RUTHFULLY YOURS

www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/jan/11/oklahoma-sharia-law-ban-blocked

US appeals court blocks Oklahoma sharia law ban. Denver court upholds judge’s order that claimed Oklahoma’s attempt to ban sharia law was unconstitutional

A proposed constitutional amendment that would ban Oklahoma courts from considering international or Islamic law discriminates against religions, a federal appeals court said on Tuesday, as it gave the right to a Muslim community leader to challenge its constitutionality.

The court in Denver upheld US district judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange’s order blocking implementation of the amendment shortly after it was approved by 70% of Oklahoma voters in November 2010.

Muneer Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Oklahoma, sued to block the law from taking effect, arguing that the Save Our State Amendment violated his First Amendment rights.

“This is an important reminder that the constitution is the last line of defense against a rising tide of anti-Muslim bigotry in our society, and we are pleased that the appeals court recognised that fact,” Awad said. “We are also hopeful that this decision serves as a reminder to politicians wishing to score political points through fear-mongering and bigotry.”

The amendment read, in part: “The courts shall not look to the legal precepts of other nations or cultures. Specifically, the courts shall not consider international law or sharia law.”

http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/1061/jews-hindus On January 8, 2012, I delivered a rather passionate speech in Pune, India via skype. I was invited to do so by “Youth 4 Panun Kashmir.” The organizers were especially interested in my drawing parallels between Israel and India, Jews and Hindus both of whom have, historically, been genocidally exterminated and driven out of […]

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2739/two-state-solution-india-pakistan The first round of “face-to-face” talks, after a fifteen months interval, between Israel’s chief negotiator, Yitzhak Molcho, and his Palestinian counterpart, Saeb Erakat, ended January 3, 2012 in Jordan’s capital, Amman, with both positive and skeptical reactions. Jordanian Foreign Minister, Nasser Judeh said, “The two sides expressed their commitment to a two-state solution, [but] […]

Read more: http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2012/01/09/jordan-allows-hamas-to-take-up-residence-on-its-soil/#ixzz1j4kxDfa8

WHAT A ROLE FOR GEORGE CLOONEY WHEN THEY MAKE THE MOVIE

Exiled Palestinian Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal addresses a meeting with some 40 Palestinian prisoners who were freed by Israel but are to be deported overseas, in Cairo on October 18, 2011.
Exiled Palestinian Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal addresses a meeting with some 40 Palestinian prisoners who were freed by Israel but are to be deported overseas, in Cairo on October 18, 2011.
In what sure looks like further evidence of diminishing American influence in the Middle East, the country that summarily ejected Hamas a dozen years ago is opening its doors to senior leaders of the group Washington and Israel regard first and foremost as a terrorist organization.

GEE MAYBE STEPHANOPOULUS AND DIANE SAWYER SHOULD ASK THEM SOME QUESTIONS….RSK http://m.dailymail.co.uk/mobile/news/article.html?articleID=2084684 ‘Gay people should get the death penalty’: Five Muslim men on trial for stirring up hatred after ‘handing out homophobic leaflets near mosque’  One leaflet called The Death Penalty? showed image of mannequin hanging from a noose and said buggery led to hell, […]

You Will LOVE This GOP Candidate For Utah’s 4th Congressional District

http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2012/01/you-will-love-this-gop-candidate-for.html?utm_source=The+Lid+List&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=aaacb1fd82-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN

In a way Mia Love, reminds me of Marco Rubio. She was born into a family of Haitian immigrants, she has deeply rooted values, love for this country, and guiding conservative principles. Just like Rubio, her parent instilled in her a sense of responsibility, not a desire for hand-outs. She remembers what her father said to her as she entered college:

If elected, Love will become the first Republican black woman to serve in the United States House of Representatives. But even more important is the fact that she would be another conservative voice in the house. And by conservative, I mean she is on the right side of the issues and she is not afraid to fight for the right thing.

Norwegian Schools Preach the Wonders of Niqab Posted By Bruce Bawer

The news came three days before Christmas:

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has announced that the Department of Defense will now allow Muslim and Sikh students participating in Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) to wear headscarves and turbans while in uniform.

When I read this, the first thing I thought was: What?! And the second was: Since when does CAIR make announcements on behalf of the Department of Defense?

The background was as follows: a Muslim girl in Tennessee was told by her JROTC commanding officer that she could not wear her headscarf, or hijab, in a homecoming parade. She contacted CAIR, which in turn contacted Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, asking for a change in policy. And instead of informing CAIR that the Department of Defense does not take its marching orders from fronts for terrorist organizations, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Larry Stubblefield fell right into line, writing a letter to CAIR assuring that henceforth JROTC policy would be different.

France and the Netherlands have banned the niqab, the face-covering veil, in public; the hijab is also prohibited in certain venues (such as classrooms and government offices) in a few European jurisdictions. But in most of the Western world, there are no laws against any Muslim garments. In many Western cities, there has been a visible increase in the number of women wearing these things in public. And there has also been an increase in the number of Muslims who demand their right to wear them in institutions ranging from the armed forces and police to schools and universities.

