Pope Baptizes Muslim Convert to Christianity on Easter

It seems that all this blogging I’ve been doing, combined with a lack of exercise this past winter season (global warming my ass!) has added a few inches to my waistline. So, when I tried on my suit for Easter Sunday, it goes without saying that I was quite alarmed! Since Easter is tomorrow, and even if I ran to the Moon and back, I couldn’t sweat off those extra inches in one day – plus, I don’t have enough time to get lipo-suctioned at the mall (yeah, that was my first thought…), I did what any other self-respecting tub-of-lard would do and bought a new suit! So, I’m now ready for Easter in my big fat tent of a suit… And, Mrs. Bulldog has promised to crack the whip and get me back to exercising daily so I won’t have this problem again next Easter!

Anyway, I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter, and in keeping with the season I’m posting an Easter email that Warner sent us. I think he summed it up best when he wrote: “This’ll send them into apoplectic conniptions!”

Pope Baptizes Prominent Italian Muslim at Easter Vigil Service

March 22, 2008 – Fox News

VATICAN CITY —
Italy’s most prominent Muslim commentator, a journalist with iconoclastic views such as support for Israel, converted to Roman Catholicism Saturday when the pope baptized him at an Easter service.

As a choir sang, Pope Benedict XVI poured holy water over Magdi Allam’s head and said a brief prayer in Latin.

“We no longer stand alongside or in opposition to one another,” Benedict said in a homily reflecting on the meaning of baptism. “Thus faith is a force for peace and reconciliation in the world: distances between people are overcome, in the Lord we have become close.”

Vatican television zoomed in on Allam, who sat in the front row of the basilica along with six other candidates for baptism.

An Egyptian-born, non-practicing Muslim who is married to a Catholic, Allam often writes on Muslim and Arab affairs and has infuriated some Muslims with his criticism of extremism and support for the Jewish state.

The deputy editor of the Corriere della Sera newspaper, Allam, 55, told the Il Giornale newspaper in a December interview that his criticism of Palestinian suicide bombing generated threats on his life in 2003, prompting the Italian government to provide him with a sizable security detail.

The nighttime service at St. Peter’s Basilica marked the period between Good Friday, which commemorates Jesus’ crucifixion, and Easter Sunday, which marks his resurrection.

Benedict opened by blessing a white candle, which he then carried down the main aisle of the darkened basilica. Slowly, the pews began to light up as his flame was shared with candles carried by the faithful, until the whole basilica twinkled and the main lights came on.

The Union of Islamic Communities in Italy — which Allam has frequently criticized as having links to Hamas — said the baptism was his own decision.

“He is an adult, free to make his personal choice,” the Apcom news agency quoted the group’s spokesman, Issedin El Zir, as saying.

Yeah, you say that now because everyone is watching, but how long before you try to kill him for apostasy?

Al Qaeda Cell Blamed for U.S. Embassy Attack in Yemen

Yup… No surprise here…

Yemeni soldiers stand at a check point at the site of explosion near the U.S. embassy in the capital of San’a, Yemen, Tuesday, March 18, 2008, where a Yemeni guard was killed.

Al-Qaeda behind Yemen US embassy attack

March 23, 2008

An al-Qaeda cell was behind this week’s mortar attack against the US embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, a state-run newspaper has reported.

“The al-Qaeda terror organisation was involved in the terrorist attack,” the al-Thawra daily said, quoting an unnamed police source.

The source identified one member of the cell as Hamza al-Dhaiani, who allegedly launched three mortar rounds at the embassy on Tuesday.

“He carried out the attack from a pickup vehicle,” the source said.

The shells apparently missed their target and struck the courtyard of a girls’ public school adjacent to the embassy’s compound in eastern Sana’a’s Saawan neighbourhood.

“Police bodies are still pursuing the terrorist al-Dhaiani who carried out the attack backed by several other terrorists,” the source added.

A Yemeni guard patrolling the back fence of the embassy was immediately killed and three colleagues injured. Thirteen female students from the nearby school were also injured in the attack.

Globalism squeezing West Bank

This article has it all-globalization, muslim victim hood, muslim whining, unfair trade practices and crap Chinese products.

