Hitchen's: Count me in as an "Islamophob"

"We are supposed to watch what we say about Islam, lest by any chance we be considered 'offensive'. A fair number of authors and academics in the West now have to live under police protection or endure prosecution in the courts for not observing this taboo with sufficient care. A stupid term – Islamophobia - has been put into circulation to try and suggest that a foul prejudice lurks behind any misgivings about Islam's infallible 'message'. Well, this idiotic masochism has to be dropped. There may have been a handful of ugly incidents, provoked by lumpen elements, after certain episodes of Muslim terrorism. But no true secularist or even Christian has been involved in anything like the torching of a mosque....

"But where are the denunciations from centers of Sunni and Shiite authority of the daily murder and torture of Islamic co-religionists? Of the regular desecration of holy sites and holy books? Of the paranoid insults thrown so carelessly and callously by one Muslim group at another? This mounting ghastliness is a bit more worthy of condemnation, surely, than a few Danish cartoons or a false rumor about a profaned copy of the Quran in Guantanamo. The civilized world - yes I do mean to say that - should find its own voice and state firmly to Muslim leaders and citizens that respect is something to be earned and not demanded with menace."

Iran nears industrial N-fuel production

Pakistan: Zilla Huma Usman, the minister for social welfare in Punjab province and an ally of President Pervez Musharraf, was killed today as she was about to deliver a speech to dozens of party activists, by a "fanatic" who believed that she was dressed inappropriately and that women should not be involved in politics. Mrs Usman, 35, was wearing the shalwar kameez worn by many professional women in Pakistan, but did not cover her head.

Security forces prevent suicide bombing in Tel Aviv
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