Middle East | Ain't Complicated

The King’s in Town!

Central Oregon is abuzz over news of a bona fide blue blood in their midst.

King Abdullah Hussein of Jordan arrived in Bend this week to embark on a motorcycle trip through the Pacific Northwest with his family….

OK, I want to know why I wasn’t informed.

I know people in Central Oregon. Your assignment is to get me a photo or two of the king and/or one of his family.

Don’t let me down!

PS to the monarch: I plan to be in Madras this weekend. See you there!

PS to srs: I know you read this once in a while. I know you go on motorcycle trips once in a while. I know you go to that part of Oregon once in a while. Now’s the time for you to do the right thing (see Assignment, Previous).

Iran: Shall We Kill More?

Iranians consider mandatory execution for apostasy:

A plan is being discussed by lawmakers in Iran that would require the death penalty for anyone who leaves Islam for Christianity or someone who promotes such a conversion even on the Internet, according to a new report from Compass Direct News.

Those discussions of a penal code that was drafted earlier this year bring urgency to situations such as the two men arrested recently and under interrogation for that very crime, the report said.

The report said Iranian authorities arrested a number of converts to Christianity in the city of Shiraz about two months ago on suspicion of “apostasy.”

Arash Bandari, 44, and Mahmood Matin, 52, were arrested at the time along with 13 other Muslim converts to Christianity. But while the other 13 were told they have a court case pending and then released, Bandari and Matin have been held ever since.

The 13 who have been released have not been told of any specific charges, but they report the nature of their questioning gives them reason to think the allegations may include apostasy and political crimes.

The other two, Bandari and Matin, have been held almost incommunicado. Matin’s wife was able to see him for several minutes on June 24, when the prisoner told his wife “there had been a misunderstanding and that he could not teach Christianity any more,” Compass reported.

[…]

Compass noted that under the existing sharia laws in Iran, the death penalty is available for the crime of apostasy, but not required.

Ahmadinejad: Act MMVIII

This morning Joel Rosenberg asks: War in November?

War clouds continue to build in the epicenter. Last month in Rome, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that the United States and Israel would soon be “annihilated,” language he had not used so explicitly since October 2005 when he promised to wipe Israel “off the map” and urged Muslims to “envision a world without the United States.” This week, his regime authorized a new series of Iranian war games. He ordered the digging of 320,000 graves to bury the enemies of Islam. He is calling for the unification of the Islamic world politically and economically, including the creation of a single currency.

Top Israeli intelligence officials, meanwhile, increasingly believe that time is running out. They believe that Iran could have nuclear weapons within a year and one former Mossad chief is urging his country’s leadership to launch a massive series of air strikes against Iranian nuclear and other military facilities before it is too late. Israel’s Air Force just conducted a test run of such a bombing mission.

[…]

The U.S. does not want Israel to strike. After all, the repercussions of such a war with Iran would be global in nature. Israel would face tens of thousands of incoming missiles not just from Iran but likely from Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza and possibly the West Bank. Some of these missiles could be have chemical and/or biological warheads, even if the nuclear warheads in Iran are not yet ready. Ballistic missiles would also be likely fired from Iran at the oil fields in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, at oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and the Straight of Hormuz, and at U.S. bases and forces in Iraq. Tens of thousands of suicide bomber cells could be activated in the region — especially in Iraq and Israel — and perhaps even in Western Europe and the U.S. and Canada. Iranian efforts to topple Jordan’s King Abdullah II and/or Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in favor of radical Islamic regimes friendly to Tehran could also be set in motion. Oil prices could shoot from $140 a barrel to $300 a barrel or more. U.S. gas prices could spike to $7-$10 or more, with horrific domestic and global economic repercussions.

No wonder Washington doesn’t want a war with Iran. No wants such a war. I certainly do not, nor do the Israelis. Yet, the U.S. does not have a convincing plan to stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program in time. Nor does the U.N., or the E.U. Diplomacy isn’t working. Economic sanctions have been imposed on Iran since 1979 to little strategic effect. Unfortunately, the words of Sen. John McCain keep echoing in my head this week. In April 2006, the senior Senator from Arizona appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press. He warned, “there’s only one thing worse than using the option of military action, and that is the Iranians acquiring nuclear weapons.” For if Iran gets the Bomb, he said, “I think we could have Armageddon.”

