Digest of articles re shariah law

SHARIAH RISK DUE DILIGENCE NEWSLETTER
A Project of The Center For Security Policy

http://shariahfinancewatch.wordpress.com/

The Shariah Risk Due Diligence Campaign - A Project of the Center for Security Policy - Established to defend the U.S. Constitution and to protect our political and religious liberties, which are all under assault by those seeking to legitimize Shariah law (i.e., Islamic law) and its economic tool, Shariah-compliant finance. Shariah law is neither religion nor personal faith, but a theo-political doctrine seeking to dominate and to subvert Western liberties and representative government.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ARTICLES: EYE ON SHARIAH LAW
1. Gay Men Face Jail in Egypt, Kuwait in Bid to Appease Islamists
2. Sharia law protest two bound over
3. Workers kill Hindu colleague for 'blasphemy'
4. Children told they are Dogs during Mosque visit
5. Headscarves force nations to think
6. Teacher breaks wall of silence at Minnesota's Muslim public school
7. Muslim sex offenders could opt out of treatment program - against their faith'
8. Welcome to the Halal Inn: Britain's first alcohol-free Islamic pub

ISLAMIC FINANCE - SHARIAH LAW IN THE WORLD OF MONEY
9. World Gold, Dubai Commodities Plan Gold Share Venture
10. ADL: Switzerland Financing Terrorism
11. UAE to issue new law on Islamic finance activities
12. Indonesian government to issue 15 trillion rupiah worth of sharia bonds in H2
13. UAE mortgage market to soar
14. Singapore set to boost Islamic finance - monetary authority
15. Master agreement for Islamic finance on way
16. ProLogis in Mideast venture-Denver industrial REIT will join with an Islamic bank to develop warehouses in the Persian Gulf area
17. University Bank of Ann Arbor expands Muslim lending unit

LIBEL TERRORISM
18. Terrorizing Publishing by Roger Kimball

OPINION, ANALYSIS, REVIEW
1. The New Pyramid Builders by Edward Cline
2. Jihad with money BY Melanie Phillips
3. The Muslim Students Association at Michigan State by David Horowitz
4. Fitna: The Carrot and the Stick - Robert Spencer
5. Harvard's Shariah Finance
6. Gaffney: Terrorists' Financial Strategies Should Not Be Ignored
7. Fighting Global Islamist Ideology the Key to War on Terror by Steven Emerson

ARTICLES: EYE ON SHARIAH LAW

1. Gay Men Face Jail in Egypt, Kuwait in Bid to Appease Islamists
April 8, 2008 Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aMsUQl_hCVVo&refer=news
For three months, Egyptian police have embarked on periodic sweeps of downtown streets to clear them of presumed homosexuals. The raids, independent observers and human-rights activists say, reflect not simply official disgust. They're part of an effort by governments throughout the Middle East to out-moralize Islamic parties that have denounced the perceived depravity of Arab societies under autocratic rule. Homosexuality isn't illegal in Egypt, though it is a convenient target, says Hani Shukrallah, executive director of the Heikal Foundation for Arab Journalism in Cairo. In January, six men in Morocco were accused of homosexual conduct, a crime in that country, after a video circulated that showed one dancing at a wedding dressed as a woman, according to Amnesty International. On April 7, 117 human-rights organizations from 41 countries sent a letter to the Egyptian Health Ministry and a government-sponsored doctors' union condemning the crackdown and participation of medical personnel.

2. Sharia law protest two bound over
April 8, 2008 The Star UK
http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Sharia-law-protest-two-bound.3956867.jp
TWO Sheffield men who protested about adopting Muslim law in Britain during the Archbishop of Canterbury's Easter Sunday service have walked free from court. Former Sheffield councillor Sid Cordle and friend Kyle Spotswood were charged under the 1860 Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act for causing a disturbance in church following the protest at Canterbury Cathedral. The men were arrested by plainclothes police after walking to the front of the church holding banners reading 'No to Sharia law' and 'Support the persecuted Christians'. They staged the protest after the Archbishop, Dr Rowan Williams, sparked controversy when he spoke out about the adoption of Islamic Sharia law in Britain. Mr. Cordle, a 52-year-old former Ecclesall councillor, and Mr Spotswood, 26, of Arbourthorne, were bound over for £100 for a year. Speaking afterwards, the men challenged the Archbishop to a public debate about Sharia law in the UK. Mr Spotswood said: "Our protest was about the persecution of Christians and about the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury's comments with regards to Sharia law are going to hurt a lot of Christians who are being persecuted under Sharia law.

