LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
January 07/2012

Bible Quotation for today/Questions about Marriage
1 Corinthians 07/01-14: "Now, to deal with the matters you wrote about. A man does well not to marry. But because there is so much immorality, every man should have his own wife, and every woman should have her own husband. A man should fulfill his duty as a husband, and a woman should fulfill her duty as a wife, and each should satisfy the other's needs.  A wife is not the master of her own body, but her husband is; in the same way a husband is not the master of his own body, but his wife is. Do not deny yourselves to each other, unless you first agree to do so for a while in order to spend your time in prayer; but then resume normal marital relations. In this way you will be kept from giving in to Satan's temptation because of your lack of self-control.  I tell you this not as an order, but simply as a permission. Actually I would prefer that all of you were as I am; but each one has a special gift from God, one person this gift, another one that gift. Now, to the unmarried and to the widows I say that it would be better for you to continue to live alone as I do. But if you cannot restrain your desires, go ahead and marry—it is better to marry than to burn with passion. For married people I have a command which is not my own but the Lord's: a wife must not leave her husband; but if she does, she must remain single or else be reconciled to her husband; and a husband must not divorce his wife. To the others I say (I, myself, not the Lord): if a Christian man has a wife who is an unbeliever and she agrees to go on living with him, he must not divorce her. And if a Christian woman is married to a man who is an unbeliever and he agrees to go on living with her, she must not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made acceptable to God by being united to his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made acceptable to God by being united to her Christian husband. If this were not so, their children would be like pagan children; but as it is, they are acceptable to God
 

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
The purchase of 3 million square meters of open land in the Chouf by a businessman with close ties to Hezbollah/Now Lebanon/January 06/12
Finding God everywhere in Lebanon/By Michael Young/January 06/12
Is Hezbollah losing control?/By: Michael Young/January 06/12
Former CIA Chief: Iran 'Single Greatest Destabilizing' Force in 2012/By Catherine Herridge/January 06/12
Muslim Persecution of Christian/By: Raymond Ibrahim/December 06/11
Identity Among Middle East Christians/By Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi/January 06/12
What are the Arab observers doing?/By Diana Mukkaled/January 06/12
former IDF chief Dan Halutz: Iran does not pose an existential threat/By: Shiri Hadar/January 06/12
The Isra-Iranian bloc/By: Asaf Gefen/January 06/12

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for January 06/12
Syria reports deadly 'terrorist' explosion in capital Damascus
Suicide bomb kills 25 in Damascus-Syrian agency
Hizbullah Blames U.S. for Damascus 'Terrorist' Blast
Free Syrian Army says regime behind Damascus explosion
Syria forces fire at protesters in capital - witness
France Says Arab Mission in Syria 'Unable to Do Job'
Arab observers pull out from Syrian town amid gunfire
U.N. Could Train Arab League Syria Observers
'Hezbollah planning to target Israelis in Europe'
Canada Condemns Recent Bombings in Iraq
Arab League asks for Hamas help with Syria
European Union weighs delaying ban on Iranian oil, sources say
Iran to hold another naval drill near Strait of Hormuz next month
Iran, Turkey to double trade volume despite differences on Syria, NATO
Iran could close Hormuz -- but not for long
U.S.: Muslim Brotherhood gave assurances on Egypt-Israel peace treaty
Israel, U.S. to hold major missile defense exercise
Ban to Stress Need to Resolve Arms Possession in Lebanon during Beirut Tripgo
Hezbollah says Syria attack part of U.S. plan
Lebanon: Sleiman’s desire for gradual appointments supported by Berri
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai criticizes 'imported' Arab Spring
Hezbollah MP seeks answers on response to CIA activities
Lebanon: Bassil: Israel, Cyprus dispute will not hinder oil exploration
Hariri condemns “terrorist action” in Damascus
ISF Arrests Kingpin of Sidon Bomb Plot
Lebanon: Mansour to Libya on Jan. 12: I Will Stay There until Sadr Case is Resolved
Turkey ex-Army Chief Arrested for Alleged Bid to Topple Government

Suicide bomb kills 25 in Damascus-Syrian agency
January 06, 2012/By Erika Solomon/Daily Star
BEIRUT: A suicide bomber killed about 25 people and wounded 46 in Damascus on Friday, Syria's state news agency SANA said, bringing bloodshed to the heart of the Syrian capital for the second time in two weeks. The blast occurred two days before an Arab League committee was due to discuss an initial report of Arab observers who are checking Syria's compliance with an Arab plan to halt President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on nearly 10 months of unrest. The meeting may decide whether to continue the mission or to refer Syria to the United Nations Security Council, perhaps paving the way for some form of international action, a scenario that many Arab countries are keen to avoid.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said he was sending a message with Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal asking the Syrian government to work to halt the violence.
Syrian state television showed body parts, bloodstains and broken glass from the blast in the central Maidan district. Several riot police shields could be seen in a wrecked bus, which was among several damaged vehicles.
SANA said 10 people had been killed and body parts of about 15 more had been found.
On Dec. 23 at least 44 people were killed by what Syrian authorities said were two suicide bombings that targeted security buildings in the Syrian capital.
Those attacks occurred the day before the arrival in Damascus of the head of the Arab League observer mission.
Footage of Friday's blast on Syria's semi-official Addounia TV showed yellow tape stretched around the wrecked bus and cars with smashed windows in a street. People collected body parts on blue plastic sheets amid pools of blood and scattered shoes.
Arab monitors in white baseball caps and orange vests inspected the area, taking notes and filming. The local police station was visible, apparently untouched by the explosion.
The TV showed crowds of angry locals gathered at the scene, chanting "God, Syria and Bashar only" and "God protect the army" and "With blood and soul we sacrifice for you Bashar".
A woman named Umm Mohammed said those behind the blast were attacking the security forces who protect Syrians. "They (protesters) say they want freedom, this here is freedom, not those children of saboteurs, God curse them," she said.
The monitors confirmed they had visited the scene. "We are only here to observe and document," one of them said.
Syria bars most independent journalists from the country, making first-hand reporting impossible.
However, a BBC Arabic service reporter was able to accompany three Arab monitors on a five-hour visit to the town of Irbine, on the outskirts of Damascus, the BBC reported.
It was the first time foreign media were known to have been able to cover the activities of the monitors directly, although media access was a condition stipulated by the Arab League.
The BBC said it had been able to film an anti-Assad protest in Irbine unhindered by the security forces.
Protesters and residents told the observers, all Algerian diplomats, of harsh treatment at the hands of the security forces. The observers then witnessed a demonstration in which the crowd demanded Assad's execution, the BBC said.
The League's special committee on Syria is due to meet in Cairo on Sunday to debate the initial findings of the observer mission, which has been criticised by Syrian activists who question its ability to assess the violence on the ground.
Elaraby, the League's secretary-general, said after meeting Meshaal in Cairo that he had given the leader of the militant Palestinian Islamist group a message for the Syrian authorities "that it is necessary to work with integrity, transparency and credibility to halt the violence that is happening in Syria".
Syria has been racked by a popular uprising against Assad in which the United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed. The government says armed "terrorists" have killed 2,000 members of the security forces during the revolt.
FATE OF ARAB MISSION
The monitors began work on the streets on Dec. 26 to try to verify whether the government was keeping its promise to pull troops and tanks out of cities and free thousands of detainees.
The Free Syrian Army (FSA), an armed opposition force composed mainly of army deserters, condemned the Maidan attack and blamed the Syrian authorities. "This is planned and systematic state terrorism by the security forces of President Bashar al-Assad," FSA spokesman Major Maher al-Naimi said.
An opposition activist, who asked not to be named, said Islamist militants might have been behind the blast. "I think there are hundreds of these extremists willing to fight the regime and blow themselves up in the name of jihad," he added.
One Damascus resident, who gave her name only as Dima, said the city had been tense even before the blast. "Some friends who work in the security forces were warning my family since yesterday to stay at home," she said. "The streets were empty."
The violence in Syria has raged unabated since the Arab monitors arrived, with scores of people reported killed.
Security forces killed four protesters in Hama on Friday when they shot at people shouting anti-Assad slogans after weekly prayers, activists said.
Pro-Assad forces also wounded at least three protesters when they fired at a crowd at a Damascus mosque in a district where a security headquarters is located, a witness said.
The witness said pro-Assad militiamen and secret police agents fired water cannon and then assault rifles after the protesters in the Kfar Souseh district refused to disperse.
"I saw three people on the ground and I do not know if they are dead or alive," said the witness, who lives nearby.
Arab government sources said on Thursday the League monitors would pursue their mission in Syria, despite criticism from Qatar's prime minister that they had made "mistakes".
Syrian activists say the Arab monitors have had inadequate access to trouble spots, a charge denied by Damascus.
A Hama unit of the Free Syrian Army complained that it had tried without success to meet the monitors.
"We want to prove to the world that the Assad regime is lying when it says there are armed gangs here," said an FSA officer in a video posted online.
"There are no armed gangs, but soldiers who have defected after we saw that the army and security forces were killing civilians and shelling people's homes with heavy artillery."
Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who chairs the Arab League committee on Syria, said after meeting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Thursday that it was the League's first monitoring mission. "I said we must evaluate the types of mistakes it made and without a shadow of a doubt I see mistakes, even though we went in to observe, not to stop the violence," he said.

Syria reports deadly 'terrorist' explosion in capital Damascus
By Jack Khoury and Reuters
Syria TV says 10 dead, 46 wounded; attack comes 2 weeks after twin explosion rocks Syrian capital, killing 44 and wounding dozens. An explosion by terrorists targeted the central Maidan district of Damascus on Friday, Syrian state television said, adding that the attack targeted a police bus in central Damascus, causing several deaths. Initial reports claim a suicide bomber detonated himself in the city's Maidan quarter near the Syrian intelligence headquarters, with Syria's official news agency SANA reoprting that 15 people were killed in the attack and another 46 wounded. A resident of the conservative district, where protests against President Bashar Assad have been expanding, said ambulances were seen in the area. SANA said that the explosion took place near Hassan al-Hakeem Basic Education School. The report came only two weeks after two booby-trapped cars blew up at Syrian security sites in Damascus, with 44 killed and dozens wounded. Syria blamed Al-Qaida for the blasts, which hit two security buildings and came a day after an Arab League delegation arrived to prepare for monitors who will report on Syrian President Bashar Assad's implementation of a plan to end the bloodshed. Some Assad opponents said the attacks could have been staged by the government itself.

