A radical Muslim prayer leader said the president shamed the nation for “indecent gestures, filthy remarks, and repeated praise of a non-Muslim lady wearing a short skirt.”

Feminists charged that once again a male Pakistani leader has embarrassed the country with sexist remarks.

No, it wasn’t simply that he called her “gorgeous” at the UN meet-and-greet last week. Nor was it because he said, “Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you.” What actually led the leaders of Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad to issue a fatwa on Zardari was his statement to his handler that he’d be happy to hug Palin.

Fortunately for Zardari, the fatwa doesn’t recommend violence, or even any other action. To bring that down on his head, I guess Zardi would’ve had to ask Palin if she wanted to see his moose gun.

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Apparently, it’s also a time for some Islamic clerics and officials to license murder in the name of religion.

Saudi Arabia’s top judiciary official has issued a fatwa authorising the murder of owners of satellite TV networks that broadcast “bad programmes”.

Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan, 79, chief of the kingdom’s highest tribunal, the supreme judiciary council, said satellite channels caused the “deviance of thousands of people”.

He was answering listeners’ questions during the daily radio programme Light in the Path, in which he and other clerics make rulings on what is permissible under Islamic law. One caller asked yesterday about Islam’s view on satellite TV channels that broadcast “bad programmes” during Ramadan.

“What does the owner of these networks think, when he provides seduction, obscenity and vulgarity?” said Al-Lihedan. “Those calling for corrupt beliefs, certainly it’s permissible to kill them. Those calling for sedition, those who are able to prevent it but don’t, it is permissible to kill them.”

In Saudi Arabia, the most popular stations are owned by members of the royal family whom earlier this year had pledged to reign in some of the country’s more militant imams by launching a clerical “retraining” program to encourage moderation and tolerance.

I think it’s fair to say that’s not working to well for them, don’t you?

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When is a scarf so much more than a scarf? Apparently when it’s worn by America’s culinary cutie, Rachel Ray, and said scarf slightly resembles the Palestinian keffiyeh.

After an uproar led by notable conservatives such as Michelle Malkin and LGF’s Charles Johnson — both of whom must have been terribly bored — Dunkin’ Donuts has pulled the ad at no small expense.

So what’s the story? Malkin et al. seem to believe that wearing such a scarf constitutes hate couture and somehow signals support of terrorism.

The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not so ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.

What hole do Malkin and Johnson live in that they’re convinced the keffiyeh is, in and of itself, a symbol of terrorism? Or that a woman’s wearing of it means, well, anything?

The keffiyeh (also known as the shmagh, shemagh, ghutra, hatta or mashada), is a traditional Arabic men’s headdress. It’s a functional piece of clothing designed to protect the head and neck from the arid, blistering heat of the Middle East. As such, it’s been around for thousands of years — long before Yasser Arafat, the Taliban or any other Islamic extremists.

To argue that, because terrorists have been seen wearing such clothing, anyone who wears similar items must also be a terrorist is laughable.

Why, some of those terrorists in the beheading and hostage-taking videos wore black clothing from head-to-toe. Wouldn’t that make, oh, 75% of NYC’s residents “terrorists” under the same logic? Come to think of it, I seem to recall both President Bush and John McCain dressing in head-to-toe black recently. What say you to that, Malkin: does the similarity in clothing make them terrorists, too?

Shall we call every woman who’s ever worn a caftan, a style originating in the Middle East, a terrorist? Pity the grandmas in Florida who shrug one on at poolside, then. I imagine they’ll be surprised to learn they’re considered terrorist sympathizers for having opted for comfort.

And what about the fez, that funny little hat which symbolizes Islamic identity and signals support for the Caliphate? Would that make The Shriners terrorists for wearing it, too?

Fact is, we live in an increasingly small world. Our fashions reflect this, just as they have throughout history. Those earrings Malkin so attractively wears (while dressed head-to-toe in black)? They were first worn by men… in Persia. Oh, and guess what: blush and other forms of makeup trace their origins back to Iran.

Is Malkin signaling her support for terrorism by wearing them? Of course not. And neither was Rachel Ray when her stylist wrapped her neck in a scarf that’s been in fashion for a couple of years now.

That’s what’s most disgusting about Malkin’s stance on the Dunkin’ Donuts ad: it reveals her ignorance as much as her rabid prejudice that lumps all things Middle Eastern in with terrorists. As an American and a Republican and someone with Iranian ancestry, I call foul both on Malkin and on Dunkin’ Donuts for having given in to her hate-mongering.

Shame on you.

UPDATE: I like Timmer’s idea!

UPDATE TWO: Malkin to world: do what I say, not what I do!

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“This deployment has been planned for a long time,” (U.S. Defense Secretary Robert) Gates said. “I don’t think we’ll have two carriers there for a protracted period of time. So I don’t see it as an escalation. I think it could be seen, though, as a reminder.”

Funny, I doubt Tehran will view it that way.

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That’s right, Islamic Rage Boy is posing in the altogether, but it’s all for a good cause.

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The Iraqi Interior Ministry told the BBC that Interpol had notified member countries to arrest Raghad Saddam Hussein, accused of terrorism and other offences. Last year, the pro-U.S. Iraqi government put Raghad and her mother Sajida on a list of its most wanted fugitives, alleging they supported the insurgency in Iraq.

Serious stuff, those accusations.

But what I really want to know is: what kind of a name is Raghad? Surely her father realized how very much it sounds like “Raghead”. Or is it the Iraqi equivalent of naming your kid Myron or Bertha?

Then again, Saddam always was known for his cruelty.

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Scientists had previously found high rates of vitamin D deficiency in Arab and East Indian women living in the United Arab Emirates. A follow-up study investigated the effect of vitamin D supplements on 178 UAE women, many of whom covered themselves entirely, faces and hands included, when outside their homes. Only two of the women did not have vitamin D deficiency prior to receiving supplements.

Not that staunch Islamic fundamentalists would actually care, of course. They’d prefer anything over allowing “uncovered meat” distract them from planning their latest jihad.

(Slink via Rammer.

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However, far be it from me to offend anyone. Therefore, my head and face are now modestly covered. See?

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Pre-Islamic Middle Eastern regions were home to mysterious snake cults, according to two papers published in this month’s Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy journal.

From at least 1250 B.C. until around 550 A.D., residents of what is now the Persian Gulf worshipped snakes in elaborate temple complexes that appear to have been built for this purpose, the studies reveal. [...]

Most of the snakes were depicted with triangular heads and scales, which Benoist said suggests “a viper species, which is striking, as they are venomous and therefore dangerous.”

Indeed.

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A court in Bursa handed down a life sentence for 60-year-old Arif Ç. who stabbed his 22-year-old daughter Sevil Ö. 27 times when she returned home after running away from her husband and two children.

On Wednesday Arif Ç. was sentenced by the Bursa 2nd Criminal Court to life imprisonment in solitary confinement with no possibility of parole for the crime of premeditated murder. Arif Ç claimed before the ruling that his daughter had committed suicide, saying she had suffered from psychological problems. Declaring that his daughter returned home 13 days after she had fled, Arif Ç. said: “Just when we went to make a missing person report at the gendarmerie my daughter stabbed herself. I am innocent.”

The court didn’t find the father’s testimony credible in light of the forensic evidence and the impossibility of the girl having actually stabbed herself in the back.

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