The Malaysian government has defended its deportation of a Saudi journalist accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a tweet

Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said the deportation to Saudi Arabia was legal and that Malaysia cannot be seen as a safe haven.

Hamza Kashgari, 23, was sent back to Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

Mr Kashgari's controversial tweet last week sparked more than 30,000 responses and several death threats.

Insulting the prophet is considered blasphemous in Islam and can be punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.

He has since removed the tweet and apologised for his comments.

Mr Kashgari fled Saudi Arabia and was detained when he arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

His lawyers claimed to have obtained a court injunction to keep him in Malaysia. But the government deported him, saying that they did not receive any court order.

"I will not allow Malaysia to be seen as a safe country for terrorists and those who are wanted by their countries of origin, and also be seen as a transit county,'' Mr Hussein was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.

According to the BBC's Jennifer Pak, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia do not have a formal extradition treaty. This is the reason why human rights activists say that Malaysia has violated international human rights.

Amnesty International has said that Mr Kashgari is a "prisoner of conscience".

"If he (Kashgari) faces execution back in Saudi Arabia, the Malaysian government will have blood on its hands," said Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director of Human Rights Watch.

Fatah official Facebook page glorifies terrorists

Fatah has chosen to use its official Facebook page to glorify terrorists. Fatah's page currently displays a poster with the pictures of 8 terrorists who carried out a terror attack on the Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv in 1975, that was posted by the Fatah administrator. 8 Israeli civilians and 3 soldiers were killed in the attack. Text on poster: "The Tel Aviv operation, March 6, 1975 The Palestinian passage to the homeland" The text under each terrorist's picture reads: "The heroic Shahid (Martyr)" followed by the terrorist's name. [http://on.fb.me/x9WUbu Accessed Feb. 6, 2012] The opening of Fatah's official Facebook page was reported in the official PA daily: "Fatah launches its official Facebook page... http://www.facebook.com/fateh.1.1.1965 " [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 1, 2012] Note that the poster on Fatah's Facebook page also includes the visual representation of a map of "Palestine" which in addition to PA areas includes all of Israel.

Israel embassies in India and Georgia targeted by bombs

Two bombs targeted Israeli embassies in Georgia and India today, a day after the anniversary of the 2008 assassination of Hezbollah mastermind Imad Mugniyeh, Reuters reported. Reports of an additional attack in Amsterdam were reported in Haaretz but are otherwise unconfirmed.

"There was one attempted attack, and one successful, as it were," Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, told Reuters. "In both cases, the people concerned worked with the Israeli embassies." In India, the wife of an Israeli diplomat was "moderately" wounded, according to Haaretz.

No one claimed responsibility for the bombs, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately blamed Iran, the Washington Post reported.

"Iran, which is behind these attacks, is the greatest exporter of terror in the world,” Netanyahu said.

According to Reuters, Iran has rejected the accusation: "Any terrorist attack is condemned (by Iran) and we strongly reject the untrue comments by an Israeli official," Mehdi Nabizadeh, Iran's ambassador to India, was quoted as saying in the official IRNA news agency.

The Associated Press reported that Shota Uitashvili, spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry, said a driver noticed a package attached to his car and called the police. The driver was a Georgian member of the staff of Israel's embassy in Tbilisi, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said, "It just shows that Israel and its citizens face terror inside and outside of Israel," according to the Jerusalem Post. "We deal with it every day. We know how to identify exactly who is responsible for the attack and who carried it out."

The attacks come a day after the four year anniversary of the assassination of Hezbollah deputy Imad Mugniyeh, considered by experts to be the mastermind behind some of Hezbollah's most dramatic attacks. He was killed in a 2008 car bombing in Damascus, Syria. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah promised to avenge Mugniyeh's death.

Israel had advised its embassies to be on high alert ahead of the Feb. 12 anniversary, though the attacks came a day later, on Feb. 13. 

how muslims conquested spain//part 3

756 - 1031 AD Umayyads of Cordoba

In 750AD the Abbasid’s came to power after vanquishing the Umayyads. The first ruler Abu al-Abbas set about killing the remaining Umayyads who were mostly at Basra.

