Who's Paying for the Ground Zero Mosques?

Apparently, Dar al Islam (including Wahhabis and the Muslim Brotherhood?) is.

In Rush to Demoize Israel, Flaming Gay-Hate is Ignored

Hey, Homos for Hamas--I know you plan to show up at the next Pride parade, even though you won't be able to assemble under your usual "Israeli apartheid" banner. So here's one you could really get behind (if you weren't such clueless gits, I mean)--"YES to Elton; NO to Sharia." The Toronto Star has the pertinent details:

RABAT, MOROCCO—Elton John was the highlight of Morocco’s biggest music festival Wednesday evening despite calls by the country’s main Islamist party to shelve the British singer because of his homosexuality.

The public spat between organizers for the Mawazine Festival and the Justice and Development Party, or PJD, the country’s largest authorized Islamist group, illustrates the growing rift between Morocco’s Western-leaning authorities and the more conservative Muslim movements that are on the rise in the North African kingdom.

“This singer is famous for his homosexual behaviour and for advocating it,” said Mustapha Ramid, a leader and spokesman for the PJD, the biggest opposition party with 40 lawmakers in parliament.

“We’re a rather open party, but promoting homosexuality is completely unacceptable,” Ramid told Associated Press in a phone interview, saying homosexuality is against Muslim values. Ramid feared the singer would “encourage the phenomenon” and be a bad influence for Morocco’s youth.

Like nearly all Arab and Muslim countries, Morocco is officially hostile to homosexuality. Homosexual practices are a crime punishable by fines and prison sentences of six months to three years. But in practice, such penalties are hardly ever applied, and Morocco has a long history of leniency toward homosexuality or other practices forbidden by Islam, such as drinking alcohol...

The problem with"anti-apartheid" queers can be summed up in a paraphrase of that old Elton ballad: Sharia seems to be the hardest word.

Flower Power, All We Are Sayin' is Give Peace a Chance, Jihad's Over If You Want It and Other Vietnam War-Era Anachronisms

Suppose they gave a jihad and nobody came? By the same (60s) token, the Bush Doctrine is bad for Americans and other living things, according to America's carnations-for-brains Lennonesque prez. From the National Post:

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's new national security doctrine will make clear that the United States does not consider itself to be at war with Islam, a top adviser said on Wednesday.

The White House on Thursday plans to roll out Mr. Obama's first formal declaration of national security goals, which are expected to deviate sharply from the go-it-alone approach of the Bush era that included justification for pre-emptive war and alienated many in the Muslim world.

Previewing parts of the document, John Brennan, Mr. Obama's leading counterterrorism adviser, said: "We have never been and will never be at war with Islam."

"The president's strategy is unequivocal with regard to our posture -- the United States of America is at war. We are at war against al Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates," he said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Mr. Brennan's words dovetailed with Mr. Obama's outreach to the Muslim world, where the U.S. image under former President George W. Bush was hurt by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and his use of phrases like "war on terror" and "Islamo-fascism."...

Where have all the flowers gone? They're in the White House, every one. When will they ever learn?; when will they ever learn?

Update: In related news, all the sniveling and sucking up is paying off in spades as terror attacks against the U.S. are at an all-time high.

Summit Insanity

How much sense does it make to shell out a billion dollars to plunk down the G20 summit in the middle of downtown Toronto? Zero, zip, nada, goose egg, says Rex Murphy:

Summits are useless, expensive and potentially dangerous anachronisms.

Let's take the G20 summit, which will be held June 26-27 in Toronto. No one from the general public will be meeting with the world leaders--summits are not for mingling. So why are the leaders gathering in the middle of Canada's most populous city when the very idea of interacting with any of the city's population is absolutely impossible?

Once inside the summit venue the leaders -- and their insanely bloated retinues --will be almost antiseptically sealed off from every other bit of Toronto. It's all fortified meeting rooms and security-proofed hotels for them. Effectively, they will come to Toronto, stay behind a shield of impassable security and talk to leaders they've already met. It makes zero sense.

There's another objection. In older, less cynical days the leaders of the world enjoyed some genuine prestige. There was a sense that a city was receiving "an honour" when the leaders from other countries visited. Not now. In a world rocked by recession, terrorism and the threat of terrorism, there is not only no thrill to leaders visiting, in some cases there is palpable resentment.

World leaders are neither revered nor even, in most cases, seen as very interesting. Why do you think these summits so frequently drag in poor tired old Bono? To get a little second-hand celebrity sauce for an otherwise very flat meal...

This time around, we don't even get poor tired old Bono; the old scold is recovering from back surgery. I think I know, though, how they could have added some much-needed zest and pizzazz to the gruel: they should have held it in conjuction with our signature glam event, the Toronto International Film Festival. Think of it: Angela Merkel and Angelina Jolie--fodder for both People and the Economist.

