholic feast of Saint Valentine. Of course you know that Valentine is a saint and a Catholic priest, right? He really isn't the CEO of Hallmark greeting cards, or even the President of the International Association of Chocolateers. Sorry. I can understand the confusion.

As Lifesite News notes, Saint Valentine is a martyr for the Catholic faith, not because he strapped a belt of exploding roses onto his torso and ignited it on a crowded London bus, I hasten to add, but because he refused to stop performing marriages, as ordered by the emperor of ancient Rome.

"St Valentine was a Roman Catholic priest who continued to perform marriages even after the Emperor Claudius II had outlawed marriage in a short-sighted attempt to increase the size of his army. The faithful priest was arrested and condemned to death. Before being executed, he sent a note to a young bride where his closing words were Your Valentine."

Now you know the rest of the story. Be tender to your spouse today. Marriage is important. Father Valentine understood that truth and gave his life for it. Those of us in the marriage state are only called upon to live it, faithfully, fruitfully and fully.

Under my rough curmudgeonly exterior, I love you Lady Mad.

Western Standard Publishes Political Cartoons

The publisher of the Western Standard, Ezra Levant, is publishing the infamous political cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammed. Mr. Levant says that he is doing so because these cartoons are, "... the central fact in the largest newstory of the month" and that the Western Standard is a newsmagazine. According to Mr. Levant.

"I'm doing something completely normal. I'm publishing the centre of a controversy. That's what news magazines do."

Mr. Mohamed Elmasry, leader of the Canadian Islamic Congress, warned on Sunday that his organization will seek to have charges laid against Levant's publication under Canada's hate laws.

Mr. Elmasry is, of course, perfectly entitled to try and abuse Canada's hate laws in order to try and silence the Canadian media if that is how he chooses to spend his time. One hopes that any Crown Attorney he approaches with his accusation hands him a copy of the Constitution of Canada and shows him to the door. We'll see. Meanwhile it is useful for the rest of us to recall that only last October Mr. Elmasry said some remarkably hateful things himself. You may recall this commentary from Damian Penny's blog, Daimnation.

On Oct. 19, Mr. Elmasry appeared on Michael Coren Live, a Toronto-area television talk show. As we have noted many times before, Mr. Elmasry takes a rather dim view of Israel and its Jewish inhabitants. So it was hardly surprising to hear him tell host Michael Coren that the Palestinian intifada should be seen as the modern day equivalent of the French resistance -- with Israel, of course, being cast in the Nazi role.

But then Mr. Elmasry went a step further. Not only were attacks against Israeli military targets acceptable, he said, but also those against civilians. The CIC president justified this on the basis that Israel has a military system that requires many young adults to periodically report for training or reserve duty. Speaking of the Jewish adults who are regularly blown to bits while they sit in buses and cafes, he declared: "They are not innocent [because] the total population of Israel is part of the army ... From 18 on, they are part of the soldiers, even if they have civilian clothes."

"What about women?" Mr. Coren asked.

"The same," said Mr. Elmasry.

"So everyone in Israel ... irrespective of gender, over the age of 18, is a a valid target?" asked Mr. Coren.

"Yes," replied Mr. Elmasry.

We have noted the irony of Mr. Elmasry's extremism before. But in light of such odious pronouncements, it is worth pointing it out again. Here is a man who obsessively lectures Canadians about their preconceptions of Islam. He then walks into a television studio and whitewashes the terroristic slaughter of Jews -- single-handedly reinforcing for viewers the poisonous stereotype that would have all Muslims cast as apologists for terror.

This whole business reeks of hypocrisy and bullying. I have nothing against peaceful protest by anyone, but this has gone beyongd the pale. The only hate being exibited towards anyone in this affair is by Muslims against non-Muslims ... a regrettable but true circumstance, for which those engaged in this grand manipulation have much to answer.

Hat tip to Cathy Shaidle of Relapsed Catholic.

Franciscan friar attacked in Turkey

From the Asia Times:


9 February, 2006
Turkey
A priest is beaten in isomer, to the cries of “we will kill you all”


This latest attack targets sulfonamidean friar and comes the same day the Vatican confirms Benedict XVIÂ’s visit to Turkey, scheduled for November.