Hizbullah Blames U.S. for Damascus 'Terrorist' Blast
by Naharnet /Hizbullah on Friday accused the United States of being behind a bombing in Damascus which official Syrian media said killed 25 people and wounded dozens more, describing Washington as a "terrorist.""This terrorist crime targeting the heart of the Syrian capital is the second installment of a plan by the evil force, the United States, to punish Syria for standing by the Resistance against the Zionist enemy," a statement by the group said. It said the bombings aimed to compensate for Washington's "humiliating withdrawal" from Iraq. Hizbullah also blamed the United States for twin bombings which left more than 40 people dead in Damascus on December 23. Syrian officials blamed al-Qaida. Friday's explosion struck in a heavily populated neighborhood near a school in the historic Midan quarter of the city. Syrian state television said the blast was the work of a suicide bomber. The United Nations estimates that more than 5,000 people have been killed in Syria since the crisis erupted last March.
Iran- and Syria-backed Hizbullah has staunchly stood by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad throughout the crisis. Source/Agence France Presse.

'Hezbollah planning to target Israelis in Europe'
Yossi Yehoshua/01.06.12/Ynetnews
Tourism Ministry increases security around Israeli, Jewish sites and known tourist hubs in Europe following terror concern
Recent terror alerts have prompted Jerusalem officials to ask Bulgaria and other European nations to increase security measures concerning Israeli and Jewish sites as well as known tourist hubs, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday.
Danny Shenar, head of security at the Tourism Ministry alerted European authorities to the threat. Bulgarian authorities in particular were asked to remain on high alert. Shenar's request was reportedly accepted. Security sources said that while there was no specific threat, there was intelligence suggesting that Israelis traveling in Europe would be targeted by terror groups.
According to the report, the defense establishment is concerned by Iranian threats to retaliate over what it calls "the systematic elimination" if its nuclear scientists. Concerns over a possible attack in Bulgaria are compounded by defense establishment intelligence – backed by Western intelligence sources – suggesting Hezbollah is planning a terror attack on "an Israeli destination in Europe," possibly around the coming anniversary of the assassination of arch-terrorist Imad Mugniyah. Israel has increased its own security measures around Israeli sites across Europe as well, and according to security sources, previous attempted by Hezbollah to mount such attacks have been foiled. Nevertheless, the Counter-Terrorism Bureau criticized the Transportation Ministry's move, saying it was the first time the ministry had issued this kind of travel advisory and adding that it did so independently. The Counter-Terrorism Bureau is the only official government body authorized to issue security-based travel advisories.
CTB sources said that Shenar had briefed them on the information he had, but sans a credible threat or intelligence suggesting an imminent one, the CTB saw no need to issue a travel advisory. "The hysterical atmosphere in unnecessary," a CTB source said. The Foreign Ministry also downplayed the Tourism Ministry's concerns: The latter's travel advisory has not been posted on the Foreign Ministry's website, unlike other Counter-Terrorism Bureau advisories. **Itamar Eichner contributed to this report

Hezbollah says Syria attack part of U.S. plan
January 06, 2012/The Daily Star/
BEIRUT: Hezbollah described Friday’s suicide bombing in Damascus as part of a larger U.S. plan to destabilize the country, while Lebanon’s foreign minister said the explosion was the beginning of further “terrorist operations” beyond Syria’s borders. In a statement released hours after an explosion ripped through Syria’s capital, Hezbollah said the attack “was the second installment of the evil plan of America and forces under its control in our region to punish Syria for its position beside the resistance against the Zionist enemy.” “It is evidence of the magnitude of the fierce attack faced by Syria that targets its security and stability,” Hezbollah added. Syria’s television said a suicide bomber in Maidan district in Damascus killed 25 people Friday and wounded 46 others in the third such attack in Damascus in a month. On Dec. 23 at least 44 people were killed by two suicide bombings that targeted security buildings in the Syrian capital, according to Syrian officials.
Hezbollah, Syria’s ally in Lebanon, also said that the attack is evidence of the presence of forces who do not want to see reform in Syria or resolve the crisis in that country.
The attack occurred two days before an Arab League committee was set to discuss an initial report by Arab observers monitoring Syria's compliance with an Arab deal aimed at ending President Bashar Assad's crackdown on anti-government protesters. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Foreign Affairs Minister Adnan Mansour said the explosion in Syria is the beginning of future terrorist operations beyond Syria’s borders. “Once more, the ugly face of terrorism hits the Syrian capital of Damascus, indicating a new, critical stage for Syria and opening doors and making way for terrorist operations to infiltrate areas and expand beyond borders,” Mansour said in a statement, condemning the suicide bombing. “We all have confidence that with the awareness of the Syrian people and leadership of what is being sowed against Syria and the region, they will be able to stifle sedition and undermine the roots of terrorism,” he added.

Former CIA Chief: Iran 'Single Greatest Destabilizing' Force in 2012
By Catherine Herridge
Published January 05, 2012
FoxNews.com
Tehran will be the top threat in 2012, former CIA Director Michael Hayden predicted Wednesday as Iran dominates foreign policy debate even while national security officials appeared to dismiss the Islamic Republic's latest threat to close the Strait of Hormuz.
"It is the single greatest destabilizing element right now with regards to global security," Hayden told Fox News, adding that the outlook is not encouraging.
"Of all the things that I left, when I was in government, the situation with Iran, and particularly their nuclear program has continued on a trajectory that gets darker with each passing day, week and month. They seem on this inexorable arc in the direction of a nuclear capability and there seems to be nothing that we or other like minded nations can do that will stop them."
Hayden who led the CIA from 2006 through 2009 and is now a principal with the Chertoff Group, which provides risk management and security services, said part of the problem is understanding the regime's intent.
"This government and its decision-making processes are incredibly opaque. And here we are, as a government trying to get them to change their mind, change their mind in a process that it is very difficult for us to identify where are the leverage points."
On Monday, Iran's army chief warned against a U.S. carrier returning to the Strait of Hormuz, the critical passageway that the U.S. monitors as part of international agreement to keep the shipping lanes open. The USS John C. Stennis had vacated the area while Iran's navy conducted war games in the Persian Gulf over a 10-day period.
The U.S. dismissed the threat as the result of Iran's growing isolation and a lashing out at the international community. Hayden said the threat doesn't even make logical sense since he doubts Iran would have the ability to close the strategic waterway for any length of time in any case.
"I'm creative enough to imagine circumstances internal to Iran where some faction or another might believe it's to their internal advantage to take such a dramatic action. But externally it just doesn't make any sense," he said. "Number one, they need the straits as much, perhaps more, than anyone else, the free flow of oil, otherwise their economy is more in the tank than it is today. Number two, does closing the straits make Iran more or less isolated? ... Does closing the straits make it more or less likely that someone will think it's a legitimate step to attack the nuclear facility at Natanz? I think it makes it more likely. So why would the Iranians do that?"
But Hayden warned that such a threat suggests that Tehran may commit an unforced error in the next year, which could have profound consequences.
"Who is likely to go dramatic in 2012? It's not us, I don't think it's the Israelis. I think it's the Iranians. And I think it's out of desperation and miscalculation. The isolation that they are undergoing right now is very severe. Their currency is dropped about one-third of its value in the past few weeks. And now with the imposition of sanctions against the Iranian national bank and the impact that will have on the oil industry, you are seeing great stresses within the Iranian leadership structure."
The alleged Iranian-backed assassination plot to target the Saudi envoy to Washington DC in November 2011 underscores the possibility of Iranian missteps.
"A country that's willing to try to kill Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador, at a Georgetown restaurant, through a Mexican drug cartel, is probably capable of a lot of things," he said.
Hayden, who in addition to being CIA chief also led the National Security Agency, said there is significant common ground between the Bush and Obama White House on Iran strategy.
"This is not an issue that we left the administration with easy answers, the current administration, with easy answers. We (the previous administration) struggled with this as well. There are no really good options. We have tools, we talk about the continuity between the two administrations when it comes to the war on terror, it's actually been a fair amount of continuity between the two administrations when it comes to Iran as well."
The first intelligence officer to reach the rank of four stars in the Air Force, Hayden added that the Bush administration wrestled with the same issues the current administration has to cope with, in part because, efforts to engage Iran have not gone according to plan. "We had that interlude where we tried to engage Iran, and that of course did not end well. But by and large the administration has depended upon an international coalition. The administration has depended upon economic sanctions. The administration has depended upon attempts to isolate Iran, internationally. All of those are carrying forward policies developed during the previous administration. It's just a hard problem." As for the effectiveness of a covert campaign in Iran, which has reportedly targeted nuclear scientists and nuclear facilities, Hayden would not comment directly but said from what he's read in the newspaper, "someone has a very aggressive covert action campaign apparently, against the Iranian program."
"And it appears to be setting the program back," he added. "The Iranians always made claims for their program, that the program was far more advanced than, than we knew it to be. I think we still see that today." Fox News chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge's bestselling book "The Next Wave: On the Hunt for al Qaeda's American Recruits," published by Crown, draws on her reporting for Fox News into al Qaeda 2.0. It investigates the new face of terrorism.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai criticizes 'imported' Arab Spring
January 06, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai Friday said a genuine Arab Spring, rather than one driven by foreign influence, was yet to come.  Rai called on Christians in the Levant to join hands with Muslims to build a democratic nation based on human rights, equal citizenship, the rule of law and the principles of justice and peace. “Thus, Christians and Muslims can achieve a genuine Arab Spring emanating from within and not imported from abroad for political, economic and strategic reasons, which are often at the expense of national interests,” Rai said during a Mass to mark Epiphany. He also said fundamentalism would destroy the current Arab Spring. “Religious fundamentalism, whatever its leanings, could turn the spring into a winter, if it doesn't have the goal of building a democratic civil society," Rai said. “Violence and terrorism also warn of a devastating winter." At the domestic level, Rai called on Christians and Muslims in Lebanon to “preserve the Lebanese entity which is made up of both Christians and Muslims ... and based on the two cultures – Christians and Muslims which together make a nation of diversity rich in traditions and values.”Rai also called on the various political officials “not to separate between their duty towards the State and towards God, and to commit to the cause of peace, human rights and dignity of human being.”

