A Hamas TV sermon details the rewards for a Muslim believer who dies in battle for Allah. Via Palestinian Media Watch:

The privileges that are bestowed upon the one who dies for Allah and mentioned in the hadith are:

1- The Shahid’s sins are forgiven
2- He sees his place in Paradise and lives a full life of joy with Allah
3- He is protected from “the Great Shock” on Judgment Day
4- He is crowned with a crown of honor
5- He marries 72 dark-eyed wives
6- He will be able to intervene on behalf of 70 of his family members on Judgment Day, thereby ensuring them the reward of Afterlife

For years, both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have promoted the ideal of dying as a Martyr for Allah. The promotion has been successful.
Palestinian Media Watch has collected many examples of Palestinian children and adults expressing belief in and desire for Shahada. Men and women aspire to become Shahids, and parents express pride and happiness when their children fulfill their aspirations and become Martyrs for Allah.

In the Islamic Republic of Iran it is illegal to execute a woman if she is a virgin.

So to solve that problem, members of Iran’s feared Basij militia forcibly marry female virgin prisoners the night before scheduled executions, raping their new “wives” and making it religiously acceptable to execute them, a self-professed member of the paramilitary group said.

The anonymous militiaman told the Jerusalem Post that at age 18 he was “given the ‘honor’ to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death.”

Read more about Islam in Iran, here.

For more information and a discussion of this issue amongst Muslims, see this Google Group here:

Via INN:

Fire fighters in northern Israel fought dozens of blazes that broke out during the day Wednesday, most of them around noontime.

A source in the Hadera Fire Services told News1 that due to the fact that numerous fires broke out in a relatively limited area, the working assumption is that they were deliberately set. “We still do not know how the fires were set and we do not have details about the arsonist or arsonists,” he said.

Fire in northern Israel, February 2009 (Israel news photo: Flash 90)

Initial investigations by fire fighter squads in the numerous fire locations found a likelihood of arson. “This is man-made terror,” a fire commander said. “Fires don’t just break out on their own.”

Jihadist says slaughtering and eating of American soldiers needs to be according to Shariah.  Via WND:

The Al-Falluja jihadist forum has featured a new discussion – on the slaughter and eating of U.S. soldiers, according to officials with the Middle East Media Research Institute.

On the organization’s Jihad Threat and Terrorism page, a subscription service of the nonprofit that monitors, interprets and reports on media developments in the Middle East, a report said the discussion was prompted by a new book from Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi, one of the most influential jihadist sheiks alive.

The MEMRI report said a forum participant who identifies himself as “Al-Maqdisi’s Student,” wrote on June 13: “Is it permitted to eat the flesh of American soldiers? A quote from the illustrious Sheik Al-Maqdisi, may Allah preserve him.”

He recounted an exchange involving early Muslim commander Khalid b. Al-Walid and a Byzantine commander at the battle of Yarmuk, which is thought to have happened in A..D. 636 .

“The Byzantine commander said to Khalid that the Muslims had only gone out from the land due to hunger, and offered to buy them off. Khalid responded, ‘It was not hunger that drove us out of our land, as you say; we are a people who drink blood, and we know that there is no blood more delicious than Byzantine blood. That is why we came,’” the report said.

Via FlashTraffic:

Shanghai Cooperation Organization meetings are underway in Moscow.

Prophetic? As Iranian forces murder pro-democracy protesters, Ahmadinejad heads straight for Moscow.

Massive protests in Iran not seen since ‘79 Revolution.

FLASH: IAEA head admits Iran seeking nuclear bomb

Students of Bible prophecy should keep a close eye on events unfolding in Iran and the epicenter, and keep praying for the Lord to have mercy on that country. With upwards of a million young, pro-democracy Reformers on the streets of Iran demanding an end to the Radicals’ regime, Iranian security forces have murdered as many as two dozen protesters.

Iranian leaders are now threatening the Reformers with the death penalty. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — freshly annointed by the Supreme Leader to stay as the face and voice of the regime’s apocalyptic agenda — couldn’t care less. Ahmadinejad headed straight for Moscow yesterday. There, he met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to continue building a political and military alliance between Russia, China, Iran and Islamic countries in Central Asia. Currently, Iran has “observer” status in the SCO, but has requested full member status. The SCO alliance is evocative of the eastern-portion of the biblical alliance foretold in Ezekiel 38-39 that will come against Israel and seek to destroy the Jewish people in what the Bible calls the “last days” of history. When one considers how closely Russia and Iran are currently growing to the western portion of the prophetic alliance — Sudan, Libya and Algeria, for example — it’s not hard to envision these prophecies coming true in our lifetime, or even in the next few years. That said, I believe it is currently too soon to draw any conclusions. There are many intriguing trends and developments, but it remains far from clear that we’re seeing Bible prophecy come to pass. That said, we cannot rule out the possibility. Events in the region are both unprecedented and riveting. All the more reason for followers of Jesus Christ to “get ready and be prepared” for whatever lies ahead.

MIRACLE, OR MANIPULATION?

Excerpt from an NYT story worth noting: “Iranians are generally united in viewing the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to another four-year term as a miracle. Some believe it in the literal sense that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, seemed to intend when he said ‘the miraculous hand of God’ was at work. Others believe it in the sense that they see no earthly explanation why an incumbent who presided over worsening inflation, unemployment and isolation would draw more than seven million more votes than in his first victory.”

Observation: With the full backing of his Supreme Leader for his apocalyptic End Times beliefs, is Ahmadinejad more or less likely to give up Iran’s nuclear weapons program to the Obama administration?

Via PalestinianMediaWatch:

On the second anniversary of the Hamas military takeover of Gaza, PA (Fatah) TV broadcast a public Fatah event held in the presence of senior Fatah leaders, which focused on intense vilification of Hamas.

This included the showing of a graphic video of Hamas members brutally beating a Fatah member in Gaza. The screams of the victim can be heard in the video, along with others calling “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is Great).

The Fatah moderator introduced the video with the following words:
“Hamas’s name is written on every arm and leg which was crushed by their [Hamas's] acts of terror.”

The Hamas – Fatah hatred is very deep and this intense hate propaganda is typical of the current Fatah – Hamas relations. This animosity has led to the arrest of numerous Hamas members by the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority. This is important to note, as these arrests have been mistakenly reported in the press to be a sign that the Palestinian Authority is fighting  Palestinian terror on behalf of Israel.

Click here to view. Warning – the video contains graphic material.

In a continuation of the 100-year war against the Jewish people, Muslim terrorists have again fired a Qassam rocket into the Negev in another attempt to continue their genocide against the indigenous Jewish people.

Fortunately, Israel Air Force warplanes bombed two weapons-smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip early Sunday in response to the rocket attack.

On Thursday, gunmen opened fire on IDF soldiers near the security fence along the border with Gaza.  No soldiers were wounded in the incident.

And for those keeping score and who  align themselves politically with “thepoorpalestinianpeepull”, approximately 670 Qassam rockets, mortar shells and Grad missiles have been fired at Israel since the beginning of 2009.

Photo Credit and Story:  FoxNews. AP.

Navy Seals rescued Capt. Richard Phillips, killing three Somali Muslim pirates and ending a five-day standoff between rogue gunmen and the world’s most powerful military.

Don’t phuck with the United States.  Just.  Don’t.

Via MEMRI:

Face the facts, folks.  Muslims hate Jews and will unhesitatingly give up their lives in the name of their false god confirming the overwhelming evidence that Islam, at its core, is lethally militaristic and institutionalizes homicide.

Via Dover:

Following the publication of reports that introduced false information originating from various Palestinian sources, and in order to remove any doubt regarding the number of Palestinians killed in Operation Cast Lead, the IDF wishes to introduce the accurate figures to the public. The figures were gathered following the examination of various intelligence sources and after the names and numbers were thoroughly cross-referenced and examined.

According to the data gathered by the Research Department of the Israel Defense Intelligence, there were 1166 names of Palestinians killed during Operation Cast Lead. 709 of them are identified as Hamas terror operatives, amongst them several from various other terror organizations. Furthermore, it has come to our understanding that 295 uninvolved Palestinians were killed during the operation, 89 of them under the age of 16, and 49 of them were women.

The IDF wishes to emphasize that its objective during Operation Cast Lead was to target the Hamas terror organization and not the citizens of the Gaza Strip. It must be stressed that the fighting took place in a complex battlefield, defined by the Hamas terror organization itself. The Hamas terror organization placed the primary fighting scene at the heart of civilian neighborhoods, as it booby-trapped homes, fired from schools, and used civilians as human shields.

The IDF took extensive measures in order to prevent harming uninvolved civilians, including the dropping of leaflets, broadcasting warnings in local Palestinian media, and placing numerous phone calls to homes. The procedure of making use of warning shots and the briefing of the commanders to take extra precaution in populated areas were also among the measures taken by the IDF.