Probable terrorist incident in Melbourne

Initial reports were of a stabbing of two police officers in suburban Melbourne, however as more information becomes available, there is little doubt that this incident is terrorist related: 

A MAN shot dead by police in Melbourne’s southeast tonight was a “person of interest” in a counter-terrorism operation and had been under surveillance for making threats against Prime Minister Tony Abbott. 

Senior intelligence sources confirmed he was among a number of people who have had their passports cancelled recently. 

A Victoria Police officer and Australian Federal Police agent involved in a joint agency investigation were stabbed by an occupant of a car they pulled over outside Endeavour Hlils police station about 7.40pm. 

It is believed the Victoria Police officer drew his gun and shot the alleged attacker dead.It is not known what the threat involved, or whether the man had been involved in planning some kind of attack.  It is understood the counter terrorism operation was aimed at detaining and questioning the man in relation to the threats. 

A bomb squad officer dressed in an explosives suit and bomb squad robot are combing the police station as forensic detectives comb the scene. 

The Prime Minister was tonight on a plane to New York from Canberra, where he will attend UN meetings dealing with the rising threat of Islamic State. 

A Monash Health spokeswoman confirmed one of the officers was taken to Dandenong Hospital in a stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries. He was expected to be discharged late tonight or tomorrow. The other was taken to The Alfred and his condition is unknown.

There are unconfirmed reports that the second officer is in a critical condition.  We wish him well and hope for a speedy recovery, and thank both of them for their effort on our behalf.

While it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish the difference between random acts of drug, alcohol, insanity, or radical Islamic fueled acts of violence, this one appears to be the latter.

The passport cancellation is most likely the result of a reasonable suspicion that the person involved was attempting to leave the country in order to join foreign fighters in conflict zones.  Threats against the prime minister (or anyone else for that matter) are not to be tolerated and it is reasonable to suggest that the police officers were within their rights here.

While its possible that the suspect was playing with a couple of cards short of a full deck, or the odd fatwa short of a jihad, there are reasonable grounds to think that this is a terrorist incident.

Dubai pardons woman jailed for being raped; big of them

A Norwegian woman who was apparently unaware of Islamic law reported a rape by a co-worker in Dubai and has been sentenced to sixteen months of jail time for having sex outside marriage.  Her rapist has been given thirteen months for the same offense.

She was originally detained for four days but was released after embassy intervention and was sentenced on Wednesday.  Fortunately, she has now been ‘pardoned’ by the Dubai ruler: 

A NORWEGIAN woman in a rape case in Dubai dating back to March said she was pardoned today of an extramarital sex charge and allowed to fly home. 

"I was told that I've been pardoned," Marte Dalelv, 24, told reporters outside a court in the Muslim emirate, adding that her passport had been returned and she would leave the Gulf state "as soon as possible". … 

… A spokeswoman from the ministry told AFP that Dalelv had been pardoned by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. "She hasn't been deported, she has been pardoned. She can remain in Dubai if she wishes. Her passport has been returned to her," said Ragnhild Imerslund. 

"She will travel home shortly.”

The tendency of Islamic countries to prosecute women who report rape is reasonably well known.  An Australian woman was jailed for eight months in Dubai after being raped by three co-workers while drinking at a resort bar in Fujairah hotel in June 2008.

Gratuitous advice to Egypt from Rudd

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it - good and hard. - H. L Mencken

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd has not shied away from offering his pearls of wisdom to the Egyptian people on the running of their country, despite being incapable of organising something as simple as home insulation without killing workers, burning down a couple of hundred houses, then having to spend millions more having it undone.

None the less, he has seen fit to call for a ‘swift return to democracy’ there, despite the celebrations of the populace at the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood regime: 

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has called for a swift return to democracy in Egypt, after the military ousted the country's president following days of street protests and bloodshed. … 

… Mr Rudd said the Australian government had strongly supported the Arab Spring democracy movements. He visited Cairo not long after the 2011 revolution that toppled former dictator Hosni Mubarak. 

Mr Rudd says he is aware of the controversies surrounding president Morsi's rule but says the latest developments are "extraordinary". 

