Salman Rushdie cancels Indian literary festival appearance over death threats from Muslim extremists

soon to happen in the USA

Salman Rushdie cancels Indian literary festival appearance over death threats from Muslim extremists

By DAMIEN GAYLE

Last updated at 4:53 PM on 20th January 2012

Salman Rushdie cancelled plans to appear at an Indian literature festival today after warnings he could be targeted for assassination by Islamic extremists.

The planned appearance by the Booker Prize-winning author at the Jaipur Literary festival had reawakened the long-dormant controversy over his 1988 book The Satanic Verses.

Some Muslims consider the book blasphemous and Muslim clerics had staged protests against Rushdie's attendance at the festival.

Unlikely lothario: Salman Rushdie dances with Michelle Barish at her birthday party last year. He has been forced to cancel an appearance at a literary festival

Rushdie spent years in hiding after Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for his death for writing the book, which was also banned in India.

In recent weeks, the head of the influential Darul Uloom seminary had urged the Indian government to bar Rushdie from the festival.

 

More...

• Iranian actress banned from returning to her home country after posing nude in French magazine
• University atheist society president forced to resign after cartoon of Muhammad having a drink with Jesus is posted on Facebook
• My son the terrorist: One mother’s grief at how her privately-educated American son met a violent end in Pakistan’s Al Qaeda badlands
• ‘I plan to change misconceptions’: Tunisian model is first ever Muslim face of Lancome
• Turkey hits back after Rick Perry says the country is run by Islamic terrorists

The chief minister of the state of Rajasthan, where Jaipur is located, also said the writer should stay away because of security concerns.

Organisers of the five-day festival, which began today, postponed an event with Rushdie that had been planned for the first day, but still hoped he would attend.

Ladies man: Rushdie pictured with his fourth wife, Padma Lakshmi

But today they read out a statement from the British-Indian author saying he had decided to cancel his trip.

Rushdie's statement said he had been informed by intelligence sources that 'paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to "eliminate" me'.

'While I have some doubts about the accuracy of this intelligence, it would be irresponsible of me to come to the festival in such circumstances,' he said.

THE SATANIC VERSES: STORM THAT LAUNCHED RUSHDIE'S CELEBRITY

Rushdie's fourth novel, The Satanic Verses propelled the Indian-born writer into a storm of controversy that forced him into hiding for the best part of a decade. 

The title refers to the so-called 'satanic verses', a group of alleged Qur'anic verses that allow intercessory prayers to be made to three Pagan Meccan goddesses.

The book's publication in 1988 sparked a wave of protest and condemnation from Muslims who accused it of blasphemy and mocking their faith. The following year, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwā, or religious ruling, calling for Rushdie's death. 

The British government gave the writer round-the-clock police protection. 

Although Rushdie was never harmed, the threats to his life were serious. The Japanese translator of the book was murdered, a Norwegian publisher shot and an Italian publisher knifed.

Thirty-seven people were massacred in Sivas, Turkey, in a 1993 attack intended to target Aziz Nesin, the book's Turkish translator. 

Since conciliatory statements from Iran in 1998, Rushdie has become a globe-trotting literary celebrity and socialite whose attendance at parties and events is keenly sought.

He has also become notorious as an unlikely lothario, with a string of glamorous girlfriends and four failed marriages. 

He apparently now has his eyes set on a fifth after reportedly proposing to Michelle Barish just two days after she split from her billionaire boyfriend.

But that proposal came off the back of an unseemly spat with publicity seeking New York socialite Devorah Rose, who published details of their online conversations. 

Ms Barish - who is said to be in Florida with daughter Bee - was thought to be considering the proposal, although she is herself still currently in the process of getting divorced.

The controversy over Rushdie's attendance at Jaipur clouded the opening of the festival, which will be attended by tens of thousands of people who have come to see Oprah Winfrey and literary stars such as Michael Ondaatje, Tom Stoppard and Annie Proulx.

William Dalrymple, an author and an organiser of the festival, told the Associated Press: 'It is tragic.'

Organisers said they hoped to be able to hold an event with Rushdie via video conferencing.

Sanjoy Roy, one of the people behind the event, told AP: 'We are trying to work out the technical details of this. Most likely it is going to happen.'

The 64-year-old author attended the annual festival in 2007 without incident.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089374/Salman-Rushdie-cancels-Indian-literary-festival-appearance-death-threats-Muslim-extremists.html#ixzz1k1w2uCCE

What is the difference between the Nazis and Muslims

What is the difference between the Nazis and Muslims . The Nazis hid their work The Muslims publicly display it!




Satan himself is alive and well in this religion. Obviously, not all Islamic people partake in these horrible acts of violence, but it is a prominent problem in the religion itself. Pray for these women and children and that the men doing these horrendous acts will have their eyes opened

Ruth Sherman: TSA Strip-Searched Me, Too, At Kennedy Airport

They wont touch a Muslim who declared war on the USA but they will strip search an elderly women


Ruth Sherman: TSA Strip-Searched Me, Too, At Kennedy Airport (VIDEO)


Two days after 85-year-old Lenore Zimmerman came forward accusing the TSA of "strip-searching" her, another elderly woman has come forward with the same claim.
88-year-old Ruth Sherman, of Sunrise, Florida, has come forward accusing the TSA of "invading" her privacy at JFK airport over the Thanksgiving holiday.
Sherman told CBS News that she spent a week in New York along with her family over Thanksgiving. The trip ended on a sour note when, she claims, TSA agents wanted to check the bulge of her colostomy bag.
"This is private for me. It's bad enough that I have it," she told the station. "I had to pull from my sweatpants and I had to pull my underwear, my underwear down...You don't do that anybody. I felt like I was invaded."
Sherman claims that she complained about the incident to JetBlue and told her family but wanted to go public with the story after seeing Zimmerman on television complaining of a similar incident at the same JetBlue terminal at JFK.
While the TSA apologized to Zimmerman on Sunday and denied any wrong-doing in her case, the TSA told CBS that they will look into the new accusations by Sherman.
The elderly have had a bad run with the TSA this year. In July, a former bladder cancer patient revealed that an invasive search by the TSA left him covered in his own urine after his urostomy bag broke during a patdown. Also in July, a 94-year-old woman was forced to stand for a patdown at the Raleigh-Durham airport.

