Outrage!

At dawn on December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed for but one of the countless atrocities he committed as the leader of Iraq. Much of the world was outraged. Palestinians set up mourning tents as terrorist groups cried foul, the leader of Libya declared three days of mourning for the deceased dictator, and the Anglican church, Vatican, and much of Europe (though acknowledging his guilt) queued up to issue their terse condemnations.

On that same day 80 Iraqi civilians were killed in various terror attacks throughout Iraq, raising the total killed for the month to 2,186.
On this, the world's silence is deafening.

Free Speech for the Oppressed

Another heartwarming article from the territories, "Gazans fear radio will lead them to civil war". Darn that divisive technology.

The recent fighting between Hamas and Fatah did not just play out in the streets of the Gaza Strip. The rival groups also pummeled each other over the airwaves...

The harsh rhetoric, coupled with the stations' ability to quickly rally their armed supporters in the streets, has led to fears that the local disc jockeys could fan the flames of the recent violence into a full-blown of civil war.

Is everything imaginable used for violence? Seems so.

During two weeks of violence, Hamas' Aksa Radio and Fatah's Radio Shabab enraptured listeners as they reported fierce clashes and angry marches, and gave airtime for their respective leaders to abuse their opponents. Callers routinely incited loyalists against rivals.

Sort of like the Fox News of Gaza - fair and balanced.

On Radio Shabab, callers described Hamas gunmen as "child killers"...

Not exactly insulting to child killers.

...or as "the mullahs" - a barbed jab at the Islamic group's close ties to Shi'ite Iran.

Hamas' Aksa Radio rarely reported aggression by Hamas gunmen, despite deadly assaults on Fatah targets. The broadcasts regularly labeled opponents as "mercenary death squads" and "coup plotters."

One senior Hamas official called his rivals "Zionists" - a virtual death sentence in Gaza's militantly anti-Israel society.

Whoah there. Call me a "mullah", "coup-plotter", "mercenary death squad", and "child killer" all you want. But call me a "Zionist" - them's fightin' words.

Even so, Daher and all the other stations said they tried not to incite people against each other.

Well, that settles it. I'm convinced.

"Radio is in every house, every car and every street. It can cause a revolution or quell one. That's a dangerous role," said Salah al-Masri, director of Al-Quds Radio, funded by the radical Islamic Jihad."I bet you, in a few hours, I can orchestrate a protest. The question is what kind..."

Yes, in his bare hands this man holds the power of life and death, war and peace, big protest or little. Goodness save us all.

"We can launch a protest against the Israeli occupation, or at (Abbas), or fire rockets," he said.

Hmm, tough choices.

"If we wanted, we could burn down Gaza," said a smiling Ibrahim Daher, director of Aksa Radio, the voice in Gaza of the Islamic militant group Hamas.

Now there's a thought...

Soccer Jihad

What could possibly be wrong with soccer? Well, if you are Muslim, everything. In case you missed it, a fatwa (religious decree) has been issued against the sport of soccer.

The fatwa itself was issued anonymously by radical Islamic clerics, and published on August 25th, 2005, in a daily Saudi newspaper, Al-Watan.

"Radical" only in the sense that they take their religion seriously.

It is based on a hadith (prophetic tradition) that Muslims ought not imitate Christians and Jews, and as such, does not actually ban the sport.

Rather it states that the sport is permissible only when played in a manner that in no way resembles the international game. For example, Muslims should not "play soccer with four lines [surrounding the field], since this is the way of the non-believers."

Well, if that's the case, then using guns, vehicular transportation, and anything requiring electricity should also be banned. Sounds rather selective to single out soccer.

It also rejected using "polytheist," soccer terminology, such as "corner kick," "goal," or "foul."

Yep, just saying "corner kick" makes me want to go worship some idols.

However, a study released this month by PRISM, a Herzliya think-tank on Islamic social affairs, alleviates such fears. It reveals that radical fatwas on soccer have actually had a very limited effect on the Islamic world. According to the study's author, Moshe Terdman, "the popularity of the soccer game among the Arab and Muslim peoples, as well as among the radical Muslims themselves, keeps [the sport] alive and beats all the Islamist attempts to dissuade Muslims from watching or playing it..."

The fatwa also generated significant criticism from Saudi religious officials on the grounds that soccer is not an appropriate subject for a religious decree, as it is not mentioned in the Koran.

Cartoons of the prophet Mohammed are not in the Koran either, but we had religious decrees galore. But when it comes to soccer and fatwas,it seems that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Terdman believes that this fatwa provided a "significant test case" for the ambitions of the Islamic courts, which seek to capitalize on soccer's popularity for their own cause.

