Subscribe to RSS
Pajamas Media: News Index – 30th July 2011
DIGEST Saturday July 30, 2011
Recommend Your Solution to the U.S. Deficit with the PJ Modeling tool
Make your changes here. (free registration required)
Obama, Geithner Hold All the Face Cards in Debt Ceiling Fight
by Jazz Shaw
The administration will get to choose who gets government checks and who doesn’t.
Hey, Who Wants to Talk About Wisconsin’s Economic Miracle?
by Gary Wickert
The death of collective bargaining saved the state overnight.
Gunwalker: One Step Closer to the Oval Office
by Mike McDaniel
This week’s revelations placed knowledge of the operation within the White House for the first time.
Mandated Mischief: Obama’s 54.5 MPG Standard
by Marlo Lewis
More deaths, less choice, pricier cars. And of course, no upside.
NYTimes poll-graph on debt crisis: public rejects extreme partisan solutions, but false premise skews results
by Zombie
The Tea Party position of cutting runaway spending is now the mainstream position; but the liberal Democrat call for higher taxes is also now the mainstream position.
The Donkey Pins the Tail on Itself
by Dan Miller
The Dem position on spending simply cannot end well for them. (Update: Boehner bill passes House, And the Next Move Is…?)
Unchained World
by Victor Davis Hanson
Our financial problems and retreat from military commitment have made the world a scary place; it’s about to get worse.
Jihad Watch: News Index – 30th July 2011
Egypt: Banners in Tahrir Square read “Sharia above the constitution”
Jul 30, 2011 03:20 am | Marisol
Gearing up, they hope and expect, for the revolution after the revolution. More on this story. “Groups quit Egypt rally saying hijacked by Islamists,” by Edmund Blair and Marwa Awad for Reuters, July 29: (Reuters) – More than 30 political parties and movements withdrew from a rally on Friday that…
U.N. names Hizballah figures indicted in Hariri case
Jul 30, 2011 03:07 am | Marisol
Interpol has already issued a “red notice” for their arrests. Now that the four Hizballah men have been officially named, Lebanon has until August 11 to inform the U.N. tribunal of the action they will take. In a Hizballah-dominated government, the scope of possible responses is considerable. They may well…
“Islamists,” and former allies, suspected in assassination of Libyan rebel chief
Jul 30, 2011 03:02 am | Marisol
It is this alliance of rebels that we’re banking on to usher a democratic civil society in Libya. “Islamists suspected over Libyan rebel death,” by Rania El Gamal for Reuters, July 29: (Reuters) – Libyan rebels say the gunmen who shot dead their military chief were members of an Islamist-linked…
Jul 29, 2011 04:59 pm | Robert
Last year, Abdo condemned the Fort Hood jihad massacre: “Abdo’s words in court were a sharp contrast to an essay he wrote last year as the first anniversary of the Fort Hood shootings approached and as he petitioned for conscientious objector status. In the essay, obtained by The Associated Press,…
Who Is Lee Silver? Ask Anders Breivik
Jul 29, 2011 04:52 pm | Robert
Who Is Lee Silver? Ask Anders Breivik by David Klinghoffer Our local NPR station here in Seattle plays the BBC Newshour after lunch and I happened to be in my car listening when the interview with Robert came on, startlingly all but crediting him as special mentor or private tutor…
Hundreds of thousands demonstrate in Cairo, demand Islamic state
Jul 29, 2011 04:31 pm | Robert
Note the frequent use of “ultraconservatives” in this piece. Again, for AP, to be “ultraconservative” means to want Sharia, and to be “ultraconservative” means to resist Sharia. I tried to tell you: “Thousands demonstrate for an Islamic state in Egypt,” by Ben Hubbard for The Associated Press, July 29 (thanks…
Raymond Ibrahim: Rationalizing Pedophilia in Islam
Jul 29, 2011 02:26 pm | Raymond
Earlier this month we saw—or rather, were once again reminded—that Islam permits pedophilia in the guise of “marriage”: Top Saudi cleric, Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, issued a fatwa asserting that there is no minimum age for girls to marry, “even if they are in the cradle,” and that the only…
The Malaysian response to the Norwegian massacre
Jul 29, 2011 10:30 am | The Anti-Jihadist
Events in far-off Norway, namely the horrific double-attack and massacre of innocents about one week ago, have elicited a response from the Malaysia government in what is officially described as a ‘strong condemnation’. And for Malaysia’s government, it is largely as advertised, a sternly-worded condemnation, but with a dollop of…
FBI adopts Lysenkoism as official policy
Jul 29, 2011 09:55 am | Robert
It is no surprise that in an official environment that refuses to speak about “Islam” and “terrorism” in the same sentence — a policy which must involve quite a lot of mental and verbal gymnastics when jihad terrorists start quoting Qur’an and other Islamic sources — that the truth about…
“AWOL Fort Campbell soldier” admits plans for massacre at Fort Hood
Jul 29, 2011 03:55 am | Marisol
To review: he obtained conscientious objector status against being deployed to Iraq after saying “his Muslim beliefs prevented him from fighting.” But he was willing and able to travel to Texas to attempt to pick up where Nidal Malik Hasan left off and slaughter more soldiers at Fort Hood. An…
Indonesia: Members of frenzied mob that killed 3 Ahmadis get a few months in jail
Jul 29, 2011 03:31 am | Marisol
The attack was videotaped as a crowd shouted “Allahu akbar!” and young boys recorded it on their mobile phones. The savagery of the murders did not lead, as one would logically expect, to enhanced protection of Ahmadis within Indonesia, but to the opposite. They were essentially blamed for causing the…
African Union troops intervene after Somali jihadists threaten aid camps
Jul 29, 2011 03:22 am | Marisol
Al-Shabaab’s conduct is reminiscent of the Saudi religious police who beat schoolgirls back into a burning building rather than letting them out sinfully unveiled. But the Somali jihadists are causing suffering and death on a much larger scale, in what they say is an effort to keep out the “Christian”…
U.S. special ops commander warns of al-Qaeda’s next generation
Jul 29, 2011 03:09 am | Marisol
Al-Qaeda, the Next Generation. Purists will say it could never top The Old Series. Despite being the number-one brand name in global jihad, al-Qaeda’s ideology is not of its own invention, and that is ultimately the source of its resilience. It is a waste of precious time that even being…
U.S. accuses Iran of striking deal with al-Qaeda
Jul 29, 2011 03:07 am | Marisol
A gentlemen’s agreement, minus the gentlemen. “U.S. accuses Iran of aiding al-Qaeda,” by Joby Warrick for the Washington Post, July 28: The Obama administration said Thursday that Iran is helping al-Qaeda funnel cash and recruits into Pakistan for its international operations, the most serious U.S. allegation to date of…
Jul 29, 2011 12:45 am | Robert
And how better to do that than by murdering a few Infidels? An update on the conscientious objector who got out of the Army so he could avoid killing his fellow Muslims, but evidently wanted to kill large numbers of non-Muslims at Fort Hood. War Is Deceit Update: “Devout Muslim…
Jihad Watch: News Index – 30th July 2011
Muslim soldier who plotted new jihad mass murder at Fort Hood shouts “Nidal Hasan Fort Hood 2009″ while leaving courtroom today
Last year, Abdo condemned the Fort Hood jihad massacre: “Abdo’s words in court were a sharp contrast to an essay he wrote last year as the first anniversary of the Fort Hood shootings approached and as he petitioned for conscientious objector status. In the essay, obtained by The Associated Press, Abdo said the attacks ran against his beliefs as a Muslim and were ‘an act of aggression by a man and not by Islam.’”
“Naser Abdo, AWOL soldier, charged in Fort Hood bomb plot,” by Peter Finn and and Jason Ukman for the Washington Post, July 29 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
A U.S. soldier who is accused of planning to attack troops near Fort Hood, Tex., shouted out “Nidal Hasan Fort Hood 2009” as he left a federal courtroom in Waco on Friday.
Pfc. Naser Abdo, 21, had told investigators after his arrest Thursday that he was acting in support of Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who has been charged in the killing of 13 people at the base in 2009, according to congressional and federal officials.
Abdo was charged Friday with possession of an unregistered destructive device in connection with a bomb plot and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to federal prosecutors. Abdo made a brief initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Waco.