BY KARIN LAUB and DALIA NAMMARI ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS
HEBRON, West Bank
Yasser Herbawi once supplied much of the West Bank and Gaza with black-and-white checkered scarves, the proud emblem of Palestinian identity made famous by the late Yasser Arafat.
-Arafat is shown above in his role as cyber jihadi and muslim apologist.

But most of his looms now stand idle, his product edged out by cheap imports from the world’s newest keffiyeh capital: China.

After a decade of being flooded with Chinese goods, the West Bank’s largest city is struggling to compete.
-Lol, the Chinese beat back the minions and on their own turf.

Two-thirds of Hebron’s textile workshops have closed and 6,000 shoe factory workers have lost their jobs in the last eight years, pushing unemployment to 30.5 percent.

Cheap imports have hit manufacturing towns across the world, but the economic decline of this city of 230,000 is particularly ironic. Hebron long adhered to what is now China’s recipe for success: work hard and sell cheap. And Chinese goods are imported to the West Bank by traders from Hebron, the city suffering most.

It’s hard to find an upside to globalization here.
-Or here at home

Old industries are being squeezed out, while Israeli restrictions on movement and land development limit the scope for new ventures. Israel’s measures to stop suicide bombers make it much harder to get goods into Israel, and West Bank manufacturers can no longer sell to Gaza, sealed off after the violent Hamas takeover there last year.
-Notice no muslims blame in any of that. Want to trade? Stop blowing shit up.

The door to China opened for Palestinians in the mid-1990s, after Israel and China forged diplomatic ties. The response among Palestinian business people was especially enthusiastic in Hebron.

Flights from the Middle East to China were soon packed with Hebronites, especially to big trade fairs. China operated a visa office in Hebron for several years, and even street vendors began pooling their cash to send representatives there to shop.

Eventually, more than 300 Hebronites had export offices in China, the mayor said.

“We have a love of adventure,” Maher Haimouni of Hebron’s chamber of commerce said of his fellow merchants.

Some of Hebron’s traders are defensive, stung by complaints that their Chinese imports are destroying the local economy.
-Damn, Chinese junk, lol

Hazem Natche, 38, took time out from unloading cartons of handbags just arrived from China to say he had no choice–his own handbag factory closed because of Chinese competition.

Only Mohammed Shiyoukhi, a member of a large clan that trades with China, was unapologetic. His store, selling toys, hats, footballs and, of course, keffiyehs, is named “Hong Kong.”

Customer Hanan Sharabati, 19, said she buys West Bank shoes because they’re better than the imports–a sentiment that merchants hope will get him through the bad times.

Kosovo’s unity under threat; world powers reconsider plans

Once again the U.N. backed by the U.S. has made a mess and can not seem to come up with a solution.

By Nicole Itano, March 22, 2008, McClatchy Newspapers
MITROVICA, Kosovo — One month after Kosovo declared independence, the unity of the former Serbian province is under serious threat as its Serb minority, actively backed by Serbia, tests how far the international community will go to ensure its current borders.

Heavily armed Serb protesters fought international forces here Monday in a clash that left a Ukrainian police officer dead and a French NATO soldier critically injured. Seven other French troops and dozens of UN policemen were seriously hurt, some requiring amputations from the blasts of at least 30 grenades.

The level of violence, on the one-month anniversary of Kosovo’s independence, and the direct involvement of the government in Belgrade shocked the international community. The major powers are now re-evaluating plans to transition power to the new Kosovo government, Western and UN officials said.

Among the open questions: Who will enforce Kosovo’s borders with Serbia and by what means? Who will secure the mainly ethnic Serb zone north of the Ibar River in Mitrovica, up to the border with Serbia? And will Serbs be allowed to turn what is already a “soft” partition into a permanent division in Kosovo?

Monday’s incident began about 5:30 a.m., when United Nations police tried to retake a courthouse that Serbian protesters had seized days earlier. They arrested more than 50 people inside, among them Serbian Interior Ministry officials — evidence, the UN says, that Belgrade played a direct role in orchestrating the violence.

The UN police, mainly from the Ukraine and Poland, came under attack by about 300 well-armed protesters. A convoy carrying some of the arrested was surrounded, its occupants freed.

Overwhelmed, the UN called in French NATO troops, who battled for hours to secure control of the courthouse. About 16,000 NATO troops are stationed in Kosovo, including troops from the United States.