"Soccer is just one element, which the Jihadi-Salafi (radical Islamic) scholars exploit in their social-cultural-political fight within the Muslim world. Their challenge is greater and more interesting as a result of the popularity of soccer," Terdman states in his conclusion.

The most alarming ingredient of the fatwa is its direct link from soccer to jihad: "You must play the entire game with the intention of improving your physical fitness for the purpose of fighting jihad for Allah's sake and preparing for the time when jihad is needed... you should speak about your body, its strength and its muscles, and about the fact that you are playing as [a means of] training to run, attack, and retreat in preparation for [waging] jihad for Allah's sake."

So one can play soccer to get in the best physical shape for the purpose of blowing one's self up. Doesn't sound like something to take seriously, unless you are one of the faithful.

In August of 2005, with the countdown to last summer's World Cup in Germany underway, three players from a well-known Saudi soccer club abruptly quit the team because of an anonymous fatwa, religious ruling, that led them to believe soccer was forbidden by religious law. One of those three, Majid al-Sawat, was later arrested while planning to carry out a suicide bombing in Iraq.

As soccer is not just a sport, but also a social institution across the Arab world, many in the West are frightened by the power of a fatwa that can turn a professional athlete into a suicide bomber overnight.

You betcha!

Muslims Send Christmas Greetings

In the Telegraph article entitled 'Leave, crusaders, or have your heads cut off', Muslims from the Iraqi city of Mosul send their Arab Christian counterparts a traditional Islamic holiday invitation.

After months as a nervous bystander to the spiralling civil war between Sunni and Shia Muslims, Iraq's Christian minority now faces the spectre of sectarian violence coming to their traditional home city. They fear that al Qaeda-backed zealots within the Sunni community, which forms the bulk of Mosul's one million population, want to end nearly 1,500 years of co-existence with an onslaught of ethnic cleansing.

As the article points out, the Christians of Mosul pre-dated the first Muslim inhabitant by over 5 centuries. Now the latecomers are asking their Arab brethren to split the premises. If not, there'll be "splitting" of another nature.

"A letter was delivered to my door with two bullets placed on top of it," said Mr Fadi, 32, standing watchfully in the neat garden of his two-storey villa. "It said: 'Leave, crusaders, or we will cut your heads off.' They want us to go from Mosul completely."

Um, I'm not getting the connection between bullets and "we will cut your heads off." Isn't that akin to mixing your metaphors?

"Our children are told by other pupils that they are '[expletive] spies' who have brought the Christian occupation to Iraq," said Father Shamoun Butris, a Christian minister in Mosul. "It is not true, but makes no -difference..."

Despite feeling vulnerable, many Christians are reluctant to complain. Canon Andrew White, a British clergyman based in the Green Zone who administers to a 1,000-strong congregation at St George's Anglican Church in Baghdad, said: "Christians keep stressing to me that they do not want to over-emphasise what they are going through for fear of it escalating. But things are bad."

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the self-described "religion of peace".

Hamas Codemns Israel for Breaking "Cease-fire"

The Hamas-led Palestinian government is angry with Israel for violating the month long cease-fire for their decision to target terrorists attempting to fire rockets into Israel.

Hamas government spokeswoman Ghazi Hamad on Wednesday denounced Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to target Kassam rocket launching cells saying it was a decision to "continue their aggression against our people," but added: "We still believe that this (cease-fire) agreement is alive, and both sides should respect this agreement..."

In other words, the Palestinians (who have actually fired rockets at a much greater rate since the cease-fire came into effect) are condemning Israel for trying to stop the terrorists who are firing the rockets as "aggression" while they themselves do absolutely nothing to prevent the rockets from being fired from their territory.

Since the Palestinians believe the cease-fire is still in effect, one might get an insight into what a "cease-fire, Palestinian style" really is.

Breaking News: Palestinians Want Peace

(But not with Israel.) In light of the ongoing violence within the Palestinian territories, the BBC News report "Gaza's residents rally for peace" gives the unprecidented impression that the Palestinians are finally going to make a positive contribution to regional stability after creating, perfecting, exporting, and indulging themselves in international terrorism. But alas, they only want their inter-factional fighting to stop so they can more effectively terrorize the Zionists.

Known for ongoing kidnapping and killing of Jews (and whoever else might be in the vicinity), Palestinians have turned their anarchy inward by killing and kidnapping each other. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' (Abu Mazen) Fatah party recently made a truce with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's Hamas terror organization to stop the fighting, similar to the truce they made with Israel. For those who don't know, a "truce" for the Palestinians means that the other party must cease firing while they continue fighting as before.

And some people say the Palestinians don't want peace.