Dinah Lord

Barry's speech to the Muslims - rich in symbolism. None of it good for us.

From Amir Taheri - Barack Obama is blind to his blunders over Islam.    (Blind and CLUELESS.)

The choice of the date for Obama's address indicates his attention to detail. It coincides with the anniversary of the start of the first battle between Islam, under Prophet Muhammad, and Christendom in the shape of a Byzantine expeditionary force in AD629. The “address to Islam” also marks the 30th anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini's demise and the appointment of Ali Khamenei as the new “Supreme Guide of the Islamic ummah”. More importantly, it also coincides with the rebuilding of the Ka'abah, the stone at the heart of Mecca, which had been destroyed in a Muslim civil war.

Rich in symbolism, Obama's “address to Islam” is also full of political implications. Obama is the first major Western leader, after Bonaparte, to address Islam as a single bloc, thus adopting the traditional Islamic narrative of dividing the world according to religious beliefs. This ignores the rich and conflict-ridden diversity of the 57 Muslim-majority nations and fosters the illusion, peddled by people such as Osama bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Islam is one and indivisible and should, one day, unite under a caliphate.

Read it all here.

You thought the Obamas dinner and B'way show were an outrageous waste of taxpayer $?

Wait til you get the tab for the Egypt trip where Obama submits to Islam.

Okay, I know it's Debka.  But, come on.  Let's watch the White House try and spin this.

US president Barack Obama has not yet decided whether his historic speech reaching out to the Muslim world will be delivered on June 4 from a lecture hall at Al Azhar University in Cairo or its main mosque, DEBKAfile's Middle East sources report. If the second, his address will take place in the presence of Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, the Sunni Muslim world's greatest religious authority. In any event, Al Azhar is the most eminent school of Islamic learning in the world and the US president therefore expects its impact to far outweigh his first address to Muslims from Istanbul.

His arrival from a meeting with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on June 3 is planned to add extra weight to Obama's dramatic outreach to Muslims, since the king officiates as Custodian of the Holy Places to Islam.

Radical Muslims will therefore have all the more reason for rejecting it.

Giant transports have been landing at Cairo airport, unloading a fleet of armored vehicles, White House helicopters, counter-terror weapons and the vanguard of the 3,000 Secret Service officers backed by CIA and FBI personnel who will secure the US president during his stay in Egypt. Cairo will soon be in turmoil as forces are deployed from a command center at the American Embassy to control sections of downtown Cairo, with guard posts on the Nile River's banks, the international airport, main railway terminals and approaches to the city.

Some 30,000 Egyptian security personnel including army units stationed in Cairo have been placed on special duty until the American president leaves. Their names and those of the welcoming party at Al Azhar University were submitted to the US presidential security center.

Obama is due to land in Cairo Thursday at 10 a.m., drive to the Abidin Palace to meet President Hosni Mubarak and proceed from there to Azhar University. His convoy will be escorted by vehicles equipped with sensors for detecting firearms and explosives and covered by Marine helicopters overhead.

Until the last minute, the president's routes to the university have been withheld from Egyptian security authorities as a safeguard against leaks to hostile elements.

H/T to Stilletos in the Sand who tipped me off to find the original article.

News media all a-flutter at the Messiah's address to the Muslim world

I'm sure you've been seeing the slew of articles about the Messiah's upcoming address to the Muslim world.  For example:

Obama sets out to rebuild ties with world's Muslims

Obama's message:  I have a dream for Islam

Obama offers olive branch to Middle East

Why Obama's middle east speech matters.

Obama shouldn't let his speech to the 'Muslim world' be as much of a missed opportunity as his speech to Europe was

Middle East hangs on Obama's words.

Obama's address at Cairo will outline his personal commitments

Obama to visit Cairo,  a center of Islamic learning

Obama in the Muslim world

Not had enough yet?  Here's a little palate cleanser to remind you of the folks the Messiah will actually be addressing.

 Welcome to Cairo, Mr. President.

News travels fast in Cairo but it usually travels wrong. In the 1980s, riots broke out and people were killed over a wild rumor that Christians were spray-painting crosses on Muslim women's dresses using invisible ink. Subsequent rumors claimed that the iconic label of Coca-Cola (the company was fresh out from under a two-decade Arab League boycott for having a bottling plant in Israel) showed the Arabic words "No Mohammed, No Mecca" when viewed in the mirror. One would imagine that with a little squinting, literate Egyptians would be uniquely positioned to disconfirm such a thesis. In the end, it took Egypt's grand mufti to issue an opinion that the logo had been "designed in Atlanta 114 years ago in the state of Georgia and was written in a foreign language, not Arabic."

No sooner had the Coke business been put to bed than another rumor cropped up claiming that aftermarket seat belts made in Israel contained a chemical designed to make Arab men sterile (Cairo's enormous fleet of cabs have been retrofitting seatbelts in recent years). As with the invisible ink rumor, this one probably cannot be disproved, though with population densities in "popular" quarters pushing 1,000 per acre, it is hard to see what all the fuss was about. Not surprisingly, Egyptians get on each other's nerves...