The Isra-Iranian bloc
Op-ed: Recent events suggest that Israel aims to neutralize Iran by becoming more like it
Asaf Gefen/ 01.06.12/ Ynetnews
The official Israeli responses to the Iranian issue may create the disturbing impression that our government has no solution to the problem, with the exception of the suicide strike we keep hearing about. However, it appears that behind the scenes and under the surface we are formulating a revolutionary plan to contend with the threat. The recent escalation in “price tag” acts, the assault on the High Court of Justice, the harassment of moderate rabbi groups, the bill proposing limits on the funding of human rights groups, the law for greater compensation in libel lawsuits against the media, the removal of female faces from Jerusalem billboards and the objection to female singing in the IDF are not just domestic events in Israeli democracy’s goodbye party. In fact, all of the above are part of a five-year plan for neutralizing the Iranian threat by turning Israel into Iran. If you can’t beat them, join them, while eliminating any fundamentalist motivation to harass us. As we can see from the abovementioned examples, the Iranization plan is moving along at a nice pace, and the worst is still ahead of us. A few more years down this slippery slope and not only won’t we have a reason to quarrel with the Iranians, we would even be able to consider a merger. The combination of two bearded, crazed nuclear powers is something that this world has not yet experienced. Let’s see it contending with the Isra-Iranian threat

'Iran does not pose an existential threat '
Contrary to statements made when he was in office, former IDF chief Dan Halutz now negates 'doomsday scenarios' vis-à-vis Iran
Shiri Hadar/ 01.06.12/Ynetnews
"Iran does not pose an existential threat to Israel," former IDF Chief Dan Halutz said Friday. Halutz spoke at a strategy seminar held in Herzliya. "Iran poses a serious threat to Israel, but there is difference between 'serious' and 'existential,'" he said. Halutz' current position on the matter stands in stark contrast to the one he held when he served as the chief of staff. "We may find ourselves facing an existential threat if Iran continues to pursue its nuclear ambitions… it's the only existential threat I can perceive for Israel," he said in 2006.
In October of 2006 he reiterated his position, saying: "(Israel) cannot remain indifferent to Iran, it has a combination of radical ideology with an intense desire to obtain nuclear weapons and the desire to destroy Israel." Six year later and Halutz now sports a more moderate position: "I don't think there's room for any doomsday scenarios or comparisons with the Holocaust. I also don't think Israel should be the one to lead any operation against Iran."
An existential threat, he explained "is defined as the other side's ability to obliterate us off the face of the earth. That doesn’t apply nor do I think it will.
"I don't think we should sit idly by, but I don't think Israel should be leading the issue – Israel should make sure it remains a high priority on the international agenda, but Iran is a global problem – not just Israel's problem. "
The public debate on the matter "has crossed the lines. Some things should have never been said," he added. Halutz said that Israel was surprised by the Arab Spring: "We didn't imagine any of what happened over the past year… Still, I don't think we'll see democracies pop up in the Middle East very fast, especially in Egypt and Syria."
The latter, he added, does not pose an existential threat to Israel either: "A weak Syria is a Syria that weakens Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Iranian-Syrian-Hezbollah-Hamas axis," he said.
"A weak Syria is one that weakens Turkey too, and we have to use these changes to our advantage, turn enemies to friends and vice versa – even if we have to swallow our pride every once in a while."
'Women's exclusion worse than terror' Halutz also addressed the recent phenomenon of excluding women from the public sphere and called it: "Worse than any form of terrorist as it divides and weakens."
"We cannot have an army within an army; where every group has a different patron." He added that this created uncertainty over the correct chain of command and authority on a day to day basis. He believes that this situation is worse than "the war of Gog and Magog." Halutz added that the situation was very challenging for the IDF: "It's divisive and it causes us to be weaker. Now it's the singer on the stage, tomorrow it's the female fighter pilot. What happens if the female pilot will have to fly with a yarmulke wearing pilot? We might reach a point where we have to exclude from there as well."
Halutz stressed that the question of the shared burden of service is not disconnected from the operational challenges. "The nature of wars of army versus army has changed right before our eyes. The battles are longer and exhausting and require patience. The places us with a major challenge that is becoming more and more difficult and complicated."

Arab League asks for Hamas help with Syria
06/01/2012/CAIRO, (Reuters) - The Arab League chief on Friday asked the Damascus-based leader of the Palestinian group Hamas to ask Syria to work to halt violence, saying there was more to do under a peace agreement aimed at ending a crackdown on anti-government protesters.Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby was speaking alongside Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal after a meeting in Cairo. "I gave him a message today to the Syrian authorities that it is necessary to work with integrity, transparency and credibility to halt the violence that is happening in Syria," Elaraby said.
The Arab League has sent monitors to Syria to check on the government's compliance with a promise to end 10 months of violence against pro-democracy protesters.
Elaraby said there was still work to be done according to the agreement between the League and Syria to scale back its military presence in cities and free thousands of prisoners detained since the uprising began last March. "The observers are striving to realise this situation: to realise a halt to the violence; to realise the release of the detained, to realise the withdrawal of the (military) vehicles. Therefore there is work," he said. He also said the Arab monitors were in Syria now "to undertake a mission that is bigger than that which was asked of them", but without giving further details.
Elaraby said Meshaal had played a role in convincing the Syrian government to sign the Arab League protocol. "Since the start of the crisis, we in Hamas and myself personally, have made a huge effort to solve the crisis through a political solution, and we have kept up these efforts," Meshaal said. Damascus is the main Hamas headquarters outside of the Gaza Strip, which it has governed since seizing control there in 2007. Together with Iran, Syria has been one of Hamas' main regional allies. However, the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule has strained ties between the two.
Angering Syria, Hamas has refused to hold rallies in Palestinian refugee camps in support of the Assad government.However, the group still officially maintains its headquarters in the Syrian capital.

What are the Arab observers doing?
By Diana Mukkaled
Asharq Alawsat
The Secretary General of the Arab League, Nabil el-Araby, recently came out to say that Syrian tanks had withdrawn from the residential areas of troubled cities. However, sniper attacks and killings continue. The statement seemed to serve as an acquittal freely granted to the Syrian regime, at a time when killings are ongoing at a rate of no less than 30 people per day.
A few hours after el-Araby’s words, video images emerged from Syrian activists showing that tanks in Homs, for example, were still deployed, and that the regime’s Shabiha were still on the streets. As for the stream of images depicting bodies and victims who have been falling up to this moment, this is also continuing at a rapid pace, and not without scenes of civilians being beaten and tortured.
The fact is that the first week of the Arab League observer mission in Syria has carried just as many images and scenes [as before], which gives rise to many questions from those concerned. What is the point in Arab observers taking pictures in front of the bodies of children held captive in their houses, or in front of tortured victims, or taking pictures during their meetings with Syrians who have experienced intolerable cruelty and complain of what they have suffered, or scenes of the observers in the streets with protestors and citizens, while we hear gunfire overhead?
Considering these images, if it is not the observers’ job to speak out, document and condemn, then what is their value?
This certainly does not point to the success of the observation mission. The ridiculous campaign waged by the Syrian media against certain individuals among the observers, through first-hand accounts and investigative stories, does not mean the task of the mission has been completed, that the mission has managed to uncover the full facts, or that it has enabled the image of the Syrian scene to reach the world. The image has already reached the world thanks to the sufferings of the Syrians, and their struggle to convey the magnitude of their suffering and the extent of the cruelty and violence committed against them.
Meanwhile, Nabil el-Araby also came out to announce, in a victorious tone, that the Syrian regime has agreed to issue visas for 150 media outlets, although entry has not been granted to “al-Arabiya”, “Al-Jazeera” and “France 24”.
Yet the Arab observers have entered a country that has been enclosed and locked to outside journalists for more than nine months, and remains closed to all attempts to convey the reality of what is happening to the outside world. At the same time, since the arrival of the observer mission in Syria, the death toll has exceeded 200.
So what are the Arab observers doing in Syria?
After more than a week since the beginning of the task, entrusted to those observers by the Arab League, to monitor and investigate the facts, an answer to the question does not seem obvious. The stances of the observer mission, conveyed through the Arab League Secretary General, seem contradictory, unconvincing and hesitant in many cases, and have not brought anything new in terms of uncovering the truth, or allowing the media to convey what is happening in Syria.
The media is not rushing to draw rash conclusions about the observer mission, at least not as much as the Arab League Secretary General is.