Coptic Christians Rally for Human Rights in DC, by Faith J. H. McDonnell

Oct26
2011  Written by Vin

Thousands of Egyptian Americans representing oppressed and persecuted Coptic Christians streamed down Washington, DC’s Pennsylvania Avenue Wednesday, October 19, 2011. Their demonstration had begun in front of the White House. It ended with a rally at the U.S. Capitol.
Copts, who traveled by the busloads from such places as Chicago, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, came to Washington to protest the brutal treatment of Egypt’s Christians and demand that the Obama administration pressure Cairo to protect the rights of non-Muslims. They also wished to call attention to congressional legislation that supports Copts and other vulnerable people groups. The demonstration was a response to an Egyptian army-led massacre of Christians on Sunday, October 9, in Cairo.
On October 9, Egyptian Christians had staged a peaceful demonstration and a march through downtown Cairo to protest the burning of a church and several Christian-owned homes and businesses in Upper Egypt on September 30. The Christian protestors were attacked by an Islamist mob near an underpass cutting through downtown Cairo. They were pelted with rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails, and otherwise molested. Then when the Christians reached their destination, Maspero Square, Egyptian military forces were already aligned against them to quell the demonstration.
Seeming to have forgotten Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi’s recent testimony that the army would “never . . . open fire at citizens,” the army did indeed open fire on the protestors, killing twenty-one. Later, when the army was leaving the bloodbath it had created, one soldier bragged that he had shot a Copt in the chest and killed him. The Muslim crowd cheered, shouting, “This is the real Egyptian army!”
Six other Christians at the demonstration were crushed under armored personnel carriers when those vehicles deliberately plowed into crowds of protestors. A Compass Direct News Service report called the attack “the worst act of violence against Egyptian Christians in modern history.” In addition to the twenty-six people that were killed, hundreds of others were wounded by the army’s attack. The army attack left Egypt’s Christians shocked and devastated.
At Wednesday’s demonstration in Washington, the American Copts pointed out that U.S. tax payer dollars fund the tanks that killed the Egyptian Christians. Many people, including members of Congress, ask why the U.S. continues to give hundreds of millions of dollars annually in financial aid to a country with such an abysmal human rights record. Over $70 billion has been given in aid since the Camp David accords, notes columnist Mike McManus. Some of the Coptic protestors in Washington held signs declaring, “Your Tax Dollars Kill Christians in Egypt.”
Other demonstrators carried a variety of other messages. Some of the protestors held large photographs depicting the horrific events at Maspero Square. Others carried Bible verses speaking of the persecution of the Church, or messages to the world such as “1400 years of Islamic oppression: We still stand defiant!”
Many of the people carried large wooden crosses or American flags. And a few carried black wooden coffins that they placed on the sidewalk in front of the White House. Together they raised their voices in such chants for justice as, “Why, why, must we die?” “Obama, Obama, where are you?” “Coptic blood is not cheap!” and “USA, wake up!”
As the protestors had declared, Copts and other Egyptian Christians, along with Egypt’s tiny Baha’i community and tinier Jewish community, have, to varying degrees, been victims of discrimination and persecution for 14 centuries. The Copts are descendants of ancient Egyptians converted to Christianity by Saint Mark, who founded the Church of Alexandria in 43 AD. But since the Arab conquest of Egypt in 640 AD, Egyptian Christians have lived as dhimmi, second-class citizens, under Islam.
Since the Tahrir Square demonstrations and President Mubarak?’s ouster in February 2011, threats to Egyptian Christians have come from both the usual Islamic-mob-inspired-by-local-Imam-after-Friday-prayers scenario and increasingly from the military and security forces. For instance, in February of 2011, two Coptic monasteries were attacked by the army because they had built walls to protect themselves from looters and criminals set loose from prisons by anti-Mubarak rebels.
Then in March, a mob of Islamists burned down the Church of the Two Martyrs in Sool, a village south of Cairo, after the local Imam issued a call for them to “kill all the Christians.” The pastor, who was almost killed in the fire, said that the clamor of the church being destroyed “sounded like hatred.” And villagers describing the scene to Compass Direct News Service said that the mob broke into the church chanting, “Allalu Akbar,” looting it, demolishing the walls with sledgehammers, and setting a fire.
“Looters removed anything valuable, including several containers holding the remains of venerated Copts – most of whom were killed in other waves of persecution – then stomped and kicked the containers like soccer balls,” witnesses told Compass Direct. More churches and Christian properties were attacked and burned and Christians killed and injured throughout 2011, leading up to the attack at the Maspero Building.
Egypt’s Christians had hopes that the Arab Spring would be for them, as well as for Muslims. Sadly, Egypt’s transformation has increased the influence and power of Islamic extremists in the country. This is unfortunate for all, but as is evident, it is lethal for the Christians. In the words of one Coptic Christian from New Jersey to The Washington Post, “We Christians have faced Islamic oppression for 1400 years, but now it is getting much more ugly.” And they wonder what new problems Egypt’s coming elections will bring. Some even suggest that the only solution is for all the Copts to leave their homeland, but American Copts hope that the United States will help their co-religionists and other vulnerable minorities in Egypt.
So far the response of the Obama administration to the attack on the Copts has been underwhelming. An October 10 White House statement by the Press Secretary featured the typical moral equivalency also found in statements about Israel, Sudan, and elsewhere, expressing the President’s deep concern about “the tragic loss of life among demonstrators and security forces.”
The President’s statement did stress that the rights of minorities and their religious freedom must be respected. But the takeaway from the remarks was the breathtaking admonition, “Now is a time for restraint on all sides.” White House Dossier reporter, Keith Koffler, says that Obama is “not only equating the deaths of peaceful protestors and their killers, but he is suggesting that Egypt’s increasingly persecuted Christian minority should show as much ‘restraint’ as their tormentors and refrain from vigorously objecting to the growing abuse.”
There is a stronger response to the Copts’ dilemma at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. One recent action in Congress that may help Coptic Christians and other religious minorities is a bill introduced in the House by U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (H.R. 440), the co-chair, along with U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) of the Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus in the House of Representatives.
The legislation, calling for the establishment of a special envoy to promote religious freedom of religious minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia, passed overwhelmingly in the House. Now the Senate version (S. 1245), introduced by Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), is languishing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But the American Copts hope that hearings on the atrocities taking place, along with other publicity and the full enactment of the bill, will give voice and support to those who have not felt the warmth of spring in their experience of Egypt’s transformation.