“This was a real escalation of the violence,” said Major Etienne du Fayet, a spokesman for NATO troops in Mitrovica.

NY County Jail Now Serving Halal Food to Muslim Inmates

More Creeping Sharia brought to you by a bunch of Liberal wussies.

Prison is for criminals.  It’s not suppose to be all warm and fuzzy!  Sheesh!

To quote my favorite Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, “This isn’t the Ritz/Carlton. If you don’t like it, don’t come back.”

BTW – Sheriff Arpaio eliminated coffee for his inmates because, “it had no nutritional value…”

H/T – Warner

US jail reaches deal on meals for Muslim inmates
International Herald Tribune
VALHALLA, New York: A county jail has agreed to provide Muslim inmates with meats prepared according to Islamic law, ending a three-year-long legal fight.

Under a settlement approved by a federal judge in Manhattan on March 12, the Westchester County jail is serving four halal meat dishes a week for Muslim inmates who request them, the Journal News reported. “Halal” is an Arabic word that means lawful or permitted.

The change will cost the county about 15 cents per serving, said Richard Cohen, a lawyer representing nine Muslim inmates. Their lawsuit, which dates to 2005, claimed religious bias.

The inmates noted that the jail offered kosher meats for observant Jews, but generally only vegetarian meals for devout Muslims. Halal meat was served twice a year on religious occasions.

The jail’s imam, John Nashid, called the discrepancy “a discriminatory practice against the Muslim inmate population.”

County spokeswoman Victoria Hochman said the jail started offering halal meats in September. Like kosher meats, the halal dishes are served four times a week.

“We’re happy to have reached a settlement on this issue,” she said.

The inmates sought monetary damages but received none in the settlement. None of the plaintiffs is still in the Westchester jail.

New York City’s Rikers Island jail already serves halal meat, as do some other jails and prisons around the country.

Muslims urged to step up political action in U.S.

Now we all know islam directs muslim to be part of the ummah and not recognize nation states so by their own admission CAIR is suggesting U.S. muslims are apostates. What CAIR really wants is obvious-political clout. Although some institutions are kissing up to islam most politicians do not want to be seen as “friendly” to them at least in public.

Well keep selling it cuz we ain’t buying.

By T.J. GREANEY of the Tribune’s staff, March 22, 2008
The Council on American-Islamic Relations wants people to know that Muslims in the United States are deeply patriotic. A large majority of them hoist the American flag outside their homes and businesses, celebrate the Fourth of July and vote.
-You can see those “patriotic muslims” on you tube burning the American flag and cliaming they will rule over us. Reality is muslims are such a small percentage of the U.S. population that our homeless carry more political clout than they do.

“They are decidedly American in their outlook, values and attitude,” said Parvez Ahmed, chairman of the board of CAIR, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
-Typical muslim bullshit, pious practicing muslims hate us, hate our freedoms and beleave the bullshit spouted by mohammed to be true. While there are non-practicing muslims in the USA they are a very small portion of the minion population. There are many times more ex-muslims in the USA than practicing muslims.

But they’re also worried about racial profiling and a growing anti-Islamic backlash to worldwide terrorism that they believe puts them on the receiving end of suspicious looks and hate crimes. Fifty-eight percent of U.S. Muslims reported being discriminated against or profiled in 2006, according to a CAIR study, a figure the group said has sharply risen in recent years.
-Until someone declares psychotic killers a “race” islam is still just a cult. There is no law against discriminating against cults.

Ahmed spoke to about 50 people Thursday at Tate Hall at the University of Missouri in an event urging the traditionally nonpolitical American Muslim community to tackle problems through political action.

“An organized minority is actually a political majority,” Ahmed said, paraphrasing civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.
-Jesse is hardly a “leader”.

“Organization means the ability to do something and create programs, create a vision. … And remember the famous quote from the Prophet Muhammad that the highest form of jihad” – meaning a struggle to reflect God’s will – “is what? Speaking truth to a tyrant ruler. What is speaking truth? Well, write a petition to your congressman asking him to take a position that is fair.”
-no one really cares about mohammed quotes especially ones taken out of context and CAIR is anything but a civil rights organization. The easiest way to tell if a CAIR spokesman is lying is to watch his mouth move.