Egypt: They ogle, they touch, they use the filthiest language possible."

It is estimated that 46 percent of all women are harassed daily and the fact that 50 percent of the women wear the hijab, and 9 percent wear the niqab?  It don't matter!  Being veiled is not the great protector of female modesty and chasity that our Muslim friends claim it to be.

"This was not the Egyptian hospitality we knew..."

From IPSnewsnet.

As night falls over Egypt’s capital, youth gather along the banks of the Nile where a carnivalesque atmosphere prevails.

Tamer and Mido have taken up positions on the railing next to the river. As a group of veiled teenage girls approaches, the duo works in tandem. Tamer removes the girls’ headscarves with his eyes, while sexually nuanced words roll off Mido’s tongue.

"Girls love the attention - it makes them feel attractive," says Mido, an engineering student, as the girls divert their eyes to the pavement and nervously scurry past. "They pretend to be innocent, but it’s just part of the game they play."

Women insist it is no game. They say the amount, and intensity of street-level sexual harassment has increased in the past decade.

The journey home from school or work can require running a gauntlet of gropes and taunts. "I’ve encountered every form of sexual harassment from men on the streets," complains Dina El-Sherbiny, a 31-year-old office administrator. "They ogle, touch, use the filthiest language imaginable."

A study published last year by the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights (ECWR) found that 46 percent of the 1,000 women who were surveyed, were harassed on a daily basis.

"The results were a shock for us - this was not the Egyptian hospitality we knew, and it was not compatible with all our ideas about harassment," ECWR chairwoman Nehad Abu El-Komsan told IPS.

Cairo University postpones student exams in advance of "New King Tut's" speech?

"I feel I can relate to Obama. He's African and his father is Muslim," said Abdel-Aziz Harby, a 31-year-old graduate student in educational studies.

What a joke.  I hate to break it to you Abdel, he was born in  Hawaii (we think) and that makes him an American.

Obama:  New Tutankhaman of the World  --->

From AP:

Cairo University has postponed student exams set for next Thursday and the Egyptian president's security service took over the campus in anticipation that President Barack Obama will address the Muslim world from its main hall.

While the American Embassy in Cairo will not confirm the venue, Egyptian officials say Cairo University will be the site of Obama's June 4 speech aimed at repairing U.S. relations with the Muslim world.

University spokesman Sami Abdel-Aziz said it is "90 percent" certain that Obama will deliver his speech from the campus, located off a palm tree-lined square on the Nile's west bank.

The landmark campus, which has been at the center of student pro-democracy protests, would provide Obama with a symbolic backdrop linked to liberal Arab learning. Its graduates include Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz. "It is a symbol of liberalism in Egypt," said Egyptian writer Ali Salem. "People used to send students to get bachelor's degrees to Europe to come back and teach. So this university was meant to be a real window to the world."

The university was apparently chosen over another deeply symbolic setting. The 1,000-year-old Al-Azhar mosque, the heart of a revered institution for Islamic study in Cairo's crowded and conservative old quarter, was also said to have been on the short list of venues considered.

Obama urged to speak to Muslim world from mosque to 'convey US respect"

Al Azhar mosque, that 'famed symbol against Western imperialism' is on the short list.  Problem arises with the thousands of shoes that would have to be left at the door - on a brighter note, I guess that means no one is going to be throwing one at his head.

One question:  Since Obama's thinking about speaking at a mosque, will the women have to listen from the basement?

From The Washington Times

When President Obama addresses the Muslim world from Cairo next month, Egyptian officials hope he will choose the 1,000-year-old Al-Azhar Mosque, the heart of a revered institution for Islamic study, as his backdrop to convey U.S. respect for Islam.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Margaret White said there has been no decision yet on the venue for Mr. Obama's June 4 speech on U.S. relations with the Muslim world. But two Egyptian security officials said Thursday that an American advance team scouted five potential sites this week and narrowed it down to a short list of three - the Al-Azhar Mosque and two other locations connected to it.

Al-Azhar is one of the oldest, most prestigious and influential institutions of higher learning for Sunni Islam.

Delivering his message from the 10th-century mosque would convey the American president's regard for Islamic religion, culture and history, Al-Azhar officials said.

"The Christians are Egypt's garbage men, and we are not liked..."

Yeah, this sounds like the ideal place for the Messiah's grand address to the Muslim world, doesn't it? 

More fallout from the Swine flu scare and the Islamists are playing it for all it's worth.

From Reuters:

Egypt's decision to ignore U.N. advice and cull its pigs over flu fears has unintentionally fanned sectarian tensions in the mainly Muslim country.

