This is the "Jewish state!" - (Warning, Disturbing Photos!) - By Cherifa Sirry in Cairo, Egypt

This is the "Jewish state!"
(Warning, Disturbing Photos!) ( 0)

Axis of Logic

Thursday, Oct 14, 2010

 

Crime and Punishment This is the "Jewish state!" (Warning, Disturbing Photos!) ( 2) Print This ShareThis By Cherifa Sirry in Cairo, Egypt. Axis of Logic Thursday, Oct 14, 2010   A few days ago another car with settlers deliberately ran over 2 more Palestinian children in the town of Silwan, in occupied Jerusalem.  The driver of the car and his friends of course fled.  In any civilized country this is called ‘hit and run’ and drivers are jailed for committing such a crime.  In Israel however, this is normal practice. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc9eh-cYJQw&feature=player_embedded Palestinian children and adults are commonly run over by settlers and the gruesome crime is hardly ever reported in US Zionist controlled media. Not only do Israeli drivers deliberately choose to run over their victims, but they also get away with their crime without any accountability.  Palestinian citizens and children are killed every single day by Israelis but their stories are deliberately ignored .  After all, maintaining Israel’s image of a “poor but civilized democratic” state is a crucial Western mission and a most sacred task for the complicit imbedded mainstream media which we all know is owned by Jews. This Israeli settler deliberately ran over the Palestinian man, then again in reverse and a third time moving forward. While Israel never stops repeating how committed it is to “peace” , ”democracy” and to the “moral values” of the civilized world, the truth is that Israel is a detestable entity and Israelis are a despicable bunch of liars and criminals ever since they set foot in Palestine.  Don’t we all remember “The land without a people for a people without a land” or “the Palestinians voluntarily fled”!? In this past month the majority of Israeli criminal acts against Palestinians has hardly been covered by Western media.. and when covered, it was described as “retribution for the killing of 4 Israeli Israelis”.  What Jewish-controlled media failed however to mention is that those 4 “innocent” Israelis were far from being innocent.  They were armed illegal settlers driving through legally acknowledged Palestinian territory in order to reach the illegal settlements in which they live and which were built in defiance of International Law, of signed agreements and UN resolutions.  These four Israelis were not “normal average peaceful citizens”, they were illegal settlers who like all Jewish settlers Palestinian territory,  seek only to steal more Palestinian land, annex it  and kill or transfer the legitimate Palestinian owners out of it.  Those Jewish settlers were anything but “poor innocent Israelis.”  They are terrorists.

While Israel is a “state” which came into existence because of an illegal and brutal occupation, Israeli officials and media don’t stop reminding the world of what ‘wonderful’ and of course ‘poor’ persecuted Jews they are when the reality is that they are an occupation force and it is the Palestinians who are persecuted wherever they go.  Israelis also don’t hesitate to tell the world that Palestine is theirs because God gave it to them!  It is extremely astonishing that the developed world doesn’t even bother to note that the Old Testament with all due respect is a theological document and not a historic or anthropological document.  Since when were ‘holy’ books in the scientific world used as Historical sources??  The day it becomes a requirement for History students to study ‘holy’ books in order to get their History degree, the “tribes of Israel” who weren’t even Jewish.. might think of making a claim to territory which isn’t theirs.  Besides, if holy books are going to be used as historical sources, than Egypt should ask the Jews to return the gold they stole from the pharaoh and it must be worth fortunes now!
Israelis are an obnoxious lot.  They are racists, liars, thieves and arrogant hypocrites who are very detested around the world.  In a European poll a few years ago, European citizens identified Israel as the most dangerous country in the world.  Were it not for Jewish control of media, Israelis would have had to deal with the wrath of the international community a long ago.

Even Rabbi's are Armed!

Today, the extremist Israeli government passed a law requiring Arab Christians and Muslim citizens who are actually the real owners of Palestinian land “to pledge loyalty to the state of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

"Jewish and democratic"!  My foot!

"There is no other Jewish state in the world” said prime minister Netanyahu. “The combination of these two lofty values expresses the foundation of our national life and anyone who would like to join us needs to recognize this.”
Values?!  Okay Mr. Netanyahu, let’s just remember that the Zionist entity called “Israel” is no more than occupied stolen Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese land without internationally and legally recognized borders and thus still without a constitution.  
Let’s remember Israel’s “lofty values” and the very foundations on which the apartheid “Jewish and democratic state” was built and on which it still depends for its very illegal existence. 