Case in point: a twenty-year-old woman named Aisha Shezadi Kausar. Kausar wears niqab. Last year her name appeared on an essay, “You, Me, and Niqab,” which was included in Utilslørt (Uncovered), a collection of essays by and about Muslim women. On December 20, she was featured in a news report on Norwegian public television (NRK) about a nationwide project aimed at Norwegian children and teenagers. Kausar, NRK reported, is making personal appearances at various schools around Norway, where she presents her use of the niqab as a feminist choice. In the report, she was seen in front of an auditorium full of students, first praying, then talking about Allah, and then making her case. She’s engaged in a “struggle for freedom” and “fighting against xenophobia.” The only reasons for opposition to niqab are “prejudice” and “fear of foreigners.” At the end of her talk the students gave her a big round of applause, and the kids interviewed by NRK said all the “right” things about diversity and tolerance. Plainly they had not learned anything about Islam, the place of women in Islam, or what niqab actually represents. Their teachers had taken them away from their studies to be propagandized.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/01/10/central-asia-lessons-for-the-middle-east/

Central Asia: Lessons for the Middle East Posted By Nodir Ataev and Steven Plaut

Just as the new calendar year was about to begin, new violence broke out in the village of Andarak in southern Kyrgyzstan. Internecine violence among the ethnic groups of Kyrgyzstan has been flaring up periodically for years with the worst outbreaks in 2010. Kyrgyzstan may be the closest thing to be found in Central Asia to a “bi-national state,” the sort of state that some are proposing be imposed upon the Middle East as a “solution” to replace Israel. It is the second poorest of the ex-Soviet republics. The two main ethnic groups in Kyrgyzstan are the Kyrgyz, about 70% of the population, until relatively recently in history a nomadic tribal population, and ethnic Uzbeks, close to 20%. There are also ethnic Tajiks living in the country. And there are lessons to learn from the violence there about the viability of multi-ethnic states in the Middle East.

At first glance, Kyrgyzstani ethnic relations might be expected to be idyllic. Both of the two main population groups consist of predominantly Moslem people speaking Turkic dialects. The Tajiks are also Moslem, speaking a language close to Farsi. Yet the country has seen outbreaks of massive inter-ethnic violence. In June 1990, a violent land dispute between the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks erupted in the city of Osh. In the summer of 2010, southern Kyrgyzstan was again gripped by bloody internecine violence. (The New Year’s violence this year was between ethnic Tajiks and Kyrgyz.)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204257504577151100762427204.html?mod=opinion_newsreel

A funny thing happened on the way to the New Hampshire primary: ABC moderator George Stephanopoulos embarrassed himself on national television with questions plainly intended to embarrass the Republican candidates. Therein lies a lesson.

On Saturday night, Mr. Stephanopoulos stepped outside the role of honest interlocutor when he pursued Mitt Romney with the issue on nobody’s lips or legislative agenda: whether states have the right to ban contraception. Likewise, fellow moderator Diane Sawyer, who asked Republicans what they would say, “sitting in their living rooms,” to a gay couple.

As the audience appreciated—they booed after Mr. Stephanopolous’s sixth follow-up—these questions were designed less to illuminate than to paint Republicans as people who hate gays and are so crazy they might just ban contraception if elected.

READ IT ALL AT THE SITE

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204257504577150591381406260.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_BelowLEFTSecond

Spending less on defense means squandering the money elsewhere.
It’s never entirely easy to distinguish between retrenchment and retreat.

For three years, the Obama administration has followed what it believes is a strategy of retrenchment—withdrawing from Iraq, setting a deadline for Afghanistan, calling off further expansion of NATO, signing arms-control treaties, asking the Europeans to take the lead in Libya, preferring sanctions to military strikes, and now slicing into the Pentagon’s budget—all on the commendable theory that America must learn once again to pick its spots, match its ambitions to its means, and pursue a “sustainable” foreign policy.

The only problem is, the theory is wrong. What the administration would like to have you believe is a matter of vision is seen by others as a function of weakness.

Consider the Strait of Hormuz, 2012 edition. The administration kicks the year off by imposing sanctions on Iran’s oil trade and persuading the Europeans to follow suit. The Iranians conduct military drills and warn the U.S. not to send an aircraft carrier back to the Persian Gulf. Then a potential diplomatic deus ex machina appears in the form of the USS Kidd’s high-profile rescue of some Iranian sailors from their pirate captors. Iran repays the gesture by sentencing to death 28-year-old Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, an American citizen of Iranian descent.

The lesson of this parable is that you don’t get more by doing less. The administration’s policy toward Iran amounts to avoiding direct confrontation at all costs on the view that the last thing the U.S. needs is another war in the Middle East. But the result is that Iran is more truculent than ever (and much closer to a bomb), while our allies are more skittish than ever about the strength of U.S. commitments.

Sooner or later, the U.S. will have to prove the worth of those commitments in the face of an adversary that’s more likely to test them. How sustainable is that?

This scenario has been playing itself out with depressing regularity since Mr. Obama came to office. About Iraq, Hillary Clinton said in October that the U.S. would not tolerate Iranian meddling. Yet the likelihood that the promise will be tested is far greater now than when we had a residual force in the country, even as the prospective cost of honoring the promise has become almost unaffordable. About Afghanistan, we surged our forces but attached a deadline. The upshot is the U.S. expending itself on temporary triumphs over the Taliban as Pakistan waits and plans a pro-Taliban end game.
READ IT ALL AT THE SITE