AnkarAsiansews) - With the battle cry "We will kill you all" a group of youths launched themselves in attack on a Franciscan friisomer Izmir (the ancient Smyrna). The attack took place within the confines of St. Helen's parish.

Speaking with evident evident emotion, Msgr Luigi Padovese, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, says "The boys grabbed him by the throat shouting 'we will kill you all' ". According to the bishop this latest aggression is "fruit of rampant fanaticism". The attack took place within the monastic compound. The priest, who hails from Slovenia, is Martin Kmetec.
Msgr Padovese says that brother Kmetec reported the incident to local police but "they took little heed of the attack".

Go read the rest. This threat comes on the heels of the murder in Turkey of Italian Catholic priest, Father Andrea Santoro, of Santa Maria Church in Trabzon, Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims are going beserk around the world because of cartoons (the worst of which are fake and never published in Denmark), yet utter little in the way of protest when Muslims attack Christian clerics or burn Christian churches.

The good news is that the Turkish government has invited the pontiff to visit Turkey this fall. Clearly, many Muslims are trying to find ways to reach out to non-Muslims.

Mosques near Montreal Vandalized

From CTV News we get this little gem.

... police are investigating acts of vandalism at two Islamic mosques north of Montreal. Rocks were thrown through windows at the Islamic Cultural
Centre and the Al-Hissane Islamic Centre. They are less than a kilometre apart,
said police spokesman Guy Lajeunesse. Amid rising tensions over the Muhammad
cartoons, police believe there could be a connection, and are stepping up
patrols around these two mosques.

Which goes to show us that Islam is not alone in harbouring some people with cretinous attitudes. Arseh*les are everywhere. I hope that those responsible are soon caught by the police and tried before a judge in accordance with the rule of law. Any attack on a place of worship is repugnant.

Offending Religious Sensibilities

photo of St. Maron (Maronite Catholic) church in Beruit from Catholic Online


As much of the Islamic world writhes in ugly anger over some Danish political cartoons they find to be offensive to Islam, we here in the true north strong and free have an opportunity to consider what is really going on out there beyond the tundra.

We are told by sympathetic commentators in the main-stream media that there are essentially two reasonable reasons why Muslims are offended by the cartoons. First, we are told that Islam does not permit depictions of their prophet, as this might lead to idolatry. As medieval Islamic paintings exist that clearly depict their prophet, this would appear to be a spurious argument.

Second, we are told that Muslim's are simply outraged by the portrayal of Muhammed in the cartoons. In the most egregious cartoon Muhammed is drawn wearing a turban shaped like a bomb thereby, for some unknown reason, drawing a connection between terrorism and Islam. Muslims assert that their religion is a religion of peace and many are deeply offended by any suggestion to the contrary.

One can see how this insult might lead peace loving Muslims to prove the Danish cartoonists wrong by spontaneously burning Danish embassies to the ground, demanding that heads be cut off the offending cartoonists, newspaper publishers and editors, stomping on the Danish flag (which contains a cross), boycotting European goods in general and denouncing the Americans, ransacking a Maronite Catholic church and the chancery of the Greek Orthodox bishop in Beruit.

To be fair, in the Maronite Catholic church attack one Muslim cleric shouted, "Do not harm the holy church; the anger is against Denmark and not Christians." One man who tried to plant a bomb was thwarted when a church window would not open. It seems there is diversity in Islamic beliefs, after all.

What have the Americans got to do with the cartoon frenzy you ask (a factoid noted no doubt by my American readers)? It is enough to know that it is all George Bush's fault. In this matter, rioting Muslim mobs converge with latte drinking western liberals everywhere.

Of course, it simply beggars reason to hold that all these Muslims are ranting, rioting, burning and bullying, in the hundreds of thousands, in numerous countries around the world, just because of those dumb ass cartoons.