"I would simply say on behalf of all Australians, we want to see the return to full democratic government in Egypt as rapidly as possible," he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday. "I believe that's the expectation of the international community.”

The major problems facing the Egyptian people have stemmed from the pressure on the military after the ousting of Mubarak to hold elections as soon as possible in the interests of creating a ‘democratic government.’ This came from the Egyptian people, anxious to exercise their choice, as well as the international community. 

The elections were held in a situation where after decades of repression, the only politically organized groups were the Islamists.  As result the nation voted in an Islamist government and president who then instituted an Islamist constitution and appeared hell bent on instituting theocratic rule over a largely secular population.

There is a common misconception in the West and elsewhere which confuses democracy with personal liberty. After years of seeing our liberty being incrementally eroded under a succession of democratically elected governments, it is reasonable to think that we would know better by now, however democracy seems to be the sacred cow, at the alter of which freedom is sacrificially slaughtered.

The reality is that the Egyptian people may well retain a great deal more freedom under military rule, than they would have under a democratically elected theocratic government of Islamofascists.

Rudd should get on with holding our own election in which we can tip him and his moribund mob out of office and let the people of Egypt sort out their own mess in their own way, in their own good time.

Brits charge social media commenters after Woolwich outrage

Britain, like much of the West seems to have been unable to drag its way past political correctness to develop any meaningful way of dealing with Islamic hate preachers taking to the pulpits advocating violent responses to any perceived slight or grievance. 

It seems that while the local Deity can be mocked, the followers of foreign Deities have to be ‘respected’ or at least have their cultural barbarities treated with understanding.  This is especially the case where said Deity demands beheadings if offended.

On the other hand, authorities are willing to come down hard on anyone who responds to such acts as the disgusting and brutal butchery of Lee Rigby by Islamic Jihadists in a way deemed inappropriate: 

A 22-year-old man has been charged on suspicion of making malicious comments on Facebook following the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby.

Benjamin Flatters, from Lincoln, was arrested last night after complaints were made to Lincolnshire Police about comments made on Facebook, which were allegedly of a racist or anti-religious nature.  He was charged with an offence of malicious communications this afternoon in relation to the comments, a Lincolnshire Police spokesman said. 

A second man was visited by officers and warned about his activity on social media, the spokesman added. … 

Flatters has been remanded in police custody and will appear before magistrates in Lincoln tomorrow.  The charge comes after two men were earlier released on bail following their arrest for making alleged offensive comments on Twitter about the murder. 

Complaints were made to Avon and Somerset Police about remarks that appeared on the social networking website, which were allegedly of a racist or anti-religious nature.

In the aftermath of such a sickening crime, it is only reasonable to expect a degree of public outrage and some of this will come out on Facebook, Twitter, and so on.

Attempts to silence such dissent defy the nature of the native born population who have good reason to be upset about it.  Caramelizing it is an outrage in itself in violating the right to freedom of speech, and regulating emotions to comply with those of the elite who really don’t care much for the feelings of the common herd, favoring their ideological positions instead.

Attempting to stifle discussion in the hope of denying oxygen to extremist groups other than radical Islam is only going to drive people toward such groups as the BNP.

Cleric bans women and non-Muslims from funeral

Image: Erdinc Ozen. Picture: Kristi Miller Source: The Sunday Telegraph

Muslims have had a mostly positive presence in Australia since early in our history, with the first Mosque appearing in Maree in about 1820.  During the last decade however we have begun to see more of the zealots appear.

One of them, a Muslim cleric took the step of banning non-Muslim friends of a former policeman from his funeral: 

MOURNERS were told they were "not welcome" by a cleric at a former policeman's funeral because they were non-Muslims. 

The family of Erdinc Ozen, a former police officer and member of the navy reserves, are demanding an apology following the incident at Sydney's Auburn Gallipoli Mosque last month.  Mr Ozen, a Turkish-born Australian who served as a policeman until 2011, died from a brain aneurysm last month. 

