LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
October 28/14

Bible Quotation For Today/Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
Romans 06/01-14/"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace."

What does it mean that the Bible is inspired?"
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/2014/10/27/what-does-it-mean-that-the-bible-is-inspired/
Answer: When people speak of the Bible as inspired, they are referring to the fact that God divinely influenced the human authors of the Scriptures in such a way that what they wrote was the very Word of God. In the context of the Scriptures, the word “inspiration” simply means “God-breathed.” Inspiration means the Bible truly is the Word of God and makes the Bible unique among all other books.
While there are different views as to the extent to which the Bible is inspired, there can be no doubt that the Bible itself claims that every word in every part of the Bible comes from God (1 Corinthians 2:12-13; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). This view of the Scriptures is often referred to as “verbal plenary” inspiration. That means the inspiration extends to the very words themselves (verbal)—not just concepts or ideas—and that the inspiration extends to all parts of Scripture and all subject matters of Scripture (plenary). Some people believe only parts of the Bible are inspired or only the thoughts or concepts that deal with religion are inspired, but these views of inspiration fall short of the Bible’s claims about itself. Full verbal plenary inspiration is an essential characteristic of the Word of God.
The extent of inspiration can be clearly seen in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” This verse tells us that God inspired all Scripture and that it is profitable to us. It is not just the parts of the Bible that deal with religious doctrines that are inspired, but each and every word from Genesis to Revelation. Because it is inspired by God, the Scriptures are therefore authoritative when it comes to establishing doctrine, and sufficient for teaching man how be in a right relationship with God. The Bible claims not only to be inspired by God, but also to have the supernatural ability to change us and make us “complete.” What more can we need?
Another verse that deals with the inspiration of the Scriptures is 2 Peter 1:21. This verse helps us to understand that even though God used men with their distinctive personalities and writing styles, God divinely inspired the very words they wrote. Jesus Himself confirmed the verbal plenary inspiration of the Scriptures when He said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law...” (Matthew 5:17-18). In these verses, Jesus is reinforcing the accuracy of the Scriptures down to the smallest detail and the slightest punctuation mark, because it is the very Word of God.
Because the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, we can conclude that they are also inerrant and authoritative. A correct view of God will lead us to a correct view of His Word. Because God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and completely perfect, His Word will by its very nature have the same characteristics. The same verses that establish the inspiration of the Scriptures also establish that it is both inerrant and authoritative. Without a doubt the Bible is what it claims to be—the undeniable, authoritative, Word of God to humanity.
Recommended Resources: The Quest Study Bible and Logos Bible Software. gotquestions.org http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-inspired.html

Latest analysis, editorials from miscellaneous sources published on October 27, 28/14
Terrorism Defies Definition/By: Daniel Pipes and Teri Blumenfeld/The Washington Times/October 28/14
Canada gunman, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau prepared video confirming it was planned jihad attack/By: Robert Spencer/Jihad Watch/October 28/14
Salon: Qur’an “backs up jihad, suicide attacks…beheadings,” sex slavery/By: Robert Spencer/Jihad Watch/Oct 28/14
Reza Aslan’s atheism problem: “Fundamentalist” atheists aren’t the issue, apologists for religions are/Jeffrey Tayler/SALON/October 28/14
From acid attacks to execution, a dark week for Iran/By: Camelia Entekhabi-Fard/Al Arabiya/October 28/14

Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 27, 28/14
Western Diplomat Says Slim Chances of Iran Nuclear Deal by Deadline
U.N. Concerned by Iran 'Surge of Executions'
ISIS fight now costing US $8.3 million daily
Kurd leader: Turkey delaying Kobani reinforcements
Iraqi PM meets Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman
Palestinian premier visits Jerusalem holy site
Israeli University honors Pope Francis for extending warmth towards Jewish nation
Netanyahu says Israel in danger of having ISIS-run state on its borders
Jerusalem eternal capital of Palestinian state, says PA's Hamdallah at Temple Mount
CIA, FBI employed at least 1,000 ex-Nazis as spies during the Cold War, book claims
Amid Jerusalem violence, Netanyahu calls for stiffer punishments for rock throwers
PA on east Jerusalem building: Such unilateral acts will lead to an explosion
Canada pushes for new anti-terror laws, critics say money needed
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Visit Ottawa
After Sinai attack, Egyptian president orders army to back police in guarding key facilities
UK: Second Muslim in three days charged with preparing terrorism acts
Muslim leader in Israel: “Entire earth” will be “subordinate” to caliphate
NYC hatchet jihadi searched on Internet for “jihad against police” and for info on last week’s jihad murders in Canada
Nigeria: Islamic jihadists abduct 30 teenagers
Raymond Ibrahim: Islam’s ‘Good Cop/Bad Cop’ Routine
NYC hatchet attack on cops followed leak of FBI document warning of Islamic State calls to Muslims to attack police
Egypt’s Sinai in lockdown after jihadists murder 30 troops with jihad-martyrdom suicide car bombing
Egyptian Salafi party defends Islamic State from “secularists who never fail to distort everything connected to Islam”
Tunisia’s Nidaa Tounes takes lead in parliament vote: source

ISIS fight now costing US $8.3 million per day: Pentagon
Reuters/Oct. 27, 2014/WASHINGTON: The Pentagon said in updated figures Monday the average daily cost of the fight against ISIS militants has risen to $8.3 million, or a total of $580 million between Aug. 8 and Oct. 16. The new average reflects an increase in the intensity of U.S. operations against the group in Syria and Iraq. The Pentagon said a week ago the average daily cost was $7.6 million, or a total of $424 million since Aug. 8.

Salam Travels to Berlin: Order to Take Decisive Action against Terrorists Has Been Given
Naharnet/Prime Minister Tammam Salam stated on Monday that the unrest in the northern city of Tripoli “is nearing its end,” stressing the need for a national stance towards eliminating the terrorists. He said: “The order to take decisive action against the terrorists has been given.” He made his remarks before reporters during his flight to Berlin where he is scheduled to attend a conference on Tuesday on Syrian refugees. “We cannot go back on our decision to confront the terrorists,” Salam stressed in reference to clashes that erupted on Friday between the army and gunmen in Tripoli. Scores of soldiers, civilians, and gunmen were killed in the fighting that lasted three days. The army on Monday was still pursuing the gunmen who had fled their posts. He kicked off his visit to Germany by meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Salam added during his flight: “All sides are determined to impose security and stability.”“The military confrontation was imposed on us by the terrorists, but the national confrontation was a choice and it gave the army and security forces the opportunity to wage this challenge and succeed in it,” he noted. “The cost has been high … but the unity of our national powers will remain our safe haven,” remarked the premier.
“There are no rules that determine how to face terror and terrorists. We have no choice but to maintain the unity of our internal front,” Salam stressed.
Asked whether a settlement was made in Tripoli, he responded: “Several measures are always involved in military and security confrontations.”He also denied claims that sectarian agendas played a role in the latest round of Tripoli clashes. Commenting on the case of soldiers and policemen abducted in August by Islamist gunmen from the northeastern town of Arsal, he replied: “The Qatari mediator is making his efforts and seeking results, but no clear resolution has been reached.”
“For our part, we will continue to deal with all factors that emerge in order to properly employ them to ensure the release of the servicemen,” stated Salam. Earlier, the premier refused to say that Lebanon's security situation was getting out of control stressing that the army was engaged in a “ferocious confrontation” with terrorists to stop the country from being torn apart. “It's true that things have deteriorated, but the Lebanese army is keeping the situation under control, but at a high price,” he said.
“The military is engaged in a fierce confrontation with the kidnappers of the people and the entire society” and “will not back down,” the PM told al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Monday. “The army has made huge sacrifices to preserve security and peace,” he added. Salam rejected to consider the battles between the army and terrorists as a security chaos that has gone out of control.
He was asked whether he thought the fighting in Tripoli and the Akkar town of Bhannine would affect his participation in the Berlin conference on Tuesday. “The conference is very important. We have been making preparations for it since the announcement about it was made,” he said. “The world should share with us the burden” of the Syrian refugees, said Salam. He stressed that Lebanon's stance at the conference would be clear in terms of its rejection to accept more refugees except for humanitarian cases. The document, which Lebanon will present at the conference, was unanimously approved by the gove Lebanon already hosts around 1.5 million Syrian refugees, an enormous strain for a country with a population of just four million. The influx has tested overstretched infrastructure, and created fresh tensions. The UNHCR has regularly urged the international community to provide Lebanon with greater assistance to tackle the influx. The agency has also called on other countries to open their doors to fleeing Syrians to ease the burden on Lebanon and other neighboring states. More than three million Syrians have fled their country since the uprising that began in March 2011, with most taking shelter in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq.

