Monday, January 31, 2011

Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Politically Incorrect (and Life Saving) Truth About Muslim-on-Muslim Honor Killings

The Phyllis Chesler Organization



by Phyllis Chesler


January 28, 2011

Be the first of your friends to like this.


There are two honor killing trials currently underway in the United States: one in Tucson, another in Buffalo. Both defendants are Muslims and both murdered Muslim women.

Iraqi born Faleh Almaleki mowed his 20 year-old daughter Noor down in cold blood after she refused an arranged marriage to an Iraqi national and chose a future husband, American-style, all by herself. Yes, Almaleki stalked her and mowed his too-American daughter Noor right down in a two ton jeep and then, with the help of Noor's mother, his wife, and their son, fled to Europe, where he was captured.

The second defendant, Pakistani-born Muzzammil Syed Hassan, beheaded his 36-year-old third wife Aasiya, whom he had savagely battered for years, after she sued him for divorce; he also stabbed her 60 times.

Read the complete original version of this item...

Related Topics: Honor Killings

To subscribe to the Phyllis Chesler mailing list, go to

The Phyllis Chesler Organization















The Florida Security Council and the Clarion Fund

invite you to the Florida Premiere of


is a powerful documentary that exposes the threats

posed to America, Israel and the world by a nuclear Iran.



Feb. 8th, 2011

7:30 PM. eastern time

AMC Coral Ridge 10

3401 Northeast 26th Avenue

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306


Purchase your ticket

Space is limited

Make your reservation now!

To learn more about Iranium and to watch the trailer

Organizations Supporting


No Nukes for Iran

Christian Action Network

Zionist Organization of America

Act for America/Palm Beach County

Heritage Foundation

Foundation for the Defense of Democracies

Center for Security Policy

Christians and Jews United for Israel

Hudson Institute

Iranian Freedom Alliance

Confederation of Iranian Students

American Islamic Democracy Foundation

Pajamas Media

Family Security Matters

(many, many more...)




Please consider a tax exempt donation

and a financial commitment for 2011, so that we can

continue our activism in an

aggressive and victorious manner!


The Florida Security Council Team

JANUARY 30, 2011

FLORIDA SECURITY COUNCIL, 2200 4th Avenue N #3, Lake Worth FL 33461,

Daniel Greenfield article: The Fall of the Strongmen

Daniel Greenfield article: The Fall of the Strongmen

Link to Sultan Knish

The Fall of the Strongmen

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 07:57 PM PST

The attempt to establish a post-colonial order of kings and strongmen to replace the British and French colonial rule over the Arab Muslim world was doomed from the start. Some of the kings were overthrown by native officers who had been trained by the British and the French to fight their wars. The officers who overthrew them became strongmen themselves.

The recently deposed Ben Ali was a Tunisian officer trained in French and American schools, who had helped push out the French and his predecessor. Egypt's Mubarak was an Air Force officer who replaced Sadat, who replaced Nasser-- all members of the Free Officers Movement which overthrew the Egyptian monarchy. Saddam Hussein took power in a coup against the coup led by army officers which had deposed the King of Iraq. Syria's Assad was an Air Force officer who took power after a long series of coups by army officers that it would take too long to list. If you're seeing a pattern here, congratulations and welcome to the Middle East.

The only Middle-Eastern Arab countries which held onto their monarchies, were either oil rich enough to spread the wealth to the important families and retain only a weak military to avoid the risk of being overthrown by their own army while relying on US protection (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE) or so small and deliberately apolitical to avoid attention (Jordan, Morocco). The rest ended up with military strongmen, some backed by the US, some backed by the Soviet Union. The Soviet backed strongmen usually unveiled some poorly thought out version of Arab Socialism. The US backed strongmen just stuck to taking a cut of everything and packing it away in foreign banks.

But there was a ticking time bomb underneath these pyramids of wealth and misery. Islam. The kings had been nothing more than British puppets. The strongmen that replaced them were the apex of a new praetorian guard. Despite whatever philosophies they brought to the table, sooner or later they tried to become kings as well. Syria's Assad passed power on to his son. Saddam was preparing his sons to oversee his own dynasty. In Egypt, Mubarak is trying to do the same thing. But they have no tradition and no history on their side. Their rule is a farce in which they call themselves presidents and prime ministers, and go through the pretense of holding elections, but function like absolute monarchs. An unbalanced situation that eventually implodes.

