Dorrie's Picks, 3/6/09

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\03\06\story_6-3-2009_pg1_10
Govt accepts BLUF demands for John Solecki’s release
Balochistan government announces top-level committee to investigate captors demands

The government has accepted the demands of the Balochistan Liberation United Front (BLUF) in exchange for the recovery of John Solecki, [American] head of the United Nations refugee agency . . .

Whew. I hope this works.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,504944,00.html
Critic Says Islamic Extremism Gets Whitewashed in American Textbooks
An education expert is warning that some American textbooks present a biased view of Islam and offer a sugarcoated picture of Islamic extremism, a trend that has parents worried about what's being taught in public schools.

In numerous history textbooks, "key subjects like jihad, Islamic law, the status of women are whitewashed," said Gilbert T. Sewall, director of the American Textbook Council, an independent group that reviews history books and other education materials.

But Muslim advocacy groups say students need to learn more about Islam to correct misconceptions [like what? That Islam, the Party of Jihad, doesn't actually employ jihad?] and help turn away a wrongheaded focus on extremism [like which extreme behavior? That the men in the Party of Jihad don't murder or butcher thousands of their women every day?]. . . .

Well, what else would they say? Me, I think I’ll side with Mr. Sewall on this, what about you?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/05/sherifa-d-zuhur-scholar-s_n_172381.html
Sherifa D. Zuhur, Scholar, Suspended By U.S. Army War College After Complaining Of Anti-Muslim Discrimination
The U.S. Army War College has suspended a widely known expert on Islamic studies partly because she had turned to the Middle East Studies Association, and threatened to contact a newspaper, with allegations that administrators there were violating her academic freedom and discriminating against her as a Muslim. . . .

And unexpectedly giving credence to the above story; Zuhur was teaching a whitewashed version of the Party of Jihad. Why would the War College have hired her in the first place?

http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/19815
U.S. Muslim Brotherhood [and CAIR and MPAC] Reacts to California Mosque Infiltration
. . . The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has reacted by stating that the use of informants in mosques “stigmatizes” the mosques and erodes trust. . . .

The plan here is simple: cloud the issue, play the victim, threaten lawsuits, etc., so that the fact that the FBI did its job and got damaging information on what’s going on in the mosques is completely lost behind the cloud.

"CAIR is grasping at straws here in trying to give the impression that the FBI has an unwarranted 'perception of American Muslims as a community that must be constantly monitored,' when in fact its spying operation yielded recordings of an Islamic jihadist talking on 'multiple occasions about 'blowing up buildings, acquiring weapons, and sending money to the Afghan mujahadeen.'”—Robert Spencer, FrontpageMag

http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=90736
U.N. to make ban on criticizing Islam mandatory?
Expected proposal would criminalize such comments in U.S.
Muslim-dominated nations at the United Nations are once again pushing a religious "anti-defamation" plan that would bar worldwide all criticism of their founder Muhammad and his teaching.

Constitutional lawyer Floyd Abrams said in the report, "What they would do would be to make it illegal to put out a movie or write a book or a poem that somebody could say was defamatory of Islam." . . .