Ninety managed to escape, so Abbas explained that it was “all a mistake” and invited them to a dinner. When they were all assembled, the soldiers set upon them, flogging them till dead. A carpet was laid out over the bodies and the Abbasids feasted on the uneaten food. Only Abdul Rahman who did not go to the dinner escaped, and eventually turned up in al-Andalus in 756AD.

Abdul Rahman I had a 32 years reign and survived attacks from both Berber and Arab as well as Abbasids and armies of Charlemagne. Having both Arab and Berber as parents helped him to be accepted.

Hisham I (788-796) called for Holy War against Asturias and France, and assembled 100,000 warriors from even Syria, Arabia and Algeria, and attacked Narbonne and Carcassone and won enough booty to fund a new mosque in Cordoba

Al-Hakam (796-822) became known for the “Day of the Ditch” where he beheaded 5,000 converts to Islam in Toledo on suspicion of treachery

Abdul Rahman II preferred his Harem to Jihad and fathered 97 children

Abdul Rahman III (912-961) became one of the great military leaders, and in 929 named himself Caliph at Cordoba, and rivalled both the Abbasids in Baghdad and also the Shiite caliphate in North Africa.

Almanzor (967-1002) rivalled Abdul Rahman III as one of the greatest military leaders in Al-Andalus, and came to power after seducing Aurora, the wife of the homosexual caliph Hakam II. He beheaded 4,000 Christians after taking Zamora. He won the battle near Simancus and again beheaded about 4,000 Christians. Almanzor also razed the Christian shrine city of Santiago de Compostela which was to the Christians like the Kaaba was to the Muslims.

The Caliphate was eventually destroyed by civil war, Muslim against Muslim. Christian Castillians were even called in to help Sulaiman defeat 30,000 Moors at the battle of Cantich.

Cordoba and the Golden Age

When Abdul Rahman III in 929AD named himself the Caliph, proclaiming independence from the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad, Cordoba had become the largest city in Western Europe and this ushered in the Golden years. His court was frequented by Jewish, Arab and Christian scholars all working together. Abulcasis (936-1013) wrote a 30 volume medical encyclopaedia and is considered the father of modern surgery.

The 11th century philosopher poets Ibn Hazm who wrote in Arabic and Judah Ha-Levi who wrote in Hebrew spent important time in Cordoba. In fact the two most celebrated scholars of Al-Andalus were the Muslim philosopher Averroes and the Jew Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) came from Cordoba. Maimonides, being Jewish, later fled at an early age to Egypt because of Almohad intolerance.

So civilization flourished in Cordoba while the laws of Islam were relaxed. Muslims, Jews and Christians (banned by Mohammed) worked together progressing science and literature, poetry and music (banned by Mohammed) delighted the Cordobans, and even wine (banned by Mohammed) was drunk for enjoyment.
So what happened to this “Golden Age”.

The Berbers, who held strictly to Islamic teachings, terrorised and looted Cordoba until the city fell and the Umayyad dynasty came to an end in 1031AD.

What can we deduce?

Only when Islamic law was softened did civilization flourish and science and art develop, but chaos and anarchy returned when strict Islam was adopted.

It is ironic considering that an arm bone of Mohammed is in the Mezquita in Cordoba, that when the arm of Mohammed was relaxed, science, philosophy, art, music and poetry flourished, but when Mohammed’s arm was tightened (Berbers), chaos and anarchy took the ascendancy.

This is a lesson not just for Spain today, but for the whole Western world.

1031-1248 AD Jihad continues; Islam declines

For some decades the Caliphate had descended into a number of Taifas or Kingdoms, which weakened the Moors and made them vunerable to Reconquista.

When Toledo was recaptured in 1085AD, and Seville had become the centre of Moorish culture, they sought help from North Africa. However the Almoravids were horrified when they entered Seville and noticed Jews and Christians trading freely in the markets, selling musical instruments and wine. A Fatwa was obtained and the Almoravids gained control of all Muslim lands and even taking back Valencia from the Christians.

This was followed by the even stricter Almohads who in turn fought and defeated the Almoravids in bloody Jihad.

