A MUSLIM leader has blasted a pub for using the name of holy city Medina - branding it an insult to his religion.

The boozer in Dundee changed its name from Bar Rio to Medina Bar and Grill after a renovation.

But this has sparked outrage - as Saudi Arabian city Medina is the second-holiest site in Islam behind Mecca.

Medina is also a term used for a market or trading centre in north African cities.

But Mohammed Bashir Chohan, chairman of the Dundee Islamic Society, last night said: "People are upset about it because Medina is a holy city. It does hurt when somebody misuses the name, especially if they are going to sell liquor."

The issue has been raised with local MP Jim McGovern.

His spokesman said he was working with councillors including Labour's Mohammed Asif to "try to bring the parties together to reach a solution".

Yesterday a spokesman for Medina said there was no offence intended - but added they were unlikely to change the bar's new name....

Let's hope not. And if you're in the area, go hoist one at the Medina -- in the name of all free people.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on Wednesday in the Iraqi capital at two buses carrying Iranian pilgrims, killing an Iranian woman and an Iraqi driver, the Baghdad security command said.

Wounded were transported to Al Hakim Hospital in Al Sheala region for treatment, the source added. Although an Iranian Authority said wounded will transport to Iran if needed.

The attack on a main road in Al Adel District, northwestern Baghdad Baghdad also wounded five Iranian pilgrims, according to a report. Pilgrims were traveling from holy city of Najaf to holy city of Kazemayn.

The attack came after two bloody days in Baghdad in which more than 50 people were killed by suicide car bombs targeting main hotels and an interior ministry office.

The assaults broke a seven-week lull in major attacks on the capital as Iraq heads into a pivotal general election on March 7 that could set it more firmly on the path to stability or potentially widen its sectarian and ethnic divisions....

BAGHDAD - Gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on Wednesday in the Iraqi capital at two buses carrying Iranian pilgrims, killing an Iranian woman and an Iraqi driver, the Baghdad security command said.

Wounded were transported to Al Hakim Hospital in Al Sheala region for treatment, the source added. Although an Iranian Authority said wounded will transport to Iran if needed.

The attack on a main road in Al Adel District, northwestern Baghdad Baghdad also wounded five Iranian pilgrims, according to a report. Pilgrims were traveling from holy city of Najaf to holy city of Kazemayn.

The attack came after two bloody days in Baghdad in which more than 50 people were killed by suicide car bombs targeting main hotels and an interior ministry office.

The assaults broke a seven-week lull in major attacks on the capital as Iraq heads into a pivotal general election on March 7 that could set it more firmly on the path to stability or potentially widen its sectarian and ethnic divisions....

I've changed my mind. The nuclear talks are going nowhere. The Iranians appear intent on developing the means to produce a nuclear weapon; there is no other explanation for the secret uranium-enrichment facility discovered near the holy city of Qum. Fortunately, their nuclear program appears to have hit some technical snags, which puts off the need to decide whether to launch a preventive strike. Instead we should be focusing on another fact: Iran may be closer to profound political change than at any time since the revolution that ousted the shah 30 years ago.

But Barack Obama, of course, has done nothing to aid those who might have toppled the Islamic regime, or at least installed a somewhat more humane and less anti-Western, anti-Israel regime.

Secretary General of the Kuwaiti National Islamic Alliance Sheikh Hussain al-Ma'touq warned Islamic countries to keep vigilant against enemies' plots, saying that enemies of the Islamic Ummah (community) are seeking to sow discord among Muslims.

Secretary General of the Kuwaiti National Islamic Alliance Sheikh Hussain al-Ma'touq warned Islamic countries to keep vigilant against enemies' plots, saying that enemies of the Islamic Ummah (community) are seeking to sow discord among Muslims.

"After the consequent victories of resistant groups (in Palestine and Lebanon) against the Zionist regime, the enemies of Islam have sought to dismember the Islamic Ummah through plots and conspiracy," al-Ma'touq said.

He also stressed the necessity for resistance and support for unity by the Muslim countries.

The Secretary General of the Kuwaiti National Islamic Alliance - also known as the Hezbollah of Kuwait - further vowed to defend Islam and Muslim-related issues until the Zionist regime fades away.

