Religion of Peace and Love Update.

This is a wonderful opportunity for those PETA lamebrains to show their dedication to the cause...

The Old Gray Whore: Saudi Arabia: Not Dog People, or Cat People Either

Saudi Arabia's religious police have issued a ban on the sale of dogs and cats in two cities, calling the pets a bad Western influence. Conservative Muslims have long considered dogs unclean, though some Arabs keep them for hunting. The cat ban was seen as more puzzling, because Islamic tradition holds that the Prophet Muhammad loved cats.


UPI: 27 die in mass Iraqi execution

Twenty-six men and one woman were hanged in Iraq's first mass execution since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. All the condemned had been convicted of terror and criminal charges, officials said.

YANKEE COME BACK!...

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: U.K. NEWSPAPER ACCUSES IRAQIS OF TORTURE, DETAINEE ABUSE AT ABU GHRAIB

An independent witness who toured Abu Ghraib Prison last week told London's "The Sunday Telegraph" that detainees were neglected and abused by their Iraqi captors there, the newspaper reported on September 10. Iraqis took control of the prison last month (see "RFE/RL Newsline," August 30, 2006). The witness reported hearing screams coming from cell blocks that housed terrorist suspects, but said he was denied access to those areas. Prisoners told the witness in front of their jailers that they were afraid for their safety, and they said they were no longer being fed chicken and milk, and were only being fed rice and water. Detainees released from the facility over the past week said torture was routinely being carried out. One such detainee said conditions had worsened after the U.S. military handed the prison over to Iraqis. He added that local human rights workers tied to Shi'ite political parties have failed to support the detainees, and the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) no longer visits the facility. The ICRC confirmed it has not visited the prison since January 2005. Twenty-seven Iraqis were hanged in a mass execution at the prison on September 6, the newspaper reported.


AP: Gunmen repelled at U.S. Embassy in Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria - Armed Islamic militants attempted to storm the U.S. Embassy in a brazen attack Tuesday, the government said. Four people were killed, including three of the assailants. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but an al-Qaida offshoot group was suspected, Syria's ambassador to the United States said.


AP: Report: China diplomat shot in Damascus

AFP: Rice praises Syria's response to attack against US embassy


From Washington's other newspaper comes news of a mohammedan fatjiwad aimed at stamping out gossip and/or Hollyweird celebrities:

Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, has issued a fatwa against reporting, watching, reading and spreading celebrity gossip.

"This fatwa will be issued because ulema are concerned gossip shows will destroy young people and because the Koran strictly forbids spreading gossip," the group's leader, Said Agil Siradj, said. There are some 40 infotainment shows on 11 stations in Jakarta, which are quite popular, the newspaper reported. Siradj said that the people who produce these shows are sinners and that the audience is made up of " 'gossip addicts,' who lap up juicy celebrity tidbits without bearing in mind the humiliation they cause." (TV executives said they would wait until the edict was officially issued before they considered programming changes. "We are going to examine the edict thoroughly and seriously, to find out which part is considered haram," said one.)

I knew it would be only a matter of time before jihad collided with the world of Ryan Seacrest et al. My infidelness (my infidelity? my infidelitude?) is helpfully pointed out to me all the time. One of Question Celebrity's e-mailers, in response to the July 30 Kathy Griffin column, suggested doing something extremely unpleasant and Taliban-like to me with Griffin's ex-husband's curling iron -- the same day the Indonesian clerics issued their ban. I can only respond to the fatwa with hurt feelings, typical Western-values disconnect and . . . a smidge of recognition. Indeed, Siradj's ravings against celebreculture sound much like every ninth or 10th e-mail I get here at Question Celebrity, from people who simply can't abide (or, apparently, avert) the column's ruminative, insipidly sinful obsessions on matters of fame and foible. Gossip doesn't only offend Islamic fundamentalists. It gets under the skin of Takoma Park liberals, suburban conservatives and uppity Washington wonks who insist there must be something more worthy for this space. It also aggravates my mother, who skips this column altogether. Gossip is a sin the world over. We'll all recognize one another, dodging rocks at the public stoning.