Abdo was arrested in Killeen, Tex., after authorities said they discovered bombmaking materials in his backpack and in a motel room, as well as a copy of an article from the al-Qaeda magazine Inspire, which is produced by the terrorist group’s Yemen affiliate. The article was titled “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom.”
In a criminal complaint, investigators listed some of what they found in Abdo’s possession: a .40 caliber handgun, ammunition, smokeless gunpowder, shotgun shells, shotgun pellets, two clocks, two spools of auto wire, an electric drill and two pressure cookers.
The officials said Abdo was planning to set off bombs at locations outside the base where soldiers gather and to follow the explosions with gunfire.
“I would classify this as a terror plot,” Police Chief Dennis Baldwin told reporters in Killeen. Law enforcement officials said Abdo would be charged in federal court with possession of bombmaking materials, among other offenses….
A U.S. counterterrorism official said authorities have not discovered any direct communication between Abdo and foreign Islamist extremists.
Abdo, attached to the the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., recently sought conscientious objector status because he felt that as a Muslim he could not be deployed to fight in a war zone.
In May, on the same day his status was granted, he was charged with possession of child pornography on a computer he used. Abdo then left Fort Campbell without permission on about the July Fourth holiday and returned to Texas. His home town is listed as Garland.
James Branum, an Oklahoma City lawyer who represented Abdo in his conscientious objector and child pornography cases, described Abdo as gracious, hospitable and “very devoutly religious,” saying he prayed five times a day.
Abdo denied the pornography allegations and said he thought the military was retaliating against him for trying to leave the service.
• Email to a friend • Article Search • •
Who Is Lee Silver? Ask Anders Breivik
Who Is Lee Silver? Ask Anders Breivik
by David KlinghofferOur local NPR station here in Seattle plays the BBC Newshour after lunch and I happened to be in my car listening when the interview with Robert came on, startlingly all but crediting him as special mentor or private tutor to Anders Breivik. Well, the media see what they want to see, I thought. Little did I realize just then how true that is in this case.
Breivik in his manifesto cites Robert Spencer, and this fact was picked up and trumpeted around the world because it suits a particular imagined narrative that pleases a certain crowd of people who edit prestige news sources. That Breivik’s mixed bag of writings reflects, explicitly and conspicuously, the thought of a distinguished Princeton University professor, Lee Silver, has so far gone almost totally unacknowledged.
Not totally because my Discovery Institute colleague John West picked it up and has written about it searchingly. Who is Lee Silver? He’s the evolutionary biologist and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science who invented the term and concept of “reprogenetics,” a new spin on the old idea of eugenics as a means to perfect the human race. In his manifesto, Breivik goes on about this idea, citing Silver by name along with his book Remaking Eden: How Genetic Engineering and Cloning Will Transform the American Family, copying passages from Wikipedia that elaborate on Silver’s proposed scheme.
Breivik likes that in contrast to the old pseudoscience of eugenics, which resulted in forced sterilizations, the new pseudoscience of reprogenetics proposed by Silver relies on voluntary methods — though it’s hardly less chilling in its way, envisioning a race of near god-men, which Silver calls “cognition-enhance GenRich.” Breivik, however, also drew on earlier influential eugenicists like Madison Grant (cited, again, by name) in theorizing about the superior virtues of the “Nordic” race, being lost through “race-mixing.”
Why does it matter? Because even if you were to imagine an anti-Jihadi running absolutely wild, getting really, really upset about Islam’s being the world religion least inclined to pacifism, just taking that view to a crazy extreme, what do you think someone like that might do? Sneak into Pakistan or Saudi Arabia on a mad mission as a Christian missionary, seeking to win over Muslims to a different faith? Perhaps.
But what of the sinister scientism to which Breivik, in fact, subscribed and that he wrote about in detail? He expounds on the importance of government funding for science, that feeding the poor must not take precedence over science, that feeding the Third World poor is in fact a bad idea, that the size of the human population needs to be halved (through voluntary means!), that “social Darwinism” got a bum rap, that “[t]he never-ending collective pursuit for scientific evolution and perfection should become the benchmark and essence of our existence.”
From the self-interview section of Breivik’s manifesto:
“Q: What should be our civilizational objectives, how do you envision a perfect Europe?
“A: ‘Logic’ and rationalist thought (a certain degree of national Darwinism) should be the fundament of our societies.”
This dark vision is not his invention. It’s a spin-off of what he aptly calls “National Darwinism,” which got its start in the writing of Charles Darwin. While a gentle soul in person and wishing no harm to anyone, Darwin envisioned a picture of the world that equates “extermination” (a favorite word of Darwin’s) with biological advancement. I’ve written elsewhere about the historical, moral consequences of Darwinism, quite apart from any explanatory value of natural selection in biology.
No one sane would blame Lee Silver or Charles Darwin for Breivik’s rampage, but it’s a historical reality that views like theirs, in the hands of madmen and not-so-madmen, have inspired some very evil deeds. This fact, because it suits no liberal or progressive narrative, unlike the irrelevant citation of Robert Spencer, is not something you will ever hear as the subject of an aggressive, obnoxious interview on the BBC.
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute.
• Email to a friend • •
Hundreds of thousands demonstrate in Cairo, demand Islamic state
Note the frequent use of “ultraconservatives” in this piece. Again, for AP, to be “ultraconservative” means to want Sharia, and to be “ultraconservative” means to resist Sharia.
I tried to tell you: “Thousands demonstrate for an Islamic state in Egypt,” by Ben Hubbard for The Associated Press, July 29 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
Calls for an Islamic state have taken over Cairo’s Tahrir Square as the largest demonstration since February has been mobilized by the country’s Islamist organizations. Ultraconservative Muslims turned out in force Friday as hundreds of thousands filled Cairo’s central Tahrir Square in a rally marked by a growing rift in the protest movement.
South of the capital, gunmen fired on a car carrying Christians, killing two. While the motive was unknown, similar events have sparked religious violence in the past.
In the largest crowd to fill the square since the popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February, Salafis chanted for the implementation of strict Islamic law — spurring accusations that they violated an agreement to keep the rally free from divisive issues.
They have come in a show of force to demand that the country’s caretaker authority, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, cease its plans to present a set of principles that will form a framework for a new constitution.
Islamist group’s such as the Muslim Brotherhood – Egypt’s best organized political force – and the former terrorist organization Gamaa Islamiya along with disparate Salafist bodies argue that only God’s word is greater than a constitution and that only a parliament chosen by free election can set the terms for a constitution. These groups stayed away from recent demonstrations that sought to keep up pressure on the military council that took power after former president Hosni Mubarak’s fall, leading to smaller crowds.
The groups believe that they will poll enough support to dominate such a parliament and thereby set the terms. They fear that a kind of bill of rights could close off the possibility of a state run by Islamic laws.
The secular youths who once dominated this central Cairo square are in a distinct minority these days, and especially on Friday, dominated as it is by Islamists.
Liberal parties endorse the measure in an effort to limit what they fear will be outsized Islamist influence on the new document should religious groups win a large share of the parliament. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has accepted the idea.
Leaders of the original secular groups such as the April 6 Movement have agreed with Islamist leaders that neither side will confront the other today.
In the past 24 hours, the secularists won agreement from the Islamists that the day would be known as the Day of Unity, rather than the Day of Sharia as called for by the Islamists.
No one, however, appears to have told the hundreds of thousands of Islamist supporters packed together in Tahrir Square in the midday sun.
Crowds of ultraconservative Salafis, however, gave a common protests chant an Islamic twist — sparking criticisms from others who said the chants violated an agreement to avoid divisive issues.
Instead of “Peaceful, peaceful,” which demonstrators have chanted during confrontations with security forces, they repeated “Islamic, Islamic.” And instead of “The people want to topple the regime” — a chant made famous in Tunisia and adopted across the region — they yelled, “The people want to implement Sharia,” or Islamic law.
Salafis are ultraconservatives, close to Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi interpretation of Islam and more radical than the Brotherhood. They seek to emulate the austerity of Islam’s early days and oppose a wide range of practices like intermingling of the sexes that they view as “un-Islamic.” Many also reject all forms of Western cultural influence….
• Email to a friend • Article Search • •
Raymond Ibrahim: Rationalizing Pedophilia in Islam
Earlier this month we saw—or rather, were once again reminded—that Islam permits pedophilia in the guise of “marriage”: Top Saudi cleric, Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, issued a fatwa asserting that there is no minimum age for girls to marry, “even if they are in the cradle,” and that the only criterion is that “they are capable of being placed beneath and bearing the weight of the men.”
