There is a lot in the papers this morning about the men convicted for the terrorist plot yesterday. I won’t provide links to it all; our readers are quite capable of following these from an original story for themselves. I’ll point you towards just two items in The Telegraph.
Up to five potential suicide bombers may still be at large in Britain, the security services has admitted after the convictions of three British Muslims accused of plotting the world's biggest terrorist atrocity.
The al-Qaeda terrorists planned to cause carnage by detonating liquid-based bombs disguised as soft drinks, and recorded suicide videos in which they promised "body parts" would be scattered on the streets.
The police and MI5 believed the extremists wanted to cause an "unprecedented" loss of life with simultaneous suicide attacks on several transatlantic airliners bound for America. The arrest of the gang in 2006 led to permanent restrictions on liquids being carried in hand luggage.
But a jury was unable to agree on whether Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain had decided on specific targets, and instead they were convicted of conspiracy to murder "persons unknown".
Four other men are likely to face a retrial after the jury failed to agree on whether they were part of the plot.
Last night, police admitted that up to five would-be bombers may still be on the loose, as a bugged conversation between the plotters in their east London bomb factory revealed they had recruited up to 18 people.
To date, only 13 people have been arrested in connection with the plot.
Senior officers believe the "key players" have been rounded up, but admit they would be "unwise" to suggest there were no more terrorists connected with the gang.
The Daily Telegraph can disclose that police were forced to move in early to arrest the gang after a jittery President Bush put pressure on the Pakistani authorities to arrest their al-Qaeda contact in Pakistan.
MI5 - who had been watching Ali since 2004 - had hoped to continue gathering intelligence on the remaining members of the cell, but their hand was forced by the US intervention.
Ali, 27, Sarwar, 28, and Hussain, 27, who have yet to be sentenced, were convicted of conspiracy to murder after earlier admitting conspiracy to cause explosions. As well as researching passenger flights, the men had looked into other possible targets, including the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf, nuclear power stations and oil terminals.
The jury was unable to reach verdicts on conspiracy to murder charges relating to four other defendants - Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Khan, Waheed Zaman and Umar Islam, who may all now face a retrial.
All seven had previously admitted a charge of causing a public nuisance by recording what the prosecution claimed were "suicide videos" in which they promised to bring death and destruction to the West in retaliation for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In what the prosecution claimed were six "suicide videos" lasting a total of more than an hour, the defendants threatened to scatter "body parts" on the streets in revenge for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A clip of part of the 16 minute rant is availableon the Telegraph site.
The videos appeared to be choreographed by Abdulla Ahmed Ali, who called himself the leader of "this blessed operation".
During a 16-minute rant, Ali pointed his finger and mopped his brow as he made his point.
He accused his targets of caring more about fox hunting than Muslims and added: "I don't consider anybody innocent who supports the slaughter of my people. What have you done to stop this oppression? You have shown more concern for animals than for the Muslim ummah [world]. When foxes are being killed you hold massive demonstrations. Any sensible person knows we are not targeting innocent people. We have made it absolutely clear to stay away from military, economic and government targets. If you do this you will be safe."
"Sheikh Osama warned you many times to leave our lands or you will be destroyed and now the time has come for you to be destroyed and you have nothing to expect than floods of martyr operations, volcanoes of anger and revenge erupting among your capital."
He went on: "Expect floods of martyr operations against you and we will take our revenge and anger, ripping amongst your people and scattering the people and your body parts and your people's body parts responsible for these wars and oppression decorating the streets."
Ali accused western leaders of paedophilia, pornography and fornication and said he was "fed up with living in a kuffar [heathen] land".
He did rather spoil the effect by demonstrating his need for reading glasses and he should have dealt with his itchy nose before the tape began.
In his 18-minute video, Umar Islam, said he was on a mission of "revenge for the actions of the USA in the Muslim lands and their accomplices such as the British and the Jews"
Islam, a convert of Jamaican origin whose real name is Brian Young, appeared to be reading from a pre-prepared script as he proclaimed: "Martyrdom operations upon martyrdom operations will keep on raining on these Kuffar until they release you and leave our lands. . . Most of you are too busy, you know, watching Home and Away and Eastenders, complaining about the World Cup, drinking your alcohol, to even care anything.
"That's all you seem to care about, and I know because I've come from that. This society is crumbling socially, economically and everything and yet you keep supporting your government."
Ibrahim Savant warned his fellow Muslims: "Remove yourselves from the grasp of the kuffar [non-believers] before you are counted as one of them. Do not be contented with your council houses and businesses and western lifestyle."
And so on.