Finding God everywhere in Lebanon
January 05, 2012/ By Michael Young/The Daily Star
Readers will forgive me if I use a personal milestone as the premise for what follows. The year 2012 marks 20 years since my return to Lebanon, after an interregnum abroad. On the occasion, what change has struck me most during this period? Without a doubt, that affecting religion.
By this I don’t mean the primacy of sectarianism, though that is certainly part of it. What I’m referring to is the pervasiveness of the outwardly devotional, of public manifestations of faith, a belief in miracles, and the compulsive recourse to God or other sacred figures in all varieties of day-to-day situations. Moreover, such religiosity seems everywhere present physically – on trinkets, lockets, wristbands, key rings, bumpers, pocket flashlights, lighters, and wherever else one can affix the image of a saint or a Quranic verse.
Religion is, or should be, a private matter. Yet what is so startling is that the Lebanese today routinely wear it on their sleeve, literally and figuratively. They mechanically assume that if they mutter a religious invocation, that their interlocutors will respond in kind. And many do. Stranger still, it is the young who are the most dedicated. Where one would assume that youths are impatient to cut loose from religious tradition, in Lebanon they are the ones holding the trenches.
The phenomenon is disturbing. To believe in God is one thing, and it is a right no less meriting of protection than the right to religious unbelief. However, it often appears that the rise in overt Lebanese religiosity, like the rise in sectarian polarization, is one consequence of the breakdown of confidence in the state and its social contract.
If so, the issue we’re addressing perhaps has less to do with religion as such than with the particulars of identity. Among Christians, for instance, there is a palpable connection between explicit examples of religiosity and a sense of communal decline. When you feel yourself to be on the ropes, the natural reflex is to reaffirm your presence by whatever means possible, even if it means overdoing things.
I still recall walking into a bank one day and watching a young trainee teller as she went through the steps of verifying my check. The girl, she must have been 22 at most, was a movable reliquary. She wore a large rosary around her neck and religious strings around her wrist, alongside a smaller rosary doubling as an elastic bracelet. I may have caught sight of the Immaculate Conception on a chain as well.
The teller was hardly to be blamed for her convictions. Yet I wondered at how developed must have been the inner sanctum inhabited by this girl, and how this somehow represented a loss for Lebanon as a whole. When youths of any sect bury themselves in the depths of a creed, that is in one measure because they are unwilling, or more likely unable, to have a say in the world outside – in the republic.
This contrasts sharply with attitudes among an older generation of Lebanese, those who were in their 20s during the 1970s. In that first decade of the Civil War, secular ideologies still held meaning. Sect was important and militiamen flaunted their religious artifacts. But back then they still seemed to be fighting over the state, over something tangible: their version of what they regarded as an ideal polity. For many Lebanese in their 20s nowadays, once they manage to transcend their cynicism, the ideal polity, typically, is abroad.
Not surprisingly, political and religious leaders have facilitated the Lebanese retreat to religion. On the one hand, religion provides sectarian leaderships with a fine instrument to impose unanimity behind their authority; on the other, the alienation Lebanese feel from public matters means politicians are left unchallenged.
The clergy has been no better. More religion makes them more relevant, but also bolsters their much-inflated influence. Priests and sheikhs can only applaud when their flocks fall back on the outer trappings and paraphernalia of the faith, as opposed to the spirituality purportedly at its core. For it is the churches and the mosques that administer the public facets of devotion, lending them legitimacy. Yet there is an irony. Few Lebanese are naïve about the corruptions of their religious institutions. Rarely have clerics been as mistrusted, as blatantly enslaved to the worldly. And yet they still enjoy obedience.
If the Lebanese aspire to a better future, they will have to break out of their sectarian islands and closeted religious mindsets. Religion will remain a defining feature of Lebanon, the secular notwithstanding. But whatever the rewards of religion, when religiosity is emphasized in a mixed sectarian society, it becomes a medium of demarcation or separation. Identity politics can be divisive politics, just as a surfeit of religious ostentation conceals deeper insecurities. In the framework of unstable states, these hinder a consensus over coexistence.Many will disagree with this assessment, so essential to their life is religion, precisely because the Lebanese state has let them down. It’s a vicious circle, no doubt. However, then we might refer back to that phrase about the necessity of rendering to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. On this earth, let’s attend to what is Caesar’s, and those who want to deal with God will have an eternity to do so.
**Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR and author of “The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle” (Simon & Schuster). He tweets @BeirutCalling.

Turkey ex-Army Chief Arrested for Alleged Bid to Topple Government
by Naharnet/Turkey's former army chief Ilker Basbug was arrested Friday over an alleged bid to topple the Islamist-rooted government, the Anatolia news agency reported on Friday.
"The 26th chief of staff of the Turkish republic has unfortunately been placed in preventive detention for setting up and leading a terrorist group and of attempting to overthrow the government," Ilkay Sezer, a lawyer for Basbug, was quoted as saying by Anatolia. Dozens of army officers have been jailed in recent years as part of several investigations into alleged plots targeting the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But it is the first time in the history of the republic that a former chief of the Turkish military has been arrested. Basbug, who retired in 2010, is the highest-ranking officer in a massive investigation into the so-called Ergenekon network, accused of plotting to topple the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP). The arrest came hours after Basbug testified as a suspect at an Istanbul court on Thursday as part of a probe into an alleged Internet campaign to discredit the government. Among the allegations is an attempt by a group of army officers to establish websites to disseminate anti-government propaganda in order to destabilize the country. Turkey's military, which considers itself as the guardian of secularism, has carried out three coups -- in 1960, 1971 and 1980. This latest move appears to be a fresh warning to the military whose political influence has decreased since the AKP came to power in 2002. Basbug was later sent to a prison at Istanbul's Silivri prison where other suspects of alleged Ergenekon network are jailed.

Is Hezbollah losing control?
Michael Young, January 6, 2012
The cacophony in the government this past week, while hardly surprising, tells us much about the nature of the Lebanese system. And the party best absorbing the lesson is Hezbollah.
Last month, the defense minister, Fayez Ghosn, declared that Al-Qaeda was present in Lebanon, in that way echoing accusations that Syrian officials have made. He was soon contradicted by Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Interior Minister Marwan Charbel. This prompted Ghosn’s political patron, Sleiman Franjieh, to publicly back the defense minister, even as Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, called on Russia and Iran to persuade President Bashar al-Assad that a change of regime in Damascus was necessary.
And this from the government “of one color” we’ve heard so much about. That such a government can continue to survive is less a miracle than a sign of Syria’s and Hezbollah’s desire not to allow a vacuum in Beirut that could turn to their disadvantage. But outside the boundaries of that general condition, anything goes. Franjieh does the bidding of the Syrian regime, Jumblatt recommends its departure, and Mikati tries to steer a middle course between the icebergs.
Hezbollah controls the commanding heights of the Lebanese state. It has considerable sway over the army and the intelligence apparatus, not to mention over Beirut airport and port. It has an independent telecommunications network, which it has been able to install throughout large parts of the country. And it has access to numerous ministries through its political partners and clients. The list goes on. But one thing Hezbollah cannot do is impose harmony on a litigious political environment to advance its interests. The ensuing pluralism poses the greatest threat to Hezbollah’s wellbeing.
It’s difficult to say how Hezbollah judges the situation in Syria. It continues to staunchly support the Assad regime, but the party is too lucid not to have a backup plan. And such a plan almost certainly involves a measure of self-protection through Hezbollah’s continued participation in and supremacy over the government and state. That’s why it doesn’t want a governmental void in the country, since this might hinder its ability to shape the political environment in its favor.
However, things may not be so clear-cut. The dispute over Al-Qaeda as well as Jumblatt’s remarks led in directions that Hezbollah would prefer to avoid. The party cannot be particularly comfortable with the implications of Ghosn’s declarations. If Lebanon has become an Al-Qaeda base, with members allegedly present in Aarsal, a Sunni town in the northeastern Bekaa Valley, near Hezbollah strongholds, this can only heighten hostility between Sunni and Shia. Hezbollah, which must know that the Al-Qaeda accusation is bogus, today prefers to sidestep sectarian antagonism, let alone confrontation, that would further isolate it if the Syrian leadership were to collapse. Syria’s priorities and Hezbollah’s are not invariably the same in Lebanon.
The same holds for Jumblatt’s bombshell. The party perhaps understands that the Druze leader must also plan ahead for the exit of the Assads, given that there are some 300,000 Druze in Syria. It cannot approve of Jumblatt’s call for regime change in Damascus, but nor can it intimidate him in quite the way that it previously could. Jumblatt makes the parliamentary majority a majority; and Hezbollah knows that in a world without the Assads, it will need to be on cordial terms with many of those whom it finds unsavory.
Things will not get easier for the party. Last October the inhabitants of Tarshish stopped excavation work which they warned was being carried out by Hezbollah to extend its telecommunications network. While the episode was relatively limited in scope, that kind of reaction can only increase in the future, as the perception spreads that the party is increasingly vulnerable because of the Syrian crisis.
What we have today is a Hezbollah whose constraints oblige it to be in league with a politician bluntly wagering on the end of Assad rule, as well as a prime minister who has pushed hard to finance an international tribunal that has indicted Hezbollah members. The party is finding it difficult to manage a dysfunctional cabinet to its advantage. Lebanon’s Sunnis feel emboldened because of events in Syria, at the very moment when Hezbollah is eager to avert sectarian animosities. And if Bashar al-Assad is ousted, the party will lose its strategic depth in case of war with Israel, greatly limiting its ability to engage in such a war and diluting its deterrence capability.
All this is the natural consequence of a complex, unruly Lebanese political order that no party can hope to dominate for long. Hezbollah has engaged in hubris by believing the contrary. Lebanon’s sectarian order sooner or later pushes back against attempts at hegemony by one party or a coalition of parties. The “politics of alleyways” that Hassan Nasrallah once dismissed in describing the conduct of Lebanese domestic affairs, is slowly overcoming Hezbollah.
But the party won’t disappear once the Assads do. For Lebanon to peacefully navigate a post-Assad era in Syria, negotiations between the Lebanese communities are necessary. Sunnis need to speak to Shia. Hezbollah will become more modest as the system grinds the party down. But nothing will have been gained if the party’s foes become overconfident. That would be a recipe for civil conflict.
*Michael Young is opinion editor of The Daily Star newspaper in Beirut and author of The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle. He tweets @BeirutCalling.

