Youssef Al Khattab angered many by being an open Al-Qaeda supporter and making anti-Semitic remarks on his website. He now lives in Morocco

It may have been one of the coldest days this season, but that did not deter angry protesters from gathering at 54-11, the Woodside residence of Youssef Al-Khattab, a Jewish convert to Islam and an open Al-Qaeda sympathizer.

On Sunday, a handful of protesters gathered outside his home in ankle-deep snow in a rally organized by New York City based Jewish Defense Organization (JDO).

“We don’t want Al-Qaeda in Woodside,” said organizer Mordechai Levi of JDO into a microphone. Calling the residence the “Al-Qaeda headquarters,” Levi handed out flyers with the landlord’s number on it, and called for Al-Khattab to be evicted from the premises.

Youssef Al-Khattab, however, was not at the scene. He now is in Morocco, allegedly with his family.

Sunday’s protests come after Al-Khattab posted comments on his website, revolutionmuslim.info, supporting the Fort Hood attacks and the violent acts of radical Muslims.

He has also made several anti-Semitic comments on his site, including wanting liquid cleaner to be thrown in Jew’s faces and for the outdoor huts some build during the holiday of Sukkot to be burned as they sleep in them. He referred to that message as a prayer, not a threat.

Earlier, in an audio clip posted online in response to questions emailed to him by Queens Chronicle’s Editor in Chief, Al-Khattab alleges that Jews have no right to live in Palestine, where they established the state of Israel in 1948, and says that he supports the establishment of an Islamic state in all Islamic lands, such as Somalia and Afghanistan.

Asked if he wants the U.S. government to be replaced by Islamic rule, he says that he is not actively seeking that, but believes that it will inevitably happen, even if it takes hundreds of years. The recording is available at revolutionmuslim.blip.tv.

On Sunday, curious passerby’s stopped to see what the commotion was all about at 54-11.

“This is disturbing,” said Woodside resident James Gabriel, who was on his way to the park to snowboard with his son, “but it has got to a point where it is no longer surprising.” Gabriel had not heard to Al-Khattab’s website or work earlier, but was clearly disturbed. He said people had already forgotten about 9/11 and it’s perpetrators and expressed concern that he could be on the subway the next day, when a terrorist struck.

Other residents like Jesse Ortiz and Frank Gibbons came specifically to take part in the rally after reading about it on a local blog. “I have lived here all my life, it’s a shame,” said Jesse Ortiz, referring to Al-Khattab’s radical website. “I have a three year old boy, it’s crazy,” he added. Ortiz worried that even if you got rid of people like Al-Khattab from the neighborhood, they would just move elsewhere to continue their activities.

“Jesse and I both lost friends in 9/11,” said Frank Gibbons, who had posted a message about the protests on his Facebook page inviting others to come. “We don’t want people like this in our neighborhood. This is ridiculous,” he said.

“It’s not just an attack on American Jews, it’s an attack on America,” said Levi, referring to Al-Khattab’s   incendiary remarks on his website.

Al-Khattab meanwhile has dismissed the protests held outside his home, calling them “Anti-Islamic.” In an email correspondence with this reporter, he writes the JDO has every right to express their “anti-gentile” views and practice the freedom of assembly America affords them.

He also points out that these are the same rights that indigenous Muslim and Christian populations don’t have in Israel.

Asked about his anti-Semitic comments in the past, Al-Khattab responded he was against rabbinical Judaism and that there have been several non-rabbinical intellectuals like Noam Chomsky and Joseph Stiglitiz who have inspired him.

On being called an Al-Qaeda sympathizer, Al-Khattab scoffed at the label saying if he indeed was an Al-Qaeda sympathizer, he would have been behind bars by now.

Al-Khattab has managed to stay away from jail as his writings are protected by the First Amendment, further infuriating Sunday’s protesters. “The First Amendment is fine,” said organizer Mordechai Levi, “but when writings become threats, then it’s a matter of grave concern,” he added.