If offending another religion is the issue, Muslims would not be regularly burning Christian churches around the world. If it were the issue, Muslims would march in the streets to denounce these burnings. If it were the issue, newspapers in the Muslim world would not regularly publish much worse political cartoons about Jews; cartoons akin to the worst anti-Semitic hate ravings of Hitler's Nazi regime. If giving religious offence is the issue, Christian schoolgirls would not have be beheaded on their way to school in Indonesia by Islamic fanatics. If it were the issue, Muslims would march in the streets to protest murders of such innocents by their co-religionists.

Did I mention the murder (shot in the back) of Father Andrea Santoro, in Santa Maria Church in Trabzon, Turkey? It is said that the murderer fled the scene shouting "Allah Akbar." Indeed he is, as the killer will find out one day when he meets Him.

What is to be done? According to the Associated press in today's Jerusalem Post, the leader of Hizbullah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has a way to end the mob violence. Leading a march of some 700,000 or more outraged Muslim's in Beruit he opined:

"There can be no settlement before an apology and there can be no settlement
before laws are legislated by the European Parliament and the parliaments of
European countries," Nasrallah said.

Islamic nations should demand "a law committing the press and the media in the West that proscribes insulting our prophet. If this matter cannot be achieved that means [the West] insists on continuing this," he added.

All I can say is that Muslims now hold the world's record for the ease with which they are offended and humiliated; a status which heretofore I believed to be the sole purview of French speaking Quebecois separatists.

At least Sheik Nasrallah clarified the real agenda here. The issue, in case you missed it, is the demand that Europeans submit to Islam. That is the agenda of the Islamic puppeteers who manipulate the mobs in the streets. This demand is entirely consistent with the Islamic concept of dhimmitude, whereby non-Muslims must submit and recognize their inferiority to the Islamic faith. Through such measures they intend to prevail.

The question is, will Europe submit, or has it now fully awakened to the peril facing us all?

Free clean blades for cutters

From the (London) Times Online comes this cutting edge story (thanks, I think, to my friend Sancho Panza)


Sarah-Kate Templeton, Medical Correspondent

NURSES want patients who are intent on harming themselves to be provided with clean blades so that they can cut themselves more safely.

They say people determined to harm themselves should be helped to minimise the risk of infection from dirty blades, in the same way as drug addicts are issued with clean needles.

This could include giving the ?self-harm? patients sterile blades and clean packets of bandages or ensuring that they keep their own blades clean. Nurses would also give patients advice about
which parts of the body it is safer to cut.

Go read the rest, if you want. How depressing.

Disappointing Effort Mr. Harper

Ye gods and little fishes! I thought I'd be writing the praises of the new Conservative government today, heralding the swearing in of Canada's 22nd Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. It was supposed to herald a different way of governing this delusional Dominion and a departure from cynicism and cronyism.

What is this all about then? Mr. Harper has begun his term as Prime Minister with two absolutely appalling decisions which undercut the hopes and aspirations of Conservatives like me who prayed for an small respite from the nonsense of the Liberal government.

In choosing his first Cabinet Mr. Harper selects a man as international trade minister who two weeks ago was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament, and who sat in the previous Liberal Cabinet of Paul Martin as industry minister. The Honourable Paul Emerson said on the radio (I was commuting home) tonight that he was not switching parties because of the opportunity to continue in power (no, no, of course not), but because he wanted to serve his constituents in the best possible manner (sound of trumpets). I only regret that it was radio so I couldn't actually see his nose grow.

Secondly, but no less appalling was the appointment of Montreal resident Michael Fortier, the Conservative campaign manager during the election to the unelected Senate and hence to the Cabinet as the Minister of Public Works (it certainly works for him) and Government Services. Why run for office when it can be granted as a gift by Prime Ministerial fiat.

I don't fault the new ministers anywhere near as much as I fault the guy we just swore in as Prime Minister. What crap! If this is a harbinger of things to come, this government will not do well.