In Deep Abu Dhabi Doo Doo

I could see this one coming a mile off, a tiny dot at the end of a vast desert vista, so why couldn't producers--the backlash against Sex in the City 2 for being insufficiently "sensitive" to Islamic mores (burkas, backwardness, sharia etc.)? Now cast members have been forced into damage control mode, and have ended up sounding both insincere and ridiculous. From the Hollywood Reporter:

...Despite the incongruous setting for the sequel, [Cynthia] Nixon said the movie highlights the common challenges of women from New York to Abu Dhabi, noting her character has difficulty getting promoted at her Manhattan law firm and Samantha finds a shared experience with menopause.

She said the film is not trying to say, "Women have all the freedoms in America and none of the freedoms in the Middle East, it is far more nuanced and complicated than that."

Other members of the cast hope the movie can be taken for the light-hearted entertainment it is intended to be.

"We are really talking about these girls from one culture inhabiting another culture for a period of time and the antics they get into," said Kim Cattrall, who plays Samantha. "But this a road movie, not a political thriller."

In the end, the movie hopes to celebrate women bonding whatever their culture. "Women would much rather be allies than adversaries," said Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays Carrie.

How true. And by that what she really means is that dhimmis would rather be allies than adveraries, and that since she and her castmates are more than willing to engage in the usual fluff, lies, evasions and sophistries of cultural relativism, she hopes this unpleasantness will go away before it affects the picture's bottom line: After all, it's not like they showed cartoons of Mohammed or anything.

Update: Writes Kurt Loder:

Since the position of women in traditional Islamic societies is famously, shall we say, constricted, there are issues to be dealt with here that are beyond the grasp of bubble-headed comedy. Miranda grows momentarily irate at the sight of so many Arab women wearing face-covering niqabs, but she can only respond with a very Western feminist gripe: "Some men really don't like strong women!" (As if she and they were victims of the same oppression.) We also briefly note that upon checking into the hotel, Charlotte drops her married name, Goldenblatt, in favor of her more goyish maiden name. This issue, too, is quickly shooed away.

Update: Debbie Schussel sees the film as "propaganda" for the Emirates and is outraged that it depicts Abu Dhabi as an oasis of sex 'n' sin when it's anything but: 

In fact, when the “Sex” hags began filming the half of their movie that is set in Abu Dhabi, UAE, their filming was shut down for being too lewd, and they had to fake Abu Dhabi elsewhere to finish the movie. And I just love how the movie shows star Sarah Jess-equine Parker finding her past love in the middle of the Arab Muslim desert. Because, hey, that always happens, right? Can’t find your long lost love from Jefferson High School . . . try looking in the Arab souk (market) on the streets of Abu Dhabi and the sands of its deserts. You can’t say “Jesus” or “Christ” or “G-d” in Abu Dhabi, but, hey, it’s a “liberal, Western playground” for these annoying aging sluts from HBO, right?

Also interesting is that, as you can see from the trailer, the movie promotes gay marriage. Hmmm . . . why didn’t they try shooting the gay marriage scene in Abu Dhabi, too? It’s a good thing they don’t know that Parker’s father was a Jew and that she doesn’t have an Israeli stamp in her passport, or filming there would never have begun in the first place. The whole movie is propaganda.

But what do you really think, Deb?

Move Over Shiksas and "Nazis"

There's a burgeoning--mushrooming, even--"victim group" demanding their "rights". Here's a media release outlining their deprivations and demands:

TORONTO, May 26 /CNW/ - Formerly and currently homeless individuals and housing advocates today launched a landmark legal challenge, asking the Superior Court of Ontario for a declaration that Canada and Ontario have violated their rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by creating and maintaining conditions that lead to and sustain homelessness and inadequate housing.

"I was homeless when I was younger and I have lived for many years in inadequate housing," said Jennifer Tanudjaja, an applicant in the case. "Each month I fear that I won't be able to pay the rent and that my sons and I will end up in a homeless shelter. The government needs to respect the human rights of everyone who has been forced to live in sub-standard housing or on the street."

There are an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 homeless people in Canada and almost 4.2 million men, women and children live in homes that fail to meet federal standards for acceptable housing. Canada and Ontario have instituted changes to legislation, policies and services which have resulted in homelessness and have failed to ensure government programs effectively protect those who are homeless or most at risk of homelessness.

"Canada and Ontario are violating the human rights of homeless people and those living in inadequate housing, contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms," said Tracy Heffernan, Staff Lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO). "To fulfill their human rights obligations, Canada and Ontario must implement effective strategies to end homelessness."