His brother Tunc said a number of senior police and friends from his fishing club at the Seven Hills-Toongabbie RSL left the service after the unexpected directive from acting president Dr Abdurrahman Asaroglu. Others attending included an 87-year-old World War II veteran and former NSW premier Nathan Rees. 

"He told everyone it's a Muslim prayer service, all women and non-Muslims were not welcome and they had to leave the mosque area," Tunc Ozen said.  "All of his friends were not Muslim, so they had to leave - it was a big shock. It upset a lot of people." 

Most hurtful for his family was that when it came time to move Erdinc's coffin, his closest friends were not allowed to take part in the proceedings.  "These complete strangers were grabbing my brother's coffin, not his mates, as a result of what this bloke had said," Mr Ozen said. ...

Mr. Ozen seems to have been one of those who successfully assimilated into the community, adopted our lifestyle, and as result had many friends from the community at large.  It is disgraceful that some of these friends were discriminated against when turning up to offer their respects.  There would be outrage if a Christian church banned Muslims under the same circumstances.

Chief apologist for these intolerant ideologues, Keysar Trad from the Islamic Friendship Association has made one of his standard statements about how this is not consistent with Muslim traditions.  The trouble is that this sort of thing keeps happening.

Jew annihilationist keynote speaker at Australian Islamic ‘peace conference’

 Recently, Australian Muslims were outraged as they often are about nearly everything; this time over the visit of Geert Wilders who was on a speaking tour.  Wilders they and their leftist fellow travelers explained was a divisive and racist person who vilified the religion of peace and its followers.

Australians responded with revulsion to the actions of Islamic rioters who were out in an orchestrated ‘spontaneous’ demonstration (left) against the rather silly video clip, ‘The Innocence of Muslims’ in which the participants carried signs calling for the beheading of those who insult the prophet or whatever. 

There was even more disgust over the image (right) of a young mother taking photos of her child with one of the signs to send off to the folks back home to let them know he was being brought up the right way.  She explained later that she was a 27 year old university student who was not aware of what the term ‘behead’ meant, which given the quality of the education system, could be plausible.

Islamic leaders responded by condemning the whole thing and declaring that it was not representative of their faith and agreeing to cooperate with authorities.

It seems though that they have now chosen to show their true colors in the guest list to what has been called “ The Australian Islamic Peace Conference” with the invitation of some right little bundles of joy as keynote speakers: 

THE imam of the Grand Mosque of Mecca, who has called for the annihilation of Jews, is scheduled to give the keynote address at the Australian Islamic Peace Conference in Melbourne this weekend. 

The attendance of Abdul Rahman al-Sudais will come despite calls from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and several Christian groups for the imam to be denied entry to Australia. 

Sheik Sudais, who has called for violent jihad, has been denied entry to the US and Canada after describing Jews as "the scum of humanity" and "pigs and monkeys". The 53-year-old's name and face do not appear on the event leaflets, which were posted on the conference Facebook page on Sunday evening. 

Instead, they denote him as "Imam of Makkah" and show the Saudi in profile, with a cloth obstructing his facial features. 

They also note that conference guests "are subject to visa approval as well as their personal circumstances". Federation of Islamic Councils assistant secretary Keysar Trad said there was no comparison to be made between calls for Dutch anti-Islam activist Geert Wilders to be denied a visa on his recent visit to Australia, and similar calls regarding Sheik Sudais. … 

… Other invited conference guests include Australian Sheik Abu Hamza, who ridiculed laws that prohibit rape within marriage, and Sheik Assim al-Hakeem, from the United Arab Emirates, who has called for homosexuality to be punished by death and on his website compares gay people to "animals that seek only their sexual satisfaction through their weird ways". 

Sheik Sudais is not listed among the speakers on the conference website, which touts the occasion as the "largest, biggest and best ever Islamic event in the history of Australia" and says it aims to build links with other faiths and the broader Australian society.

Australia has had a 200-year history of living in harmony with the Islamic community within it who have been treated with respect during that time.  In the last decade though, this has changed with the introduction of a radical element which is determined to drive a wedge between Muslims and the rest of the population.

