Qatar Said To Be Revising School Curriculm

Responding to criticism that Islamic schools are promoting violence, Qatar agreed with the recommendations of the California based Rand Corporation on a new educational structure, including less Islamic study and more english and fewer Arabian books.

No word on whether or not any of their maps will actually show Israel.

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New Europe Responds To Chirac

Excerpts from European newspapers below:


Czech Republic, Mlada Fronta Dnes: "If Chirac wants to revive the spirit of Leonid Brezhnev and renew the doctrine of limited sovereignty, which means fewer rights for some countries, it is his own affair."

Latvia, Neatkariga Rita Avize: "All right, Monsieur Chirac. Perhaps we are poor. Perhaps we were not raised properly. We do not know about fine wine and the various directions of avant-garde art. But we do not repay those who have helped us and who continue to help us with ingratitude."

Lithuania, Verslo Zinios: "It seems France, the nation with old pedagogical traditions, decided to continue educating the European juniors."

Slovakia, Sme: "Jacques Chirac's degrading message to the candidate countries can actually be taken as a compliment. The French President admitted defeat in his rage. Suddenly the 15 [EU members] succeeded in resolving within a couple of hours a matter on which they were not able to agree for months. It was the "new Europe" which forced "the old" to overcome itself."

Slovakia, Pravda: "Neither Slovakia, nor any other candidate country will enter the EU to keep silent but in order to make their voice be heard more... After enlargement, the EU will be different. Less French or German, less Chirac's. However, not worse for that."



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Reformist Muslim Warns The West About Wishful Thinking Regarding Islam

Syrian-born Bassam Tibi, who claims to be a direct descendant of the prophet Mohammed and teaches political science at Goettingen University in Germany, appealed for intellectual honesty between both parties in these exchanges.

"First, both sides should acknowledge candidly that although they might use identical terms these mean different things to each of them. The word 'peace,' for example, implies to a Muslim the extension of the Dar al-Islam -- or 'House of Islam' -- to the entire world," explained Tibi, who is also a research scholar at Harvard University.

"This is completely different from the Enlightenment concept of eternal peace that dominates Western thought, a concept developed by (18th-century philosopher) Immanuel Kant."

"Similarly, when Muslims and the Western heirs of the Enlightenment speak of tolerance they have different things in mind. In Islamic terminology, this term implies abiding non-Islamic monotheists, such as Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, as second-class believers. They are 'dhimmi,' a protected but politically immature minority."

According to Tibi, the quest of converting the entire world to Islam is an immutable fixture of the Muslim worldview. Only if this task is accomplished -- if the world has become a "Dar al-Islam" -- will it also be a "Dar a-Salam," or a house of peace.

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Iran Moves Troops Into Iraq

Where are the European protesters? Where is the talk of multi-lateralism? No blood for oil? Where is the UN?

It's an easy answer. The Iranians do not care what the UN thinks ... look to 2004, when Europeans are telling us we should go into Iraq to drive out the Iranians and restore Hussein to power.

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Arab News On Wife Beating: It's Wrong If She's A Good Wife

"The root causes of violence against women have been well documented. Most people who commit violence are ignorant of Islamic teaching. Islam does not allow it save in extreme cases and then as a symbolic gesture.

Before a husband contemplates any physical action, he should ask himself why he should strike her and if it is the solution to the problem.

It is certainly against Islam to beat a good wife. An erring wife should be warned first and advised. If that does not work, then the husband could give her a light beating, the purpose of that being to embarrass rather than inflict pain."

I hope the thousands of female war protesters understand the kind of society they're defending ... in the society they insist other women should be forced into, they would be beaten on a daily basis for speaking their minds.

The article estimates that in 80% of the cases of wife beating, the offender and victim are poor. Since most of Muslim society lives in poverty forced on them by dictators, that is unlikely to change.

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Kuwait Protests Arab League Statement On Iraq

Kuwait responded negatively to a Syrian plot, setting up the Lebanese chair of the Arab League to issue a statement on Iraq that had not been approved by the member nations.