How Islam Teach Children to Love

This is what Obama wants to bring to your children in the USA. Sharia Schools His peaceful religion.

What IS going on in Britain's mosque schools? Beatings, humiliation and lessons in hating Britain

By Paul Bracchi
Last updated at 1:36 AM on 25th October 2011

The punishment is almost medieval in its cruelty. Victims are forced to crouch down and hold their ears with their arms threaded under their legs. Beatings are often administered at the same time.
This brutal practice has its own name: the Hen, so called because those forced into the excruciatingly painful squatting position are said to resemble a chicken.
It is the kind of shockingly degrading treatment you might expect to feature in an expose of torture techniques, like say, the use of waterboarding (simulated drowning) on terrorism suspects. You’d be wrong, though.

Lessons in violence: Harrowing tales from some of Britain's 3,500 madrassas were exposed in February's Dispatches documentary

In fact, the Hen is used to discipline children, many under the age of ten, at British madrassas, the after-school Islamic religious classes invariably attached to mosques.
We have been told of one little girl who was forced to stay crouched and contorted in front of her class for an hour.
‘It’s a particularly unpleasant and painful punishment,’ said Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, a founder of the Muslim Institute think-tank, and one of the few Muslim voices in the country to speak out about the abuse of youngsters at madrassas.
The harrowing stories now emerging from such establishments are all too familiar to detectives in Lancashire, where there are 15 madrassas in Accrington alone. They have received at least 37 separate allegations against local Islamic teachers or hafizes, ‘holy men’ who have memorised the Koran by heart.

Among them is a girl who says she was hit and kicked in the leg and face, causing bruising. The victim’s age? Just six.

Institutionalised hatred: The Mail has found that the scenes at the West Yorkshire mosque in the Channel 4 programme are not unusual

Then there’s the eight-year-old boy who was punched in the back several times for making a mistake in his studies, or the boy, also eight, who had his head pulled back by the hair for not praying loud enough, or the nine-year-old forced into the ‘Hen position’ before being punched on the back and slapped in the face for not learning his Koranic lines and talking in class.
These are just some of the incidents which have recently been investigated. Yet, so far, not one of the perpetrators has been brought to justice or even reprimanded. Nor are they likely to be. Why? Well, at least some parents, it appears, were pressurised into withdrawing complaints by their own community where the clerical hierarchy are afforded great deference.

 

More...

• Islamic Sharia law will be the 'basic source' of legislation in free Libya, says new leader

Indeed, more than 400 such allegations of physical abuse have been made to local authorities in the UK over the past three years, but there have been only two successful prosecutions.

It’s a shameful indictment of the modern British justice system and one has to wonder if political correctness means the authorities are reluctant to vigorously investigate such crimes for fear of being labelled racist.
The true scale of the scandal is unknown. Many families, it is suspected, are reluctant even to report the ill-treatment of their sons or daughters for fear of upsetting their fellow Muslims. Such fears are more than justified. In some cases, parents have been intimidated and threatened for going to the police.

Out of control: Non Muslims are referred to as 'infidels' in lessons at the independent mosque schools

So the brutal treatment meted out to Muslim children continues; in silence.
The plight of many students inside Britain’s madrassas — and the implications for wider society — was highlighted by the respected File On 4 programme on Radio 4 this week, and follows a Dispatches investigation on Channel 4 in February, which not only captured beatings on hidden cameras, but also pupils being taught hatred for the British way of life, which they were told is influenced by Satan.
Anyone with ‘less than a fistful of beard’ must be avoided ‘the same way you stay away from a serpent or a snake’, some children were instructed. Non-Muslims were referred to as the ‘infidel’.

There’s the eight-year-old boy who was punched in the back several times or the boy, also eight, who had his head pulled back by the hair, or the nine-year-old forced into the 'Hen position' before being punched on the back and slapped in the face

In other words, religious apartheid and social segregation is being taught to a growing number of Muslim youngsters in our towns and cities; an agenda, it seems, increasingly being reinforced by beatings and brutality.
So how much influence do madrassas hold over impressionable young Muslims? The statistics are compelling.
There are now believed to be around 3,500 madrassas in Britain although such is the demand for them that new ones are springing up all the time, not only in mosques but also in living rooms, garages, and even in abandoned pubs. Some have only a handful of pupils; others several hundred. Overall, up to 250,000 children, aged between four and 14, attend madrassas, all dutifully attired in Islamic dress; girls in headscarves, boys in skull caps.
In a typical daily scene, students hunch over wooden benches, rocking backwards and forwards as they learn the Koran by rote in Arabic, as a man with a long, dark beard dressed in traditional shalwar kameez — tunic and trousers — sits at the head of the class or paces up and down.