The strongmen depend on army backing, but the armies of the Arab world are split drastically between an elite officer corps and the soldier who is treated like sheep dung. The officers and the secret police run the country, but when a mob gathers, it's up to the soldiers to hold them back. If the soldiers choose not to, then it's time for the strongman to get on a plane and escape the country. (This is essentially what also brought down the Soviet Union.) As an alternative, the strongman will leverage support from tribal structures, appointing loyalists to top positions in the bureaucracy and the military. (This is what kicked off the initial insurgency in Iraq.) But that too is a balance. Elevating one family, alienates another family. The tribal power structure has its own enemies built in. Those maneuvers for power can cause the incredible chaos so common after the fall of a strongman.

The Arab world may hold elections, but it is a long way from accepting notions such as equality, open access or guaranteed freedoms. Its rulers will occasionally sign on to UN covenants on women's rights or religious rights, without ever taking them seriously. The idea that one man is just as good as another, regardless of his family or religion, is a completely alien one to them. A woman being just as good as a man is not even a conversation starter. The Middle East still mostly consists of peasants from feudal backgrounds lorded over by a small elite. Bring democracy and human rights to the Middle East? You might as well walk into 12th century Europe with a copy of the Constitution and expect not to be beheaded.

So what happens when a strongman is overthrown? Either he will be replaced by one of the coup leaders who will become the new strongman. If not he will also be overthrown. Or he will be replaced by an oligarchy which will eventually come to be dominated by its strongest and most ruthless member who will become the new strongman. (That is how Iraq ended up ruled by the House of Saddam.) As you can see there really isn't an alternative here. It's the strongman or nothing.

But there is a seeming alternative. A different power structure than a corrupt dictator and his thugs. One based not on power, greed and family-- but religion. Islam.

Most of the 'reformers' are usually fighting for either a takeover by the local socialist party or the local Islamist party. The general public will join in the stone throwing and the looting, without necessarily taking sides. Often the socialists and the Islamists will actually cooperate to bring down the dictator. Then one will take power and begin killing the other. Western media rarely bother to report this, either out of ignorance or due to propaganda. They treat most of the crowd scenes as popular uprisings, which they are but not in the sense that the people will get to decide one way or another. Only that they get a chance to take part in the brief spurt of violence before being ordered to go home.

The Islamists promise a system based on Allah's law. Rule by moral clerics instead of greedy officials. Traditional values, benefits for families and teddy bears not named Mohammed for everyone. It's a scam of course. The Islamist takeover means another strongman or oligarchy. Except instead of being named General Saddam Hussein, he'll be known as the Ayatollah Khomeini. The differences are minimal. The ruling families will still sock away money in foreign banks. Loyalists will still be appointed to top positions. The bureaucracy will go on abusing and blackmailing the public. The police will still be vicious thugs. And law will be promulgated by Imams or Muftis or Mullahs, but it will still be the law that those at the top want.

Despite all that, or maybe because of it, the Islamists are still inevitable. Islam manufactures a group identity that may be paper thin, but it still more solid than recently manufactured national identities for regional Arabs who are expected to see themselves as Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians or Iraqis. Islam bridges tribal identities better than strongmen do. Its rulers will ultimately still reward their own families and favor their own tribes, but the process will take place under the guise of Islam.

When Mohammed invented Islam, he took existing beliefs and laced them up into a grand tribal identity. Islam is the meta-tribe, less a religion than a makeshift political system based on tribal alliances with the convenient sanction of a deity. Islam expands by creating a two-tier system that puts non-Muslims on the bottom, and encourages Muslims to wage constant war against them. None of this makes for a stable system, but it does make for a very volatile and expansionistic one. Arabs who will not die for Saddam or Ben Ali or Mubarak, will die for Islam.

The Islamists may not take over in Tunisia this time, but they will take over sooner or later. There and all across the Muslim world. (If it happened in militantly secularist Turkey with its army, then it really can happen anywhere.) Dictators will come and go, and eventually the local Islamists with funding from Saudi Arabia or Iran will put together a proper show and take over. And eventually the people will get tired and try to throw them out, as is happening in Iran. It's the natural political cycle of a region with no true national identities, no real principles of government, no law and no commitment to anyone outside the family.

We could slow down or even avert the process, by pushing Westernization and cutting the legs off Saudi Arabia and Iran. But we aren't about to do it. We could at least stop sending them money by the barrel, but we aren't about to do that either. And that's the real problem, not Ben Ali or Mubarak. Calling for the regimes to respect democracy and human rights just undermines whoever is in power. It does not lead to them being replaced by anything better. To do that, the entire culture would have to change. And that isn't happening.

