tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41904924163030609252024-03-04T20:12:19.445-08:00GreensPieceCounterbattery for the CounterjihadPapa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.comBlogger106125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-26886091750971602692010-02-20T07:23:00.000-08:002010-02-20T07:39:36.147-08:00Not too bad to be trueThis <a href=http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2010/feb/19/panel-former-muslims-says-us-needs-wake-over-toler/?c=257955>report</a> appeared in the online Washington Times today: <br /> <br />"Apostasy killing of former Muslims could become widespread in the United States if the U.S. government and Americans don't "wake up," a panel of three former Muslims said on Capitol Hill Thursday. <br /> <br />"The talk, hosted by three members of the new civil rights organization Former Muslims United, marked the first public appearance as a self-proclaimed "apostate" of Iranian journalist Amil Imani, president of the group. Imani and the panel's two other speakers, authors Nonie Darwish and Wafa Sultan, told the audience that ingrained American religious and ethnic tolerance and myths about Islam are combining to gravely threaten the West." <br /> <br />A Muslim commenter going by the handle of "mustafakhattab" quibbled that "nowhere in the Qur'an will anyone find a verse say kill the apostates [sic]" and enquired, "Isn't what they say too bad to be true?!" No, it isn't. As "mustafakhattab" doubtless knows very well, Muhammad's mandate to kill apostates is found not in the Qur'an but in a <a href=http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/bukhari/084.sbt.html>hadith</a> in Sahih Bukhari (Volume 9, Book 84, Number 57):<br /><br /><em>Narrated 'Ikrima: Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to 'Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn 'Abbas who said, "If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah's Apostle forbade it, saying, 'Do not punish anybody with Allah's punishment (fire).' I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah's Apostle, 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.' "</em>Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-19197838449801756982010-02-19T20:54:00.000-08:002010-02-19T22:53:07.330-08:00A stirring event<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbimjTV7mnCkDn7ACP5tA_a6I2whXvmpDpVs0MNpSWuEaQuM0CyPjcfQOElLVXC6qJ27gbAzr9PRiQsaOjpIjpktZQX-OyhgMwp9-o5pw84gkw4G98vjjdzZTNQS28TTNl3Niwe4OdNF4j/s1600-h/FDI.event.021910.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbimjTV7mnCkDn7ACP5tA_a6I2whXvmpDpVs0MNpSWuEaQuM0CyPjcfQOElLVXC6qJ27gbAzr9PRiQsaOjpIjpktZQX-OyhgMwp9-o5pw84gkw4G98vjjdzZTNQS28TTNl3Niwe4OdNF4j/s320/FDI.event.021910.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440185424950376002" /></a><br /><br />This morning I attended the <a href=http://freedomdefense.typepad.com/fdi/2010/02/jihad-the-political-third-rail-what-they-are-not-telling-february-19th-10-am-noon-at-cpac.html>Freedom Defense Initiative’s</a> inaugural event at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. Held in tandem with the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, this event was arranged by <a href=www.jihadwatch.org>Jihad Watch</a> director Robert Spencer, Islam’s most trenchant contemporary critic, and Pamela Geller, compiler of the outstanding <a href=http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/>Atlas Shrugs</a> blog.<br /><br />This was a stirring event with dynamic speakers, each with a compelling story. Former Defense Department analyst Stephen Coughlin was exceedingly informative, and his point that official American self-censorship regarding Islam and jihad has given the enemy a "decisive victory in the information battlespace" was truly chilling. Coughlin, whose perceptions got him crosswise with Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England’s Muslim sidekick Hesham Islam and later excluded from the DoD, insisted that those entrusted with protecting Americans from Islamic terrorism have a “professional duty to know” about the roots of said terrorism’s doctrine in Islamic scripture and tradition. After all, he pointed out, the murderous rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, by Muslim U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan had a “doctrinal driver,” as evinced by Hasan’s own <a href=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2009/11/10/GA2009111000920.html>presentation</a> to his Army medical colleagues calling for Muslim service personnel to be accorded conscientious objector status lest “adverse events” occur. The enemy, Coughlin observed, has stated his doctrine. Can we, he enquired, be politically correct and threat-focused at the same time? No way – because, he concluded, “You cannot defeat an enemy you will not define.” Coughlin's thesis on jihad doctrine may be accessed <a href=http://www.strategycenter.net/docLib/20080107_Coughlin_ExtremistJihad.pdf>here</a>. It is lengthy but gripping, and is a must-read.<br /><br />Psychiatrist Wafa Sultan, a native of Syria and now an American, gave a ringing indictment of Islam – a creed, she declared, that is “not merely a religion but an extremely dangerous adversary that aspires to world domination.” Sultan, who had the grit to take on a Muslim cleric in his own Arabic tongue on Al-Jazeera TV, pointed out that the Islamic teachings cited by Muslims who demand an exemption for their co-religionists from new airport scanning techniques are the very teachings that motivated 19 Muslims to fly airliners into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon on 9/11, thus necessitating the scanning in the first place. This she characterized as “absolutely outrageous.” She concluded by quoting Thomas Paine in her exhortation to resist Islam "now - right now!" Sultan has written a <a href=http://www.amazon.com/God-Who-Hates-Courageous-Inflamed/dp/0312538359/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266642566&sr=1-1>book</a> about her experiences, titled “A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam” (St. Martin’s Press).<br /><br />Simon Deng, African-born and now an American, appeared, he said, as "a voice for those who have no voice," remaining as they do under Islam's yoke in his native Sudan. He told of being captured by Arab bands as a child and enslaved for three years. But today, he declared, “I stand before you as a free man in a free nation.” He warned Americans against complacency in the face of the international jihad. Anders Gravers of Denmark, leader of SIOE (Stop the Islamisation of Europe) and Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff of Austria, who is facing spurious “hate speech” charges in her native country, spoke eloquently about the grim situation regarding Islam and free speech in Europe. And Allen West, a retired U.S. Army light colonel and a <a href=http://allenwestforcongress.com/>candidate for Congress</a> in the 22nd District of Florida, referred in his talk to the Treaty of Hudibayah and Muhammad's letter to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, showing that he has read into the history of Islamic imperialism (truly a rarity among politicians). “Sharia (Islamic law) is incompatible with who we are,” he declared, pointedly adding that “I’m not living as a dhimmi (Islamic subject).” He concluded by quoting Ronald Reagan’s succinct policy - “We win, they lose!” – in which the crowd joined in, giving him a thunderous ovation afterwards.<br /><br />This event was a great lift. Listening to these brave leaders gave me hope and rekindled my own resolve. Kudos to Robert and Pamela for getting them together and ensuring they were heard.<br /><br />Photo credit: Pamela GellerPapa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-35003719054011277582009-03-02T17:11:00.000-08:002009-03-02T17:52:46.827-08:00A fit over Fitna<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf2opv7Anck-YbZ2qg0Lo0BcWLvkEIZdo3HvPcO7MMb1-fEM0hw74p96dk4JaeCZNR8qDqKOjEzwzvcNRxy8YSz8rmOoccwXsVrewzQDeC2AIVFNR5an6rWTMz6BJHOpd9WQLu5ldiVPXE/s1600-h/wilders.speaking.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf2opv7Anck-YbZ2qg0Lo0BcWLvkEIZdo3HvPcO7MMb1-fEM0hw74p96dk4JaeCZNR8qDqKOjEzwzvcNRxy8YSz8rmOoccwXsVrewzQDeC2AIVFNR5an6rWTMz6BJHOpd9WQLu5ldiVPXE/s320/wilders.speaking.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308772564183712722" /></a><br />Robert Spencer of <a href=http://www.jihadwatch.org/>Jihad Watch</a>, Pamela Geller of <a href=http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/>Atlas Shrugs</a>, Baron Bodissey of <a href=http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/>Gates of Vienna</a> and <a href=http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/>Andrew Bostom</a> have all covered Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders' triumphal Washington appearance last week far better than I could hope to. Suffice it to note that among the scurrilous Islamic/leftist reactions to Wilders' presentation was a post by Muslim activist Eboo Patel, who slagged the Dutchman as a "foreign element threatening America" in his <a href=http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2009/02/geert_wilders_on_capitol_hill.html>Washington Post/Newsweek blog</a>. Patel also noted that Muslim congressman and former Nation of Islam activist Keith Ellison (AKA <a href=http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/764obcsx.asp?pg=1>Keith E. Hakim, Keith X Ellison, and Keith Ellison-Muhammad</a>), D-Minn., compared the Capitol screening of Wilders' documentary film <em>Fitna</em> "to screening the horribly racist film <em>The Birth of the Nation</em> in the White House."<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWh9Dx08mZ8ADXuL15CqwsYOZDWlH1v6LUo58oZjtce28a5pZs5p0p8Tc-7RPzwgEg8udUGu6v26JXgSiDvDh_CwEdCuN3IdLg-kc79Gcf1R0FgBaixwABZpnvH0lX77-2o9N1do9xkqzH/s1600-h/eboo.patel.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 145px; height: 100px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWh9Dx08mZ8ADXuL15CqwsYOZDWlH1v6LUo58oZjtce28a5pZs5p0p8Tc-7RPzwgEg8udUGu6v26JXgSiDvDh_CwEdCuN3IdLg-kc79Gcf1R0FgBaixwABZpnvH0lX77-2o9N1do9xkqzH/s200/eboo.patel.