This post is to let our readers and supporters know that recently there was a serious Islamist attempt to close our operations.
Do not get me wrong - there are hundreds of daily hacking attempts to close us down permanently but these clumsy attempts are nothing but an inconvenience, a nuisance.
We can deal with it and the most "dramatic" product of such attempts resulted in a 2 day downtime of our site (big deal).
The latest attempt was different.
The latest attempt to silence us was a direct assault on our democratic freedom of speech and expression.
An Islamist group hidden under a name of an individual (whose name for a legal reasons I do not wish to disclose ) has been trying to force our Internet provider to get us out of cyber-space.
Here is an excerpt of his e-mail:
I cannot believe that SingleHop is supporting websites that are used in defaming, accusing, harassing, invading and threatening Religious groups, Doctrines, Communities, Cultures, Values and Teachings. We were recently informed islam-Watch is conducting in anti Islam propaganda activities and is engaging in hatred speeches especially targeting Prophet Muhammad. Please have a look at the content of the website and articles posted on it and you would notice that the groups operation is to propagate misinformation and hatred.
I am not sure if our readers are aware but Australian Islamist Monitor and Islam-Watch web sites are technically looked after by the same person -yours truly, otherwise known as - Dan Zaremba.
Also both sites are set up on one physical server hosted by SingleHop.
While far from being a top expert on all web-based technologies I provide basic technical support for both sites.
And so although, technically speaking, the attack focuses on Islam Watch and my dear friend M.A.Khan , who is the chief editor of Islam-Watch , shutting down of the server would mean death to us all.
At this stage I have to praise our current host SingleHop, whose representatives behaved in the most professional manner.
After the initial routine check for computer security loopholes our host communicated my message to the Islamist accusers:
The actual complaint is about the CONTENT of one of the sites hosted
The complaint you have received from an individual calling himself YYYYYY is not about any malicious cyber threat but about the content which he doesn't like - I quote:
We were recently informed that islam-watch.org is conducting in anti Islam propaganda activities and is engaging in hatred speeches especially targetting Prophet
Muhammad.
I would like to stress here that our group has never been engaged in any ILLEGAL activity and I strongly believe criticism of any religion and/or political ideology/movement is our right which we are prepared to defend by ANY legal means.
The response of the Islamist was predictable, but NOT very specific:
This email was sent for Single Hop to investigate the matter. My name should] not have been mentioned. My concern should have been investigated and my name should not have been forwarded. This is definitely a site that is promoting hate speech, propoganda, and anti Islam activities based on lies and is promoting for the muslims to be punished, harmed and alienated. Single Hop platform is being used and unfortunately we believe that Single Hop is a contrbutor in this cause. Please note that if this issue is not resolved then our group would sort legal remedy as we believe Single Hop is failing to fulfill its own guidelines as mentioned in the TOS. Please allow me to discuss this matter with your legal team and inform them of potential legal issue in this regard. We have several postings from the website that we believe are considered harrasing, invading and threatening and we are ready to prove them in court of law.
To which (beautifically crafted) statement SingleHop responded:
I'm afraid that what you have here is a case of someone exercising their first amendment right to free speech. This is not an abuse case and not something we in support or abuse can directly act upon. While it would be one thing if the website were blatantly stating advocating violence against a person, race, or creed, then maybe this could be acted upon, but there is no obvious incitement of hatred or violence that I can see from reading a few of the articles. If you want I can forward this to our legal department and they can handle the matter but this is something that is beyond our ability to act upon. This is something you will likely need to discuss with a lawyer in order to proceed further on.
Again, as stated before, if you can provide *direct links* to the content in question that directly advocates violence against Muslims or people of Arabic descent in general, then we can do something about it. Someone simply speaking his/her mind about the topic of religion or politics in general is not something we can deem inappropriate or against our terms of service.
Please let us know how you wish to proceed.
I am not sure this is the end of the Islamist harassment but I'd like to stress here that AIM is not here to promote HATE but simply to stop Islam. We are a group from many ethnic backgrounds and representing many faiths who are deeply concerned with the Ideology of Islam.
Australians celebrate and revere Anzac Day on April 25th each year in remembrance of our brave soldiers who fought in two great world wars to secure our freedom. Every Australian identifies with the slogan “lest we forget” and in services held around the country people reflect on the battles and men who died to secure our freedom. Yet across the world in France, there is one remarkable battle which helped form the Europe we know today and allowed the development of civilization based on Judeo Christian principles. This one famous battle has become known as the battle of Tours and effectively stopped the Muslim advance into Europe. After the death of Mohammed in 632AD, Muslim armies exploded out of the Arabian peninsula to conquer much of the Middle East, expanding across north Africa. From there they crossed into Spain in 711AD and eventually controlled much of al-Andalus by 715AD. It was the victory at Tours by Charles Martel that stemmed the tide and eventually the Muslim marauders were expelled from Spain in 1492 when the last outpost at Granada fell to King Ferdinand of Spain. 
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was born, lived, fought and won battles against religious and social oppression in the 17th century Bharat or India. He was a shining star in the Indian firmament and is renowned as a champion of the downtrodden and depressed masses. He was and continues to be an icon for the classes and masses alike and is seen as a rallying point for peasants oppressed by foreign rulers, Pathans and Moghuls alike. Sexually exploited women found in Shivaji Raje a protector, a benefactor and flocked to his Hindavi Swaraj to find solace and feel liberated under his saffron flag. 
Perhaps some readers might be interested to know that January 28 is considered a feast day among Catholics – actually 2 feast days are celebrated on the same day – one is of ST Thomas Aquinas, the great medieval theologian and philosopher who adapted Aristotle to the western Judeo-Christian worldview. . It is also the feast day of a lesser known person – St Peter Nolasco, the great ransomer of captives from the Muslims.
How often in conversation with a Muslim, do they quote Spain as the crowning achievement of Islam, where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in harmony for about 800 years?
Why do Muslims insist that Jerusalem is their Holy City?
There is a very strongly entrenched view among majority of Westerners today that the three main monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam share one common God and therefore despite the obvious differences, the core foundation of these three religions is the same. 