The strongmen will fall. And the media will act like it's Romania in 1989, rather than just part of the cycle of coups in a system that cannot have anything better than tyrants of one sort or another. Eventually Islamists will come to power and wage war against us. It's up to us whether they win or not.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Eye on Iran: Iran Nuclear Plant Will Be 'Ready in April'


Top Stories

AFP: "Iran's first nuclear power plant will be ready to generate electricity on April 9, atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi said on Friday, in signs of yet another delay. 'We hope that on Farvardin 20 (April 9) ... we will witness the connection of the plant to the national grid,' Salehi was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying. On November 27, Salehi announced that the plant, built by Russia in Bushehr, has begun operations, and that Tehran hoped electricity produced there would be online 'in a month or two.' 'The reactor has started its operation and the next step is to reach critical phase which will happen by the end of Bahman (February 20). We have said before that due to some tests, we may have face delays but these delays are around a week or two,' he said on Friday. He again reiterated that the computer worm Stuxnet had not entered the 'main systems,' and that Iranians are 'pursing work with the Russians while observing all the safety issues.'"

Reuters: "Global powers seeking to ensure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons are still hoping for a response from Tehran to a fuel swap proposal seen as a step towards ending the persistent standoff, Russia said on Thursday... Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said a revised fuel swap proposal, presented to Iran in Istanbul, could 'create the atmosphere of trust needed for more productive dialogue.' 'Now we are waiting for some reaction from Iran,' he said. The fuel swap idea, first proposed in 2009, is aimed at preventing Iran accumulating enough nuclear material for a weapon while enabling talks on a broader solution to proceed... Lukashevich did not describe the revised proposal in detail. During the January 21-22 talks in Istanbul, a Western diplomat said it called for Iran to send 2,800 kg of low-enriched uranium (LEU) and 40 kg of higher-grade material abroad."

AFP: "Top Iranian officials said on Thursday that Tehran is determined to push ahead with its mega gas projects without foreign aid and is raising billions of dollars to ensure their timely completion. 'We will not stop national development because of the others; we will not slow it down because of the absence of others,' Pars Special Economic Energy Zone managing director Moussa Souri told reporters in the southern Gulf port town of Assalouyeh. Iran has already invested $48 billion (35 billion euros) in the South Pars projects, and the oil ministry has allocated $50 billion to them by 2016, Souri said. Assalouyeh, in the southern province of Bushehr, has been chosen as the base for developing the offshore field. Iran has planned a massive $200 billion investment in the energy sector over the five years to 2016."

Iran Disclosure Project

Nuclear Program
& Sanctions

Bloomberg: "Iran may halt crude shipments to India in two weeks if a gridlock over payments that threatens $9.5 billion of oil trade between the nations isn't resolved, a top official at an Iranian trade body said. Indian refiners owe Iran about $900 million for crude oil after payments to the Persian Gulf state stopped more than a month ago, Mehdi Fakheri, vice president of international affairs at the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines, said in an interview in Mumbai today. 'If there is no payment solution, I am afraid Iran will be selling its oil to other countries,' Fakheri said. 'Then our trade exchanges will drop to almost 20 percent of' the current level, he said. Refiners including state-run Indian Oil Corp., the nation's largest, need to find a way to pay for Iranian crude after the Reserve Bank of India on Dec. 27 dismantled a mechanism used to settle oil trades in euros and dollars. Stoppage of shipments may force Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd., the largest Indian buyer of Iranian crude, to purchase oil at higher prices from the spot market."

Human Rights

CBC: "The latest legal battle pitting the family of slain photojournalist Zahra Kazemi against the Iranian government has ended in a draw. A Quebec judge ruled this week that the estate of Zahra Kazemi can't sue Iran because of Canada's State Immunity Act, but her son Stephan Hashemi can continue his civil suit because of a provision in the same act. It's a mixed result in a case that has been inching its way through Quebec Superior Court since 2006. The court ruling comes after a battle in which the Iranian government attempted to block the Kazemi family from suing for $17-million - arguing it was immune from legal action in Canada."