But the Reconquista proved unstoppable and soon only the southern Taifa of Granada was left in Muslim hands, and it had to pay tribute to Castile.

1248-1492 Nasrid Dynasty; Islam is vanquished

Although the Alhambra complex had stood from the 9th century with the Alcazaba military complex, it was not until the 14th century that Alhambra reached its splendour under the Nasrid dynasty. Yusuf I (1333-1354) and Mohammed V (1354-1391) extended the building programme adding a Madrassa and a market and mercantile exchanges. The beautiful Generalife gardens stand as a lasting monument to the grandeur of Muslim Granada, with extensive water features which pay tribute to the technology of its architects.

Eventually Ferdinand and Isabella forced Mohammed XII (Boabdil) to surrender and he even gave them the keys to the palace before fleeing to Fez in Africa. Islam no longer controlled any part of Spain.


Conclusion

Spain provides a perfect example of how Islam is torn apart by sectarian and class rivalries which override the spiritual plane and result in endless Jihad.
There was Jihad galore, with Berbers and Arabs fighting the Visigoths, then Berbers fighting Arabs, Ummayyads fighting everyone else, Christian converts to Islam fighting the ruling classes, negroes, touaregs and Berbers against Christians, Christian soldiers fighting with Muslims against other Muslims, and the Almoravids and the Almohads fighting everyone else and each other.

Was there a Golden Age?

What can be concluded is that under the Umayyads of Abdul Rahman III, civilization flourished because true Islam was not practised, and indeed :

Jews and Christians Dhimmitude was not as severe, and they mixed with Muslim scholars

Literature, Medicine, Science and Astronomy advanced

Poetry and Music flourished (not banned)

Wine was drunk for pleasure (not banned)

Indeed, it could be said that:

“the Golden Age happened in spite of Islam, NOT because of Islam”.

When Cordoba was sacked, the scholars moved base to Toledo after 1085AD where science and literature flourished under Christian rule, NOT Islam. Scholars came from Europe to embrace new ideas then spread this throughout Europe.

Corollary
The stricter the practise of Islam, the more chaos and fighting occurred.

　

A Call to ActionThe West must learn from the lessons of Spain and realize that the Wahhabi form of Islam promoted and spread by the Saudis will never produce another “golden age” and that Islam must be resisted with all our strength. If we are silent, then the West will suffer the same fate as Cordoba did in the 11th century. .

how muslims conquested spain//part 2

Holy War or the Toledo Whore?

By 710AD, Jews and Christians had been in the Iberian peninsula for a few hundred years and the Visigoth king Rodrigo ruled from the capital Toledo. Rodrigo had earlier usurped power from Witiza after their father died, and ruled the peasants with a heavy hand. Now a story goes that Count Julian, governor of the city of Ceuta (near Tangiers) had a beautiful daughter, Florinda, who was invited by King Rodrigo to the court at Toledo. One day while she was swimming in the Targus river, Rodrigo noticed her beauty and invited her to the Royal apartment where she succumbed to the King’s advances. Filled with shame afterwards, she wrote to her father and asked him to take her back to Ceuta. Now Count Julian was peeved indeed at his daughter’s distress, and on return, went to visit the Emir Musa who ruled North Africa from Kairouan in Tunisia.

The Count persuaded Musa that Spain was ripe for plunder with greaty booty and beautiful girls aplenty for the Harems in Kairouan and Damascus, and because he knew the land so well, he would act as advisor to the Emir. Musa then received permission from the Caliph Walid who ruled from Damascus, and then chose Tariq, a Berber, who was a former Algerian slave, but now a fierce warrior and a recent convert to Islam, to lead his army. They sent a small force of a few hundred men on a raid, and when they returned loaded with riches and pretty girls, Musa was much impressed.

So the invasion of Al-Andalus (valley of Vandals) was not so much about converting the infidel to Islam, but the focus was on booty, women and slaves to be delivered back to Damascus. While the story of Florinda was probably a myth, some locals blamed the whole affair on poor Florinda, calling her unjustly the Whore (La Cava) of Toledo.