While this practice speaks for itself, it is interesting to witness the great lengths some Muslims go to justify or rationalize it—or even to turn it into a source of pride.
Consider, for example, this Muslim cleric discussing Muhammad’s marriage to the child Aisha when she was nine. Far from blushing for shame, the cleric actually uses this anecdote to boast of the prophet’s “patience” and “magnanimity.” Translation of relevant excerpt follows:
The story of the prophet’s marriage to Aisha reveals to us aspects like the prophet’s conduct with Aisha, and more importantly the aspect regarding the relationship between the husband and wife, to show how one should treat his wife, just as the prophet did with Aisha.
We know that Asia’s mother went to take her down from the swing that she was playing on to fix her hair and prepare her for the prophet so he could enter her [have sex with her]—and she did that all on the same day.
Aisha’s own account in Sahih Bukhari is telling enough: she talks about how her mother hurriedly prepared her and then “handed” her over to Muhammad, and how “nothing surprised me but the coming of Allah’s Apostle to me in the forenoon.”
The cleric continues:
So you see, she was playing with her fellow playmates even though her day of consummation was that very same day—and all that they did was to fix her up for the prophet so he could have sex with her.
Now what do we see when the prophet married Aisha? Did he go to her and say “Okay that’s it, you’re married, you’re now a grown up, you’re supposed to be mature, you need to do this and that; you need to forget about your toys and your little friends; you are now a wife of a man, you have to see to my needs” and that’s it?
No. The prophet allowed her to continue playing with her toy dolls—indeed, the prophet even sometimes gave her such things to play with. [This hadith has more details, including how Aisha’s little girl friends would “hide themselves” whenever the prophet came to her until he called them out.]
It should be noted that the cleric recounted the above with much awe and amazement—as if to say, “Look how indulgent and open-minded our prophet was!”
In fact, such was the cleric’s whole point: to show that Islam, according to the example of Muhammad, expects older Muslim husbands to be patient with their younger wives: “The older husband should not expect the younger wife to be at his level of maturity; rather, he should go down to her level, for he is capable, whereas she is not.”
As “gentlemanly” as this ostensibly sounds, it is yet another example of how Muslim scholars deal with Muhammad’s lifestyle: because they cannot condemn or ignore his practices, they inevitably go to great lengths to rationalize or justify them—to find the good in every situation their prophet was involved in, while being oblivious to all the bad.
Thus here we have a cleric straining to find a positive aspect to Muhammad’s pedophilia—that he was patient and indulgent of his child-bride—while ignoring the heart of it: that the man Islam is built around desired to have sex with a child in the first place.
Raymond Ibrahim, an Islam specialist, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum. He writes regularly for Jihad Watch.
• Email to a friend • •
The Malaysian response to the Norwegian massacre
Events in far-off Norway, namely the horrific double-attack and massacre of innocents about one week ago, have elicited a response from the Malaysia government in what is officially described as a ‘strong condemnation’. And for Malaysia’s government, it is largely as advertised, a sternly-worded condemnation, but with a dollop of treacherous taqiyya thrown in for bad measure. From “Malaysia Strongly Condemns Norway Shooting, Bombing”, Bernama, 23 July:
KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 (Bernama) — Malaysia strongly condemned the bombing of the government offices and shootings at a youth camp in Oslo and Utoeya, Norway yesterday, calling it a heinous crime.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry expressed shock and sadness at the incidents and said that Malaysia sent its deepest condolences to the Norwegian government in its hour of bereavement.
As of now there were no Malaysians involved in the incident. The Malaysian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden was monitoring the situation, it said.
“The government of Malaysia hopes the people responsible for this heinous crime will be brought to justice.
“Both the incidents have highlighted to the international community on the need to take the path to democracy and moderation, and the importance of strengthening cooperation in order to face any type of terrorism and violent extremism,” the statement said.
I suppose Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian perpetrator of heinous crimes against civilians, is no less ‘moderate’ than Hamas, an organization befriended by Malaysia (and quite popular with Malaysians) that, like Breivik, has also deliberately targeted civilians. Although to be truthful, there are differences between the two — Breivik killed civilians in two instances, whilst Hamas has killed or attempted to kill civilians hundreds if not thousands of times. Of course, Malaysia has yet to condemn Hamas but a single time for any of their heinous crimes. What was that about ‘the path to moderation’ again?
Breivik is in fact no less ‘extremist’ or ‘violent’ than the very immoderate Islamic Republic of Iran, another entity with which Malaysia has enjoyed a long and close relationship with, Iran’s notorious and long track record of state-sponsored terrorism having been studiously ignored by Malaysia all the while.
Yes, Malaysia has commendably damned the attacks in Norway and has publicly called for justice. One can only hope that when Hamas or Iran predictably and inevitably commits their next atrocity against civilians, that Malaysia will call for justice as they have loudly done in this case. Perhaps one day, Malaysia’s actions will actually reflect its own soaring rhetoric. One can hope, at any rate.
• Email to a friend • Article Search • •
FBI adopts Lysenkoism as official policy
It is no surprise that in an official environment that refuses to speak about “Islam” and “terrorism” in the same sentence — a policy which must involve quite a lot of mental and verbal gymnastics when jihad terrorists start quoting Qur’an and other Islamic sources — that the truth about Islam would be ruled out of counterterrorism studies. It is no surprise that in an official environment that thinks that the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular” and that jihad is a wholly positive interior spiritual struggle would reject a book that tells the truth about Islam and jihad.
Lysenkoism was ideologically biased junk science regarding biology and agriculture that was adopted as official policy by the Soviet Union under Stalin. The real scientists who told the truth were sent to the gulag.
So far only my books have been sent to the gulag by the FBI. However, as their Lysenkoism grows more entrenched and their heads planted more firmly in the sand, I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t stop there.
“FBI ‘Islam 101′ Guide Depicted Muslims as 7th-Century Simpletons,” by Spencer Ackerman for Wired, July 27 (thanks to all who sent this in):
[...] And this was what the FBI considered “recommended reading” about Islam:
A much-criticized tome, The Arab Mind, that one reviewer called “a collection of outrageously broad — and often suspect — generalizations“
A book by one of Norwegian terrorist suspect Anders Behring Breivik’s favorite anti-Muslim authors.Ackerman, like so many others in the mainstream media, is making a fundamental false assumption: that because Breivik cited me, my books must be in line with his will to murder, must be full of hatred and violence, etc. Actually, anyone who has read them will know that is not the case. If Breivik got some perspectives on Islam from me, that does not mean that I have any connection with what he thinks about other matters. He got his desire to commit mass murder from somewhere else.
All this is revealed in a PowerPoint presentation by the FBI’s Law Enforcement Communications Unit (.pdf), which trains new Bureau recruits. Among the 62 slides in the presentation, designed to teach techniques for “successful interviews/interrogations with individuals from the M.E. [Middle East],” is an instruction that the “Arabic mind” is “swayed more by words than ideas and more by ideas than facts.”
My books contain nothing like this kind of broad stereotype — and I challenge anyone reading this to prove otherwise with specific quotes.
The briefing presents much information that has nothing to do with crime and everything to do with constitutionally-protected religious practice and social behavior, such as estimating the number of mosques in America and listing the states with the largest Muslim populations.
Nothing unreasonable about giving such information.
Other slides paint Islam in a less malicious light, and one urges “respectful liaison” as a “proactive approach” to engaging Muslims. But even those exhibit what one American Muslim civil rights leader calls “the understanding of a third grader, and even then, a badly misinformed third grader.”
One slide asks, “Is Iran an Arab country?” (It’s not.) Another is just a picture of worry beads.
“Based on this presentation, it is easy to see why so many in law enforcement and the FBI view American Muslims with ignorance and suspicion,” says Farhana Khera, the executive director of Muslim Advocates, a legal aid group. “The presentation appears to treat all Muslims with one broad brush and makes no distinction between lawful religious practice and beliefs and unlawful activities.”
A grainy copy of the PowerPoint was obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union’s Northern California chapter and the Asian Law Caucus, a San Francisco-based civil rights group, and provided to Danger Room. The two groups filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year inquiring about government surveillance of American Muslim communities.