Foreign Affairs

"A senior Iranian cleric says protests in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen are evidence that his country's 1979 Islamic revolution is being replayed. Addressing thousands of worshippers at Tehran University Friday, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said a new Middle East is emerging based on Islamic values, not U.S. desires. Violent protests in Tunisia toppled former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and a 'Friday of Wrath' has engulfed Egypt, a U.S. ally. Protesters in Yemen also called for the outser of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled for nearly 32 years."

& Analysis

Olli Heinonen in FP: "The world's major powers are locked in a dead-end conflict with Iran over its nuclear program. Last week, talks in Istanbul between Iran and the five members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany, ended badly, with no sign of a breakthrough on the horizon. As the former head of safeguards for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), I have spent much of the past decade watching the ups and downs of negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. In the last few years, the stalemate has only deepened. During that time, I have learned that proposals and counterproposals too often fulfilled either one side's concerns or the other's, making it difficult to start the process of cooperation. Here's a proposal that could let both sides break this impasse and start rebuilding the trust needed to get at bigger issues. The Iranians have been enriching uranium to 3.5 percent U-235 for the last four years, flouting U.N. resolutions and Western sanctions. Last February, they also began enriching to 20 percent, sparking further concerns in the West that Tehran is working toward the capacity to make nuclear weapons. Iran says it needs that higher-enriched uranium for fuel for its aging Tehran Research Reactor (TRR), which produces medical isotopes for the country's hospitals. This is a widely recognized, legitimate need; every country relies on such radioisotopes, for example, in cancer treatment and other medical procedures. But the West is also legitimately concerned about Iran enriching uranium to 20 percent, not least because that gets Iran closer to the 90 percent enrichment required to make weapons-grade U-235. These concerns have grown as Iran has limited its cooperation with the IAEA and brushed aside questions about possible military dimensions of its nuclear program. A tentative deal fell through last year that would have swapped much of Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium for research reactor fuel that would have been produced by a Russian -- French -- U.S. consortium. Further talks have been inconclusive. And all the time, Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium continues to grow. It now has more than 3 tons, which should be sufficient, if further enriched, for one to two nuclear devices. In 2012, with the introduction of advanced centrifuges, Iran will be in a position to convert its current stock to high-enriched uranium in less than a year's time. This troubling scenario is actually a golden opportunity for the United States and its partners to get together with Iran and agree to replace the TRR with a new reactor monitored by the IAEA."

Abolhassan Bani-Sadr in IHT: "By removing a despot who was the main obstacle to democracy, the Tunisian revolt has immense importance for the Arab and Islamic world. Above all, it has opened up a future that, due to the iron grip of an authoritarian political system backed by European and Arab governments, had been considered closed. As we see from the burgeoning demonstrations in Egypt, it is not lost on others in the region that ousting corrupt autocrats is no longer just an impossible dream. Tunisia's message to others in the region is that despotism is not a lot in life to which they must submit. That message is spreading fast because the Tunisian democratic movement is legitimately homegrown and not tied to a Western sponsor, as was the case with the U.S. invasion of Iraq. As I well know from personal experience, however, an open future includes not only the possibility of democracy, but the possibility of resurgent dictatorship. In order to achieve democracy and diminish the prospect of a new strongman taking over, certain conditions have to be fulfilled... The unfortunate lesson of the Iranian revolution was that most political organizations did not commit themselves to democracy. Lacking the unity of a democratic front, one by one they became targets of power-seeking clergy in the form of the Islamic Republic Party, and were pushed aside... Tunisia's experience has shown that a revolution can succeed without relying on a power-oriented Ayatollah Khomeini. When a social movement is spontaneous and horizontal, it has a far greater chance of achieving its goals."

Golnaz Esfandiari in Radio Farda: "'The Islamic world is ripe with major new developments and Khomeini's Islam is the engine of these events,' Iran's hard-line daily 'Kayhan' wrote in a January 27 commentary devoted to the recent wave of protests in the Arab world. The daily, which often reflects the views of the Iranian establishment -- or more specifically, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- added that the third millennium is witnessing 'the powerful [presence] of Islam under Iran's leadership.' Iranian state media has been portraying the recent upheaval in Arab countries as a struggle against Western puppets in the region, while claiming that citizens who have taken to the streets in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere are taking inspiration from Iran's Islamic Revolution. 'Kayhan' suggested that participants in Tunisia's uprising, as well in as protests in Jordan, Algeria, Yemen, and Egypt are taking inspiration from Iran's 1979 revolution, which led to the fall of the shah's U.S.-backed regime and the creation of an Islamic republic. 'Death to the U.S. Death to Israel. Islam is my religion. We don't want American rulers. We're not afraid of martyrdom. Are these slogans familiar to the ears and eyes of the world? Aren't these slogans the same that Iranian people [chanted] in the run-up to the Islamic Revolution?' wrote 'Kayhan.' The commentary made no mention of the calls for economic reforms and political freedom being voiced in the protests. There was also no mention of comparisons that have been made between Tunisia's uprising and the mass antigovernment demonstrations that shook the Iranian establishment in 2009."



