The Amboy Times

Happy New Year!

• Auld Lang Syne - The Real Mackenzies
• BBC MMVIII - Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2008
• Scotland on TV-Auld Lang Syne video with lyrics
  
• U2 New Year's Day
  

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old times since ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
And surely I’ll buy mine !
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine^† ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

Santa, Blue Jeans and Black hair dye are UnIslamic

What do Father Christmas and Blue jeans have in common? Why, they're both on the list of things that offend Muslims of course.

The directors of Sarajevo's day-care centres, kindergartens and nurseries banned Father Christmas. They argued that the capital is predominantly Muslim and Father Christmas is not part of the Muslim tradition.

Christmas no, but the Muslim tradition of dhimmitude demands that non-Muslims "feel themselves subdued" (Sura 9:29).

But a multi-religious mix of parents, children and others wore Santa Claus hats and blew whistles on a downtown square on Sunday and requested that Father Christmas be restored to the children.

Father Christmas, known locally as Father Frost, has given out presents to generations of Bosnian children in schools, kindergartens and other institutions. This was done even during communist rule and was always tied to New Year's celebrations, not to the Christian holiday. The demonstrators argue that that makes it a Bosnian tradition.

And if the Jolly Old Elf weren't trouble enough, along comes...blue jeans!!!

After terming love as “un-Islamic”, the Darul Uloom Islamic seminary in Deoband has said that Muslilms wearing jeans is a gunah (sin).

The seminary recently issued a fatwa (religious decree) against the wearing of jeans and transplanting and dyeing of hair in black.
These fatwas have been issued in response to three different queries, according to the Darul Uloom's Darul Ifta (department of fatwa). In response to a query on wearing of jeans by women, especially in cold countries in Western Europe, the seminary has made it clear that “jeans pants and shirts are against the shariat (Islamic rules)”. “The physical structure (curves) of the body is reflected if one puts on a jeans. Wearing them by a woman is a sin”, the fatwa said adding that it should not be put on by the menfolk also. “It is barred for men as well. Women, who want to look as men, are cursed”, the fatwa went on to say.

Oh, and don't forget black hair dye.

On a query on dyeing one’s hair in black, the fatwa said that any other colour other than black is permissible. “Use of black hair dye is un-Islamic”, it said.
On another query pertaining to hair transplant, the Darul Uloom said transplanting artificial hair amounted to “cheating” and is therefore is “illegal”. The clerics say that Islam very clearly separates what is right and what is wrong. “He, who does even after knowing that it is wrong, is the sinner”, said a senior cleric. “Fatwas should only issued on religious matters and not social issues”, said Maulana Yasoob Abbas, the spokesman of the All India Shia Personal Law Board. All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board chairperson Shaista Amber also echoed similar sentiments. “The clerics should confine themselves only to religious matters”, she told Deccan Herald.

This Day in Islamic Terrorism: The Rome and Vienna airport attacks

Part of the This Day in Islamic Terrorism series.

The Rome and Vienna Airport Attacks were two major terrorist attacks carried out on December 27, 1985.

On that day, four terrorists walked to the ticket counter of Israel's El Al airlines at Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport in Rome, Italy, and opened fire with assault rifles and grenades. They killed 16 people and wounded 80 others before three of them were killed and the remaining one shot and captured by police. Five U.S. citizens were among those killed.

Minutes later, at the Schwechat Airport (Vienna International Airport) in Vienna, Austria, three terrorists carried out a mirror attack. They killed four people and wounded 39 others. The terrorists then fled the airport by car, and Austrian authorities gave chase. They killed one terrorist and then captured another.

In all, the attacks killed 20 and wounded 120. They were carried out by terrorists from the Abu Nidal group, which was retaliating for the Israeli bombing of PLO headquarters in Tunis on October 1. Libya was accused of funding the terrorists who carried out the attacks, but although they denied the charges they did praise the assaults.

My Christmas Card to all of You

Reposted from last year.