Catholic Students Riot on Yonge Street

Notice: This story is a recreation of a JtMNews story hacked out of existence by the Islamic Hackers Brigade, one of the emerging radical jihadist groups formed in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq. The story was pieced together from a fragment of a scroll found at Castle Mad and the razor sharp memory of JtM himself. It is not a word for word account of the ealier destroyed post, but is faithful to the truth. The story is shocking and not suitable for children. Please send them to their rooms before reading any further.



JtMNews
By John the Mad
February 2, 2006
It all started last Friday when some Catholics undergraduates from Saint Michael's College of the University of Toronto paid their nightly visit to their favourite Irish pub on Bay Street last Wednesday. They came across a Saudi Arabian newspaper in their booth that had been left behind by a Saudi prince. They figured out that he was a prince of the House of Saud because of his dress and behaviour. According to one of the students, Mary McGuire:

He like wore flowing robes and a rope wound around this cloth thing on his
head and he had was swarthy and overweight and had a goatee and everything. The waitress told us he came in flashed a wad of awesome $100 bills, drank several mugs of beer from his personal 24 caret beer mug and followed that up with some very expensive single malt scotch. Like, he even left her his beer mug and the deed to a villa in some town called Andalusia or something, as a tip. The prince then climbed into his chauffeured driven Rolls Royce limo accompanied by three freckle faced school girls in kilts.

The students told this reporter that they perused the Saudi newspaper he left behind as they were working their way though their first pint. Fortunately one of the students named Bernadette majored in sociology and had done a paper on the women?s liberation movement in the Middle East as it pertained to the historic development of the hijab from an instrument of patriarchal oppression into a chic counter-culture symbol of coolness among young Islamic co-eds on Western university campuses. Bernadette apparently had learned Arabic in Dubai during the previous March break reading week in in order to research her topic. According to Sean O'Toole:

We were like totally shocked we when she translated that Islam asserts that Jesus is only a prophet. How gross! We Catholics are brought up to believe that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity and the Saviour of the world. We were very deeply offended to see this false view of our Lord published in an Arab newspaper.

"Yeah it?s grotty alright," confirmed Patrick Maloney. "When we went back to our dorm we Googled around and discovered this view of Jesus is very common in the Muslim world. They say we Catholics corrupted scriptures and that when the bible quotes Jesus saying that 'I and the Father are one' and 'He who has seen me has seen the Father' it cannot be trusted. What an affront!

Traumatized, we went over to the Newman Centre to consult with Father Cassidy. When Father heard what the Muslims were claiming about Jesus, he
flipped. "What an egregious outrage!" he spluttered. "The Vatican shall hear of
this."

Father Cassidy then showed us an old version of the Baltimore Catechism, published in 1956, in which it states that it is the duty of every Mick, who is old enough to patronize a premise where alcohol is being served, to punch the snot out of anyone who differs from Catholic orthodoxy on this point.

Father noted that the antiquity of the Baltimore Catechism makes it more authoritative that the more recent documents of Vatican II, because it was written closer to the time of the Apostles. Father Cassidy said we were members
of the Church militant and we must therefore militate.

The students told me that at that moment they understood their Christian duty in a way not previously felt. This was, if not outright war exactly, a theological disagreement of great importance. They girded their loins by guzzling a couple of bottles of cheap Ontario merlot and set out onto Bay Street waving the Baltimore Catechism, splashing holy water about and chanting slogans like, "JESUS ROCKS" and "CATHOLICISM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE" and "KICK THE SNOT OUT OF ANYONE WHO SAYS IT ISN?T." Simultaneously, the pubs were just closing and the ranks of the protesters swelled as the bars emptied of students. As Bernadette told me,

We were even joined by a few dozen Anglican theologs from Victoria College
who had been visiting St. Mike?s cadging some grass from their suppliers. They
unfurled banners they happened to have with them that read, "GAY, LESBIAN AND TRANSGENDERED THEOLOGIANS FOR CHRIST" and ?THIS IS ALL GEORGE BUSH'S FAULT."

"Soon we has a couple of hundred students marching and chanting and glaring at anyone who didn?t look Catholic," said Patrick Maloney. "When some passers by proffered their bona fides by making the sign of the cross, we cheered."

