The EU, religion and climate change

European Commission President Barroso, Slovenian Prime Minister and current President of the European Council Jansa and president of the European Parliament Poettering (in other words, all the most senior EU leaders) convened a meeting on May 5 in Brussels of Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders to - why didn't anyone think of this before? - discuss climate change and reconciliation. Barroso said of these leaders: "Thanks to their moral authority, their outreach and their structure, they are well placed to make a valuable contribution, mobilising our societies for a sustainable future."

The one Muslim representative named in the euobserver.com article (see here, thanks to Brussels Journal) was Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina Mustafa Ceric. He is here and here identified as prominent in the global Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood's credo is: "Allah is our goal, the prophet our model, the Koran our constitution, the Jihad our path and death for the sake of Allah the loftiest of our wishes." Nothing like tacking sustainable development on the end of that list!

Polygamy in California

This is actually an old story; the individual on trial, Mansa Musa Muhummed, was arrested in 1999, accused of having three wives and 19 children, whom he beat and starved - and lived off of, since he didn't work. Note that he uses (relevant) quotations from the Koran and Reliance of the Traveler to justify his actions. Read the details here, thanks to Dhimmi Watch. It will be interesting to see if this story is reported by the mainstream media.

The UN in Gaza

The Israelis have long accused the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN's relief agency in Palestine, of helping Palestinian terrorists. Now it turns out that one fatality in a recent Israeli air strike in Gaza was none other than Awad al-Qiq, science teacher and headmaster of the Rafah Prep Boys School, run by UNRWA. He was building rockets for Islamic Jihad to fire into Israel; although his family and UNRWA said they knew nothing about his secret life, Islamic Jihad celebrated him as one of their own. Makes you wonder what he taught in his science classes! Read all about it here (thanks to Melanie Phillips).

Islamists in prison

If you've ever wondered what happened to terrorists after they're convicted and sentenced, read this new report, "Terrorists behind Bars", issued by the NEFA Foundation. Among other things, Islamists in prison have recruited new members, organized break-outs, and sought to communicate with others on the outside to plan further attacks. The report also analyzes the U.S. and European prison environments, as well as efforts by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Yemen and the U.S. military in Iraq to 're-educate' captured Islamists (see my earlier blog entry).

More on censorship

More details are emerging regarding the infamous directive, applicable to the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counter Terrorism Center as well as to the State Department, that outlaws the use of words such as 'jihad' or 'jihadi' or 'mujahadin' to avoid alienating 'moderate Muslims.'

Once censorship starts, it has a way of spreading. Not too long ago, the UK government forbade the use of certain words that linked Islamist activity to Islam. Now, similar controls are being applied to UK television programming (thanks to Islamist Watch for this item).

If I remember correctly, I recently saw an item in which a Swedish minister called for controls to be applied to bloggers.

Albanian Muslims and Jews

I just saw a moving exhibition dedicated to Albanian Muslims who rescued Jews during World War II, receiving as a result the title of 'Righteous' from Yad Vashem. The individuals interviewed gave two reasons for their actions. First, their Albanian code of besa, which means keeping the promise and is closely related to the concept of honor, required them to protect visitors, if necessary with their own lives. Second, they believed that, as Muslims, the saving of one life would open for them the doors of paradise.

The result: Albanians saved the 200 Jews who lived in Albania, plus over 1,000 others who fled there during World War II - apparently, only one family perished at the hands of the Germans. Often, the entire community knew that Jews were being hidden among them, yet no one betrayed them. And, in the cases included in this exhibit, the Albanian benefactors refused any payment for their help.

I wasn't able to find online information about the exhibit itself, but did find some documentation on the Yad Vashem website. For those pages, click here.

Tips from Iraq

Judith Miller, in City Journal, provides a fascinating description of the U.S. military's efforts in Iraq to deprogram and retrain detainees suspected of jihadist activity. Its programs in the two main detention camps teach basic literacy (over 60% of the detainees are illiterate), history, civics, geography, math, and practical skills such as carpentry. The programs also include religious discussion sessions; detainees began volunteering for those sessions after the hard-core jihadists were physically separated from them.

Over 23,000 people are now in the camps; the first task is to identify those who are not jihadists, and release them. Those released must pledge before an Iraqi judge not to resort to violence and respect Iraqi laws. Where possible, those pledges are guaranteed by family members. So far, of 8,000 released, only 21 have been rearrested for suspected insurgent activity - some 0.2% of the total.

The authorities hope to release at least two-thirds of the remaining detainees by the end of 2008. Most are Sunni males aged 18-29; there are only 240 foreign fighters. According to Miller, the vast majority appear to have been motivated primarily by economic reasons, rather than jihadist fervor.

It's still 'early days,' but this initiative bears close watching. Not so long ago Al Qaeda identified Iraq as the central front in its war on the West. If U.S. and Iraqi authorities can find a way to provide a better alternative to radical Islam and make it stick, this should have repercussions far beyond the borders of Iraq.