Now go out and have yourself a merry little Christmas.

This Day in Islamic Terrorism: Air France Flight 8969

On this day in 1994, four Islamic extremists hijack Air France Flight 8969 in Algiers. The terrorists then flew the plane to Marseilles with the permission of the French and Algerian governments, given in part because French special forces would be ready to perform a rescue mission. More than two days after the terrorists took control of the plane, during which time they killed three hostages, French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur decided to use French commandos to put an end to the hijacking. In the ensuing mission, the terrorists were killed and the remaining hostages were released unharmed, despite the discovery of a cache of dynamite aboard the plane. Hostages claimed that the terrorists had discussed plans to fly the plane to Paris and blow it up.

France's equivalent to SWAT, GIGN, did an amazing job of defusing the situation. Watch the video to see actual footage of the raid.

Also on this day.

1999 Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacked by the Taliban. 1 killed.

2000 Indonesia bombings, Abu Bakar Bashir ordered the bombings. Thirty-eight bombs in 11 cities exploded at Christian churches on Christmas Eve 2000, killing 19 people and wounding 120.

James Yee & CAIR: "Trust" Terror?

An Anti-CAIR Blogburst.

A jury has found the remaining defendants know as the "Fort Dix Six" guilty of conspiring to kill American military personnel at Fort Dix. The jury found that the men had made an agreement to attack soldiers at the base "and had taken at least one step toward carrying it out."

     In record time,  CAIR and their stooge James Yee rose to the defense of Islamist jihadists who wanted to kill fellow americans, and to insult the integrity of FBI and law enforcement personnel who acted quickly and bravely to defend our countrymen from a terror attack.

     James Yee:

"It seemed to me as if the case was pretty flimsy," ... "It seems like these guys under
normal circumstances weren't going to do anything until a government informant
initiates contact with them and incites them,"

 

     It's amazing to see James Yee speak about "normal circumstances" dictating the course of this case. It was under normal circumstances that the FBI learned of the Fort Dix Six's jihadist practices when one of the six brought a home made terror training video tape to a shop to have the tape converted to DVD.  The employee watched the tape in the course of making the copy, and viewed alarming and shocking militant jihad-like activity which prompted him to call the authorities. Undoubtedly due to the efforts of groups like CAIR, the clerk actually worried over being called a racist if he called the authorities and alerted them to what he had seen.

    
     James Yee continues to lecture Americans about the feelings of his community:

"All of this doesn't help build trust with the American Muslim community, and that is vital if our
law enforcement is going to fight terrorism,"..."If anyone can improve security, it's our
community, but we need to be seen as trusted partners, not potential suspects."

 

    Unbelievable...this from a "man" who arguably dishonored both his officer's commissioning oath and the US Army uniform he wore while "ministering" to Islamic terrorists detained at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba...a man without honor presumes to lecture anyone about trust?  James Yee, poster boy of the Front Group created for Hamas - CAIR, has the nerve to act as if he speaks for the American Muslim community and tell us that we should have "trusted" that the Fort Dix Six were nothing but innocent gun-toting Boy Scouts not worthy of any investigation?

     Not everyone in the convicted men's community agrees with Yee.

     Fuat "Mike" Mamo of Cresskill, New Jersey had this to say, specifically of the three Albanian born brothers who were convicted:

"I don't know what they were thinking...they were just out of their mind and they should be
put away for life. The Albanian community is nothing like this... we come from a country
that has a reputation for religious diversity and tolerance.  To go against the American
government, that's unacceptable to our community."

     Jim Sues, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations chimed in:

"Many people in the Muslim community will see this as a case of entrapment...from what
I saw, there was a significant role played by the government informant."

    Jim Sues seemingly wants everyone to ignore that there would have never been the need for any FBI "informants" had the men never made the suspicious video that set the whole investigation in motion.

 

     Anti-CAIR sought the opinion of a respected American Muslim on the subject of the Fort Dix Six convictions and the statements of CAIR and James Yee. 

     Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy was kind enough to provide the following response:

************************

I never ceased to be amazed at the depths to which Islamist groups like CAIR and their supporters like James Yee will stoop to
find some kind of fault with the prosecution, whether fact or fiction, when they are faced with a conviction by a jury of our peers. 
The hypocrisy of Islamist organizations like CAIR has no limits. Ibrahim Hooper, NIhad Awad, and CAIR had the temerity to send
out a press release on November 24, 2008, asking President-elect Obama to “restore the rule of law” reiterating Awad’s words
before a national CAIR audience in D.C at their annual banquet. That press release was sent out on the heels of the convictions
of the leadership of the Holy Land Foundation in Dallas on all counts for funding terrorism. CAIR had a problem with that example
of ‘the rule of law’.

On December 22, 2008, Jim Sues, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of CAIR also certainly seems to have a problem
with the “rule of law.” He stated that “many people in the Muslim community will see this as a case of entrapment…from what I saw
there was a significant role played by the government informant”.

Not only did the jury disagree with that, but Patrick Rowan, assistant US attorney general for national security said it best, “The word
should go out to any other would-be terrorists of the homegrown variety that the United States will find you, infiltrate your group, prosecute
you and send you to a federal prison for a very long time.” That is exactly what we should be hearing from my fellow coreligionists. We should
as a faith community be putting every would-be militant Islamist on notice that our community will have zero tolerance for any behaviors
which are militant. Not only will the government infiltrate these groups but the organized Muslim community will help them do it.

Rather than give us such long overdue reassurances, CAIR’s apologists again prove that when it comes to the rule of law there appears
to be a different one for Islamists than for those adjudicated by juries in New Jersey or Dallas. James Yee also provided an incredulous
comment after the guilty verdict. “All this doesn’t help build trust with the American Muslim community, and that is vital if our law enforcement
is going to fight terrorism.” Mr. Yee, please speak for yourself  and cease and desist representing yourself as a spokesperson for the
American Muslim Community and I am personally offended that you are touted as a representative of  American Muslims who are former
military officers. As a former US Navy Lieutenant commander, I take great umbrage with an individual who has not only taken the oath of
citizenship but that of a US military officer and yet portrays a sentiment that he and thus by inference, ‘the American Muslim community’
has a problem with government informants and their efforts to infiltrate possible jihadist cells. With Mr. Yee’s pronouncements on the heels
of this case, it becomes difficult to see when he would ever find it appropriate for the government to do its job and infiltrate radical cells with
whom they have probable cause and stop their activities.

Mr. Yee, we have an obligation as citizens and as officers to our oath and to uphold the law regardless of any other allegiance to a faith
group or political movement like Islamists. Mr. Yee goes on to say that, “If anyone can improve security, it’s our community, but we need
to be seen as trusted partners, not potential suspects.” It is certainly interesting that Mr. Yee seems to identify with the individuals who
now stand convicted of conspiracy to kill military personnel. I certainly do not and if anything the fact that they called themselves Muslims
makes it more important that they be made an example of by the Muslim community in my own estimation.

It is truly sad that such offensive comments are touted as representing the sentiments of the American Muslim community. In fact, if media
were to interview non-Islamist or better yet, anti-Islamist Muslims they would find many of us celebrating the verdict and encouraging continued
heroic reporting like that of the store clerk which led ultimately to the infiltration and conviction. From Mr. Yee’s comments, it would appear
that he would have not reported the video to authorities as reporting these jihadists and looking upon them as ‘potential suspects’ would alienate
Muslims- his Muslims that is. Sorry, but law-abiding Muslims who believe in our oath to protect the US from enemies foreign and domestic will
report jihadist activity as soon as we see it and leave it to the authorities and the justice system and the “rule of law” which we swore to uphold
to determine their guilt or innocence. These individuals stand convicted and Mr. Yee, Mr. Sues, and other Islamist apologists from CAIR cannot
get themselves to laud the tireless efforts of our Homeland Security and Justice Departments. Their comments speak volumes to the problems
endemic among those who believe in the ideology of political Islam. To them, justice is not about American security or the rule of law as defined
by evidentiary procedures in the United States. Rather to the Islamist, justice is about preferential treatment for Islamist Muslims over the rule
of law which is thankfully applied in this country blind to one’s personal religious practice. Draw a cartoon, criticize an Islamist, or report unusual
activity on an airplane and the wrath of Islamist leaders will be brought upon you. However, be convicted of a conspiracy to kill military personnel
by a jury and CAIR’s apologists will find a reason to apologize for the verdict and put America on warning that they will not help improve security
if these types of criminals are targeted.