"The United Nations has been urging Canada to address homelessness as one of the most serious and widespread violations of human rights in this country," said Leilani Farha, Executive Director of the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation. "The UN has repeatedly recommended that both levels of government urgently adopt a strategy to address homelessness as most other developed countries have done. Homeless people should not have to go to court to get governments to protect their human rights, but when governments refuse to listen to the UN and fail to enact appropriate policies or programs the courts are the only option left."

Expert witnesses will testify that homelessness and inadequate housing harm people through reduced life expectancy and significant damage to physical, mental and emotional health. In Canada, groups protected from discrimination by the Charter including women, single mothers, people with disabilities, Aboriginal people, racialized communities, youth and seniors are disproportionately affected by homelessness and poor housing.

Free housing in state-built concrete bunker-esque tenements for all (even those who aren't all together "there," if you catch my meaning, and who prefer to live al fresco)! Hey, it did the trick in the Warsaw Pact, right? (Is it just me, or is it becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between this "human rights" stuff and Communism?)

Gaza's Cup of Plenty Runneth Over

Despite the fact that Gazans have comestibles coming out the ying-yang, useful idiots have raced to the scene to "feed" the "starving".

A 'Pirate' is Just an Un-Mentored Somali Who Needs a Hug

Laura  Rosen-Cohen thinks it's time to knock it off with the "pirate" stuff (which makes 'em sound all dashingly Errol Flynn-ish) and start calling them what they are: terrorists.

Update: From the Independent:

Europe's first trial of alleged Somali pirates opened at Rotterdam District Court yesterday with conflicting accounts from the five suspects, a notable lack of physical evidence and a shortage of witnesses.

The men, who face 12 years in prison, deny seeking to hijack a cargo ship registered in the Netherlands Antilles.

Their boat was intercepted by a Danish frigate in the Gulf of Aden last year.

"If our children are hungry, who is responsible?" shouted one defendant, Sayid Ali Garaar, 39. The trial continues.

Ah, yes: the old "I'm depraved on account of I'm deprived" defence.

Multifrikkinculturalism in T.O.

Toronto Star columnist Joe Fiotito regales us with his taco-chomping adventures. Apparently, the greasy spoon he favours on the Danforth is emblematic of our glorious multiculti mosaic (which is growing more colourful and sharia-compliant by the day):

...I ordered one with chili, one with chicken, and a tortilla al carbon with guacamole. I have eaten flour tortillas filled with grilled skirt steak in San Antonio, and I do not ask for greatness here. Here, it’s great enough to know that the taco man was Chinese, and somewhere in the neighbourhood the muezzin calls.

In the interests of consumerism, I can tell you that the chili I consumed needs work, and I’d have the chicken taco again, but the pico de gallo — beak of the rooster to you — needs more pico for this gallo.

Kids streamed in, noonish, from the nearby high school. They came, they said, because the meat was halal, and they liked Mexican.

They did not add that the food is fast and filling and frugal. Nor did they — African, Indian, Asian-Canadians — think the multicultural mix noteworthy...

Everyone sing: "It's a small world, after all. It's a small world, after all..." (Or don't, since the kicker to Joe's story is that the halal meat is out and Chinese food is in--much to his dismay.)

In Current Days a Glimpse of Stocking...

...is looked on as something shocking. It's thus best to cover up the offending limbs--even in "moderate" Indonesia.

Ground Zero Mosque Gets Past First Hurdle

From the New York Times:

After a raucous hearing, a Manhattan community board backed a proposal on Tuesday evening to build a Muslim community center near the World Trade Center.

Muslim Prayers and Renewal Near Ground Zero (December 9, 2009) The 29-to-1 vote, with 10 abstentions, followed a four-hour back-and-forth between those who said the community center would be a monument to tolerance and those who believed it would be an affront to victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The board’s vote was advisory — it did not have the power to scrap plans for a center — but it was seen as an important barometer of community sentiment.

Middle school students and rabbis were among the more than 100 people who testified at the hearing, which was held a short distance from ground zero. Some carried pictures of family members killed in the attacks; others brandished signs reading “Show respect for 9/11. No mosque!”

C. Lee Hanson, 77, whose son Peter was killed in the attacks, said he opposed the center not because he was intolerant, but because he believed that building a tribute to Islam so close to the World Trade Center would be insensitive.

“The pain never goes away,” Mr. Hanson said. “When I look over there and I see a mosque, it’s going to hurt. Build it someplace else.”

Jean Grillo, 65, a writer from TriBeCa, said shutting out any faith undermined American values. “What better place to teach tolerance than at the very area where hate tried to kill tolerance?” she said.

The proposed center, called the Cordoba House, would rise as many as 15 stories two blocks north of where the twin towers stood. It would include a prayer space, as well as a 500-seat performing arts center, a culinary school, a swimming pool, a restaurant and other amenities...

What, no spa?

Anyone who thinks the folks behind this effort are well-meaning would be wise to question why they chose this of all names.