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308772931886890850" /></a><br />Patel went on to rhetorically bleat, "Shouldn't Capitol Hill be amplifying our tradition of pluralism rather than returning to the dark days of racism?" (as though resistance to Muslim aggression has anything whatever to do with race) and "Should we engage one-fifth of the world's population by punching them in the mouth or by reaching our hand out in friendship?" (The question raised by <em>Fitna,</em> of course, is just who has been punching whom.) Patel is the head of something called the <a href=http://www.ifyc.org/about_core/staff>Interfaith Youth Core</a> and appears to be a great favorite of the tax-funded "public" media. It is accordingly unlikely that this is the last we'll hear of him.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-20062943673386798352009-02-26T14:33:00.000-08:002009-02-26T15:00:37.805-08:00The Rocky crumbles<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinqBD4Ji3zuqbEA6u35p4Xfiu9yWTXhthUlHu5IvZYsO4sIYWeAATjHqufSk5YOL9dM9DjcMyGyO6UzJoogkuLMYtFA2Up6CUu1x1O-I97uVFlrisjFFxJqQFAVVcMoXJNelQcLV6-7k4u/s1600-h/rocky.crumbles.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinqBD4Ji3zuqbEA6u35p4Xfiu9yWTXhthUlHu5IvZYsO4sIYWeAATjHqufSk5YOL9dM9DjcMyGyO6UzJoogkuLMYtFA2Up6CUu1x1O-I97uVFlrisjFFxJqQFAVVcMoXJNelQcLV6-7k4u/s320/rocky.crumbles.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307244665927388914" /></a><br />The Rocky Mountain News of Denver, established in 1859, is <a href=http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/feb/26/rocky-mountain-news-closes-friday-final-edition/>shutting down</a> as of Friday.<br /><br />This is very wretched news indeed, for the paper was one of only three major ones in the United States to have run any of the Danish Muhammad cartoons during the international propaganda jihad against them in February 2006. (The other two were the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Austin American-Statesman.) Remarked editor John Temple <a href=http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_4477113,00.html>at the time</a>:<br /><br />"This whole experience of publishing these cartoons has been enough for me to want to wear a Danish flag pin in solidarity with that country and to regret -- at least during this test of journalism's commitment to free speech -- my membership in the American Society of Newspaper Editors."<br /><br />However that may have been, at least Temple had the satisfaction of doing the right thing -- of standing in solidarity with his fellow journalists in Denmark, of defending the freedom of the press worldwide, and of pushing back against Islam's odious demands for self-censorship. My own paper, the East Valley Tribune of Mesa, Arizona, faltered in this regard despite my entreaties that it do likewise, prompting my eventual resignation in protest.<br /><br />Today Temple told his staff, "To me, this is the very sad end of a beautiful thing." Amen to that.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-25616917193015609652009-02-01T20:50:00.000-08:002009-02-02T11:41:58.062-08:00Obama writes Ihsanoglu<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihRFI4sQ3WZ4kugNhIb_28qvbdA-4BQRHBCsB3kZLgqIXaaKJ_DX5_-GYYrEDtkKnrqiUoyakqoKZv9H7B-FPrQW6ZaXB-3y8HFJrh7j26DgkfGePV3plky37hVRgW0OVkT1_CtOzqzve8/s1600-h/obama.schnozz.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 140px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihRFI4sQ3WZ4kugNhIb_28qvbdA-4BQRHBCsB3kZLgqIXaaKJ_DX5_-GYYrEDtkKnrqiUoyakqoKZv9H7B-FPrQW6ZaXB-3y8HFJrh7j26DgkfGePV3plky37hVRgW0OVkT1_CtOzqzve8/s200/obama.schnozz.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298070478416411730" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhLlEkRzKNGImDaMRdFShHMG4Vyn0bE8O_qUXrRrocCRsDiQcWaW7KgBT-TLcjBbYXnXLSJpFOpfAifSzRApC8_D5s1K4Yxl0N9tbaGC6lNxouqiuLYIPbDqnerbAhPcxfRLIDUuWco0Fs/s1600-h/Ihsanoglu.mug.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 110px; height: 140px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhLlEkRzKNGImDaMRdFShHMG4Vyn0bE8O_qUXrRrocCRsDiQcWaW7KgBT-TLcjBbYXnXLSJpFOpfAifSzRApC8_D5s1K4Yxl0N9tbaGC6lNxouqiuLYIPbDqnerbAhPcxfRLIDUuWco0Fs/s200/Ihsanoglu.mug.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298070050093823426" /></a><br />BHO says the United States can work with the Organization of the Islamic Conference and that he will strive to improve relations with the group, according to a <a href=http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2009/February/middleeast_February30.xml§ion=middleeast>letter he has sent to OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.</a><br /><br />Really? And how does this promise of comity square with the conflict between our core value of free expression, affirmed by the First Amendment to our Consititution, and Item VII, Clause 3 of <a href=http://www.oic-oci.org/ex-summit/english/10-years-plan.htm>the OIC's "Ten-Year Programme of Action:</a> "Endeavor to have the United Nations adopt an international resolution to counter Islamophobia, and call upon all States to enact laws to counter it, including <em>deterrent punishments"</em>? (Emphasis mine.)<br /><br />On the third anniversary of the outbreak of Muslim rage over the Danish Muhammad cartoons, and at a time when Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders faces prosecution in his homeland for his pointed criticism of Islam and its adherents, this is hardly an academic question. It is all the more acute in view of the OIC's proposal to hold <a href=http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/9/25/nation/20080925130848&sec=nation>an "anti-Islamophobia" conference in the United States</a> this year, made by Ihsanoglu to the Malaysian government last summer. Ihsanoglu, according to Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, "said the United States was chosen as the venue for the convention because of the polemic on Islam in that country as well as the wide media coverage it would get." Moreover, the Malaysian newspaper The Star <a href=http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/9/25/nation/20080925130848&sec=nation>reported</a>, the Malaysian government pitched the idea of this conference "to the US representative to the OIC during an earlier meeting in Kuala Lumpur."<br /><br />BHO's letter to the OIC raises the question of how his administration will respond to the group's demand for laws criminalizing criticism, analysis, exposure and mockery of Islam and its followers -- particularly when said demand is being made in his own country. He will be under intense political pressure to accede to it; a pressure that his own truckling efforts at "outreach" will only have exacerbated.<br /><br />Update: <a href=http://jihadwatch.org>Jihad Watch</a>, <a href=http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/>The Jawa Report</a> and <a href=http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/>Atlas Shrugs</a> now have posts on this. Many thanks to all for getting the word out.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-32612413653146292182009-01-16T14:56:00.000-08:002009-01-16T15:06:44.975-08:00An open letter to James TarantoIn <a href=http://online.wsj.com/article/best_of_the_web_today.html>today's edition</a> of "Best of the Web Today" -- always a must-read -- the Wall Street Journal's James Taranto made a proposal that prompted the following:<br /><br />Dear Mr. Taranto:<br /><br />Your proposal that the term "Islamic supremacy" be used in preference to "terrorism" is sound. However, it behooves you to note that this term has been in use for at least a couple of years at the Jihad Watch website by Robert Spencer, the eminent scholar and polemicist who, as far as I am aware, was the man who coined it.<br /><br />Moreover, you speak of "non-supremacist Muslims" -- a term that is quite problematic, in view of the sundry verses of the Qur'an assuring Muslims that they are "the best of peoples" (e.g., <a href=http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/003.qmt.html#003.110>verse 3:110</a>) and that unbelievers are "the worst of creatures" (e.g., <a href=http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/098.qmt.html#098.006>verse 98:6</a>). Given the status of such characterizations in Islam as the eternal, uncreated word of God, passed down to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel, how many genuinely "non-supremacist" Muslims can there be? Few if any, I venture to suggest.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><br />Paul GreenPapa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-83370529991291717902008-12-18T16:34:00.000-08:002008-12-18T17:18:24.798-08:00At war? Absolutely.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTjm45DWKjQKbWXmvu9N5p7Ct-DMy3pHjGViU0pY2_FPZFbZh4IBViyya7G8omo-i9FLzW4ALN3h_qfSXQHydOpzoXkhQnlLMRG-6-afWv6IWNip1hcyynjBk_d9XL0IJn3gR_0nBIfweO/s1600-h/M109.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 209px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTjm45DWKjQKbWXmvu9N5p7Ct-DMy3pHjGViU0pY2_FPZFbZh4IBViyya7G8omo-i9FLzW4ALN3h_qfSXQHydOpzoXkhQnlLMRG-6-afWv6IWNip1hcyynjBk_d9XL0IJn3gR_0nBIfweO/s320/M109.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281304197722546738" /></a><br />This morning Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch <a href=http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/023981.php>posted</a> an elegy to the conservative activist Paul Weyrich, who died today. In the comments thereto, a Muslim troll who posts under the moniker of "Abdullah Mikail" responded to Spencer's characterization of Weyrich as a man "determined to defend the West and present the truth" about Islam with the snide quip that "he knows the truth now." Several commenters having taken him to task for the implication that the deceased is now suffering the sundry torments prescribed in the Qur'an for unbelievers, he protested that he had made his statement with "no malice intended." This struck your correspondent as being very much in line with Muhammad's dictum (recorded in the hadith collection of Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 52, numbers 268, 269) that "War is deceit," and I made a brief post to that effect. This prompted a declaration that I am an "idiot who thinks you are at war."<br /><br />One generally oughtn't to get sucked into these Internet micturition competitions, as they can be a great waste of time. However that may be, I composed a rejoinder that seems worth putting up here: <br /><br />"Listen up, boy. I <em>know</em> I'm at war with the odious creed of Islam, because the book the adherents to said creed hold to be the immutable word of God has made that incontrovertibly clear. For example, <a href=http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/009.qmt.html#009.029>Verse 9:29</a> commands Muslims to:<br /><br /><em>Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.</em><br /><br />And were there any doubt as to the gist of that Qur'anic mandate, the exegis of Ibn Kathir clears things up. In his <a href=http://www.tafsir.com/default.asp?sid=9&tid=20986>tafsir on Verse 9:29</a>, that eminent Muslim scholar explained that "subdued" means<br /><br /><em>... disgraced, humiliated and belittled. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to honor the people of Dhimmah or elevate them above Muslims, for they are miserable, disgraced and humiliated.</em><br /><br />Ibn Kathir goes on to note in this tafsir that<br /><br /><em>`Umar bin Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, demanded his well-known conditions be met by the Christians, these conditions that ensured their continued humiliation, degradation and disgrace.</em><br /><br />He also lists Umar's conditions, among which are that<br /><br /><em>We will not teach our children the Qur'an ...</em><br /><br />Indeed. The better to keep them in ignorance of Islam, the malign creed whose true believers will ever be at war with free men who refuse to 'feel themselves subdued.' "Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-18568516790760726282008-11-10T09:24:00.000-08:002008-11-10T16:14:12.048-08:00'Islam is not a religion of peace.'<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqYCsWdSJpRY2LZVqQazmoKuEuIP0OoTW28CbGbWSD2Wj6AXYSBAuvegN-z49FOdr-ynTwkTcIy4MCPDopn0h1w6Py1ymhyphenhyphenxFSwyLRpIbWgRHhBXH5SAcNMjEUd_F2xPG4t_ivDFBlpAC0/s1600-h/choudary.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 228px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqYCsWdSJpRY2LZVqQazmoKuEuIP0OoTW28CbGbWSD2Wj6AXYSBAuvegN-z49FOdr-ynTwkTcIy4MCPDopn0h1w6Py1ymhyphenhyphenxFSwyLRpIbWgRHhBXH5SAcNMjEUd_F2xPG4t_ivDFBlpAC0/s320/choudary.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267085812238674658" /></a><br />UK imam Anjem Choudary lays it on the line in London's <a href=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23584232-details/Islamic%20radicals%20make%20mockery%20of%20hate%20laws/article.do>Evening Standard</a>: <br /> <br /><em>"Islam is not a religion of peace. It is a religion of submission. We <br />need to submit to the will of Allah."</em><br /><br />This, in a report on British Muslim reaction to "tough new measures to name and shame foreign-based extremists and prevent them coming from abroad to stir up hatred in the UK." More money quotes, spoken to an enthusiastic meeting of 200 London Muslims: <br /> <br /><em>It is our religious obligation to prepare ourselves both physically and mentally and rise up against Muslim oppression and take what is rightfully ours. Jihad is a duty and a struggle and an obligation that lies upon the shoulders of us all. We will not rest until the flag of Allah and the flag of Islam is raised above 10 Downing Street.</em><br /> <br />-- Choudary <br /> <br /><em>Do not obey the British law. We must fight and die for Islam - this is the map and road to Jennah [heaven].</em> <br /> <br />-- Omar Bakri Muhammad, exiled imam, speaking from Lebanon <br /> <br /><em>You must destroy the West.</em> <br /> <br />-- Abu Muaz, head of the UK Salafi Youth Movement <br /> <br /><em>Delete unnecessary material from your computers, take precautions not to attract attention to yourself and prepare your family for [police] raids.</em><br /> <br />-- Abu Rumaysah, a student at the London School of Shari'ah<br /><br />Say what one will about once-Great Britain and its current misleadership, at least several mainstream papers in the UK are willing to report candidly on "The Prophet's" followers. All we get on this side of the pond is the kind of pathetic pap noted and quoted in the foregoing post.<br /><br />UPDATE: Robert Spencer, having been alerted to this story by your correspondent, has a post on it at <a href=http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/023451.php>Jihad Watch</a>. Robert's new book, <a href=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596985569?ie=UTF8&tag=robertspencer-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1596985569>"Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs,"</a> is now out and should be read by all.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-21760997439597925562008-10-31T08:47:00.000-07:002008-10-31T08:53:08.789-07:00Journalistic ignorance<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTFXoe0voQJpDN8wC9VKQwNEO2xBhLmklT_Ns_V4Q-twYWfAd0kegEQtHCWzfzvyiiLadeY8dGTJIkvjl9JUM5RtVNMMOZta3-xHm0WV_gfCGhX7VO-QuPiX4bALdUiOdQAB2f2te3ihsE/s1600-h/ambertom10-30-08.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 147px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTFXoe0voQJpDN8wC9VKQwNEO2xBhLmklT_Ns_V4Q-twYWfAd0kegEQtHCWzfzvyiiLadeY8dGTJIkvjl9JUM5RtVNMMOZta3-xHm0WV_gfCGhX7VO-QuPiX4bALdUiOdQAB2f2te3ihsE/s200/ambertom10-30-08.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263346206022576946" /></a><br />Traveling across New Mexico yesterday, I saw a <a href=http://www.abqjournal.com/upfront/30957368950upfront10-30-08.htm>column in the Albuquerque Journal</a> about a Navajo woman who was raised as a Muslim after her divorced mother married a Palestinian immigrant. The writer casts it as a "human interest" story and treats her subject with complete sympathy, admiringly quoting her to the effect that her hijab is "a sign of dedication to my religion. Completely practicing the religion. Doing what the Quran says we have to do and just being a good Muslim" and never once asking what "doing what the Quran says we have to do" entails -- such as being "hard against the unbelievers" (48:29) or refusing to have them for "friends and protectors" (3:28, 5:51, 60:1, et al.). To make any such critical inquiry she would have had to look into the Qur'an, and this she clearly had never done -- or, evidently, had any interest in doing.<br /><br />As one who toiled for fifteen years at a mainstream newspaper, I can testify that such willful ignorance is ubiquitous in the American media. Its consequences must inevitably be dire.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-49858670887843767042008-10-28T21:10:00.000-07:002008-10-28T21:56:39.277-07:00Ihsanoglu's heinous harping<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRYpv_z66mSIlR5uBtVKLVhwwQGyGvZHOpOayPBtLDaUDplfcbEo6RywLWvBZ1274BlVHtoP9RGpHx-0B4wMr7pyL5-DLmwyeEFeqyo3byD5YOrhyphenhyphen_v9_34jvWDEH5ziIx1MIuej7__THC/s1600-h/ihsanoglu.copenhagen.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 173px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRYpv_z66mSIlR5uBtVKLVhwwQGyGvZHOpOayPBtLDaUDplfcbEo6RywLWvBZ1274BlVHtoP9RGpHx-0B4wMr7pyL5-DLmwyeEFeqyo3byD5YOrhyphenhyphen_v9_34jvWDEH5ziIx1MIuej7__THC/s200/ihsanoglu.copenhagen.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5262435150087286834" /></a><br />On Oct. 22, Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of the Organization of the Islamic Conference addressed a UNESCO meeting in Copenhagen; a follow-up to the <a href=http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=41867&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html>"Rabat Conference on Fostering Dialogue among Cultures and Civilizations through Concrete and Sustained Initiatives"</a> held in Morocco on June 14-16, 2005. <a href=http://www.oic-oci.org/oicnew/topic_detail.asp?t_id=1548>In his speech</a>, Ihsanoglu revisited a theme on which he has been <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/06/push-to-criminalize-islamophobia.html>harping</a> for <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/06/our-only-inherent-responsibility.html>some time</a> -- to wit, the intolerability to the Muslim world of the quintessential Western value of freedom of expression when that freedom is employed in the exposure, analysis, criticism, or mockery of the odious creed of Islam, and the goal of that world to suppress the same through laws prohibiting it. Excerpts:<br /><br />"... in exercising the fundamental right of freedom of expression, one should act within the responsibility inherent in this freedom, through showing respect to the rights of others, and refraining from incitement for hatred, causing hurt to others or eroding their basic human right [sic]."<br /><br />"... the OIC has never had any problem with the freedom of expression, on the contrary we regard it as a fundamental value and advocate it in the Muslim World <em>within our new vision.</em> The point we have been making is that the abuse of this right, in a way to contradict and violate the international human rights documents, <em>should not be allowed.</em><br /><br />"... we should <em>not allow</em> the extremists and opponents of diversity in both the Muslim world and the western societies to derail our joint endeavors and manipulate and exploit the interaction between the ones who are yearning for respect to their ethnic, racial and religious identities and values and the others who are <em>misled to misperceive that their fundamental human rights of freedom of expression are challenged</em> or under attack by the Islamic world." (Emphases mine.)<br /><br />Ihsanoglu's speech and his organization's ongoing campaign are part and parcel of what Robert Spencer <a href=http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/021367.php>noted in June</a> is "a worldwide and ongoing movement by Islamic jihadists and their allies and dupes to classify all critical examination of Islamic supremacism as "hate speech." This would render us, he added, "mute and hence defenseless in the face of the jihadist onslaught," for "<em>true</em> statements about Islam and jihad will be suppressed, and precisely as Islamic supremacists are pressing forward as never before with their program of stealth jihad against the West." (Emphasis original.)<br /><br />Spencer concluded his June post with a warning that "we are far closer to restrictions on free speech than most people realize." Now, with only a week to stop the Obamachine's grasp for power and forestall its <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/06/dine-and-obama-perfect-storm.html>dire consequences</a>, the truth of his statement is more stark than ever.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-73479714539418569142008-10-01T08:06:00.000-07:002008-10-01T08:22:55.613-07:00Obama's goon tactics<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwqJLWWqsrsTneTeWgXRA0Fca1el6z8-uU-rxci2CE3KzjRTfcsBLzFSDpL8drYYA8U4utXXR_6_6EAMBry4TLgifN1P6_3ZDGyJuS81Id8gOH-AGx306tFBlssUMz1pRZgClEhyphenhyphenbzLRac/s1600-h/obama.pointing.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwqJLWWqsrsTneTeWgXRA0Fca1el6z8-uU-rxci2CE3KzjRTfcsBLzFSDpL8drYYA8U4utXXR_6_6EAMBry4TLgifN1P6_3ZDGyJuS81Id8gOH-AGx306tFBlssUMz1pRZgClEhyphenhyphenbzLRac/s400/obama.pointing.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5252204928493515202" /></a><br />Andrew McCarthy has written an article for National Review Online entitled <a href=http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=M2MxMWJlNzcwMDU3ZTJkYjRmZjU3N2U0OGNlZmE1ZDg=&w=MA==>"Obama's assault on the First Amendment."</a> It is spot-on, and deserves to go viral.<br /> <br />Moreover, McCarthy sums up in one paragraph not only what Obama is trying to keep from scrutiny but what must compel our active opposition to his candidacy: <br /> <br />"... his radical record, the fringe Leftism that lies beneath his thin, centrist veneer, his enabling of infanticide, his history of race-conscious politics, his proposals for unprecedented confiscation and distribution of private property (including a massive transfer of American wealth to third-world dictators through international bureaucrats), his ruinous economic policies that have helped leave Illinois a financial wreck, his place at the vortex of the credit market implosion that has put the U.S. economy on the brink of meltdown, his aggressive push for American withdrawal and defeat in Iraq, his easy gravitation to America-hating activists, be they preachers like Jeremiah Wright, terrorists like Bill Ayers, or Communists like Frank Marshall Davis."<br /><br />We have a month to stop this creature -- and if we fail, we face the menacing prospect of another Lyndon Johnson-style transmogrification of America.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-46106329604968466882008-09-28T22:32:00.000-07:002008-09-28T22:52:14.808-07:00The perfect propaganda storm gathers<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc4dwoojYZwaKBeV3zUozkXpa4zqzPevcbiF9vdPZgwxTHTkmaT_CvcGHzXG6CDcXDdGzrspy_tXGzGLcE6AiG6Yq__jUWy6_2wWWnE0-LYOR5WwdiPjl2Mk4xaXBDCHhIRSxmiRKNentU/s1600-h/perfect.storm.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc4dwoojYZwaKBeV3zUozkXpa4zqzPevcbiF9vdPZgwxTHTkmaT_CvcGHzXG6CDcXDdGzrspy_tXGzGLcE6AiG6Yq__jUWy6_2wWWnE0-LYOR5WwdiPjl2Mk4xaXBDCHhIRSxmiRKNentU/s320/perfect.storm.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251316944395448098" /></a><br />In Geneva, Switzerland next April, the UN will convene yet another conference "against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance" ("Durban II"), whose focus is going to be on "Islamophobia" -- an event for which former UN Special Rapporteur "on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance" Doudou Diène spent much of his tenure assiduously laying the intellectual and rhetorical groundwork. As I <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/06/dine-and-obama-perfect-storm.html>noted on June 20</a>, were this event to occur three months after the inauguration of Barack Obama and a lopsidedly Democratic Congress, it could create a "perfect storm" of conditions for repression of the Counterjihad through "hate speech" legislation. <br /><br />Such a confluence of conditions would be greatly excerbated were another anti-"Islamophobia" conference, <a href=http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/9/25/nation/20080925130848&sec=nation>proposed by the Malaysian government</a> at the behest of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to be held in the United States as stipulated by OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. Ihsanoglu, according to Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, "said the United States was chosen as the venue for the convention because of the polemic on Islam in that country as well as the wide media coverage it would get."<br /><br />The clear intention of this is to maintain the operational tempo of the jihad in the propaganda sphere by amplifying "Durban II's" call for "hate speech" legislation criminalizing "Islamophobia." That this would fall on receptive ears in an Obama administration is shown by several <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/06/dine-and-obama-perfect-storm.html>remarks Barack Obama has made</a> during the course of his campaign:<br /><br /><em>A certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia. There’s a reason why hate crimes against Hispanic people doubled last year. If you have people like Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh ginning things up, it’s not surprising that would happen.</em><br /><br />-- <a href=http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/floridapolitics/entries/2008/05/23/obama_collects_another_500000.html>Remarks to a gathering of donors at the Westin Hotel, Palm Beach, Florida, May 22, 2008</a><br /><br /><em>There is a consequence to the demagoguery [over immigration]--hate crimes against Latinos have gone way up over the last year. We've also seen over the last several months this epidemic of nooses being hung all across the country since the events down in Jena, Louisiana. ... So, what can we do to strengthen the enforcement of hate crimes legislation? It is something that I will prioritize as president but I don't want to have to wait until I am.</em><br /><br />-- <a href=http://www.ontheissues.org/2007_Dems_Brown_Black.htm>Remarks at the Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum, Des Moines, Iowa, Dec. 1, 2007</a><br /><br /><em>From the day I take office as President, America will have a Justice Department that is truly dedicated to the work it began in the days after Little Rock. I will rid the department of ideologues and political cronies, and for the first time in eight years, the Civil Rights Division will actually be staffed with civil rights lawyers who prosecute civil rights violations, and employment discrimination, and hate crimes.</em><br /><br />-- <a href=http://www.barackobama.com/2007/09/28/remarks_of_senator_barack_obam_26.php>Speech at Howard University, Washington, D.C., Sept. 28, 2007</a><br /><br />In order to countervail the malign effects of "Durban II" and the OIC conference, an educational campaign similar to the <a href=http://www.terrorismawareness.org/campaign/199/horowitz-freedom-center-launches-stop-the-jihad-on-campus/>"Islamofascism Awareness Week"</a> programs put on by the <a href=http://www.horowitzfreedomcenter.org/>David Horowitz Freedom Center</a> should be launched, culiminating in a series of teach-ins, demonstrations and media events during and in close proximity to the OIC's propagandafest. I urge the Horowitz Center to consider such a campaign, which would redound greatly to its credit -- and to the survival of our liberties.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-88075071073476417332008-09-26T12:41:00.000-07:002008-09-27T06:25:27.500-07:00A grim moment of candor<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqvg8LgYcQf-qS6Df7O_kWELMCRlK7FbHKmJulIQhiKw3NeQpE5Lr5Y1BrqmHSGOAKCaJTrjJ-grLTlrmfLAfsDciKyIOoJR5XzBoRt3P2Z8rBNkE5dcTf0G-TO694WlVbXzSxe4yAVW-w/s1600-h/ihsanoglu.columbia.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqvg8LgYcQf-qS6Df7O_kWELMCRlK7FbHKmJulIQhiKw3NeQpE5Lr5Y1BrqmHSGOAKCaJTrjJ-grLTlrmfLAfsDciKyIOoJR5XzBoRt3P2Z8rBNkE5dcTf0G-TO694WlVbXzSxe4yAVW-w/s200/ihsanoglu.columbia.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250560532015148562" /></a><br />In a <a href=http://www.oic-oci.org/oicnew/topic_detail.asp?t_id=1419>speech at Columbia University on Sept. 18</a>, Organization of the Islamic Conference Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu had this to say:<br /><br /><em>The Muslim Ummah, means the 'community of the faithful'. It is a unique bond that has no similar example under any other political or religious system in the world. It is a belonging to ideals which bring Muslims together in an eternal brotherhood lock which transcends all other consideration of allegiance or loyalties or barriers of nationhood, ethnicity, geography or language.</em><br /><br />Hence, according to one of the senior representatives of the Muslim world, it would seem that there is no such thing as a "Muslim American" or an "American Muslim," the two categories being mutually exclusive. This is implicitly recognized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the compound modifier in whose name is used advisedly. (See also <a href=http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/048.qmt.html#048.029>Qur'an 48:29</a>, which mandates that Muslims be "hard against the disbelievers and merciful among themselves.")<br /><br />Ihsanoglu also assured his audience that:<br /><br /><em>Though the OIC is not a religious organization, we feel compelled on many occasions to clarify that Islam is the religion of moderation and compassion, a religion that celebrates diversity, pluralism, and recognition of the other.</em><br /><br />Recognition indeed: as a crawling, cringing subordinate, as per <a href=http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/009.qmt.html#009.029>Qur'an 9:29</a> and its <a href=http://www.tafsir.com/default.asp?sid=9&tid=20986>exegesis by Ibn Kathir</a>, who pointed out that a Muslim-conquered person is “disgraced, humiliated, and belittled. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to honor the people of Dhimmah or elevate them above Muslims, for they are miserable, disgraced, and humiliated."<br /><br />Ihsanolu went on to conflate criticism of Islam with "racial hatred," then boast, in the next breath, of considerable progress in our subordination:<br /><br /><em>A major bone of contention with the proponents of Islamophobia is the question of freedom of expression. Although all agree that any freedom is always linked to responsibility, such as respecting human rights, and avoiding any form of incitement to hatred on the basis of race or religious belief, we find that some circles tend to ignore this basic universal and moral value and accuse Muslim victims of this racial hatred, who are defending their human rights, nevertheless, of trying to stifle freedom of expression.