Free Syrian Army says regime behind Damascus explosion
January 6, 2012 /Free Syrian Army commander Colonel Riad al-Assaad said on Friday that the Syrian regime is behind the explosion that took place earlier in Damascus’ Al-Midan neighborhood.
“The Syrian regime has begun to lose its [cool] when it comes to the revolution in Syria,” Assaad told Al-Jazeera television, adding that the Free Syrian Army has nothing to do with the blast.
He also said that the Free Syrian Army insists on transferring the issue of the Syrian crisis to the UN Security Council. “We are with the Syrian people, and we swore to protect them and we will,” he also said. Assaad added that the Free Syrian Army has “brigades” in Syria and is working systematically. A suicide bombing hit Damascus today, killing 25 and wounding dozens of mostly civilians, state media said, blaming "terrorists" for the second such attack on the Syrian capital in two weeks. -NOW Lebanon

Arab observers pull out from Syrian town amid gunfire
January 6, 2012 /An Arab League observer delegation withdrew from the town of Arabeen, which is near Damascus, due to Syrian forces’ heavy gunfire. According to Al-Arabiya television, Syrian security forces shot in the direction of the delegation during its visit to the town. The report said that crowds of anti-regime protesters gathered around the observers when Syrian troops began shooting at them. However, it did not elaborate further. Arab League observers arrived in Damascus on December 26 as part of a bid to negotiate an end to the violence and support political dialogue.-NOW Lebanon

Hariri condemns “terrorist action” in Damascus
January 6, 2012 /Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri commented Friday on the explosion that took place in the Damascus neighborhood of Al-Midan and said he condemns all “terrorist actions.”
“What draws attention is the setting [of the explosion]. It [happened] 24 hours before the Arab commission [on Syria] is scheduled to meet and was located in Al-Midan, which is a major point of popular movements in Damascus,” he added via the social networking website Twitter. Hariri also said that he and his family are in Riyadh. A suicide bombing hit Damascus today, killing 25 and wounding dozens of mostly civilians, state media said, blaming "terrorists" for the second such attack on the Syrian capital in two weeks. -NOW Lebanon

Mansour condemns Damascus blast
January 6, 2012 /Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour condemned on Friday the blast that hit the Damascus neighborhood of Al-Midan in Syria. “Once again, terrorism has hit the Syrian capital to indicate the emergence of a new dangerous phase that does not only target Syria but the whole region,” the National News Agency quoted Mansour as saying. A suicide bombing hit Damascus on Friday, killing 25 and wounding dozens of mostly civilians, state media said, blaming "terrorists" for the second such attack on the Syrian capital in two weeks. Lebanon’s political scene is split between supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, led by Hezbollah, and the pro-Western March 14 camp.-NOW Lebanon

PSP condemns “terrorist explosion” in Damascus
January 6, 2012 /The Progressive Socialist Party on Friday condemned the “terrorist explosion” that rocked Al-Midan neighborhood in Damascus. The PSP added that any action which involves bloodshed and death is “condemnable,” the National News Agency reported.A suicide bombing hit Damascus today, killing 25 and wounding dozens of mostly civilians, state media said, blaming "terrorists" for the second such attack on the Syrian capital in two weeks. -NOW Lebanon

Dangerous moves/The purchase of 3 million square meters of open land in the Chouf by a businessman with close ties to Hezbollah
January 5, 2012 /The purchase of 3 million square meters of open land in the Chouf by a businessman with close ties to Hezbollah has stirred sectarian fears in Lebanon.
Hezbollah no doubt likes to see itself as the embodiment of Lebanese pride. It did, after all, shed blood for the liberation of Lebanese land occupied for 22 years by the Israeli army and its proxy Lebanese militia. In 2006, it also claims to have restored dignity to an Arab world used to living with defeat when it gave the same Israeli army a good thrashing in a war that it nonetheless started and which claimed over 1000 Lebanese lives. But this is a mere detail when set against the glorious canvas of the party’s “divine victory.”
Hezbollah would also like to have us believe that it is the party that gets things done, a clean party free from corruption and one that genuinely cares for its constituents. It has provided schools, clinics and other welfare services. To the neophyte willing to buy into this stirring storyline, it is an organization that stands head and shoulders above the feudal and self-serving political dynasties that have miserably defined Lebanese politics since the country’s creation in 1943. Back then, Hezbollah will say, the Shia were an underclass. Now they have the dignity, the track record and the finances (oh and let’s not forget the weapons) to have a mighty say in Lebanese affairs.
But there is a darker side to this stellar CV, one that was recently exposed by the US authorities in its global war on drugs and money laundering. For while the domestic narrative may be heart warming, Hezbollah’s international activities place the party firmly in the bosom of the world’s leading crime organizations as it embarks upon a program not dissimilar to Hitler’s policy of lebensraum – the acquisition of living space – for its community and, in doing so, expands the Shia demographic beyond the party’s usual areas of control. This strategy, as well as being funded by a vibrant and obedient business community, is also (if we are to believe the rash of media reports) paid for by the proceeds of money laundered from the sale of illegal narcotics on a scale that involves some of the world’s most dangerous drug cartels.
The latest news of Hezbollah’s expansionist policy is the recent revelation that in 2010 just less than 3 million square meters of open land in the Chouf was bought by a businessman with close ties to Hezbollah. It is allegedly Lebanon’s biggest land deal and one that has many local residents anxious about the motives behind the purchase.
Given the allegations as to the provenance of the funds and the sectarian sensitivities that have been aroused, surely the government should be looking into the matter. Lebanon’s identity has been forged on its plurality and the unwritten rule that no one sect should have dominion over the others. When this understanding is threatened, the state cannot, as it is doing now, just stand by in silence.
No one is suggesting that Lebanon’s sectarian demographic is set in stone. We should not perpetuate the ghetto mentality, but in a country where paranoia and suspicion are endemic, it is not surprising that many people – for the time being mostly Christians and the Druze – feel threatened by this and other purchases in traditional non-Shia areas. It would not be an exaggeration to posit that if ever there were a catalyst for civil conflict this is it. But this does not seem to bother Hezbollah, which is once again hiding behind the increasingly tired argument that everything it does is built around confronting Israeli aggression. The party has said that it is merely strengthening its “security zone,” a term it uses to trump any civil anxiety because as we all know there is no greater cause in Lebanon than confronting the Zionist entity.
Yet what is a “security zone”? Who decides what is a “security zone” or what isn’t; where a “security zone” should be or shouldn’t be? Words like “security zone,” and even the “Resistance” have become sacred words with which we cannot argue. They claim to represent a form of national security in which the nation has no say.

Canada Condemns Recent Bombings in Iraq
(No. 5 - January 6, 2012 - 9 a.m. ET) Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following statement on the recent terrorist attacks in Nasiriya and Baghdad:
“Canada strongly condemns the cowardly attacks in Nasiriya, which killed numerous Shia pilgrims, and the recent bombings in Baghdad.
“On behalf of all Canadians, I offer my deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those killed and wish a speedy recovery to those injured by this violence.
“Canada calls on the perpetrators to be brought to justice.”

The Arab League mission to Syria isn’t just a failure, it’s an accomplice to Assad’s crimes
Farid Ghadry Blog
Kafranbel, Syria has some remarkable residents. “NATO leaders!” reads one revolutionary sign in the city, “if the Libyans could pay oil for you, we will sell our houses to cover the cost”. Another placard calls for the “construction of 5-star hotel to attract the Arab monitors.” Then there's the sign wielded by a little girl already the quandaries of ancient philosophy: “We demand observers to observe the observers while they observe!”
Whatever you think of the idea of humanitarian intervention in Syria (an argument that evidently makes the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the head of the Free Syrian Army and the French Foreign Minister all neoconservatives), or about the very real and tragic plight of Christian minorities in the Middle East, you ought to consider the following: The Arab League delegation was only sent into the country after the Assad regime negotiated the terms of its remit, and it is held in such low regard by the Syrian people because the organisers have made insultingly little effort to mask the true intention of their Potemkin farce.
The delegation is headed by General Mohammad Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, the former head of Sudan’s military intelligence service and the founder of Omar al-Bashir’s genocidal janjaweed militias in Darfur. As one Syrian human rights campaigner aptly described this appointment, it is like “a rapist … act[ing] as a forensic expert assistant while examining the victim”.
Last week, al-Dabi visited the battleground city of Homs and reported that he didn't see “anything frightening,” no tanks but “some armored vehicles.” Here are the orange-jacketed monitors in Homs standing right in front… a tank.
In this video, protestors in the Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs did al-Dabi the favour of laying the corpse of a slain boy on top of a League vehicle, complete with the spent cartridges used by regime forces to kill him. Though I suppose this is no more frightening to the godfather of Sudanese genocidaires than a football match played with human skulls would be to the Khmer Rouge.
Then in this video Baba Amr resident Khalid Abou Salah explains to al-Dabi that his remit is the problem in itself and that the delegation hasn’t ended the murder of civilians. Al-Dabi tells Salah to hang in there and believe in “dialogue.” Salah is unimpressed and responds that once the delegation leaves an area, the shooting starts up again. Sure enough, al-Dabi and his team eventually quit Baba Amr. Here’s what happened.The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Nabil al-Araby, actually gained some credibility several months ago for suspending Syria’s membership and even hinting at a Libya-style humanitarian intervention. But he has lately shown himself and his organisation to be guardians not of besieged civilians but of the defunct status quo of Arab authoritarianism. What al-Araby is saying about the fundamental legitimacy of his mission amounts to the old saw about not being able to make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. When Panaït Istrati toured the Soviet Union in the 1920s, he famously replied to that: “All right, I can see all the broken eggs. Now where’s this omelette of yours?” The people of Kafranbel might ask the same.