From The Prague Daily Monitor
Muslims living in the Czech Republic complain about a "steep increase in islamophobia, anti-Arabism and anti-Muslim moods" in the Czech Republic like in other western countries after terrorist attacks on the USA in 2001, the Libertas Independent Agency says in a report given to CTK Monday.
The society has published the report on its website.
However, Czech government's commissioner for human rights Jan Litomisky said Monday he did not consider the Czech society's allegedly negative attitude to Muslins a serious problem.
"I don't think that we should consider it a serious problem," Litomisky, deputy chairman of the government's Council for ethnic minorities and human rights commissioner, said. "I am afraid that they sometimes provoke these moods themselves by issuing, for instance, anti-Semitic statements,"
Czech Minister for ethnic minorities and human rights Dzamila Stehlikova (junior government Green Party, SZ) said Monday she was surprised at the report.
"We do not perceive this as an existing problem at present," she told CTK. “The Interior Ministry's current statistics has not registered any attacks on Muslims in the Czech Republic”.
According to the report) Muslims want to continue to inform the public about the alleged Czech islamophobia also in the next years, always on the occasion of the anniversaries of the terrorist attacts in the USA on September 11, as a "memento pointing to the abuse of these tragic events for political goals of anti-Muslim groups."
Three-quarters of Czechs do not want to allow Muslims to build mosques in the Czech Republic although they have no negative experience with them. The reason is a mere prejudice that "is being fuelled by the media," the report says.
Many attacks on Islam were contained in articles published in many Czech newspapers, magazines and Internet servers, the report said.
Meanwhile in Baltic Business the Estonian citizens of Tallinn are blunt and unhappy about this.
Representatives of Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi are asking the City of Tallinn to provide land for building an Islamic religious and culture centre in Tallinn.
Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, UAE Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, the third largest emirate of the United Arabian Emirates plans to build the first Islamic centre in Estonia.  
The plan was unveiled in March by Jamal Al Taraifi, Director General of Sharjah Secretariat General for Auqaf during a meeting with visiting Mufti of Estonia Eldar Muhammed Shun.
Local residents and those with experience of living elsewhere in Europe are near unanimous.
“I think you just need to look at Sweden, the UK, Spain, France, and the many other countries around the world to figure out what a mosque and Muslims in Estonia will lead to.
Let's face it. The majority of Muslims may be peace-loving (even though they MUST believe in the ultimate supremacy of their religion, by the sword if necessary, as mandated by the Koran), but a significant minority are crazed terrorists and radicals.
This is not a group you want to invite into your country . . .”

I think I am ahead of Reactrony with this one. I think I am so ahead on this one I am in danger of meeting myself on the way back.
Lord Rockingham's XI from 1958 with Hoots Mon.
There's a Moose, Loose, aboot this Hoose!
Lord Rockingham's XI were the resident band formed for the pop music show Oh Boy! which I don't really remember.  If you look at the still shots which accompany this clip you can see a very young (but not as young as me at the time) Cliff Richard with the band.
The real Lord Rockingham, by the way, was a sidekick of King Charles II.

Exam grade inflation and "competences" have lowered educational standards enough without some utopian professor helping things along. From yesterday's Times:

Children are being held back at school because they are forced to memorise irregular spellings and learn how to use the apostrophe, a leading academic will claim this week.

John Wells, Emeritus Professor of Phonetics at University College London and president of the Spelling Society, will use the society’s centenary dinner this week to call for a “freeing up” of English spelling.

“The teaching of literacy in schools is a major worry. It seems highly likely that one of the reasons Britain and other English-speaking countries have problems with literacy is because of our spelling and the burden it places on children.