The students realized they needed a Muslim focal point to express their rage at the blatant Islamic blasphemy. After a short caucus the protesters turned off Bay Street and headed over to The Golden Crescent falafel shop on Yonge Street. Upon their arrival they stood on the street and chanted threats at the shop. "WE DEMAND FISH AND CHIPS" and "MEAT ON FRIDAY IS AN INSULT TO GOD" and "GO HOME HERETICS" The protesters then politely purchased a falafel from the shop, took it outside to the sidewalk, poured aftershave on it and set it ablaze. It is said that the glow could be seen for a metre or more.

The Toronto police riot squad stood by not doing anything. Some even winked
and surreptitiously flashed us their rosary beads. It was an awesome moment of
solidarity, I can tell you.

Then the falafel shop manager emerged and we immediately knew we had made a tactical error. His complexion was dark and his hair was in dreadlocks. Sean said that he shouted in a quizzical voice, "Go home? Hey man, I was born in Scarborough?"

At that point a murmur ran through the crowd as we realized he was an ethnically Jamaican gentleman. Every Torontonian knows that ever since Prime Minister Paul Martin seized control over guns in Canada that Jamaicans are the only armed civilians left on the streets ..... not that we blame them for that ...... as we fully acknowledge that many, but by no means all Jamaicans only carry handguns because their free swimming pool and ice arena funding was slashed by former Conservative Premier Mike Harris during their formative years, ..... hereby stunting their normal pycho-social development and driving them into street gangs not of their personal choosing ..... for most are hard working and good soccer players, ..... though very discriminated against.

As the realization of the potential danger we found ourselves in outside that falafel shop sunk in, (for we only had Baltimore Catechisms and aftershave lotion for our defence), we still knew in our hearts that we were obligated to act in accordance with our Catholic Faith. We were obliged, as newly aware members of the Church militant to conduct ourselves in the same manner as the Apostles in the bible did when faced with grave danger. Accordingly, we consulted the Douay-Rheims English version of the Catholic bible, looked up the relevant passages, realized our scriptural course of action and fled.

And so it is that this intrepid reporter found the undergraduates cowering in an upper room of a college dormitory, yet eager to express their grievances against Islamic insults to their faith. Having heard their story I know that this is not over yet, not by a long shot. The protests will continue and grow. More falafels will be burned as this protest grows strength. The Government of Saudi Arabia and all Arab governments must apologize. This insult has legs.

Don't say you weren't warned.

My missing post

????????????????????

Okay what is going on here at blogger.com? Two days ago I posted a satire on Irish Catholic students from St. Michael's College of the University of Toronto rioting on Bay Street over the Islamic world's contention that Jesus is but a prophet and not the Son of God and Saviour of the World.

Where is my post? It has vapourized. Is anyone else having problems with losing posts in Blogger? Is there an Islamic hacker jihad nefariously destroying such posts?

Worse yet, I don't have a copy of the post. I tell you that such genius is hard to reproduce.

Give me back my priceless commentary.

The Religion of Peace Burns an Embassy

(AP Photo)


The picture above is of the remains of the Danish embassy in Syria. A Muslim mob burned it to the ground because a Danish newspaper published some unflattering cartoons last September of their prophet Muhammed. In the Islamic religion is is not acceptable to depict their prophet with a bomb in his turban. It is not acceptable to depict him at all; such portrayals apparently being idolatrous.

Thus, thousands of Muslims have marched in the streets in many countries. Muslim marchers have threartened to cut off the heads of offenders in Western countries. Danish goods are being boycotted by Muslims.

In response, European newspapers are publishing the offending cartoons to make the point that there is freedom of expression in western countries. This further enrages Muslims and Arab governments are demanding apologies from European governments for the actions of independent domestic new outlets. Cartoonists (and newspaper staff) are going to the mattress in a legitimate fear for their lives.

In the middle of all of this we are told repeatedly that Islam is a religion of peace. It may well be, but the empirical evidence for that claim is getting scarce. For a religion claiming to be peaceful, it sure is finding it difficult to get along with other religions and cultures all around the world.

Why?

This is a legitimate question.