“In order for FBI training to be effective it has to present useful, factual and unbiased information. This material fails on all three criteria,” said Mike German, a former FBI agent who now works for the ACLU. “Factually flawed and biased law enforcement training programs only expand the risk that innocent Muslim and Arab Americans will be unfairly targeted for investigation and prosecution, and stigmatized in their communities.” [Full disclosure: My fiancee works for the ACLU.]
Heh.
In response to queries from Danger Room, the FBI issued the following statement about the PowerPoint: “The FBI new agent population at Quantico is exposed to a diverse curriculum in many specific areas, including Islam and Muslim culture. The presentation in question was a rudimentary version used for a limited time that has since been replaced. It was a small part of a larger segment of training that also included material produced by the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point.”
It is unclear when the FBI stopped using the PowerPoint.
Among the most provocative aspects of the presentation is its recommended reading list. One book offered is The Truth About Mohammed: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion, by Robert Spencer. Spencer is one of the ringleaders of the protest against the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” and the co-founder of Stop the Islamicization [sic] of America, which “promotes a conspiratorial anti-Muslim agenda,” in the view of the Anti-Defamation League. A manifesto written by the Norwegian terror suspect Anders Behring Breivik cited Spencer 64 times….
The only one with a conspiratorial agenda here is the Muslim Brotherhood, which according to a captured internal document is dedicated in the United States to “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house.” But when I quote that, I’m the one with the conspiratorial agenda. Sure.
In any case, note that Ackerman does not — and cannot — cite a single thing in The Truth About Muhammad that is inaccurate or false. He simply assumes that if one opposes Sharia and Islamization — that is, wants to defend the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law — that one cannot be expected to report accurately about Islamic doctrine. There is, however, no reason why this must be so.
“It’s like asking law enforcement to learn ‘the facts’ about the African American experience by reading a book by the grand wizard of the KKK,” says Khera. “It is deplorable and offensive that the nation’s top law enforcement agency would promote such hateful so-called ‘experts’ on Islam.”
What is hateful is Khera comparing me to the KKK when what I write about Islam is entirely accurate — but of course playing the race card is a tested weapon in the Islamic supremacist arsenal. In reality, there is nothing hateful about my books. Ackerman could have included a few “hateful” quotes to support his case. He didn’t because he couldn’t. Nor, by the way, did he contact me for a statement on this story. When you’re demonizing someone, reality can just get in the way.
An FBI spokesman said Spencer’s book is no longer on the reading list but was not sure about the others….
Good work, Comrade Lysenko!
• Email to a friend • Article Search • •
“AWOL Fort Campbell soldier” admits plans for massacre at Fort Hood
To review: he obtained conscientious objector status against being deployed to Iraq after saying “his Muslim beliefs prevented him from fighting.” But he was willing and able to travel to Texas to attempt to pick up where Nidal Malik Hasan left off and slaughter more soldiers at Fort Hood.
An update on this story. “Army: AWOL Fort Campbell soldier admits plotting Fort Hood attack,” from the Associated Press, July 28:
An AWOL soldier who had weapons stashed in a motel room near Fort Hood admitted planning an attack on the Texas post, where 13 people died in 2009 in the worst mass shooting ever on a U.S. military installation, the Army said in an alert issued Thursday.
Double standards abound in the vague, hands-off treatment of the suspect’s identity in the headline and opening paragraph.
Pfc. Naser Abdo, a 21-year-old soldier who was granted conscientious objector status this year after he said his Muslim beliefs prevented him from fighting, was arrested Wednesday. Agents found firearms and “items that could be identified as bomb-making components, including gunpowder,” in his motel room, according to FBI spokesman Erik Vasys.
The Army alert sent via email and obtained by The Associated Press says the man arrested by Killeen police “was in possession of a large quantity of ammunition, weapons and a bomb inside a backpack.” Upon questioning, the alert says, he admitted to planning an attack on Fort Hood.
Officials have not offered details about Abdo’s possible intentions. The infantry soldier from Garland, Texas, had applied for conscientious objector status last year. A military review board recommended this spring that he be separated from the Army.
But the discharge was delayed after he was charged with possessing child pornography and an Article 32 military hearing last month recommended he be court-martialed. He’s been absent without leave from Fort Campbell, Ky., since the July 4 weekend.
Abdo’s arrest came after the owners of a local gun store – the same store where the 2009 Fort Hood shootings suspect Maj. Nidal Hasan bought a pistol used in the attack – called police, the Army’s alert said.
Store clerk Greg Ebert said the man arrived at Guns Galore LLC by taxi Tuesday and bought 6 pounds of smokeless gunpowder, three boxes of shotgun ammunition and a magazine for a semi-automatic pistol, paying about $250. Ebert said he became concerned when the man asked questions indicating he didn’t know much about the items.
“(We) felt uncomfortable with his overall demeanor and the fact he didn’t know what the hell he was buying,” Ebert said. “I thought it prudent to contact the local authorities, which I did.”
Killeen police learned from the taxi company that Abdo had been picked up from a local motel and that he also had visited an Army surplus store where he paid cash for a uniform bearing Fort Hood unit patches, according to the Army alert.
Vasys said the FBI would charge Abdo with possessing bomb-making components and he would be transferred from Killeen police into federal custody. Vasys said there was nothing to indicate Abdo was “working with others.”
An Oklahoma attorney who has represented Abdo said Thursday he hadn’t heard from Abdo in weeks and learned of the arrest from a Texas television station.
“I’ve been quite anxious to get in touch with him,” said attorney James Branum.
• Email to a friend • Article Search • •
Indonesia: Members of frenzied mob that killed 3 Ahmadis get a few months in jail
The attack was videotaped as a crowd shouted “Allahu akbar!” and young boys recorded it on their mobile phones. The savagery of the murders did not lead, as one would logically expect, to enhanced protection of Ahmadis within Indonesia, but to the opposite. They were essentially blamed for causing the attacks by existing, and banned outright in multiple provinces. In West Java, they cannot identify themselves as Ahmadis.
And now, this, from Modern, Moderate, Tolerant Indonesia. “Indonesian court lets anti-Ahmadi mob perpetrators off ‘lightly’,” from Agence France-Presse, July 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):
SERANG, INDONESIA: In what seems to have been a light sentence, an Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced religious fanatics who killed three members of the minority Ahmadiyah Muslim sect in a frenzied mob attack to between three and six months in jail.
Dani bin Misra, a 17-year-old who smashed a victim’s skull with a stone, received three months for manslaughter. While Idris bin Mahdani, who led the mob of more than 1,000 Muslims in the February attack, was convicted of illegal possession of a machete and received five months and 15 days in jail.
Twelve people stood for trial, but none faced murder charges in what human rights activists termed was a travesty of justice in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.
The unprovoked violence against the Ahmadiyah sect members in Cikeusik, western Java, was one of the most horrific in a long line of attacks on the minority group in Indonesia in recent years.
Ahmadiyah, unlike mainstream Muslims, do not believe Mohammed was the last prophet and are regarded as heretics and blasphemers by conservatives in places like Indonesia and Pakistan.
A secretly filmed video of the attack brought religious violence in Indonesia under the international spotlight, and provoked condemnation from the United States, Italy and international rights groups.
“When the Cikeusik video went viral, people around the world were shocked and appalled by the savagery of the mob kicking and slashing three men to death,” Human Rights Watch Deputy Director for Asia Phil Robertson said.
“But instead of charging the defendants with murder and other serious crimes, prosecutors came up with an almost laughable list of ‘slap-on-the wrist’ charges.
“The Cikeusik trial sends the chilling message that attacks on minorities like the Ahmadiyah will be treated lightly by the legal system. This is a sad day for justice in Indonesia.”
It’s not the first, and it won’t be the last. One will also recall the equally laughable sentences given to the members of a mob that went on a rampage against Christian targets in February. And by rewarding bad behavior, as the judiciary must know, it is encouraging more of it.
• Email to a friend • Article Search • •
African Union troops intervene after Somali jihadists threaten aid camps
Al-Shabaab’s conduct is reminiscent of the Saudi religious police who beat schoolgirls back into a burning building rather than letting them out sinfully unveiled. But the Somali jihadists are causing suffering and death on a much larger scale, in what they say is an effort to keep out the “Christian” influence of Western-based charities. Indeed, that is par for the course for a group paranoid enough to ban allegedly Trinitarian samosas. Still, there is also a military advantage to pursue in controlling the flow of aid, and holding the entire territory under their control hostage: hungry people have a harder time fighting back.