M. Zuhdi Jasser
President, AIFD

*************************

     'Nuff said ...

Happy Hanukkah

For the next eight days to my Jewish friends.

This Day in Islamic Terrorism: Lockerbie

Introducing a new feature here at Amboy, This Day in Islamic Terrorism. It's an Idea I've been pondering for quite awhile. I've been building a calender of the more significant events over the last few months and I feel the 20th anniversary of Lockerbie is a good time to start this new feature.

The reason for This Day in Islamic Terrorism is to remind people that Terrorism is motivated by jihad and didn't begin or end with 9/11.

On this day in 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members aboard, as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground. A bomb hidden inside an audio cassette player detonated in the cargo area when the plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet. The disaster, which became the subject of Britain's largest criminal investigation, was believed to be an attack against the United States. One hundred eighty nine of the victims were American.

Islamic terrorists were accused of planting the bomb on the plane while it was at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. (...)

Sixteen days before the explosion over Lockerbie, the U.S. embassy in Helsinki, Finland, received a call warning that a bomb would be placed on a Pan Am flight out of Frankfurt. There is controversy over how seriously the U.S. took the threat and whether travelers should have been alerted, but officials later said that the connection between the call and the bomb was coincidental.

In 1991, following a joint investigation by the British authorities and the F.B.I., Libyan intelligence agents Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were indicted for murder; however, Libya refused to hand over the suspects to the U.S. Finally, in 1999, in an effort to ease United Nations sanctions against his country, Qaddafi agreed to turn over the two men to Scotland for trial in the Netherlands using Scottish law and prosecutors. In early 2001, al-Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison and Fhimah was acquitted.

In 2003, Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing, but didn't express remorse. The U.N. and U.S. lifted sanctions against Libya and Libya agreed to pay each victim's family approximately $8 million in restitution. In 2004, Libya's prime minister said that the deal was the "price for peace," implying that his country only took responsibility to get the sanctions lifted, a statement that infuriated the victims' families. Pan Am Airlines, which went bankrupt three years after the bombing, sued Libya and later received a $30 million settlement.

Gaddfi's Son Saif opined on the subject earlier this year.

"You have to ask the families of the victims," he said. "The negotiation with them, it was very terrible and very materialistic and was very greedy. They were asking for more money and more money and more money.

"I think they were very greedy and I think they were trading with the blood of their sons and daughters."

So to say that Libya expressed no remorse is a bit of an understatement.

The Victims of Pan Am Flight 103

Here's the Islamic Terror Calender for December.

Dec 7, 1985 Hezbollah bombs two print shops in Paris.

Dec 11, 1994 Phillipeans Airline flight 434 bombed by Ramzi Yousef

Dec 13, 2001 Terrorist attack on Indian Parliament.

Dec 14, 1999 Ahmed Ressam is arrested on the US-Canadian border in Port Angeles Washington with a trunkful of explosives. He confessed to planning to bomb LAX as part of the millennium terror plots.

Dec 17, 1973 Palestinian terrorists bomb Pan Am Flight 110, killing 30

Dec 21, 1998 Lockerbie

Dec 22, 1975 Carlos the Jackal, member of PFLP, takes 42 hostages on a DC-9 to Algiers.

