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TERRORISM ATTEMPTS Israel continues to be on high terrorism alert, despite and as evidenced by the continuing total closure on Arab areas in Yesha. A Kassam rocket aimed at the city of Efrat, south of Jerusalem, was not directed at the residents - but rather at soldiers. It was originally assumed that the rocket, discovered this morning in the Arab village of Beit Fajr pointing towards Efrat, would have been fired at the town had it not been discovered this morning in time. Security sources now say, however, that the rocket was in fact a decoy, designed to draw IDF soldiers towards a pipe bomb attached to its side. IDF sappers neutralized the bomb without incident - but not before Efrat residents were ordered into bomb shelters or concrete-roofed rooms. Soldiers in Gaza were targeted in two separate incidents this morning: with grenades in the Rafiach area of southern Gaza, and with a bomb near Netzarim; no one was hurt. Two dead terrorists were later found at the latter site, and a third terrorist was severely wounded. An IDF undercover unit arrested this afternoon the leader of the Democratic Front terrorist organization in the Ramallah area. Soldiers operating in Jenin had several successes today. They found a 10-kilogram explosives device hidden under a mound of rocks, and safely detonated it; they discovered a small weapons cache with a bomb, eight rifles and two handguns; and they arrested 15 residents of a nearby village, on suspicion of having taken part in terrorist activities. Maj. Shachar Shmul, the company commander who was killed by an Arab sniper in Bethlehem on Monday night, was buried this afternoon in the Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem. Hundreds of people participated in the funeral. Shmul was killed while ensuring that a controlled explosion of a suspected terrorist vehicle did not endanger nearby Arab homes.

