Muhammed Is The Third Most Popular Name In The UK…So Whats The Problem?

This week, the Office of National Statistics published a list of the most popular boys’ names in Britain and Muhammed is the third most popular name on the list, and is the most popular name in the world.

So why does the Daily Mail’s Max Hastings have a problem with this?

He alludes to not wishing to rouse ‘sentiment against Muslims’ but proceeds to do so in his rant.

Playing into people’s paranoia of an american neoconservative approved conspiracy theory of the ‘Islamification of Europe’ is downright ludicrous, nevermind it being backed up with statistics of his own choosing, furthermore it plays right into the hands of the ever rising numbers of the far right/fascist/nazi brigades who are targeting Islam and Muslims as never before.

The belief that Europe, and Britain in particular, is threatened by a Muslim tide which will not merely transform its traditional culture but, frankly, bury it, is a theme that is becoming more common place.

Its rabid opinion that allows itself to be passed off as the gospel truth that is fuelling the flames of Islamophobia, and sowing the seeds of distrust within our communities.

The underlying narrative to all Islamophobic reporting can be summarised as thus:

The EDL fascists are marching tomorrow on yet another Muslim area, this time in Harrow.

The UK as a whole is being made to bend over backwards to accommodate the far right. The apathy which was demonstrated in the political process allowed the BNP to win seats in the London Mayoral Election on the London Assembly, as well as in the recent Local & European Elections. Now the BNP get invited on the BBC’s Question Time to promote their abhorrent message.

The mainstream press lie through their teeth to tell people that Masajids are terrorist training camps in disguise.

The hate being promoted translates into a 67 year old grandfather being beaten to death as he left a Masajid on a busy London high street.

There has to be a more responsible form of reporting, without asking for self censorship, or wishing to get into the whole freedom of speech issue. Some of these media commentators are earning their crust with the promotion of their Islamophobic beliefs.

With a bit of balance, and thats all I’m asking for, they could provide their readers with a much realer narrative:

In Islam, silence is consent.

Speak up now.

Before its too late.

Israel Admits To ‘Jewish Jihad’ Against Islam

In a complete turnaround for the BBC and their so called impartial stand reporting on all matters concerning the Israeli’s, BBC Newsnight’s Katya Adler reports on the rise of the military rabbis who are changing the face of the once proudly secular Israeli army.

Her report is worth watching over on the BBC, (Follow the link Here) It is perhaps as critical a piece of journalism I have seen the beeb do on the israeli’s, in fact I’m even thinking about writing in to congratulate them.

You can bet the hasbara loving zionists are complaining right now to BBC producers.

Israel’s army is changing. Once proudly secular, its combat units are now filling with those who believe Israel’s wars are “God’s wars”.

Military rabbis are becoming more powerful. Trained in warfare as well as religion, new army regulations mean they are now part of a military elite.

They graduate from officer’s school and operate closely with military commanders. One of their main duties is to boost soldiers’ morale and drive, even on the front line.

This has caused quite some controversy in Israel. Should military motivation come from men of God, or from a belief in the state of Israel and keeping it safe?

The military rabbis rose to prominence during Israel’s invasion of Gaza earlier this year.

Some of their activities raised troubling questions about political-religious influence in the military.

Gal Einav, a non-religious soldier, said there was wall-to-wall religious rhetoric in the base, the barracks and on the battlefield.

As soon as soldiers signed for their rifles, he said, they were given a book of psalms.

And, as his company headed into Gaza, he told me, they were flanked by a civilian rabbi on one side and a military rabbi on the other.

“It felt like a religious war, like a crusade. It disturbed me. Religion and the army should be completely separate,” he said.

‘Sons of light’

But military rabbis, like Lieutenant Shmuel Kaufman, welcome the changes.

In previous wars rabbis had to stay far from the front, he says. In Gaza, they were ordered to accompany the fighters.

“Our job was to boost the fighting spirit of the soldiers. The eternal Jewish spirit from Bible times to the coming of the Messiah.”

Before his unit went into Gaza, Rabbi Kaufman said their commander told him to blow the ram’s horn: “Like (biblical) Joshua when he conquered the land of Israel. It makes the war holier.”

Rabbis handed out hundreds of religious pamphlets during the Gaza war.

When this came to light, it caused huge controversy in Israel. Some leaflets called Israeli soldiers the “sons of light” and Palestinians the “sons of darkness”.

Others compared the Palestinians to the Philistines, the bitter biblical enemy of the Jewish people.

Israel’s military has distanced itself from the publications, but they carried the army’s official stamp.

Still, army leaders insist their rabbis respect military ethics and put their private convictions aside. They say the same about the new wave of nationalist religious solders joining Israel’s fighting forces.

‘Religious duty’

I visited an orthodox Jewish seminary near Hebron in the West Bank. It is one of an increasing number of religious schools that encourage taking the Jewish Bible to the battlefield.

All students at the seminary choose to serve in Israel’s combat units while statistics suggest less ideologically driven Israelis are avoiding them. This has made headline news in Israel.

