Mid-Week Post

It's the mid-weekiest!


Jordan has agreed to a prisoner swap leaving the fate of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto unresolved:

The Islamic State group released a message late Wednesday purportedly by Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, extending the deadline for Jordan's release of an Iraqi would-be hotel bomber linked to al-Qaida.

The audio was released as Jordan had offered a precedent-setting prisoner swap to the Islamic State group in a desperate attempt to save a Jordanian air force pilot the militants purportedly threatened to kill, along with Goto.

The audio recording, in English, says the Jordanians must present Sajida al-Rishawi at the Turkish border by sunset Thursday, or Jordanian pilot Mu'as al-Kasaseabeh will be killed. ...

King Abdullah II faces growing domestic pressure to bring the pilot home. However, meeting the Islamic State's demand for the release of a would-be hotel bomber linked to al-Qaida would run counter to the kingdom's hardline approach to the extremists.

Efforts to release al-Kaseasbeh and Goto gained urgency with the release late Tuesday of a purported online ultimatum claiming the Islamic State group would kill both hostages within 24 hours if the al-Qaida-linked prisoner was not freed.

Unless the Jordanians have a trick up their sleeves, this does set a bad precedent and will possibly open up the Islamist floodgates in a country that is barely keeping Islamism out.


Israel fires back at Syria after a rocket attack:

Israeli airforce jets struck Syrian army artillery positions near the Israel-occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday, the military said, in retaliation for rockets launched in the area the previous day.

Tensions have escalated in the border region in the 10 days since an Israeli air strike on territory under the control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad killed an Iranian general and several Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

On Tuesday, at least two rockets from Syria hit the Golan Heights and Israel responded with artillery fire, the army said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket fire and no casualties were reported.

"We will not tolerate any firing towards Israeli territory or violation of our sovereignty and we will respond forcefully and with determination," Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a statement.

Well, this must be embarrassing:

One of the country's largest Muslim organizations gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Hamas-linked charity, and vocally supported an Egyptian Islamist group, QMI Agency has learned.

The Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), based in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, Ont., owns or operates at least 20 Islamic schools and 15 mosques in Ontario, Alberta and Quebec.

MAC's website says the group is centred around "holistic educational and spiritual development" and "has no organizational link or affiliation with other organizations."

However, QMI obtained an RCMP search warrant linking the group to IRFAN-Canada, a banned charity group and a listed terrorist organization also based in Mississauga.

The Mounties, citing Canada Revenue Agency disclosure, say: "The Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) provided $296,514 between 2001 and 2010" to IRFAN-Canada.

The Conservative government declared IRFAN-Canada a terrorist group on April 29, 2014 -- one day after the Mounties raided the charity.

The government said "between 2005 and 2009, IRFAN-Canada transferred approximately $14.6-million worth of resources to various organizations associated with Hamas."

Hamas's charter calls for the destruction of Israel.

First World problems:

University of Saskatchewan students were given the chance to walk in the shoes, or rather, the headcovering of their Muslim classmates. 

The U of S Muslim Students' Association hosted the Hijab Day Challenge. Organizers of the event, which was part of Islam Awareness Week, gave non-Muslim students the chance to learn about the hijab and wear one for the day. 

"There are women out there who have people come up to them and they might say something to them offensive, like 'go back to your country' or 'you're oppressed' or 'you're forced to wear this,'" said Amna Khizer, one of the organizers. 

"Those misunderstandings, they develop just as a result of people not knowing. When they come and they learn about it, why we practice our faith, why we do all of this, why we wear hijab and all this stuff, it just generally increases that understanding."

Third-year sociology student Michelle MacDonald was one of the students who donned a hijab for the day. 

"As a white woman in Canada, if I want to talk about another culture, I have to learn about the other culture," she said.

"In a setting that's as culturally diverse as the university, I think it's something really nice to see and I think it's nice that women feel they can express themselves however we want, not just the ways Canadians would always like them to."

If the padded females of Canada wish to really know what it's like to be a Muslima then wearing a head scarf for one day simply will not do.

Anyone can go on a Slut Walk or whip off one's top and nurse one's baby (except in the Islamic world). What good is making-believe for twenty-four hours when there is no compulsion to wear an identity-covering garment lest this happen:

About 1,000 people demonstrated in Isfahan in central Iran where the women were maimed in the past week, attacked by assailants on motorbikes. ...

The protest came as Iran's health minister Hassan Hashemi visited one victim at a city hospital.

The woman, covered in bandages, gave a harrowing account of how she has lost sight in her right eye.

She pleaded with Mr Hashemi, an ophthalmologist, for an operation.

"I was a student, I am educated, I was behind the wheel of my car and then the attacker took my life away from me," the woman, named as Soheila Jorkesh, was quoted as saying by IRNA.

"Nobody knew how to help me at the time. It took 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

"I am the only daughter of this family. My left eye still has sight. Please help me so that I can see."

What good is protecting your loose virtue when you still have your external reproductive organs intact and/or haven't been gang-raped?

Doctors at one English hospital have dealt with 1,500 cases of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in just five years, it emerged today.

Figures from Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital reveal that staff see six patients who have been subjected to the barbaric procedure every week.

 

No. That just won't do.

I know one is never supposed to go full Muslima but in this case, make the exception.

There are no-go zones in Europe if Iraq is too hot.

The German journalist Udo Ulfkotte told in a recent interview that in Holland, you can now see examples of young, unveiled Moroccan women with a so-called "smiley". It means that the girl gets one side of her face cut up from mouth to ear, serving as a warning to other Muslim girls who should refuse to wear the veil. In the Muslim suburb of Courneuve, France, 77 per cent of the veiled women carry veils reportedly because of fear of being harassed or molested by Islamic moral patrols.

How about it, "brave" Canadian students? Would you like to "express" yourselves when you've got everything to lose in places nowhere nearly as tolerant as Canada?


And now, in the snow storm that wasn't, it was clear enough to find a lost dog:

A whippet named Burt that vanished on the streets of New York City five months ago has finally made it home.

The Fire Department of New York said Burt's incredible journey came to end early Tuesday at the height of the winter storm when he was rescued at a training facility on Randall's Island.

"As soon as he saw his owner, the dog started wagging his tail, licking her," said David Kelly, a firefighter who reunited the pair.