3. Workers kill Hindu colleague for 'blasphemy'
April 09, 2008 Daily Times Pakistan
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008/04/09/story_9-4-2008_pg7_8
KARACHI: Dozens of Muslim workers at a factory in Karachi beat to death a Hindu colleague on Tuesday for alleged blasphemy, officials said. Jagdish Kumar, 25, was tortured and killed at the garments factory after a debate on religion became heated, police and hospital officials said. "About 1,500 workers at the factory in the Korangi industrial area beat to death the Hindu worker over [allegations of] blasphemy," police superintendent Farrukh Bashir said. The mob was trying to burn the body when officers arrived and took it away, Bashir added. Police had made several arrests, he said, without giving numbers. staff report/agencies

4. Children Told they are Dogs during Mosque Visit
http://www.nisnews.nl/public/090408_2.htm
THE HAGUE, 09/04/08 - A primary school in Amsterdam wished to provide its pupils with an understanding for other cultures. But during a visit to a mosque, the children were told they were dogs. With a view to developing understanding and respect for other cultures among children, primary school De Horizon regularly organises outings to various religious organizations. The chairman of the El Mouchidine mosque told the children from group 7 (aged 10) and their chaperones however that non-Muslims are dogs. In a letter to the children's parents, the school expresses its regret at the incident: "We are shocked that during the guided tour, the mosque's chairman told the children and chaperoning parents that non believers were dogs. We consider this statement as unacceptable since we allow our children to partake in this project to develop respect for freedom of religious choice". Angry parents had sent the letter on to De Telegraaf but were reportedly rapped on the knuckles by the school's management.

5. Headscarves force nations to think
Apr 8, 2008 Erie Times News
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080408/OPINION09/804080302/-1/OPINION
Banned in French schools and some German state institutions, the headscarf has just re-emerged at the center of an extraordinary lawsuit, one that could, if successful, bring down the Turkish government. Brought by the chief prosecutor of Turkey, the lawsuit -- to put it bluntly and briefly -- accuses the ruling party of violating Turkey's constitution and proposes to evict its leaders, including the prime minister and the president, from politics altogether. In February 2007, the government lifted a long-standing ban on wearing them at universities, and secular Turks are furious. Fairly or not, in certain Turkish communities, a head covering marks the wearer not just as faithful but also as a believer in a particular version of Islam. ANNE APPLEBAUM is a Washington Post columnist.

6. Teacher breaks wall of silence at Minnesota's Muslim public school
April 9, 2008 Minneapolis Star Tribune by Katherine Kersten
http://www.startribune.com/local/17406054.html
Charter schools are public schools and by law must not endorse or promote religion. Evidence suggests, however, that TIZA is an Islamic school, funded by Minnesota taxpayers. TIZA has many characteristics that suggest a religious school. It shares the headquarters building of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whose mission is "establishing Islam in Minnesota." The building also houses a mosque. TIZA's executive director, Asad Zaman, is a Muslim imam, or religious leader, and its sponsor is an organization called Islamic Relief. Students pray daily, the cafeteria serves halal food and "Islamic Studies" is offered at the end of the school day. Amanda Getz of Bloomington is a substitute teacher. Before the assembly, she says she was told, her duties would include taking her fifth-grade students to the bathroom, four at a time, to perform "their ritual washing." TIZA is now being held up as a national model for a new kind of charter school. If it passes legal muster, Minnesota taxpayers may soon find themselves footing the bill for a separate system of education for Muslims.