For that matter, al-Shabaab has not retreated from their insistence that there is no famine in the first place. And now, they have not only threatened, but “sworn” to attack those who fled to aid camps — after many barely survived getting to them — if they didn’t turn around and go home. “Somali famine: Fighting in Mogadishu after ‘aid threat’,” from BBC News, July 28:
Africa Union peacekeepers say they have seized key territory from Islamist insurgents in Somalia’s capital after they allegedly threatened aid camps.
The heavy fighting came a day after the UN World Food Programme airlifted in its first famine emergency aid.
An AU spokesman told the BBC the action would increase security and enable aid agencies to get food to people displaced by the severe drought.
Thousands have arrived in government-controlled suburbs in search of food.
The WFP delivery is the first airlift of food aid since the UN declared a famine in two southern areas of Somalia last week.
Al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda linked group which controls much of central and southern Somalia, has banned the WFP from its areas.
Tens of thousands of Somalis have fled these regions to Mogadishu and neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia in search of assistance.
The UN refugee agency said on Tuesday that some 100,000 people had arrived in Mogadishu and settlements around the city in search of food and water in the past two months.
Dawn fighting
The weak interim government – backed by the 9,000-strong AU force (Amisom) – controls about 60% of the capital, Mogadishu, including the airport, the port, the presidential palace and areas around the city’s largest market.
The BBC’s Mohamed Dhore in Mogadishu says the fighting started just after dawn when government forces and African peacekeeping troops launched an offensive on an al-Shabab strongholds in the north of the city.
“The al-Shabab have sworn to attack the IDP [internally displaced people] camps if they don’t move back to their areas – and therefore this operation was mean to ensure that this does not happen,” Lt Col Paddy Ankunda, a spokesman for the AU force in Mogadishu, told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme….
• Email to a friend • Article Search • •
U.S. special ops commander warns of al-Qaeda’s next generation
Al-Qaeda, the Next Generation. Purists will say it could never top The Old Series.
Despite being the number-one brand name in global jihad, al-Qaeda’s ideology is not of its own invention, and that is ultimately the source of its resilience. It is a waste of precious time that even being able to discuss the jihad ideology must be a struggle, and it only hamstrings efforts to understand, engage, and defeat al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups. “Spec ops chief warns of al-Qaida 2.0,” by Kimberly Dozier for the Associated Press, July 28:
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — The top commander of U.S. special operations forces said Wednesday that Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida is bloodied and “nearing its end,” but he warned the next generation of militants could keep special operations fighting for a decade to come.
Navy SEAL Adm. Eric T. Olson described the killing of bin Laden by a special operations raid on May 2 as a near-killing blow for what he called “al-Qaida 1.0,” as created by bin Laden and led from his hideout in Pakistan.
Olson said the group had already lost steam because of the revolts of the Arab Spring, which proved the Muslim world did not need al-Qaida to bring down governments, from Tunisia to Egypt.
Actually, both bin Laden and Zawahiri (just yesterday) have expressed support for the uprisings. They fully expect more overtly Islamic regimes that are more likely to impose Sharia law, which is the aim of jihad in all its forms. And they fully expect those regimes will be more openly and demonstratively hostile to Israel.
“I think the death of bin Laden was an uppercut to the jaw,” Olson told a packed crowd, opening the Aspen Security Forum. “It just knocked them on their heels.”
Olson echoed other administration officials who are predicting al-Qaida’s demise if a few more key leaders can be eliminated.
But the four-star admiral warned of the fight to come against what he called al-Qaida 2.0, with new leaders like American-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, who Olson said understands America better than Americans understand him.
“It will morph, it will disperse,” he said of the movement. “It will become in some ways more westernized, (with) dual passport holders” and “fewer cave dwellers,” he said.
Olson said others like al-Awlaki will probably refine their message to appeal to a wider audience, and seek ungoverned spaces to operate from, where they can smuggle in weapons and train their followers. He described how current offshoots like al-Awlaki’s al-Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen are cooperating with militants in Somalia, describing what he called an “invisible bridge” between the two.
Nor did the admiral write off bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahri. He said al-Zawahri had not yet put his stamp on the original organization, so U.S. counterterrorist forces do not yet know what kind of threat his leadership will present.
Olson agreed with the White House’s newly announced policy to strike terrorists through focused action rather than full-scale invasion, preferably by training and working with the host country’s forces. He cautioned against thinking raids would solve all U.S. foreign policy problems.
“This idea of being able to wait over the horizon and spring over and chop off heads doesn’t really work,” he said, describing the “yin and yang” of special operations as including capture-and-kill raids as well as long-term engagement with host countries’ militaries. The latter involves U.S. troops “developing long-term relationships, learning languages, meeting people, studying histories, learning black markets.”
“If you don’t know that, you won’t be an effective counterterrorism force,” Olson said….
• Email to a friend • Article Search • •
U.S. accuses Iran of striking deal with al-Qaeda
A gentlemen’s agreement, minus the gentlemen. “U.S. accuses Iran of aiding al-Qaeda,” by Joby Warrick for the Washington Post, July 28:
The Obama administration said Thursday that Iran is helping al-Qaeda funnel cash and recruits into Pakistan for its international operations, the most serious U.S. allegation to date of Iranian aid to the terrorist group.
Documents filed by the Treasury Department accuse Iran of facilitating an al-Qaeda-run support network that transfers large amounts of cash from Middle East donors to al-Qaeda’s top leadership in Pakistan’s tribal region.
A Syrian national who directs the network has been allowed to operate in Iran since 2005, and senior Iranian officials know about money transfers and allow the movement of al-Qaeda foot soldiers through its territory, administration officials said.
Although U.S. officials have repeatedly accused Iran of assisting al-Qaeda, links between the two have been difficult to prove. Al-Qaeda regards the Shiite denomination, the dominant branch of Islam in Iran, as heretical, and Iran has sought at times to crack down on the terrorist group, deporting some operatives and holding others under house arrest.
U.S. officials asserted that the alleged network offered new evidence of Iranian support. “By exposing Iran’s secret deal with al-Qaeda, allowing it to funnel funds and operatives through its territory, we are illuminating yet another aspect of Iran’s unmatched support for terrorism,” said David S. Cohen, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
The new allegations against Iran come as the administration is seeking to increase international pressure on the Islamic republic. The White House has successfully pushed for additional sanctions against Iranian companies while renewing accusations that the country’s leaders support militias inside Iraq that carry out attacks against U.S. forces. [...]
The allegations of a Iran-to-Pakistan network center on a Syrian operative, Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil. Khalil has directed the flow of cash and recruits from Persian Gulf states to Pakistan through Iran, according to U.S. officials and documents.
The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Khalil and five other alleged operatives, including Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, a senior al-Qaeda leader on the Pakistani end of the pipeline. Rahman, a top spiritual adviser to al-Qaeda, was a longtime aide to Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader slain this year in Pakistan, and he once served as a bin Laden-appointed emissary to the Iranian government.
Individual operatives collected large amounts of cash, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the money passed through Iraq by way of couriers or informal transfer systems known as hawalas, U.S. officials said. Much of the money was collected in Kuwait and Qatar, two countries that administration officials say have been relatively lax about stanching the flow of money from wealthy Arab donors to al-Qaeda.
“Kuwait and Qatar are not in the same league as the Saudis or the Emiratis when it comes to having the capacity or the will” to crack down on illegal money networks, said a senior administration official familiar with the case who insisted on anonymity in discussing sensitive diplomatic matters….
• Email to a friend • Article Search • •
More Recent Articles
- New Fort Hood jihadi on ABC News last year: wants to “put a good positive spin out there that Islam is a good, peaceful religion”
- Spencer interviewed by Michael Coren of SunTV on Norway smears
- Muslim soldier arrested in new jihad plot against Fort Hood
Pakistan: Muslim murders six daughters in honor killing
Before its News: The Week’s 10 Top Stories – 29th July 2011
The Week’s 10 Hot Stories
Rockstar Contributors Take a moment to check out some of the week’s most popular contributors:
Psalm 96 [Amplified Bible]
Psalm 96
1O SING to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!