Egypt's 'Brotherhood' to Electorate: 'No Israel'
By Gary Lane /CBN News Sr. Correspondent
Friday, January 06, 2012
Ad Feedback Egyptians returned to the polls Friday for a third round of voting for members of a new parliament. The Muslim Brotherhood is expected to consolidate earlier gains and win the majority of seats. Members of the Islamic party have yet to be seated in Egypt's new parliament and already it is giving the world a hint at how it may govern. Like Israel's enemy in Gaza -- Hamas -- the Brotherhood says it will never recognize Israel's right to exist. Rashad Bayoumi, the deputy chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood, reportedly said last Sunday that his organization will not recognize Israel "under any circumstances." He called Israel an "occupying criminal entity." Bayoumi also said the Brotherhood will take legal steps to cancel the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. However, the U.S. State Department says the Islamist group has told it privately that it won't break Egypt's treaty with Israel. Bayoumi's statement came just two days before Egyptians began the third round of voting to elect members of parliament. The Brotherhood won about 36 percent of the vote in the first two rounds of voting. The extreme Islamist al-Nour party received about 29 percent. One Egyptian told CBN News he won't be voting for secularists. "Why don't we try Islamists? We have tried seculars, liberals and communists before and they ruined the country. We should try Islamists this time and if it does not work well, it is not a problem. We can change them," he reasoned. However, Middle East analyst Walid Phares says once the Muslim Brotherhood establishes control of a new government, Egyptians may find it difficult to change course. "Their plan is basically to move into government, into those ministries, into bureaucracies and eventually into the armed forces and seize power as much as they can," he said. "The Muslim Brotherhood's aim, final goal is to establish an Islamic state like Iran, or like Sudan, or ultimately like the Taliban," Phares added.
Up next -- the struggle over who will draft the new constitution. The Muslim Brotherhood wants the new parliament to appoint the people assigned to write the document. But the ruling military council says it will decide. It wants the new constitution to be written by non-Islamists and also Christians.

Identity Among Middle East Christians
by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
The American Spectator
January 5, 2012
http://www.meforum.org/3145/middle-east-christians-identity
In the course of the present unrest across the Middle East and North Africa, it has become clear that questions of identity are going to be extremely important in deciding the future paths of the various countries in turmoil, not only as regards the divide between Islamists and secularists, but also concerning ethnic and sectarian tensions in countries like Syria, Yemen, and Libya.
For Christians in the region, the issue of identity will similarly be important in determining ways to adapt to the changing political order. This naturally raises the problem of how exactly these Christians define themselves. For example, what does it mean to speak of an "Arab Christian"? Which Christians in the region feel the strongest affinity with such a description? Which ones reject it most vehemently?
It is often said that the concepts of Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism were formulated in significant part by Christians who did not wish for their communities to continue enduring discrimination. For instance, one could point to the fact that Michel Aflaq -- a founder of the Ba'ath Party -- and George Habash, an Arab nationalist thinker who founded the Marxist terrorist group known as the "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine," were both Christians.
However, what is often overlooked is that these Christians who were the most vociferous and staunch proponents of Arab nationalism and the notion of "Arab Christians" have been either Antiochian Greek Orthodox or Melkite Greek Catholics, two Christian sects concentrated in Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories. Aflaq and Habash were Antiochian Greek Orthodox, but a case in point for the Melkite Greek Catholics is the current patriarch of the church: Gregory III Laham.
In an interview with the Italian monthly magazine "30Giorni" back in 2005, Laham even went so far as to state that "the Melkite bishop Edelby… would always repeat: we are Arabs, not Muslims…. I add: we are the Church of Islam."
As for the terrorist attack in October 2010 on the Syriac Catholic "Our Lady of Salvation" church in Baghdad and similar assaults on Christians in the region, Laham characterized the persecution as a "conspiracy planned by Zionism and some Christians with Zionist orientations… that aims at depicting Arabs and Muslims in Arab countries as terrorist and fundamentalist murderers," according to a report in Lebanon's Daily Star.
Meanwhile, when it comes to the uprising in Syria, Laham has condemned the Arab League's suspension of Syria from the organization on the grounds that the move has caused separation in the Arab world, with the Patriarchate Council affirming the following, as noted by the Syrian Arab News Agency: "The criterion of the Arab League's success will be through its capability to solve the Palestinian cause, not through division or hostility."
In contrast, among the Maronites in Lebanon and the Copts in Egypt, the sentiment is more divided. One will almost certainly encounter members of both groups who identify as "Arab Christians," yet there has been a counter-trend on the question of identity that has never existed for the Antiochian Greek Orthodox or the Melkite Greek Catholics. For the Maronites, an alternative identity has been offered in the ideology of "Phoenicianism," which traces a link between the ancient Phoenicians and the Lebanese of today, besides taking pride in Lebanon's multicultural nature. A notable proponent of this view has been the well-known poet Said Akl, who reached his centenary last July.
Among Copts, there is the notion of "Pharaonism," which prefers to stress Egyptian identity as a combination of descent from the Ancient Egyptians, Egypt's historically close links with the Mediterranean world, and individual nation-state patriotism. This sentiment is shared by some Egyptian Muslims, and one of the most prominent advocates of Pharaonism in the 20th century was the liberal Muslim intellectual Taha Hussein.
Finally, one comes to the issue of identity among the Christians of Iraq. In this case, we find a virtually unanimous rejection of the term "Arab Christians." Instead, Christians in Iraq identify as ethnic Assyrians, although among some Chaldean Catholics there is a preference for a distinct Chaldean identity.
There is even a political party for Assyrians known as the "Assyrian Democratic Movement," which aims to secure an autonomous province for Assyrians in the northern Nineveh plains of Iraq.
One might note in objection to my point that Tariq Aziz -- the vice-president of Iraq during Saddam's rule -- was a Chaldean. On the contrary, he is overwhelmingly viewed as a traitor by Assyrians. Not only did Aziz drop his Christian birth name Mikhail Yuhanna, but he also abetted Saddam's Arabization policy in the north of Iraq, which led to the destruction of numerous Assyrian villages and the inhabitants' forced resettlement in Baghdad and points south in order to make way for Arab settlers.
What is apparent from these observations is that the degree of absorption of the Arabic language into the various churches correlates with the prevalence of the concept of "Arab Christians." In the cases of the Antiochian Greek Orthodox and Melkite Greek Catholic churches, Arabic has come to dominate as the main liturgical language over Byzantine Greek.
The Maronites and Copts used to maintain Syriac and Coptic respectively as their sole liturgical languages even after the Muslim conquests, but have gradually come to incorporate Arabic to a limited degree as their adherents have adopted Arabic as their language of everyday communication. However, the Assyrian churches, whose adherents primarily speak various Eastern Neo-Aramaic dialects as their mother tongue, still maintain Syriac as their sole liturgical language.
In short, the degree of linguistic and cultural Arabization over time has played more of a part in the formulation of identity among Middle Eastern Christians than a simple desire to avoid persecution at the hands of the Muslims majorities.
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and an Adjunct Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Western Officials Need to Rethink Their Strategy of Trusting the Arab League
Farid Ghadry Blog
The facts are too many, the footprints are too clear and it does not take a Sherlock Holmes to crack this Arab League farce.
It seems that Saudi Arabia and Iran may have struck some kind of agreement for Saudi Arabia to trade Syria in return for Iran quieting the Saudi oppressed Shi’a in their Eastern Province. But while Iran may have tactfully succeeded, the incompetent Arab League cannot even carry its own mission properly.
Whose idea was it to send Arab Observers led by a Genocidal maniac? Hamad and Hamad duo of Qatar. It is also the same country that first rolled the red carpet for Omar al-Bashir, the butcher of Darfur, after his international indictment for crimes against humanity. Bashir’s man was chosen by the duo for a mission to Syria to oppress the oppressed. In December, al-Bashir visited Qatar again and no one seems to think this is unusual. Unless of course 300,000 Darfurians died in vain as Syrians are dying in vain today. This is the first time the Arab League handles a breakaway regional issue on its own with no western influence or interference whatsoever. Don't you wish to be a fly on some palace wall today and hear this murmur "America, France, please we have a problem".
Meanwhile, Middle East experts close to the Elysées, I am told, are running around with a stare of disbelief in their eyes. All their efforts to save Syrians from a human tragedy have been shattered by the actions of few incompetent rulers reshuffling the cards to oppress even more than in the past.
Certainly, there are financial advantages to a country having too much methane underground but it also seems there are brain disadvantages to living over it.
Meanwhile, western officials are lining-up to meet with the Syrian National Council formed specifically to help Assad. Calling the SNC a Syrian opposition is a travesty of justice and any western official who complies with the demands of the Arab League or meets with the SNC would be assisting unknowingly the perpetuity of the tragedy in Syria.
The only Syrian dissidents with credibility and popularity in the Syrian street are represented by the Free Syrian Army (FSA). My previous Blog with videos, images, Facebook pages, and banners is testimony to this fact.

