This blog will examine most of the inequities involving the law, immigrations, education, employment, political, health care. It will showcase current news events concerning US and world economic, Middle-eastern revolt issues while trying to explain and resolve those issues.
Now that the Wikileaks reveal widespread Arab support for the military option against Iran’s nuclear facilities to be put on the table, the time has come to reassess United States policy toward the Ahmadinejad regime.
Even if Israel freezes settlement building, the Palestinians come to the negotiating table and an agreement is reached about borders, refugees and Jerusalem, there will still be no real peace in the Middle East - if Iran continues on its determined path toward developing deliverable nuclear weapons. Despite noble efforts by the United States to bring Israel and the Palestinians to the peace process, the inability to achieve a real peace will be largely the fault of the deeply flawed American policy toward Iran.
Bishehr: Iran's Nuclear Power Plant (now operational)
The policy of the United States seems to be that a nuclear Iran is inevitable, that sanctions may delay but not prevent the Iranians from developing the bomb, and that a policy of containment is the best we can hope for. But containment is not a policy; it is an admission of failure. A nuclear Iran cannot be contained, because it operates largely through surrogates such as Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist groups. It can direct these surrogates to take actions that do not leave Iranian fingerprints. Currently these actions are limited to Hezbollah aiming rockets at Israel’s heartland and Hamas firing improvised rockets at Israeli civilians. If these groups - which oppose any peace with Israel—could operate under the protection of an Iranian nuclear umbrella, they would constantly provoke retaliatory and preventive military actions. These actions might well force the Palestinian Authority to violate agreements they made with Israel. Moreover, an Israeli population constantly under the threat of a nuclear Holocaust from a nation whose leader has called for Israel to be wiped off the map may demand that preventive military action be taken. Any such action by Israel would provoke an immediate response from Hezbollah and Hamas, if not from the Palestinian Authority.
Nor would a nuclear Iran limits its mischief to Israel. Now that it has obtained medium range ballistic missiles from North Korea, it might feel adventurous enough to export nuclear terrorism to other parts of the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. President Barak Obama understated the threat when he said that a nuclear Iran would be “a game changer.” It would be unmitigated disaster, threatening world peace, putting an end to any hope of nuclear non-proliferation, and engendering the greatest arms race in modern history.
The fault for this disaster would be equally shared by the Bush and the Obama Administrations. Under George Bush’s watch, the United States issued its notorious National Security Estimate of November 2007, which essentially denied that Iran was seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
nuclear weapons facility at Qum
This report was known to be false at the time it was issued since American intelligence became aware of the nuclear weapons facility at Qum before the report was issued. The publication of this report sent a powerful message to Iran: The Americans have fallen for your bait and switch game in which you hide your capacity to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of purported civilian use. This has encouraged the Iranians to move full-throttle ahead on their program. At the same time the Bush Administration changed Israel’s green light to yellow and then to red, as it related to United States approval of an Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. The end result was that Iran felt no real constraints on continuing to develop its nuclear weapons capacity in a pretextual civilian context.
The Obama Administration appears to have taken any military option off the table, relying instead on its enhanced package of sanctions. Secretary of Defense Gates has been explicit about this and the Iranians have been listening. It makes absolutely no sense to take the military option off the table, even—perhaps especially—if one is reluctant to deploy it. As George Washington taught us in his first address to Congress: “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” Israel’s Prime Minister echoed President Washington when he recently said, “The simple paradox is this: If the international community, led by the United States, hopes to stop Iran’s nuclear program without resorting to military action, it will have to convince Iran that it is prepared to take such action.” What is it that American policymakers don’t seem to understand about this self-evident proposition?
Robert Gates
The man most responsible for both the Bush and Obama Administration’s failure with regard to Iran is Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, whose tenure has straddled both the issuance of the false National Security Estimate and the decision to take the military option off the table. He is Iran’s favorite American facilitator. Although he soon plans to leave office, there are no signs—certainly none visible to Iran—that his failed policies with regard to Iran’s nuclear program will end with his too long tenure.
The Biblical prophet cautioned “peace, peace and there is no peace.” This tragic prophecy will become a sad reality if Israel and the Palestinian Authority make great sacrifices in an effort to bring peace to their people, only to see that peace shattered by a short-sighted American policy that allows Iran to hold a nuclear sword of Damocles over the entire region.
Al-Qaida now is recruiting home-grown killers within the United States, declares House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King. That’s why he has set hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims.
It is “extremely difficult for them to attack us from outside,” as al-Qaida did on 9/11, because of increased security. So al-Qaida switched to recruiting from within U.S. borders.
“They’re taking people who are under the radar screen who are not on any terrorist surveillance list at all and they are recruiting them to fight against America,” King said.
In a lengthy, emotional, and at times contentious hearing on Thursday, members of Congress and a panel of experts testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on the theme of radicalization in the Muslim American community - and whether or not that topic merited such a discussion in the first place.