2Sing to the Lord, bless (affectionately praise) His name; show forth His salvation from day to day.
3Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples.
4For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be reverently feared and worshiped above all [so-called] gods.
5For all the gods of the nations are [lifeless] idols, but the Lord made the heavens.
6Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.
7Ascribe to the Lord, O you families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
8Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come [before Him] into His courts.
9O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; tremble before and reverently fear Him, all the earth.
10Say among the nations that the Lord reigns; the world also is established, so that it cannot be moved; He shall judge and rule the people righteously and with justice.
11Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all the things which fill it;
12Let the field be exultant, and all that is in it! Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy
13Before the Lord, for He comes, for He comes to judge and govern the earth! He shall judge the world with righteousness and justice and the peoples with His faithfulness and truth.
I CHARGE [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by (in the light of) His coming and His kingdom: Herald and preach the Word! Keep your sense of urgency [stand by, be at hand and ready], whether the opportunity seems to be favorable or unfavorable; Herald and preach the Word! Keep your sense of urgency [stand by, be at hand and ready], whether the opportunity seems to be favorable or unfavorable; And convince them, rebuking and correcting, warning and urging and encouraging them, being unflagging and inexhaustible in patience and teaching; For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, And will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions.
2 Timothy 4:1-22
1I CHARGE [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by (in the light of) His coming and His kingdom:
2Herald and preach the Word! Keep your sense of urgency [stand by, be at hand and ready], whether the opportunity seems to be favorable or unfavorable. [Whether it is convenient or inconvenient, whether it is welcome or unwelcome, you as preacher of the Word are to show people in what way their lives are wrong.] And convince them, rebuking and correcting, warning and urging and encouraging them, being unflagging and inexhaustible in patience and teaching.
3For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold,
4And will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions.
5As for you, be calm and cool and steady, accept and suffer unflinchingly every hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fully perform all the duties of your ministry.
6For I am already about to be sacrificed [my life is about to be poured out as a drink offering]; the time of my [spirit's] release [from the body] is at hand and I will soon go free.
7I have fought the good (worthy, honorable, and noble) fight, I have finished the race, I have kept (firmly held) the faith.
8[As to what remains] henceforth there is laid up for me the [victor's] crown of righteousness [for being right with God and doing right], which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me and recompense me on that [great] day–and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved and yearned for and welcomed His appearing (His return).
9Make every effort to come to me soon.
10For Demas has deserted me for love of this present world and has gone to Thessalonica; Crescens [has gone] to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
11Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very helpful to me for the ministry.
12Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.
13[When] you come, bring the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, also the books, especially the parchments.
14Alexander the coppersmith did me great wrongs. The Lord will pay him back for his actions.
15Beware of him yourself, for he opposed and resisted our message very strongly and exceedingly.
16At my first trial no one acted in my defense [as my advocate] or took my part or [even] stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them!
17But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the [Gospel] message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was delivered out of the jaws of the lion.
18[And indeed] the Lord will certainly deliver and [a]draw me to Himself from every assault of evil. He will preserve and bring me safe unto His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen (so be it).
19Give my greetings to Prisca and Aquila and to the household of Onesiphorus.
20Erastus stayed on at Corinth, but Trophimus I left ill at Miletus.
21Do hasten and try your best to come to me before winter. Eubulus wishes to be remembered to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brethren.
22The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace (God’s favor and blessing) be with you. Amen (so be it). — Amplified Bible
- 2 Timothy 4:18 Joseph Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: A primary meaning of the Greek ruomai: “draw to one’s self.”
‘Durban III’ conference mulling anti-Israel statement
July 29, 2011
Rick Moran
As Anne Bayefsky points out, it is not unexpected that the “Durban III” conference on racism is seeking to condemn Israel. What is interesting is how brutal they think they can get without having more countries boycott the conference:
With the recent pull-outs by the Czech Republic, Italy and the Netherlands added to the previously declared boycotts by the United States, Canada and Israel, negotiations at U.N. Headquarters continued Thursday over how offensive the final declaration of Durban III can become without more countries following suit.
The Durban III conference will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the conference held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001. That event produced the Durban Declaration, which accused just one country on earth of racism, namely Israel. No negotiations, therefore, can hide the fact that Durban III is a commemoration – in the words of the authorizing General Assembly resolution – of a conference and an outcome remembered most notably for its overt anti-Semitism.
Nevertheless, the U.N.’s idea is that since the General Assembly hall in September will be filled with heads of government already present for the Assembly’s annual opening, more than a hundred world leaders will embrace the Durban Declaration and its racist-Israel mantra for the first time. Durban I sported only a handful of such leaders – like Yasser Arafat and Fidel Castro — while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the only one to attend Durban II.
How bad might the final statement be? Even Germany is looking to sign on:
The co-chairs from Cameroon and Monaco made the agenda painfully obvious. They insisted that the 2011 declaration will “not re-open previously agreed text” since their “mandate is clearly not to renegotiate the Durban Declaration.” On the contrary, Durban III will have the Durban Declaration “at its core.”
In light of such an admission, the maneuvering of Germany proved most pathetic of all. German diplomats announced that Germany was a beacon of fighting discrimination. They then declared that the draft declaration, which commemorates and reinforces Durban I, was a good basis for discussion, and they were happily prepared to keep engaging in this “constructive” manner. They did manage to note that singling out any country will not be acceptable to them.
In short, according to Germany, a square peg can be fit into a round hole. The Durban Declaration already singles out Israel. The purpose of Durban III is to applaud the Durban Declaration. At Durban II in Geneva in 2009, Germany pulled out just two days before Ahmadinejad opened the conference on the anniversary of Hitler’s birth. True to form (which Germany would have known months beforehand) Ahmadinejad said: “The word Zionism personifies racism that falsely resorts to religion and abuses sentiments to hide their hatred and ugly faces.” How long will it take the Germans to figure it out this time?
The Germans won’t be the only western country who will seek to pander to the enemies of Israel while proclaiming a devotion to “diversity.” It is times like this that the Israeli government will be able to see who their real friends are.
Sign of the times; the hungry young victims of Obamanomics
July 29, 2011
Phil Boehmke
Even as Michelle Obama travels the world campaigning against childhood obesity, many children in America are being starved by her husband’s inept stewardship of our nation’s economy. According to the Boston Globe:
Doctors at a major Boston hospital report they are seeing more hungry and dangerously thin children in the emergency room than at any time in more than a decade of surveying families.
Many families are unable to afford enough healthy food to feed their children, say the Boston Medical Center doctors. The resulting chronic hunger threatens to leave scores of infants and toddlers with lasting learning and developmental problems.
[...]
Pediatricians at hospitals in four other cities – Baltimore; Little Rock; Minneapolis; and Philadelphia – also reported increases in the ranks of malnourished, hungry youngsters in their emergency rooms since 2008.
Mr. Obama’s failed economic policies have kept his allies in the public sector unions well fed and comfortable on stimulus dollars and QE2 has helped to assure an impressive stream of campaign cash from Wall Street while forcing the majority of our citizens to find creative new ways to stay afloat. The well insulted (sic) members of the Obama regime seem to think that record numbers of Americans on food stamps is a sign of success.
FLOTUS’ campaign to get us to eat healthier food isn’t really having any impact (although I have been boycotting French Fries lately) however POTUS’ campaign to spend his way to a second term has caused most us to eat smaller portions. We are paying the same for a jar of peanut butter, but the jar seems to have shrunk. Inflation?
Professor Rafael Perez-Escamilla with the Yale School of Public Health is one of a number of researchers who are exploring a link between hunger in a child’s early years and obesity later in life. If the research is correct then the high unemployment, under-employment and inflation that are the hallmarks of Obamanomics will result in a proportionate increase in obesity in the years to come.