++++++++

The innocent Israelis "civilians" who are protected by the IOF

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Sakana says Islamic finance will survive real estate slump - CPI Financial

http://www.cpifinancial.net/v2/News.aspx?v=1&aid=6399&sec=Islamic%20Finance

Wednesday, October 27 2010

Islamic Finance Sakana says Islamic finance will survive real estate slump By: Staff Writer Print this article R Lakshmanan, Chief Executive Officer of Sakana Holistic Housing Solutions, said that Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) providing mortgages for off-plan properties are significantly exposed to risks due to delayed delivery and cancellation of several real estate projects, because the IFI owns the asset. In addition, the mortgage providers have also been affected to fall in property prices and increased defaults due to job losses. His presentation focused on Ijara Mawsofah fi Dhimah (Forward Lease) structure of financing which is used by the mortgage providers for off-plan properties. Lakshmanan said that risks associated with financing can be mitigated and managed effectively and suggested IFIs to focus on “developer due diligence” by carrying out detailed reviews of the developers’ credentials, and project feasibility including marketing and financials. Moreover, the IFI should also ensure tight project monitoring while making progress payments during the construction period. Lakshmanan also said that due care should be taken while preparing legal documentation with particular emphasis on penalties due to delayed delivery as this may have a financial impact on the IFI’s operating results. In addition, the IFI should ensure robust credit risk/control. Lakshmanan concluded that adoption of better risk management practices will enable growth of Islamic finance.

Bush and Cheney’s Neo-Con cabal must own up America’s onrushing oblivion - By Ghulam Muhammed

Monday, November 01, 2010

Bush and Cheney’s Neo-Con cabal must own up America’s onrushing oblivion

America’s is a mere 200-year history of success when compared to history’s many longish reigning civilizations.

The decline and oblivion of the US that till yesterday was projected as the lone superpower of the world, can most factually be traced to the role played by US President Bush, his Vice-President Dick Cheney and the Neo-Con cabal, who acutely suffered from a pathological hatred of Islam, Muslims and Islamic civilization --- thanks to the Jewish Historian Bernard Lewis’s theorizing of clash of civilizations.

Their megalomaniac doctrine of The American Century, unleashing America's immense military resources on weak defenseless Muslim world, could not be sustained to fully destroy the two Muslim countries, Iraq and Afghanistan.  

This sad chapter in the developing historical perspective, the world is suffering silently, is directly resulting from Bush/Cheney and Jewish Neo-Con cabal’s relentless obsession to defeat, destroy and dismantle the Muslim and Arab world.

Just as Great Britain’s three centuries old colonial empire disintegrated after its war with the Nazis, irrespective of who was right or wrong, who won and who was defeated, America whose own economy with 75% of its GDP comprising of its consumerism supported by unbridled credit creation, had already become a shell of its peak economic heyday.

The trillion dollar wars on Iraq and Afghanistan virtually forced its economy into a state of bankruptcy, from which it is impossible for it to resurrect itself again, given the present state of its basic deficit in productivity and ingenuity assets that were the powerhouse of its economic, financial and armed supremacy. That deficit cannot be filled in a hurry and with new power centers looming large on Eastern horizons, the shift away from the West and its warmongering and credit-profligacy going hand in hand, the future for America is very bleak.

President Obama is sailing against the tide by trying to reform the financial and fiscal system as well as resorting to populist measures, as patch-work Band-Aid jobs. He will need 20 years to find safe shores. He has at best only two years.

However, if the Tea Party and the Republicans take over from him, they are sure to hasten the doomsday that they are inadvertently or deliberately planning for their country. It will be a very bleak prospect for the rest of the world to see such a promising nation, so foolishly destroyed by a cabal of rogue elements that can perpetuate their stranglehold on power through media brainwashing of its own people.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com

<http://www.ghulammuhammed.blogspot.com>

US PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSAIN OBAMA'S MUMBAI VISIT IGNORES 4 MILLION CITY MUSLIMS - By Ghulam Muhammed

US PRESIDENT BARACK HUSAIN OBAMA'S MUMBAI VISIT IGNORES 4 MILLION CITY MUSLIMS

By Ghulam Muhammed

Obama's visit to Mumbai has left out any contacts with a 20 percent strong Muslim presence in the city, that projects an All India mix of relocated Muslims from practically every state in the Republic. That makes a very broad but very vibrant consensus of Muslims, especially when it comes to any reference to the USA.

Compared to 2006 Bush visit to India, when Mumbai Muslims staged a very strong protest rally against Bush visit over his illegal invasion of Muslim countries, this time around, even though privately Muslims feel Obama has belied all hopes of the promised change, he is still recognized as defusing the crisis centers of Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and recently Kashmir.

The city Muslim is calm and observant as to what Obama has to offer to Mumbai's heady mix of Hindu-Muslim cosmopolitinism that can forestall tragedies like the post-Babri communal riots, the Shiv Sena carnage and holding the city to ransom after the infamous Bombay Blasts, the train bombings and lastly the 26/11 tragedy.