In Finnish, once you have learned the letters, you know how to spell, so it would be ludicrous to hold spelling tests. In countries like Italy and Spain it’s similar. But with English it’s not phonetic, and there are just so many irregularities,” he told The Times.

The delightfully named Elaine Higgleton, editorial director for Collins Language, points out the obvious problem with phonetic spelling: whose phonetics do we mean?

“Would we continue spelling the word think with a ‘th’ because that is how some of us pronounce it, or would it be spelled ‘fink’ as it is in the East End of London or ‘tink’ as in Ireland?” she said.

And if we call Ireland a nation of tinkers, is it a compliment?

In today's Telegraph, Christopher Howse argues further, as others have done on this website, that to simplify spelling is to cut children off from the past:

To limit education by using only reformed spelling would be a great betrayal because it would cut off children, later adults, from reading old books. They'd soon tire of trying to make out the words, just as Germans today puzzle over books printed in their old gothic type.

A new elite would be born. In the same way as the knowledge of Latin used to distinguish the educated, so in future anyone who knew only reformed spelling would be stigmatised as being educated to a rudimentary level.

Quite apart from this fatal flaw in spelling reform, the spelling single-issue mob completely misunderstand the function of spelling in English society. It is a pons asinorum, a donkeys' bridge that anyone who learns to read or write must cross. On it depends all future employment.

Like other utopian schemes, spelling reform would be a deliberate attempt to keep people stupid - and to keep them in their place. We should have nothing to do with it.

From the International Herald Tribune. Ramadan Day 9
Separatist militants shot dead and beheaded a Buddhist state official in Thailand's Muslim south on Tuesday, police said, the latest death in 57 months of insurgency in which more than 3,100 people have died.
Police found 29 spent M-16 bullets around the pickup truck of the victim, identified as 26-year-old Attapong Gonlom, after at least two gunmen opened fire on him at a school in Pattani, one of four southern provinces hit by the violence.
"After the attack, the gunmen dragged his body out of the truck and chopped his head off, to the horror of students and teachers," a police incident report said.
In the nearby province of Yala, rebels raided a seven-man army outpost late on Monday, killing one ranger and wounding another, police said.
The militants walked away with seven automatic rifles, a pistol, four flak jackets and 1,000 bullets, police said.
An army spokesman could not say what happened to the other five rangers.
"The attack happened when the rangers were about to have dinner and it is not clear if the rest were able to escape," Colonel Acra Tiproch told Reuters by telephone.

I was shocked, shocked to learn that Hugh doesn't have a yacht. I thought all Americans had yachts. I'm not letting him into my castle now - he wouldn't get past the butler, even sporting that white-toothed smile that he must, like all Americans, possess.

Talking of stereotypes, some readers may remember Operation Clark, the attempt by Guardian readers to influence the 2004 US election. Readers were encouraged by that absurd newspaper to write to undecided voters in Ohio and persuade them not to vote for Bush. The Guardian published some reactions:

Have you not noticed that Americans don't give two shits what Europeans think of us? Each email someone gets from some arrogant Brit telling us why to NOT vote for George Bush is going to backfire, you stupid, yellow-toothed pansies ... I don't give a rat's ass if our election is going to have an effect on your worthless little life. I really don't. If you want to have a meaningful election in your crappy little island full of shitty food and yellow teeth, then maybe you should try not to sell your sovereignty out to Brussels and Berlin, dipshit. Oh, yeah - and brush your goddamned teeth, you filthy animals.
Wading River, NY

[...]

Real Americans aren't interested in your pansy-ass, tea-sipping opinions. If you want to save the world, begin with your own worthless corner of it.
Texas, USA

My dear, beloved Brits,
I understand the Guardian is sponsoring a service where British citizens write to Americans to advise them on how to vote. Thank heavens! I was adrift in a sea of confusion and you are my beacon of hope!

Feel free to respond to this email with your advice. Please keep in mind that I am something of an anglophile, so this is not confrontational. Please remember, too, that I am merely an American. That means I am not very bright. It means I have no culture or sense of history. It also means that I am barely literate, so please don't use big, fancy words.

Set me straight, folks!
Dayton, Ohio

Help. That's sarcasm. I can't cope. Time for a cuppa.