Even as freezing temperatures took the nip out of Sunday’s protests and they wrapped up early, Al-Khattab writes he plans to now live in Morocco and has no immediate plans of returning to the United States, except to preach.

This piece originally appeared in The Queens Chronicle

Its title, Five Flawed Assumptions of Obama’s Afghan Surge, says it all, and the piece itself summarizes concisely points that this site and many others have been arguing for months:
1. Expanding the ground war against the Taliban will in no way guarantee us any greater success in finding and confront members of Al-Qaeda.
2. We cannot build an Afghan National Army capable of defending its national sovereignty within a few years.

3. We cannot work with President Karzai.

4. A an alleged withdrawal date will not exert pressure on President Karzai, who has been forging alliances with the expectation that we will leave eventually anyway.

5. Pakistan may take on insurgents that challenge its own government, but it never has, and probably never will fight members of Al-Qaeda or the Taliban on the border if they are merely using the region to launch attacks into Afghanistan.

Conducting a war under these realities is a lot harder than waging one under the false assumptions the Obama administration has presented.

Surprisingly, the Time article does not even offer an “on the hand” argument. This article is firmly against Obama’s Afghanistan policy, in more decisive terms than any publication of its stature. It’s worth checking out.

The most recent Time issue also includes a typically wishy-washy editorial from Joe Klein, who does include a gem of a sentence in which he calls Obama’s deliberations over the war: the struggles of a highly intelligent, dispassionate man to find a rationale for a mission that is crucial but slightly crazy, a decision that will define his presidency.

Amen.

But as Pakistan continues to be pock marked by suicide bombings on a weekly basis, the country’s pop stars are now changing their tunes; singing no longer of love songs, but having their lyrics reflect Pakistan’s new reality, that includes inflation, unemployment and rising violence.

In some cases, the lyrics are also blatantly anti-American, with one pop group telling The New York Times, the Taliban is more the West’s problem and has a very small part to play in Pakistan! So what are the Pakistani bands tuning out? Check this out.

Stylish Dil Chahta Hai changed the way we looked at Bollywood forever

I love it when cultures cross-pollinate.

When Dil Chahta Hai ( The Heart Desires) came out in 2001, everyone in Bollywood straightened out their sky-high teased hair, dusted off their bulky shoulder padded jackets, and sat up!

The movie was a spectacular success, only because it was so unlike anything Bollywood had seen before.

In the film, the young stars (A-lister Aamir Khan, C-lister Akshaye Khanna, and really cute, but relegated to the bottom of the barell D-lister Saif Ali Khan) portray affluent, yuppy, thoroughly Americanised Indians.

They partied hard, jetted off to beach resort Goa in a BMW, spiked their hair with enough Gel to make them glisten like Baby Seals and generally were seen as very aspirational.

The movie, with its catchy tunes and stylised production, was funny, slick and an instant classic. It changed the way we looked at Bollywood forever.

Now, here’s something that is bound to change the way you look at Pakistan forever.

Slackistan is Pakistan’s first ever “slacker movie.” If your head is stuffed full of “Pakistan” images – i.e. images of bombings, the Taliban, suicide attacks, then this movie aspires to show audiences Pakistan’s other side.

The gap between privilege and poverty is so stark in that country (much like India) that many people who live within the bubble of prosperity fail to see what’s right in front of their eyes.

Slackistan is a no-budget, indie flick by first-time British director Hammad Khan and features the Pakistani young and privileged as they drift around in a rarefied world of cars, dating, drinking and parties.

Worrying only about what to wear and where to go, this group of fashionably-dressed kids could be in Orange County or New York’s Upper East Side, writes Riazat Butt in The Guardian.

The film is set in Islamabad, with locals or “Islooites” with no acting experience playing themselves.

“They are the kids of businessmen, politicians or professionals,” explains Hammad Khan in his interview to The Guardian.

“They are the future of Pakistan. They will inherit Islamabad and it is more interesting to look at what they might do with it, rather than look at the poor or the radicalised who have very little real power. The film is about growing up, too. It asks, can we really do this for the rest of our lives?”