Stand up

At Harry's Place there are two recent brilliant posts. One is about a Dispatches programme on Britain's Channel 4 last night called Undercover Mosque. I missed it, but apparently it "uncovers" the hate preaching going on in British mosques. Hate preaching that is bankrolled by wahabist Saudis.

The investigation reveals Saudi Arabian universities are recruiting young Western Muslims to train them in their extreme theology, then sending them back to the West to spread the word. And the Dispatches reporter discovers that British Muslims can ask for fatwas, religious rulings, direct from the top religious leader in Saudi Arabia, the Grand Mufti.

Saudi-trained preachers are also promoted in DVDs and books on sale at religious centres and sermons broadcast on websites. These publications and webcasts disseminate beliefs about women such as: "Allah has created the woman deficient, her intellect is incomplete", and girls: "By the age of 10 if she doesn't wear hijab, we hit her," and there's an extreme hostility towards homosexuals.

Lovely.

On the Channel 4 site, most comments applaud Channel 4 and the Dispatches programme for their work. But of course, a few don't. I do love this one:

It is becoming fashionable in the West to attack the Islamic beliefs and teaching. One year ago, our prophet was depicted and mocked. However, we as Muslims should see this as another opportunity to reform themselves and to spread the word of Allah, after all our aim and objective is to give Dawah.

OK, I can certainly see how some Muslims would feel under attack or at least harsh scrutiny. And yes, that statement about "reforming themselves" and spreading the word of Allah is almost turn-the-other-cheek-esque. But our commenter goes on to say:

Gradually by the will of Allah, we shall conquer every country, be it the USA or others.

Lovely.

In the same post, though there's an example of a Muslim who doesn't want to use his religion as a weapon and who is fighting against political Islamisation. It's all very well to point out the bad in the spread of political Islam and to ask moderate Muslims to stand up to it, but we ought to least listen when some of them - like Shaheed Satardien seem to be doing so.

-0-

The other great post is about Argentina's Nestor Kirchner and how he's uncovering the secrets on some of his country's dirty past. This includes opening the files on the Buenos Aires bombing of a Jewish synagogue in 1994. Looks like it was Hezbollah with backing from Iran. Kirchner, although a "leftist" who buddies up with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, has done what other leftist leaders in South America haven't.

...it's reassuring that Kirchner is standing on principle by refusing to join other leaders in greeting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his current Latin American tour.

But here's the poignant bit:

I'm sure I could find much to dispute with Kirchner, not least his lavish praise for Chavez, but at least-- unlike some other "leftists"-- he draws the line at embracing a man who protects people almost certainly responsible for the mass murder of Jews as Jews.

There was a time when this was the minimum you could expect from those who identified themselves with the Left. Not anymore.