Moderate elements of the faith need to reject these halfwits, and just get on with their lives in harmony with the Australian people.  These idiots are totally out of touch with reality with their desire to build a power base on the planks of hatred and divisiveness.  

Parliamentary committee; No Sharia, not here, not now, not ever

Image: Islamic mother at a demonstration takes a photo of her child to send to the folks back home to assure them that he is being brought up the right way. In her defence she claimed she is not radical or stupid, in fact she is a twenty eight year old university graduate who simply didn't know what the word 'behead' means.

An Australian bipartisan parliamentary report has ruled out any acceptance of Sharia law in the nation now and into the future.  Former Attorney General, Robert McClelland had ruled out the idea of allowing it to intrude into Australian law, which gave us some assurance for a while.

Unfortunately, he was replaced after the last Rudd challenge to Gillard with Nicola Roxon who has little in common with Australian thinking and is essentially a left wing ideologue.  This raised the specter of some sort of back door entry of theocratic law into this country as an extension of rational law.  One buzzword being used is legal pluralism, which demands that religious law be allowed in arbitration.

Fortunately, this is now ruled out: 

ISLAMIC law and polygamous marriages will be denounced as forever unacceptable in Australia in a bipartisan parliamentary report that will define what multiculturalism means for our nation, and state there must be only "one law for all". 

The report -- the result of a two-year investigation into Australia's multicultural strategy -- is understood to be critical of the limited access migrants have to English language training and the lack of cultural awareness shown by employers and the federal employment recruitment agency. 

It is also understood to make the recommendation that a national multicultural research centre be established, funded by the federal government and run independently. The centre's chief role will be to conduct research on how communities are integrating and identify their needs. … 

The report will be delivered within weeks after the committee -- dominated by Labor and Coalition MPs but including the Greens -- agreed on a number of policies. However, the Coalition MPs are likely to make some "additional comments" in the report to make it clear where their views are different from those of Labor MPs. The Coalition MPs' key point will be that some of the Labor initiatives -- including the new national research institution -- will cost taxpayers more money than may be unaffordable "in this economic climate". 

Coalition MPs are also concerned Labor has been too keen to paint migrants and refugees as "victims" and wants to ensure that they agree only to a pathway of "integration".The committee was confronted with a range of Islamic views, including a submission from the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, which argued that Muslims should enjoy "legal pluralism". 

In an interview, the organisation's president, Ikebal Adam Patel, who wrote the submission, nominated family law and specifically divorce as areas where moderate interpretations of sharia could co-exist within the Australian legal system. 

The multiculturalism review also received one submission calling for polygamous marriages to be considered. 
The committee has come to the view these more radical ideas should be rejected, explaining that a multicultural society would not tolerate them.

Sharia is probably one of the worst forms of oppression that exists in the world today.  If the law of the land is considered oppressive to any citizen of a country, he or she can seek a nation that has laws more in common with the beliefs  of that person.  This is not the case with Sharia, which demands a death sentence for any who reject Islam and consequently its laws.

Islamic truthers more nutty than Western ones

Image: Is Sigfried running Mossad?

Western truthers are a bottomless pit of amusement to most of us with their insistence that everything that goes wrong is the result of devilish and sinister plots.  From the Kennedy assassination plot to the faked moon landing, right through to George Bush ordering 9/11, they provide us with non-stop entertainment.

Islamists though come up with some doozies, the latest being the claim by Sudan that the Israelis have mobilized Zionist vultures to spy on their facilities: 

Sudanese officials announced Monday that they have captured an electronically-tagged vulture suspected of being dispatched by Israel on a spying mission. 

The suspicious bird was found to be tagged with an Israeli GPS chip, which is capable of broadcasting images via satellite, as well as a leg band labeled "Israel Nature Service" and "Hebrew University, Jerusalem", the Egyptian El Balad newspaper reported. 

Israel's National Parks Service dismissed the allegations, saying that both the band and the GPS chip were standard migration trackers. 

Tensions between the two countries become increasingly tense after Sudan accused Israel of carrying out the bombing of a munitions depot near the Sudanese capital of Khartoum in October.  The depot was reportedly supplying Hamas terrorists with weapons to use against the Jewish state. Israel has not commented on the raid.