After a Vahhabi mufti, Mohammad al-Arifi, last week insulted top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani who resides in the holy city of Najaf in Iraq, Shia sleaders [sic] in the region started speeches to disclose the origin and the goals pursued by the Vahhabi mufti's insult and also to show Shia unity and solidarity.

via Iran Shielding Its Nuclear Efforts in Maze of Tunnels – NYTimes.com.

Many lovers of Western Civilization have all but given up hope that we can avoid a catastrophic conflict with Islam over the future course of world history.

That doesn’t mean, however, that we should let opportunities for rapprochement die out because there’s “no way” we can ever reason with any of the adherents of The Religion Of Peace.

As John Tabin illustrates in his December 20th article about the death of Iranian opposition leader Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri (Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, R.I.P., Amspec Blog), the demise of the enemy of our enemy might indeed create a sliver of hope for the youth of Tehran to further weaken the hideous Iranian regime.

Tabin reminds us that Montazeri was always “deeply inconvenient” to the hard-line clerics who make up the ruling body of the harshly theocratic state:

“Until 1989, when he objected to the execution of thousands of government opponents and thus had a falling out with Ruhollah Khomenei, he was seen as next in line to be Supreme Leader (the job, of course, went to Ali Khamenei, despite his being an Ayatollah of the non-”Grand” variety and therefore outranked by Montazeri). Montazeri spent the next two decades criticizing the regime, sometimes from under house arrest, and was a supporter of the opposition movement that drew protestors to the streets of Iran in the wake of the obviously fraudulent election results earlier this year.”

Montazeri’s expiration is yet another reminder to demonstrating students (and others) that the deck is stacked against them. Although it is impossible to guess what effect this might have on efforts to topple the Mullahs, there is some evidence that, for those born after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, a different version of Islam is being clamored for.

Stay tuned. Riot police began to gather in the holy city of Qum today, the site of Montazeri’s funeral, and there were rallies in Tehran. Since God keeps his own counsel, we have no way of knowing what his plans are for the fabled Persian Empire.

Related posts:

1. Everyone Goes For Broke in Iran
2. Massive Protests at Ayatollah Montazeri’s Funeral
3. Iran’s dissident Grand Ayatollah Montazeri dies

via Throngs of Mourners Attend Funeral of Iran’s Dissident Ayatollah – NYTimes.com.

Thirty Flyglobespan crew members are stranded in the Muslim holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia.

The airline had a contract to carry passengers between Delhi in India and Medina for the Hajj pilgrimage.

Flyglobespan captain Bob Lee revealed that the crew members have been confined to their hotel for at least four days because, as non-Muslims, they are not allowed to move around the city.

He said crew members were unable to get seats on flights out of Medina because of the huge demand.

Capt Lee said 1,000 Flyglobespan passengers from India were also trying to find alternative flights home, adding to the difficulties facing the crew.

Katrina McBride, from Fife, said: "My daughter and a number of other crew who work for Flyglobespan are currently based in Saudi and India - who's looking after them? Who will bring them home, when and how soon?

"We are currently in limited communication with my daughter who is in a state of panic.

"She has already phoned, crying her eyes out worrying about what will happen, who will pay her hotel bill as she been working out there for almost six weeks?"

Jerusalem united!

By MALCOLM HEDDING

Oct 3, 2009 20:07 | Updated Oct 5, 2009 3:20

Benjamin Disraeli, the prime minister of the United Kingdom at the turn of the 20th century, had a special way of taking on detractors who heckled him as a Jew when he rose to speak in parliament. “My people were kings in Jerusalem while you were still scratching around in the fields for mushrooms,” he would say.

The point is, Jerusalem was the Royal House of Israel long before London or Paris had regal palaces, and before Berlin or New York even existed. Yet it is these capitals in their arrogance that seek, almost daily, to disinvest the Jewish people from their ancient, biblical claim and connection to Jerusalem.

This is a people that for thousands of years expressed its attachment to and longing for the city by exclaiming every Passover: “Next year in Jerusalem!” The city has been the capital of only one people, and that is the Jewish people. No other nation can or should lay claim to it. As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently declared, “Jerusalem is not a settlement!” It is the City of David, Solomon, the great prophets and sages of the Bible, and the city that Jesus himself prayed for and recognized as Jewish.

via Opinion: Jerusalem united! | Op-Ed Contributors | Jerusalem Post .