711-732AD Jihad invasion in al-Andalus

Count Julian led the invasion force of seven thousand men, mostly Berbers, to land near the mountain they called Jabel Tariq, or the mountain of Tariq. The name Jabel Tariq later morphed into the word “Gibraltar” as we know it today.

The first major battle was against the Visigoth king Rodrigo, and took place near the river Rio Barbate, which is in the Xeres district, now famous for its sherry.

Rodrigo and his army was no match for the fierce Berbers and were easily defeated, with casualties in the tens of thousands. Rodrigo himself is believed to have drowned in the river attempting to escape. His horse, robes and diadem were found on the river bank.

After this, count Julian persuaded Tariq to advance to Toledo, the capital.

On the way Cordoba was captured, and Toledo was easily taken. The booty was fabulous and included a gold and emerald table from the Temple of Solomon.

Meanwhile, when Musa found out, he was furious and afraid of being upstaged by Tariq, so in 712AD he invaded Spain with about 18,000 Arab and Berber soldiers.

On the way to Toledo, Musa captured Carmona, Seville, Merida, Malaga and Granada.

When Musa met up with Tariq in Toledo, he asked “why did you disobey me?”, to which Tariq answered “to serve Allah”. Apparantly Musa replied “Allah has been well served”.

So Tariq kept his head, but Musa was not so fortunate!
Musa returned to Damascus with tons of booty, Visigoth dignitaries as prisoners and 3,000 Spanish virgins. However, the old Caliph al-Walid had died and Suleiman had taken over. Being suspicious of Musa, Suleiman had Musa banished to Yemen, but not before presenting Musa with the head of his son Abdul Aziz who had been suspected of treason in Seville.

Historical records are sketchy, but it appears that by 715AD, Spain was essentially under Islamic control. However Muslim armies also raided north into France, setting up a base at Narbonne until defeated at the Battle of Tours in 732AD by Charles Martel.

Eventually the Berbers considered themselves to be superior to the Arab Muslims and so began sectarian Jihad, of Berbers against Arabs.

Dhimmis

Jews and Christians were treated as “people of the Book” and allowed to practise their religion, although as second class citizens and having to pay the Jizya tax. The severity of Dhimmitude varied and probably was most favourable under Abdul Rahman III.

Forced conversions were not common as money was needed to fund Jihad.
However, many converted to Islam to make life easier for them.

how muslims conquested spain//part 1

How often in conversation with a Muslim, do they quote Spain as the crowning achievement of Islam, where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in harmony for about 800 years?

And when you mention the killings and massacres, you are told that the Spanish Inquisition was much worse.
This is a misconception, since the Inquisition in Spain was responsible for only between 4,000 and 5,000 lives.

Yet in 1066AD, in a single day, muslims murdered over 4,000 Jews because Vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela had risen to a position greater than them, and of course, this upset the Muslim sensitivities.

History tells us that the Muslim invasion started in 711AD and that Spain, or al-Andalus, was Islamic until 1492 when Granad

a fell to King Ferdinand, the Christian king of Spain.

Spain then provides an excellent case for studying how Islam might work in a Western civilization today. It is both timely and relevant to examine this period in history, and we know that after the Madrid bombings in 2004, Osama bin Laden has called for the retaking of Spain for Islam.

Certainly it is true that the Muslim invaders of Spain believed in the Holy Trinity, the Islamic version, of course, 1) Booty, 2) Women and 3) Slaves!

Does a critical look at history support this romantic view that al-Andalus was a model of Islamic harmony, and what does it say about Jihad?

Scope

We shall investigate the motivation for invading Spain, how Jihad forged what Islamic Spain became, how the so called “Golden Age” developed, the relationships with the Caliphates back in the Middle East and the treatment of the Dhimmis, the Jews and Christians who had already made Spain their home. Spain boasts many fine examples of Islamic architecture including the beautiful Mezquita in Cordoba which was built over the original church of St Vincent and opened as a mosque in 785AD. It is believed to have been designed by Abdul Rahman I with the help of Syrian architects, and later extended by Abdul Rahman II, Al-Hakim II and even Al-Mansur. One of Mohammed’s arm bones is supposedly kept in the Mezquita.

