Posts Tagged ‘Lebanon’

Books Received: Michael Totten’s The Road to Fatima Gate

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

My copy of Michael Totten’s The Road to Fatima Gate came in today. Since I’m also an insane book collector (and since he does good work), I got an autographed copy. (One book collector gripe, Michael: If you’re going to send out autographed first editions in a USPS Priority mailing envelope, you should really use bubble wrap to protect it. Signed, a guy who has a business selling collectible books on the side.)

Also, since I can’t resist a good meme, here’s a picture of the book in the now-traditional style (click to embiggen):

Regular readers will no doubt recognize the gun.

This Week in Jihad for January 27, 2011

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

The big Jihad news this week, of course, was the Moscow bombing. But that was hardly the only thing of note:

  • The Moscow bombers were evidently trained in Pakistan. “An al-Qaeda linked website said that the group Islamic Caucasus Emirate, led by the rebe Doku Umarov, was poised to claim it had staged the attack. It said that Russia’s harsh military measures against independence activists in the Caucasus had provoked the attack. It said: ‘You disbelievers are the firewood of Hell. You will enter it.'” (I’m guessing “rebe” is short for “rebel,” though I have not heretofore heard it used.)
  • Short, interesting analysis of successes and failures of Russia’s own war on terrorism.

    Dokka Umerov has repeatedly made it very clear that he wants nothing to do with al Qaeda, or bin Laden.

    The latter point reveals the following about the global War on Terror. First, the US and British efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq have succeeded in destroying al Qaeda’s reputation amongst Islamist organizations. If an Islamist cause as major as the Caucasus Emirate wants to stay clean of al Qaeda, it means that al Qaeda equals trouble. Al Qaeda involvement means interference from the world’s great powers.

    Second, Russia’s situation reveals that the US and British efforts have failed to do significant damage to the ideology of Islamism. If a nationalist movement turns itself into a movement with Islamist objectives in order to make itself stronger, then it proves that the ideals to which al Qaeda subscribes have not been significantly damaged.

  • UK man arrested “on suspicion of using racially aggravated threatening words or behaviour,” i.e., burning a Koran.
  • Pro-Jihadist forces organizing in North Africa. Wait, did I say “North Africa”? I meant “Norway.”
  • JihadWatch (from whom I regularly steal a very significant fraction of the stories listed in these weekly Jihad roundups) interview Robert Reilly, author of The Closing of the Muslim Mind.
  • Hezbollah moves closer to control of the Lebanese government.
  • Lots more on that subject from the invaluable Michael Totten (just keep scrolling).
  • UK Jihadists evidently don’t like being filmed.
  • Australian artist receives death threats from left-wingers and islamists for anti-burqua mural. Once again we see the alliance of the left and radical Islam.
  • Danish Judge to Kurt Westergaard: Don’t you dare call the man who tried to kill you with an axe a terrorist.
  • U.S. border authorities arrest Jihadi Muslim cleric who was deported from Canada to Tunisia three years ago when he tried to sneak into California inside the trunk of a BMW.
  • Jihadists kill four in attack on army base in Thailand.
  • Also in Thailand, nine Buddhist wild pig hunters were killed by a roadside bomb. In other news, there are Buddhist pig hunters.
  • Jihadists also killed six in Nigeria. With machetes.
  • Wyoming joins Oklahoma in proposing law outlawing Sharia.
  • A similar law has been proposed in South Carolina.
  • New Imam of Ground Zero Mosque says that all apostates from Islam should be jailed. This is a great improvement from the standard clerical opinion that they should be killed…
  • He also says that most gays were abused as children. Strangely enough, some people have a problem with this.
  • All you Islamophobes who say Mohammed was a pedophile are way off base. Sure, Mohammed married a 6 year old, but all Islamic experts agree that he refrained from having sex with her until she reached the ripe old age of 9.
  • Islamic man in Buffalo texts his wife that he can’t live without her. Twenty minutes later he beheaded her.
  • Batman to get Muslim sidekick. Presumably one that doesn’t murder Muslim girls for daring to date non-Muslim men…
  • Muslim Minneapolis police officer arrested for assaulting his wife.
  • Bin Laden threatens France. Insert your own joke here.
  • This Week in Jihad for January 20, 2011

    Thursday, January 20th, 2011

    Another roundup of jihad-related news from jihadWatch and elsewhere.

    This Week in Jihad for January 13, 2011

    Thursday, January 13th, 2011

    Time for another installment of This Week in Jihad.

    Please note that these weekly installments are only a sampler of Jihad-related news from around the world, and that I skim a lot more stories than I post here. One reason is that, from Africa to Indonesia, regular Jihad-related violence is depressingly frequent. So I don’t report every suicide bombing or honor killing that goes on. There’s just too much to keep up with.

    However, given Jared Lee Loughner’s shooting spree in Tucson, I thought I would change that for this week’s roundup, to provide glimpses of places in which political and religious violence are the rule rather than the exception. So here’s a list of all the deadly incidents related to Islam I could find mention of from this past week:

    1. Suicide bomb kills 18 at a police station in Pakistan.
    2. Suicide bomber kills two on bus in Afghanistan.
    3. Two killed, six wounded in Taliban attack.
    4. Off-duty policeman shoots a 71-year old Christian man dead on a bus in Egypt.
    5. Jihadis open fire in a bar, killing seven in Nigeria.
    6. That follows hot on the heels of 11 people being killed in Jos, Nigeria.
    7. Jihadist suicide bomber kills 17 at bathhouse in Afghanistan.
    8. Couple axed to death in Punjab, India.
    9. Man killed and mutilated in honor killing in Multan, Iran. “Murtaza’s ears, lips, tongue, nose were sliced his eyes were gouged out with a knife before his head was severed.”
    10. Ireland suffers its first honor killing.
    11. Iraqi police chief killed by a roadside bomb.
    12. Six NATO soldiers killed Wednesday in Afghanistan.
    13. The figure above presumably includes U.S. Private Benjamin Moore, killed by an IED.
    14. The figure presumably does not include Marine Lance Cpl. Ryan Giese, killed on Friday.
    15. Nor that of Private First Class Robert Near, also killed in Afghanistan on Friday.
    16. Finally, I count two more names on this list of the fallen, for the time period specified, not including those killed 1/12: SPC Ethan C. Hardin and PFC Ira B. Laningham IV (the latter of Zapata, Texas).

    If I’m counting correctly, that brings the total, just for this week, up to 73. There could be twice that many I didn’t have time to search out yet, either from the Foreign Policy/Jihad sources listed to the right (JihadWatch was, as always, invaluable) or just doing a Google search. And there could be twice (or ten, or even a hundred) times as many Jihad-related killings that didn’t make news reports. I did not include Iran’s execution of five accused drug-smugglers in the total. Nor any of the other 46 executions the Islamic Republic of Iran has carried out in the last 20 days.

    Other Jihad-related tidbits: