• Business Week  Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) — A European Union embargo on Iranian oil will probably be phased in to protect countries with the greatest reliance on imports from the country, according to an EU official familiar with the talks.
• Telegraph (UK): Japan agrees to cut dependency on Iranian oil as US scores significant coup against regime…
  However, any embargos are only likely to come into effect gradually. Refiners generally buy two thirds of their crude on long term contracts, and these will probably be honoured. The proposed EU embargo – which all member states are understood to endorse in principle – is likely to be phased in over a period of up to 12 months.

First, the matter of burqa and niqab. I agree it is not right for men to force women to wear these coverings, but at the same time, there are many Muslim women who willingly wear these coverings and I personally know many who would feel that being forced to take off the coverings is tantamount to being disrobed in public. Ms. Balter appears to take the position that the coverings are because men are forcing women to cover up. Frances laws are geared to punish the MEN for women wearing the coverings, is that not placing men in a position where they are forcing women to NOT wear coverings even if they want to?

Based on examples in Pakistan (where I am from) and right here in the US, I can tell you that if some men tried to force women of their household to NOT wear coverings, there will be lots of divorces happening.

I am not suggesting that ALL women wearing coverings are doing so of their own volition, but certainly the large majority of them are, while another large group is wearing coverings because of cultural practices and maybe, a minority are being pressured by their menfolk. France and Ms. Balter, would argue otherwise, “irregardless” of facts.

It would not be a surprise to see some Muslim men “prance around Paris in super-tight jeans and slinky shirts“, after all, contrary to popular mythology, Muslims are varied people who share the faith but not necessarily all practices. By the same token, I am certain there were also plenty of Muslim women also “prance around Paris in super-tight jeans and slinky shirts“, but Ms. Balter obviously did not take the trouble to find out. In fact, we can find such variety of personal practices even in most conservative Muslim countries (Arabia excepting).

Ms. Balter is also saying things like, “France these days is in a pitched battle for its soul” that place her on the side of Islamophobes who are screaming terms such as “Islamization” and “Eurabia” and thus, stoking fears of a Muslim takeover of France and Europe itself while feeding the fires of bigotry right here. Her language pitches France against a monolithic, all-consuming beast (Muslims) that will destroy “the soul of France” unless France forces Muslim women to walk around feeling naked to the public.

France has always had an all-consuming culture where every occupation (Algeria, Tunisia) was “La France!”, but France was never Algeria or Tunisia. Frenchmen moved into occupied countries and settled as they willed, but Muslims from the colonies were segregated into slums where they are still contained. Small wonder that the cultures of the colonized, experienced no change but got worse, upon moving into France. Most Muslim immigrants to France experience huge barriers to employment so much so, that many pretend to be not Muslims in order to get jobs … IF they can conceal their Muslim names! I also wonder if Ms. Balter has seen the many soup-kitchens that openly and deliberately serve pork only, in order to avoid serving Muslim poor?

France has a large number of Jews still living there, no thanks to their helping to truck so many of them off to death camps. Yet we do not hear of the “Judaisation” of France; or that France in a “pitched battle for its soul” because of the many conservative and orthodox Jews whose women are not permitted to show their faces in public and who are kept segregated.

Nuns in France, may walk around in their habits, but should a Muslim woman dare to walk arounf wearing the same garb, there would be all sorts of finger-pointing at the “exploitive” habits (no pun intended) of Muslims.

Why is there “a pitched battle for its soul” wherever Muslims are concerned?

She goes on to say, “What’s more, any feminist must realize the wearing of the burqa and niqab is something only women do. It may be grounded in centuries of tradition, but it’s blatantly sexist“. There are LOTS of things that “only women do“! Just because France does something that we the unwashed Muslims do not do, does not mean it is for the good; prostitution is legal in France, so is pornography, but are they also not extremely exploitive?

At another level, I am deeply opposed to women wearing high heels which deform their feet and skirts (especially in Winter), they wear them as a result of cultural pressures because no sane woman would wear such things otherwise. I am also opposed to women wearing skimpy apparel in sports where their male counterparts wear more clothing. I am aghast at girls, barely past their toddler-ages, being primped to look like sexy women in order to compete in beauty contests. Cultural pressures also force many women into Bulimia and Anorexia. Are these not terribly de-humanizing issues that attack “the soul of” France/ Europe/the West?

Knowingly or not, Ms. Balter is conflating Muslim presence in France and in Europe, with cultural battles and equating Muslim immigrants (many in France are no longer “immigrants” but have been there for generations), and welfare recipients and yet again, stoking false fears with such characterizations.

“Women and men moving to new countries need all the help they can get learning the language and adapting to their new country“. Yes indeed, but men face the same issues as well. Could Ms. Balter say a few soft words on behalf of the Muslim men in France who are no longer immigrants, but born there, but are denied jobs and admissions into institutes of higher learning (excuses aside) because they are Muslim?

Has Ms. Balter checked her own biases against Muslims? She is clearly equating Muslims with the immigration problems facing all of Europe. Yet, Western Europe is flooded with immigrants for Eastern Europe and a huge number of immigrants in France are also from the same countries as the Muslim immigrants. Nevertheless, it would seem from her writing, that all immigrants are Muslim.

Perhaps she means all unwanted immigrants are Muslim, which says something entirely different about France and about her own outlook.

A lot of people have told me to “tone it down”,  not sound so “anti-American” and asked me why I hate America so much that I keep criticizing it and if I do hate America so much, why don’t I “go back where I came from”? I have even been accused of supporting and inciting terrorism (but when I consider the source and intelligence of those criticisms, I suppose I shouldn’t mind too much).

Fair enough.

Maybe I AM imagining that the US is geared up to target Muslims and maybe things are not so bad after all.

The again, maybe the Tooth Fairy is leaving gold coins in exchange for teeth these days too.

Let us look objectively and see where the results take us, shall we?

For years, I have been talking about how the Police, the FBI, the Military and all other security agencies are being actively trained to treat us Muslims as the greatest threats to the US and to the West. When I first started saying this, I received a lot of criticism for my “exaggerations and untruths”. Variously, I have been told such training could NEVER take place in the FBI or, the Police or, the Military (“they are there to protect you!”).

But today, we know different, don’t we?

Today, we have proof and even Attorney-General Eric Holder, the top man at the FBI, had ordered a cleanup of the training programs that have so far actually targeted Muslims and Islam. Proof has also turned up against the military, but nobody is taking any action there because presumably, that would be “unpatriotic”…more “unpatriotic” than targeting, maligning and persecuting an entire American minority?

We have actual training videos of FBI, Police and the branches of the Military across the nation, being trained against Islam and Muslims, we have lists of false, self-styled, “Experts” on Islam and Muslims, who have been going around training the Military, CIA, the Police and the FBI. The top-level leaders know this, but since elections in the US, are always just around the corner and since Muslims are the out-of-favor class of sub-Americans, nobody takes any firm action against such training.

American careers are being created and built, on anti-Muslim persecution and on stoking fears  against Islam and Muslims.

Just in 2011, the President of the United States, ordered the murder of Anwar Al-Awlaki, a US citizen in living in Yemen…WITHOUT formal charges or a trial, simply on the fiat of the Emperor of Rome. After the Drone-killing Al-Awlaki, the CIA went a step further and killed his teenage son as well and nobody in the power-halls this country uttered a sound of protest. The man WAS a Muslim, after all!

Just recently, the latest Defense Appropriations Bill got passed by Congress. It contained a provision under section 1021, that authorizes the military to imprison (“detain”) anyone suspected of attacking the US or the “Coalition Partners” in Afghanistan or supporting Al-Qaeda, INDEFINITELY, WITHOUT TRIAL OR CHARGES “until the war against terrorism is over“. Obama at first opposed it because of this clause, but I guess it was more important to stand his ground on the employment tax continuation bill, than for the constitutional rights of an unimportant minority (“Muzlems”), so he agreed to sign the bill into law.

For those who may be sitting rather cluelessly on this one, the Defense Appropriations Bill provision 1021 is aimed directly and solely at MUSLIMS, no other group that I can think of, could be affected by it.

Now another first (Dec 20th): Tarek Mehanna was convicted by a jury, of supporting terrorism. This is another first because the ONLY charge the prosecution had against him was that he had translated Al-Qaeda documents and posted them on the web and THAT constituted support of terrorism!

Sometime earlier, Raymond Ibrahim, translated and published the entire Al-Qaeda manifesto;  he is lauded and an “expert on Islamic terror” because all he does is tell the world who a horrible faith Islam is and how Muslims will destroy the so-called Judeo-Christian world.

Tarek Mehanna is Muslim; Raymond Ibrahim is Christian…BOTH are Americans; figure it out.

This is a first because now constitutionally-protected Free Speech is being re-translated as insidious enough to re-define “terrorism” and is then being used to persecute Muslims.

Out Goes the constitutional right to Free Expression.

Out Goes the constitutional right to being charged. 

Out Goes the constitutional right to a civil trial.

Out Goes the constitutional right to a speedy trial.

Out Goes the constitutional right to a trial by a jury of peers.

Out Goes the constitutional right to seeing the evidence against the accused.

Out Goes the constitutional right to no cruel and unusual punishment.

Out goes the US Constitution…nice on paper, but no teeth, just like the great constitutions of the now-defunct Communist countries.

Why is this happening?

Because Muslims have no voice in politics, they have no political influence and they prefer to keep a low profile, rather than being involved….plus, we Muslims are easy to spot from among a crowd of people, it is also easy to pick out our Muslim names from a crowd of names. Bashing Muslims carries rewards, not penalties; the “normal” American has been rendered too terrified of “terrorism” to take a stand in support of our rights. They can be found saying things like, “if we can be kept safe, then some sacrifice is acceptable“. Note, they are not the ones volunteering for the “sacrifice”, WE are being volunteered. Rather like the virgins who were sacrificed to keep the gods happy; nobody asked the virgins if they were okay with the decision.

Muslims are lying low, keeping as quiet as possible and hoping that the Tsunami of persecution will pass over them, but it doesn’t, the waters only get muddier and higher.

2012 is coming up and this is our great chance to take a strong political stand. If we are successful, we no longer have to live under persecution and fear. If we fail, we have to keep trying until we succeed.

There is no other choice.

Why do I hate America? DO I hate America?

If all the civil rights fighters hated America, if all the anti-slavery fighters hated America, if all those who fought for freedom of speech and for due process of the law, hated America, if all those who gave their lives for the freedoms we enjoy, who fought against the tides of bigotry and oppression in America, then I am proud to be in their company.

Jeff Siddiqui

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them. Frederick Douglass

• “I have heard from nearly a thousand of my constituents in opposition to the appalling language in the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains sweeping provisions that allow the President to indefinitely lock up American citizens without charge or trial. History shows that acting on fear has dangerous and irreparable consequences on our nation – the illegal internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II is a prime example. I also reject the language in the bill that would severely restrict the transfer of detainees in Guantánamo Bay for any purpose, including trial in federal court. The Senate bill is un-American, unconstitutional and unnecessary. I urge my colleagues on the Senate and House Armed Services committees to strike out these abhorrent provisions in the final defense budget bill.”