<br /><br />The collective efforts of the OIC and the member states have made an impact on the international community and have contributed towards raising global awareness of the dangerous implications of the phenomenon. Political leaders and opinion makers including academics and civil society leaders of the western world have now started to speak out against Islamophobia. ... The United States Government also showed its sensitivity to the concerns of the OIC by its decision to avoid anti Islamic terminology in their official memos and correspondences.</em><br /><br />In the days after the Muslim-orchestrated atrocity of 9/11, the president of the United States <a href=http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html>declared</a> that the jihadist attackers "hate our freedoms ... our freedom of speech," that they "kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life," and that in resisting them "we will not falter, and we will not fail." How terribly, how dreadfully, how shamefully hollow these words now sound, in light of Ihsanoglu's braggadoccio.<br /><br />(Hat tip: Baron Bodissey at <a href=http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2008/09/oic-fights-islamophobia-at-columbia.html>Gates of Vienna</a>.)Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-34244762584204533882008-09-23T16:54:00.000-07:002008-09-23T17:32:28.471-07:00Doudou done<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhphnlyPiGXDXpdATJG7lhRM7ZdCl8nmWcX0ADR0-LwATaVZnLMxt6zZ_0OSaauyqikiQ5DCoLDlAyhaIcnuyjmND1yCyUhmQSNLoAYt9NpIVQTHHVOhi-iMuC0GXXe1JeWwIyQXI_fp1w_/s1600-h/Githu.muigai.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhphnlyPiGXDXpdATJG7lhRM7ZdCl8nmWcX0ADR0-LwATaVZnLMxt6zZ_0OSaauyqikiQ5DCoLDlAyhaIcnuyjmND1yCyUhmQSNLoAYt9NpIVQTHHVOhi-iMuC0GXXe1JeWwIyQXI_fp1w_/s200/Githu.muigai.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5249376839163361426" /></a><br />On August 1, Doudou Diène was replaced by Githu Muigai of Kenya (shown at right) as UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Muigai, a Nairobi attorney and a graduate of the Columbia University School of Law, <a href=http://www.unog.ch/unog/website/news_media.nsf/%28httpNewsByYear_en%29/5B5AAA339975D4B9C12574C900454019?OpenDocument>appears at first glance</a> to be carrying forward Diene's campaign against "defamation of religion," which, as <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/06/push-to-criminalize-islamophobia.html>I</a> <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/06/menace-to-free-expression.html>have</a> <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/06/dine-and-obama-perfect-storm.html>noted</a>, is a threat to the rights of those of us with the temerity to analyze, criticize, expose and make mock of the inimical aspects of Islam's scripture, traditions, history, and contemporary practice. However, <a href=http://www.humanrights-geneva.info/UN-victory-for-freedom-of,3518>this report</a> describes a setback for the Organization of the Islamic Conference in the UN Human Rights Council in which he appears to have had a hand.<br /><br />Muigai is managing/lead partner of Mohammed Muigai Advocates in Nairobi. His C.V. may be seen <a href=http://www.mohammedmuigai.com/lawyerProfile.aspx?LawyerID=1>here</a>. ("Mohammed Muigai" is not Muigai's name but the firm's, another senior partner bearing the name of Mohammed Nyaoga.) The firm's address may be found <a href=http://www.chambersandpartners.com/Global/personprofile.aspx?aid=257289>here</a>. UN radio has a brief report on a speech by Muigai <a href=http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/detail/10669.html>here</a>.<br /><br />With the UN's follow-up conference to the notorious 2001 Durban conference on racism and xenophobia (which turned into an anti-Semitic saturnalia) fast approaching, it is very much to be hoped that Muigai will bring a less doctrinaire attitude to his new position than his predecessor showed.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-7427282428183785402008-09-04T08:04:00.000-07:002008-09-04T09:04:35.467-07:00Securing whom, from what?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3eu3XTujmqlWLWzHilDA8a1P3Q20xegzpoNqQ7_xhAMSVixkCiCoz28aW733wyKIjVHhHGZ_zCjlI53cVroF55H0FpIBDXaDkTCsNCd-vN3DWvSTBeJMFML7y089OJH1KzZmqTmwW5zOq/s1600-h/tempe.mosque.bmp"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3eu3XTujmqlWLWzHilDA8a1P3Q20xegzpoNqQ7_xhAMSVixkCiCoz28aW733wyKIjVHhHGZ_zCjlI53cVroF55H0FpIBDXaDkTCsNCd-vN3DWvSTBeJMFML7y089OJH1KzZmqTmwW5zOq/s200/tempe.mosque.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5242197553923953570" /></a><br />At <a href=http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=8CA667ED-4D9C-4095-AF53-55637BC8F143>FrontPage</a> this morning, the indefatigable Robert Spencer comments on a New York Daily News <a href=http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=8CA667ED-4D9C-4095-AF53-55637BC8F143>report</a> that Gotham's police department is beefing up security around Muslim mosques during the upcoming Islamic holy month of Ramadan. After noting the preponderant influence of the Saudi Arabian Wahhabi strain of Islam over American mosques and the malign propaganda exuded by them, Spencer points up the irony of the fact that NYPD's effort is not directed at protecting New Yorkers from their baleful activities but rather at protecting the mosques themselves. "The mosques are well protected," he observes, "but how well protected are the potential victims of the jihadists who may be inside those mosques?"<br /><br />That is a damn good question, in view of the traditional Muslim view that Ramadan is a time of <a href=http://shadeofswords.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/ramadan-the-month-of-victory-and-conquest/>victory and conquest</a>. Nor is New York the only place where infidel tax dollars are being spent on Muslim security. Last year the Council on American-Islamic Relations (note the compound modifier denoting two separate and distinct entities: America and the <em>Umma al-Islamiya</em>) posted an <a href=http://www.cair.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?mid1=763&&ArticleID=9090&&name=n&&currPage=3>"action alert"</a> calling upon "American mosques and other Islamic institutions" to apply for Department of Homeland Security grants "to receive training and to purchase equipment such as video cameras, alarm systems and other security enhancements," with an eye toward "target-hardening." This, through a $24 million DHS program intended to protect "organizations who are deemed high-risk for a potential international terrorist attack."<br /><br />American taxpayers may be forgiven for wondering which "international terrorists" are the least bit likely to attack Muslim mosques in the U.S. -- and why, if said "targets" are in need of "hardening," <em>they</em> have to pay for it instead of the cash-flush Saudis whose petroboodle built the things in the first place.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-11541611557307164942008-08-20T20:57:00.000-07:002008-08-20T21:58:57.461-07:00Muhammad cartoon fear strikes again<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk7LaIwDdsG7fq9cOAZioTSGWmJCPXsvcW1D6VQ5M4gaUpqYR2TgZwoY3UtmlCUWi6nZv_QRf9A7-11BmWiYVwaHnt-U5bfVeEIVU2nXwC1rkM9sLKNfJwGQGk9-14bfiyQ2CkBxsk_nSU/s1600-h/cartoon.fear.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk7LaIwDdsG7fq9cOAZioTSGWmJCPXsvcW1D6VQ5M4gaUpqYR2TgZwoY3UtmlCUWi6nZv_QRf9A7-11BmWiYVwaHnt-U5bfVeEIVU2nXwC1rkM9sLKNfJwGQGk9-14bfiyQ2CkBxsk_nSU/s320/cartoon.fear.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5236829994091113586" /></a><br />From Baron Bodissey at <a href=http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2008/08/no-takers-for-motoon-crisis-book.html>Gates of Vienna</a> comes word that Flemming Rose, the culture editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten whose publication of a dozen caricatures of Islam's prophet Muhammad touched off Muslim demonstrations against freedom of expression worldwide, has written a book on the crisis and tried to shop it to American publishers -- without success.<br /><br />“They are enthusiastic about the project, but concerned about the consequences that may ensue if they publish the book,” Rose told the Danish paper <a href=http://www.berlingske.dk/article/20080819/danmark/808190398/>Berlingske Tidende</a>.<br /><br />This is the third time -- and the third different medium -- in which the leadership of the American mass communications media has cravenly capitulated to intimidation rather than push back against Muslim demands for self-censorship. First came the near-unanimous refusal of American newspapers to print any of the relatively tame Muhammad images with their coverage of the original crisis in February 2006, despite their manifest centrality to the story and the clear imperative to show solidarity with a fellow journalist. Only three major American papers had the guts and integrity to do so: the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Austin American-Statesman, and the Rocky Mountain News of Denver. The editors of the rest (including the one for whom your correspondent then wrote) justified their pusillanimity with weasel words about "good taste" and "editorial judgment" and "respect for Islam."<br /><br />Then came the capitulation of American television, in the person of the Comedy Central network that broadcasts the cartoon show "South Park." Much beloved by kids of all ages for an outrageous brand of humor that holds nothing sacred, "South Park" in April 2006 addressed the Muhammad cartoon crisis in a two-part episode on "The Cartoon Wars." The show's position, of course, was that the right to free expression is absolute and ever in need of strong defense. And "South Park's" creators <em>did</em> push back, by showing a cameo cartoon image of Muhammad. But Comedy Central's executives wouldn't allow that image to be shown, out of <a href=http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=20110_South_Park_Censorship-_A_Matter_of_Fear&only>fear</a> of reigniting "the intense and deadly reaction" of the Muslim world to the Danish cartoons. A black screen was shown instead, with a message from the "South Park" team citing corporate censorship as the reason.<br /><br />And now we have American book publishers' spurning of Flemming Rose's report on the crisis, a far more egregious incidence of pre-emptive capitulation to Muslim demands than Random House's recent <a href=http://townhall.com/Common/PrintPage.aspx?g=449563cb-7752-4a26-bb93-276e1c9893f0&t=c>decision</a> not to publish a bodice-ripper novel about Muhammad's bint. While the latter is mere entertainment, the former is critically important information of which the American people are in dire need. The American reading public should raise an unholy stink about this until some publisher reconsiders -- or at least grows a pair -- and puts Flemming Rose's book on the Muhammad cartoon crisis into print.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-53946918271408081872008-08-12T10:16:00.000-07:002008-08-12T11:30:13.972-07:00Omitting the lede in North Carolina<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWoAW7gCoo_OatFZV-awl-mx8NZXX8sUJE6PBMquUq8x4quekaB29KGewHHJmlSnr1T3ROV_kfhZcaT63KSxeXNpnS12h3Llx4H7xYbOrBDIn5_RiGy46mornAF30Ofi8qcsbSQ6mB6iIX/s1600-h/taheri.azar.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWoAW7gCoo_OatFZV-awl-mx8NZXX8sUJE6PBMquUq8x4quekaB29KGewHHJmlSnr1T3ROV_kfhZcaT63KSxeXNpnS12h3Llx4H7xYbOrBDIn5_RiGy46mornAF30Ofi8qcsbSQ6mB6iIX/s320/taheri.azar.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5233700113684400738" /></a><br />On March 3, 2006, one Mohammed Reza Taheri-Azar <a href=http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=3958312>drove a rented Jeep Cherokee SUV into a group of pedestrians</a> on the Chapel Hill campus of the University of North Carolina. Nine people were injured in the attack, for which Taheri-Azar, a 22-year-old UNC graduate, told police he had <a href=http://jihadwatch.org/archives/010479.php>rented the biggest, heaviest vehicle he could find</a>.<br /><br />After his arrest, Taheri-Azar <a href=http://jihadwatch.org/archives/2006/03/010506print.html>declared in open court</a> that he was "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah.". During his incarceration, he wrote a <a href=http://jihadwatch.org/archives/011397.php>series of letters</a> to the student newspaper the Daily Tarheel, outlining in considerable detail his Islamic justification for the assault, quoting the Qur'an by chapter and verse. Among the Qur'anic mandates he cited were "To release anger and rage from Allah's followers' hearts: (9:14-15)," "To test Allah's followers' faith: (8:17)," "To prevent mischief on earth: (2:251)," and "To be rewarded by Allah: (2:154, 9:19-22, 9:111, 9:120-121)." He also declared that "Due to my religious motivation for the attack, I feel no remorse and am proud to have carried it out in service of and in obedience of Allah. Considering that I injured several people both physically and psychologically, who were also American taxpayers, I feel that I succeeded in obeying Allah's commandment to fight against the enemies of His followers."<br /><br />This morning, after more than two years of machinations, Taheri-Azar pleaded guilty to nine counts of attempted murder, as part of a plea bargain in which the nine counts will be consolidated into two for sentencing purposes and nine counts of aggravated felonious assault will be dropped. Depsite the manifest centrality of Taheri-Azar's Muslim creed and its scripture to his motive, the Orange County News and Observer <a href=http://www.newsobserver.com/news/orange/story/1174255.html>reported on this development</a> without <em>once</em> mentioning Islam, Muslims or the Qur'an.<br /><br />Perhaps News and Observer reporter Jesse James Deconto (or those who edit his copy) were following the <a href=http://www.spj.org/divguidelines.asp>"diversity guidelines"</a> adopted by the Society of Professional Journalists on Oct. 6, 2001 (before the ashes of 9/11 had quite cooled), which admonish journalists to "Use language that is informative and not inflammatory." But frequently language that is informative -- to wit, the truth -- <em>is</em> inflammatory. To refuse to inform the public because the hoi polloi might become inflamed bespeaks an arrogant disdain for the people's right to know. That such self-censorship has become standard operating procedure for American journalists bodes ill not only for the integrity of their profession but for its future.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-7016736723244755052008-08-09T10:07:00.000-07:002008-08-09T10:24:06.242-07:00Burying the lede in New York and St. PaulThe insidious concealment of Islam's ideological jihad against Western culture, values and rights is being aided and abetted -- indeed, facilitated -- by American newspaper editors, who nearly always bury jihad-related stories in the back pages of their publications (that is, when such stories are even run at all). Examples in this morning's press are the <a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/arts/09arts-RANDOMHOUSEC_BRF.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin>New York Times's</a> running of the story of Random House's <a href=http://townhall.com/Common/PrintPage.aspx?g=449563cb-7752-4a26-bb93-276e1c9893f0&t=c>abrogation of its agreement to publish a novel</a> concerning Muhammad's child-ride Aisha -- a front-page story if there ever was one -- under the rubric "Arts, Briefly" on page B8 of the New York edition and A18 of the national edition. The <a href=http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/022100.php>role of an American academic</a> in setting this chilling precedent for self-censorship went unmentioned.<br /><br />And in this morning's <a href=http://www.twincities.com/ci_10144154?nclick_check=1>St. Paul Pioneer Press</a>, a report on a Muslim teenager's complaint that she was rejected for employment by a restaurant chain because of her insistence on wearing a hijab to work was run not on page one but in Section C, with the business news. To amplify her bellyaching, the kid has teamed up with the local CAIR chapter, which is demanding a written apology from the firm and its submission to "the group's workplace sensitivity and diversity training" -- that its owners might "feel themselves subdued," in accordance with Qur'an 9:29.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-83718577366299005192008-07-19T04:19:00.000-07:002008-07-19T05:47:51.359-07:00Yet another call for repression<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr0JeJzX7i0xdq6EVkZCsJn_kN93NMgcZ1gyZgEq68jWA99Ek_tdaqcndTCCBUH2BBV4iXot0oBPCbQFEhWjWeQ-iBmAepLlrp8th9CK64JIyQtfdE6HB-uz18ZGXj9CQaZp-idkPlyLnD/s1600-h/madrid.bigger.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr0JeJzX7i0xdq6EVkZCsJn_kN93NMgcZ1gyZgEq68jWA99Ek_tdaqcndTCCBUH2BBV4iXot0oBPCbQFEhWjWeQ-iBmAepLlrp8th9CK64JIyQtfdE6HB-uz18ZGXj9CQaZp-idkPlyLnD/s320/madrid.bigger.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224700305736299186" /></a><br /><a href=http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/021844.php>DhimmiWatch</a> has a post on the conclusion of the Saudi-instigated "World Conference on Dialogue" in Madrid, and the <a href=http://www.saudiembassy.net/2008News/Statements/StateDetail.asp?cIndex=728>declaration</a> issued by its participants. Certain points in this document are worthy of note:<br /><br /><em>The participants also thank the Spanish Government for having the conference in Spain. This great country is home to a historical heritage that belongs to the followers of different religions and has contributed to human civilization.</em><br /><br />As Debbie Schlussel <a href=http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2008/07/do_they_wear_ob.html>points out</a>, "is there something funny about a King who can't hold his phony interfaith conference in his own country, because it's illegal there?" Actually, King Abdullah's rationale <em>isn't</em> funny; it cames straight from the mouth of Islam's prophet Muhammad -- who, according to an <a href=http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muslim/019.smt.html#019.4366>authoritative hadith</a>, declared: "I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim." Moreover, a <a href=http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP112306>2000 fatwa</a> by the ruling clerics in Abdullah's country barred the construction of "houses of worship for unbelievers in the Arabian peninsula," baldly stating that "All religions other than Islam are heresy and error. ... Therefore, religion necessitates the prohibition of unbelief, and this requires the prohibition of worshiping Allah in any way other than that of the Islamic shari'a." And the reason Spain's "historical heritage ... belongs to the followers of different religions" is because the followers of one -- to wit, Islam -- invaded the place in 711, conquering and cruelly subjugating the followers of others -- to wit, Christianity and Judaism -- and ruling until their final expulsion in 1492.<br /><br /><em>... the participants affirm the following principles: ...<br /><br />5. Respecting heavenly religions, preserving their high status, <strong>condemning any insult to their symbols,</strong> and combating the exploitation of religion in the instigation of racial discrimination.<br /><br />"Based on the above, the conference has adopted the following recommendations: ...<br /><br />5. To work on urging governmental and non-governmental organizations to issue a document that stipulates respect for religions and their symbols, the <strong>prohibition of their denigration</strong> and the repudiation of those who commit such acts.</em> (Emphases mine.)<br /><br />This, of course, is another demand for the <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/06/menace-to-free-expression.html>repression of free speech</a> regarding Islam and its scriptures, traditions and adherents, as called for by UN Special Rapporteur "on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance" Doudou Diène in a Feb. 20 <a href=http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/7session/reports.htm>report</a> to the UN Human Rights Council: "The <em>main challenge</em> is now to <em>define the threshold for legitimately restricting freedom of expression</em> in order to protect the victims." (Emphases mine. The report number is A/HRC/7/19; to access it on the linked page, scroll down to the number and click "E" for the English version.)<br /><br />Note also the <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/07/blurring-line.html>conflation of race and religion</a> in the above, which has become standard operating procedure among Muslim propagandists.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-82764900484849024332008-07-17T00:12:00.000-07:002008-07-17T06:50:59.330-07:00A lie fit for a king<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7qsKbLrFXpFJD8NfOjva0QJlCOkr8PAmh5r-zDgJc4Wa-xHjRXlHj-3KUOUlwucXtZk4RpNd1BNRC_WWVcVG2n0D7vqI4p0LXIMsa5NVzgtbzL0dUXFiJB-IcB1NU6cSm63bXeRB-jI5H/s1600-h/king.abdullah.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7qsKbLrFXpFJD8NfOjva0QJlCOkr8PAmh5r-zDgJc4Wa-xHjRXlHj-3KUOUlwucXtZk4RpNd1BNRC_WWVcVG2n0D7vqI4p0LXIMsa5NVzgtbzL0dUXFiJB-IcB1NU6cSm63bXeRB-jI5H/s200/king.abdullah.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223885587403713938" /></a><br />On the eve of the Saudi-instigated interfaith <a href=http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/021671.php>"World Conference on Dialogue"</a> in Madrid, the <a href=http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=111879&d=16&m=7&y=2008&pix=world.jpg&category=World>Arab News</a> has a story with several specious statements from Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud. The most preposterous one, for my money, is this: <br /> <br />"We have adopted a comprehensive anti-terror strategy that not only focuses on the security side but also includes preventing financing of terrorism and <em>dealing with its intellectual roots</em> as well as rehabilitating the followers of deviant ideologies after giving them counseling.” (Emphasis mine.)<br /> <br />In view of the just-released <a href=http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/new-report-shows-saudi-ministry/story.aspx?guid=%7B837C803E-AAFA-41F9-AB8F-F2F1001538FF%7D&dist=hppr>report on hatemongering in Saudi school textbooks</a> by the Center for Religious Freedom of the Husdon Institute, this is patently false. The center found that the textbooks "assert that unbelievers, such as Christians, Jews, and Muslims who do not share Wahhabi beliefs and practices, are hated 'enemies.' Global jihad as an 'effort to wage war against the unbelievers' is also promoted ... Lessons remain that Jews and Christians are apes and swine, Jews conspire to 'gain sole control over the world,' the Christian Crusades never ended, the American universities of Cairo and Beirut are part of the continuing Crusades, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are historical fact, and on Judgment Day 'the rocks or the trees' will call out to Muslims to kill the Jews."<br /><br />Nor is this the first, or even the second time this issue has come up. <a href=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/jul/14/saudiarabia.schoolsworldwide>Again</a> and <a href=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/19/AR2006051901769_pf.html>again</a>, the Saudis have been found to be filling the heads of their elementary and secondary school students with enmity toward the Western world, Christians, and Jews. Each time, officials of the kingdom solemnly assure Western media and officials that the offensive material will be removed or altered, and it never is. And yet the king of Saudi Arabia, spiritual center of the Muslim world, has the cosummate gall to assure us that his realm is "dealing with the intellectual roots" of terrorism. This flagrant lie bespeaks a contemptuous attitude that is right in line with several Qur'anic verses, notably 48:29 <em>(Muhammad is the messenger of God, and those who are with him are hard against the unbelievers and merciful one to another ...)</em> and 98:6 <em>(The unbelievers ... are the worst of creatures ...)</em>.<br /><br />Let the West take heed of this attitude and its scriptural wellsprings -- and wise up.<br /><br />Update: Welcome, Jihad Watch readers -- and many thanks to Robert Spencer for the <a href=http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/021810.php>link</a>.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-81934102206968489932008-07-15T07:40:00.000-07:002008-07-15T08:09:35.513-07:00'We all have to watch very carefully what we say'<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9cvDcAjB9tJwERB6TZk3YL5gE49NTT-AoqytxHTeyHLAwwcF9KHxN8KSLFpAbsmZjEGCFI6CSH9kz2gpGGEurKCbIexjFyaq3ntemaAttidzH7vVebYRGEGd7JSdw2nkTPQL4eteS_5VO/s1600-h/newyorker.obama.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9cvDcAjB9tJwERB6TZk3YL5gE49NTT-AoqytxHTeyHLAwwcF9KHxN8KSLFpAbsmZjEGCFI6CSH9kz2gpGGEurKCbIexjFyaq3ntemaAttidzH7vVebYRGEGd7JSdw2nkTPQL4eteS_5VO/s200/newyorker.obama.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223257219362587010" /></a><br />A follow-up story in the <a href=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/07/14/2008-07-14_new_yorker_mag_runs_for_cover_discussion.html>New York Daily News</a> on the by now-infamous Obama New Yorker cover has a couple of particularly egregious quotes. First, Mayor Michael Bloomberg:<br /><br />"Mayor Bloomberg said he hadn't seen the cover, but remarked, 'I think <em>we all have to watch very carefully what we say, our attempts at humor, our attempts at informing people,</em> because some of what we say can be misinterpreted and do real damage.' "<br /><br />Yes, best watch those attempts at informing people! Then, of course, the self-pitying, malign Council on American-Islamic Relations <a href=http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20080715/pl_usnw/cair_calls_new_yorker_obama_cartoon__inflammatory>weighs in</a>:<br /><br />"The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement denouncing the cover as an attempt to 'reduce the [Muslim] faith and its 1.5 billion followers into caricatures of themselves.' " <br /><br />Awww -- poor lambs.<br /><br />New Yorker editor David Remnick is mystified, as well he might be, by all the pants-wetting on the left. "I published the cover not to 'get attention' gratuitously but because it had something important to say and to provoke a discussion," he said.<br /><br />Indeed there should be a discussion, and it should focus on Remnick's invidious intent: to characterize Americans' entirely legitimate apprehensions about what an Obama presidency might portend as misguided and silly. John McCain was recently heard to say his opponent was running for Jimmy Carter's second term, but that wasn't quite on the mark. What Barack Obama is running for <em>Lyndon Johnson's</em> second term. When one recalls the lasting damage that LBJ was able to do with his army of congressional lickspittles -- the Immigration Reform Act of 1965, the Gun Control Act of 1968, the concept of affirmative action, etc., etc. ad nauseam -- this is a decidely grim prospect. It is <em>that</em> which we who oppose Obama fear, not a crypto-Muslim chief executive who's a secret admirer of Bin Laden.Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-31679421991973368202008-07-14T03:48:00.000-07:002008-07-14T04:55:48.873-07:00Unnatural cover<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkRikQejJX0haikMjT7Bfq4iEed-eiPcpLYQlC7GJZTR94tvkaDGpjmZffHOqBdA69xXXqdMozM_jBjabI8I4CuXNTErK0Tmlsb6K_XvG6UaiAg77m4lDD_l6kLNU_diAgPssNuHX37Ste/s1600-h/newyorker.obama.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkRikQejJX0haikMjT7Bfq4iEed-eiPcpLYQlC7GJZTR94tvkaDGpjmZffHOqBdA69xXXqdMozM_jBjabI8I4CuXNTErK0Tmlsb6K_XvG6UaiAg77m4lDD_l6kLNU_diAgPssNuHX37Ste/s320/newyorker.obama.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222834319242136930" /></a><br />The Obama campaign is <a href=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/07/13/2008-07-13_new_yorker_mags_satire_cover_draws_team_.html>moistening its collective knickers</a> over a cartoon on the New Yorker's cover this week depicting The Great Man and his bitter half as a fist-bumping pair of Third-World revolutionaries. Though its target is obviously Barack Obama's opposition, his minions are <em>not amused.</em> Huffed spokescreature Bill Burton, "most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree." New Yorker editor David Remnick argued that this thin-skinned attitude is misplaced, asserting that the cartoon "combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are." <br /><br />Both sides miss the point. What's really a distortion about this cartoon is the way it mocks the entirely legitimate apprehensions the Obamas engender in most Americans through their own words and proposals.<br /><br />People don't perceive Michelle Obama as a Black Panther; they perceive her as snappish, bossy, arrogant and resentful because of her <a href=http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-michelleobama21feb21,0,5061497.story>statements</a> about Americans being "mean," "cynical," and having "broken souls" inflicted by a country where "folks set the bar, and then you work hard and you reach the bar -- sometimes you surpass the bar -- and then they move the bar!" (That this beastly state of affairs hasn't prevented her from waltzing into a $121,910-a-year job that bestowed upon her a <a href=http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGRiMWFhNWY4MTgzMjI3NjEzNGQwMWFiMTlhYmRhN2Y=>raise</a> to $316,962 in <em>one year</em> is lost upon no one -- except, perhaps, the oh-so-sophisticated editors of the New Yorker.) Her <a href=http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjljYjA3YTYzMjU2ZjA5Yzg1MmM2YjIzZjEyN2ZjZjk=>declaration</a> that "Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed" was also, to put it politely, grating.<br /><br />And they don't worry about Obama putting up a poster of Bin Laden in the Oval Office, they worry about him using the power of that office to compromise their most fundamental rights, including the right to free expression. Consider his <a href=http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/floridapolitics/entries/2008/05/23/obama_collects_another_500000.html>recent assertion</a> that "hate crimes against Hispanic people doubled last year" because a "certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia" and "Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs" have been "ginning things up." This clearly indicates that Obama views "ginning things up" through criticism of a self-designated victim group as tantamount to inciting hate crimes, and therefore esentially a hate crime in its own right. Accordingly, what might his response be to the demands of Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/06/our-only-inherent-responsibility.html>Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu</a> and U.N. Special Rapporteur "on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance" <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/06/menace-to-free-expression.html>Doudou Diène</a> for laws against the "scourge" of "Islamophobia," intended to silence those of us who have the temerity to resist the encroachment of Islamic supremacism through exposure, analysis, criticism and raillery?<br /><br />At first glance, the New Yorker's snarky send-up seems rather puckish -- but a hard look at the propsect of an Obama presidency brings to mind a line from an old <a href=http://www.radiohof.org/comedy/fibbermolly.html>radio show</a>: " 'Tain't funny, McGee!"Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-78729671409839626532008-07-13T16:20:00.000-07:002008-07-13T17:01:25.093-07:00A Muhammad cartoon push back<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLMKf6VIWEcO-sbaCEdgpU1CvfKSkTx5Aw9iCbPdGOGfpZhK1xo0bpaMD3XUUikGWrMJN0PW_2ohBjy3DVIph5J5HRiVevLjnMK3WJ7-MPpm-Vv0e2j4GKmlomkDIhJNaSsfn17CEuRpRa/s1600-h/nekschot.motoon.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLMKf6VIWEcO-sbaCEdgpU1CvfKSkTx5Aw9iCbPdGOGfpZhK1xo0bpaMD3XUUikGWrMJN0PW_2ohBjy3DVIph5J5HRiVevLjnMK3WJ7-MPpm-Vv0e2j4GKmlomkDIhJNaSsfn17CEuRpRa/s320/nekschot.motoon.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222646719952555170" /></a><br />The Dutch cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot, whose government is <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/07/nekschot-across-our-bow.html>persecuting</a> him for drawing cartoons making mock of Islam and its adherents, has a <a href=www.gregoriusnekschot.nl/blog>Web site</a> on which his drawings appear -- including a caricature of "the prophet" Muhammad. In solidarity with Nekschot, and as a thumb in the eye of Muhammad's present-day followers and a push back against their odious campaign against freedom of expression, I'm posting it here.<br /><br />A Dutch-speaking commenter at <a href=http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/>Gates of Vienna</a> kindly provided a <a href=http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2008/07/what-used-to-be-known-as-christendom.html>translation</a> of the text per my request. The header translates as, "By modern day standards, Allah would be considered extreme-right wing." The word balloon by the image says, "Mister Sybrand van Haersma Buma ... kill the unbelievers wherever you find them -- Sura 2:191, Sura 4:89, Sura 4:91."<br /><br />"Sybrand van Haersma Buma," the commenter explains, "is a CDA politician who advocates the idea that freedom of speech is OK, but that it should be exercised with 'responsibility,' 'respect,' and so on." "CDA" stands for <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Democratic_Appeal>"Christian Democratic Appeal,"</a> the largest and most mainstream political party in the Netherlands. Its leader, Jan Peter Balkenende, is the country's current prime minister.<br /><br />Verses 2:191, 4:89 and 4:91 of the Qur'an exhort Muslims, respectively, to "slay (the unbelievers) wherever ye catch them," to "seize them and slay them wherever ye find them," and to "seize them and slay them wherever ye get them." (Muhammad, it seems, knew all about "staying on message.")Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-71433272790333848092008-07-12T09:31:00.000-07:002008-07-12T11:30:35.333-07:00A Nekschot across our bow<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUapY9S2_Py1IlE_5tc9Q8X-vYKiFoxXFmqY_uVlSuyhPT8uCYMp_PRfKk5w2IZcylSXJFv3AUSZzs-bc9vYmcqBFjykhbNT_QrfSUv6n8FiQ0mxpPzI8dwd3I0jhlbZPlSxor9EPB0sgY/s1600-h/nekschot.wsj.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUapY9S2_Py1IlE_5tc9Q8X-vYKiFoxXFmqY_uVlSuyhPT8uCYMp_PRfKk5w2IZcylSXJFv3AUSZzs-bc9vYmcqBFjykhbNT_QrfSUv6n8FiQ0mxpPzI8dwd3I0jhlbZPlSxor9EPB0sgY/s320/nekschot.wsj.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222188274893165794" /></a><br />The weekend edition of the <a href=http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121581460304047109.html?mod=2_1578_topbox>Wall Street Journal</a> has a long piece on the persecution of the Dutch cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot by the Netherlands government, a case that <a href=http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/search?q=nekschot>Gates of Vienna</a> has been following closely.<br /><br />Nekschot (a <em>nom de plume</em>) was arrested on May 13 "on suspicion of publishing work which discriminates against Muslims and 'people with dark skins,' " according to the online <a href=http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2008/05/cartoonist_arrested_for_discri.php>DutchNews</a>. The arrest, made pursuant to what the Journal termed an "inquiry ... led by an Amsterdam prosecutor unit that specializes in combating neo-Nazis and other hate-mongers," included the confiscation of Nekschot's computer, sketch pads and a hard drive, and the incarceration of the cartoonist overnight. This was the culmination of a three-year investigation of Nekschot "on suspicion that he violated a Dutch law that forbids discrimination on the basis of race, religion or sexual orientation."<br /><br />That is exactly the kind of law that the likes of Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and U.N. Special Rapporteur "on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance" Doudou Diène have been pressing Western countries to adopt in order to combat what Ihsanoglu has called the "scourge" of "Islamophobia." That such laws would run roughshod over the fundamental human right to free expression is no concern of theirs; the protection of Islam and its adherents from exposure, analysis, criticism and mockery trumps any such trifles. Speaking to a meeting of OIC foreign ministers in Kampala, Uganda June 18, Ihsanoglu <a href=http://greenspiece.blogspot.com/2008/06/our-only-inherent-responsibility.html>declared</a> "Islamophobia" to be "at the top of our priorities and preoccupations" and bragged that "In confronting the Danish cartoons and the Dutch film 'Fitna', we sent a clear message to the West regarding the <em>red lines that should not be crossed</em>." In a <a href=http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/7session/reports.htm>report</a> Diène submitted Feb. 20 to the U.N. Human Rights Council (the report number is A/HRC/7/19; to access it, scroll down to the number and click "E" for the English version), the Senagalese lawyer asserted that "The <em>main challenge</em> is now to define the threshold for <em>legitimately restricting freedom of expression</em> in order to protect the victims." (Emphases mine.)<br /><br />A Dutch parliamentary inquiry into the Nekschot arrest, the Journal reports, has brought to light something ominous: the existence within the Netherlands government of "a previously secret bureaucratic body, called the Interdepartmental Working Group on Cartoons. ... Headed by a senior bureaucrat from a national agency coordinating counterterrorism, it draws from the intelligence service, the interior minister, the prosecutor's office and various other government bodies." Dutch officials say this group, set up after the Muslim world's tantrum over the Danish Muhammad cartoons in 2006, has "no censorship duties" and "played no part in (Nekschot's) arrest," but such assurances are cold comfort. That a Western government should be so concerned about Ihsanoglu's "red lines" as to have set up such a body is enough to make any freedom-loving person's flesh crawl.<br /><br />Nor should it be imagined that the United States is all that far away from a European-style designation of certain types of free expression as "hate crimes." Listen to the speeches of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama as he <a href=http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/floridapolitics/entries/2008/05/23/obama_collects_another_500000.html>declares</a> that "hate crimes against Hispanic people doubled last year" because a "certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia" and "Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs" have been "ginning things up." It is quite clear that Obama views "ginning things up" through criticism of a self-designated victim group as tantamount to inciting hate crimes, and therefore esentially a hate crime in its own right. What "secret bureaucratic bodies" might his administration, backed by a heavily Democratic Congress, set up to deal with those of us who have the temerity to resist the encroachment of Islamic supremacism through the exercise of our right to free expression?Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4190492416303060925.post-34921640710375761732008-07-11T01:15:00.000-07:002008-07-11T01:25:49.190-07:00Abu al-Whipple?The London-based Arabic-language newspaper <a href=http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=13345>Asharq Al-Awsat</a> caught Abu Qatada, a notorious jihadist recently released from a British prison, indulging in a sensual infidel pleasure -- <em>squeezing the Charmin!</em><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk6-KsecN9exjguNkIzxIjKCyRmnjVF8mGcvPL_DhE0CPAMGd7cRFfRDrGG-MoYvXbSXcVXPxU4z6CNVXMT8M0KP37g6UFVK2I7bKyIooN1_l1ZUgQfaRAnX_1KPgjUoU5_meoqzPbOPMe/s1600-h/charmin.jihad.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk6-KsecN9exjguNkIzxIjKCyRmnjVF8mGcvPL_DhE0CPAMGd7cRFfRDrGG-MoYvXbSXcVXPxU4z6CNVXMT8M0KP37g6UFVK2I7bKyIooN1_l1ZUgQfaRAnX_1KPgjUoU5_meoqzPbOPMe/s320/charmin.jihad.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221669149904806194" /></a><br />Isn't there some Qur'anic injunction against such depravity?<br /><br />(Hat tip: <a href=http://www.weaselzippers.net/blog/2008/07/pic-of-the-day-abu-qatada-walking-the-streets-of-west-london.html>Weasel Zippers</a>.)Papa Whiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13198071543637829388noreply@blogger.com0