Order restored in Tripoli as Lebanese Army seizes last militant bastion
Oct. 27, 2014
Antoine Amrieh| The Daily Star
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Lebanese commandos, backed by helicopter gunships, seized the headquarters of an Islamist militant leader Monday, on the fourth day of clashes that have rocked Lebanon's second city, leaving 42 people dead and some 150 wounded.
A military source confirmed that the Abdullah bin Masoud Mosque, the stronghold of Shadi Mawlawi and his partner Osama Mansour, militant commanders reportedly linked to the Al-Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front, had fallen into the hands of the Lebanese Army.
The source told The Daily Star troops had combed the area around the mosque, which is inside the restive Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood. Security sources told The Daily Star that soldiers found the mosque empty of militants. They believe the gunmen had melted away, their faces clean-shaven and dressed in civilian clothes, before the Army advance began early Monday morning. They said that while the operation in Bab al-Tabbaneh was over, soldiers were still hunting for wanted men and other suspects in connection with attacks against the Army, after they fled into the orchards of the northern towns of Minyeh, Mhamra and Bhenin. By midday, at least 162 gunmen had been arrested, according to the sources. Army helicopters continued to chase fugitive gunmen from Bhenin to the Oyoun al-Samak region, while Army surveillance aircraft flew over the towns and villages of Akkar, Minyeh and Dinnieh and Nahr al-Bared River. The Lebanese Army called on gunmen to hand themselves in, or be hunted down. In a statement, the military urged “remnants of fleeing armed groups” to surrender to the Lebanese Army. It said the Army would hunt them down in their hideouts and vowed to continue pursuing them until they are arrested and brought to justice. The sources said the Army was resolute in the crackdown on armed militants and was taking a no-compromise approach. Security sources earlier told The Daily Star that the Army had sealed off all entrances to the vegetable market as troops prepared to storm the militants' stronghold in Bab al-Tabbaneh.
As the soldiers surrounded the Abdullah bin Masoud Mosque, troops fanned out through the surrounding neighborhood, combing the streets for militants, the sources said. They said the early morning push followed the evacuation of citizens from the neighborhood. The sources said among the fatalities were 23 gunmen, 11 soldiers and eight civilians. Among the wounded were 92 soldiers, and 63 gunmen and civilians. There was no resistance from gunmen when the Army advance began around 6:30 a.m. Earlier Monday, unknown assailants tossed a hand grenade towards a police station in the Tripoli neighborhood of Mina. No casualties were reported. However, three cars were damaged in the 5 a.m. attack.
The four days of running street battles between Lebanese troops and militants in Tripoli and the northern district of Minyeh represented the worst bout of Syria-related violence in Lebanon since ISIS and the Nusra Front briefly overran the northeastern border town of Arsal in August, leaving dead 19 troops and dozens of militants. Prime Minister Tammam Salam, who pledged full political support for the Army in its battle against terrorism Sunday, chaired a security meeting Monday at the Grand Serail in Beirut with the heads of several security bodies. Meanwhile, the Nusra Front threatened to execute Ali Bazzal, one of 27 Lebanese servicemen being held captive by the Islamist militants, at 5 a.m. Monday after accusing the Lebanese Army of “cheating to gain time” and failing to meet its demand to end the offensive in Tripoli. No news of his fate has emerged, hours after the deadline passed. In a statement posted on a Twitter account, Nusra Front said it listed the name of captive George Khoury on the hit list as a means of pressure to avoid a further deterioration of the internal situation in Lebanon.

North Lebanon offensive nears end: Salam
Oct. 27, 2014/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The four-day Army offensive in north Lebanon is drawing to a close after troops made significant advances against Islamist militants, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Monday. “The decision has been made, and it is to be firm with terrorists and terrorism,” Salam told reporters on a flight to Berlin. “We cannot surrender or move backward.”The premier is traveling to Germany for an international conference to support Lebanon amid the Syrian refugee crisis. “The military confrontation was imposed on us by the terrorists,” Salam added. “But the patriotic stance was a choice, and it allowed the Army and security forces to confront this great challenge and succeed.”But he cautioned that Lebanon's troubles may not be over, as security incidents are impossible to predict.
“I believe we have made real advances in imposing security and stability in Tripoli, the north and all over Lebanon,” he said. The remarks came during the fourth day of an Army offensive in Tripoli and other parts of north Lebanon to root out militants. The fighting was sparked after militants in Tripoli attacked an Army position near the old souks Friday night. At least 42 people were killed in the ensuing battles over the next three days in Tripoli and the northern towns of Minyeh, Mhamra and Bhenin. Security sources told The Daily Star that 162 militants have been arrested as of mid-Monday across the north since the clashes broke out. Salam is due to attend the latest conference of the International Support Groups for Lebanon over the Syrian refugee crisis.
“There are 29 countries and 10 international organizations working with German sponsorship to help Lebanon and neighboring countries carry the great burden of Syrian refugees,” he said. More than 1.1 million Syrians have registered with the U.N. refugee agency in Lebanon since the outbreak of the neighboring crisis in March 2011.

Higher Islamic Council lends support to Lebanon Army
The Daily Star/Oct. 27, 2014/Thair Abbas
BEIRUT: The deputy head of Lebanon's top Sunni authority condemned attacks on the Army Monday, but called for the military to treat residents of all communities equally and free the country of "illegitimate" weapons. “The council refuses all attempts to ... drag [Muslims] toward a confrontation with the Lebanese Army,” the Higher Islamic Council’s deputy head Omar Miskawi said at a news conference. The council “stresses on the commitment to a strong, just state without discriminating between various areas or citizens,” he added. Miskawi made the comments after a meeting called by Grand Mufti Abdul-Latif Derian to discuss the situation in Tripoli and north Lebanon in light of the fierce weekend clashes between the Army and militants. “The council stresses on imposing the state’s authority and establishing its prestige, and enforcing the law ... on everybody in all Lebanese areas without exception,” the statement said. The council, which is responsible for carrying out the affairs of Dar al-Fatwa, condemned the calls for defection from the Army by extremists. Miskawi also spoke on the need to protect Tripoli’s heritage, its civilians and their property, and to quickly compensate them for losses during the deadly battle. The recent events in the northern city are the result of “decades of negligence and lack of serious development,” he added. This, the council said, should prompt the state to immediately start implementing a concrete action plan to revive Tripoli’s economy and develop social and health services. At least 11 Army soldiers, 23 militants and eight civilians have been killed over four days of fighting in northern Lebanon since the clashes broke out late Friday. The violence largely subsided Monday after soldiers took over Tripoli's Abdullah bin Masoud Mosque, which was being used as a headquarters by militants.

Lebanon: Fighting in Tripoli comes to a halt
27.10.14/Tripoli and Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—Fighting between Islamists and the Lebanese army in the northern city of Tripoli appeared to have stopped on Monday morning, in the latest flare-up in the city of violence spilling over from the conflict in neighboring Syria.
Samir Jisr, a Sunni Muslim politician from the city, told Reuters on Monday the army’s operation to empty the city of the Islamist fighters was now “over” and that the army was carrying out mopping-up operations to clear out any remaining gunmen.
According to eyewitnesses, fierce street battles erupted on Friday, as Islamist fighters believed to be members or supporters of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) entered the market district of the city.
Security officials told reporters that at least 11 soldiers, eight civilians and 22 gunmen had been killed during the fighting. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday, Lebanon’s Interior Minister Mashnouq put the number of Islamist fighters in the city at not above 200, and said they were made up of Lebanese and Syrians citizens. The Minister warned that the battle would not be “a quick one . . . It will take a long time,” though he added that the Lebanese army would “have the last word” once the fighting was done.
It is unclear at this stage if the army has won a decisive victory in the city, or if Mashnouq’s prediction will be proved right. Tripoli, the second largest city in Lebanon, has been the scene of periodic outbreaks of violence since the uprising in Syria began in 2011, with clashes between local groups supporting different sides in the conflict prompting the government to deploy troops as peacekeepers on several occasions. The latest clashes between the army and Islamist militants also comes after fierce fighting between the Lebanese security forces and the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front in the town of Arsal, on the Syrian border, in August. Former youth and sports minister Faisal Karami, and who hails from the Tripoli, told Asharq Al-Awsat the army had found fighting in the city difficult due to the need to avoid civilians casualties. “These fighters are concentrated in areas where there are civilians and children, whom they [the fighters] have effectively turned into hostages, and so the army is finding it difficult to resolve [the crisis] for these humanitarian reasons,” he said.
But reports on Monday said civilians in the city had been evacuated from these areas following a humanitarian ceasefire negotiated between the fighters and local Sunni leaders. The exact whereabouts of the fighters remain unknown, and some security officials have suggested they may have left the city during the civilian evacuation.

Lebanese Army Seizes Control of Bhannine's Security as it Pursues Gunmen in its Orchards
Naharnet /Clashes broke out on Monday between the army and gunmen in the town of Bhannine in the northern region of Akkar as it continued its pursuit of the fugitives following days of unrest, reported the National News Agency. It said that one officer was lightly wounded in the shootout that took place in the orchards of Bhannine. The army had managed to seize control of the town and it was still pursuing the wanted gunmen. It had raided apartments in the area east of Bhannine and searched the nearby Syrian refugee encampments. It inspected their identification papers and searched their vehicles, added NNA. A number of Lebanese and Syrians were consequently arrested for investigation and proper inspection of their identification papers. In the orchards, meanwhile, the army pursued the gunmen from the town, who had fled towards the Oyoun al-Samak area in al-Dinniyeh. It employed its military helicopters to that end. The gunmen have been spotted between the areas of al-Dinniyeh and al-Minieh near Oyoun al-Samak. Later on Monday, the army confirmed in a statement that an officer was lightly wounded in a clash with an armed group in Bhannine “during a major crackdown in the plains of the Akkar region in search for fugitives who fled during the clashes.” NNA for its part said “army units, including a commando force, carried out several raids in many Akkar villages and towns.”Troops also “staged patrols and erected checkpoints along the road separating the al-Qammoua area from Akkar al-Atiqa, all the way to the Qobaiyat-Beit Jaafar road,” NNA added. The army also deployed in the area between the towns of Qoubaiyat, al-Sindyaneh, al-Majdal, al-Bireh and Khirbet Daoud and a suspect was reportedly arrested at a mountainous Akkar region, the agency added. According to another army statement, “162 terrorists” have been arrested in Akkar, Minieh and Tripoli since Friday. Calm had pervaded the areas of al-Minieh, Bhannine, and al-Mhammara following clashes in recent days that left scores of soldiers and gunmen dead. NNA reported on Sunday that the clashes were taking place with gunmen loyal to Sheikh Khaled Hoblos.

Nusra delays Lebanese soldier execution: report
The Daily Star/Oct. 27, 2014 /BEIRUT: The Nusra Front has delayed for the third time the execution of a captive Lebanese soldier following mediation by Arsal-based preacher Sheikh Mustafa Hujeiri, a security source told Anadolu news agency Monday. The Lebanese source said Hujeiri, nicknamed Abu Takieh, traveled to Syria’s border region of Qalamoun Sunday night to urge the captors to spare the life of Ali Bazzal, who is among 27 troops and policemen held hostage by the Nusra Front and ISIS. “Hujeiri succeeded in his mission to convince the Nusra Front to postpone its decision to execute Bazzal,” the source said without elaborating. The source noted that the slaying of a captive would further complicate the internal situation in Lebanon. The captors had threatened to execute Bazzal at 5 a.m. Monday after accusing the Lebanese Army of failing to meet their demand to end an offensive against jihadist militants in north Lebanon’s city of Tripoli. Earlier executions deadlines were set for Sunday at 10 a.m., and then 2 p.m.
Hujeiri, who was involved in earlier negotiations to secure the release of the captives, was indicted and an arrest warrant was issued against him earlier in October on charges of having links to Nusra front and other terrorist groups. Nusra and ISIS have executed three soldiers and freed seven since abducting more than 30 personnel during a five-day battle in Arsal last August.

ISIS threatens to kill two Lebanon hostages: reports
The Daily Star/Oct. 27, 2014/BEIRUT: ISIS is threatening to kill two captives if demands they submitted to the Lebanese government are not met, media reported Monday. The families of soldiers Saif Zebian and Khaled Moqbel received phone calls from alleged ISIS militants informing them the troops may soon be executed, according to the unconfirmed reports carried by several media outlets. MTV said that ISIS issued the threat because of the Lebanese Army's siege on the militants, holed up on the outskirts of the northeast border town of Arsal. The Army has been blocking all roads to Arsal's outskirts to shut supply lines to the militants. Last week, Health Minister Wael Abu Faour said he had received a list of demands issued by the jihadists holding 27 Lebanese servicemen hostage. ISIS and Nusra Front militants are reportedly demanding the release of Islamists detained in Roumieh Prison. The Nusra Front announced earlier Monday, that it delayed the execution of Ali Bazzal who was set to be killed at dawn. The militant group threatened Sunday to "begin ending the kidnapped soldiers file" in the coming days, unless the Lebanese Army ended an offensive against militants in north Lebanon So far ISIS has executed two soldiers while the Nusra Front has killed one.

US envoy reiterates support for Army
The Daily Star/Oct. 27, 2014/BEIRUT: In another show of solidarity for the Lebanese Army in its ongoing battle against jihadi militants, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale said Monday that the Lebanese government could count on the United States for continued support to the military and security forces. “I can say speaking for the United States of America, the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces] has all of our confidence and we will continue to support it and the Lebanese government as they battle to keep Lebanon safe and secure,” Hale said after a meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri. Hale denounced attempts to “sow chaos and discord in Lebanon,” expressing full confidence in the Army’s capacities to maintain order and ensure people’s security in Tripoli where the Army fought fierce battles with Nusra-linked Islamist militants over the weekend. Eleven servicemen and 23 gunmen in addition to at least 8 civilians were killed in the three-day violence. “We are confident the Lebanese people stand united in the face of this threat,” Hale said, adding that “the army and the state’s security institutions alone have the legitimate role of defending Lebanon, under the direction of the government. The U.S. has delivered several batches of military assistance, including arms and ammunition, to the Lebanese Army to beef up its capacities to combat rampant terrorism after Syria’s ISIS and Nusra Front militants overran the border town of Arsal last August.

Abu al-Hoda Unveils His Plot: Creating 'Emirate' in Dinniyeh and Linking Qalamun to Lebanon Coast
Naharnet/A dangerous militant recently arrested by the army has confessed that he had been plotting to establish an “Islamic emirate” straddling four towns in the northern district of Dinniyeh as part of a broader scheme to connect Syria's Qalamun to the Lebanese coast. Ahmed Miqati, aka Abu al-Hoda and Abu Bakr, told interrogators that he was making plans to “occupy the towns of Bakhoun, Asoun, Sir al-Dinniyeh and Bqaa Safrine, given that security there is loose,” state-run National News Agency reported. The objective was to “prepare for declaring it a safe zone, raising the flags of the ISIL (Islamic State) over it, and pledging allegiance to (IS chief) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” Miqati added, according to NNA. That would have turned the four towns into “a safe haven for the fighters and those who rebel against tyranny in addition to the soldiers who defect from the (Lebanese) army,” the militant said. The move was supposed to be accompanied by “security acts in the city of Tripoli and its surroundings, which would have facilitated its implementation,” Miqati added. “The first phase of the broader scheme would have connected Syria's Qalamun to the Lebanese coast,” the militant told interrogators, according to NNA. Miqati was arrested at dawn Thursday in the Dinniyeh town of Asoun during a deadly army raid on an apartment that he and several militants had been residing in for several days. Three gunmen were killed in the operation, including defected soldier Abdul Qader Akkoumi. The confessions come in the wake of fierce clashes that erupted in Tripoli's old souks Friday over a false rumor alleging that Miqati had died during interrogation. The clashes spread to the Tripoli neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh, where a group loyal to Shadi al-Mawlawi and Osama Mansour was entrenched, and to the nearby region of Akkar where Sheikh Khaled Hoblos led an armed assault against the army. In his confessions, Miqati said Mawlawi and Mansour had been aware of his plot, “whose implementation was supposed to begin around a month from now.”Miqati had ties to “Sheikh Kamal al-Bustani, Sheikh Khaled Hoblos, Sheikh Tareq Khayyat and Roumieh prison inmates Fayez Othman and Ghassan al-Slaibi,” NNA said. He also confessed to having “wide experience in the field of manufacturing bombs,” noting that he was planning to create explosive devices to use them in his scheme. “He tried one of his bombs around a year ago in the Zgharta region,” NNA added.