Jonathan Tobin Prudence, not Prejudice Rhetoric about 'religion of peace' leads to tunnel vision about Islamist terror http://www.jewishworldreview.com | This week, Americans were forced to wonder what an "orange alert" for possible terror attacks on American and specifically Jewish targets might mean to their lives. But while this announcement, and the dangers it could represent, was given a full airing, others were worrying more about whether our not terribly impressive measures of self-defense on these shores might upset some people. In our country, you have a choice about what kind of fear to obsess about. You can, if you like, take the warnings of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Attorney General John Ashcroft seriously. If so, you can, like my wife and I, debate the merits of purchasing copious amounts of water to have on hand so we can have something to drink in case of nuclear or biological attacks. You could also discuss, as we did, whether or not it is silly to be worried about driving to New York this week to pick up my mother for a visit because the date coincides with a Muslim holiday we are told some might celebrate by trying to blow up or poison Americans. But if that sort of paranoia/reasonable precaution (take your pick) doesn't appeal to you, you can go another route. You can imagine that the same government officials who are desperately trying to warn and reassure us at the same time are also a greater threat to our liberties than our nation's enemies. Unfortunately, this sort of intellectual craziness seems to be as common as the run on bottled water at the supermarket. NO BACKLASH AGAINST ISLAM These fears notwithstanding, in the 17 months since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has bent over backwards to make sure that Arab-Americans and Muslims will not suffer a backlash comparable to that suffered by the Japanese-Americans during World War II. While taking a resolute posture towards the terrorists, those aligned with them and those "allies" who seek to protect them, Bush seems to go positively weak at the knees at the very thought that America's war on terror is aimed at Islam or its adherents in general. Of course, he's right about that. But the lengths to which the administration has gone to make this point have become almost comical. Indeed, Bush has recited the mantra, "Islam is a religion of peace," so often that the expression has become something of a standing joke on popular Web sites, such as the Wall Street Journal's "Best of the Web" on their opinionjournal.com site. He isn't alone in this respect. In the general rush to educate Americans about our enemies in the war on terror without succumbing to stereotyping an entire faith, a new level of political correctness has been achieved. Take, for instance, the handout titled "Q&A on Islam and Arab Americans" that was included in a recent edition of USA Today. In it, we are informed that "jihad does not mean 'holy war.' " Unfortunately, that's the same line of baloney Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat uses when he is caught inciting terrorism. We are also informed by USA Today that Islam tolerates the practice of other faiths, respects both Christianity and Judaism, and definitely opposes terrorism. The majority of Muslims in this country probably agree. But the problem lies not in what the USA Today primer on Islam and the White House say about Islam, but on what they don't mention. They tend to omit the fact that the Muslim world is currently divided into two groups. One, called Islamists, supports terror and does not have warm, cuddly feelings about America, Jews and other faiths. The other group fits the USA Today/George W. Bush idea of Muslims. The bad news is that far from being marginal, the Al Qaeda-supporting Islamists are on the rise around the world. And while most American Muslims appear to fall in the category of non-Islamists, their self-appointed spokesmen are clearly in the Islamist camp even if they make pro forma condemnations of Al Qaeda. Scholars like the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum's Daniel Pipes have been telling us this for years. But just as no one in power listened much to men like Pipes before Sept. 11, few seem to understand this distinction either. The latest and perhaps most appalling instance of this attitude is the dust-up currently playing itself out in Washington between two prominent conservatives over who should have access to the White House. It seems that Grover Norquist, a man little-known around the country, but a key Washington insider within conservative circles, has been helping get representatives of two radical Muslim and Arab-American groups access to the White House and Congress. Norquist, who is known as the guru of tax cuts, is, strangely enough, also closely allied with the pro-Hamas American Muslim Council (AMC), as well as the viciously anti-Israel and anti-war-on-Iraq Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Conservative think-tank wonk Frank J. Gaffney Jr., who served as Undersecretary of Defense in the Reagan administration, charged last week that Norquist is attempting to make these groups, that have rationalized terror and opposed every attempt by the Bush administration to fight it, appear kosher. While Bush, Ashcroft and Ridge were rallying us to persevere in the war on terror, Gaffney says Norquist's friends were able to walk into the White House via the front door. FOES OF ISLAMISTS TARRED AS "RACISTS" For raising the issue, Gaffney has been labeled a "racist" and a "bigot." That's the same treatment afforded Swiss historian Bat Ye'or, whose books detail the long history of Islamic intolerance for Jews and Christians. Bat Ye'or's 2002 book "Islam and Dhimmitude" (paperback) followed up brilliantly on her previous histories, such as the classic The Dhimmi: Jews & Christians Under Islam, which detailed the story of what exactly the Islamic "toleration" for Jews and Christians actually meant. Rather than being invited to the White House, Bat Ye'or was practically chased off the nearby campus of Georgetown University last year, where her truthful lecture on the history of Islamic intolerance was labeled "hate speech." The irony is that groups like AMC and CAIR ought to be treated by freedom-loving Americans of every faith as anti-democratic pariahs. But instead, they have mounted a campaign to label men like Gaffney and Pipes as anti-Muslim rather than anti-terror. The threat from the Islamists isn't paranoia. It is all too real. That's why the pablum some in the media and the White House hand us, downplaying the threat from much of the Islamic world, is so dangerous. Were it merely intended to ward off a backlash against American Muslims, it might be defensible. But no such backlash exists, nor is there any credible proof of one. The bottom line is that the apologists for terror at AMC and CAIR should not be allowed to keep their White House seal of approval. Nor should their bile aimed at delegitimizing the truth-tellers be allowed to prevail. If it does, it will undermine both our liberties and the war on terror. And that's something we should all be frightened about.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article....RTICLE_ID=31014 Muslim loyalties -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: February 13, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Craige McMillan --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Will the real Muslims stand up? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: February 13, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Hal Lindsey --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Luke: You worded that so well, brother! Spiritcritter: Welcome! Don't be sheepish or tremble greatly - -we welcome your views!

The topic that Kiwi raised in another part of the forum regarding a friend and an internet relationship got me thinking about a Christian radio show I was listening to a few weeks back. These counsellors were saying that we need to be more careful about our dealings on the internet, that they have more potential for danger (as far as meeting up with someone who is a threat) and for adultery. In my own life, I have found that internet relationships mimic the ones I have in my "real life", and have found no real difference, except that there is the greater potential to misunderstand each other because we can't read facial expressions and body signals. However, I do not have all that much internet experience as some of you might have. Any thoughts on this, brothers and sisters? I really would like a Christian look at this topic.

Everyone is giving such great advice.

I am not posting this as criticism to the government of any nation. I intend this as food for thought only: The Religious Worker Visa scam Michelle Malkin http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Call it the Radical Muslim Cleric Importation Plan. Under the religious worker visa ("R visa") program, an unknown number of Middle Easterners claiming to be imams or other mosque employees have been admitted to the United States with minimal scrutiny. According to a complaint from the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York unsealed last week, Muslim religious leader Muhammed Khalil, his son Asim, and three other individuals submitted false R visa applications on behalf of more than 200 Middle Eastern aliens. Although Khalil and his cronies were nabbed after an 18-month investigation, federal authorities are mum on the whereabouts of the Middle Eastern illegal aliens who purchased fake R visas from Khalil and his colleagues. The R visa program, created by Congress in 1990, gives visas to thousands of foreigners to fill alleged domestic shortages among ministries, nunneries, and other religious professionals. In 1998, some 11,000 foreigners received such visas. According to a 1999 General Accounting Office report, federal investigators have discovered R visa fraud rings involving churches and other religious institutions based in Colombia, Fiji, and Russia. The mastermind of the 1993 WorldTradeCenter bombing, Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, had an R visa. So did four Palestinian men who worked for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development and the Islamic Association for Palestine-both Muslim charities that the State Department has linked to the terrorist organization Hamas. The 1999 GAO report highlighted persistent lapses in oversight. "Neither INS nor [the] State [Department] knows the overall extent of fraud in the religious worker visa program," the report concluded. No one knows! TomRidge, are you listening? It's going to take more than duct tape and plastic sheeting to fix this problem. This much is clear to immigration veterans: The R visa program is a notorious law enforcement evasion scheme under which a number of religious facilities have been established as fronts to enable foreign nationals to enter the U.S. using false identities and evade criminal and terrorist watch lists. Khalil's ring charged up to $8,000 per person. His mosque sponsored more than 200 applicants seeking work visas through the INS program, alleging they were religious workers who taught the Koran, Islamic history and the Arabic language. According to the complaint, Khalil supplied fake names ("Amjad Hussain," "Mohammad Amjad," "Amjad Ali Chaudhry"); fake degrees (from the University of Punjab); and fake religious training certificates (for the "Nazra Quran Course"). Assistant U.S. attorney Edward O'Callaghan revealed in court last week that Khalil made taped comments to an undercover witness proclaiming allegiance with Osama bin Laden and fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. "Hopefully," Khalil reportedly mused, "another attack in the United Stateswill come shortly." Details about how Khalil first arrived in the U.S., why he was allowed to stay, and how he came back to acquire U.S. citizenship are sketchy. But it's enough to raise alarm bells about the continued laxity in policing fraud in the so-called "immigration services" branch of the federal homeland security bureaucracy. Prosecutors said Khalil arrived in the United States in 1973, agreed to leave the country at the request of the INS in the late 1970s and returned in the early 1980s. By 1987, he had secured U.S. citizenship. Will President Bush's new appointee to head the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services get on the ball and get to the bottom of this debacle? Not likely Eduardo Aguirre Jr., like former Immigration and Naturalization Services chief James Ziglar, has zero experience with immigration law or law enforcement. He is a top bureaucrat at the U.S. Export-Import Bank who worked for Bank of America for 24 years, and whose main qualification is being a Cuban immigrant who, according to the White House, was named "One of the 100 most Influential Hispanics in the Nation" by Hispanic Business Magazine for three consecutive years. And we're supposed to believe the feds are on high terror alert? Color me unconvinced.

IDF OFFICER KILLED BY ARAB SNIPER At approximately 9:30pm last night, an IDF armored corps company commander, Captain Shachar Shmul, was shot once in the chest by an Arab sniper outside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. Captain Shmul was in the midst of overseeing the controlled explosion of a suspected terrorist vehicle, making sure that the flames did not damage nearby Arab homes, when he was hit. Moments earlier, a suspicious individual, spotted by Shmul's unit, had fled from the vehicle into adjacent alleyways. Despite resuscitation efforts, Captain Shmul was pronounced dead by an emergency physician en route to Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital. Shachar Shmul was 24 years old, from Jerusalem. Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced, as the family awaits the arrival of Shmul's father and brother from the United States. He is survived by his parents and two brothers, one a pilot and the other a paratrooper. After receiving the news of her son's death, Esther Shmul said, "He loved his soldiers and took great care of them. He would give up his Shabbat at home and stay with them if they had a problem." One of Captain Shmul's subordinates echoed Esther Shmul, saying, "He was an esteemed officer, who was tirelessly concerned about his soldiers." Shmul's cousin, Michal Weg, said, "The guy was addicted to the army. It's shocking how he was so cruelly killed." Captain Shmul had just signed on for six years at the IDF Military Academy. A Border Guard unit responding to the Bethlehem shooting came under attack as well, when Arab bomb throwers targeted the approaching force. There were no injuries in that incident. Following the sniper attack, an open-ended curfew was imposed on the city and IDF tanks have taken up positions in Bethlehem for the first time this year. This morning, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization claimed responsibility for last night's sniper attack. 2. COUNTER-TERRORISM SUCCESSES Israeli security forces, in coordination with the intelligence community, are working overtime to prevent planned terrorist attacks against Jewish targets as the nationwide alert continues. Officials indicated that the closure on Palestinian Authority areas in Judea, Samaria and Gaza will most likely remain in effect at least until this weekend, the end of the Haj period, and after the Moslem holiday of 'Id al-Adha. Today, however, the internal curfews were lifted in most major cities in Judea and Samaria, with the exception of Hevron and Bethlehem. Meanwhile, overnight and this morning, the IDF has seen several successes in its counter-terrorism activities. Two terrorists armed with an explosive device were shot and killed by IDF forces near the Gush Katif community of Dugit during the night. Also last night in Gush Katif, a terrorist with an explosives vest in his vehicle was apprehended at Orchen Junction. And yet another terrorist, this time already wearing an explosives vest, was apprehended near the Jewish community of Kedumim, in Samaria. In other counter-terrorist activity, IDF troops continued rounding up wanted suspects throughout Judea, Samaria and Gaza: in Bituniya, in the Ramallah district, three Hamas terrorists were taken into custody; three Tanzim terrorists were apprehended in Balata, in the Shechem district; other arrests were made in the Shechem and Jenin districts; and four PA residents suspected of terrorist activities were arrested at Gush Katif Junction. They were turned over to the custody of the GSS (General Security Service - Shin/Bet). The Arab terrorist forces, however, continue their assault. Last night, two firebombs were thrown at Israelis at the Yakir Junction in Samaria, gunfire was directed at an IDF training base in the northern Jordan Valley, and a mortar shell was fired at an IDF outpost in Gaza. There were no injuries in any of the incidents. In a related matter, the current Islamic holiday season has resulted in widespread concern and terrorism alerts in the United States and the United Kingdom. Military and law enforcement efforts are underway to prevent a major attack that intelligence officials fear will coincide with the end of the Haj this week. In England, British soldiers have been deployed at Heathrow international airport, and in New York, police have been warned to be on the lookout for "conventional or improvised weapons" that may be used to spread deadly chemical or biological agents. 3. PA THREATS AGAINST AMERICANS The official radio station of the Palestinian Authority, Voice of Palestine, broadcast a sermon from the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on February 7, in which the Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrimah Sabri, preached, "While Muslims slaughter sheep on 'Id al-Adha, the United States will slay Muslims in Iraq in order to carry out its aggressive, criminal, terrorist, and inhuman designs...O Allah, deter the aggressors and conspirators. O Allah, destroy them all. O Allah, protect Iraq and its people." (Translation courtesy of FBIS.) Also on February 7, Sheikh Ibrahim al-Mudayris delivered a sermon from a central mosque in Gaza, which was carried live on PA radio and television, in which he described America as "the unjust country," and threatened, "O Palestinians, O Muslims, we swear that nobody will enjoy safety in the world unless injustice to the Palestinian people is lifted..." Obliquely praising Osama bin Laden, the cleric said, "After this reckless US president declared his loyalty to the Jews and planned to get rid of our president, our people, and our cause, his country lost both security and safety." America, he said, is "overwhelmed by corruption." Morton A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), noted that President George W. Bush called on the PA to "end incitement to violence in official media." Yet, despite the fact that such incitement continues, the Bush administration continues to "support [the] creation of a Palestinian Arab state and continue giving the Palestinian Arabs $150-million in taxpayers' money each year, when they use those funds to incite against America and Israel...." Meanwhile, the Hamas terrorist organization has issued its most explicit threat against Americans yet, reports Middle East News Line. According to the report, Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin called on Muslims to attack US nationals and Westerners the moment the regime of President Saddam Hussein is struck. "Muslims should threaten Western interests and strike them everywhere," Yassin wrote in an open letter to the faithful. Pro-Saddam Hussein rallies have been held throughout the Palestinian Authority, under the auspices of Hamas. http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com

Cat: At no point in this thread have I ever addressed what you have in your home. At no point in this thread have I discussed what type of worship I engage in. This is really a non-issue with me. I am sure you have a lovely home that reflects you.

Astralis: There is lots of film footage of various groups who pray to those figures on the cross. Surely you have seen some! I don't collect figurines -- I find them tacky. However, I am unaware of anyone ever praying to one. Also, anything can be an idol. This is not the topic of Yod's thread, though. Yod brought up the issue of oblesiks in the church. If you would like to discuss this other issue on a new thread, I would be happy to explore it further with you, although I can't see what more needs to be said. I don't want to de-rail Yod's thread -- I like him.

Sure, astralis: Deuteronomy 5:8-10.

Alias: How right you are -- we need to pray for the Palestinian children. Their lot is a rough one in life.

Cat: At no time did I address you having a cross in your home. All Christians have a cross we bear daily -- comes with the territory. I think you might have been mixing up some other posts with mine on other threads, because a few times you addressed "starfire" as "Star". Regardless, I never meant to infer that you do not have a cross -- I might even be part of that cross you have to bear!

Actually, Cat, I never said that a cross hanging on a wall offends me. Very little offends me, if anything. I, for one, find it unscriptural to have a cross with a figure hanging on a wall. I also see potential for any symbol of any sort to be an idol. I don't have fear of the spirit realm -- I was just trying to express how real my cross is to me. I quoted a Bible verse in support of that. For myself, because of the people we witness to, it behooves us not to have any religious symbols in our house. We have lots and lots of Scripture verses and beautiful paintings up, but nothing that is an image of God. My own godly little mother differed with me on this: she had a print that was meant to represent Christ on one side of the door with no door knob, while the other side had one, signifying that we must open the doors of our hearts to the Lord, that He doesn't barge His way in. I never was offended by anything my mother did, nor did I ever have any problem living with her for the short time we had together. Please don't misunderstand me. I think that in the flurry of posts here and on other threads, we have the potential to get mixed up over what we mean to say and over what others are saying.

Cat: The Bible says we are to die to self and pick up our cross daily. That cross is very real. The longer I walk with the Lord the more I see that the spirit realm is a greater reality than any other realm. Munari: I hope that you do not feel under attack with what I am saying. I am just openly discussing an issue with you that I have given lots of prayer and thought to.... I will say this: Jesus Christ could have appeared at any time in history that suited Him and His ordained will. He could have had any technology functioning that He chose to. Doesn't it strike anyone as significant that He chose not to appear before cameras, nor have paintings commissioned of Himself, nor have any IMAGE of Himself made during His time on earth so that we wouldn't worship that image?

I wasn't discussing just an old rugged cross per se, Cat.

Cat: Are you telling me that you would not feel hurt/insulted if someone used an innaccurate symbol to mark your existence?

The key, Munari, isn't whether or not we have turned our backs on the Holy Spirit, it is whether or not HE has turned His back on US! Additionally, if you aren't going to listen to the HOLY SPIRIT, what good are MERE SYMBOLS going to do for you?

God bless you, alias.

Munari: That's what the HOLY SPIRIT is for.....

It's not being a better Christian, munari -- this is the most basic sort of Christianity -- God says that when a servant serves, he is doing the basic requirement of what is expected of him. Since the Lord is very much alive and real and resurrected, doesn't it seem silly to have to have "reminders" of Him in any way, shape and form? I love having Scripture on my walls -- that is something that we were told to do in the OT. But I don't need "symbols" of a living, breathing man. Wouldn't you feel insulted if someone decided to mark your existence in the form of a "sybmol", especially if it weren't an accurate one?

I have a real cross -- I bear it daily. I don't need a symbol of something when I have the real thing.

If I may add a word or two, Fabrice: to one who is pure, he will see purity in everything. To one who is impure, he will see opportunity for impurity everywhere. For example, to one who is pure, children's vulnerability will be seen as a sweet trait that illustrates how much children need to be protected. To the impure, that vulnerability will be seen as something to be exploited and abused.

Cat: I've helped too many threads turn into silly ones, so I thought I'd be good on this one.