These institutions have been compared to Sunday school for Christians.
The comparison is misplaced. By definition, Sunday school takes place only once a week. The majority of madrassas hold classes every evening, six days a week. Lessons last for about two hours. They represent, in effect, a parallel, but largely unregulated education system. Madrassas, unlike state or private schools, are not subject to Ofsted inspections.

Widespread allegations: More than 400 children have claimed to have been attacked in schools like the one at Markazi Jamia mosque in Keighley, seen on Dispatches

Teachers who take pupils for less then 12.5 hours a week are deemed to have the status of being ‘in loco parentis’ which allows them to smack those in their charge under the defence of ‘reasonable punishment’.
It is a loophole that has done little to dispel the impression that some madrassas, at least, are a law unto themselves as the latest raft of allegations above would seem to suggest.
One of the biggest in Lancashire is based at the Raza Jamia Masjid mosque, just off the main road that cuts through Accrington, and consists of several terraced houses converted into one large building. 
There are separate entrances for the dozens of male and female pupils. The madrassa has a written policy urging staff to put the welfare of children above all else and there is a strict ‘no hitting’ rule.

Teachers who take pupils for less then 12.5 hours a week are deemed to have the status of being 'in loco parentis' which allows them to smack those in their charge under the defence of 'reasonable punishment'

Earlier this year, however, that rule was flagrantly broken.
‘The mosque teacher came and hit us all with a stick,’ an 11-year-old pupil told File On 4. ‘He hit me on the back. I felt angry because he hit me. He is not allowed to touch anyone in the mosque.’
The ‘stick’, it transpired, wielded by Ibrahim Yusuf, 52, himself a father of eight, who had taught at the madrassa for nearly 12 years, was a 2ft long section of a plastic overflow pipe.
‘How would you feel to be in that situation — to be hit and abused?,’ said the victim’s older sister. ‘As a child you don’t know what to do. We are living in the 21st century. Things like this are not supposed to be happening.’
In all, four boys, including a youngster with learning difficulties, were hit with the pipe during the incident for misbehaving. Details of the beatings emerged at their primary school the following day when the boys spoke about what had happened in front of teachers.
The teachers contacted children’s services, who in turn called the police. ‘It was serious,’ said Det Sgt Julie Cross, because a stick [sic] was used. It is not acceptable for teachers within a madrassa to be relying on implements to control the classroom.’
Yusuf claimed he didn’t usually have a ‘stick’ but had it that day for teaching purposes, as a ‘pointer.’ Nevertheless, he was charged with four counts of assault.
Shortly afterwards, the mother of the boy who spoke to File On 4 says she was approached by another mother at her home, who told her to drop the allegations. The parents of two of the other boys later informed the police they no longer wanted to press charges and would not be part of the case.

Shocking: The episodes at West Yorkshire mosque filmed in February's documentary sparked last week's BBC radio investigation

The case, however, did come before magistrates in August because CCTV footage inside the madrassa confirmed the boys’ accounts. Yusuf pleaded guilty and was given a 12-month community order. He is now teaching again at the madrassa.
Answering the door of his semi-detached home in Blackburn this week, Yusuf said: ‘The matter has been dealt with and I have nothing else to say. I am teaching there and everyone is more than happy for me to be there.’
Not everyone.
‘It is wrong that he has come back,’ says  his 11-year-old victim. ‘They should have kicked him out of the mosque. I don’t go to the mosque any more.’
What seems to be beyond dispute is that abuse at Britain’s madrassas has gone largely unreported for many years. ‘I have been told about this abuse by ex-teachers who have witnessed it as well as families who have suffered it,’ said Dr Siddiqui. 
‘The most common acts of violence involve holding a child’s hair and banging his or her head against a wall. Punching them in their heads and bodies is common as well as making them adopt the Hen position.’
In 2006, Dr Siddiqui, then leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain — a forum set up back in the Nineties to lobby and campaign on issues affecting Muslims — accused local imams of not taking their duty to protect children seriously.

Anyone with 'less than a fistful of beard' must be avoided 'the same way you stay away from a serpent or a snake', some children were instructed. Non-Muslims were referred to as the 'infidel'

His concerns were spelled out in a damning 35-page publication, Child Protection In Faith-Based Environments.
‘The Muslim community,’ he wrote, ‘is at present in a state of denial — denial of the fact that child abuse takes place in places of worship including mosques and madrassas and families. It is a taboo subject.
‘There is very little discussion taking place in the community on the subject at any level. Hence, when such a crime is committed, the victim knows no one to turn to and the abusers are answerable to no one.’
If many in the Muslim community, even parents, are prepared to turn a blind a eye, what chance of preventing children at madrassas being fed a hardline, intolerant version of Islam which may have profoundly dangerous consequences to Britain as a whole?
A recent Government report concluded that over the past decade, Al Qaeda followers have used Britain’s madrassas to radicalise young Muslims.
Indeed, a Home Office-funded project, set up in 2007, to try to spot future terrorists, has identified more than 300 children who are ‘vulnerable’ to Islamic radicalisation. The figure comprises an astonishing 55 under-12s, and another 290 aged up to 16.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
Academic and theologian Dr Taj Hargey runs an Islamic school in Oxford where children are taught in mixed-sex classes. Pupils are told to respect other faiths, ask questions about their religion and recite the Koran in English as well as Arabic. He says he set up the madrassa because of the claims Muslim families had made to him about beatings at other establishments.
‘What an outdated, archaic concept,’ he says, ‘and if we inflict violence on our children, we will sow the seeds of violence in them.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2053034/What-going-Britains-mosque-schools-Beatings-humiliation-lessons-hating-Britain.html#ixzz1buWoWzBr

Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street protester scales 70ft art sculpture demanding Mayor Bloomberg's resignation… and a pack of cigarettes

By John Stevens
Last updated at 4:05 AM on 23rd October 2011


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2052387/Occupy-Wall-Street-protester-scales-art-sculpture-demanding-Mayor-Bloombergs-resignation.html#ixzz1baKtQSXX


Occupy Wall Street protesters have been accused of not having a clear set of aims and objectives.
But one protester knew exactly what he wanted as he made a list of strange demands after scaling a 70-foot art sculpture in Zuccotti Park.
Dylan Spoelstra, 24, from Toronto, Canada, said that he would not come down from the structure until the NYPD and FDNY agreed to introduce a quota of 15 per cent of all officers being bisexual and Mayor Michael Bloomberg resigned.

Demands: Dylan Spoelstra said that he would not come down from the 'Joie de Vivre' sculpture until Mayor Michael Bloomberg resigned

The protester also told negotiators that he wanted 15 police officers to leave the park and to be given a coat and cigarettes.
He eventually agreed to come down just after 9am on Saturday, three hours after he had started his bizarre sit-down protest.

More...

• The Florida hippy who left her banker husband and four children behind to join the Occupy protesters in New York
• Folk singer Pete Seeger, 92, joins the protesters as over one third of Americans back Occupy Wall Street movement
• Did YOU invite that lot darling? Couple defy protesters to marry at St Paul's
• Rupert Murdoch takes on shareholders (and protesters outside) as investors tell him and his sons to quit over phone hacking scandal
• Who are the 99%? Demographics of Occupy Wall Street protesters show they aren't all unemployed liberals

The demonstrator was taken to hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. He had earlier been ticketed at 3:14am for public urination.
Fellow protesters said that Spoelstra had climbed the red artwork, known as 'Joie de Vivre', on Broadway after attempts earlier in the week.
Shortly before 6am he reportedly ran to the bottom of the sculpture and clambered up one of the large vertical beams, sitting on a platform 30 feet up.

Occupied: Fellow protesters said that he had been planning the bizarre stunt for the last few days

'He went up like a ring-tailed lemur,' his friend Patrick Griese, who had met him at the proetests, told the New York Post.
Police officers put airbags at the bottom of the sculpture and gave him a phone so he could speak to an NYPD negotiator.
Spoelstra laughed and high-fived a police officer who went up on a cherry picker as he agreed to be brought down.
Fellow protester Justin Lecea, 26, of Michigan, said: 'He was telling people he was going to do it and no one thought he was.'
'He tried climbing up the thing a day or two ago and no one noticed,' he told the Post.

Removed: Spoelstra was voluntarily brought down after three hours on the sculpture

The sculpture by Mark di Suvero was donated to the city by Agnes Gund, president of the Museum of Modern Art, and moved to its location as part of an $8 million renovation of the park in 2006.
It originally stood at the exit of the Holland Tunnel and has been displayed in Paris and upstate New York.
Occupy Wall Street protesters marched through lower Manhattan on Saturday to rally against police brutality, but the crowd was a fraction of the 5,000 who turned out a week ago when protests sprouted around the globe.
The rally, a joint demonstration pairing the anti-Wall Street movement against economic inequality with union and civil rights groups, did appear to draw an activist core though, including some from beyond lower Manhattan.
About 300 people occupied the south side of Union Square, surrounded by dozens of police officers and police vans along the park's perimeter on 14th Street.

Demonstration: Protesters marched on Saturday opposed to police brutality

Socialist and Marxist newspaper hawkers mingled with high school students and senior citizens and self-described hippies.( they forgot to add there were Nazi Muslims in the crowd spewing hate for Jews)
'I think there's a lot of people who have not experienced police brutality before, and they're experiencing it for the first time,' rally organiser Kathie Cheng, 39, of Queens said. 'That's helpful for exposing the role of police.'
Support from unions across the United States has helped boost the ranks of the Occupy Wall Street movement against economic inequality, which began five weeks ago and sparked protests nationwide and globally.
Occupy Wall Street organisers have acknowledged the challenges that the coming cold weather could pose to the enthusiasm of the movement.
Saturday's 'teach-in', aimed at helping educate protesters, included 'know your rights' workshops by lawyers with the anti-police brutality groups

 Time for Stacy to grow up. I want a gold Toilet Seat but I dont see it in the cards. How does it feel to want Stacy.

The Florida hippy who left her banker husband and four children behind to join the Occupy protesters in New York 

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:35 PM on 22nd October 2011


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2052278/Florida-hippy-Stacey-Hessler-leaves-family-join-Occupy-protesters-New-York.html#ixzz1baLsBAFe
A Florida woman has left her banker husband and four children at home to join the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York.
Stacey Hessler, 38, swapped the comfort of sunny DeLand for the squalor of Zuccotti Park after following the protests on the internet.
Her friends say she has the full backing of her family, even though one of the corporations she's protesting over is the bank her husband works for.

Following her beliefs: Hippy housewife Stacey Hessler has swapped family life for sleeping under the stars

Mrs Hessler has been sleeping under the same tarp as Brooklyn waiter Rami Shamir.
But friend Lauren Napoli, 28, said the hippy mother and the waiter are not 'bunking up in a little tent.'
Miss Napoli told the New York Post: 'It’s not like that - everyone who’s there, we’re trying to support each other, and when it rains you need to be under a structure.
'She had been following this movement on her own through Facebook and YouTube and whatever, and she decided she wanted to come up to New York.
'Her family said, "Go, mom, go. This is what you want to do".'

Meet the family: Stacey, far left, in a Christmas-time photo with husband Curtiss, son Peyton, at the back, and daughters, from left, Sullivan, Kennedy and Veda

Miss Napoli, a waitress and home health aide, added: 'This is what she believes in, and she feels she needs to be here. She’s not being irresponsible.'
Mrs Hessler had apparently said she wanted to stay 'indefinitely,' but Miss Napoli believes she'll return home.
She added that the self-labelled 'vegan freak' and the support of her family and friends in Florida.
'I’ve been right next to her when she’s been on the phone with her kids.
'It was her youngest daughter’s birthday recently and she called and said "happy birthday".'

'Dreadlock princess': Stacey rollerblading and, right, showing off the hair

Another protester friend in New York told the Post that Mrs Hessler and her family are 'one of the most amazing and beautiful and loving families that I’ve ever encountered.'
On her Facebook page, Mrs Hessler describes herself as 'radical unschooling mom of four, midwives assistant, roller-derby queen, rock-star musician, activist, dreadlock princess, African-bee keeper, organic vegan freak and a surrogate for the second time.'
Some of her neighbours in Florida, however, seem less than impressed with her switch to New York.
One neighbour said she 'acts like a self-obsessed college sophomore who never grew up.'
Another said: 'I’m not disgusted she took off to protest - because I’m not surprised.
'She believes everything should be free.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2052278/Florida-hippy-Stacey-Hessler-leaves-family-join-Occupy-protesters-New-York.html#ixzz1baLFNTb2

Woman in Labor Survives PA Lynch Attempt

Woman in Labor Survives PA Lynch Attempt

PA terrorists attempted to lynch a Jewish couple as they rushed to the hospital on Yom Kippur with the wife in labor.

By Maayana Miskin

First Publish: 10/8/2011

Rock attack in Shiloach (archive)

Flash 90

Palestinian Authority terrorists continued their attacks on innocent Jewish motorists over Yom Kippur, this time attacking a woman in labor and her husband as they rushed to the hospital. The husband, Ariel Goldman of Pnei Kedem, told Arutz Sheva that the two were lucky to escape with their lives.

Their ordeal began near Har Homa at 2:30 a.m., as they drove to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem. Suddenly, they encountered a point in the road that had been blocked by large stones.

As Goldman slowed the car, looking for a way around the trap, several Palestinian Authority terrorists jumped out and began to hurl rocks at the car.

The attack turned into a game of cat and mouse, as Goldman looked for ways around the rocks and tried to keep moving, while the terrorists followed the car and continued to pelt it with heavy stones, using a tactic that recently resulted in two deaths near Hevron.

The terrorists “had murder in their eyes,” Goldman said.

He finally managed to pass the stone barrier and speed away from the group of attackers, only to encounter a second group that attempted to stone the car near the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot. Goldman managed to speed away a second time.

A policewoman he later encountered appeared uninterested by his story, but promised to notify her superiors, he said.

Ariel Goldman and his wife managed to reach the hospital, where she gave birth to a baby boy. Both the baby and mother are in good condition.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/148591#.TpH_kHGBNM2

From Atlas Shrugs

American Muslim Arrested in Plot to Blow up, Destroy Pentagon and U.S. Capitol, “Because that’s the target to eliminate and terrify all enemies of Allah. This is what we have to do. This is the righteous way"

ASHLAND, Mass. -- An Ashland man was arrested Wednesday and accused of plotting to destroy the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol by attacking the buildings with large, remote-controlled aircraft armed with lethal amounts of explosives.
Rezwan Ferdaus, 26, was arrested Wednesday in Framingham after undercover federal agents delivered materials he'd allegedly requested for his plan, including grenades, six machine guns and what he believed was 24 pounds of C-4 explosive.
The Department of Justice took Ferdaus, a Northeastern University graduate, into custody. The suspect made an appearance in court Tuesday in Worcester. He did not enter a plea and was held without bail until his detention hearing Monday afternoon.
Authorities say he had rented a storage facility in Framingham under a false name where he planned to use the unit to build his attack plan and maintain all his equipment.
In recorded conversations with the government’s cooperating witness that began in January 2011, Ferdaus said he planned to attack the Pentagon using a small drone aircraft filled with explosives and guided by GPS equipment.
In April he allegedly expanded his attack to include the U.S. Capitol. In the affidavit, Ferdaus is quoted as looking for, “…A connection that would be able to gather, ah, some material where we can build some of the explosive enough to take out a target that’s like three football fields, say a radius of one or two blocks?”
He also made his goal clear to the cooperating witness saying, “Because that, that’s the target to eliminate and terrify all enemies of Allah. We have this project started…This is, this is what we have to do. This is the righteous way… [to] terrorize enemies of Allah.”
Authorities say Ferdaus was upset at the death of Osama Bin Laden in May. He was recorded as referring to the terrorist leader as “our boss.”
Ferdaus is also accused of trying to work with Al-Qaeda to carry out attacks on U.S. soldiers stationed overseas.
Wednesday, he was in Worcester court. He is being represented by Boston attorney, Catherine Byrne.
Federal authorities said the public was never in danger.


Read more: http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/12005493478837/ashland-man-arrested-for-terror-plot/#ixzz1ZJX6V58Q

Muslim Brotherhood Leader: “Every Israeli who enters Egypt–tourist or not–should be killed”

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Eeyore

A very dialed-in reader of Vlad identified the cleric in the above clip as the man in the clip below, who was central in the whole, Rifka Barry incident. I recommend reading the comments below this post for some interesting revelations about Government supported, ‘Moderate Islam’ in the USA

15 Killed as Filipino Troops Clash With Suspected Muslim Militants

Published September 25, 2011

| Associated Press

 MANILA, Philippines –  Suspected Muslim militants attacked government troops guarding a school construction site in a rebel stronghold in the southern Philippines on Sunday, igniting a clash that killed 13 gunmen and two marines, a marine commander said.

About 50 gunmen attacked two marine detachments in hilly Talipao town in Sulu province at dawn, setting off two hours of fierce fighting that killed 13 suspected militants and two marines, marine commander Col. Romeo Tanalgo said. Six other military personnel were wounded before the gunmen split and withdrew into the forest, he said.

The attackers were likely young Muslim militants trained by the notoriously violent Abu Sayyaf, an Al Qaeda-linked group regarded as a terrorist organization by the United States and the Philippines, and radical members of a larger rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front, which also has a presence in the impoverished, far-flung community, military officials said.

The militants have formed a new group called Awliyah and are led by a commander identified as Hatib Zacaria who wants to make a name through violence, said regional military spokesman Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang. The marines have been monitoring the new group for about a year.

The marines who came under attack in their two roadside detachments were guarding a school construction site and a road project.

"These are the people who are against development, that's why the mayor is mad," Tanalgo said of the militants, who were mostly armed with M16 assault rifles.

The clash halted a planned Muslim wedding in Talipao, angering many villagers, some of whom offered to help fight the militants. They were not allowed to join the clash, said another marine officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Government troops recovered seven rebel firearms at the scene of the fighting and were checking if there were more bodies of slain gunmen in the area. Reinforcement troops were pursuing the fleeing militants, Tanalgo said.

Washington blames the Abu Sayyaf for many bomb attacks, kidnappings for ransom and beheadings. The militants have attacked and killed American citizens in the past and have been the target of yearslong U.S.-backed Philippine offensives.

The Moro National Liberation Front signed a peace accord with the government in 1996 after it dropped its secessionist bid and settled for limited Muslim autonomy in the south, homeland of minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines.

Most of the Moro rebels, however, did not lay down their arms and now complain that the Philippine government reneged on many political and economic promises under the 1996 pact. They have occasionally been blamed for launching attacks against government forces and have been suspected of harboring Abu Sayyaf militants in Sulu, about 610 miles (980 kilometers) south of the capital, Manila.

The Philippine government has been in talks with Moro National Liberation Front rebels to address their complaints after they made a pledge not to coddle the brutal Abu Sayyaf.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/25/15-killed-as-filipino-troops-clash-with-suspected-muslim-militants/#ixzz1Z4XN2fzg

Palestinians stone another Jewish baby in Jerusalem.

Palestinians stone another Jewish baby

in Jerusalem.

Less than 48 hours after murdering a man and his baby in a rock attack on Highway 60, Palestinian Authority Arabs showed the type of state they want to declare when they scored another “victory” over a child in another "Palestinian Spring" attack, this one in Jerusalem.

A young Jewish boy was wounded in a hail of sharp-edged rocks hurled by PA Arabs in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Maale Zeitim, on the Mount of Olives. The boy received medical care at the scene, while Israel Police began searching the area for the attackers.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas returned to a hero's welcome in Ramallah earlier in the day Sunday after demanding the United Nations Security Council recognize the PA as a sovereign nation and grant the entity "full membership" in the international body. He announced to the thousands of cheering Arabs that he was launching the "Palestinian Spring" -- claiming it would be one of "non-violent means" -- a short-lived claim, it seems - to cement the PA's claims to all of Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem restored to Israel's capital in the 1967 Six Day War.

On the same day Abbas was making his "demands" at the podium of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, terrorists in a car on Highway 60 hurled a large,deadly sharp-edged rock at the windshield of 25-year-old Asher Palmer, smashing the driver square in the face and sending his car careening out of control. He and his 10-month-old son Yonatan were killed in what police initially reported to be a "motor vehicle accident" -- but what settlers immediately and correctly suspected had been a terror attack.

On Sunday, hundreds of mourners expressed outrage at the funeral for Palmer and his baby son, livid over the news that police had apparently covered up the fact that an Arab terrorist rock attack had been responsible for the deaths to keep the area quiet while the Prime Minister was in New York.

Adding insult to injury, Arabs from the nearby village of Beit Anoun hurled rocks at the mourners as they walked the road to Kiryat Arba during the funeral. IDF soldiers were sent to the scene and used riot control measures to disperse the mob.

“The rock throwing has become unbearable,” said Kiryat Arba local municipal council head Malachi Levinger. “We demand that security forces find a way to completely end this phenomenon. 

thousands of Muslims rally against "extremism" in London

from Jihad Watch

Our troubles are over: thousands of Muslims rally against "extremism" in London

For years non-Muslims have been asking where moderate Muslims in any significant numbers are actually speaking out against Islamic jihad and Islamic supremacism. And now here they finally are.
Much as I hate to be the one to throw a rotting cabbage onto the sofa, I must yet again point out that Qadri "says killing innocents is forbidden in Islam," but who defines who is "innocent"? Islamic jihadists believe that "non-Muslims are never innocent, they are guilty of denying Allah and his prophet." So if they believe that non-Muslims are never innocent, a Muslim who declares that killing innocents is forbidden in Islam is not going to stop them from mounting attacks against non-Muslims.
And what do they mean by fighting "extremism"? Last year Qadri published a fatwa against terrorism and suicide bombings. "Terrorism," of course, is a tactic, and as liberally as the term is applied in common usage, condemning it doesn't tell us a whole lot. After all, nobody likes terrorism. Abbas at the UN on Friday condemned terrorism, "especially state terrorism," by which he meant that he was condemning the actions of Israel, not of Islamic jihadists. Qadri really is referring to Islamic terrorism, evidently, but what about the jihad imperative to impose Sharia? He said yesterday: "I want to address those who are lost, who have a total misconception of jihad -- I want to send them a message -- come back to normal life. Whatever you're doing is totally against Islam." Do those who have a proper conception of jihad still wish to work in non-violent ways to impose Sharia and subjugate non-Muslims?
Qadri is a member of the Barelvi movement, a Sufi-tinged form of Islam that originated in India and has been violently persecuted by Islamic hardliners. His membership in a group that is considered by the larger body of Muslims to be of doubtful orthodoxy at best makes it unlikely that his stands will gain wide acceptance. And al-Qaeda even infiltrated his anti-terror summer camp.
"Muslims rally against Islamic extremism: London gathering of thousands intended to promote inclusive vision," by Sylvia Hu for the Associated Press, September 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

