Sick Kids Hospital's Swanky Soiree--"Pearls for Palestine"--(Featuring Zion-Loather Tarek Loubani) Was a Sell Out!

It's so nice of Toronto's world-renowned Hospital for Sick Children to devote an abundance of time, attention and moolah to help out sick kids in Gaza and the West Bank. (H/T: JB)

And inviting a noted Zion-loather and former "guest" of General Sisi to share his thoughts on the subject of Palestinian health--what could be better?

Grinch that I am, though, I'd be remiss if I failed to point out that while the hospital may be able to make some headway healing young bodies in those territories (only one of which is partially "occupied"), it can do little to heal minds indoctrinated to despise and want to do away with Jews and Israel.

Update: Sick Kids' Palestine thingy is partnered with Islamic Relief Canada, which, according to intrepid digger and invaluable anti-jihad blogger Point de Bascule, has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Update: This promo for the event shows two adorable Arab moppets in front of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock.



Is it reading too much into the above to say that Pearls for Palestine aficionados are looking forward to the day when "Al Quds" is retaken for Islam?

Doors Open--to Da'wa (and "Sleath" Jihad)

In his latest Toronto Sun column, Tarek Fatah writes about local historian John Goddard, who visited a couple of area mosques during the city's annual "Doors Open" event:

But on arrival at the Islamic Foundation mosque in Scarborough, Goddard found the organizers using the event not so much to showcase the architecture of the institution, as to offer free literature proselytizing about Islam, prohibited by the policies of Doors Open. 

One book called on Muslims to wage armed jihad. 

Towards Understanding Islam was written by the late radical Islamist, Sayyid Mawdudi, who in 1941 founded the Muslim Brotherhood affiliate in the Indian subcontinent known as the Jamaat-e-Islami. 

In the book, Mawdudi exhorts Muslims to launch jihad against Islam’s oppressors, meaning armed struggle against non-Muslims. 

The book states: “… this word (jihad) is used particularly for a war that is waged solely in the name of Allah … This supreme sacrifice of life devolves on all Muslims.” 

Mawdudi labels Muslims who refuse the call to engage in armed jihad apostates: 

“Jihad is as much a primary duty of the Muslims concerned as are daily prayers or fasting. One who shirks it is a sinner. His very claim to being a Muslim is doubtful.” 

I asked Julian Sleath, programming manager of Doors Open Toronto, why such literature was allowed to be distributed. 

Responding to my e-mail, Sleath, acknowledged the book on jihad was distributed, but added: “In our Doors Open letter of agreement there is the clause: “Proselytizing of a political or religious nature is not permitted during The Event."...

In that case, can we count on the slothful Sleath to slap down the stealthy proselytizers? Or will he allow the da'wa (proselytizing) at The Event to continue lest he/it be labeled "Islamophobic."

John Bolton 'Splains BHO's Nullification of American Exceptionalism

The former UN ambassador is not impressed:

Now, let’s parse this sentence, which is classic Obama.  In the first third, he says — yeah, I believe in American exceptionalism.  So all those people who say that I don’t are wrong.  But then, in the second two thirds of the sentence, he takes it back by referring to the British and Greek views. 

You know, there are 193 countries in the United Nations.  And he certainly could’ve gone on — just as the Papua New Guineans believe in Papua New Guinean exceptionalism – 

(Laughter) 

– just as the Burkina Fasians believe in Burkina Fasian exceptionalism. 

(Laughter) 

The point’s clear.  If everybody’s exceptional, then nobody’s exceptional.  And that’s what he really thinks.

What he really thinks is that he's exceptional. And he is--but not in a good way.

Why Won't Europe Confront Deadly Islamic Jew-Hate?

Leftist guilt, political correctness, Zionhass--you know, the usual stuff:

It is more than just a little revealing that so many of Europe’s Muslims are drawn to fight for Islamic causes in far off countries in the first place; there are an estimated 600 French Muslims fighting in Syria and almost as many from Britain. It is similarly telling that when these people return they not only continue to engage in acts of violence, but that their violence is directed toward Jews. Of course we shouldn’t ignore the violence against Jews coming from Muslims who haven’t first been radicalized via Syria or elsewhere; on the same day as the shooting in Brussels two French Jews were assaulted in Paris as they were leaving a synagogue. There is hardly space here to rehearse all the recent incidents from Europe of Muslims attacking Jews, but a European Union survey from the fall exposed how in most European countries Muslims were by far the leading group responsible for anti-Semitic incidents, closely followed by individuals identified as being on the far left.   