If this were in one of Mr. Rosenberg’s novels, some people would be looking over their shoulders wondering when it would come true. But it’s not, so they can breathe a sigh of relief. 😐

That aside, here’s a bit from Joel’s most recent Flash Traffic email:

As Israel faces the possibility of war with Iran in the next year — possibly as early as this fall — The Joshua Fund is stepping up efforts to stockpile food, water, medical equipment and other emergency supplies. Over the weekend, our leadership hosted the head of a leading evangelical Israeli relief organization to develop detailed contigency plans and we have a staff team heading to Israel at the end of the month to meet with other key allies. Over the course of the next few days, I will be holding conference calls with evangelical pastors throughout the U.S. to brief them on the latest developments and discuss ways they can help.

There are a few urgent prayer requests we would like to share with all of you:

1) First and foremost, please pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the entire region. Pray for the leaders of the region — and our own national leaders — to make wise choices in the days and weeks ahead. While diplomacy and sanctions haven’t worked so far, they still could. So let’s pray that the Lord would spare all the people of the region another war. They have, after all, suffered so much already.

2) Pray especially for peace on Israel’s southern border. Every day, rockets and mortars from Gaza are striking fear into the hearts of some 500,000 Israeli residents. Pray, too, for the staff of Barzilai Medical Center, the only hospital treating Israelis in the southern tier. Pray for wisdom and comfort for the doctors, nurses, administrators and volunteers. Pray that they would have all the equipment, pharmaceuticals and other essentials they need to treat those affected by the on-going terror attacks.

3) Please pray for evangelical Christians and Israeli Jews to join forces to bless the people of Israel in real and practical ways. Pray that historic tensions would subside, and that Christians would truly show unconditional love and unwavering support to the Jewish State. Pray, too, that Israeli leaders at all levels of society would be open to and accepting of such support, and that The Joshua Fund could play a positive, helpful role in all of this.

4) Please pray for members of Israeli churches and congregations and their leaders to have wisdom and discernment to know how best to love their neighbors and their enemies. Please particularly pray for their courage and patience. While harassment of believers in Israel is nothing like the terrible persecution ongoing in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran or elsewhere, attacks against followers of Jesus in Israel have increased in recent months. As I have reported before, the 15-year old son of an Israeli pastor was nearly killed this spring when a bomb was sent to the pastor’s home disguised as a Purim gift. Ami Ortiz is slowly, steadily, miraculously recovering. But he definitely needs your prayers for the many surgeries he is having to go through. Please also pray that the authorities in Israel would be truly diligent in tracking down and catching those responsible for this horrific crime. The police have now definitively ruled out Palestinian terrorism. This was done by Jews who hate Israeli believers in Yeshua, they believe. But there have been concerns that the police were not doing as much as possible to solve the case. Pressure from Christians around the world writing to Israeli embassies insisting on action has helped. Please keep praying and pressing for justice. Unfortunately, there have been other attacks as well. A deputy Mayor of an Israeli town recently organized Orthodox youths to round up New Testaments and other Christian literature and burn them in a huge bonfire. Christian workers in the country are being denied visas. Some Israeli officials are harassing immigrants who believe in Yeshua and trying to strip of their Israeli citizenship. The Lord is being gracious in all these areas, and a national discussion has ensued over whether Israeli believers in Jesus have a right to live peaceably in the Jewish State, especially since they are very loyal citizens. They fight in the army. They pay their taxes. They serve their communities. They care for the poor and needy. They want to help build a strong Israel for the future. They also want the right to worship the Lord and unashamedly express their belief that Yeshua is the Messiah and the hope not only of the Jewish people, but the whole world. Let’s continue to pray for these brothers and sisters during these challenging times.

5.) Finally, please pray that we evangelicals around the world would have the courage to stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel and that we would not hesitate in any way to help them have enough food, water, clothing, medical equipment and other needed supplies to care for their own communities as well as their neighbors when the next war breaks out. As Paul wrote in Romans 15:25-27, “Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there. For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.” We do owe it to our brethren in Israel to help them in their nation’s time of need. This summer, therefore, TJF is seeking the Lord to provide an additional $1 million above and beyond our current financial commitments to accelerate our efforts to stockpile these goods, acquire the needed warehouse facilities to store them, and vehicles to move them around the country. Our board will meet this weekend to discuss several urgent new projects and make decisions on how to proceed based, in part, on our sense of whether we believe we can afford accelerating our work in Israel. We are bringing in several experts to advise us, including a former top U.S. military commander who is a dear brother in Christ and has decades of experience praying for peace yet preparing for war. I’ll report more next week on what comes out of these discussions.

Islam: What Will You Not Say?

The Erosion of Free Speech

Although the headline of the June 8th article in the Daily Times of Pakistan read “Pakistan to ask EU to amend laws on freedom of expression,” the request from high-level government officials was in reality a threat. The six-person Pakistani delegation was set to deliver a warning that unless blasphemy against Islam stopped, terrorist attacks against European assets could escalate. Their cited example was the suicide bomb attack this June 2 on the Danish Embassy in Pakistan in which eight people died and 27 were injured as a result of possible renewed backlash to the 2005 publication of 12 editorial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed.

Islamabad informed the European Union countries that the backlash to perceived insults to the “religion of peace” could jeopardize “inter-religious harmony” and result in uncontrollable attacks on other diplomatic missions abroad. A high-level delegation representing the Pakistani government was to travel to Brussels to further warn EU officials of the liabilities of free expression.

This apocryphal grandstanding, in which Islamabad seeks to eradicate free speech and reclassify it as an offensive hate crime, is part and parcel of the insidious Islamic effort to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate under shariah law. Paradoxically, in most of the Muslim world, the right of free speech is nonexistent. Verbal and physical attacks on non-Muslims are rampant, as is death for apostates, terrorism training for youth, hate indoctrination of non-Muslims in mosques and schools and the oppression of Christians, Hindus and Jews. But Muslims feel free to use democratic precepts in the service of their own radical ideology to, ultimately, overthrow liberty, eliminate individual rights and destroy freedoms in Western societies. They seek prohibitions on free expression to strengthen Islam, pave the way toward Islamization and keep the Western public ill informed and unaware of potential threats to the democratic way of life. By couching this effort as merely the elimination of offensive speech, they conceal their true goal of undermining the laws of Western societies, specifically the very foundation of democracy – free speech.

This goal was dramatically illustrated in March of 2008, when the 57 Muslim states that make up the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) struck a blow against free speech by successfully forcing through the United Nation’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC) an amendment to a resolution on Freedom of Expression. The amendment, requiring extensive changes to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, officially characterizes as abuse and an act of religious discrimination any criticism of Islam. It also calls for the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression to report any individuals and news media issuing negative comments about Islam.

In June, this limitation on free speech was further underscored when representatives of two non-governmental organizations sought to address stonings, honor killings and female genital mutilation sanctioned under shariah law. As part of the effort to mute criticism of Islam, the Egyptian UNHRC delegate demanded that the speakers be silenced, proclaiming, “Islam will not be crucified in this Council.”

Thus, banned from UNHRC sessions is criticism of shariah laws that oppress women, condemn homosexuals and threaten converts and non-Muslims. Also banned are statements against Islamic law-sanctioned child marriage, honor killings, the hanging of homosexuals and the murder of apostates.

The United Nations is not the only front where Islamic gag orders are in place. Canada’s Human Rights Act….

Be sure to read more (if not all) of the full article.

HT: Persecution.org

Supremely Spoken

Read these excerpts and tell me who wins and who loses:

Supreme Court rules for Guantanamo prisoners

Guantanamo Bay prisoners can go before U.S. federal judges to challenge their years-long detention, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday in a landmark decision that delivered a stinging setback for President George W. Bush’s policies.

[…]

“Today’s decision forcefully repudiates the essential lawlessness of the Bush administration’s failed Guantanamo policy,” said Steven Shapiro of the American Civil Liberties Union.

[…]

“The entire basis for the existence of Guantanamo Bay is gone,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, a military lawyer assigned to defend Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Hamdan, in the Guantanamo tribunals.

“It’s a victory for all Americans because it reinforces the principle that no person or agency is above the law.”

So it’s a loss for President Bush and his administration.

And it’s a win for terrorists.

And the ACLU and Amnesty International.

Oh, and for all Americans.

On that last one, I have my doubts, but we’ll see.

I’m guessing it will end up being a loss for some terrorists and “enemy combatants” who presently are not in custody. I expect more will end up dead on the battlefield. Or wishing they were at Gitmo under yesterday’s circumstances than in the foreign prison system into which they have disappeared after being captured by Americans and being turned over to others.

Anyway, here’s another Supreme Court story from the other side of the planet (I suppose):

Top court rules against Americans held in Iraq

Federal judges cannot block U.S. military officials from turning over two Americans held in Iraq to local authorities who want to prosecute them for involvement in the insurgency or criminal activity, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

The high court’s decision was a defeat for two Americans who say they are innocent and who are being held by U.S. soldiers at Camp Cropper near Baghdad International Airport.

[…]

Their lawyers say the two men might be tortured or even killed if they are transferred to Iraqi custody and that they should have access to U.S. courts to challenge their detention and to stop their transfer to Iraqi authorities.

[…]

The Bush administration has argued that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over the cases, partly because the two men are being held under the auspices of multinational forces in Iraq, of which the U.S. contingent is only a part.

[…]

The court rejected the administration’s arguments that the two men have no rights whatsoever to habeas corpus — the right to challenge their imprisonment.

Roberts said the right extends to American citizens held overseas by American forces operating subject to an American chain of command. But he held that U.S. courts do not have the power to block their transfer to a foreign country for criminal prosecution.

Again, who wins and who loses?

And also, can that last sentence be used by the Administration to transfer all Gitmo prisoners to a foreign country so they don’t have to be admitted into the US court system?

All in all, it seems to me that these two cases are symptomatic of the degrading national sovereignty of the United States.

Disclaimer: I may not know what I’m talking about. 🙄

PS: If I were the next President, I would appoint guys to the US Supreme Court who wouldn’t put up with this kind of nonsense. You know, maybe like those two fellows Mr. Bush stuck on there. At least, I think I would. You could write my name on the ballot in November on the assumption that I would. 😀

Death Wishes

I saw two headlines and thought of my post title.

Israel to attack Iran unless enrichment stops

“If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective,” Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz told the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

“Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable,” said the former army chief who has also been defense minister.

It was the most explicit threat yet against Iran from a member of Olmert’s government, which, like the Bush administration, has preferred to hint at force as a last resort should U.N. Security Council sanctions be deemed a dead end.

Iran has defied Western pressure to abandon its uranium enrichment projects, which it says are for peaceful electricity generation rather than bomb-building. The leadership in Tehran has also threatened to retaliate against Israel — believed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal — and U.S. targets in the Gulf for any attack on Iran.

Mofaz also said in the interview that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, “would disappear before Israel does.”

Somebody needs to teach that Mofaz fellow to be direct and unvarnished in his approach. 😉

For instance, he could just up and say, “Ole Mahmoud’s got a death wish.”

Disclaimer: I’m not making light of a volatile situation.

Accused 9-11 mastermind welcomes death penalty

The accused al Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks stood in a U.S. military court on Thursday, sang a chant of praise to Allah and said he would welcome the death penalty.

“This is what I wish, to be martyred,” Pakistani captive Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the highest-ranking al Qaeda operative in U.S. custody, told the Guantanamo war crimes court.

He and four accused co-conspirators appeared in court at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba for the first time on charges that could result in their execution.

As the judge questioned him about whether he was satisfied with the U.S. military lawyer appointed to defend him, Mohammed stood and began to sing in Arabic, cheerfully pausing to translate his own words into English.

“My shield is Allah most high,” he said, adding that his religion forbade him from accepting a lawyer from the United States and that he wanted to act as his own attorney.

He criticized the United States for fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, waging what he called “a crusader war,” and enacting “evil laws” including those authorizing same-sex marriages.

Is that truly his wish?

(When I read comments like that in such a context, I wonder how the individual making them ended up being taken alive.)

Then I focused on a third headline…and wondered if it might fit here as well.

Obama meets Clinton in private

Likely U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama met privately with former rival Hillary Clinton on Thursday as the party sought to unite for the general election campaign after a long nomination battle.

Many folks seem to think putting Hillary on the ticket would constitute a death wish on Barack’s part. Some think so in a political sense; others, in a literal sense. 😯

But never mind Obama and Clinton. Guys, if you choose the wrong gal, you could be entertaining a death wish. I say that because I remember A Tragic Lament I read in Proverbs 5 this morning.

Representing the USA

Interesting news story, for what it says about running scared:

U.S. soldier riddles Koran with bullets in Iraq

An American soldier has been disciplined and ordered from Iraq, the U.S. military said on Sunday, for using a copy of the Koran for target practice at a shooting range near Baghdad.

[…]

CNN said when Major-General Jeffery Hammond, the commander of U.S. troops in Baghdad, and other officers arrived to deliver the apology to local leaders in Radwaniya they were met by hundreds of protesting Sunni Arab tribesmen.

“I am a man of honor, I am a man of character. You have my word this will never happen again,” Hammond told the crowd.

“In the most humble manner, I look into your eyes today and I say, please forgive me and my soldiers,” CNN reported on its website.

It said Colonel Ted Martin, a brigade commander, held up a new copy of the Koran which he kissed and touched to his forehead as he handed it to the tribal elders.

“I hope that you’ll accept this humble gift,” Martin said.

And for what it says about representing one’s country.

Which of the above three men accurately represented the United States?

(Oh, Mr. Hammond — Do you realize your statement above could seem to suggest that you authorized the incident for which you are issuing a No-Repeat guarantee?)

But far more importantly to me, am I an accurate representation of the Kingdom of Heaven?

When I as a Christian take the name of Christ, am I portraying an accurate representation of my King?

I think this story is tragic for what it says about the US…and for the ill it portends for this country.

But I think that’s far less tragic than Mark Roth (and you?) being a poor representative of and ambassador for Jesus Christ.