Hey England, Scotland and Wales,
Mind your own business. We don't need weenie-spined Limeys meddling in our presidental election. If it wasn't for America, you'd all be speaking German. And if America would have had a president, then, of the likes of Kerry, you'd all be goose-stepping around Buckingham Palace. YOU ARE NOT WANTED!! Whether you want to support either party. BUTT OUT!!!
United States

I suggest that if a particular reader of the Guardian would like to vote in America - would really like to influence the American election, say - that reader should move to America, become a citizen of the United States. Everyone is welcome here. Even the readers of the Guardian. But if you don't wish to be an American, to live in Ohio, for instance, and participate in the American political process, that is too bad. Perhaps there is something wrong with you. Perhaps it is your teeth.
New York

Go back to sipping your tea and leave our people alone.
Ohio

Fair enough. But these are Guardian readers, so the tea is probably herbal.

My dentist, who practised in New York, tells me that American teeth are not all they're cracked up to be. Whatever next?

From Awoko News of Sierra Leone
Signs of religious intolerance were over the weekend manifested at Pamoronko, Calaba Town when some Christian Worshippers and their Muslim counterparts clashed leaving the Church completely destroyed and the windows of the Mosque broken.
The peace of religious practice was disturbed when on the evening hours of Friday, according to Rev George Davies of the Achievers Chapel around 6:pm he was at home when he was informed by a member from the Church of an attack on the Church by the Muslims whose Mosque is just a few meters from the Church. “By the time I went there, there were stones everywhere in the church both in and outside and I tried to go down there (Mosque) to talk to them but they told me we must not keep service during their fasting period until the month ends. I told them we were not going to cut short our services for them and it was then I told them that we both have our different prayer time”
Rev Davies said he was told if he could not abide by what he was told, they were going to bring down the Church. “This is not the first time, it is now four years and they have done it several times. The last time the Police were here about two to three months ago they spoke to them but to no avail”.
The Church was having their normal Friday service that day which ran on to the time the Muslims were about to break their fast.
The Rev also complained to have been manhandled when he went to the Mosque to talk to the Imam “They did not give me chance to speak to the Imam, they gave me two slaps, stoned me and hit me on my chest. I was also squeezed at the door of their Mosque it was at that time one of them made the attempt to hit me with a weapon”.
The entire Church building was destroyed, its electricals, micro phones, chairs, fans, key boards and speakers also destroyed.
From the very onset the Church was built, the Imam made it clear that the Pamoronko community was a Muslim community.
Some seventeen persons were arrested by the police and detained at the Kissy Police for questioning in relation to the matter.

The Qur'an quoting Qaradawi famously visited former Mayor Ken Livingstone in London and also fell just short of issuing a fatwa condemning Wafa Sultan for her al-Jazeera appearances. He is also thought to be the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, although the secrecy of the organization makes this difficult to confirm. He is certainly one the their foremost leaders. GMBDR:

Doha Al-Sharq newspaper in Arabic on 5 September publishes an unattributed report entitled “Al-Qaradawi Issues a Fatwa on the Necessity of Having Nuclear Weapons For Deterrence.” As mentioned in his newly published book, The Jurisprudence of Jihad, Al-Qaradawi says that “I believe that the Muslim nation should have these illegal weapons since they will become the weapons which deter and frighten the enemies.” The report adds: “Al-Qaradawi pointed out that jurisprudence imposes a crystal clear religious obligation on Muslims to work hand in hand and do not have disputes in this regard. They should meet, not separate.” Al-Qaradawi says that peace is one of the sublime goals of the Muslim nation, but Muslims should not give up jihad completely since this position will make them vulnerable to the enemies. This fulfils the divine order in this Koranic verse: “Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into [the hearts of] the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know. Whatever ye shall spend in the cause of Allah, shall be repaid unto you, and ye shall not be treated unjustly.” [Koranic verse; Sura 8, Verse 80] Al-Qaradawi also stresses the need to have well-educated cadres in order to deal with the sophisticated weapons, as the report says. Al-Qaradawi rules out the possibility of launching a nuclear war since the Cold War proved the impossibility of waging a war between two great powers which are armed to the teeth with unconventional weapons. He, however, says that the presence of a nuclear arsenal in the Muslim world will reduce the threat posed by its bitter enemies and make them think twice before attacking it, the report adds.