Europe’s elites have proven completely incapable of confronting and tackling this worsening phenomenon because they are incapacitated by a worldview that barely even allows them to openly acknowledge the problem. Most types of racism and bigotry in Europe have been swept away not by government legislation but by a culture of political correctness imposed by Europe’s media and cultural institutions that sets such views beyond the pale. Yet because that very doctrine of political correctness holds immigrant communities and particularly Muslims to be a victim group of the highest order, it has become impossible for Europeans to imagine that these people might themselves be the perpetrators of racism and bigotry. The model doesn’t allow for such a notion, especially not when the victims are Jews. Since Europeans Jews are perceived as being white, Western, and affluent, that places them on the side of the oppressors and not among the oppressed. 

Then there is the Israel factor. As much as critics of Israel like to stress that it’s Zionists and not Jews they take issue with, whenever Jews are attacked, liberals and liberal Europeans inevitably make the Israel connection and in so doing invalidate their own pretense that they view the two as being entirely separate...

It's a wonder that the elites' heads don't explode from the pent up pressure of all that cognitive dissonance.

Games Muslims--Even "Moderate" Ones--Play

Here's the thing about "moderate" Muslims such as Raheel Raza: one applauds them for their courage in standing up to their fanatical by-the-book co-religionists. At the same time, however, one is flummoxed by their refusal to acknowledge the Koran--and Islam's founder--as the source of their religion's supremacist doctrines. Here's what I mean. It's from Raza's condemnation of Pakistan's blasphemy laws and appears on the IPT site:

However, the concepts of blasphemy and apostasy are definitely not supported by the Qur'an, which clearly indicates "there is no compulsion in religion." The historical connection of blasphemy and Islam is post-Mohammad. After Mohammad's demise, some tribes who had paid allegiance to him and accepted Islam reneged, and said that their contract was with Mohammad. Now that Mohammad was no longer alive, some of them wanted to revoke their membership in the 'Muslim' club and not offer the same allegiance to the current ruler. The ruling religious leadership got terrified that they would lose power, people and money so they implemented a law (yes the blasphemy law) stating that turning back from Islam would make them liable for death, so they had no choice but to stay. Later, blasphemy laws morphed into something even more sinister and complicated as it is practiced today.

Alas, that "no compulsion in religion" line carries little weight because it was abrogated by later utterances:

The Muslim who offers this verse may or may not understand that it is from one of the earliest Suras (or chapters) from the Medinan period. It was “revealed” at a time when the Muslims had just arrived in Medina after being chased out of Mecca. They needed to stay in the good graces of the stronger tribes around them, many of which were Jewish. It was around this time, for example, that Muhammad decided to have his followers change the direction of their prayer from Mecca to Jerusalem.

But Muslims today pray toward Mecca. The reason for this is that Muhammad issued a later command that abrogated (or nullified) the first. In fact, abrogation is a very important principle to keep in mind when interpreting the Qur’an – and verse 2:256 in particular – because later verses (in chronological terms) are said to abrogate any earlier ones that may be in contradiction (Qur'an 2:106, 16:101).

Muhammad’s message was far closer to peace and tolerance during his early years at Mecca, when he didn’t have an army and was trying to pattern his new religion after Christianity. This changed dramatically after he attained the power to conquer, which he eventually used with impunity to bring other tribes into the Muslim fold. Contrast verse 2:256 with Suras 9 and 5, which were the last “revealed,” and it is easy to see why Islam has been anything but a religion of peace from the time of Muhammad to the present day.

How can "moderate" Muslims hope to amend their religion when they can't even come to terms with what's in its core texts?

Harpoon Hearts Kathleen

The Toronto Star's Harpoon Siddiqui pimps for Queen Kathleen here. This is the letter I sent in response:

One could make a good argument that, in terms of sheer waste of taxpayers' money on quixotic schemes and hair-brained endeavors, the Liberal governments of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne are unsurpassed. So when Haroon Siddiqui insists that A) no scandal has ever touched Premier Wynne and B) she's the best choice to lead Ontario into the future, one is hard-pressed to understand how he could say so without breaking out into riotous laughter--as I did when upon reading such thoughts.

 

However, the laughter subsides when one is faced with the reality that a vote for Ms. Wynne is a vote for the reckless disregard for the fiscal bottom line which transformed Ontario from the nation's dynamo into a "have-not" province. Or, to put it more succinctly, a vote for the Liberals is a vote to bankrupt the province--and there's nothing funny about that.  

