However what is interesting about this story is what has been left out by the British press. Neither The Times [of London], nor The Sunday Telegraph mention that Mosab considers the Judaic and Islamic conception of God the root cause of all the violence,
"I am not pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian. I worked for my God, who is the father of all human beings wherever they are. I do not want to go back to that work. I chose to leave, because after 10 years of fighting terrorism, I understood that it is not the problem. Of course, it is important to fight terrorism, but if I think about the long term, the only way is not to do battle against suicide bombers but against their motivation: namely, their God.
"Many people think the terrorists' motivation is the Israeli occupation, the corruption, but all that is just the backdrop. It is not the root of the problem. The occupation is like the rain that falls on the soil in which the seed has been planted, but it is not the seed itself. The root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not lie in security or politics: It is a war between two gods, two religions. Between the God of the Torah and the God of the Koran. The Koran teaches that this is Waqf land - a sacred endowment which must not be given up. The Torah taught the Jews that this is their land and must not be given up.
"It follows that there will be no peace in the Middle East. Israel's problem is not with Hamas or with any other organization, nor with the interpretation Hamas reads into the Koran. It is with the god of the Koran. After all, even a moderate Muslim who reads the Koran must read that the Jews are the sons of apes and that the infidels must be killed. The Palestinians must stop blaming Israel, or the West, for all their problems. If they want true freedom, they must free themselves from their God."

On Sunday, I attended a marvellous, BAM, Old Vic & Neal Street production of Shakespeare's The Tempest at Brooklyn's BAM theatre on Fulton Street in Brooklyn. The Old Vic is a famous London theatre, located not far from Waterloo Station that derived its name from the original Royal Victorian Theatre established in 1833. The National Theatre of Great Britain under Sir Laurence Olivier was housed at the Old Vic until 1976 when it took up residence at the newly built venue on the South Bank. The present Old Vic theatre company's artistic director is American actor Kevin Spacey.

The Bam Harvey Theatre built in 1903, and though restored to a certain extent has a feeling of decay about it. The 900 seat theatre was packed. The two-hour play was performed without an interval, leaving me decidedly uncomfortable. But it was worth it; the play was imaginative without taking outrageous liberties with the text or setting. The music was also enchanting as Ariel sang, "Where the bee sucks, there suck I"; "Come unto these sands", and "Full fathom five they father lies", and so on.

One forgets how many words, phrases and sayings in the English language we owe to Shakespeare's fertile imagination. Some words he coined himself, or if he did not invent them he was the first person recorded to have used them. Here is a random sample:"assassination" [Macbeth]; "bedroom"[A Midsummer Night's Dream]; "countless" [Titus Andronicus], "fashionable" [Troilus and Cressida]; "frugal" [The Merry Wives of Windsor]; "laughable" [Merchant of Venice]; "lonely" [Corialanus]; "useful" [King John].

As for sayings and phrases, I cannot possibly better the summary given by Bernard Levin [1928-2004], a British journalist, whose long-time companion was Arianna Stassinopoulos (now known as Arianna Huffington) [from Enthusiasms, 1983]:
"If you cannot understand my argument, and declare ‘It's Greek to me', you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is father to the thought; if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise -why, be that as it may, the more fool you , for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut tut! For goodness' sake! What the dickens! But me no buts! - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare."

As expected there were indeed protests throughout Iran, and not just in Tehran on 11 February. The regime had been preparing for these confrontations weeks before the latter date by arresting prominent political activists, students, and, as always, women courageously demanding their rights, and lastly journalists- according to Reporters Without Borders, Iran ranks at the top of countries with the most imprisoned journalists. Then on the day itself some 1000 protestors were arrested in Tehran.

Despite a ban on the media in general (having shut down Twitter and Google Buzz), the regime was unable to completely blank out news from Iran on that day. We have the testimony of video footage showing protestors pulling down posters of Khamenei, and trampling on them. Chants of "down with Khamenei" were heard during Ahmadinejad's speech. But the protestors were no match for the brutal tactics of the security forces which numbered in the thousands; shots were fired into the unarmed crowds, and at least one protestor was killed.The thuggish Basij militia smashed both former President Khatami and reformist leader Karroubi's cars as they sat inside.

But all is not well for Iran's theocracy as the opposition is not about to go away any day soon. The greater its brutality the greater the outrage in the country itself and round the world- Iranian exiles are also gathering energy and momentum in Western cities. Are the days of the regime numbered? It seems the leaders have already taken large sums of money out of the country, and have prepared their retreat.