From Israel Today via Frontpage:

Muslim students at the University of Southern California are enraged by the school's recent decision to remove from a student group's website an Islamic text that encourages the murder of Jews.

Until recently, the website of the now-defunct Muslim Student Association, which is hosted on the university's servers, had featured the full text of the hadiths, the words of Mohammed that are not found in the Koran.

One of those hadiths calls on Muslims to "fight against the Jews and...kill them," and promises that even the stones and the trees will assist Muslims in that gruesome task.

A statement issued by the Muslim Student Union at USC suggested that the hadith was being taken out of context, and called the school's decision to remove it from the website "unprecedented and unconscionable."

The Muslim Student Union accused the USC administration of practicing unfair censorship.

I have to say I agree with the Muslim Student Association on this. USC hosts one ot the most extensive and accurate collection of Islamic doctrinal texts in English to be found anywhere on the web. Engaging in censorship of these religious texts may ultimately do damage our cause. Let the texts stand. Let them be read. Censorship helps no one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh3fZ_8F-1E&feature=related

the shape of this tree?

Was it Edward Scissorhands?
The mad topiarist from the Land of Mad Topiary? As Edmund Blackadder might have said, but didn't.
Attacked by the 50ft woman?

No, it was a Double decker big red London bus. Or more accurately a double decker big red London bus every 10 minutes for the last 20 years.

Paul Waugh writes in the Evening Standard:

Gordon Brown has broken with British convention and made clear that he favours Barack Obama as the next US President.

In a departure from the usual self-denying ordinance of Prime Ministers past, Brown has written an article for The Monitor magazine in which he praises Obama's plans to get the US out of the housing slump.

Referring to the anxieties facing voters across the globe during the economic slowdown, he says: "Around the world, it is progressive politicians who are grappling with these challenges....In the electrifying US Presidential campaign, it is the Democrats who are generating the ideas to help people through more difficult times. To help prevent people from losing their home, Barack Obama has proposed a Foreclosure Prevention Fund to increase emergency pre-foreclosure counselling, and help families facing repossession."

There is not a single mention of McCain or his own plans to help tackle the impact of the slowdown. As this is an article written by the PM himself, no one can claim he is being quoted out of context or misrepresented.

I'm sure that Number 10 will be hastily issuing messages soon to try to restore a sense of balance once the gaffe has been pointed out - but the words are out there now.

Unlike T Blair (who infuriated Labour MPs by failing to attack Bush), Gordon has strong and deep links to the Dems, but as soon as he became PM he had to bury all that and be extremely careful not to endorse either candidate. A natural ally of Hillary Clinton, he has been as wowed by Obama as others in the Labour Party. Yet he must know that a McCain presidency is just as likely in a tight race. It seems in this article he just couldn't help himself and let slip what he really thought. Lets see if the Dems in the US seize on his support....

Actually, I think they will probably let the matter drop quietly. Americans don't cotton to foreigners telling us who to vote for.

New Duranty: WASHINGTON — The North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is seriously ill and might have suffered a stroke weeks ago, an American intelligence official in Washington said Tuesday, after Mr. Kim failed to attend an unexpectedly small-scale celebration of his country’s 60th anniversary.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the exact status of the North Korean’s health was unclear, but that it did not seem Mr. Kim was on the verge of death.

Unsatisfactory as American politicians may be, there are worse:  British politicians for instance. Gordon Brown must be the most boring leader the world has ever known, his dullness being mistaken for prudence or even profundity. But he is not so self-important as Tony Blair was.

Obama resembles Blair in all but colour: he is a triumph of style over substance. And the emptiness of both men's speeches is matched by their apparent resonance.

Here is Tony Blair on education:

"Education, education, education"

Got that? From the sublime to the ridiculous, Tony Blair, speaking of himself, declared:

"I'm a pretty straight kind of a guy."

Well, he'd hardly tell us if he were not. On crime, our straight man bent the English language thus:

"Labour is the party of law and order in Britain today. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime."
 