Dec 22, 2001 Richard Reid, attempting to destroy American Airlines Flight 63, is subdued by passengers and flight attendants before he could detonate his shoe bomb.

Dec 24, 1994 Air France flight 8969 hijacked by GIA 3 killed 3 injured.

Dec 24, 1999 Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacked by the Taliban. 1 killed.

Dec 24, Christmas Eve 2000 Indonesia bombings, 18 killed.

Dec 25, 1986 Iraqi airways flight 163 hijacked by Islamic jihad. 63 killed.

Dec 26, 1968 Two Palestinian gunmen attack El Al jet, killing 1.

Dec 27, 1985 Rome and Vienna Airport Attack carried out by Abu Nidal, 18 killed.

Dec 30, 2000 Phillipeans,  Rizal Day Bombings, 22 dead, over 100 injured.

Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary's Thoughts, DragonLady's World, Cao's Blog, Democrat=Socialist, Conservative Cat, Allie is Wired, Political Byline, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl, Rosemary's News and Ideas, The Pink Flamingo, CORSARI D'ITALIA, L.O.M.A., Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper: Special "Rights" for Muslims?

An Anti-CAIR blogburst.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution & CBS46.com recently carried stories about a Muslim woman who had been refused entry to a courtroom due to her refusal to remove the scarf covering her head.

 

     From the articles, we learn that Valentine was stopped before going through the metal detector and informed by the bailiff that she would not be permitted into the courtroom unless she removed her head covering.

     After informing the bailiff that wearing the head covering was “her right”, Valentine (Miedah):

 

     Miedah says when she tried to leave, the bailiff's stopped her.  She admits she argued,
then pulled away when a bailiff grabbed her arm. She said she was handcuffed
and brought before Judge Keith Rollins.

     It didn’t help that Valentine used profane language during the confrontation.

 

     Valentine refuses to comply with the orders of a judge and pulls away from the bailiff after arguing, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) rushes in to defend what is apparently a case of very rude behavior in a courthouse over the insistence of a “right” not in existence in current law.

 

     Judge Rollins imposed a ten-day sentence for contempt which was later reduced to six hours. Attempts to gather more information from the Douglasville, Georgia Police Department were unsuccessful.

 

     CAIR Spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, had this to say:

 

“When somebody is denied access to our judicial system based on religiously mandated attire, then what
does that say?  No Muslim woman can have access to a courtroom in Douglasville, Georgia?…
“A judge does have the right to set decorum in a courtroom, but you can’t use those standards
to violate someone’s legal rights.”

     Hooper mentions “legal rights”, but just what does this mean?  A Muslim woman should be allowed to wear a headscarf in the courtroom, but a non-Muslim woman is banned from wearing a head covering?  If so, would Muslim women have to carry a special government ID to prove they are Muslim?

     What about the “rights” of non-Muslim women to wear a headscarf in a courtroom?  How would this square with the Constitution which is crystal clear on the point that all people are equal before the law?  Is there a “special” Constitution for Muslims, or not? 

     There are many religious beliefs that do not fit in with current courthouse security regulations; for instance, Sikh men carry small daggers as part of their religious beliefs; should they be permitted to carry these weapons into the courthouse?

     If not, why not?

     From what we know, Judge Rollins does not permit anyone, Muslim or not, to wear a head covering of any kind in his court.

     Therefore, no discrimination has taken place.

     Hooper has filed a complaint with the US Attorney Generals Office regarding this incident.

     Good for him.  This issue needs to be resolved once and for all.  Is the Judge in control of the courtroom, or CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood front group created for Hamas?

Links:   

http://www.ajc.com/living/content/metro/stories/2008/12/17/muslim_scarf_hijab_arrest.html

http://www.cbs46.com/news/18297379/detail.html#-

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/10/fbi-cair-is-a-front-group-and.html

Auto Bailout Slogan

Thanks to Edge.

Poster child.