The hearings aimed to investigate what was described as "the extent of radicalization" among Muslims in America. Evidence came in the form of the testimony of family members of young men who became radicalized Islamists, as well as the founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser.
The topic of Islamic radicalization in the United States should be emphasized that the issue is not Islam itself but how the religious ideology is used by violent extremists to inspire and justify their actions. The FBI does not investigate members of any religion for their religious beliefs, but rather focuses on investigating activities that may harm the United States.
Successes in the war on terrorism and the arrests of many key al Qaeda leaders have diminished the ability of the group to attack the U.S. homeland. At the same time, a broader Sunni extremist movement has evolved from being run entirely by al Qaeda central to a broader movement. This is demonstrated by the 2004 Madrid bombings, the July 2005 bombings and attempted bombings in London, and recent disruptions in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Bosnia, Denmark, and elsewhere.
President Barack Obama has been slow to acknowledge the urgency of the terror threat and take a hard line, King said, noting: “Let me just say President Obama has gotten better over the last two years, but it’s sort of a schizophrenic administration.”
The radicalization hearings are intended to highlight the threat, although some Islamic leaders have expressed concern that the hearings will be a witch hunt or devolve into a spectacle reminiscent of those run by anti-communist crusader Sen. Joe McCarthy in the 1950s. But the hearing - which King says will be the first in a series - was the subject of a slew of criticism from those who believe that Muslim Americans were being unjustly targeted as a community.
U.S. prisons are becoming major breeding grounds for Islamic terrorists, but state and local authorities are too cash-strapped to prevent or track recruiting, a new report concludes.
The report, was released Tuesday, found there aren’t enough legitimately trained Muslim religious leaders to counsel an estimated 9,000 U.S. prison inmates who want Islamic services. That allows Islamist extremists to target their vulnerable prison-mates with distorted versions of the Quran and other Muslim readings that urge radicalization and violence.
“Radicalized prisoners are a potential pool of recruits by terrorist groups,” concludes the joint study by George Washington University and the University of Virginia. “The U.S., with its large prison population, is at risk of facing the sort of homegrown terrorism currently plaguing other countries.”
Additionally, state and local prison officials struggle to track radical behavior changes of inmates or religious counselors. And staff and funding shortages limit preventative programs, the report found, noting that California officials “report that every investigation into radical groups in their prisons uncovers new leads, but they simply do not have enough investigators to follow every case of radicalization.”
An estimated 2 million people are imprisoned in the United States; 6 percent of them are Muslim, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Prisons have long been considered recruiting stations for gangs and, more recently, terrorists, but little has been done throughout government to combat them. The report, which will be released at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, comes as law enforcement and intelligence officials focus on finding out how and why extremist sympathizers cross a line to become operational terrorists.
The report cited several high-profile cases of terrorists who became radicalized while incarcerated, including British shoe bomber Richard Reid. It also noted what authorities call a foiled plot of a potential shooting rampage against California military facilities, synagogues and the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles by followers of Kevin James, who founded the radical group Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or JIS, as an inmate at California State Prison in Sacramento.
A new study confirms that al-Qaida uses the Internet for such recruiting. Online tools that al-Qaida operatives are using include the social network Facebook and video-sharing YouTube, according to the Pentagon-funded study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Such sites allow terror groups to recruit under radar and around the world by reaching potential new members in their homes, says the study, which the center released last week.
“We have to find out who is being radicalized, how are they attempting to do it, how are they recruiting within the Muslim community and whether or not Muslim leaders are cooperating with law enforcement, what Muslim leaders are doing to find out who in their midst is being recruited and who is a potential danger to the United States.”
A new study confirms that al-Qaida uses the Internet for such recruiting. Online tools that al-Qaida operatives are using include the social network Facebook and video-sharing YouTube, according to the Pentagon-funded study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Such sites allow terror groups to recruit under radar and around the world by reaching potential new members in their homes, says the study, which the center released last week.
Not all Muslims in the U.S.are of Middle Eastern descent, one-third of the Muslim community are black Americans who have converted to Islam or descendants thereof; another third are of Middle Eastern/Arab/Iranian descent; and another third come from South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh). According to the Arab American Institute, 63 percent of Arab-Americans are Christian and only 24 percent are Muslim.
Muslims are the fastest-growing minority group in the U.S, but in any case, there are far fewer Muslims in the U.S. compared to Western Europe for example, there are at least 5 million Muslims in France alone.
However, what is perhaps more relevant politically in a society in which different groups inevitably compete for attention and influence is the number of Muslims versus the number of Jews in the U.S. There are currently more Jews than Muslims in the U.S., but in the future that can change since Muslims have a higher birth rate and continue to migrate here; while Jews are concerned that they are losing people through intermarriage and assimilation.
Detroit Michigan has the highest concentration of Arabs and Muslims the original influx of Arabs were very hard working-class and/or rural villagers, like most other immigrant groups. They came to Detroit because Henry Ford recruited them to work at his auto company. Other cities, including Toledo, Ohio and Schenectady, NY also have long history of Arab settlements.