Kuwait agrees with the other Arab League countries that they would prefer not to have war with Iraq but disagrees that there should be any kind of overt rift with the US.

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Hussain Al Shahristani: "These materials are hidden deep underground or in a tunnel system."

Shahristani, a former chief scientific advisor to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, was jailed for 11 years by Saddam's regime for refusing to develop banned weapons but that he escaped from Iraq in 1991. He now lives in London.

"My understanding is that the nuclear program has been, for all practical purposes, dismantled," he said. "But the program to produce chemical and biological weapons continued even during the years when the inspectors were in Iraq in the 1990s."

"There has even been discussion within his circle to set up what they call a chemical belt around Baghdad using his chemical weapons to entrap the residents of Baghdad inside," he said.

Shahrastani quoted his informants as saying Saddam was banking on 50,000 to 100,000 soldiers to defend the city, but the scientist doubted they would fight to the last man.

"Based on contacts that we are having with the people inside Iraq, who are talking with the military all the time, the general understanding of the population now is that the army is not going to fight," he said. "The army is not going to defend Saddam."

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Chirac On Eastern Europe: "If they wanted to diminish their chances of joining Europe they could not have found a better way."

Chirac responded to worries about American hegemony by instituting his own. He didn't even use the diplomatic route of subtle threats, instead he chose the Nobel Committee approach of penalizing people he disagrees with.

"It is not really responsible behavior," he told a news conference. "It is not well brought up behavior. They missed a good opportunity to keep quiet." Well spoken ... no parent speaking to a child could have put it better. Unfortunately Chirac does not realize France is parent to no one ... well, maybe Ivory Coast.

What Chirac fails to understand is that eastern Europe has a long history of being told to keep quiet, and they don't really like it. After being held under the Soviet thumb he thinks they should be happy to be held under his iron grip now.

"Romania and Bulgaria were particularly irresponsible to (sign the letter) when their position is really delicate," Chirac said. "If they wanted to diminish their chances of joining Europe they could not have found a better way."

There's a reason those two countries also want to join NATO ... and that reason is they know the Europeans were of very little help the last time eastern Europe was oppressed. Maybe they can join NAFTA?

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Canadian Army Bitter Because They Can't Go To Iraq

John McCallum, the Defence Minister, announced that a battalion of soldiers -- likely from the Royal Canadian Regiment in Petawawa, Ont., -- and a brigade headquarters will join an international security force policing Kabul.

This means they won't be able to send any troops to help in Iraq, a decision which is probably designed to placate Canadian citizens who may disagree whether a homocidal maniac should remain in power or not.

But to the Canadian military, smaller each year, with less credibility each year, in a country that has a big brother to the south keeping them virtually unassailable, it was a blow to their confidence.

Major-General Brian Vernon, a retired army officer, said it has left many Canadian officers bitter. "This will have a very negative effect on morale," he said. "It will be seen as running away from a fight, or avoiding a fight, rather than making a real contribution."

Alain Pellerin, director of the Conference of Defence Associations, said the federal Liberals turned that down because they did not want Canadian soldiers involved in combat.

"The army wanted to make a real land contribution to the operation in Iraq, as they did in Afghanistan," he said.

"But the government's never been very comfortable with what the PPCLI did in Kandahar.... It put the army in the public eye and gave them a lot of positive publicity. The government didn't like that."

Mr. Pellerin said by denying the land element the chance to "put their training to use" the government may have set up a future crisis in the military.

"A lot of people [in the Canadian Forces] are reaching the point of retirement ... and there's a lot of frustration, the feeling that the government doesn't care about the armed forces," he said.

"There will be a serious crisis within the next few years."

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SAUDIS CONFIRM PLANS TO END U.S. MILITARY PRESENCE

Saudi Arabia has confirmed that Western military troops will leave the kingdom later this year. Saudi officials said U.S., British and French forces would leave the kingdom after the conclusion of a war against Iraq. They said Saudi Arabia would relay a formal request to NATO countries to end their military presence once the regime of President Saddam Hussein is toppled and order is restored in Iraq.

So apparently Arabs are not convinced that Hussein is a good guy and should be protected ... nor do they think European protests should make a difference in America's foreign policy.