Higher Islamic Council Condemns Tripoli Clashes, Demands Stripping of Illegitimate Arms
Naharnet /The Higher Islamic Council condemned on Monday the latest clashes in the northern city of Tripoli, voicing its support to the army in its efforts to crackdown down on gunmen. It said after a meeting at Dar al-Fatwa's headquarters in Beirut: “We demand that illegitimate weapons be stripped throughout Lebanon.” “We reject attempts to usurp the decision-making power of Muslims, which are aimed at luring them into a confrontation with the army,” it stated. It also highlighted the central role of the army in defending residences, markets, and civilians in Lebanon, slamming as “suspicious” incitement “aimed at persuading soldiers to defect from the army.” “The law should be implemented throughout all Lebanese regions without exception,” it stated. Moreover, the council noted that the clashes in Tripoli are a product of years of deprivation, demanding that the state implement development plans to revitalize the economy in the city and the North. “We call on the concerned agencies to cater to the needs of the people and compensate those whose properties were damaged in the latest round of fighting,” it demanded. Furthermore, the Higher Islamic Council demanded that the media remain objective in its reporting of the fighting in Tripoli and nearby areas. Clashes erupted in the city between the army and militants on Friday, leaving scores of soldiers, civilians, and gunmen dead. Soldiers on Monday entered Tripoli's Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood where thousands of civilians had fled the fighting over the weekend.

Terrorism Defies Definition
By: Daniel Pipes and Teri Blumenfeld
The Washington Times/October 27, 2014
http://www.danielpipes.org/15066/terrorism-definition
Defining terrorism has practical implications because formally certifying an act of violence as terrorist has important consequences in U.S. law.
Terrorism suspects can be held longer than criminal suspects after arrest without an indictment They can be interrogated without a lawyer present. They receive longer prison sentences. "Terrorist inmates" are subject to many extra restrictions known as Special Administrative Measures, or SAMs. The "Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002" gives corporate victims of terrorism special breaks (it is currently up for renewal) and protects owners of buildings from certain lawsuits. When terrorism is invoked, families of victims, such as of the 2009 Ft. Hood attack, win extra benefits such as tax breaks, life insurance, and combat-related pay. They can even be handed a New York City skyscraper.
The "Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002" greatly increased the importance of defining what "terrorism" means.
Despite the legal power of this term, however, terrorism remains undefined beyond a vague sense of "a non-state actor attacking civilian targets to spread fear for some putative political goal." One study, Political Terrorism, lists 109 definitions. American security specialist David Tucker wryly remarks that "Above the gates of hell is the warning that all that who enter should abandon hope. Less dire but to the same effect is the warning given to those who try to define terrorism." The Israeli counterterrorism specialist Boaz Ganor jokes that "The struggle to define terrorism is sometimes as hard as the struggle against terrorism itself."
This lack of specificity wreaks chaos, especially among police, prosecutors, politicians, press, and professors.
"Violence carried out in connection with an internationally sanctioned terrorist group" such as Al-Qaeda, Hizbullah, or Hamas has become the working police definition of terrorism. This explains such peculiar statements after an attack as, "We have not found any links to terrorism," which absurdly implies that "lone wolves" are never terrorists.
If they are not terrorists, the police must find other explanation to account for their acts of violence. Usually, they offer up some personal problem: insanity, family tensions, a work dispute, "teen immigrant angst," a prescription drug, or even a turbulent airplane ride. Emphasizing personal demons over ideology, they focus on an perpetrator's (usually irrelevant) private life, ignoring his far more significant political motives.
But then, inconsistently, they do not require some connection to an international group. When Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez shot eight rounds at the White House in November 2011, the U.S. attorney asserted that "Firing an assault rifle at the White House to make a political statement is terrorism, plain and simple" – no international terrorist group needed. Similarly, after Paul Anthony Ciancia went on a shooting spree at Los Angeles International Airport in November 2013, killing a TSA officer, the indictment accused him of "substantial planning and premeditation to cause the death of a person and to commit an act of terrorism."
This terminological irregularity breads utter confusion. The whole world calls the Boston Marathon bombings terrorism – except the Department of the Treasury, which, 1½ years on "has not determined that there has been an 'act of terrorism' under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act." The judge presiding over the terrorism trial in January 2014 of Jose Pimentel, accused of planning to set off pipe bombs in Manhattan, denied the prosecution's request for an expert to justify a charge of terrorism. Government officials sometimes just throw up their hands: Asked in June 2013 if the U.S. government considers the Taliban a terrorist group, the State Department spokeswoman replied "Well, I'm not sure how they're defined at this particular moment."
The whole world, except of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, sees the Boston Marathon bombings as terrorism.
A May 2013 shooting in New Orleans, which injured 19, was even more muddled. An FBI spokeswoman called it not terrorism but "strictly an act of street violence." The mayor disagreed; asked if he considered it terrorism, he said "I think so," because families "are afraid of going outside." Challenged to disentangle this contradiction, a supervisory special agent in the FBI's New Orleans field made matters even more opaque: "You can say this is definitely urban terrorism; it's urban terror. But from the FBI standpoint and for what we deal with on a national level, it's not what we consider terrorism, per se." Got that?
The U.S. Department of State has yet to figure out whether the Taliban are or are not terrorists.
This lack of clarity presents a significant public policy challenge. Terrorism, with all its legal and financial implications, cannot remain a vague, subjective concept but requires a precise and accurate definition, consistently applied.
**Mr. Pipes (DanielPipes.org) is president of the Middle East Forum, where Teri Blumenfeld is a researcher. © 2014 All rights reserved by Daniel Pipes and Teri Blumenfeld.

Canada pushes for new anti-terror laws, critics say money needed
Reuters/ By Euan Rocha and David Ljunggren/27.10.14
TORONTO/OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian police need more resources and not extra powers to deal with the threat posed by extremists after two deadly attacks, say legal and security experts, as the government pledged to deliver tough new anti-terror legislation.
Canada's Conservative government said it will soon introduce a bill to enhance the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) spy agency and is planning other legislation designed to allow police to preempt threats and crack down on hate speech.
Officials complain they are hampered by laws they say impose too many restrictions and prevent them from taking action against people who are clearly a threat.
"The challenges are the thresholds — the thresholds that will allow either preventive arrest, or charges that lead to sentences," Public Safety Minister Stephen Blaney said on Friday.
Authorities are most concerned about 93 high-risk travelers who they fear could try to leave the country to join militant groups or mount attacks in Canada.
But experts note that law enforcement agencies already have wide ranging powers at their disposal and could use rarely tapped provisions in Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act.
"The thing the authorities need however more than anything else is far more resources," said University of Ottawa professor Errol Mendes, a lawyer and constitutional law expert.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Bob Paulson made clear last Thursday that he could use more money, saying the task of watching the suspects was highly labor-intensive.
A senior CSIS official told legislators on Oct. 20 that the agency did not have the funding to simultaneously follow all of the people it regards as its top suspects.
The 2013 Combating Terrorism Act introduced new powers and penalties aimed at least in part at preventing such attacks. It also allows for preventative detention and interrogating suspects before any charges are laid in certain circumstances.
Experts argue the fact that these options have been rarely tapped by authorities is a sign that more regular techniques and procedures are for now sufficient.
"It will be very difficult to come up with additions to those that really wouldn't offend democratic principles," said Wesley Wark, an associate professor at the University of Toronto and a leading Canadian expert on intelligence and anti-terrorism matters.
One particularly controversial change in the CSIS bill would grant blanket protection for CSIS informants in security proceedings, shielding their identities from judges and not allowing them to be cross-examined.
Lawyers who have acted for suspects in these cases say this means they would have no way of challenging possibly false testimony.
"I don't believe that when it comes to enforcement that we should just turn a blank checkbook over to our security services," said Norman Boxall, an Ottawa lawyer, who predicted the new measures would be challenged in court.
Tom Mulcair, the leader of the official opposition New Democrats, said after Monday's attack that he saw no need for new powers for CSIS.
"More often than not, all the powers that you need are there, but you actually have to provide all the resources to exercise those powers," he said.
(Additional reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson and Eric Walsh)