Islamists have a habit of finding the hand of Israel in just about everything they see, although most totalitarians have a tendency toward paranoia: 

Turkish authorities believe they have found a bird used by Israel for espionage purposes, the country’s media reported. 

According to reports, a Turkish farmer found the already dead bird, commonly known as the European Bee-Eater, with markings indicating it came from Israel.   The bird’s left nostril was reportedly three times the size of its right nostril, leading Turkish officials to believe the Israel had implanted the animal with a surveillance device in its beak. …

In 2008, Mahmoud Abbas's official news agency, Wafa, reported that Israel had released poison-resistant rats to drive Arab residents of Jerusalem out of their homes. … 

In October of 2008, Iranian officials captured two 'spy pigeons' near the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, alleging that the birds were being used to spy on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear advancements. In 2007, the regime detained over a dozen squirrels believed to be spies of Western powers seeking to undermine the Iranian regime. 

In June of 2010, Egyptian officials blamed a wave of shark attacks on Israel’s foreign ministry intelligence, asserting,” We must not discount the possibility that Mossad threw the shark into the sea, in order to attack tourists who are having fun in Sharm al-Sheikh.” 

Furthermore, in January of 2011, Saudi Arabian security forces detained a vulture carrying a global positioning satellite (GPS) transmitter and a ring etched with the words "Tel Aviv University." Officials exclaimed that the creature was part of a "Zionist espionage plot.

It is to be hoped that these fanatics come to their senses and release the bird rather than put it in front of a firing squad as a spy.

Did Stevens die of PC?

Or; What didn’t the Administration know, and when didn’t they know it 

 During the Vice Presidential debate Joe Biden told a couple of whoppers over the attack on the Benghazi Embassy and the murder of four Americans, including the Ambassador. Actually, its three if you count his lame attempt to blame Paul Ryan for it over his budget cuts:

    In the first case on the information that the intelligence community were telling the Administration about the attack; within 24 hours everybody was aware that this was a terrorist attack targeting the Embassy.  While it is possible that initial reports may have indicated that it was a riot, it is simply not believable that with mortars and heavy weapons being used that the White House was being told that it was some sort of student demo.

Why then, did the Administration continue to claim for a fortnight that it was merely a reaction to a movie trailer on YouTube?

With regard to requests for a Marine detachment; The House Oversight Committee has evidence of at least five such requests from the Ambassador that were either refused or not responded to.  There is also credible evidence that intelligence was aware of a terrorist group in the area along with threats of violence.  Even Biden would not have failed to note over the years that Islamists and the far left have a fascination with symbolism such as anniversaries.  9/11 was an open invitation.

This raises the question of why, even with budget restraints if that were the case, was it not possible to prioritize the defense of the most vulnerable embassy, against which threats were made prior to a date which is a likely time for an attack?

The Administration tends to wet it’s pants at the thought of offending Islam, hence Obama’s insistence that ‘Innocence’ was to blame for two weeks after he knew better, and leaving Hassan in a position to carry out the Fort Hood shootings even though he was known to have radical connections.  Is it possible that the failure to provide Marines to guard the Embassy, was a deliberate effort to avoid offending terrorists? 

Calls for banning videos and blasphemy laws

Cartoon: By Pickering 

Julia Gillard, like President Obama, called for the removal of the ‘controversial’ video, The Innocence of Muslims from YouTube as a kneejerk reaction to the inarticulate, incoherent, and intemperate reaction of the perennially outraged extreme members of that faith.  Appeasement always seems to be the ‘go to’ reaction of politicians, in their dealings with the religion of peace.

Despite the fact that such actions only serve to cause these people to step forward to the next demand, authorities continue backpedaling in their attempts to placate them like a bad parent does with a tantrum prone child.

Ben, from Ben and Bawb’s Blog have come up with a video clip from Reason, Imagine ‘There’s no YouTube’ 

Now that ‘Australia’ in other words, the government is attempting to gain a seat on the UN Security Council, freedom of speech is under real threat here. Apart from the massive cash splash she is using to buy votes for the country, there is a real danger that she could attempt to secure Islamic votes by offering to support their calls for anti blasphemy laws.