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Saudi Newspapers Call on Saddam to Abdicate or Commit Suicide

It's clear that Hussein can't stay, no matter how many Europeans protest. Saudi columnists agree.

In a highly unusual step, a number of Arab intellectuals have circulated a petition calling on Saddam to abdicate. To avoid a catastrophe in the Middle East, the petitioners: "Call upon public opinion in the Arab world to exercise pressure for the dismissal from power of Saddam Hussein and his close aides in Iraq in order to avoid a war that threatens with catastrophe the peoples of the region. [They also call] for the rule of democracy in Baghdad and for the stationing across Iraq of human rights monitors from the United Nations and the Arab League to oversee the peaceful transition of power."

All these exhortations pale in comparison with an article in the Saudi daily al-Jazeera. After analyzing the Saudi Kingdom's four options with regard to the war on Iraq, D. Ali bin Shuwail al-Qarni, Chairman of the Board of the Saudi Society for Information and Communications and Associate Professor for Information at King Sa'ud University, calls on Saddam to commit suicide:

"As far as Iraq is concerned, the change [in regime] is inevitably coming with or without a war. But what will be the destiny of Saddam Hussein? Will His Highness abdicate his authority to prevent bloodshed and save the vital interests of Iraq as well the region's interests?"

If Saddam chooses not to abdicate he has no other choice to save the world of a disaster, says al-Qarni, "but to reach out to the suicide revolver and fire the shot of mercy to finish the tragedy which he has started."

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Palestinian Leaders: Our Strategy Brought Sharon Victory

In the Palestinian daily Al-Quds, Palestinian Interior Minister Hani al-Hasan wrote: "The [Palestinian] leadership should examine Israeli society's shift Rightward. It seems that Israeli society does not understand Palestinian actions and aims... We should learn a lesson from the outcome [of the elections], and form a policy that can persuade the Israeli citizen that we are not threatening his personal security... and that we truly want a just peace that will guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people as well as the mutual security of the two states - Palestine and Israel."

Okay, I'll ask. How should Israelis feel about threats to their personal security when Palestinian men, women and children are being taught to hate Israelis and are being indoctrinated into a culture that encourages them to commit suicide if it will also kill Jews?

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Celebrities Wonder Why We Don't Take Them Seriously

Ed Norton in Berlin, extolling the German government while he bashes his own. Low rent, low class ... it's Hanoi Jane circa 2003. Why not climb on an Iraqi flak gun while it shoots down Americans, Ed?

I'm sure the misogynyst, racist, intolerant, mass-murdering homophobe dictator in Iraq appreciates your support.

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The Ecology Movement Now Has A Reason To Hate Iraq

Yep, it's 'ecocide' against the Marsh Arabs. Them's fightin' words.

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Will Amnesty International Help?

What happened to this great organization? They won't help ... at least not if helping the persecuted also helps a Republican.

Adnan Abdul Karim Enad's relatives were shocked to see him clambering into a UN inspector's jeep on January 25 clutching a notebook and screaming "Save me! Save me!" in Arabic. A UN inspector sat motionless in the front seat as Iraqi guards pulled the 29-year-old man out of the car and carried him away by his arms and legs.

Abidalrahim Al-Nuimi, a relative living in America, said the family was involved with the Iraqi opposition abroad and Adnan may have feared retaliation by Iraqi authorities.

"I believe he did that to get refugee (status) because he cannot wait too long. I know this guy very well. He is aggressive. He ran away from the Iraqi army because he did not think he could serve Saddam. They put him in jail for two years."

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Rumsfeld Says Libya or Cuba Won't Be Asked To Help In Post-War Iraq ... And Neither Will Germany

Nothing like emasculating a would-be European power for a Friday morning. The fact is, eastern Europeans are siding with the US because when they were part of the 'Evil Empire' not a single one of them thought France or Germany would be the ones to liberate them.

The German government has declined official comment on the remarks, but the general secretary of the ruling Social Democrats, Olaf Scholz, rejected them as "rubbish" and irritating.

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