RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2644/tunisia-religious-police

A”committee for the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice” has been launched in Tunisia. It is not an official committee, but it is supported by Salafist groups there. Political parties are remaining astonishingly idle, totally incompetent to stop a violent minority that it is threatening personal liberties. The Tunisian civil society is active against the committee, but does not have the political instruments to take action against this newly formed organization.

These self-appointed custodians of Islamic virtues are aggressively intervening in public life: They occupy mosques and Quranic schools, and are trying to impose on them imams with Salafist views. They are verbally and physically aggressive towards women who do not abide by their code of dress, they also physically and psychologically assault intellectuals and film makers.

Lately, they have come under the spotlight after they decided to forbid Professor Ikbal Gharbi, appointed by the government to the post of director of the religious radio station Zitouna FM, to enter her office. The reason, according to them, was that Prof. Gharbi had no religious background, despite her being an eminent professor of at the Theological Zitouna University in Tunis. In reality, this committee objects to a woman being in charge of a religious radio station, and for Prof. Gharbi being known as a reformist with a modernist interpretation of the Quran.

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/699/bbc_reveals_huge_scale_of_honour_attacks_in_britain_fails_to_mention_the_word_islam_
BBC reveals huge scale of honour attacks in Britain,
fails to mention the word “Islam”

At least 2,823 people, mainly vulnerable young women, were brutalised in Britain last year by members of their family. But BBC report censors out the key information.

But what line do they take?

All right. I’m not going to make this difficult. The families giving the orders, as well as the victims, are in all, or almost all, cases Muslim. Surprised? No, of course you’re not. Honour attacks ranging in brutality from beatings to murder are commonplace in many parts of the Muslim world.

Since Britain, like many other European countries, has imported sizeable Muslim communities, which are to a significant degree unassimilated, the cultural practices of the old country have survived the transition to the new.

Finally, the figure of 2,823 attacks is almost certainly a gross under-estimate since, apart from anything else, it is drawn from only 39 of 52 UK police forces.

Got it? In just over 150 words (including title and summary) you now know all the basic information, and as intelligent, informed citizens you can have a discussion on what to do about it. That’s what journalism is for.

Propaganda, on the other hand, is intended for something else. It is designed to present a politically charged narrative held to with a fanaticism that will allow no mention of facts that contradict it. It is thus deliberately intended to lower the quality of the discussion by erasing key pieces of information.

Enter the BBC, which reported on the matter in a lengthy, 700-plus word article and failed to mention the words “Muslim”, “Islamic” or “Islam” even once.

As I write this I am flicking back to the story itself so I can double check using the Find function. Could I be mistaken?

Here goes: “Islamic”? “No Matches”. “Muslim”? “No Matches”. “Islam”? “No Matches”.

This is how societies go down: when matters of the profoundest significance to their character, and potentially their very existence, have been rendered undiscussable by the people that set the terms of public debate.

http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/18726-Looking-Away-From-Hate-At-California-State-University.html

Looking Away From Hate At California State University

Does a math professor at California State University, Northridge, have the right to use the university’s web server, the url being the university’s, to post a hate page against Israel and Jews?
The webpage says, “Israel is the most racist state in the world at this time,” Israel engages in “ethnic cleansing”, says “No” to the question “But aren’t Palestinians equally responsible for the violence?”, posts links to other similar charges from the usual assortment of Israel-haters, and calls for a boycott of Israel.
According to the California State University’s legal counsel, “The California State University is committed to protect against the misuse of its name.” He continues on “Misuse of the CSU name”, “It is inappropriate to use the CSU name without the written permission of the institution for any purpose, including:…Advertising any meeting or activity that has the purpose of supporting or opposing any strike, lockout, boycott, or political, religious, sociological or economic activity…”
Yet, according to the Cal State Northridge president, retiring this month, a review of the professor’s webpage, spurred by many letters of complaint, “raised many difficult issues, it found no such violations. This conclusion was affirmed by CSU legal counsel.” She goes on to say, “the University does uphold and preserve the principles of academic freedom—and Professor Klein’s right to express his views. Our review affirmed that this right extends to the use of an individual’s web pages, as part of the University website, as a vehicle for expression.”

Dr. Syd Cohen, dubbed ‘Flying Rabbi’ of WWII passes away at the age of 90. ‘His name will forever remain in the air force pantheon,’ say colleagues

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4157126,00.html

Aviel MagneziThe man who said to tell “the damn Nazis that they were fighting a Jew” when he was in the middle of a dog fight with German airplanes during WWII has died.