Melik Kaylan at Forbes Magazine outlines the regional implications of the turmoil inside Iran, "Meanwhile, Moscow is backing away from supporting the regime: A top Kremlin security official announced this week that the West's "doubts were quite valid" about Iranian nuclear research. Promising, no? But here, to get a fuller picture, we must make a brief detour into old-style Kremlinology. A pro-Moscow candidate just won the Ukrainian Presidential elections with virtually no resistance from the West. Goodbye Orange Revolution, for now. Over in Georgia, the U.S. has quietly told President Saakashvili not to expect too much American support in future confrontations with Moscow. The Georgian opposition has made peaceable overtures to Putin. Goodbye Rose Revolution? Possibly. Russia is quietly re-leveraging its power over former dominions while furnishing us concessions over Iran--that's how it looks."

As Kaylan points out, if Iran's regime changes, the chances are that the support for anti-American Shiite elements in Iraq will fade away; Hezbollah in Lebanon will lose its patron, and Syria will lose its ally, and Iranian oil will start flowing westward again along with oil from a more stable Iraq. Iran seems to be inviting an attack on its nuclear facilities- how else does one explain Ahmadinejad's announcement of successful nuclear enrichment in front of the world media on Wednesday. If Israel or less probably the USA did attack, then the crackdown on the Iranian dissidents at home would be that much easier.

.

Green leader Mir Hossein Mousavi gave a uncompromising interview, in effect defying the regime to move against him, something that Khamenei has not dared to do. If he were to strike at the leaders of the Greens, both Mousavi and Karroubi, this could lead to a showdown, again something that Khamenei is clearly afraid of. The key to any real chance of the regime crumbling is the attitude of the armed forces, and here the Greens seem to be having some success after a moving video appeal specifically aimed at the armed forces asking them to join them.

What can be done? Homa Arjomand is organizing a campaign to shut down Iranian embassies in the West, and we should support her efforts. Here is her open letter to the Prime Minister of Canada:
"The international mood has turned against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Now it is time for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and all members of the Canadian parliament do the same and support the people of Iran instead of the Iranian government. Recent reports being circulated in Iran indicate that the Iranian people are preparing a display of strength on February 11, which is 31st anniversary of the Iranian revolution. Desperate people, despite the regime's constant threats, recent mass arrests, torture, rape and executions, are organizing to purge themselves of the entire regime of Iran.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is comparable with the apartheid regime of South Africa. As the regime in South Africa was then, the entire system of Islamic Republic of Iran remains one of the most inhuman and unjust regimes in 21 centuries. The law of Sharia ruthlessly enforces the comprehensive policy of gender apartheid and a misogynist state. There has not been a day without violations against a number of protesting groups such as teachers, workers, students, writers, journalists and bloggers. The number of people being executed and tortured in prisons increases day by day.

"People of Iran have been standing firm against the entire regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, be it so called reformist or hard liner. They are suffocating and want to end the state of these serial killers.The people of Iran and all globally concerned citizens want to put these murderers and all those who have helped this regime on trial in an international court.

"The International Campaign to Closedown Iranian Embassies expects the Prime Minister, and the members of parliament to side with the people of Iran and make its voice heard against this regime in all international forums and furthermore, to break all its diplomatic relations with the Iranian Regime. We also expect the Prime Minister and the members of Parliament to not only close down the Iranian embassy in Canada but also to put forward a resolution to the United Nations with respect to this demand. Closing down the embassies of Islamic Republic of Iran will be the beginning of the end of this heinous state and its crimes against the people of Iran. It is also a big step to prevent this regime sustaining terrorism worldwide. We are all aware that the embassies of the Islamic Republic of Iran are the logistic headquarters for organizing terrorist activities.

"Much evidence and documents have come to light showing embezzlement of money belonging to the people of Iran by the regime leaders. These leaders pocketed huge amounts of funds into their personal bank accounts in Europe, Canada and other Western countries. The International Campaign to closedown Iranian Embassies look forward to the Canadian government freezing all these bank accounts and expects that all information of these existing accounts be made public. Sincerely, Homa Arjomand,Coordinator of the International Campaign to Closedown Iranian Embassies."

homawpi@closedowniranianembassies.com;www.closedowniranianembassies.com
416-737-9500".

‘Fatma' feels it is a incumbent religious duty, and dresses accordingly, while ‘Sarah' argues that wearing the hijab is an outdated mode of living, asserting, "I don't think God will put me in hell for not wearing a niqab, hijab or burqa. What matters most is how clean and sincere your heart is, not how much you cover your body. History told us that some people in this part of the world wore hijab during the pre-Islamic era and moreover it is not even in the Holy Quran. We should not continue to dwell so much on custom and tradition in this computer age. The fact that our forefathers lived in mud houses with thatched roofs back then doesn't mean we should follow suit." ‘Sarah' is supported by ‘May', who says, "During the time of the Prophet (PBUH), there were no cars, no computers etcetera, and people travelled on donkeys and horses, but today we have cars, airplanes, hummer jeeps and other luxuries. We are in another kind of civilization and this is the reality. I don't have a problem with the hijab but let it be just optional. Many of these veiled women are wearing them not because they like it, but rather, they were forced to wear it by either their parents or their husbands, and that is where the problem lies. There are so many untold truths about this issue. Hijab is not a ticket to heaven".