If you believe that, you'll believe jihad is a form of self-betterment. My favourite Blairism was made at the signing of the Good Friday agreement. It is both portentous and banal:

"Now is not the time for sound-bites. I can feel the hand of history on my shoulder."

From The London Evening Standard 
Ministers should review plans to build a "mega-mosque" in the East End in the wake of the airline bomb plot trial, the Tories urged today.
Shadow security minister Dame Pauline Neville-Jones said the case had shown that the group behind the mosque may have given cover to extremist activity.
Tablighi Jamaat, which describes itself an Islamic missionary organisation, is pushing for the mosque to be built next to the 2012 Olympics site in Stratford.
But the group was revealed in court as having links to some of the terror suspects, with several having passed through other mosques run by the group.
The organisation, which has 80 million followers worldwide, insists it is a peaceful, apolitical revivalist movement that promotes Islamic consciousness among individual Muslims.
But intelligence agencies have cautioned that its ability to radicalise young men could lead to jihadist terrorism.
The London Markaz, which some say will be the largest place of worship in Europe, has faced criticism of its backers and allegations of Saudi funding since it was first mooted three years ago. The complex will include a three-storey Islamic centre able to hold at least 40,000 worshippers and up to 70,000 if necessary.
The plans will have to go before Newham council but Mayor Boris Johnson may have a say and, in theory, it could be called in by the Government.
Dame Pauline, former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, said today: "The news that the terrorists convicted of the liquid bomb plot attended Tablighi Jamaat mosques is very disturbing. This is not the first time this has happened. Those convicted of the 7/7 bombings read Tablighi Jamaat sermons. Tablighi Jamaat claims to be solely a missionary organisation with a religious and charitable purpose."
But Dame Pauline believes it gives cover to extremist activity. She said: "This must be taken into account when considering the planning application for the Tablighi-Jamaat mosque in east London." 

"Hugh, I felt I ought to urge you to consider becoming a Christian."
                 ---- from a reader

From Earth Times
Amsterdam - All Dutch attorneys, including Muslims, should rise when a judge enters a court room, Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin told Dutch parliament on Tuesday. Hirsch Ballin said the Dutch Council for Jurisprudence felt that rising for a judge is "the common way to show respect for the court and legal authority."
The minister was responding to a question posed by legislator Henk Kamp (Liberals), who inquired about a news report which said a Rotterdam court had made an agreement with a Muslim attorney that he could remain seated when a judge enters the courtroom.
Mohammed Enait, who was sworn in as an attorney last month, said his religion prohibited him from rising for other people. Enait has remained seated as the judge entered.
Hirsch Ballin told parliament that the Dutch Council for Jurisprudence would inform all involved parties of its position that no exceptions could be made.
I expect an exception would be made for a disabled lawyer who uses a wheelchair. But not an able bodied man who surely had not got to the stage of being sworn in without having to attend in court and rise as the Judge enters.
So far as I know no Muslim lawyer has raised the point in England and Wales yet. Or Scotland and Northern Ireland either which I believe have the same custom. because in England and wales when the Judge enters the court lawyers and legal professonals don’t just rise. We then bow. And the Judge returns the courtesy.
In every English and Welsh courtroom the Coat of Arms is behind the Judge’s bench. As it was explained to me, as a junior court clerk, back in the stone age, the bow is not to the Judge as an individual but to the Queen as Head of State whose presence is indicated by the Royal Coat of Arms. And when the Judge bows back he is responding on her behalf. And on another level as lawyers, each is recognising the other’s professional role in the proceedings. Judge, counsel, solicitor, court officials, court reporter.

Also in Holland - from The Telegraph
The Dutch government is to extend a ban on the burka to all schools, a measure that includes a prohibition on Muslim mothers from picking their children while wearing face-covering Islamic dress.
Ronald Plasterk, the Dutch education minister, announced that the ban would apply to all schools, including private Muslim religious establishments, and their immediate surroundings.
Not only teachers, but parents and all visitors to schools, including suppliers making deliveries, will be forbidden the burka. (and niqab)
Legislation is expected to be agreed by the Dutch parliament next year.
Mr Plasterk has cited security concerns and the need for teachers and schoolchildren to be able to communicate properly with each other.
"It is important for children to learn that proper communication requires being able to look the other person in the eye," he said to Dutch MPs.
The legendary tolerance of the Dutch has been tested by years of controversy over the burka and radical Islam in the Netherlands.
Local authorities are now expected to follow the government ban by extending restrictions on Islamic dress to council buildings and public transport.
The Dutch ban will not apply to the more common Hijab headscarf, where a woman's face is clearly visible.