7. Muslim sex offenders could opt out of treatment program 'because it's against their faith' April 8, 2008 The Daily Mail UK By JAMES SLACK
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=558091&in_page_id=1766&ito=1490
It is against the rules of Islam for Muslims to discuss their crimes. Muslim sex offenders are asking to be let off a prison treatment program on religious grounds. Rapists, pedophiles and other dangerous attackers are expected to discuss their crimes with other inmates as a condition of release. But Muslim prisoners complain that criminals should not have to talk about their offences - a "legitimate Islamic position", according to Ahtsham Ali, the Prison Service's Muslim adviser. The possibility of an exemption for Muslims came to light in a letter from an unnamed inmate to Inside Time, a newspaper for prisoners. The convict said: "I have always insisted that it was against Islamic teachings to discuss your offence to anyone, let alone act it out within a peer group." Experts said ministers, who have launched a review of the issue, could face a legal challenge from Muslims kept longer in prison because they had not undergone the treatment program.

8. Welcome to the Halal Inn: Britain's first alcohol-free Islamic pub
April 2008 The Daily Mail (UK)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=558639&in_page_id=1770
Beer is being replaced by fruit juice and prayers in the country's first booze-free Islamic pub. The Halal Inn has a juice bar, snooker tables and darts - along with a prayer room and a steam room. Traditional Islamic "nasheed" songs are piped into the bar. Owner Azizur Rahman and business partner Muzahid Khan spotted a gap in the market and took over the building that used to be the Westwood Inn. Mr Khan said: "It's a gathering place for people who abide by strict Islamic rulings and don't like going to places where they serve alcohol. "Throughout the world there has been a whole movement about the word halal and products that are branded as halal. Muslims are a major consumer group. "Because of all this going on we thought that in Oldham we should have a brand of our own. It was easy to replace the word Westwood with Halal. It makes perfect sense."

ARTICLES: ISLAMIC FINANCE: SHARIAH LAW IN THE WORLD OF MONEY

9. World Gold, Dubai Commodities Plan Gold Share Venture
April 7, 2008 Bloomberg By Will McSheehy & Glen Carey
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=azHtWwtMfZUM&refer=africa
Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, a tax-free business park in the United Arab Emirates, plans to start a venture with the World Gold Council to trade the first Islamic securities backed by gold bullion. Through a joint venture called Dubai Gold Investments, the partners plan to create Dubai Gold Shares and list them on the Dubai International Financial Exchange Ltd., they told reporters at a briefing in Dubai today. Dubai Gold Shares will comply with Islamic Shariah law. The shares will allow holders to gain from advances in the price of gold without having to insure, store and move the metal, he said. The venture follows exchange-traded gold securities started by the WGC on nine other exchanges including bourses in London, New York, Singapore and Paris. Those securities held gold worth $24.2 billion at the end of March, according to notes distributed at the briefing. Each Dubai Gold Share will represent 0.1 ounce of gold held in custody by the center and HSBC Holdings Plc, according to Burton. Scholars of Islamic law employed by Shariah Capital Inc. will ensure the securities comply with Islamic principles.

10. ADL: Switzerland Financing Terrorism
April 8, 2008 YNet
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3529312,00.html
A major US Jewish organization on Tuesday stepped up opposition to a multibillion-dollar Swiss-Iranian natural gas deal by claiming it makes Switzerland ''the world's newest financier of terrorism.'' ''When you finance a terrorist state, you finance terrorism,'' said the New York-based Anti-Defamation League in full-page advertisements in major Swiss newspapers and in similar ads in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune and The Wall Street Journal. The US government and the World Jewish Congress have criticized Switzerland for the deal, saying it gives encouragement to Tehran's hard-liners. ''ADL is concerned that Iran's profits from the energy deal could help the regime to accelerate and complete its nuclear weapons program and provide tens of thousands of additional missiles to Hizbullah and Hamas, two terrorist groups and sworn enemies of Israel who routinely benefit from Tehran's largess,'' said a statement on the league's Web site.

11. UAE to issue new law on Islamic finance activities
April 08, 2008 Gulf News
http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Banking_and_Finance/10204173.html
Abu Dhabi: The UAE plans to replace the federal law issued in 1985 with a new one establishing a higher Sharia Council to supervise Islamic finance activities in accordance with Islamic precepts, a top official said on Tuesday. "It has been a very long time since this law was introduced, and experience has proven that the individual Sharia boards within the Islamic financial institutions are more efficient." With the rapid expansion of Islamic banks, the UAE is becoming a centre for Islamic finance. "Islamic banks have grown from two in 2000 to seven in 2007, and we are still considering licensing the conversion of some institutions, and only one new licence for the emirate of Ajman was issued, while the number of Islamic investment companies has grown from one in 2000 to ten in 2007. "As a central bank we would rather not interfere in the operations of Islamic banks; we only monitor errors and risks while applying internationally recognized standards, providing for periodic inspection reports, and we did not recognize any risks or wrongdoing in the activities of the Sharia boards within Islamic financial institutions," Al Suwaidi told the FNC.

12. Indonesian government to issue 15 trillion rupiah worth of sharia bonds in H2
April 8, 2008 Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/04/08/afx4864947.html
JAKARTA (Thomson Financial) - The Indonesian government is planning to issue later this year its first sharia bonds, or bonds that comply with Islamic law, to help cover the state budget deficit, a finance ministry official said Tuesday. 'The value of sharia bonds to be issued will be around 15 trillion rupiah ($1.63 billion), in line with underlying assets that have been set aside by the government,' said Rahmat Waluyanto, the ministry's director-general of debt management. Waluyanto said half of the sharia bonds would be issued domestically and the rest offered in the form of sovereign Islamic bonds, known as sukuk, in the international market. The government said earlier that the bond issue was meant to meet growing demand for sukuk, particularly from Middle East investors. The lower house of parliament is scheduled to pass a bill on sharia bonds Thursday. The enactment of the law will provide a legal basis for the government to issue such instruments.


13. UAE mortgage market to soar
April 08, 2008 Gulf News
http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Real_Estate_Property/10203987.html
Dubai: The UAE's mortgage market will leap from Dh20 billion by the end of this year to Dh64 billion over the next three years, and more than 60 per cent of home finance will be Sharia-compliant, officials at a conference said on Thuesday. Islamic banking and finance specialist Sabahuddin Azmi told delegates that outstanding credit in the UAE housing market, which stood at Dh17 billion at the end of 2006, will touch Dh20 billion at the end of 2008 and is expected to rise sharply between now and 2011 as real estate growth exceeds an estimated Dh419 billion during this period. Azmi, Faculty at the Emirates Institute for Banking and Financial Studies in Sharjah, said Amlak Finance and Tamweel, both Sharia-compliant, dominate the UAE housing finance market, holding 35 per cent and 25 per cent shares respectively. He was speaking on the final day of the two-day summit where an international panel of 13 financial experts have been debating the difference between Western family wealth management methods and Islamic Sharia-compliant principles.

14. Singapore set to boost Islamic finance - monetary authority
April 8, 2008 Gulf Times By Pratap John
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=211745&version=1&template_id=48&parent_id=28
SINGAPORE: Singapore has its eyes set on boosting Islamic finance and has created a "level playing field" for Shariah products and conventional funding tools. The city state now provides tax neutrality between conventional and Islamic financing by removing hurdles such as stamp duty, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) deputy managing director Ong Chong Tee said in an interview with Gulf Times. "We are providing general sales tax exemption for financing based on the Murabaha structure," he said. Singapore's financial sector regulator MAS now allows the city state's banks to offer Murabaha financing, investment products and deposits. The city state recently licensed DBS Bank to set up Singapore's first Islamic bank as a joint venture. The Islamic Bank of Asia, with a paid up capital of $500mn was incorporated in May 2007. "We are the only non-Islamic country to be a full member of the Islamic Financial Services Board. Singapore will play host to the Board's 6th Annual Summit in May 2009," Tee said.

15. Master agreement for Islamic finance on way
April 8, 2008 Gulf Daily News
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=213879&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=31019
MANAMA: The Bahrain-based International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) is in the final stages of developing the first standardised master agreement, which can be used by Islamic financial institutions across the globe. The master agreement for treasury placement (MATP) is a benchmark document, which is currently undergoing a final review by leading Islamic financial institutions and conventional institutions offering Islamic finance, to be followed shortly by a final Sharia review by prominent scholars. "The IIFM is delighted to have spearheaded such a project to develop a contract which will cover over 90 per cent of commodity murabaha transactions in numerous jurisdictions across the world," said IIFM chairman and executive director, banking supervision, at the Central Bank of Bahrain Khalid Hamad. "The standardisation of such a contract will have significant positive ramifications for the Islamic banking industry worldwide."

16. ProLogis in Mideast venture-Denver industrial REIT will join with an Islamic bank to develop warehouses in the Persian Gulf area
April 9, 2008 The Denver Post.com
http://origin.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_8856128
ProLogis, the world's largest industrial real estate investment trust, and Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank Arcapita Bank BSC agreed to start a venture to develop warehouses in the Persian Gulf region. The equally owned venture, ProLogis Middle East, will build and buy $1 billion worth of logistics and warehousing space in countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. ProLogis and Arcapita will compete with companies including Kuwait-based Agility, the Middle East's biggest storage and logistics company. UBS AG, HSBC Holdings Plc and Deutsche Bank AG are among banks investing in funds to build roads, airports and power plants in the gulf. Middle Eastern and North African governments will spend more than $300 billion on public infrastructure development by 2016 as they seek to develop their economies and attract investors, HSBC estimates.

17. University Bank of Ann Arbor expands Muslim lending unit
April 10, 2008 Posted by Lara Mossa | Ann Arbor Business Review
http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2008/04/university_bank_expands_muslim.htm
University Bank of Ann Arbor launched rent-to-own commercial financing this year as part of its growing Muslim lending platform, with plans to lend up to $1.3 million for a commercial project. "We expect that we will have a lot of businesses interested in the commercial side," said Amjad Quadri, assistant vice president of development and new markets. The bank's division for Muslim financing - which follows specific Islamic law on lending and paying interest - has allowed University Bank to offset the slump in the national housing market. Known as Sharia financing, the Ann Arbor-based bank has a line of products that appeal to Muslim families. Sharia financing is arranged through a subsidiary of the bank called University Islamic Financial. Muslim families throughout Michigan and states such as New York, Texas and Illinois seek the bank's unusual products, Quadri said. "We've never been busier," said Stephen Ranzini, University Bank chairman. "It's really almost too busy right now." University Bank closed on its first Sharia mortgage in 2004. With $100 million in assets, the bank has $20 million in Islamic financing and sold some loans as agents to Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.

LIBEL TERRORISM

18. Terrorizing Publishing by Roger Kimball
April 10, 2008 New York Sun
http://www.nysun.com/editorials/terrorizing-publishing
This spring, Encounter Books is publishing "Willful Blindness: a Memoir of the Jihad," by Andrew McCarthy, who helped prosecute the "blind sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman and other jihadists. I recently received a message from someone who helps distribute our books in Britain: "Can you please let us know if there are any references to Saudis and terrorist[s] in the book. We are just concerned that this book could potentially create libel lawsuits as it could offend Saudis living in England." But note the preemptive cringe: the very threat of legal action has made the publishing world skittish, not to say craven. Welcome to the world of libel tourism. When the American researcher Rachel Ehrenfeld published "Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed - and How to Stop It," she suddenly found herself slapped with a libel suit - but not in America. A Saudi banker, Khalid bin Mahfouz, brought the suit in England. Even though the book was not distributed in Great Britain, a British judge ruled that Ms. Ehrenfeld must apologize and pay Mr. Mahfouz £110,000. The case against "Alms for Jihad" by Robert O. Collins and J. Millard Burr was especially egregious. The publisher, Cambridge University Press, instantly capitulated to Mr. Mahfouz's demands. Several weeks ago, a former Crown Attorney named Faisal Joseph filed a human rights complaint for the Canadian Islamic Congress against Maclean's, the distinguished Canadian magazine. Why? Because Maclean's had published "The Future Belongs to Islam," an excerpt from Mark Steyn's best-selling book "America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It." Our new enemies are not political enemies in any traditional sense, belligerent in the service of their own certain interests. Their violence is focused on the very existence of an alternative to their vision of beatitude, namely on Western democracy and its commitment to free speech and economic prosperity. On January 14, Assemblyman Rory Lancman and Senate Deputy Majority Leader Dean Skelos introduced the "Libel Terrorism Protection Act" in New York. The legislation, which was recently passed and now awaits the governor's signature, would overrule New York's highest court and, as Mr. Lancman put it, would give journalists "the tools they need to continue to fearlessly expose the truth about terrorism and its enablers."

OPINION, ANALYSIS, REVIEW

1. The New Pyramid Builders by Edward Cline
April 5, 2008 Capitalism Magazine
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=5154
A mile-high tower will rise in a desert port town, and Americans will be helping to finance its £5 billion construction cost. It will rise in the town Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, halfway up the length of the Red Sea. At 5,250 feet, it will be twice the height of another tower being erected in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on the Persian Gulf. Other massive construction projects are underway in Kuwait and other Persian Gulf countries. "Abu Dhabi is planning to spend close to $1 billion for a new museum with the help of the Louvre, in Paris. Dubai's latest grandiose idea is to build a small-scale replica of the French city of Lyon, complete with residential housing, a museum, a culinary school and a soccer club." Americans will be helping to finance these and other massive projects in Saudi Arabia and in the Persian Gulf fiefdoms through their gas and heating oil prices. One important thing to remember about these projects is that they are not strictly "private" undertakings; every one of them is a government project. The U.S. and the West should act now to ensure that those mile-high towers, high- rises, and plants remain empty monuments to larcenous vanity, by rediscovering the necessary virtues of self-preservation and self-interest.

2. Jihad with money BY Melanie Phillips
April 7, 2008 Spectator UK
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/
The legitimization of sharia in the West and its gradual imposition in Muslim communities and beyond is a key objective of sharia finance, and there is no doubt it has already made huge strides. Notably, for those Muslims who cannot engage in physical jihad using force of arms, sharia requires that they support jihad financially. This is what sharia finance is all about. Far from being a legitimate investment vehicle, sharia finance facilitates religiously sanctioned support for terrorist organizations - as well as providing radical Islamists with highly paid sinecures as sharia-finance board advisors in the sanctum sanctorum of capitalism, all the while that they are pursuing a subversive campaign to destroy it.Predictably, none of this is even remotely disclosed by any of the dozens of Western banks promoting sharia finance today, which obviously exposes them to huge non-disclosure risks ranging from fraudulent misrepresentation, to material support for terrorism.

3. The Muslim Students Association at Michigan State by David Horowitz
April 8, 2008 Front Page Magazine
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=C15C6A4C-E2E2-4DE3-B986-F03F9E07280F
In April 2006, MSA-MSU members held a rally protesting a Danish newspaper's recent publication of a series of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. According to the group, the cartoons in question constituted "hate speech." In response, a Michigan State professor named Indrek Wichman sent an e-mail to MSA-MSU, which read as follows: "Dear Muslim Association: As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU, I intend to protest your protest. I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests, burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women, the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France. If you do not like the values of the West -- see the 1st Amendment -- you are free to leave. In response to this email, MSA-MSU (along with twelve other student and advocacy groups) demanded not only that the University administration reprimand Professor Wichman, but also that it institute mandatory diversity training for faculty and a seminar on hate and discrimination for freshman.

4. Fitna: The Carrot and the Stick - Robert Spencer
April 8, 2008 Front Page Magazine
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9ADC8C1-A7D1-4318-B36C-AA6AC5784BA8
Geert Wilders's film on the Qur'an, Fitna, which had the whole world holding its breath before its release, has been out for over a week now, and the much-anticipated explosion of worldwide Muslim rage has so far failed to materialize. That rage, however, is heating up: 25,000 people rallied against the film in Karachi on Sunday, and demonstrators in Pakistan and Indonesia have already called for Wilders to be killed. The 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has condemned the film in "the strongest terms," saying that it was "a deliberate act of discrimination against Muslims" designed to "provoke unrest and intolerance." The message to the West is that speech about Islam that the Islamic world dislikes could lead to violent reprisals - but if the West heeds the voice of reason and clamps down on free speech and free inquiry, this violence will melt away.

5. Harvard's Shariah Finance
April 9, 2008 Blog
http://misskelly.typepad.com/miss_kelly_/2008/04/harvard-s-shari.html
What's going on at Harvard? One can barely keep up with their obsession for all things shariah. Last month, there were four lectures there on shariah law, two sponsored by the Harvard Divinity School, one by Harvard Law School, and one by the Harvard Islamic Society. Next weekend, Harvard hosts its 8th International Forum on Islamic Finance, April 18-20, 2008. Friday is an all-day workshop on microfinance, and a variety of topics are discussed on Saturday and Sunday. The project director of Harvard's Islamic Finance Project is S. Nazim Ali. Interestingly, Nazim Ali is not an economist, his background is in computers. Ali is also active with the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) and the Islamic American University (IAU). Basyouney Nehela of the ISB opened an IAU branch in Boston last year, which offers online and classroom courses in such subjects as Scientific Miracles in the Quraan and Arabic language. MAS's website states that "The IAU board of trustees is headed by internationally renowned scholars such as Sheikh Yusuf al-Qardawi who serves as chairman and Dr. Jamal Badawi who serves as vice chairman." Qaradawi is still a proposed trustee of the ISB. We seem to have many "underground Islamists" in Boston.

6. Gaffney: Terrorists' Financial Strategies Should Not Be Ignored
April 10, 2008 The Evening Bulletin by Bradley Vasoli
http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=19470932&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8
Philadelphia - As American politicians and pundits discuss the ground Islamic terrorists stand to gain or lose on the battlefield, Frank Gaffney submits policymakers shouldn't neglect another facet of the War on Terror: finance. Mr. Gaffney, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and currently the president of the D.C.-based Center for Security Policy, discussed the phenomenon of Shariah-compliant finance with University of Pennsylvania students. In recent years, the policy scholar has concerned himself with ensuring that the United States does not proceed down the same cultural course taken by Europe, with unassimilated Muslim populations living in blocs in Great Britain, France, the Netherlands and many other Western countries. While America has been adept at assimilating those Muslims who have migrated here, Mr. Gaffney said, vulnerabilities remain. Next weekend, Harvard University will hold its eighth Forum on Islamic Finance, which denotes selecting investment options according to their conformity to Islamic doctrine (also called sharia law) And he said sharia-compliant finance is receiving friendly treatment from elite institutions. In other words: no pork producers, no gambling establishments, no alcohol manufacturers, etc. Financial advisers spearheading such investment options, are "basically without exception Islamic ideologues." These advisers put in charge of these funds by banks and other financial institutions. They are thus in a position to direct the dollars of American businesses to terror-supporting entities.

7. Fighting Global Islamist Ideology the Key to War on Terror by Steven Emerson
April 10, 2008 IPT News
http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/643
(Note: This article summarizes my testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. My written remarks can be found here. Also, Congressional Quarterly's coverage of the hearing can be found here.) American outreach efforts with the Muslim world have been nothing short of a disaster because we continue seeking partners among those who foster anti-American sentiment and who facilitate, rather than rebuke, radical Islamist ideology. That's the message I brought to Capitol Hill Wednesday, where I testified before a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on al Qaeda. Disturbing intelligence estimates are true - the threat from a reconstituted al Qaeda is at its highest point since 2001. While U.S. military, intelligence and law enforcement actions have combined to thwart al Qaeda, its safe haven in Pakistan's remote tribal areas allowed it to regroup with a new generation of battle-tested leaders. The U.S. government generally, and the State Department in particular, needs to seek out genuine moderates in the Arab and Muslim world. What we have done instead is simply embrace and promote those who claim to speak for all Muslims, but parrot the themes of anti-Americanism, victimology and grievances that seek to place the blame for all the world's ills on U.S. foreign policy. Arab and Muslim voices which promote accountability, democracy, human rights and freedoms must be elevated and embraced. Short of that, organizations, individuals and institutions in the Muslim world that are reflexively anti-American and pro-terrorist, or, at minimum, apologists for terrorism, should be denounced and avoided. All organizations with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood need to be treated for what they are: fascistic, paternalistic organizations that seek the return of the Caliphate.