Jihadis training in your neighborhood?
Investigator describes setup as infrastructure for attack
by Bob Unruh
Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after spending nearly three decades writing on a wide range of issues for several Upper Midwest newspapers and the Associated Press. Sports, tornadoes, homicidal survivalists, and legislative battles all fell within his bailiwick. His scenic photography has been used commercially, and he sometimes plays in a church worship band.More ↓Less ↑ Subscribe to author feed
One of the investigators who worked on a report about terror training camps operating inside the United States describes the network as no more or less than an infrastructure for attack. WND previously reported on a documentary called “Homegrown Jihad: Terrorist Training Camps Around the U.S.,” and how it offers evidence that “Muslims of America” operates a series of training camps in the U.S.
Jason Campbell is project manager for the Christian Action Network, which was behind the training camps investigation.
He described for WND some of his visits to the camps, which have been located in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma Michigan, Colorado, California and Washington.
“The one that really gets you concerned is in Georgia,” he said. “You go down a road and all of a sudden it’s just woods, and there are two roads that go straight down to the camp. It’s dark because of the trees. And one of the roads is named Mecca and the other Medina.”
Get “Homegrown Jihad: Terrorist Training Camps Around the U.S.” and share it with your neighbors, your local police officials and your representatives in Congress.
“If there ever was an infrastructure for terrorism, this is it,” he told WND.
He said the camps themselves are in remote areas with few neighbors, and mostly self-sufficient, such as having their own water supply and often food stores. They also are closed to outsiders, with the women sometimes taking off-campus jobs, but little other interaction.
“If you died there, the bury you there,” he said. “There are no permits from the Department of Health…”
A video has been created describing the investigation:
Campbell also said the camps he’s visited have a mosque and frequently the living conditions are “miserable.”
The locations are run by Muslims of the Americas Inc., a tax-exempt organization, and it has been directly linked by court documents to Jamaat ul-Fuqra. The organization operates communes of primarily black, American-born Muslims throughout the U.S. The investigation confirmed members commonly use aliases and intentional spelling variations of their names and routinely deny the existence of Jamaat ul-Fuqra.
The group openly recruits through various social service organizations in the U.S., including the prison system. Members live in compounds where they agree to abide by the laws of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, which are considered to be above local, state and federal authority.
U.S. authorities have probed the group for charges ranging from links to al-Qaida to laundering and funneling money into Pakistan for terrorist activities. The organization supports various terrorist groups operating in Pakistan and Kashmir, and follows Sheikh Mubarak Gilani.
He boasts of conducting “the most advanced training courses in Islamic military warfare.”
The jihadist organization is thought to be responsible for nearly 50 attacks on American soil, but the U.S. government refuses to list it among foreign terrorists.
In a recruitment video captured from Gilani’s “Soldiers of Allah,” Gilani states in English: “We are fighting to destroy the enemy. We are dealing with evil at its roots and its roots are America.”
Jamaat ul-Fuqra is thought to have been responsible for the beheading murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan.
The documentary called “Homegrown Jihad: Terrorist Training Camps Around the U.S.” provides compelling evidence of how “Muslims of America” operates, and already has caught the attention of neighbors and local police officials.
Gilani’s American headquarters is in Hancock, N.Y., where training is provided to recruits who are later sent to Pakistan for more jihadist paramilitary training, according to law enforcement authorities.
A Justice Department report to law enforcement agencies, prepared in 2006, provides a glimpse into how long Jamaat ul-Fuqra or “Muslims of America” has been operating inside the U.S.: “Over the past two decades, a terrorist group known as Jamaat ul-Fuqra, or ‘Community of the Impoverished,’ has been linked to multiple murders, bombings and various other felonies throughout the United States and Canada.”
Gilani’s “communes” are described by law enforcement as “classically structured terrorist cells.”
As WND reported, a covert visit to a Jamaat ul-Fuqra encampment in upstate New York by the Northeast Intelligence Network found neighboring residents deeply concerned about military-style training taking place there but frustrated by the lack of attention from federal authorities.
Campbell told WND the compounds raise his concern because of their proximity in Georgia to a prison, in New York to a water supply and other such circumstances.
He said the information about the camps has come from law enforcement sources, from the organization’s own investigation, and, tellingly, from information from insiders who have left.
You are now without excuse: See the terrorist training camps in the U.S. with your own eyes. See excerpts of the recruitment video by “Muslims of America” aka Jamaat ul-Fuqra. See “Homegrown Jihad: Terrorist Training Camps Around the U.S.” with your own eyes.
http://www.wnd.com/2012/01/jihadis-training-in-your-neighborhood/

The right-wing Lebanese Christian advising Romney on the Middle East
January 06, 2012 01/By Brooke Anderson, The Daily Star
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney holds a campaign rally at the Charles Towne Landing in Charleston, South Carolina, January 5, 2012. REUTERS/Mary Ann Chastain
BEIRUT: With Mitt Romney’s bid to become the Republican candidate for the U.S. presidential election gaining ground with his win in the Iowa caucus, many around the world are wondering what his foreign policy would have in store should he reach the White House.
When it comes to the Middle East, alarms have been raised in some corners over his decision to appoint as his top adviser on the region Walid Phares, a leading figure in right-wing Christian militias during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 Civil War and a former adviser to Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.
“Anyone comfortable with those associations should not be advising the president."
Critics have also focused on Phares' subsequent roles in the United States, where he has served as a “terrorism expert” for Fox News and the Christian Broadcasting Network. During these shows, he has warned that jihadists are the enemy, and that the U.S. must act preemptively to defeat them.
“An adviser on the Middle East should be more sensitive and neutral. Walid Phares is very extreme. He leans toward being an Islamo-phobe,” Warren David, president of the Arab-American civil rights group, the Anti-Discrimination Committee told The Daily Star. “I would think that most Lebanese Christians don’t agree with his viewpoints.”
David, who himself is a Lebanese-American Christian, adds, “Fortunately, he’s in the minority. But when you see it from one of your own it’s discouraging.”
Joseph Nehme, a spokesperson for the Lebanese Forces told The Daily Star that he remembers Phares from his days in Lebanon, describing him as “a nice person,” but declined to comment any further.
Phares has reportedly declared that Lebanese Christians were ethnically distinct from Arabs, and during the Civil War he “lectured militiamen, telling them they were part of a civilizational holy war,” according to an October investigative report by the U.S. magazine Mother Jones.
Since his arrival in the U.S. in 1990, he has reportedly been featured as a Middle East expert by the David Project, Israel’s college campus coalition; and the Israeli-linked groups Jihad Watch and Middle East Forum; he is also an associate with Israel’s Ariel Center for Policy Research and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an organization established after 9/11, which advocates U.S. military intervention in Muslim-majority countries.
“Anyone comfortable with those associations should not be advising the president,” says Corey Saylor, National Legislative Director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who has been researching Phares’ background for about a year, ever since his appointment last February as a witness at hearings by the House Committee on Homeland Security entitled "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and That Community's Response."
In a letter last February to Peter King, the Republican U.S. House Representative who led the hearings, CAIR stated that “Mr. Phares’s prior position in, and association with, organizations and militia groups known for carrying out massacres and systematic torture raise reasonable concerns regarding his relevance to any sober and objective hearing.”
The U.S. Muslim civil rights group is referring to his position during the Lebanese Civil War in the Lebanese Forces, the Christian militia which was implicated by Israel’s official Kahan inquiry in the 1982 massacre of civilians at the Sabra and Shatila in Beirut.
And according to CAIR’s research, in 1999 the World Lebanese Organization, founded by Phares, included among its “leading members” both “Col. Sharbel Baraket, former deputy commander of the [South Lebanese Army], and Etienne Sakr, head of the radical Guardians of the Cedars group.”
The Guardians of the Cedars’ mission statement includes restoring Lebanon’s alphabet “to its Phoenician origins after liberating it from the defacement that was caused by the Arabic language” and “cutting down the number of foreigners in Lebanon...” The South Lebanese Army were allied with Israel during the 1975-1990 Civil War.
Saylor believes that Romney’s selection of Phares shows the Republican candidate’s growing conservative leaning, possibly in an attempt to court evangelical Christian voters. He noted that when he was running in the 2008 election Romney said that he would be open to appointing a Muslim to his cabinet if elected president, the New York Times reported in November 2007.
“Romney, overall, has been better [than the other candidates],” Saylor says. “This is a troubling direction.”
In fact, Romney’s main competitors’ inflammatory comments about the Middle East have caused even bigger stirs.
In early December, Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich called Palestinians “an invented people.”
"Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire,” the former Georgia congressman said.
"I think that we've had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs, and who were historically part of the Arab community. And they had a chance to go many places, and for a variety of political reasons we have sustained this war against Israel now since the 1940s, and it's tragic," he said.
Then, less than a month later, his competitor Rick Santorum went a step further by saying, “There are no Palestinians... All the people who live in the West Bank are Israelis. There are no Palestinians. This is Israeli land.”
The former Pennsylvania senator added that “The West Bank is part of Israel,” which won it as “part of an aggressive attack by Jordan and others” in 1967. Israel doesn’t have to give it back any more than the United States has to give New Mexico and Texas to Mexico, which were gained “through a war,” he said. This remark was criticized by media in Israel, where the current government has accepted the principle of a two-state solution.
Saylor believes that the relatively extreme views being put forth might be a case of politicians playing to their bases to win the primary before the general election, noting that in the past some candidates have said they would move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a promise never fulfilled when they reach power.
“Once the process plays out, then we’ll see the real rhetoric,” he says.
Still, the thought Phares having a key advisory position, even at this stage, doesn’t sit well with some.
**Jim Abourezk, a former Democratic senator from South Dakota, whose family hails from south Lebanon, told The Daily Star that although he believes Romney is unlikely to reach the presidency, “A right-wing Lebanese would be a disaster for Romney and a disaster for the country.”