United Against Nuclear Iran PO Box 1028 New York NY 10185

01-28-11: 1-in-4 People in the World Will be Muslim by 2030 (Plus: Walid Phares)

Egypt protests: Fresh protests could leave Egypt on brink of revolution (TELEGRAPH)
U.S. announces new terror alert system (BREITBART)
The Homeland-Security Follies - (MIKE HUCKABEE & KENNETH ALLARD)
Egypt arrests Muslim Brotherhood leaders (YAHOO)
San Francisco supervisor Jane Kim refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance (SF EXAMINAR)
Egypt: Internet down, police counterterror unit up (YAHOO)
Sen. Rand Paul says tea party holds power on Hill (WT)
Israeli ambassador to U.S. on pressing Iranian nuclear threat, Arab uprisings and the ‘Palestine Papers' (DAILY CALLER)
CBO Director: Trillion-Dollar Deficits Risk 'Fiscal Crisis' in U.S (FOX)
White House staff makeover: Carney to replace Gibbs (THE HILL)

Video Games Don't Create Terrorists But Jihadi Ideology Does

Dr. Walid Phares

Russia Today TV has hinted that the Domodedovo airport attack may have been inspired by a scenario from a popular video game. Walid Phares sifts the evidence.

Civility? What Channel?

Frank Salvato

Conservatives were publicly blamed for using hate-filled rhetoric, but for Progressives in the media it's full speed ahead with the name-calling and the deprecating jokes.


Video Surfaces of Taliban Stoning Couple for Alleged Adultery: "Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!" ***Viewer Warning***
Videos: Twenty five years ago today, the Challenger astronauts "touched the face of God".
Ronald Reagan at 100: A true believer who caught destiny's eye
 Video: Suspect Using Fake ID, Gets Through Airport Security and Gets Onto Plane
9/11 suit eyes a 'telephone call to Atta' - Did United Airline's worker call Atta on 9-11?
Video: Chris Christie Lambastes ‘Obscene' Police Union Contracts
Hypocrisy on Display: NY Times Defends, Runs Photo of Ants-on-Crucifix Art; Proudly Refused to Run Muhammad Cartoons
Sen. Franken Explains Why Obamacare's Individual Mandate to Buy Insurance Is Needed

Obama's SOTU: Sputnik, Skutnik and 'So What?'

Frank Hill

The State of the Union Address made mention of the economy, jobs, and also - bizarrely - Sputniks. The administration cannot fulfill such promises until it scraps its waste.

Tunisia Is Not the Model For Other Arab World "Revolutions"

Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman

While there are signs of revolt in other Muslim countries, Tunisia's revolution happened with little bloodshed because of its secularism and stability. Other revolts will not go so smoothly.

Brooklyn College Rescinds Appointment of Pro-Palestinian Activist

Bruce Kesler

Kristofer Peterson-Overton was acting as a professor in Brooklyn College, even though he was a supporter of Palestinian insurgents and spoke of these views in class.

The Aim Of Blood Libels

Caroline Glick

Sarah Palin's characterization of the Left's appalling assault on her and her fellow conservatives as a "blood libel" was entirely accurate.

Waivers for Favors: Big Labor's Obamacare Escape Hatch

Michelle Malkin

More than seven hundred waivers from Obamacare have been allowed - with one quarter of these waivers going to Big Labor. What is going on?

Administration's Failed Policies Get Media Pass

Cliff Kincaid

The media is playing down the less successful policies of the administration, failures which were listed at a hearing of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday.

Mexican Cops Claim La Familia Cartel in Decline

Jim Kouri, CPP

Mexican drug cartel La Familia is recognized as one of the most violent and deadly organized crime gangs in the world, but with the death of its chief, it is said to be weakened.

Quote of the Day - January 28, 2011

FSM: Quote of the Day

Hezbollah takeover of Lebanon's Government will lead to penetration of security and foreign affairs institutions...

Click here to sign up for FSM's e-mail updates!