The reason for the desperate effort to gain the seat is the need for Labor to get hold of anything that will reflect a little kudos on the party in the run-up to the next federal election. No freedom will be too important to toss into the mix in order to save Labor’s bacon.

Call for a “Muhammad cartoon a day

Daniel Pipes has come up with a novel idea to desensitize Muslims to the perceived insults to their religion. Lets face it; it needs to happen. Things were quiet in Australia over the weekend after Muslim clerics realized just how their lunacy on the previous one, had outraged everyone but the left and its apologists. As result they called for calm, which seems to have worked.

 Here is a short summary of what we saw, and why we are really pissed off:

Image (L) These signs have been around in other countries, especially in Europe where the population like authoritarians demanding that they comply, however this is the first time they have appeared here.  Aussies do not tolerate zealots who make threats; just having Gillard is bad enough.  Calls for beheading are vile.

Image (R) Jihad Girl 

SHE may be the youngest voice of Islamic fundamentalism to be broadcast in Australia. This is a recording of 8-year-old Ruqaya urging other children to join the fight for a global Islamic state. As she sees it, “nobody is too young”. 

Ruqaya delivered her speech to an audience of 600 at a conference called Muslims Rise, hosted by an Islamic group called Hizb ut-Tahrir. It was held in Bankstown in Sydney’s west on Sunday. Muslims Rise advocates the restoration of the Islamic caliphate - a global government for all Muslims, operating under strict sharia law. 

Ruqaya was one of nine speakers in a considerable line-up, which included a controversial keynote from Taji Mustafa, described by the Opposition as a "hate preacher".

Image (L) Mother radicalizing child

An Islamic mother is pictured taking a ‘happy snap’ to send to the folks back home to let them know the kids are being raised the right way.  She is claiming she isn’t dumb, she is ‘university educated’, but just didn’t know what ‘beheading’ meant. 

Breaking her silence almost a week after she created a national stir, the 28-year-old university educated woman claimed she did not know what the word "behead" meant. 

She insisted her eldest child picked up the poster from the ground and waved it above his head, so she took a photograph of him, not comprehending the sinister message portrayed on the sign. "I did not know what beheading was," she said. …

Daniel Pipes is suggesting that all publishers publish the Kurt Westergaard cartoon every day:

On the Islamist side, an individual or group took one of these perceived offenses and turned it into a reason to riot. Khomeini did this with The Satanic Verses and Ahmad Abu Laban did likewise with the Danish cartoons. Hamid Karzai goaded Afghans to riot over burned Korans by American soldiers and Egyptian preacher Khaled Abdullah turned Innocence of Muslims into an international event. 

In brief, any Westerner can buy a Koran for a dollar and burn it, while any Muslim with a platform can transform that act into a fighting offense. As passions rise on both sides of the democratized Western / Muslim divide, Western provocateurs and Islamist hotheads have found each other and confrontations occur with increasing frequency.Which prompts this question: 

What would happen if publishers and managers of major media reached a consensus, "Enough of this intimidation, we will publish the most famous Danish Muhammad cartoon every day until the Islamists tire out and no longer riot"? What would happen if instances of Koran burning happened recurrently?   

Would repetition inspire institutionalization, generate ever-more outraged responses, and offer a vehicle for Islamists to ride to greater power? Or would it lead to routinization, to a wearing out of Islamists, and a realization that violence is counter-productive to their cause? 

I predict the latter, that a Muhammad cartoon published each day, or Koranic desecrations on a quasi-regular basis, will make it harder for Islamists to mobilize Muslim mobs. Were that the case, Westerners could once again treat Islam as they do other religions – freely, to criticize without fear. That would demonstrate to Islamists that Westerners will not capitulate, that they reject Islamic law, that they are ready to stand up for their values. 

So, this is my plea to all Western editors and producers: display the Muhammad cartoon daily until the Islamists get used to the fact that we turn sacred cows into hamburger.

It might just work.