Deadly Afghan Spider Hitches Ride Home With U.K. Soldier, Kills Family Dog

A British soldier's family have been scared out of their own home by a dangerous spider who bit their pet dog to death.

The Griffiths are fighting the war at home against the giant arachnid, who was unwittingly transported back from Afghanistan in paratrooper Rodney's luggage.

They have already lost their beloved eight-year-old dog, Bella, to the camel spider. The family pet had to be put down after being bitten by the venomous attacker.

Lorraine Griffiths and her three children, aged 18, 16 and four, have been forced to leave their family home in Colchester, Essex.

They are now refusing to return to the property until the killer spider is captured by the RSPCA.

Found in desert regions, camel spiders can grow up to 6 inches and reach speeds of up to 10 mph, making them devils to catch.

Lorraine Griffiths believes the spider hitched a ride into the U.K. in the personal belongings of her husband.

Rodney, 32, came home from duty in Helmand in June.

He has since returned for a further tour of duty in Afghanistan.

"We are coming, Jews"

This "new" group in the Gaza Strip is modeled after the "ideology" of al-Qaeda (a politically correct way of saying it's modeled after Islam's sharia and its division of the world into dar al-harb and dar al-Islam)."Pro-al Qaeda fighters train in Gaza Strip," by Nidal al-Mughrabi for Reuters, September 1:

GAZA, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The masked gunmen threw themselves to the ground, rolled over and came up firing their assault rifles at an imaginary target.

Jaysh al-Ummah, or the Army of the Nation, a Palestinian Islamist group modelled on the ideology of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, was training for battle with Israel.

"We are coming, Jews," read graffiti daubed on a wall inside its private training base in the Gaza Strip, where Reuters journalists were allowed rare access.

"Run, run, take the ground, shoot," Abu Hafss, Jaysh al-Ummah's leader, cried as some 25 gunmen, all clad in black, performed drills.

Jaysh al-Ummah refuses to say how many members it has in the Gaza Strip, territory seized by Hamas Islamists from the largely secular Fatah faction in June 2007. ....

When It Comes to Islamism, the DNC Still Doesn’t Get It

By M. Zuhdi Jasser

Last week’s opening festivities at the Democrat National Convention in Denver began with an interfaith prayer. As the Democrat Party searches for its newfound interest in faith, it quickly called upon one of the lowest hanging fruit in the American Muslim community - the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). Ingrid Mattson, the President of ISNA gave a speech along with Adbur-Rahim Ali of the Northeast Denver Islamic Center. Some may dismiss the selection of nine speakers of faith at the political shindig as irrelevant and simply part of the pomp and circumstance of the DNC Convention.

But propping up ISNA in today’s environment is akin to propping up the Legal Guild (a ‘60s Communist front group) to address the convention during the Cold War. Our civil servants will verify that they have prevented over 30 attacks by militant Islamists upon our nation and our citizens since 9/11. The only ideology that unites the groups set upon our destruction is not violence. It is political Islam - their Islamism. Unless we identify both violent and non-violent political Islam as a root cause of terrorism we will never win this conflict. Militant Islamists, much as non-militant Islamists, seek some form of a transnational Muslim, political movement. They both seek various forms of the ascendancy of Islam with respect to other religions culminating in the establishment of Islamic states.

It is not enough to condemn terrorism for politically active Muslims to be “friends of American security interests” or pillars of the representation of ‘spiritual’ Islam. If Muslim organizations are to be lifted up as ‘friends of government,’ they, at the minimum, need to share a common vision of ideal governance - that of a secular liberal democracy. It is against American interests and certainly an obstacle in the work of all anti-Islamist Muslims for the American establishment to lift up Islamists, manifestations of political Islam, as representatives of Muslims and especially as representatives of “non-political” Islam. ISNA is without question patently political. I would defy anyone to find evidence of its rejection of the ideology of Islamism and similarly its defense of the ideology of the secular liberal democracy in the writings and public work of any of its leaders. To do this ISNA would have to sponsor and distribute intellectual work against the foundations of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sayyid Qutb, Sayyid Al-Mawdudi, and Yusuf Al-Qaradawi. Not only do they not do this, the vast majority of the other imams, books, and tapes they promote all derive their ideology from the same Salafist political mindset.

If anyone had done their homework at the DNC they would have realized that the primary origin of political Islam in the early twentieth century is the Muslim Brotherhood - arguably the central nervous system of political Islam globally.

.... The means employed by Islamists may vary from nation to nation but in the end their goals of establishing an Islamic state are almost universally the same.

ISNA has demonstrated repeatedly that its goals in the United States are no different from the Muslim Brotherhood’s goals in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, or England for that matter. Its leadership is generally either an outgrowth of the MB salafist ideology in the Middle East or an outgrowth of the similar Deobandi ideology of the Indo-Pakistani region.

....If you don’t believe this commentary here, just check into the ISNA convention this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio. Their bazaars, attended by thousands, will be full of political Islamist literature. Rest assured, anti-Islamist literature against the formation of the Islamic state or public implementation of sharia will be nonexistent.

....One can begin to see how ISNA gains its legitimacy not from any review of its core ideologies which remain wholly unchecked, but rather from the misguided associations of other parts of the American governmental, religious, and media establishment. One endorsement leads to another, leads to another and they all become mutually dependent on the endorsement of the other with no one doing any homework on ISNA’s real core ideologies.

It may be the easiest short cut to placate the loudest arm of Islamism in the United States, but it does our efforts against the dangerous ideology of political Islam and the stranglehold of Islamists over the Muslim community no good whatsoever. Our own leading politicians are unable to clearly articulate and understand the central ideologies at stake in this global battle of ideas between political Islam and the West. So, it should not be a surprise when Islamist organizations continue to gain influence and legitimacy.

CAIR Gets Failing Grades at Running Ohio Charter Schools

....It’s no surprise then that while state officials are cracking down on failing charter schools throughout the state, International Academy and Westside Academy remain untouched and unaffected. Afraid of being angrily branded as “Islamophobes” or “racists” by CAIR and their supporters, Ohio educrats, politicians, and the local media are content to look the other way concerning the failing performance of these two schools. In fact, International Academy, having only met at most two of 19 state standards in any school year since it opened, had their ODE contract renewed.

Fully aware of their political advantage, CAIR officials are more than content to use taxpayer dollars to further their Islamic extremist goals while simultaneously victimizing innocent schoolchildren who would be receiving a better education at practically any other nearby public school. One might think that those who react automatically anytime the “for the children” mantra is invoked would be appalled at CAIR officials’ deliberate exploitation of a particularly vulnerable Somali immigrant population. But when CAIR is involved, all bets are off.

Russia Warns West Against Georgia Support

MOSCOW — Russia warned the West on Monday against supporting Georgia's leadership and called for an arms embargo against the ex-Soviet republic nation until a different government is in place.

...."If instead of choosing their national interests and the interests of the Georgian people, the United States and its allies choose the Saakashvili regime, this will be a mistake of truly historic proportions," he said. ....