Mrs. Obama, how many of these starving children could have been fed with just the amount money which was spent on your recent visit to Africa? As our friends in the NEA would say “It’s all about the children.” How about some shared sacrifice from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
July 29, 2011
Isaiah 26:20-21; The Sure Refuge; “Come, My people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast”; When dangers are threatening it is good to retire, and lie hid, as Eliijah did by the brook Cherith; The earth shall disclose her blood; the innocent blood, the blood of the saints and martyrs; Secret murders, and other secret wickedness, shall be discovered, sooner or later; Those sins which seemed to be buried in oblivion will be called to mind, and called over again, when the day of reckoning comes; Let God’s people therefore wait awhile with patience, for behold the Judge stands before the door. B.C. 718
| The Sure Refuge. | B. C. 718. |
|
|
|
Isaiah 26:20-21
20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. 21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
These two verses are supposed not to belong to the song which takes up the rest of the chapter, but to begin a new matter, and to be rather an introduction to the following chapter than the conclusion of this. Of whereas, in the foregoing song, the people of God had spoken to him, complaining of their grievances, here he returns an answer to their complaints, in which,
I. He invites them into their chambers (v. 20): “Come, my people, come to me, come with me” (he calls them nowhere but where he himself will accompany them); “let the storm that disperses others bring you nearer together. Come, and enter into thy chambers; stay not abroad, lest you be caught in the storm, as the Egyptians in the hail,” Exod. 9:21.
1. “Come into chambers of distinction; come into your own apartments, and continue not any longer mixed with the children of Babylon. Come out from among them, and be you separate,” 2 Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4. If God has set apart those that are godly for himself, they ought to set themselves apart.
2. “Into chambers of defence, in which by the secresy or the strength of them you may be safe in the worst of times.” The attributes of God are the secret of his tabernacle, Ps. 27:5. His name is a strong tower, into which we may run for shelter, Prov. 18:10. We must be faith find a way into these chambers, and there hide ourselves; that is, with a holy security and serenity of mind, we must put ourselves under the divine protection. Come, as Noah into the ark, for he shut the doors about him. When dangers are threatening it is good to retire, and lie hid, as Elijah did by the brook Cherith.
3. Into chambers of devotion. “Enter into thy closet, and shut thy door, Matt. 6:6. Be private with God: Enter into thy chamber, to examine thyself, and commune with thy own heart, to pray, and humble thyself before God.” This work is to be done in times of distress and danger; and thus we hide ourselves, that is, we recommend ourselves to God to hide us, and he will hide us either under heaven or in heaven. Israel must keep within doors when the destroying angel is slaying the first-born of Egypt, else the blood on the door-posts will not secure them. So must Rahab and her family when Jericho is being destroyed. Those are most safe that are least seen. Qui bene latuit, benevixit–He has lived well who has sought a proper degree of concealment.
II. He assures them that the trouble would be over in a very short time, that they should not long be in any fright or peril: “Hide thyself for a moment, the smallest part of time we can conceive, like an atom of matter; may, if you can imagine one moment shorter than another, it is but for a little moment, and that with a quasi too, as it were for a little moment, less than you think of. When it is over it will seem as nothing to you; you will wonder how soon it is gone. You shall not need to lie long in confinement, long in concealment. The indignation will presently be over-past; that is, the indignation of the enemies against you, their persecuting power and rage, which force you to abscond. When the wicked rise, a man is hid. This will soon be over; God will cut them off, will break their power, defeat their purposes, and find a way for your enlargement.” When Athanasius was banished from Alexandria by an edict of Julian, and his friends greatly lamented it, he bade them be of good cheer. Nubecula est quæ cito pertransibit–It is a little cloud, that will soon blow over. You shall have tribulation ten days; that is all, Rev. 2:10. This enables God’s suffering people to call their afflictions light, that they are but for a moment.
III. He assures them that their enemies should be reckoned with for all the mischief they had done them by the sword, either of war or persecution, v. 21. The Lord will punish them for the blood they have shed. Here is,
1. The judgment set, and process issued out: The Lord comes out of his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, in giving such disturbance to all about them. There is a great deal of iniquity among the inhabitants of the earth; but though they all combine in it, though hand join in hand to carry it on, yet it shall not go unpunished. Besides the everlasting punishment into which the wicked shall go hereafter, there are often remarkable punishments of cruelty, oppression, and persecution, in this world. When men’s indignation is over-past, and they have done their worst, let them then expect God’s indignation, for he sees that his day is coming, Ps. 37:13. God comes out of his place to punish. He shows himself in an extraordinary manner from heaven, the firmament of his power, from the sanctuary, the residence of his grace. He is raised up out of his holy habitation, where he seemed before to conceal himself; and now he will do something great, the product of his wise, just, and secret counsels, as a prince that goes to take the chair or take the field, Zech. 2:13. Some observe that God’s place is the mercy-seat; there he delights to be; when he punishes he comes out of his place, for he has no pleasure in the death of sinners. 2. The criminals convicted by the notorious evidence of the face: The earth shall disclose her blood; the innocent blood, the blood of the saints and martyrs, which has been shed upon the earth like water, and has soaked into it, and been concealed and covered by it, shall not be brought to light, and brought to account; for God will make inquisition for it, and will give those that shed it blood to drink, for they are worthy. Secret murders, and other secret wickednesses, shall be discovered, sooner or later. And the slain which the earth has long covered she shall no longer cover, but they shall be produced as evidence against the murderers. The voice of Abel’s blood cries from the earth, Gen. 9:10, 11; Job 20:27. Those sins which seemed to be buried in oblivion will be called to mind, and called over again, when the day of reckoning comes. Let God’s people therefore wait awhile with patience, for behold the Judge stands before the door.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Isaiah 26:12-19; Goodness of God to Israel; Israel Corrected for Sin; Prospects of the Church; The need we have of afflictions, they are necessary to stir up prayer; In affliction those will seek God early who before sought Him slowly, it will make men fervent and fluent in prayer; When the Church and her interests are to be restored neither the dew of heaven nor the fatness of the earth shall be wanting to do their part towards the restoration; “The Gentiles shall live; with My body shall they arise; that is, they shall be called in after Christ’s resurrection, shall rise with Him, and sit with Him in heavenly places”; and believers shall arise by virtue of their union with Him and their communion in His resurrection. B.C. 718
| Goodness of God to Israel; Israel Corrected for Sin; Prospects of the Church. | B. C. 718. |
|
|
|
Isaiah 26:12-19
12 LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. 13 O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. 14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish. 15 Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. 16 LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. 17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD. 18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. 19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
The prophet in these verses looks back upon what God had done with them, both in mercy and judgment, and sings unto God of both, and then looks forward upon what he hoped God would do for them. Observe,
I. His reviews and reflections are mixed. When he looks back upon the state of the church he finds,
1. That God had in many instances been very gracious to them and had done great things for them. (1.) In general (v. 12): Thou hast wrought all our works in us, or for us. Whatever good work is done by us, it is owing to a good work wrought by the grace of God in us; it is he that puts good thoughts and affections into our hearts if at any time they be there, and that works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Acti, agimus–Being acted upon, we act. And if any kindness be shown us, or any of our affairs be prosperous and successful, it is God that works it for us. Every creature, every business, that is in any way serviceable to our comfort, is made by him to be so; and sometimes he makes that to work for us which seemed to make against us.
(2.) In particular (v. 15): “Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord! so that a little one has become a thousand (in Egypt they multiplied exceedingly, and afterwards in Canaan, so that they filled the land); and in this thou art glorified,” for the multitude of the people is the honour of the prince, and therein God was glorified as faithful to his covenant with Abraham, that he would make him a father of many nations. Note, God’s nation is a growing nation, and it is the glory of God that it is so. The increase of the church, that holy nation, is therefore to be rejoiced in because it is the increase of those that make it their business to glorify God in this world.
2. That yet he had laid them under his rebukes.
(1.) The neighbouring nations had sometimes oppressed them and tyrannised over them (v. 13): “O Lord our God! thou who hast the sole right to rule us, whose subjects and servants we are, to thee we complain (for whither else should we go with our complaints?) that other lords besides thee have had dominion over us.” Not only in the days of the Judges, but afterwards, God frequently sold them into the hand of their enemies, or rather, by their iniquities, they sold themselves, ch. 52:3-5. When they had been careless in the service of God, God suffered their enemies to have dominion over them, that they might know the difference between his service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. It may be understood as a confession of sin, their serving other gods, and subjecting themselves to the superstitious laws and customs of their neighbours, by which other lords (for they called their idols baals, lords) had dominion over them, besides God. But now they promise that it shall be so no more: “Henceforth by thee only will we make mention of thy name; we will worship thee only, and in that way only which thou hast instituted and appointed.” The same may be our penitent reflection: Other lords, besides God, have had dominion over us; every lust has been our lord, and we have been led captive by it; and it is has been long enough, and too long, that we have thus wronged both God and ourselves. The same therefore must be our pious resolution, that henceforth we will make mention of God’s name only and by him only, that we will keep close to God and to our duty and never desert it.