Muslim Persecution of Christians
December, 2011/by Raymond Ibrahim
Stonegate Institute
January 5, 2012
The Nigerian church bombings, wherein the Islamic group Boko Haram killed over 40 people celebrating Christmas mass, is just the most obvious example of anti-Christian sentiment in December. Elsewhere around the Muslim world, Christmas time for Christians is a time of increased threats, harassment, and fear, which is not surprising, considering Muslim clerics maintain that "saying Merry Christmas is worse than fornication or killing someone." A few examples:
Egypt: The Coptic Church is being threatened with a repeat of "Nag Hammadi," the area where drive-by Muslims shot to death six Christians as they exited church after celebrating Christmas mass in 2010. Due to fears of a repeat, the diocese has "cancel[ed] all festivities for New Year's Eve and Christmas Eve."
Indonesia: In a "brutal act" that has "strongly affected the Catholic community," days before Christmas, "vandals decapitated the statue of the Virgin Mary in a small grotto … a cross was stolen and the aspersorium was badly damaged."
Iran: There were reports of a sharp increase of activities against Christians prior to Christmas by the State Security centers of the Islamic Republic. Local churches were "ordered to cancel Christmas and New Year's celebrations as a show of their compliance and support" for "the two month-long mourning activities of the Shia' Moslems."
Malaysia: Parish priests and church youth leaders had to get "caroling" permits—requiring them to submit their full names and identity card numbers at police stations—simply to "visit their fellow church members and belt out 'Joy to the World,' [or] 'Silent Night, Holy Night.'"
Pakistan: "Intelligence reports warned of threats of terrorist attacks on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day," adding that most church security is "inadequate." Christians also lamented that "extreme power outages have become routine during Christmas and Easter seasons."
Meanwhile, if Christians under Islam are forced to live like dhimmis—non-Muslims under Muslim authority, treated as second-class citizens—in the West, voluntarily playing the dhimmi to appease Muslims during Christmas time is commonplace: the University of London held Christmas service featuring readings from the Quran (which condemns the incarnation, that is, Christmas); and "a posh Montreal suburb has decided to remove a nativity scene and menorah from town hall rather than acquiesce to demands from a Muslim group to erect Islamic religious symbols."
Categorized by theme, the rest of December's batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed according to theme and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily severity.
CHURCH ATTACKS
Ethiopia: A video of some 500 Muslims burning down a church on November 29 while crying "Allahu Akbar!" appeared. The pretext for burning this church was that it had no "permit"—even though it was built on land owned by Christians for 60 years.
Indonesia: An "Islamic extremist" group is pushing hard to have five churches demolished, again, to claims that the churches have no permit. The congregation of another "embattled church" that Muslims are trying to shut down "was forced to move its Christmas prayers to a member's house after Islamic groups assembled at the disputed site making threats.
Iran: While celebrating Christmas, a church was raided by State Security. All those present, including Sunday school children, were arrested and interrogated. Hundreds of Christian books were seized. The detained Christians suffered "considerable verbal abuses"; the whereabouts of others arrested, including the reverend and his wife, remain unknown. "Raids and detentions during the Christmas season are not uncommon in Iran, a Shi'a-majority country that is seen as one of the worst persecutors of religious minorities."
Nigeria: Weeks before the Christmas Day church bombings, another jihadi attack, enabled by "local Muslims," left five churches destroyed and several Christians killed: "The Muslims in this town were going round town pointing out church buildings and shops owned by Christians to members of Boko Haram, and they in turn bombed these churches and shops."
Turkey: A large-scale al-Qaeda plot to bomb "all the churches in Ankara," was exposed. An official indictment against al-Qaeda members earlier arrested revealed the homegrown terrorist cell's plans to attack Ankara's churches and their Christian clergy.
APOSTASY, BLASPHEMY, and PROSELYTISM
Algeria: In May, a Muslim convert to Christianity was sentenced to a five-year prison term on charges of "insulting Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, and with 'proselytism' for giving a Muslim a CD about Christianity." Now the judge has decided "to indefinitely postpone" the man's appeal, thus "show[ing how] the judicial system keeps Christians in limbo without officially punishing or acquitting them."
Kashmir: The top Islamic clergyman launched a website against apostasy and the conversion of Muslims to Christianity. The website works to "check the conversion of young [Muslim] boys and girls [to Christianity]"; its "fundamental goal" is to "thwart catastrophic [Christian] missionary activities."
Iran: Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani, who caught the attention of the world after being imprisoned and awaiting execution for leaving Islam, may have to wait another year for a ruling on whether the sentence will be upheld, as authorities continue to delay, in the hopes that the world will forget. Meanwhile, authorities continue "to pressure Nadarkhani to recant his faith," giving him and ordering him to read "Islamic literature aimed at discrediting the Bible. The court reportedly has been told to use whatever means necessary to compel Nadarkhani to recant his faith." Another convert to Christianity recently told of his experiences: "When my family and friends learned of my decision, they didn't accept it and rejected me as a result. They made me leave our family home. In addition, my friends treated me like my family had and began calling me an apostate and an infidel. In Iran, anyone who converts to Christianity faces various problems. In spite of the love I had for my family, I had to leave my home. Everyone rejected me."
Malaysia: Lamenting that "It could be hundreds, maybe even thousands" of Muslims converting to Christianity, a former state-commissioner has been "collecting data" to "persuade" the apostates to return to Islam: "We are helping them, hoping they will come back to Islam." Likewise, the Sultan of Selangor, a Malaysian state, has ordered top-level Islamic organizations to take strategic steps against proselytism, "so that Muslims who have began distancing themselves from Islam will return to the fold and repent."
Pakistan: After a Muslim family discovered their son had converted to Christianity, not only did "his father put up a notice in local newspapers disowning him," but his family "file[d] a police complaint against him because—as a murtad or apostate deserving death—he was said to have committed "blasphemy." Likewise, after a rent-related quarrel, a Muslim landlord accused his Christian tenant of desecrating the Quran, which led to crowds of Muslims surrounding the Christian's house, making threats and hurling anti-Christian slogans; "Muslim leaders made announcements from several mosques calling for severe punishment." He was arrested and charged under Pakistan's "blasphemy" laws, which make willful desecration of the Quran punishable with life imprisonment.
VIOLENCE and KILLINGS
Kashmir: Christians imprisoned under "blasphemy" charges continue to be tortured. One was "seriously injured in a knife attack and was believed to be in a Lahore hospital on Christmas Day."
Kenya: Seven Muslims of Somali descent beat a young Somali Christian unconscious, seriously injuring his eye, less than six weeks after a similar attack on his older brother, saying "we did not succeed in killing your brother, but today we are going to kill you." His family was presumably Muslim when he was born, so the gang beat him as an "apostate" even though he was raised as a Christian.
Iraq: A rash of attacks on Christians erupted following a Friday mosque sermon, and included Muslim "mobs burning and wrecking [Christian] businesses. Later, Muslim gunmen shot and killed a Christian couple as they were walking towards their car; their two children were hurt but are still alive. New information has been received "on a plot against the Christian minority in Mosul during the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays."
Pakistan: A Muslim man murdered a Christian girl during an attempted rape: he had "grabbed the girl and, under the threat of a gun, tried to drag her away. The young Christian woman resisted, trying to escape the clutches of her attacker, when the man opened fire and killed her instantly, and later tried to conceal the corpse." Though the man is described as a "young drifter and drug addict," the ongoing sexual abuse of Christian women by Muslim men exposes how Christians are seen as second-class, to be abused with impunity.
Philippines: A 71-year old pastor was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen on board a motorcycle. "The [Mindanao] province is known for Christian pastors becoming victims of persecution. Just earlier this year, a lady pastor of a local Pentecostal church was hacked to death by suspected Moslem rebels in front of her daughter."
Syria: "Around 50 Christians have been killed in the anti-government unrest in Homs, Syria, by both rebels and government forces, while many more are struggling to feed their families as the violence brings normal life in the city to a halt…. In one tragic incident, a young Christian boy was killed by the rebels, who filmed the murder and then claimed that government forces had committed the act. Another Christian was seized by the rebels, taken to a house and asked, 'How do you want to die?' The man completely broke down and was released but has been left in severe psychological distress."
Uganda: Muslims threw acid on a church leader on Christmas Eve shortly after a revival at his church, leaving him with severe burns that have blinded one eye and threaten sight in the other. The pastor "was on his way back to the site for a party with the entire congregation and hundreds of new converts to Christianity when a man who claimed to be a Christian approached him. 'I heard him say in a loud voice, Pastor, pastor, and as I made a turn and looked at him, he poured the liquid onto my face as others poured more liquid on my back and then fled away shouting, 'Allahu Akbar.'"
DHIMMITUDE
[General Abuse, Debasement, and Suppression of non-Muslim "Second-Class Citizens"]
Egypt: Accusations that a 17-year-old Christian student posted a drawing of Islam's prophet on Facebook triggered Muslim violence and havoc for two days (the student insists his friends posted the picture on his Facebook page). At least three Christian homes including the youth's were burned to cries of "Allahu Akbar" and he was severely beat by Muslim classmates prior to being taken away by police. Demands that Christians pay jizya—tribute collected from non-Muslim infidels—are increasing. Also, Rif'at al-Said, head of Egypt's Al Tagammu Party, proclaimed that Christians are right to be scared, some are packing and leaving, and that the "history of Egypt includes religious riots and oppression, and subsequent Christian emigration."
Iraq: A Christian man was kidnapped and held for three days, during which his captors demanded a $500,000 ransom. He "was blindfolded and tied down during his ordeal" until "rescued by a SWAT team … to the great relief of his 21-year-old wife Amal and the local Christian community."
Malaysia: An evangelical Christian leader may face charges of sedition following a statement he made concerning Article 153 of Malaysia's Constitution, which he likened to "bullying" for only protecting the rights of Muslims.
Philippines: In Mindanao, where Muslims make 1/3 of the population, a 20-year-old Christian preschool learning center is being threatened with closure, under technicalities. Mindanao "has the highest incidence of persecuted Christians doing missionary work in the Philippines and it was also in this region where a suspected man lobbed a bomb grenade at visiting Christian missionaries … priests and missionaries have also been kidnapped."
Saudi Arabia: Dozens of Ethiopian Christians were arrested for holding a prayer meeting, though under charges of "mixing with the opposite sex": "the Saudi officials are accusing the Christians of committing the crime of mixing of sexes because if they charge them with meeting for practicing Christianity, they will come under pressure from the international human rights organizations as well as Western countries."
About this Series
Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching epidemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of Muslim persecution of Christians that surface each month. It serves two purposes:
Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (tribute); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed "dhimmis" (second-class citizens); and simple violence and murder. Oftentimes it is a combination thereof.
Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to India in the east, and throughout the West wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
http://www.meforum.org/3146/muslim-persecution-of-christians-december-2011

A Message To The Syrian Opposition
Toufic Hindi
The Syrian opposition needs more than any other time to unify its vision for the future political system which will replace the crumbling Assad regime as well as its agreement on the transition period. In addition to unifying positions it's better to reach an acceptable level of organizational unity since the unification will strengthen revolution efficiency at home and induce real external support....
The power play is inevitable, natural and legitimate but not before the triumph of the revolution, and at the condition it is democratic and not inspired by the dark practices of the former regime.
Political "bulimia" and political exclusion as pre-positioning to reap the fruits of the revolution must be banned. Fusion forms of unity must be refused because they implicitly contain the will of some to monopolize the decision and thus the power.
It is required to unite around a single clear program in the framework of a national political gathering which respects pluralism and the principle of executive decisions taken by consensus.
Based on the experience of Cornet Chahwan Gathering which contributed largely in defeating the Syrian regime in Lebanon, I allowed myself as a founding member of this Gathering to give my point of view on this subject, especially that we have seen lately the failure of efforts to reach the unity among Syrian opposition forces.