The 19-year-olds I spoke to at the seminary told me religious soldiers like them can make the army behave better and become “more moral”.

They believe it is their religious duty to protect the citizens of Israel, the Jewish state. The Lord commands it, they said.

The students’ seminary is built in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.

If President Barack Obama gets his way, Israel will eventually evacuate most settlements.

They are illegal under international law and Palestinians claim the territory as part of their future state. But for the religious soldiers the West Bank is part of land given to the Jews by God.

Gal Einav thinks many soldiers will refuse to close settlements down.

The settlement issue could well tear the army apart, he told me, adding that most of his officers were settlers these days.

“If it comes to a clash between political orders from Israel’s government and a contradictory message from the rabbis, settlers and religious right-wing soldiers will follow the rabbis,” he said.

Threat of ‘Jewish Jihad’

Israel’s military leaders strongly disagree.

Brig Gen Eli Shermeister is the army’s chief education officer

He admits some mistakes were made in the past but says the right balance has now been found with the military rabbis.

He insists Israel’s military commanders are the only ones in charge of the soldiers’ spirit.

“The moral code of Israel’s army is clear. We judge soldiers in the light of this code. Nobody can create another moral code. [Certainly] not a religious one.”

But Brig Gen Shermeister’s predecessor describes what he sees as clear and worrying changes within the military.

According to Reserve Gen Nehemia Dagan, what is happening in the army is far more dangerous than most Israelis realise: “We (soldiers) used to be able to put aside our own ideas in order to do what we had to do. It didn’t matter if we were religious or from a kibbutz. But that’s not the case anymore.

“The morals of the battlefield cannot come from a religious authority. Once it does, it’s Jihad. I know people will not like that word but that’s what it is, Holy War. And once it’s Holy War there are no limits.”

Many religious Jews object to the type of preaching heard during Israel’s recent Gaza operation.

They say it perverts the true teachings of Judaism as well as contradicts Israel’s military code.

Day to day, Israel’s army mainly operates in civilian areas – in Gaza, the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.

The influences that Israeli soldiers are exposed to are extremely significant.

How they view the Palestinians who live here is likely to affect the way they use their power and their weapons.

Watch Katya Adler’s film on rabbis in the Israeli army on Newsnight on Monday 7 September 2009 at 10.30pm on BBC Two, then afterwards on the Newsnight website.

A Good Day To Bury Bad News – Neo Nazi Faces Jail For Bomb Plot

Channel 4 News reported yesterday that self confessed Neo-Nazi Neil Lewington is facing a life sentence after being convicted of planning a racist terror campaign.

The white supremacist, who was trying to make tennis ball bombs, was found guilty at the Old Bailey in July of preparing for acts of terrorism.

He was also found guilty of having explosives with intent to endanger life and five other terror and explosives charges.

The 44-year-old unemployed electrician of Tilehurst, Reading, Berkshire, wanted to be a notorious race hate bomber. He admired Soho nail bomber David Copeland and Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh.

He was arrested by chance on a train after travelling from Reading, through London, to Lowestoft, Suffolk, with two firebombs in a holdall in October last year.

Police found he had turned his bedroom in his parents’ house into a bomb factory full of detonators, explosives, weedkiller and racist material.

It also contained three tennis balls and plans to turn them into shrapnel bombs which he said he could throw at the home of an Asian family.

A notebook had been entitled “Waffen SS UK members’ handbook” with a logbook of drawings of electronics and chemical devices.

Lewington wrote a chilling “mission statement” in which he boasted of two-man hit squads bombing the UK at random.

His conviction came after police counter-terrorism chiefs boosted their resources to monitor a surge in the number of suspected far-right plotters.

This has hardly made the news anywhere.

Why?

Because the media have been salivating over the victory of the guilty verdicts handed down to fizzy bomb plotters, as a quick scan of today’s front pages attest to.

At a time when the far right poses a clear and present danger to the UK, its very disconcerting to see news of non-muslim extremism being buried in the back pages.

Never Forget: War Crimes In Fallujah & White Phosphorus

Throughout 2004, American forces led a series of battles, culminating in an all out attack on the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

This was the first time in modern warfare that White Phosphorus had been used as a thermobaric weapon on a civilian population.

Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre is a documentary film by Sigfrido Ranucci and Maurizio Torrealta, documenting the use of chemical weapons, particularly the use of incendiary bombs, and the indiscriminate use of violence against civilians and children by military forces.

Five years on, doctors in Fallujah have seen a monumental increase in babies born with severe deformities.

The rise in deformities have been linked to the use of chemical weapons by US forces.

Take the case of three-year-old Fatima Ahmed who was born with two heads.

The prognosis for Fatima never looked good and, as feared, she never made it to her fourth birthday.

Take the case of Tiba Aftan who was born with a huge growth across her face.

Now she is a toddler her future is looking brighter having gone to neighbouring Jordan to have it removed.

The growth had covered half of Tiba’s forehead and was invading one of her eyes – and it was getting bigger as she got older.

Although the operation was a success Tiba will need more surgery and the last trip cost her family almost every penny they have.