(2.) They had sometimes been carried into captivity before their enemies (v. 15): “The nation which at first thou didst increase, and make to take root, thou hast now diminished, and plucked up, and removed to all the ends of the earth, driven out to the utmost parts of heaven,” as is threatened, Deut. 30:4; Deut. 28:64. But observe, Between the mention of the increasing of them and that of the removing of them it is said, Thou art glorified; for the judgments God inflicts upon his people for their sins are for his honour, as well as the mercies he bestows upon them in performance of his promise.
(3.) The prophet remembers that when they were thus oppressed and carried captive they cried unto God, which was a good evidence that they neither had quite forsaken him nor were quite forsaken of him, and that there were merciful intentions in the judgments they were under (v. 16): Lord, in trouble have they visited thee. This was usual with the people of Israel, as we find frequently in the story of the Judges. When other lords had dominion over them they humbled themselves, and said, The Lord is righteous, 2 Chron. 12:6. See here,
[1.] The need we have of afflictions. They are necessary to stir up prayer; when it is said, In trouble have they visited thee, it is implied that in their peace and prosperity they were strangers to God, kept at a distance from him, and seldom came near him, as if, when the world smiled upon them, they had no occasion for his favours.
[2.] The benefit we often have by afflictions. They bring us to God, quicken us to our duty, and show us our dependence upon him. Those that before seldom looked at God now visit him; they come frequently, they become friendly, and make their court to him. Before, prayer came drop by drop, but now they pour out a prayer; it comes now like water from a fountain, not like water from a still. They poured out a secret speech; so the margin. Praying is speaking to God, but it is a secret speech; for it is the language of the heart, otherwise it is not praying. Afflictions bring us to secret prayer, in which we may be more free and particular in our addresses to him than we can be in public. In affliction those will seek God early who before sought him slowly, Hos. 5:15. It will make men fervent and fluent in prayer. “They poured out a prayer, as the drink-offerings were poured out, when thy chastening was upon them.” But it is to be feared, when the chastening is off them, they will by degrees return to their former carelessness, as they had often done.
(4.) He complains that their struggles for their own liberty had been very painful and perilous, but that they had not been successful, v. 17, 18.
[1.] They had the throes and pangs they dreaded: “We have been like a woman in labour, that cries out in her pangs; we have with a great deal of anxiety and toil endeavoured to help ourselves, and our troubles have been increased by those attempts;” as when Moses came to deliver Israel the tale of bricks was doubled. Their prayers were quickened by the acuteness of their pains, and became as strong and vehement as the cries of a woman in sore travail. So have we been in thy sight, O Lord! It was a comfort and satisfaction to them, in their distress, that God had his eye upon them, that all their miseries were in his sight; he was no stranger to their pangs or their prayers. Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hidden from thee, Ps. 38:9. Whenever they came to present themselves before the Lord with their complaints and petitions they were in agonies like those of a woman in travail.
[2.] They came short of the issue and success they desired and hoped for: “We have been with child; we have had great expectation of a speedy and happy deliverance, have been big with hopes, and, when we have been in pain, have comforted ourselves with this, that the joyful birth would make us forget our misery, John 16:21. But, alas! we have as it were brought forth wind; it has proved a false conception; our expectations have been frustrated, and our pains have been rather dying pains than travailing ones; we have had a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. All our efforts have proved abortive: We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, for ourselves or for our friends and allies, but rather have made our own case and theirs worse; neither have the inhabitants of the world, whom we have been contesting with, fallen before us, either in their power or in their hopes; but they are still as high and arrogant as ever.” Note, A righteous cause may be strenuously pleaded both by prayer and endeavour, both with God and man, and yet for a great while may be left under a cloud, and the point may not be gained.
II. His prospects and hopes are very pleasant. In general, “Thou wilt ordain peace for us (v. 12), that is, all that good which the necessity of our case calls for.” What peace the church has, or hopes for, it is of God’s ordaining; and we may comfort ourselves with this, that, what trouble soever may for a time be appointed to the people of God, peace will at length be ordained for them; for the end of those men is peace. And, if God by his Spirit work all our works in us, he will ordain peace for us (for the work of righteousness shall be peace), and that is true and lasting peace, such as the world can neither give nor take away, which God ordains; for, to those that have it, it shall be unchangeable as the ordinances of the day and of the night. Moreover, from what God has done for us, we may encourage ourselves to hope that he will yet further do us good. “Thou hast heard the desire of the humble, and therefore wilt (Ps. 10:17); and, when this peace is ordained for us, then by thee only will we make mention of thy name (v. 13); we will give the glory of it to thee only, and not to any other, and we will depend upon thy grace only to enable us to do so.” We cannot praise God’s name but by his strength. Two things in particular the prophet here comforts the church with the prospect of:–
1. The amazing ruin of her enemies (v. 14): They are dead, those other lords that have had dominion over us; their power is irrecoverably broken; they are quite cut off and extinguished: and they shall not live, shall never be able to hold up the head any more. Being deceased, they shall not rise, but, like Haman, when they have begun to fall before the seed of the Jews they shall sink like a stone. Because they are sentenced to this final ruin, therefore, in pursuance of that sentence, God himself has visited them in wrath, as a righteous Judge, and has cut off both the men themselves (he has destroyed them) and the remembrance of them: they and their names are buried together in the dust. He has made all their memory to perish; they are either forgotten or made mention of with detestation. Note, The cause that is maintained in opposition to God and his kingdom among men, though it may prosper awhile, will certainly sink at last, and all that adhere to it will perish with it. The Jewish doctors, comparing this with v. 19, infer that the resurrection of the dead belong to the Jews only, and that those of other nations shall not rise. But we know better; we know that all who are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and that this speaks of the final destruction of Christ’s enemies, which is the second death.
2. The surprising resurrection of her friends, v. 19. Though the church rejoices not in the birth of the man-child, of which she travailed in pain, but has as it were brought forth wind (v. 18), yet the disappointment shall be balanced in a way equivalent: Thy dead men shall live; those who were thought to be dead, who had received a sentence of death within themselves, who were cast out as if they had been naturally dead, shall appear again in their former vigour. A spirit of life from God shall enter into the slain witnesses, and they shall prophesy again, Rev. 11:11. The dry bones shall live, and become an exceedingly great army, Ezek. 37:10. Together with my dead body shall they arise. If we believe the resurrection of the dead, of our dead bodies at the last day, as Job did, and the prophet here, that will facilitate our belief of the promised restoration of the church’s lustre and strength in this world. When God’s time shall have come, how low soever she may be brought, they shall arise, even Jerusalem, the city of God, but now lying like a dead body, a carcase to which the eagles are gathered together. God owns it still for his, so does the prophet; but it shall arise, shall be rebuilt, and flourish again. And therefore let the poor, desolate, melancholy remains of its inhabitants, that dwell as in dust, awake and sing; for they shall see Jerusalem, the city of their solemnities, a quiet habitation again, ch. 33:20. The dew of God’s favour shall be to it as the evening dew to the herbs that were parched with the heat of the sun all day, shall revive and refresh them. And as the spring-dews, that water the earth, and make the herbs that lay buried in it to put forth and bud, so shall they flourish again, and the earth shall cast out the dead, as it casts the herbs out of their roots. The earth, in which they seemed to be lost, shall contribute to their revival. When the church and her interests are to be restored neither the dew of heaven nor the fatness of the earth shall be wanting to do their part towards the restoration. Now this (as Ezekiel’s vision, which is a comment upon it) may be fitly accommodated,
(1.) To the spiritual resurrection of those that were dead in sin, by the power of Christ’s gospel and grace. So Dr. Lightfoot applies it, Hor. Hebr. in Joh. 12.24. “The Gentiles shall live; with my body shall they arise; that is, they shall be called in after Christ’s resurrection, shall rise with him, and sit with him in heavenly places; nay, they shall arise my body (says he); they shall become the mystical body of Christ, and shall arise as part of him.”
(2.) To the last resurrection, when dead saints shall live, and rise together with Christ’s dead body; for he arose as the first-fruits, and believers shall arise by virtue of their union with him and their communion in his resurrection.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