LONDON — Thousands of Muslims gathered at a rally in London on Saturday to fight extremism and promote a moderate, inclusive version of Islam. The event’s organizers Minhaj-ul-Qur’an International say some 12,000 Muslims are expected at Wembley Arena. The event will be broadcast live to dozens of countries around the world.
The group’s founder, the Pakistan-born Islamic scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, says killing innocents is forbidden in Islam and Muslims must integrate into the societies in which they’re living.
Some Islamic scholars have warned that a power vacuum in North Africa and the Middle East could lead to militant and extremist groups gaining ground in elections arising from the so-called Arab Spring.
"If these elements come into power, it will be a big disaster," Tahir-ul-Qadri told The Associated Press.
Minhaj-ul-Qur’an International says it represents a moderate vision of Islam that works for peace and integration....

Posted by Robert on September 25, 2011 5:19 AM

Likely American Voters Are Islamo-Realistic

from the American Thinker
September 22, 2011

Poll: Likely American Voters Are Islamo-Realistic

Andrew G. Bostom

A national poll of 1,000 likely voters was completed in August by Democratic pollster Pat Caddell, and Republican pollster John McLaughlin for Secure America Now. The published results indicate that unlike our media, academic, and political elites, Americans, thank goodness, are Islamo-realistic, i.e, on Sharia, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Ground Zero Conquest Mosque, and Spring Time for Sharia in Araby:

Pg 145 16 Q14. - SHARIA LAW IS THE CODE OF CONDUCT OR RELIGIOUS LAW OF ISLAM. DO YOU APPROVE OR DISAPPROVE OF U.S. COURTS APPLYING ISLAMIC SHARIA LAW WHEN DECIDING CASES IN AMERICAN FEDERAL AND STATE COURTS?
n=1000 Total
n=59 (5.9% )APPROVE
n=16 (1.6%) Strongly Approve
n=43 (4.3%) Somewhat Approve
n=764 (76.4%) DISAPPROVE
n=94 (9.4%) Somewhat Disapprove
n=670 (67.0%) Strongly Disapprove
n=177 (17.7%) DK/REFUSED

Pg 130 14 Q12. - DO YOU HAVE A FAVORABLE OR UNFAVORABLE OPINION OF THE MUSLIM  BROTHERHOOD? IF YOU HAVE NO OPINION OR NEVER HEARD OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, JUST SAY SO.
n=1000 Total
n=98 (9.8%) FAVORABLE
n=20 (2.0%) Very Favorable
n=78 (7.8%) Somewhat Favorable
n=438 (43.8%) UNFAVORABLE
n=129 (12.9%) Somewhat Unfavorable
n=309 (30.9%) Very Unfavorable
n=350 (35.0%) NO OPINION
n=114 (11.4%) NEVER HEARD OF


Pg 155 17 Q15. - DO YOU APPROVE OR DISAPPROVE OF BUILDING A MOSQUE NEAR THE SITE OF GROUND ZERO IN NEW YORK CITY?
n=1000 Total
n=250 (25.0%) APPROVE
n=107 (10.7%) Strongly Approve
n=143 (14.3%) Somewhat Approve
n= 680 (68.0%) DISAPPROVE
n=126 (12.6%) Somewhat Disapprove
n=554 (55.4%) Strongly Disapprove
n=70 (7.0%) DK/REFUSED



Pg 140 15 Q13. - DO YOU THINK THAT THE PROTESTS IN THE ARAB WORLD, KNOWN AS ARAB SPRING, WILL ULTIMATELY BE A GOOD THING OR BAD THING FOR THE UNITED STATES?
n=1000 Total
n=203 (20.3%) GOOD THING
n=394 (39.4%) BAD THING
n=403 (40.3%) DK/REFUSED

IT STARTED - Missed by MSM:: Car Bomb in Michigan

Missed by MSM:: Car Bomb in Michigan injures Three


A car bomb caused a powerful explosion on a Michigan street that seriously injured a father and his two sons, who are “very fortunate” to have survived the attack, which turned their vehicle into a blackened hunk of metal, a federal official said Wednesday.
Investigators were poring over what remained of the vehicle after the Tuesday evening blast, looking for clues about how the bomb was made and who might have planted it, said Donald Dawkins, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“There was a lot of power behind it. The victims are very fortunate, very blessed, to be alive,” Dawkins said.
Among the things investigators are trying to determine is whether one of the victims was targeted or whether the attack was random, Dawkins said. The vehicle exploded on a tree-lined street under a highway in Monroe, which is about 35 miles southwest of Detroit.
Authorities declined to publicly identify the victims, but said they were in serious condition at St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio, about 20 miles south of Monroe.
The victims were lucky to survive, said Dawkins, who described the attack as a “heinous crime.”
“When you have children involved, it really hits home,” he said.
Shawn Remington, 33, said he was working outside his home when he heard what sounded like a heavy, metal Dumpster lid being slammed shut and then saw a big column of smoke.
He said when he got to the scene, firefighters were extinguishing the blaze and rescue workers were loading the victims into ambulances. He said the vehicle was “totally melted.”
“By the time I got there, there was nothing left of the vehicle,” he said. “It was down to bare metal.”
Monroe is a city of more than 20,000 that is one of Michigan’s oldest communities. It has a historic downtown and is home to furniture maker La-Z-Boy Inc.

The ATF has offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to an arrest.