All rise?

Regular reader Reactionry raised a small point recently re my juvenile flasher. Would it stand up in court? Is he one of those hard cases that make bad law?

Older flashers may have come before Lord Denning. May have, not might have: the jury is still out.

Acerbic, perceptive Irish thinker - or tinker -  Kevin Myers doesn't give a tinker's - or thinker's - cuss about "the developing world".

"Developing what, pray?" he asks. What indeed? What exactly is being developed?

This is a fair question. The assumption behind the word "developing" is that a country would improve, if only obstacles were removed and, by implication, more aid were forthcoming from the "developed" world. The begging bowl is out, and questions are begged. What is being developed in Somalia for instance?

[A] fine land of violent, Kalashnikov-toting, khat-chewing, girl-circumcising, permanently tumescent layabouts.

The Islamic world, and much of non-Muslim sub-Saharan Africa, is not "developing". It is regressing. Oil money aside, Western aid and medicine keeps alive and fecund a population that might otherwise learn the lessons of necessity, a population that has no incentive to change its primitive ways.

"Developing" is a euphemism. Like the latest academic term for failure, "not yet competent", it gives false hope. "Developing" is a weasel-word for primitive, backward, savage and hopeless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG6TmtLo_Yk&feature=related

On this date, September 9^th, in 1922, Ottoman troops conquered Smyrna, Greece. In the following days, Muslim Ottoman troops and mobs used guns and knives to kill 100,000 Christian civilians in the city, and followed that by setting the Greek Christian neighborhoods ablaze, killing another 100,000 civilians.  Just as during WWII, when the Allies refused to accept Jewish refugees during genocide, British and U.S. ships refused to assist the Christians trying to escape from Smyrna.

In response to the genocide against Greek Christians in Pontus in 1914 to 1923 (over 300,000 dead), and other genocides committed by the Muslim Turks, the Greeks had taken Smyrna in 1919 to protect Greek citizens there. Three years later, the Turks took it back. The commander of Ottoman troops in the region, Nureddin Pasha, gave orders to exterminate the Christian civilians. Following the instructions of the holy, holy Qur’an, the Turks tortured and killed the Greek Orthodox bishop; they cut off his ears, nose, hands, and eyes.  Turkish troops fired on American troops who attempted to help the Greeks and Armenians.  They carried buckets of gasoline, and also used explosives, to ignite the houses of Christians.

U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau said that the Ottomans were committing typical jihadi actions:

"outrageous terrorizing, cruel torturing, driving of women into harems, debauchery of innocent girls, the sale of many of them at 80 cents each, the murdering of hundreds of thousands and the deportation to and starvation in the desert of other hundreds of thousands, [and] the destruction of hundreds of villages and many cities...[in a]...scheme to annihilate the Armenian, Greek and Syrian Christians of Turkey".

In an indication that Muslim propagandizing was operational as early as the 1920's, U.S. Consul General George Horton said that:

"[o]ne of the cleverest statements circulated by the Turkish propagandists is to the effect that the massacred Christians were as bad as their executioners, that it was '50-50.'

It is worth noting that roughly contemporaneous with these Ottoman genocides, Jews in the pre-modern-Israel British Mandate in Palestine were also being targeted by Muslims in that former Ottoman province.  Hundreds of Jews were killed in the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 alone.  Attacks on Jews before Israel declared independence should be seen as merely one relatively small attempted genocide amongst several in the former Ottoman Caliphate.

Previous Days in the "Religion of Peace™":

Sept 8: Monastir Macedonia Massacre
Sept 7: Nigerian street-crossing jihad
Sept 6: Algerian Beni-Messous Massacre
Sept 5: Munich Olympics
Sept 4: East Timor jihad