It is evident that as local issues started taking back seat, when the international scenarios seem to dominate the danger of inflammations. Death of Karkare, the Anti Terrorist Squad Chief that exposed Saffron Terror and instantly became target of death threats from the Hindutva extremists, seems to be uncannily inserted in the 26/11 terror scenario; giving strong doubts of common authorship of the two distinct and disparate streams of terror, intermingling to achieve some common agenda.

It is uncertain, if Obama will touch on the deep malaise that exposes the city to such meticulously planned terror events. His focus is only cursorily on 26/11 carnage and possibly more on economic agenda that will take more of his time interacting with India's top business and industry leaders gathered in the Commercial Capital of India.

His cultural forays in this city of most vibrant and thriving cultural diversities, has pointedly ignored Mumbai Muslims, the overwhelming majority of whom have remained peaceful, even after their gross and wanton victimization by communal elements, especially in Security establishments and political opportunists circles. In a total city population of over 20 million, Muslims are about 4 million. That is as big a population as possibly half the population of Muslim in the US. The diversity of regional origins of the relocated Muslims in Mumbai only gets superseded when a common threat on their Muslim identity is organised by political elements. The Muslim reaction to such victimization has potential for great disruption in national and international peace atmosphere. If Obama had been rightly advised by the Mumbai’s American Consul General, a visit to a nearby 100-year old educational institution, Anjuman Islam, with student strength of over 100,000 Muslim boys and girls, right next to CST Railways Terminus, where Obama is scheduled to visit to pay homage to the innocent, would have symbolized as America’s big endorsement of moderate and secular Muslim’s one institution that is relentlessly struggling to offer modern and professional education to the masses as the bulwark against any uncivil activities that could threaten national or international peace.

A blast and a conspiracy By Smita Nair --- The Indian Express - Mumbai -INDIA

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/a-blast-and-a-conspiracy/701976/0


Tue, 26 Oct 2010

A blast and a conspiracy

By Smita Nair
The Rajasthan anti-terrorist squad’s 806- page chargesheet against six accused in the 2007 blast at Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti’s Dargah in Ajmer throws up some interesting facts, and alleges a well-thought out conspiracy to “avenge the attacks on Hindus”.

An unexploded bomb and a long trail

The first lead in the investigation was a live bomb inside an unclaimed bag found at the gate of the Ajmer Dargah — the investigation would later reveal that the second bomb was timed to explode a minute later from the first when the crowd would try to escape. The probe started with two SIM cards— one in the live bomb and the other in the exploded bomb — and the two mobile handsets used to trigger the explosion. The scope of the probe changed after the investigators matched similarities with another attack — two similar handsets and SIM cards were used as timers in the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad on May 18, 2007. The first step was to locate the current locations of the people who purchased the cards and the handsets. The forensic report pointed that the screen saver on the unexploded handset at Ajmer had the words ‘Vande Mataram’ written on it.

The number of the exploded SIM card was tracked down to Airtel’s Bihar-Jharkhand range and was activated on June 2, 2006. The purchase details were tracked to a name called Babulal Yadav from Mihijam and the card was shown to be sold from a shop, Mobile Care in Jharkhand. The SIM of the unexploded bomb was purchased from the West Bengal network of Hutch/Vodafone. The owner of this SIM was Babulal Yadav’s son Manohar Yadav, who belonged to Asansol. He produced a driving licence (WB 28 289892) at Sargam Audio in Chitranjan, West Bengal, to buy the SIM.


These two identities eventually led investigators to a yoga columnist named Taraknath Pramanik, whose identity the blast accused used to procure forged driving licences to buy 11 SIM cards and eight handsets to carry out explosions. The probe found that 11 SIM cards were procured with the same details — voter identity card and the same driving licence — from areas around Jamtara, Mihijam, and Asansol between May 24, 2006 and November 26, 2006. It came to light that two SIM cards used in the Mecca Masjid blast were from this same set of 11 cards. Ajmer blast accused Devendra Gupta was Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Zilla Pracharak during this period and all three places came under him.


While four mobile phones were used in the Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts — four other phones, that had at some point used one or many of the 11 SIM cards, were found to be in the possession of Madhya Pradesh residents Chandrashekar Leve, Ravindra Patidar and Santosh Patidar. When the team reached one Vishnu Patidar, a relative of the Patidars, it was found that Chandrashekar had told him to put the blame on one Pankaj Patidar, who had died.


Chandrashekar later confessed three handsets were given to him by another blast accused Sandeep Dange, who is also wanted for the 2008 Malegaon blast. It has now been found that when the Maharashtra ATS began their search for Dange in 2008, he was believed to have given the remaining four mobile sets (of the entire bunch of eight used for the blast operations — with four already used in Ajmer and Mecca Masjid) in a suitcase to RSS functionary Govardhan Singh, a resident of Shajapur, with instructions to hand them to Chandrashekar Leve, before Dange went underground. Chandrashekar Leve then, along with another RSS functionary Bhanu Thakur, left to meet Govardhan Singh.