Last year four women were elected to the Kuwaiti parliament for the first time, and two of them - Dr Aseel Al-Awadhi and Dr Rola Dashti - chose not to wear the hijab. However, since their election, the Islamists have been demanding that they be forced to do so. One male MP Mohammad Al-Kandari argued that this "is not a matter of extremism; according to Islam and according to Kuwait's traditions, women must wear the hijab". Other MPs responded that "In a democracy such as Kuwait, the hijab cannot be imposed.It is a matter between women and God". While the National Assembly speaker called for calm, and pointed out that the parliamentary regulations do not explicitly mention any obligation to wear hijab.

In my view what is of great consequence and certainly a positive and hopeful development is the extraordinary decision handed down by the Kuwait Constitutional Court, which rejected a lawsuit demanding that the MPs Dr Aseel Al-Awadhi and Dr Rola Dashti be expulsed from parliament for violating Sharia Law by not wearing the Islamic hijab, and ruled that, "The laws of Islamic Sharia do not have a binding force like the basic laws of the state...The Kuwaiti constitution does not stipulate that Sharia is the sole source of legislation, nor does it preclude the legislator from utilizing other sources of legislation, out of consideration for the people's needs."

The women MPs concerned, Al-Awadhi and Dashti, hailed the decision as a victory for Kuwait's constitution which guarantees religious freedom; Dashti is hoping that this decision will put an end to the attempts of "those who wish to bring Kuwait back to an earlier era."

I ended the day with a quote from Sir Winston Churchill talking of Champagne, "In defeat I need it, and in victory, I deserve it". Bob Goodrich is also a very generous and thoughtful man, for straight afterwards we headed for the nearest liquor store and bought a great bottle of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne, 2002, though Churchill's favorite was Pol Roger. It was not the end of the day for me, I gave an hour's interview for Bob's radio station while sipping Veuve Clicquot. On Saturday I repeated the marathon in Indianapolis talking for at least five hours, and again ended the day with great champagne.

I was struck by the erudition of the audience both in Grand Rapids and Indianapolis; Bob Goodrich himself is very well-read and asked probing questions that kept me on my toes. I am now in the process of working out a book proposal with just such an audience in mind, a book on the problems with the traditional Muslim account of the Koran and the Rise of Islam, and the work of the revisionists inspired by John Wansbrough, ending with the most exciting work of Christoph Luxenberg.

Evgeny Kissin, the world-famous classical pianist, was described in these terms by the Times [10th May, 1999], "All the hall marks of his genius - and one does not use the word lightly - were on display: the rich, sonorous tone, the dazzling fingerwork and, above all, the inspired fantasy. So compelling is Kissin's pianism, so fresh his response to even the most familiar phrases, that one hangs on every note. The end of the slow movement found me gripping the armrest of my seat, mesmerized by the poetry of his reading."

Kissin began to play by ear and improvise on the piano at the age of two. At six years of age, he entered a school for gifted children, the Moscow Gnessin School of Music. At the age of ten, he made his concerto debut playing Mozart's Piano Concerto K. 466 and gave his first solo recital in Moscow one year later. He is now a British citizen.

After reading a dispatch by Tom Gross [December 23, 2009, titled "BBC feeding infamous anti-Semitic lies to Iranians -- in Persian" (which you can read here www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001077.html)], Kissin wrote an open letter, for which he may well be ostracized by fellow musicians, sent to the Director-General of the BBC who has yet to answer.

ON THE BBC TODAY, YOU CAN HEAR ECHOES OF "THE OLD SOVIET ANTI-ZIONIST PROPAGANDA"

Open letter to the Director General of the BBC
From: Evgeny Kissin

Dear Sir,

I first came to live in this country thirteen years ago and became a British subject seven years ago, having grown up in the Soviet Union. I was inspired and proud to belong to the country of Winston Churchill, who famously said "There is no anti-Semitism in England because we do not consider ourselves more stupid than the Jews" Above all, the BBC and especially its World Service had always been a beacon of light, of truth and objectivity to those of us behind the Iron Curtain, in the Evil Empire. Reaching out to far corners of the world, it was the voice of a country which for us was a model of democracy and human rights.

Since a long time now, I receive verified reports on an almost daily basis of the BBC's slander and bias towards Israel, painfully reminiscent of the old Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda. This culminated with the BBC's Persian Service's blood libel concerning Israel's alleged harvesting of Palestinian organs and blood for future transplant. It beggars belief that the British taxpayer should be funding an organisation which is aligning itself with Iran's despotic leader in its anti-Semitic propaganda.

Other print media, like the Guardian, which erroneously printed this libel, propagated by Israel's enemies, have since apologised. I am not aware of any such retraction from the BBC.

Is it not high time for the BBC to return to the values for which it was so much respected before it finds itself in the garbage of history together with Pravda, Tass, Volkischer Beobachter and Der Angriff?

Yours faithfully,
Evgeny Kissin

I worked for many years as a French-speaking travel guide, taking French tourists to Thailand, China, Singapore, India, Pakistan, and North Africa. We were always received by a local French-speaking guide. Often we would encounter other groups from other European countries, the United States, Japan, and India staying in the same hotels. In the evenings, the local guides from those groups would get together with us, and one of the favorite subjects of discussions was the national characteristic of the groups we were responsible for. It is extraordinary how the national stereotypes emerged over and over again: the Japanese were disciplined and polite but we never know what they really thought; the Germans were arrogant and authoritarian; the French were rude and obessesed with food; the Spanish were passionate and fiery. And the Americans? They were easy to handle and please, and incredibly naïve. One of the definitions of naïve is "overtrusting", and at Dictionary.com we get the following: "having or showing a lack of experience, judgment, or information; credulous."

Faced with a formidable enemy- Radical Islam- the approach of the U.S. administration, the U.S. military, the F.B.I., and the Department of Homeland Security can only be called, at best, näive. How else would you characterise the fact that the Pentagon hired a Muslim who was in fact running an "influence operation" on behalf of U.S. Muslim groups fronting for the radical Muslim Brotherhood? And how about the National Counterterrorism Center's (NCTC) hiring of Yasir Qadhi as a de-radicalization expert? Qadhi has been on the on the terror watch list for years! Qadhi's Ilmquest media company had been selling more than a dozen audio CD sets by al-Qaeda cleric Awlaqi, even after the cleric had been tied to the Ft. Hood shootings. This is more than naïve, it is sick.

Then there is the jock-strap bomber, Abdulmutallab: does it make sense to go on calling him an "isolated terrorist"? As Martin Peretz in the New Republic put it, "I believe that it is Obama's perception of Abdulmutallab as an "isolated extremist" that is the real source of the intelligence calamity so dramatically revealed in this case. It is true, of course, that this dispiriting intelligence failure goes back to the Clinton and Bush years, even though Bush did almost uniquely grasp the very essence of the holy Muslim terror. But what the president has done is to wrap the Islamic orbit in a sweetly scented cashmere afghan (if you'll permit this ironic choice of words) that disguises the reality of the real Islam of this world. Obama has done this grandly several times, most especially with his addresses in Istanbul and Cairo, but also in his more quotidian remarks. The failure of the CIA and the other alphabet agencies to connect the dots is a methodological failure. The president's failure to grasp the realities is an ideological and psychological failure".

A young Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, son of Umaru Abdulmutallab, former chairman of the First Bank of Nigeria, almost succeeded in blowing up a passenger plane, an Airbus 330-300, with 289 people aboard, on Christmas Day. And yet, at first, Janet Napolitano, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, had the audacity to tell us that the system "worked really very, very smoothly". Such dangerous complacency! When criticised, Ms Napolitano retracted her statement, and instead admitted that, "Our system did not work in this instance. No one is happy or satisfied with that."

We now know that the entire plot was planned by al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen. We also know that Umar Farouk's father, Umaru, one of Nigeria's prominent business, had recently informed the U.S.Embassy in Abuja about his son's radicalization. The son was promptly placed on a terror watch list of about 550,000 names, a terrorist screening data base, called TIDE (Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment). But the young Nigerian, as Daniel Pipes pointed out, was not placed, "on the list of about 15,000 individuals who must go through additional screening, much less the list of about 4,000 people on the ‘no-fly' list, who are not allowed to fly to or in the United States. Nor did they revoke Abdulmutallab's two-year, multi-entry tourist visa. Nor did an air marshal accompany his flight." In other words, pace Ms Napolitano, this was a series of failures, elementary precautions were not taken- Abdulmutallab should not even have got as far as boarding the plane. The Obama administration must take responsibility for these failures, and must take seriously the terrorist threat.

The first reaction of the Transportation Security Administration [TSA] was to order a series of measures which will only make life miserable for most passengers without increasing our security: intrusive body searches, limited carry-on items, enforced immobility for the last hour of the flight, and so on. The security and intelligence services must concentrate their resources on a narrower group of suspects; they must expand their ‘no-fly' list, perhaps converting TIDE into a ‘no-fly' list. The Obama administration must appoint a head of TSA, which is, after all, the one organization that is responsible for weeding out dangerous fliers, and which must be held more responsible. There should be greater communication and cooperation between the agencies and organizations which are responsible for our safety. And if I, of South Asian origin and looks, were picked out for extra scrutiny I would not be offended, but rather reassured.