Other fine achievements include the Alcazar in Seville, but for mine, the pinnacle of achievement is the Alhambra Palace complex and Generalife Gardens that overlook Granada in the south of Spain, in what is known as Andalucia.

The Alhambra palace complex with its amazing Generalife gardens stands majestically on a hill overlooking Granada with the white painted Albayzin district below.

The Nasrid dynasty is intertwined with the continuous development of this complex over many centuries, and it was the fall of Constantinople in 1453AD and the Islamic practise of breaking contracts that brought its demise.
Islamic Spain endured through three major dynasties or Caliphates that existed in the Middle East, the Umayyads (661-750AD), the Abbasids (750-1258AD) and finally the Ottomans, but was never directly ruled from Damascus or Baghdad at any time.

　

Tunisia's Islamic leaders pressured by radical fringe

AFP - Tunisia's moderate Islamist leaders are under pressure from a radical Muslim fringe, forcing them to stress their liberal democratic credentials without alienating their base, analysts say.

Ultra-conservative Salafists have in past months launched bold challenges -- demanding full-face veils for female university students, castigating a TV channel for a "blasphemous" film and beating up journalists at a protest.

Their actions have heightened tensions in the north African country that was under secular rule for decades until the overthrow a year ago of strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali kicked off the Arab Spring and led to elections in October.

Moderate Islamist Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who took power in December, has this week adopted a firmer tone, while his Ennahda party also took unusually clear positions against the extremist religious activists.

On Tuesday, the authorities intervened to end a two months old sit-in protest by Salafists on a university campus, the faculty of letters at Manouba, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the capital Tunis.

The students, most of whom were not enrolled at the university, had camped out there since November to demand the right for women students to wear the full veil, known as the niqab, and for a place of prayer on campus.

Police removed them on the first day of delayed exams. The university had banned the niqab citing security concerns if students wore it with a flowing garment, which would conceal them from head to toe.

Also this week, Ennahda in an unprecedented statement affirmed its commitment to free expression and dissociated itself from a legal action lawyers close to Islamist groups launched against the privately-owned Nessma satellite TV station.

The religious protesters were outraged, and the station was attacked, after it screened the animated French-Iranian film "Persepolis" in which god is shown as a white-bearded man. Islam forbids depictions of religious figures.

Nessma TV director Nabil Karoui, whose house was attacked by protesters, is due to go on trial in April on morality charges for airing the movie. In previous hearings, his supporters were assaulted outside the court.

The prime minister in a speech to the national assembly this week stressed his determination "to enforce the law" and denounced the beatings of journalists.

"The government is worried," said Ali Laidi Ben Mansour, editor in chief of Nessma and of news site webmanagercenter. "From my point of view, a confrontation is looming between the 'moderate Islamists' of Ennahda and the radical Salafists.

"Until now the Salafists -- who are certainly a minority but capable of mobilizing and acting -- have taken advantage of the government's hesitation."

He said Ennahda has no deep interest in facing up to this problem, which highlights that the party itself is "torn between hawks and doves".

The Salafists have a hard core of about 200 people but 5,000-7,000 supporters, including backers of Ben Ali's dissolved party, according to estimates.

"The fact remains that much of the base for Ennahda is close to that doctrine," said researcher Alaya Allani, specialist in Islamic movements in North Africa.

Suddenly, Tunisia's ruling Islamist party "finds itself in a very difficult situation," said the researcher. "It does not want go to war with the Salafists, because it does not want to lose that base before the next election.

"But it won't be able to maintain its stance of ambiguity much longer."

The party's "balancing act" won't be able to continue for long, argued the site Businessnews.com.tn on Wednesday.

Slah Ourimi, a lawyer with the Tunisian League for Human Rights, said the signals the government and Ennahda are sending are still "too timid" while the extreme right was "launching trial balloons and "testing" Tunisian society.

"Students being assaulted, journalists beaten, exams disrupted -- what is happening is very serious and very dangerous," Ourimi said.

"The government has taken small steps in recent days. But we want a clear, determined position and that the government stands up completely to these radical groups that are against the republic and against democracy."