Chandrashekar gifted three mobiles to his relative Vishnu Patidar and started using one for himself, which investigators say was his first mistake as it helped them track them down. One of the these three phones was eventually destroyed by Vishnu Patidar after it failed to work. With these forensic leads and confession of Chandrashekar (arrested on May 1, 2010), the investigating team made their first arrest, Devendra Gupta (April 29, 2010), followed by the others.

RSS links, 3 blasts and an ‘organised terror group’

.
During interrogation, Malegaon 2008 blast accused Col Shrikanth Purohit allegedly admitted before the Jaipur police that, among other things, he was acquainted with Swami Aseemanand, a resident of Dangs, Gujarat. Aseemanand had then informed Purohit that Malegaon 2008 blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh and Sunil Joshi had formed the ‘Jai Vande Mataram’ outfit and it should merge with Purohit’s ‘Abhinav Bharat’ as it would prove “beneficial to their cause”. Pragya and Joshi’s outfit’s name first appeared as the screen saver on the unexploded handset at the Ajmer blast site.


Purohit informed the cops that on the night of December 29, 2007, Aseemanand called to say that one of their “kaas admi” (important person) was murdered in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh. He is then alleged to have said that “Sunil Joshi is the person behind the Ajmer blast and it thus becomes important for us to probe who murdered him”.


Joshi’s phonebook and daily expenses diary had revealed much about his history, workplace, movements and other sources. The material revealed that Joshi was a “radical Hindu extremist” and that he had, a year prior to his death, assumed a different identity, Manoj, living in Dewas Bypass in a rented house. Four others — with assumed names of Raj, Mehul, Ghanshyam and Ustad — had lived with him for a year and a half before his killing, and had disappeared soon after his death, never to be located thereafter.
Agencies are still trying to ascertain the identities and the role of these four people — it was Joshi who had given them assumed names and they always tracked his movements.


The probe into Joshi’s death brought out some interesting relationships. Ajmer blast accused and Ajmer native Devendra Gupta was first introduced to Joshi when the latter was Zilla Pracharak of RSS in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh. Gupta, who was a low-level functionary with the RSS, slowly rose in the cadre through his association with Joshi and was eventually given a respectable posting in RSS sister body ‘Seva Bharati’ in 1999. In 2001, he slowly rose to the post of RSS Tehsil Pracharak.


Under Joshi’s guidance, he continued to work as an RSS functionary in Indore and Mhow region between 1998 and 2003. The association bloomed into a very “thick friendship” and the both met over a period, with Gupta shifting to Jharkhand and taking over the post of Zilla Pracharak till September 2008. Nine years of association saw the two meeting each other in the company of common friends at various places in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Jharkhand — this bond was later to become the framework for flow of ideas over secret meetings with extremists ideas.


Malegaon blast accused Sandeep Dange, who is now shown wanted in this probe too, was Zilla Pracharak in Shajapur, Madhya Pradesh. Another Ajmer blast accused Chandrashekar Leve worked very closely with him in the same region and their association goes back to 10 years.


RSS senior functionary and blast accused Devendra Gupta has confessed that the Ajmer blast was a conspiracy planned and executed by Sunil Joshi along with Sandeep Dange, Ramji Kalsangra, Lokesh Sharma. He confessed to making driving licences specifically for this operation for himself (WB38178780) and Sunil Joshi’s new identity Manoj (WB 38178781) on September 30, 2005 so that these forged documents could be used to buy SIM cards and mobile phones that will be eventually used in the blasts. So organised was their plot that Gupta exchanged the driving licence with Joshi at a railway station in Kolkata.


Gupta showed the Jamtara RSS office at Mihijam — the Bhupat Maheswari Sadan — when Gupta was a Zilla Pracharak between 2003 and 2008 and where “secret conspiracy meetings for exploding bombs in Ajmer and many other places were discussed”. This office was where many secret meetings were held since May 2005 after the decision to carry out blasts was taken in Ujjain during the Kumbh of 2004. Though this office is in Jamtara, Jharkhand, it is just 50 metres from the West Bengal border. The entire operation was run from Mihijam — right from the forged documents to the conspiracy.


First to be arrested, Gupta spilled the beans on Indore resident and RSS functionary Lokesh Sharma who was part of the conspiracy and who, along with Sunil Joshi, was responsible in procuring explosives for the blast. He and Joshi had procured the explosives from a certain Krishnadutt Pandey’s goshala in Depalpur.
The detonators were first procured by Sandeep Dange and later shifted to Ramji’s house along with pipes for making the bomb. While further probe is in progress, it is based on this confession that Sharma was arrested on May 15, 2010. He later confessed that the “secret meetings” continued at Malegaon blast accused Ramji Kalsangra’s Shantivihar Colony flat in Indore where the group eventually met to make the bombs used in the blast.


The explosives first exchanged hands at Dewas bypass in Indore where eventually Sunil Joshi would be murdered some day. Sharma also showed the shop in Faridabad where the handsets (the exploded handset in Ajmer and an unexploded one in Mecca Masjid) were purchased. Based on these links, Sharma and Gupta were arrested for their role in the Hyderabad blast by the CBI.


The chargesheet looks at the role of Swami Aseemanand, who emerged as a key figure in the planning and execution of the plot after he first led a group comprising Pragya Singh, Sunil Joshi, Sandeep Dange, Ramji Kalsangra, Lokesh Sharma, Devendra Gupta, Samandar and Shivam Dhakad during a secret meet, on the sidelines of the Kumbh in Ujjain in April-May 2004. This meeting, the confessions have disclosed, had discussed “the attacks by Muslim terrorists across 2001 and 2002 on places such as Amarnath yatra, Akshardham Mandir, Ahmedabad and Raghunath Mandir, Jammu,” says the chargesheet. “Critical of the government and police’s inability to handle the situation, this meeting vowed to avenge the attacks with the same vengeance.”


“Not only was Aseemanand found to be leading this group, but he had also offered his support and sanctuary to those like Sunil Joshi after the Ajmer blasts,” the chargesheet reads. Aseemanand was active with the work of Hindu Dharm Jagran at tribal-majority Ahawa in Dang districts in Gujarat in 1995 to stop Hindu conversions and to take on Christian missionaries. It also emerged that Aseemanand was known to have “close links” with Malegaon blasts co-accused Pragya, Purohit, Dayanand Pandey and Sameer Kulkarni, besides being responsible for bringing together Jai Vande Mataram and Abhinav Bharat, both of which had played an active role in the Malegaon blasts.


Joshi and six others — Lokesh Sharma, Ramji Kalsangra, Shivam Dhakad, Samandar, Sandeep Dange and Pragya Singh Thakur — reached Jaipur on October 31, 2005 and stayed at the C-Scheme Gujarati Samaj Room No 26 under assumed identities. It was here that a secret meeting was allegedly addressed by RSS leader Indresh Kumar in which he advised Joshi to align with some religious grouping while working to facilitate travel through cities under the pretext of some religious duties to avoid raising suspicion, the chargesheet says.

The action begins

The main plot was shaped in Jaipur and responsibilities delegated. Targets and their recce and explosive procurement and making the bombs was Sharma and Kalsangra’s responsibility. Gupta was made in charge of procuring forged documents to get SIM and mobile handsets, Pragya was given the role of media relations while the funding was entirely the responsibility of RSS Zilla Pracharaks Sandeep Dange and Sunil Joshi. Further probe is still in progress on the Jaipur secret meetings. It is from here that the Rajasthan ATS chooses to identify these people collectively as a “terrorist group” under the guidance of Swami Aseemand.


Another interesting aspect is that all these people were co-organisers at the Shabrikumbh organised in February 2006 by Aseemanand at Shabridham, Dang, where many people with extreme Hindu fundamental views participated. Another secret meeting took place here — the reference agenda was the Varanasi Sankat Mochan temple blast and how Hindus had been tolerant. Locations for targeting Muslims were discussed, which included Jama Masjid, New Delhi, Dargah Sharif, Ajmer, Mecca Masjid Hyderabad, Malegaon’s Muslim population and the Samjhauta Express. These locations were then to be vetoed and accepted by Swami Aseemanand. The group then left for Indore, after taking instructions from Aseemanand.


Joshi, Dange, Sharma, and Kalsangra then conducted another secret meeting at Kalsangra’s home in Indore in March 2006. While these remained the main players, they also were joined by Pragya in specific meetings in various locations. Bomb-making was primarily under the supervision of Dange and Kalsangra as they both were tech-savvy and Kalsangra was a qualified electrician, the chargesheet says.


Interestingly, after the Ajmer blast, Joshi called an associate of Aseemanand, Bharat Rateshwar, asking him to switch on the television and watch the Ajmer blast coverage and to inform Aseemanand that the blast was a success. Dang turned to be a safe haven for the accused after the two blasts of Ajmer and Mecca Masjid. After “successfully carrying out the blasts”, Sadhvi Pragya, Joshi, Dange, Kalsangra, Gupta, Sharma, Dhakad and Samandar visited Ujjain and performed last rite ceremonies of blast victims killed in attacks by “Muslim terrorists”.

Anti-Muslim crusaders make millions spreading fear - By Bob Smietana • THE TENNESSEAN •

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101024/NEWS01/10240374/Anti-Muslim-crusaders-make-millions-spreading-fear

Anti-Muslim crusaders make millions spreading fear

By Bob Smietana • THE TENNESSEAN • October 24, 2010

First of Two Parts

Steven Emerson has 3,390,000 reasons to fear Muslims.

That's how many dollars Emerson's for-profit company — Washington-based SAE Productions — collected in 2008 for researching alleged ties between American Muslims and overseas terrorism. The payment came from the Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation, a nonprofit charity Emerson also founded, which solicits money by telling donors they're in imminent danger from Muslims.

Emerson is a leading member of a multimillion-dollar industry of self-proclaimed experts who spread hate toward Muslims in books and movies, on websites and through speaking appearances.
Leaders of the so-called "anti-jihad" movement portray themselves as patriots, defending America against radical Islam. And they've found an eager audience in ultra-conservative Christians and mosque opponents in Middle Tennessee. One national consultant testified in an ongoing lawsuit aimed at stopping a new Murfreesboro mosque.

But beyond the rhetoric, Emerson's organization's tax-exempt status is facing questions at the same time he's accusing Muslim groups of tax improprieties.

"Basically, you have a nonprofit acting as a front organization, and all that money going to a for-profit," said Ken Berger, president of Charity Navigator, a nonprofit watchdog group. "It's wrong. This is off the charts."

But a spokesman for Emerson's company said the actions were legal and designed to protect workers there from death threats.

"It's all done for security reasons," said Ray Locker, a spokesman for SAE Productions.
Emerson made his name in the mid-1990s with his documentary film Jihad in America, which aired on PBS. Produced after the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the film uncovered terrorists raising money in the United States.

He followed up with the books Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S. and American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us.

He claims that extremists control 80 percent of mosques in the United States. In August, he claimed to have uncovered 13 hours of audiotapes proving that Feisal Rauf, the imam behind the proposed mosque near ground zero, is a radical extremist.

"I don't think he'll survive the disclosure of these tapes," he told talk show host Bill Bennett.
Rauf is still in place as a project leader, even though tape excerpts have been online for weeks.
Emerson formed a Middle Tennessee connection last summer, when his organization uncovered pictures on a Murfreesboro mosque board member's MySpace page. His company said the pictures proved connections to Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization, but mosque leaders said they checked with the Department of Homeland Security and found the concerns were groundless.
Special Agent Keith Moses, who heads the FBI's Nashville office, told The Tennessean last month that the bureau doesn't discuss specific allegations.

"In a post-9/11 era, the FBI is taking every step to prevent further terrorist attacks," he said. "We also want to protect civil rights and the freedom of religion."

Others cash in

While large organizations like Emerson's aren't the norm, other local and national entrepreneurs cash in on spreading hate and fear about Islam.

Former Tennessee State University physics professor Bill French runs the Nashville-based, for-profit Center for the Study of Political Islam. He spoke recently to a group of opponents of the Murfreesboro mosque gathered at a house in Murfreesboro.

With an American flag as a backdrop, French paced back and forth like the Church of Christ ministers he heard growing up. His message: how creeping Shariah law is undermining the very fabric of American life.

"This offends Allah," said French, pointing to the flag on the wall. "You offend Allah."

French, who has no formal education in religion, believes Islam is not a religion. Instead, he sees Islam and its doctrine and rules — known as Shariah law — as a totalitarian ideology.
In his 45-minute speech, he outlined a kind of 10 commandments of evil — no music, no art, no rights for women — taken from his book Sharia Law for Non-Muslims. The speech was free, but his books, penned under the name "Bill Warner," were for sale in the back and ranged from about $9 to $20.

When he was done, the 80 or so mosque opponents gave him a standing ovation and then began buying French's books to hand out to their friends.

Frank Gaffney, head of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Center for Security Policy, earned a $288,300 salary from his charity in 2008. Gaffney was a key witness in recent hearings in the Rutherford County lawsuit filed by mosque opponents. He said he paid his own way.

On the stand, the Reagan-era deputy assistant defense secretary accused local mosque leaders of having ties to terrorism, using ties to Middle Eastern universities and politics as evidence. His main source of information was his own report on Shariah law as a threat to America, one he wrote with other self-proclaimed experts.

But, under oath, he admitted he is not an expert in Shariah law.

The list of people on the anti-Islam circuit goes on. IRS filings from 2008 show that Robert Spencer, who runs the Jihadwatch.org blog, earned $132,537 from the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a conservative nonprofit.

Brigitte Tudor, who runs the anti-Islam groups ACT! For America and the American Congress for Truth, earned $152,810, while her colleague Guy Rogers collected $154,900.

Unusual arrangement

Emerson's older, most established organization collects several times that in an average year.

Emerson incorporated his for-profit company, SAE Productions, in Delaware in 1995. He launched the nonprofit Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation in Washington, D.C., in 2006.