Pigs in Egypt are primarily reared by Christian garbage collectors who let their animals scavenge on organic household waste in fly-infested slums. They sell the meat, which Muslims consider unclean, largely to other Christians.

"The Christians are Egypt's garbage men, and we are not liked," said Marzouk Badr Adli after taking part in a recent protest against the cull in Cairo's Manshiet Nasser shantytown. "We serve the people and they come and cut off our livelihood."

Christians account for about 10 percent of Egypt's population, spanning all social classes. Relations with Muslims are usually harmonious although disputes over land, religious buildings or women occasionally erupt into violence. 

t has not helped that truckloads of security forces now stand guard at the entrance to garbage collector slums to help workers enforce the cull order, or that compensation has been low at just 100 Egyptian pounds ($17.79) per adult pig.

"We are starting to get concerned at the strong sectarian tone that is beginning to dominate the public discourse," said Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

"A discourse that implicates Christians with impurity on the one hand and disease on the other could have alarming consequences," he added.

A government minister has described Egypt's pigs as a time bomb, an Islamist parliamentarian appeared at a session in a protective mask, and the Coptic pope has stepped in to assure Muslims that most of his people don't eat pork. The meat is mainly consumed, he says, by foreign tourists and expatriates.

"This is not happening in a vacuum. It is happening in a context of a polarised society and a high degree of sectarian tension," Bahgat said of the cull and response.

But the decision to cull, while it does disproportionately affect Christians, was not taken for sectarian motives, most analysts agree. Rather, it was a chance for Egypt to rid urban areas of pigs -- something the government has long wanted.

Next, they'll want to rid urban areas of Christians. 

P.S.  Hey, here's an idea.  To improve sanitation in their fly infested slums, how about ridding their urban areas of GARBAGE DUMPS? 

Egypt: Pig farmers v. Police

Or as the Telegraph puts it:

Swine flu:  Egyptian police battle Christians as they enforce pig cull.

Pig farmers, many of whom keep their animals in the backstreet slums of the capital, Cairo, mounted a blockade against government workers moving in to slaughter their animals.

When they began throwing stones at police trying to force a way through, officers fired shots in the air and let off tear gas. At least 12 people were injured in the melee, according to one report.

The cull has been criticised by international agencies such as the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation, who say that despite the name there is no possibility of pigs passing on the disease.

The Egyptian authorities have admitted since ordering the slaughter last week that it was mainly a pretext for carrying out a reorganisation of the country's pig farms, which are used to supply the country's Coptic Christians, ten per cent of the population.

Looks like the garbagemen got into the melee, too.

One security source said police had gone to the Manshiet Nasr neighbourhood, a mix of concrete and brick apartment blocks and makeshift shanties, to seize pigs belonging to garbage collectors who make their living sorting trash.

But another security source said police were simply surrounding the neighbourhood to prevent residents from moving their animals outside the neighbourhood to hide them from officials seeking to enforce a cull.

"We serve the people and they come and cut off our livelihood. The pigs don't have any disease. The country is diseased. Take samples from the pigs and if they have disease, we would cull them," Manshiet Nasr resident Marzouk Badr Adli said after the clashes, complaining about the cull.

Iran: Mullahs put a hit out on Hosni Mubarak

Isn't this like an act of war?

From Gateway Pundit:

The regime-run news agency, Fars News reported that the Islamic Republic of Iran has announced a one million dollar reward for individuals who assassinate the president of Egypt. The news agency wrote:

"The ceremony for the designation of the reward for the revlutionary (sic) execution of the filthy traitor, Husni Mubarak has been organized through the justice-seeking movement of the (militant Basij) students as well as the cooperation of various other organizations. During this ceremony Forooz Rejaii, the secretary general of the organization entitled Rewarding The Martyrs of the World of Islam (and the suicide bombers brigade) spoke."

It is important to that the Rewarding The Martyrs of the World of Islam is an organization designed and supervised by the Iranian revolutionary guards.
Hat Tip Banafsheh Zand Bonazzi

(More at the link)

Somalia: Pirates go back to work.

 From the Associated Press.

Somali pirates seized an Egyptian cargo ship and its 28 crewmembers on Thursday while a Malaysian military helicopter saved an Indian tanker from being hijacked in the new year's first attacks by pirates in the dangerous Gulf of Aden. Fifteen armed pirates snatched the Egyptian vessel, called Blue Star, after the ship exited the Red Sea and entered the gulf, carrying a cargo of 6,000 tons of fertilizer, according to Egyptian Deputy Foreign minister, Ahmed Rizq.

The pirates then steered the ship toward the coast of Somalia, Rizq said.

He said contacts were under way with "international and regional parties" to get the ship released — which likely meant there were attempts to negotiate with the pirates.

In the other attack Thursday, a Malaysian military helicopter saved an Indian tanker carrying a full load of oil when it was attacked by two skiffs, one of which carried seven pirates dressed in military-style uniforms, said Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center.