There are a wide range of problems – from abnormalities of the abdomen to facial disfigurements, and those are the ones lucky enough to be born, there are countless deformed foetuses which have not survived.

Dr Ahmed Uraibi, a specialist paediatrician in Fallujah, has gone on the record to state that the number of deformities he has dealt with has increased in the last year.

People want an independent investigation into the impact of the kinds of weapons used – including controversial white phosphorus, which was also used extensively by the murderous Israeli’s on the civilian population of Gaza earlier this year.

These are just few of the cases of deformed children in Fallujah that have been mentioned in the press, its not exactly a ratings winner, and lets be honest, who cares about Iraqi children?

The people of Fallujah want to know how many more deformed babies there will be before someone sits up and takes notice of them.

The MET’s Finest Hard At Work

The UK’s biggest and most sophisticated gang, the London Metropolitan Police, have been taking their war against crime to new levels.

In an effort to teach people not to leave valuable items in their cars, ‘coppers’ will be wandering the streets looking for stuff to steal. If you don’t have your doors locked, the ‘rozzers’ will take your stuff.

Because they’re ‘Five-O’, they’ll also be kind enough to leave a note explaining what happened, but the point is to teach people to be more responsible.

‘Help us to help you,’

Is the message to car owners said Richmond Police Chief Inspector Duncan Slade in a statement.

So far the ‘po-po’ have only committed one robbery, while a couple dozen other potential capers were foiled when the car owners showed up.

In theory the idea seems not only bizarre but hilariously stupid, to see it put out into practice is quite baffling. You would have thought that they would have better things to do, catching drug dealers and foiling terrorist plans and the like, but I guess not.

But if we were wily thieves hearing of this public campaign, we’d just start leaving notes blaming ‘one time’ when we stole stuff….not that you heard me say it.

How To Measure Success In Afghanistan?

Is it when our Prime Minister gives us all another big speech restating his commitment to the mission in Afghanistan?

This comes after a ministerial aide, resigned over the governments ‘strategy’, or lack of it to be precise.

Falkirk West MP Eric Joyce said the UK could no longer justify the growing casualties in Afghanistan by saying the war would prevent terrorism back home.

Joyce a 21 year army veteran, held the rank of major before leaving in 1999.

In his resignation letter, Joyce questioned public support for the mission in Afghanistan and the government’s arguments for the presence of troops there.

While the reaction to Joyce’s resignation has been some what mixed, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has defended American military plans in Afghanistan, but warned that there is now “limited time” to show success.

There certainly were more successes to be had today for the US led invaders, as it was reported that NATO forces killed more than 90 civilians after an air strike blew up two fuel tankers supposedly ‘hijacked by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan’.

These ‘Succeses’ will be measured against ’50 Metrics’ a set of 50 measurements, which would gauge US progress in the Afghan-Pak war zone.

Currently under ‘test run’ by the White House, the metrics to assess war success would be presented before the Congress on September 24, as the Washington Post points out.

Whatever numbers come out of the Afghan election, it is the numbers about the Afghan war that the US/UK public is most concerned about.

As the coalition of the willing enter their ninth year on the ground in Afghanistan, public opinion is wary about the effectiveness of the military campaign, particularly as the death toll mounts.

Duking the stats is the answer to boost support for a war of choice to a populace that no longer has the appetite to see their sons return home in wooden boxes.

I said in an earlier post that in these wars of choice, the aggressor cannot summon the political will and military strategy for outright victory, however that is defined.

The indigenous population knows that their job is not to defeat the great superpowers to their every last man, but merely to prolong the war and to break the will of their oppressors through resistance.

Using measuring sticks to show progress and success in that country, by way of powerpoint presentatations and excel spreadsheets does not define success to me.

Boycotting Israeli Dates

Recent reports on the illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories make it abundantly clear that any upcoming talks are likely to follow familiar patterns of old.

Israel will make noises about peace, while refusing to budge on the key issues of Jerusalem and the right to return of exiled Palestinian refugees. This will be further exacerbated by annexing land, expanding illegal settlements as well as the continued ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

As in the past, our government, and the US too, will respond with nothing more than token disapproval, a mere shrug of the shoulders.

It is therefore up to individuals to make it clear to the Israeli government, via a widespread boycott, divestment and sanctions programme, that there is a price to pay for more than sixty years of ongoing violations of international law.

Each Pound, Dollar, Dirham or Riyal spent on Israeli goods, will eventually become bullets to be fired at the hearts of mothers and children in Palestine. For this reason, it is an obligation not to help them by buying their goods.

To buy their goods is to support murder, tyranny, oppression and aggression.

The chappies over at MPAC have been campaigning on this precise issue for years, so view the video above and learn to spend your money ethically and demand that your local Muslim shopkeeper does not stock any produce of Israel.

Google Knows Whassup!

Next time you find yourself bored at work, mess around with Google.

Type something blatantly racist/stereotypical about a group of people into Google, but spell it wrong.

Then replace it with the opposite group and screencap it.

Endless LOL’S & ROFL’S for all.

Just make sure the IT nerds aren’t watching you from their basement lair.