But he doesn't make that distinction on his website, www.investigativeproject. org, which describes the Investigative Project on Terrorism as "a non-profit research group founded by Steven Emerson in 1995." And today, the two groups share the same Washington street address, which is published on Emerson's personal website.

In 2002 and 2003, despite lacking nonprofit status, Emerson received a total of $600,000 in grants from the Smith Richardson Foundation, a conservative public-policy shaper based in Connecticut. The foundation declined to comment on the grants but said it gives money only to tax-exempt charitable groups.

Giving money to a for-profit is extremely rare for foundations, said Peter Bird, president of the Nashville-based Frist Foundation. It can happen only when the foundation keeps meticulous records on how the money was spent by the group that received it.

"It almost never happens," he said.

Locker, a former USA TODAY national security editor now working for SAE Productions, said his organization does not discuss funding.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation's 1023 application for tax-exempt status stated that all of the money raised by the Washington, D.C.-based charity would go to a nonprofit subcontractor with no ties to Emerson or any board members. The application also said the charity would buy no services from board members. Emerson ended up being the only board member.
In a letter dated Dec. 8, 2006, the IRS asked if there would be any ties between the subcontractor and the Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation. On Dec. 29, 2006, Emerson wrote back: "There are and will be no financial/business transactions between officers, board members or relatives of the aforementioned and applicant organization."

In 2008, however, the charity paid $3,390,000 to SAE Productions for "management services." Emerson is SAE's sole officer.

Because of its unusual arrangement with Emerson's company, the Investigative Project's tax returns show no details, such as salaries of staff.

Locker said the approach was vetted by the group's lawyers and is legal. He said that Emerson takes no profits from SAE Productions and therefore the Investigative Project is a nonprofit.
That doesn't fly, said Charity Navigator's Berger. Berger said tax-exempt nonprofits must be transparent and disclose how they spend money and how much they pay their staff. Emerson's group appears to be trying to skirt these rules, he said.

"It really undermines the trust in nonprofits," he said. "This is really off the grid."

The Frist Foundation's Bird said the discrepancy between the Investigative Project's application to the IRS and its practices is troubling.

"It looks like they told the government one thing and did another," he said.

But Rebecca Bynum, editor of the New English Review, a Nashville-based online magazine that's critical of Islam, said she has no problem with Emerson's big take. Her nonprofit took in $30,000 in 2008 and has no paid employees.

"I know that (Emerson) does great work," Bynum said. "They investigate very thoroughly. You can always count on what they say."

Inaccurate information

The message anti-Islam authors and groups disseminate isn't always accurate.

Brannon Wheeler, history professor and director of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the United States Naval Academy, said critics of Islam mistakenly assume that Shariah law is a set of fixed principles that apply to every Muslim, everywhere.

That's not the case, he said, making clear that he speaks as an expert and not for the Navy or the Naval Academy.

While French, for example, has put together his Sharia Law for Non-Muslims, no similar book exists for Muslims.

"There's no text that is entitled The Shariah," Wheeler said. "It's not a code of law. It's not like you could go to the library and get the 12 volumes of Shariah law."

Instead, Shariah is flexible, and applies differently in different contexts. It comes from clerics' and scholars' interpretations of the Quran and other holy books.

Wheeler also had harsh words for Gaffney's report, which claims Shariah is an imminent threat to America.

"He makes the Shariah look absurd and insidious by trolling through and finding outrageous rulings and then making them universal for all time," Wheeler said. "It's ridiculous."

Wheeler also responded to another criticism of Islam — that it allows Muslims to lie to non-Muslims. Critics of the local mosque often say that's why Muslims can't be trusted when they say they're peaceful.

Wheeler said the term applies only to Shia Muslims, the smaller of the two majors sects of Islam, during times of persecution.

"It's an escape clause," he said. "You are not required to tell the truth about your religion if someone is going to kill you. It's not to be understood as lying."

Middle Tennessee's Muslims are Sunnis, the larger sect. They find the constant barrage of mistruths about their faith baffling.

"What does Shariah law have to do with America? Why are they talking about it?" asked Abdiaziz Barre, who immigrated to Nashville from Somalia 17 years ago. He said he has heard claims that Muslims endorse slavery and terrorism.


That's nonsense, said Barre, who rejects both. But he's not going to lose sleep over the misinformation of critics.

"If people don't want to be a good neighbor or friend, so what," he said. "I have plenty of neighbors and friends."

Message gains traction

Despite what critics call inaccuracies, the anti-Islam message has found traction in Middle Tennessee, with some casually citing it.

Sally Snow hosted French's speech along with her husband, former Rutherford County Republican Party Chairman Howard Wall. She has been a regular at hearings in a lawsuit aimed at stopping a new Murfreesboro mosque.

One day this month, Snow arrived wearing sunglasses and joked that she was trying to cover up marks on her face.

"Howard's turned into a Muslim," she said. "He's started beating me."

French's crowd contained politicians and preachers, businesspeople and others — brought together by their fear of Shariah and their belief that Islam is incompatible with American life. Some oppose Islam on theological grounds, seeing it as a threat to their Bible Belt culture or, for Christian Zionists, to the state of Israel.

According to that belief, American Christians have a religious duty to protect the state of Israel. When Israel expands, they believe, Muslims in Iran and Iraq will be forced out of their homes to make way. Then the second coming of Jesus can begin.

"The reason America exists is to partner with Israel, to protect Israel," said the Rev. Darrel Whaley, pastor of Kingdom Ministries Worship Center and head of a Protestant ministers group opposed to the mosque in Murfreesboro.

Laurie Cardoza-Moore, who led opposition to a failed mosque in Brentwood, also is Christian Zionist. Her nonprofit, the Franklin-based Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, exists to drum up support of Israel among Christians.

With those stances out there, it's unlikely broad-based, interfaith cooperation is possible, said Rabbi Rami Shapiro, an adjunct religion professor at Middle Tennessee State University.

At an interfaith event at the university this month, he downplayed fears that Muslims would try to impose their religious laws on the United States.

"Muslims are not going to 'Shariah-ize' America," Shapiro said. "What's going to happen is that America is going to Americanize Muslims."

Still, he said, building trust between Muslims and some right-wing Christians will be difficult.
"According to their beliefs, Muslims are in the way of God's plan," he said. "You can't argue with that."

Contact Bob Smietana
at 615-259-8228 or bsmietana@tennessean.com.

PrePaid taxi service of Delhi Police - By Amitabh Thakur - Arkitectindia@yahoogroups.com

From: Amitabh Thakur <amitabhth@yahoo.com>

Sender: arkitectindia@yahoogroups.com

Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 02:39:12 -0700 (PDT)

To: Amitabh Thakur<amitabhthakurlko@gmail.com>

ReplyTo: arkitectindia@yahoogroups.com

Subject: [Arkitect India] PrePaid taxi service of Delhi Police

 

Friends,

Yesterday, when I and my wife had gone to Delhi for a one-day workshop on governance, when we stepped out of the Airport, I was asked by a person whether I needed a cab. When I said yes, he immediately guided me to a vehicle standing in front of the Domestic Airport. I hardly go out of Lucknow and have not much experience of travelling hence I sat there and asked for the fare to Gurgaon. The man started with Rs. 720 saying that I would also have to pay Rs. 80 extra for the toll tax at the Delhi Haryana border. I said it was too much and the person immediately said that I might pay only Rs. 600, a drop of Rs. 120 in one go. I was going to agree when wife Nutan asked me why I don’t get the fare verified. I was slightly reluctant but fearing that she might get irritated I came out of the vehicle. When I looked around, I saw a Helping booth which I later found belonged to the Delhi Police and provided service for Pre-paid taxi. I went there and found a very-well mannered police officer sitting there. I asked for fare for Sector 44, Gurgaon . He asked for the number of luggage and then told me the fare to be Rs. 360. I immediately paid and got a receipt. We sat in the prepaid taxi.

On my way,  I could not resist asking the taxi driver how these unauthorized persons were there right in front of the Airport. His reply was rather curt-“We all know how these vehicles are there. The cop standing next to that vehicle also knows the fact that they shall not be there as they are touts. Yet, no action is being taken against them because the policemen there are their friends.” After this he started blaming the police organization in the usual manner saying that justice was nothing but a dependent on a person’s financial and social position.

I was really impressed by this Pre-paid service being provided by Delhi Police and asked the driver of it was also being provided anywhere else. He said that it was only being provided at the two Airports and Ajmeri gate Railway station. I said that when this was such a beautiful system that was so helpful and safe for the passengers and was a great public service, why was it not extended? He again laughed at me and said that the reason is again the same. The taxi drivers oppose such a move because it will affect their business adversely and the policemen also go by their words because this way they are able to make some extra money.

Without going into the charges made by the taxi driver against the police, which people are so prone to make, I think the following few suggestions might be useful-
1. This arrangement of prepaid taxis might be extended in all big cities, if it is not presently being implemented
2. Again in such cities, it might be implemented at least at all Airport and railway stations.
It is a wonderful system, though it hardly needs any great technical skills. But this system is so much helpful for common people because-
1. The people get taxis at fare rate and cheating stops to great extent
2. The interference of police boosts much of public confidence
3. When the police notes down the vehicle number and the passenger’s name, it generates a very useful record for future reference and for safety

What are your views on this?

Amitabh Thakur
IPS,
Currently at IIM Lucknow
# 94155-34526