After Sinai attack, Egyptian president orders army to back police in guarding key facilities
The Canadian Press/By Hamza Hendawi, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 27/10/14
CAIRO - Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Monday ordered the military to join police forces in guarding vital state facilities against terror attacks, a move that would expand the military's already dominant public presence since it toppled the government of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi 15 months ago.
The decree follows a surge in attacks by Islamic militants against troops and police and the weekend killing of 30 Egyptian soldiers by suspected militants in the troubled northern part of the Sinai Peninsula — the deadliest attack against the army in decades. El-Sissi slapped a dusk-to-dawn curfew on northern Sinai after the attack while there has been a flurry of media reports saying authorities were preparing to evacuate civilians from Sinai's hotspots.
The president's decree stipulated that army troops will join police in guarding state facilities for two years, during which they will be treated as military installations. The perpetrators of any attacks against the facilities will be tried before military tribunals.
Presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef said facilities to receive military protection include railway lines, bridges, roads, oil and gas pipelines and oilfields.
Suspected militants have repeatedly bombed gas pipelines, power lines and telephone exchanges. In Cairo, Morsi supporters are blamed for blocking or throwing oil on key roads and bridges to disrupt traffic in the city of some 18 million people.
El-Sissi, who led the July 2013 military takeover that removed Morsi after one year in office, has been seeking to rally the nation behind him in the fight against the militants, calling it an "existential" battle. He accused foreign powers he did not name of involvement in Friday's attack in Sinai.
The attack and el-Sissi's reaction have whipped up jingoistic sentiments in Egypt, prompting some media outlets to publicly declare their unwavering support for the state in the fight against terror or bar certain guests from their political programs on charges of being "rumour mongers" — parlance for critics, no matter how mild, of the government.
In the past week, several talk show hosts have either been briefly taken off the air in the middle of their programs or prevented altogether from hosting their shows. The clampdown on the freedom of expression in the name of the fight against terror is the latest encroachment on liberties in Egypt since el-Sissi assumed office in June.
In the 15 months since Morsi's ouster, authorities have killed hundreds of Islamists and jailed thousands, including most of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic group from which Morsi hails. A parallel crackdown has been underway against secular pro-democracy activists who fueled the 2011 uprising that topped longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.
El-Sissi has repeatedly warned against a foreign plot to "down" Egypt and declared his commitment to freedom and democracy as long as national interests are safeguarded.
On Sunday, a Cairo court convicted 23 activists of violating a draconian law on street protests, sentencing them to three years in prison, a fine of 10,000 pounds (about $1,400) and placing them under police surveillance for three more years after their prison terms end. They included prominent rights activist Sanaa Seif, who has been on hunger strike for nearly two months, and Yara Sallam, a rights lawyer with one of Egypt's key human rights advocacy groups.
"It's back to business as usual in Egypt, with the Egyptian government brazenly trampling on the rights of its citizens and Western governments supporting it," Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch was quoted as saying in a statement issued late Sunday by the New York-based group. "The el-Sissi government will clearly go to any length to crush domestic opposition, whether secular or Islamist."
The 23 allegedly organized and took part in a demonstration last June near el-Sissi's palace in Cairo against a law adopted late last year that criminalizes street protests staged without a prior police permit. The law has deepened the rift between el-Sissi and his supporters on one hand and liberal pro-democracy youth groups on the other.
"It is not acceptable to hang the country in the name of freedom and it is not understandable either that freedom is executed in the name of security," wrote columnist Abdullah el-Sinnawi in Monday's edition of al-Shorouk daily newspaper.

Canada gunman, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau prepared video confirming it was planned jihad attack
Robert Spencer/Jihad Watch/Oct 27, 2014
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Bob Paulson said in a statement they have ‘persuasive evidence that Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s attack was driven by ideological and political motives.'” That is, jihad — but even when confronted with clear evidence that this was a jihad attack, Paulson still cannot call it what it was. And Paulson is not singular in this, of course. He is just a minor functionary speaking the way he was trained to: when it comes to jihad terror, call it anything else you can possibly call it, anything so as to distract attention from what it really is. “Canadian gunman who shot dead soldier recorded video message before attack that reveals it WAS a meticulously planned act of terror, police say,” Associated Press, October 26, 2014:
A gunman who shot and killed a soldier at Canada’s national war memorial and then stormed Parliament before he was gunned down had prepared a video recording of himself that reveals his ideological and political motives, police claim.
The footage of Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, which is yet to be released, is said to confirm investigators’ fears that this was a meticulously planned terrorist attack.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Bob Paulson said in a statement they have ‘persuasive evidence that Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s attack was driven by ideological and political motives.’
A detailed analysis of the video was being conducted and Paulson said they cannot release the video at this time.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called Wednesday’s shooting a terror attack, and the bloodshed raised fears that Canada is suffering reprisals for joining the U.S.-led air campaign against Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria.
Police are investigating Zehaf-Bibeau’s interactions with numerous individuals in the days leading up to the attack and whether they could have contributed or facilitated it.
Paulson said a knife carried by Zehaf-Bibeau was taken from his aunt’s property in Mont Tremblant, Quebec, and they’re looking into how he got the rifle. Paulson called it an old, uncommon gun that police suspect he could have also hidden on the property.
Paulson said investigators also identified where he got his money for the car he bought and his pre-attack activities. He said Zehaf-Bibeau has been employed in the oil fields in Alberta, saved his money and has access to a considerable amount of funds.
memorial .‘The RCMP is confident we will have an authoritative and detailed account of the shooting, including a complete reconstruction of the heroic actions of those involved, in the weeks to come,’ said Paulson, who also said the Ontario Provincial Police will investigate the shooting inside Parliament. Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, shot to death Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, 24, who was assigned to the honor guard at the national war memorial. Zehaf-Bibeau was eventually gunned down inside Parliament by the sergeant-at-arms of the House of Commons, Kevin Vickers. The attack in Ottawa came two days after a man described as an ‘ISIL-inspired terrorist’ ran over two soldiers in a parking lot in Quebec, killing one and injuring the other before being shot to death by police.
The man had been under surveillance by Canadian authorities, who feared he had jihadist ambitions and seized his passport when he tried to travel to Turkey. Unlike the attacker in the Quebec case, Zehaf-Bibeau was not being watched by authorities. But Paulson said last week Zehaf-Bibeau, whose father was from Libya, may have lashed out in frustration over delays in getting his passport. Paulson said his mother told police that her son had wanted to go Syria.
Susan Bibeau later denied that in a letter published by Postmedia News, saying her son told her he wanted to go to Saudi Arabia where he could study the Qu’ran [sic].

Salon: Qur’an “backs up jihad, suicide attacks…beheadings,” sex slavery
Robert Spencer//Jihad Watch/Oct 26, 2014
Sunspots? Salon has suddenly discovered that the Qur’an sanctions jihad, suicide attacks, beheadings, and sex slavery, and that Islamic law also allows for female genital mutilation, wife-beating, stoning, etc. — after having excoriated me for years as an “Islamophobe” and a “bigot” for saying just such things. To compound the heresy, they’re publishing this in the context of a takedown of media darling Reza Aslan, whose every pronouncement, no matter how ridiculous, is ordinarily greeted with breathless adulation from media types.
To be sure, the author of this piece, Jeffrey Tayler, makes it more palatable to his Leftist audience by claiming that Jewish and Christian Scriptures contain material that is just as hateful and violent as that which is in the Qur’an — and he doesn’t explain, of course, why we don’t see Jewish or Christian terrorists committing acts of violence and justifying them by reference to their Scriptures. But despite this thoughtless and baseless moral equivalence, casually stated as if it were axiomatic (and it is, in Salon’s circles), this article is still remarkable for what it admits: aspects of Islam that Salon has never, as far as I can recall, acknowledged before.
Has Bill Maher made it safe for Leftists to admit that there is a problem with how jihadis and supremacists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and oppression?
“Reza Aslan’s atheism problem: ‘Fundamentalist’ atheists aren’t the issue, apologists for religions are,” by Jeffrey Tayler, Salon, October 25, 2014:
Bill Maher’s recent monologue on “Real Time” about the failure of liberals to speak out about the routine atrocities and violations of human rights carried out in the name of religion in the Muslim world has unleashed a torrent of commentary, much of it from progressives advocating more, not less, tolerance of Islam.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who sided with Ben Affleck against Maher in a follow-up segment a few days later, calls ISIS rebels, in an op-ed, “barbarians” who “give all Islam a bad name,” and asks us to take into account the religion’s diversity, lest we slip into “Islamophobic bigotry.” Fareed Zakaria, in his Washington Post column, cautions us to recall that Islam, Christianity and Judaism once peacefully coexisted, but acknowledges that Islam suffers from a “cancer” – extremism that incites acts of terrorism. This he views, though, as a problem of “Islam today.” (He neglects to point out that in the Muslim-dominated countries where this peaceful coexistence occurred, Christians and Jews suffered humiliating second-rate dhimmi status, unequal legally or socially to Muslims.) Writing on Al Jazeera English, Lana Asfour lauds Affleck for calling out Maher’s “racism” and espies, in the comedian’s treatment of Islam, an “overriding agenda” aimed at justifying the “past, present, and future mistakes” of U.S. foreign policy.
One pundit in particular, though, has busied himself opining on Maher and nonbelievers in general — Reza Aslan, Islam’s most prominent apologist of late. Delivered via multiple media outlets, his remarks, brimming with condescension, tinged with arrogance and laden with implicit insults to thinking people, deserve special scrutiny for one main reason: among well-intentioned liberals who don’t know much about religion, his words carry weight.
In a New York Times editorial, Aslan accused Maher and other nonbelievers of “exhibiti[ing] an inability to understand religion outside of its absolutist connotations.” Such folk, in his telling, unjustly “scour holy texts for bits of savagery and point to extreme examples of religious bigotry, of which there are too many, to generalize about the causes of oppression throughout the world.” They fail to grasp, in his view, that “religion is often far more a matter of identity than it is a matter of beliefs and practices.”
Yet Aslan accuses the benighted critics of religion of a far more grievous misapprehension: the assumption that words mean what they actually mean. Here I’ll quote him at length.
“It is a fallacy to believe that people of faith derive their values primarily from their Scriptures. The opposite is true. People of faith insert their values into their scriptures, reading them through the lens of their own cultural, ethnic, nationalistic and even political perspectives. . . . After all, scripture is meaningless without interpretation. The abiding nature of scripture rests not so much in its truth claims as it does in its malleability, its ability to be molded and shaped into whatever form a worshiper requires. . . If you are a violent misogynist, you will find plenty in your scriptures to justify your beliefs. If you are a peaceful, democratic feminist, you will also find justification in the scriptures for your point of view.”
Now we have to stop and ponder what we are being sold here. Aslan is essentially taking a postmodernist, Derrida-esque scalpel to “scripture” and eviscerating it of objective content. This might pass muster in the college classroom these days, but what of all those ISIS warriors unschooled in French semiotic analysis who take their holy book’s admonition to do violence literally? As they rampage and behead their way through Syria and Iraq, ISIS fighters know they have the Koran on their side – a book they believe to be inerrant and immutable, the final Word of God, and not at all “malleable.” Their holy book backs up jihad, suicide attacks (“martyrdom”), beheadings, even taking captive women as sex slaves. This is not surprising; after all, the prophet Muhammad was a warrior who spread Islam by the sword in a dark, turbulent time in history. (Christianity’s propagation had, in contrast, much to do with the Roman emperor Constantine’s fourth-century conversion and subsequent decriminalization of the faith.)
Moreover, the razor-happy butchers of little girls’ clitorises and labia majora, the righteous wife-beaters, the stoners of adulterers, the shariah clerics denying women’s petitions for divorce from abusive husbands and awarding sons twice the inheritance allowed for daughters, all act with sanction from Islamic holy writ. It matters not a whit to the bloodied and battered victims of such savagery which lines from the Hadith or what verses from the Koran ordain the violence and injustice perpetrated against them, but one thing they do know: texts and belief in them have real-life consequences. And we should never forget that ISIS henchmen and executioners explicitly cite their faith in Islam as their motive. Tell that to Derrida – or Aslan….

Reza Aslan’s atheism problem: “Fundamentalist” atheists aren’t the issue, apologists for religions are
Saturday, Oct 25, 2014
Jeffrey Tayler/SALON
Bill Maher’s recent monologue on “Real Time” about the failure of liberals to speak out about the routine atrocities and violations of human rights carried out in the name of religion in the Muslim world has unleashed a torrent of commentary, much of it from progressives advocating more, not less, tolerance of Islam.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who sided with Ben Affleck against Maher in a follow-up segment a few days later, calls ISIS rebels, in an op-ed, “barbarians” who “give all Islam a bad name,” and asks us to take into account the religion’s diversity, lest we slip into “Islamophobic bigotry.” Fareed Zakaria, in his Washington Post column, cautions us to recall that Islam, Christianity and Judaism once peacefully coexisted, but acknowledges that Islam suffers from a “cancer” – extremism that incites acts of terrorism. This he views, though, as a problem of “Islam today.” (He neglects to point out that in the Muslim-dominated countries where this peaceful coexistence occurred, Christians and Jews suffered humiliating second-rate dhimmi status, unequal legally or socially to Muslims.) Writing on Al Jazeera English, Lana Asfour lauds Affleck for calling out Maher’s “racism” and espies, in the comedian’s treatment of Islam, an “overriding agenda” aimed at justifying the “past, present, and future mistakes” of U.S. foreign policy.
One pundit in particular, though, has busied himself opining on Maher and nonbelievers in general — Reza Aslan, Islam’s most prominent apologist of late. Delivered via multiple media outlets, his remarks, brimming with condescension, tinged with arrogance and laden with implicit insults to thinking people, deserve special scrutiny for one main reason: among well-intentioned liberals who don’t know much about religion, his words carry weight.
In a New York Times editorial, Aslan accused Maher and other nonbelievers of “exhibiti[ing] an inability to understand religion outside of its absolutist connotations.” Such folk, in his telling, unjustly “scour holy texts for bits of savagery and point to extreme examples of religious bigotry, of which there are too many, to generalize about the causes of oppression throughout the world.” They fail to grasp, in his view, that “religion is often far more a matter of identity than it is a matter of beliefs and practices.”
Yet Aslan accuses the benighted critics of religion of a far more grievous misapprehension: the assumption that words mean what they actually mean. Here I’ll quote him at length.
“It is a fallacy to believe that people of faith derive their values primarily from their Scriptures. The opposite is true. People of faith insert their values into their scriptures, reading them through the lens of their own cultural, ethnic, nationalistic and even political perspectives. . . . After all, scripture is meaningless without interpretation. The abiding nature of scripture rests not so much in its truth claims as it does in its malleability, its ability to be molded and shaped into whatever form a worshiper requires. . . If you are a violent misogynist, you will find plenty in your scriptures to justify your beliefs. If you are a peaceful, democratic feminist, you will also find justification in the scriptures for your point of view.”
Now we have to stop and ponder what we are being sold here. Aslan is essentially taking a postmodernist, Derrida-esque scalpel to “scripture” and eviscerating it of objective content. This might pass muster in the college classroom these days, but what of all those ISIS warriors unschooled in French semiotic analysis who take their holy book’s admonition to do violence literally? As they rampage and behead their way through Syria and Iraq, ISIS fighters know they have the Koran on their side – a book they believe to be inerrant and immutable, the final Word of God, and not at all “malleable.” Their holy book backs up jihad, suicide attacks (“martyrdom”), beheadings, even taking captive women as sex slaves. This is not surprising; after all, the prophet Muhammad was a warrior who spread Islam by the sword in a dark, turbulent time in history. (Christianity’s propagation had, in contrast, much to do with the Roman emperor Constantine’s fourth-century conversion and subsequent decriminalization of the faith.)
Moreover, the razor-happy butchers of little girls’ clitorises and labia majora, the righteous wife-beaters, the stoners of adulterers, the shariah clerics denying women’s petitions for divorce from abusive husbands and awarding sons twice the inheritance allowed for daughters, all act with sanction from Islamic holy writ. It matters not a whit to the bloodied and battered victims of such savagery which lines from the Hadith or what verses from the Koran ordain the violence and injustice perpetrated against them, but one thing they do know: texts and belief in them have real-life consequences. And we should never forget that ISIS henchmen and executioners explicitly cite their faith in Islam as their motive. Tell that to Derrida – or Aslan.
Not just belief in the Koran leads to mayhem, though. Open the Book of Leviticus (in the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament) and read the prescriptions of death (often by stoning or burning) as punishment for, among other things, cursing your parents, committing adultery, practicing bestiality (with mandatory slaughter of the unwitting animal as well), engaging in prostitution or sodomy, worshipping another god or taking God’s name in vain, and being the (female) victim of rape. The New Testament is somewhat less vicious, but even gentle Jesus, meek and mild, warned in Matthew (10:34): “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword,” and preached “unquenchable fire” and damnation for sinners.
That the faithful have always been acting on the words in their holy books may not accord with how Aslan would like us to see religion, but it is hardly news. Even Shakespeare found this problematic. In “The Merchant of Venice,” he wrote that “In religion, what damned error but some sober brow will bless it and approve it with a text, hiding the grossness with fair ornament.” Grosser “errors” than beheadings or female genital mutilation cannot be imagined; intentionally trying to obscure cause and effect where faith is concerned, as Aslan does, is morally reprehensible, is insensitive to the victims, and provides cover for their butchers.
The problem with religion lies not with, as Aslan would have it, interpretation – postmodern or otherwise – but with, for starters, the founding texts themselves. The canonical writings of Islam, Christianity and Judaism all contain a plethora of macabre fables and explicit injunctions for vile, sadistic behavior that no civilized person would or should accept, but which far too many do take as literal truth. (And not just in the Middle East. Even in the United States, a Gallup poll conducted this summer established that three out of four Americans consider the Bible the actual word of God.) The only way for those hoping to justify faith while shielding their scripture from censure is to do what Aslan does: shift the focus from the “holy” texts to the people reading them.
The so-called “New Atheists,” including Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens, have tried to do the opposite: get people to examine religion and help them understand it as innately backward, obscurantist, irrational and dangerous. Their aggressive secularism has, of course, stirred controversy and resentment. It was bound to do so. For millennia, the faithful have held the high moral ground virtually unopposed. Now (at least occasionally) under fire, some modern-day believers have taken to levying a clever yet false counter-accusation; namely, that the so-called “New Atheism” amounts to a “religion all its own” and that nonbelief can be just as hazardous as nonbelievers say religion is.
Aslan has proven a masterly practitioner of this ruse. He has used it to muddy the rhetorical waters to the extent that both belief and nonbelief come off, in his telling, as comparable, with “fundamentalism” a problem for both.
“Atheism is a belief system like any other belief system,” he told HuffPost Live last week in a lengthy interview about – again – Bill Maher’s stance on Islam. “It’s a set of propositions about the nature of reality. And like any set of propositions, it can neither be proven nor disproven.”
This is patently untrue: nonbelief is not a “belief system.” Atheism simply denotes nonbelief in a god, and the rejection of god-related assertions, advanced without evidence, or with risible semblances of evidence drawn from the holy writings themselves in dispute, that an invisible, almighty Supreme Being superintends the universe, grants our wishes or not as He sees fit, and demands to be both loved and feared. Smart atheists know that God’s inexistence cannot be proven, but find no reason to accept the absurd claims the three Abrahamic faiths make, and every reason to react with anger and contempt when adherents of those religions attempt to impose them on the rest of us. The religious argue that the absurdity of their holy books’ tenets presents them with an opportunity to win bona fides with their god by suspending their critical faculties and believing them anyway, but no rational human being should be obligated to respect their decision – let alone submit to their mandates.
Aslan went on to compound his mischaracterization of atheism by falsifying history, and warned, on the basis of his own falsification, of the dangers of atheist “fundamentalism.” In response to a viewer’s comment that atheists don’t start wars, he stated that, “I’m sure that would be quite a surprise to the countless victims of Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot.” Wrong again. Although bloodthirsty nonbelievers, none of these tyrants committed a single atrocity (much less started a war of any sort) in the name of, or for the sake of, atheism. But if a suicide bomber blows himself up inside a mosque or a market, you can be pretty sure he believed in the Islamic doctrine of martyrdom, especially if, as has so often happened, he has left video testimony saying so.
Aslan said much more in his interview worthy of refutation, but what transpires through all the rhetorical dodges, whitewashing and clever distortions of fact he (and others defending religion) have offered us since Maher delivered his anti-Islamic monologue is not that one faith is better or less violent than another, but that religion itself is to blame. Religion, in interfering with the free exercise of our critical faculties, in setting out an outlandishly untrue history of the cosmos and humankind’s position in it, and in purporting universality that some are willing to die and kill for, is more than just what the physicist Steven Weinberg called “an insult to human dignity;” it is, in our age of weapons of mass destruction and increasing global instability, a threat to us all. The chief fons et origo of conflict and hatred today, religion must be dumped, ushered out of the public arena and back into the private, personal realm for those still inclined to harbor it or too weak to do without it. No thinking person need feel pressured into condoning or excusing faith-based brutalities out of well-meaning but incorrect liberal sentiments.
How are we to rid ourselves of religion? I don’t know a nonbeliever who considers it likely that we will. Even Christopher Hitchens likened it to the rats of Camus’ “The Plague,” always scurrying about in a city’s sewers, ready to spring forth on us when we have forgotten about the pestilence they carry. But we can take action to ensure that we do not unwittingly favor religion’s continuation by taking stances, both public and private. (I wrote about this previously for Salon here.) Nonbelievers need to approach faith as a subject like any other, one we can talk about and criticize without fear of causing offense – or, in the case of Islam, concern for our physical safety.
This is in fact our constitutional right. The First Amendment forbids Congress from establishing an official religion and protects free speech – including speech that offends the sentiments of believers. If we disbelieve what religion’s canon tells us, we need to say so openly, and in mixed company, pointing out that no rational person could believe it or accept it as true and valid, were it not for indoctrination, immaturity, willful abandonment of reason, fear, or simple feeblemindedness.
We can also cease displaying knee-jerk respect for those who propagate faith. A priest, rabbi, or imam should merit no more deference than a witch doctor – all traffic in gullibility, human misery and vulnerability, and none can prove the efficacy of their ministrations. We must point out the inherent dangerousness of faith itself – of believing things to be true without evidence. The British poet Perce Bysshe Shelley, writing two centuries ago, put it bluntly: “God is an hypothesis, and, as such, stands in need of proof: the onus probandi” – the burden of proof – “rests on the theist.” Claims made on the basis of religion should be met by demands for evidence.
Atheists should proceed from a self-evident central truth: the three Abrahamic “revealed religions” are based on Iron-Age, Roman-era or Medieval texts of human authorship. This does not mean everything they say is bad – consider the Golden Rule. But no atheist, when confronted by believers nevertheless advancing solutions for what ails our society today based on one or another holy book, should shy away from stressing the temporal provenance of scripture, and evaluate such solutions on their secular merits (if they have any). Nor should we hide our disdain for the religious symbols forced upon us with regularity. (Take the cross. Is it a symbol of God’s love and benevolence toward Man, or a gory relic of a fictitious human sacrifice?) We should express our outrage and disgust with Republican (faith-motivated) attempts to have creationism taught in schools, establish legal hurdles for women desiring abortions, limit access to birth control and oppose same-sex marriage.
Humankind began advancing out of the millennium of dark theocratic rule that began with the fall of the Roman empire only with the dawn of the Renaissance and its celebration of the human experience. This celebration did not exclude religion, which inspired some of the magna opera of art, architecture and literature, as gazing at the work of Giotto or reading Dante and Milton will show. Even much that is specifically religious has aesthetic value: check out Ecclesiastes or the recitations of master qaris. But aesthetics are one thing, and how to deal with our increasingly perilous predicaments as a species quite another.
We will all be better off when we relegate religious texts to the “fiction” section in our local bookstore. And given the violence and lurid conduct they feature, we might want to stamp their covers with “X–RATED: NOT SUITABLE FOR MINORS.”
**Jeffrey Tayler is a contributing editor at The Atlantic. His seventh book, "Topless Jihadis -- Inside Femen, the World's Most Provocative Activist Group," is out now as an Atlantic ebook. Follow @JeffreyTayler1 on Twitter.

Netanyahu says Israel in danger of having ISIS-run state on its borders
By LAHAV HARKOV/10/27/2014/J.Post
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the opening of the Knesset's winter session on Monday, saying that Israel's soldiers had prevented a multi-pronged attack against Israel during Operation Protective Edge. He touted Israel's success in destroying Hamas terror infrastructure during the 50-day conflict and thanked the IDF soldiers for their sacrifices during the conflict. "Last time I stood here it was before Protective Edge, an operation against a criminal terrorist attack," Netanyahu stated. "Hamas shot thousands of rockets at Israel's cities, planned attacks from the air and underground. We stopped most of them. We killed hundreds of terrorists and collapsed the towers of terror," he added. "We did not give into the dictates of Hamas that would have endangered Israel," the prime minister said.
"The Palestinians are demanding a state without peace and without security - they want 1967 borders and the right of return. They won't take the basic step in making peace - mutual recognition. They demand we recognize them but they won't recognize us," Netanyahu charged. "Israel won't agree to a Palestinian state without a real peace treaty that will recognize Israel as a nation of Jewish people and include security arrangements," the prime minister vowed. What's the point of drawing a border if you don't know what state you'll have on the other side of it? Netanyahu asked, saying that Israel was in danger of having a state run by ISIS (Islamic State) on its borders. Every inch of territory that we have evacuated has been taken over by extremists, Netanyahu said. "We don't want a bi-national state, but we also don't want another Iranian satellite on our borders," he said. Peace cannot be built on lies and illusions, Netanyahu said. He rejected claims that Israel was attempting to change the status quo at the Temple Mount and said Israel has the right to build in Jerusalem

Israeli University honors Pope Francis for extending warmth towards Jewish nation
By ARIEL COHEN/10/27/2014/J.Post/On Monday the Pope received an audience at the Vatican from Bar Ilan University to accept the Israeli university’s highest honor and award of distinction. A spokesperson from the Israeli university said they honored the Pope for “his contribution to understanding and tolerance between Christians and Jews and the warmth he has extended toward the Jewish nation, particularly during his official visit to Israel.” Pope Francis visited the Holy Land for the first time in May and he called for peace in the region. Since then, the Pope has been a voice of reason and worked to create peace in the Middle East not only in Israel, but in other countries too. “Through a variety of ongoing dialogue programs aimed at fostering understanding and acceptance, Bar-Ilan University has been working to bridge gaps between various sectors of Israeli society for many years. It is therefore a deep privilege to be meeting with and honoring the Pope, who has taken it upon himself to undertake this tremendous task on a worldwide scale," Bar Ilan University President Rabbi Professor Daniel Hershkowit said. Other university officials were present as well as a delegation of Jewish and non-Jewish business people from South America and Spain were expected to attend the event.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Visit Ottawa
October 27, 2014 - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today confirmed that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Ottawa on Tuesday, October 28, 2014.
“Canada and the United States have been partners, allies and friends through good times, as well as through some of our most tragic moments in history,” said Baird.
“President Obama and Secretary Kerry were among the first people to reach out to Canada during the horrific events of last week. I am grateful that Secretary Kerry will visit Ottawa and stand by Canadians as we mourn the loss of Corporal Nathan Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent and as we move forward in pursuit of our shared values.”
Baird and Secretary Kerry will hold talks in Ottawa on a range of important international and bilateral issues.
“Canada and the United States continue to cooperate closely on a range of issues, from combatting the threat of ISIL to standing with the Ukrainian people as they seek a future that embraces freedom and democracy,” said Baird. “We will also discuss ways to strengthen our bilateral relationship, focusing on domestic security, on promoting legitimate trade and travel between our two countries, and on further cooperation on North American energy security.
“Canada and the United States have shown the world time and time again that, when faced with challenge and adversity, we rise to the occasion and emerge even stronger and more resolved than before.”
Details regarding Secretary Kerry’s visit to Canada will be made available to the media on Tuesday morning.

From acid attacks to execution, a dark week for Iran
Camelia Entekhabi-Fard/Al Arabiya
Monday, 27 October 2014
Recent weeks have not been pleasant for many Iranians, making for dark times in their calendars. First came the acid attacks on women in the historical city of Isfahan and then the mysterious death of Iran’s English news channel Press TV’s reporter Serena Shim on the border of Syria and Turkey. The week wrapped with the execution of Reyhaneh Jabbari on Saturday. The photos of disfigured young women wrapped in heavy bandages in hospital beds ripped out many hearts. They were reportedly attacked due to their not adhering to strict dress codes and not properly wearing their head coverings. Horrified members of the public protested in Tehran and Isfahan and demanded justice for the victims. “Reyahaneh Jabbari was hanged early morning Saturday and her death shocked the whole nation”
The government has, however, denied the allegation that the attackers’ motivation was based on fighting improperly veiled or covered women. According to reports, four woman have been attacked so far in Isfahan since the beginning of October and President Rowhani appointed the interior minister, minster of intelligence and chief justice to investigate the case.
Male-dominated theocracy
In this male-dominated theocracy, women are always blamed and considered half of the problem and the judicial system usually takes the male’s side or covers up the case because of “national security” concerns, at least that is my take on the issue.
Fighting crime and stabilizing the country often results in hangings. Having the world’s second rank after China, according to amnesty international, 369 people were publicly put to death in the Islamic Republic last year. This number is not inclusive of executions carried out inside the prisons. This week also, the execution of Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, whom allegedly killed the man who was attempting to rape her when she was 19, was carried on Saturday Oct. 25, in spite of public outcry regarding her sentence.
The interior designer was convicted for the 2007 stabbing of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi. First, she confessed to having an accomplice than retracted her confession and took responsibility for Mr. Sarbandi’s death and claimed that the stabbing was done in self-defense against a rape attempt. The court didn’t accept her self-defense claim and sentenced her to death. In a statement ahead of the hanging, Amnesty said the investigation had been “deeply flawed” and that Jabbari’s claims “do not appear to have ever been properly investigated.”
Public and international pressure
Despite public and international pressure on Iran’s judiciary to ensure a fresh trial, her file - like many other unsolved cases - remains closed while the truth was never revealed to the public and remains a mystery. It is not only global human rights campaigners but also those in Iran – some being the most respected senior public figures – which called on Sarbandi’s family to pardon this young woman who already spent seven years in prison. Mohammad Reza Shajarian, Iran’s greatest living master of Persian music, composer and Persian classical singer, last week in an open letter to Sarbandi’s family published on his public Faceook page asked for mercy. Master Shajarian behalf of millions of Iranians who were not convinced that she deserved the death penalty, wrote in his letter: “ When the public emotion reaches its highest climax, everyone expects good will and good work...Today the public conscience is awake and expects you to have mercy upon her … My suggestion and request is: ‘Don’t kill this girl’.”Reyahaneh Jabbari hanged early morning Saturday and her death shocked the whole nation. Iranians used social media networks to attack Sarbandi’s family and the slain man whose true identity and real affiliation with this girl remained in the shadows. Today with all the despair and disappointment over the recent events, the public expectation of Iran’s upcoming nuclear talks hasn’t changed. If the talks fail, the public reaction could be extreme with so many people counting on the new government of Rowhani to make a difference and solve international issues as well as augment their social and civil rights.
Some evidence of improved international relations has come in the inauguration of the Golden Eagle Luxury Trains tour, which marks the first time a European private train had been permitted to enter Iranian territory since the revolution. The Golden Eagle train will stop in the ancient cities of Yazd, Isfahan, Shiraz and finally Tehran. But this advancement does little for people’s civil rights and the nuclear file!