Dr. Sydney (Syd) Cohen who received the nickname the “Flying Rabbi of World War II” and who later became one of the founders of the Israeli Air Force’s first combat squadron, passed away on Sunday. He was 90-years-old. Cohen dies at his home in Ramat HaSharon.

“His name will forever remain in the air force pantheon,” his former air force colleagues said.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970204903804577082441532803110-lMyQjAxMTAxMDAwNjEwNDYyWj.html?mod=wsj_share_email

Pearl Harbor, Iran and North Korea Don’t be surprised if one of our underestimated adversaries does the unthinkable.
On Dec. 7, 1941 the United States suffered the worst intelligence failure in its history—before or since—when Japanese planes destroyed much of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
The most astounding aspect of the Pearl Harbor attack was that the U.S. had already broken the Japanese code and was listening to its communications. The U.S. had hundreds of cryptologists and linguists, mostly from the Navy, listening to Japanese wireless communications. But it wasn’t enough.

“We knew something was going to happen on Sunday, December 7th at around noon Washington time,” Henry Kissinger said at a speech I attended two years ago in New York City. “The problem is that nobody knew that when it’s noon in Washington, it’s around 7 a.m. in Hawaii.”

In other words, despite being on a war footing with Japan and knowing from intercepted communications that the Japanese were planning for a significant event to affect Japanese-U.S. relations that Sunday, our government couldn’t conceive of—and didn’t defend against—an attack on its largest Pacific naval facility, Pearl Harbor.

Republicans press Pentagon for long-range interceptors

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/5/north-korea-making-missile-able-to-hit-us/?page=all#pagebreak

New intelligence indicates that North Korea is moving ahead with building its first road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile, an easily hidden weapon capable of hitting the United States, according to Obama administration officials.

The intelligence was revealed in a classified Capitol Hill briefing last month. Its existence was made public in a letter to Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta from five House Republicans.

“As members of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces …, we write out of concerns about new intelligence concerning foreign developments in long-range ballistic missile development, specifically ballistic missiles capable of attacking the United States,” the Nov. 17 letter said.

http://townhall.com/columnists/benshapiro/2011/12/07/ben_shapiro/print Last week in Boston, a seven-year-old boy named Mark got into a fight with a bully. The bully put his hands around the boy’s throat and began to squeeze. That’s when Mark fought back; he kicked his aggressor right in the family jewels. In a normal society, we’d celebrate Mark. Throw him a ticker […]

The End of Religious Freedom Posted By Phyllis Chesler URL to article: http://pjmedia.com/blog/the-end-of-religious-freedom/ Time has run out for the cause of worldwide religious freedom. On November 18, 2011, America chose not to extend any further lifeline to persecuted religious minorities around the planet. On that day, the U.S. government shut down the work of an important and […]

(Reuters) – A suicide bomber attacked a Shi’ite Muslim shrine in Kabul on Tuesday killing at least 54 people in unprecedented sectarian violence a day after Afghanistan’s Western allies pledged long-term support once their troops leave.

Doctors and police struggled to count the dead from one of the bloodiest attacks in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001. The Taliban denied responsibility.

Bodies and blood were scattered across a street after the blast in the heart of old Kabul where a crowd of hundreds had gathered for the festival of Ashura. More than 100 were injured.

It was a potent reminder of Afghanistan’s troubles the day after its Western allies gathered at an international conference to pledge long-term support, even after their combat troops leave at the end of 2014.

All-American Muslim: The Perils of Propaganda Posted By Daniel Greenfield

URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/06/all-american-muslim-the-perils-of-propaganda/

All-American Muslim is on its last legs. Not only was the last episode of the show the lowest rated show in its time slot, losing again to Homeland, but it was also the lowest rated show of the night among the top 100 cable shows aimed at adults. While Homeland has improved its ratings, All-American Muslim has dropped so low that it’s hovering above the abyss.

Just to bring out the vultures, Discovery Communications is being sued by Visionaire Media which accuses it of stealing its idea for an “American Muslim Show” without compensation. At this point Discovery Communications, which oversees the disaster areas that are TLC, The Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and several other learning channels that have turned into minor variations of each other serving up the same Reality content, might consider letting Visionaire have the credit for All-American Muslim which a month later looks more like blame.

The media which enthusiastically embraced All-American Muslim has nothing more to say about it. There are hardly any more stories on it and those few that show up make it clear that the writer did not watch the show beyond the premiere episode. The deadly secret of All-American Muslim is that not even the liberals in the media want to watch it.