So Cute and Yet So Inappropriate--The 9/11 Memorial/Museum Gift Shop's Adorable Search and Rescue Dogs

You can buy this one (which kind of reminds me of my puppy),

 

or this one,

 

or this one,

 

 

or, of course, all three.

Qatar Football Fanatic Accused of Trying to Buy the World Cup for His Oily Emirate

Don't know why he'd want it. Have you seen how ugly that thing is?



Really hideous, no?

This part of the story elicited a giggle, though:

The allegations raise fresh questions about whether the contest for holding the 2022 World Cup should be re-run, after Fifa's president Sepp Blatter admitted in May that awarding the tournament to Qatar had been "a mistake" due to the country's hot weather.

Gee, ya think?

Given Sepp's avowed fondness for the "Palestine people," maybe they could hold it in Gaza (which isn't any hotter than Qatar).

Update: How hot is it in Doha in May? Let's just say that if you want to fry up some eggs on the asphalt, go for it, habibi:

The month of May is characterized by rapidly rising daily high temperatures, with daily highs increasing from 95°F to 105°F over the course of the month, exceeding 111°F or dropping below 89°F only one day in ten

French Jihadi Arrested for Brussels Museum Slayings

Quelle surprise--he's a French "yout" who is back on the continent after waging jihad in Syria.

Too Funny--Thomas L. Friedman's Latest

It has all the earmarks of a classic Friedman piece--dashed off in some exotic locale; full of platitudes masquerading as profound insight; written in the blandest of prose devoid of those elements (wit, panache, compelling use of language) that might keep one plowing through to the bitter end. (This time I managed to get through half of it before nodding off and giving up.) As a bonus, it sounds as though Tom may be pitching to become Barack's ghost writer once he vacates the White House and gets around to tackling his official post-presidential memoirs:

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq — When President Obama sits down to write his foreign policy memoir he may be tempted to use as his book title the four words he reportedly uses privately to summarize the Obama doctrine: “Don’t Do Stupid Stuff” (with “stuff” sometimes defined more spicily). 

Up to now, that approach has not served the country badly — fight where you must, fix what you can, work with allies wherever possible but never forget that using force is not the sole criteria for seriousness, considering, as Obama noted in a speech last week, that the wars that costs us the most were those we leapt into without proper preparation or allies and “without leveling with the American people about the sacrifice required.”

So “Don’t Do Stupid Stuff” would certainly work as a book title today. But sitting here in Kurdistan — a true island of decency near the epicenter of what is now the biggest civil war on the planet, between Sunnis and Shiites, stretching from Iran across Iraq and Syria into Lebanon — I think Obama may eventually opt for a different book title: “Present at the Disintegration.”...

Actually, I think "Don't Do Stupid Stuff" is just about a perfect title for Obama's ad hoc, making-things-up-on-the-fly foreign policy. I would, however, suggest one small but crucial change that would capture the Obama gang's brash jejunosity. To wit: "Don't Do Stupid Stuff, Dude."

Update: After reading this, I can think of another appropriate title: "Indecent Interval."

Update: Bob Woodward's advice to Obama--sometimes the best thing to do is to shut the hell up.

"A" You're Adorable: Zafar B. Pens a Love Letter to Khomeini

Our unfriendly local Khomeinist adores the late Ayatollah for all the obvious reasons:

Given the paucity of good leaders in the Muslim world, Imam Khomeini, who joined heavenly company in June 1989, offers an example of great leadership.
Imam Khomeini was a towering personality who changed the course of history in profound ways. As Muslims worldwide commemorate the 25th anniversary of his departure (June 3) from this world, his legacy on the global stage remains firmly established. It can be said with confidence that he was perhaps the most successful revolutionary of the 20th century, unmatched and unrivalled by anyone.

His was a multi-dimensional personality: mujtahid, faqih, ‘arif, statesman, revolutionary, as well as a poet. Many of his works remain unknown to most people. To the outside world as well as many Muslims, Imam Khomeini is best known, and rightly so, as the leader who brought about the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1978–1979. This is truly a remarkable achievement in contemporary Muslim history because hitherto Muslims had faced only defeat and humiliation. From the 1878 defeat of the Ottoman Turks in the Balkans at the hands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to the abolition of the khilafah, albeit nominal, in Turkey by Mustafa Kemal in March 1924, Muslims were in retreat everywhere...

Yeah, I really miss the big galoot too.

Elsewhere in Zafar's Khomeinist rag, that thorny Nigeria problem is finally explained in a way that those who gather at Queen's Park for Al Quds Day, Khomeini's annual Zionhass seethe-a-thon (where Zafar gives the keynote seethe), can understand: