Islamists have threatened a Christian Bishop in the Philippines… (H/T: UP Pompeii)

Philippine bishop reports receiving threat to convert to Islam

MANILA, Philippines (CNS) — A bishop in the southern Philippines reported receiving a letter threatening him with harm if he does not convert to Islam or pay “Islamic taxes.”

Such brazenness in a country where over 86% of the population is Christian, 9% is Muslim and the remaining 5% is divided among various groups such as: Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, animists and non-believers.

Even if those who sent these letters are no more than common criminals who use religion as a mere tool, the fact that they chose to represent themselves as Muslims is in itself significant. But Muslim brazenness does not stop there, unfortunately, this one is far from an isolated case! Remember the kidnapped and murdered Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Mgr Faraj Rahho? What about the plight of Assyrian Christians in Iraq? What about the Sabian Mandaeans? Or the plight of Christians girls kidnapped in Nigeria by practitioners of the Religion of Peace? What about the treatment of Christian Copts in Egypt? Ot the threats against Western politicians like Geert Wilders or Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi? The list, gentle reader, goes on and on ad nauseum…

You may read the rest at: Freedom’s Cost

Yes, gentle reader, believe it or not the Joo has no horns, no tail. We are as human as the rest of you, we bleed, we cry, we laugh, we suffer, we sing and we too can have our hearts shuttered… But… if you look at Jewish history… we were attacked by the greatest empires, they all even held us under their individual yoke for a while and then… they disappeared! Yet… while we Jooz were decimated by the millions, while the hatred of the world at our stubbornness never abated we cried, we prayed, we hoped and died with the word “Jerusalem” on our lips! And so in 1948 of the Current Era - symbolically, Abraham was born in 1948 in the Hebrew calendar - we once again got our own independent Jerusalem.

We will survive the MSM and their hypocrisy, even though the UN’s Human Rights Council will never bring itself to discuss the Jews’ cause. We will survive the IslamoFascists hatred as they will eventually burn up in the pyre of their own poison. Yes, gentle reader, if you prick us we do bleed, if you poison us we do die… but, like the mythical phoenix, we always rise from our ashes and accomplish the impossible! Look at Israel today, a prosperous garden in the desert, a center of science and technology where there was only sand and poverty!!!

You may read the rest on: Freedom’s Cost

Salafi Jihadists are becoming increasingly active in ‘Palestine.’ They are garnering more support than ever before, and they are partially responsible for the increasing radicalization of Palestinian Arabs. If you think Fatah and especially Hamas are evil and extreme, just take the following comparison made by Salafi Jihadists into consideration: “compared to us, Hamas is Islamism Lite.” (more…)

Three years ago on this day, in London and within 50 seconds of each other, there were bombings at three subway stations and an hour later, at 9:47am, there was a fourth one on a bus in Tavistock Square. Fifty two innocent people died that day while 700 were injured. Has Britain learned any lessons?

Last year there was a failed terrorist plot by Muslim doctors, also in Britain, has their government learned any lessons? Rather than putting restrictions on the preachings of extremist Imams, rather than kick them out of the country, they are allowed to freely continue preaching their hatred… all in the spirit of free speech and… multiculturalism. Freedom of Speech is one of the cardinal principles of a free society, it is in fact what keeps that society free. However, another - and at least - as important a principle also says that the right to move one’s fist stops where the other’s cheek starts. What does that mean? It means that when freedom of speech is abused by preaching violence against any other segment of society it must proscribed!

Read the rest of this post at: Freedom’s Cost

I’m sure most of our dear readers are unaware that other countries are also in the midst of elections. Here in Spain, the presidential election is just two days away, we vote on Sunday. I had meant to do a post contrasting the years long elections in the US to our two month elections here. I wanted to talk about the difference in political coverage, in campaigning and negative advertising. But there is another difference in the political games that Spain has to face.

The Basque terrorist group ETA killed again today. A retired councilman from a small town. He was murdered in front of his wife and daughter.

Suddenly negative advertising doesn’t seem so important anymore.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been reduced to forcing mentally handicapped women to carry bombs for them. This indicates not only the moral depravity of our enemy, but also their strategic plight. If it were true, as many from the anti-war camp continue to desperately claim, that the U.S. effort is bearing little fruit, why would al-Qaeda find it necessary to violate the religious and cultural taboos that are the very basis of their legitimacy anyway? It seems more likely that al-Qaeda is scraping the bottom of their strategic barrel. (more…)

Gunmen have stormed an elementary school near Peshawar, in Pakistan, taking children and teachers hostage. There are conflicting accounts as to how many children are being held, with police reporting around 25, but others raising that number to 250. Apparently, the militants originally planned to kidnap a local health official, but were thwarted and in the process of escaping, went into the school and took the children.

Here’s hoping there isn’t a repeat of the Beslan tragedy, and all the children, and their teachers are safely released.

Update: The gunmen have released the children (final number around 200) and surrendered to tribal authorities. A happy ending, thank goodness.

Palestinian terrorists have, yet again, succeeded in killing an innocent Israeli citizen:

A 35-year-old woman was killed Monday when one of three Kassam rockets fired at Sderot struck a car…

David Baker, a representative of the Prime Minister’s Office present at the scene of the attack told the Jerusalem Post that Israel will not stop retaliatory action against Palestinian extremists.

“This is precisely the kind of terror that Israel will not tolerate. We are compelled to continue with defensive measures to prevent these attacks and we will not cease these measures until these Kassam rocket attacks stop,” Baker said.

Those brave Islamists: killing Israeli women.

O, who would have thought? Suddenly, so it seems, Palestinian terrorists are fighting the Lebanese army.

Terrorist group Fatah al-Islam unleashed its fury on the Lebanese army today, killing at least 12 army soldiers and ISF members and wounding dozens of others, including civilians. The Syrian-backed group– made up of Syrian, Palestinian, Lebanese, Saudi and other Arab Islamists who arrived via Syria after terrorist tours in Iraq– has threatened to “open fire and volcanoes” on the army and on Lebanon that will not be “closed” as long as they have the mandate from their god.

Well, that was early yesterday. The Haaretz has more:

At least eight civilians were killed and 20 wounded on Monday in a Lebanese army shelling of a Palestinian refugee camp during fighting with Islamist militants, Palestinian sources inside the camp said.

They said the toll was certain to rise as some areas of the camp, home to some 40,000 refugees, could not be reached by rescue workers.

The shelling occured a day after 57 people were killed in battles there and in the nearby northern city of Tripoli, security sources said.

Tank shells crashed into the coastal camp, raising plumes of smoke, as fighters of the little-known Fatah al-Islam group fired grenades and machineguns at army posts on the camp perimeter, witnesses said.

At least 27 soldiers, 15 militants and 15 civilians died in Sunday’s violence, the worst internal fighting since Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.

What I’m wondering about is… when will we hear people condemn Israel for this? I mean, sure, Israel hasn’t got anything to do with it directly, but that never stopped anti-Semites and anti-Zionists (mostly exact same thing) before.

The Washington Post reports:

British officials have been talking with legal counsel for Abu Qatada, a radical cleric who is under house arrest in Britain and believed to have close links to al-Qaeda, in hopes he will help secure the release of kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston.

Johnston, whose 45th birthday was Thursday, was seized more than two months ago in Gaza City. Prayer vigils, special television broadcasts and street demonstrations have been conducted from London to Jerusalem in a campaign to win his freedom.

This month, a Palestinian group called the Army of Islam claimed to be holding Johnston and demanded the release of Abu Qatada and other Muslim detainees in Britain. The group’s video statement showed a picture of Johnston’s BBC identity card but offered no proof that he was alive or well. Another group had earlier claimed to have killed him.

The British government, which has accused Abu Qatada of offering “spiritual advice and religious legitimacy” to extremists and is in the process of deporting him, has been “in discussions with Abu Qatada’s lawyer to see whether he would be willing to make an appeal for Alan’s safe release,” a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

“We regret that so far no appeal has been made,” she said, adding that Abu Qatada had placed “unacceptable conditions” on his making such a public statement.

One wonders what those “unacceptable conditions” might be. The anonymous spokeswoman refused to elaborate. One of the possibilities: he might have tried to stop his deportation to Jordan.

He wrote in a letter sent to the London-based Islamic Observatory Center: “I announce my full readiness to go on a trip to Gaza, with a delegation from BBC, to meet with the brothers, the abductors, concerning the release of the journalist Alan Johnston.”

Bad, bad, bad idea. He can help from prison if he wants to, and if Jonhston’s kidnappers agree to let him go because of Abu Qatada work, authorities might decide to reduce his sentence a bit, but they can’t let him go with a delegation to Gaza, nor can they let him off the hook completely. Why do I say that they might reduce his sentence? Because this is done with ‘normal’ prisoners as well. If they cooperate with the authorities they get something in return. It might not be popular, but it is logical.