I think that as you can see, a lot of people are still in denial that we even have a problem in America with radicalization, wake up America, we are losing American babies. Our children are in danger. This country must stand up and do something about this problem before we are all wearing burkas and kneeling on prayer rugs; It this country that is at risk.
Radical Islam. What does this mean? Does it mean that there are a few Muslims who take Islam to the extreme and cause violence throughout the world? In order for innocent people and countries to combat the threat of violent Islamic jihad, we have to redefine "radical Islam." If the majority of Muslims adhere to sharia law (at least in their hearts), then we must confront the possibility that "radical Islam" is actually mainstream Islam.
Sharia law is an all-or-nothing concept. A true Muslim can't take certain parts of sharia and adhere to certain aspects but not others. Physical jihad is a part of sharia law, and even when Muslims can't fight in the name of Islam, they must support themujahadeen(fighters) financially, or at the very least in their hearts.
Many readers will criticize me for saying that 80-plus percent of Muslims desire sharia in all aspects. I can only say this because I have been going to Saudi Arabia and the Middle East since 1979, and the majority of Muslims do desire sharia law to be implemented in all parts of the world. Muslims in the Middle East desire sharia law and an Islamic ummah (nation) worldwide, and unfortunately for Americans, this means America as well.
In 2003, I had the opportunity to witness many interrogations of enemies of prisoners of war (EPW). I have to admit that I was a bit selfish, but I wanted to know what were going to be the next attacks in America. Over and over we were told the next attacks were going to attack the "hearts" of Americans. We was persistent and wanted to know exactly what this meant. We were told that the "hearts" of Americans were their children.
If Americans believe that al-Qaeda and their cognates such as CAIR, ISNA, theMSA,MANA, and a host of others will not attack our children, they are living with a false sense of security. I blame this false sense of security on our U.S. president and his administration. I also blame our FBI for attempting to make Americans feel safe when in actuality they are not. America could suffer another 9/11-style physical attack much worse than we had on this day. The cards are in the hands of Islamic terrorists. They have the capability to carry out such attacks any day they desire. They have the support, money, knowledge, and most importantly, the desire to carry out these attacks.
What is most frightening is that researchers have conducted research at over 250 Islamic centers in America. The vast majority desire to destroy America -- and our House, Senate, president, and senior law enforcement officials give them the opportunity.
The most important question people have is this: how do we stop the pending attacks? The answer is quite simple. Islam is not a religion. Islam (according to Islamic scholars) is a military, economic, and political ideology that uses "religion" to carry out the ultimate goal of world domination (again according to their leading scholars of Islam both in the U.S. and in the Middle East).
The following are materials obtained at Islamic centers in the U.S., and this is what the Muslim children are being taught.
1. "The objective of Islamic Jihad is to put an end to the dominance of the un-Islamic systems of government and replace them with Islamic rule, Islam intends to bring about this revolution not in one country or in a few countries but in the entire world. Although initially it is the duty of every member of the Muslim party to work for revolution wherever he lives the final purpose is nothing but a world revolution. Any revolutionary ideology which upholds the good of all mankind, and is not of a mere national unit, cannot limit its horizons to those of any single country or nation." Book: Come let us change this World, pages 106-107. Author: Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi, founder of Jamaat-e-Islami (The Islamic Party), a political party in Pakistan.
2. "If you accept the whole of Islam in your life ... a time will come when Communism will fear for its survival in Moscow, Capitalistic democracy will tremble for its safety in Washington and New York." Book: Ibid., page 83.
3. "Islam requires the earth -- not just a portion, but the whole planet." Book: Jihad in Islam, page 10. Author: Syed Abul A'la Maududi.
4. "Every Muslim should have the desire for martyrdom in his heart. If he is unable to go into the battlefield, he should certainly have the desire for martyrdom in his heart." Pamphlet: "40 Hadith on Jihad," page 7. Author: Maulana Abdus Samad Siyal. Published in Pakistan.
5. "It is learnt from this Hadith that physical jihad will continue right till the day of resurrection and will be waged as such in some part or the other of the world". We do not deny the benefit of waging an academic and intellectual war. However, an intellectual war alone cannot be fought everywhere. There are special places and occasions for it. In short, despite waging a jihad with the tongue, pen, rationale and intellect, the Muslim community cannot be absolved of the duty of waging physical jihad." Pamphlet: Ibid., pages 21-22.
6. "A martyr will go directly to heaven." Pamphlet: Ibid., page 59.
7. "The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land, will be that they will be killed." Booklet: "Duties of the learned to Ignorant Muslims," page 5. Author: Abdul Qadir Oudah (Muslim Brotherhood/Egypt). Published in Pakistan.
8. "Whatever is against Sharia, is unlawful for Muslims, irrespective of any Government which has declared it lawful or has ordered it to be acted upon because the right of legislation for any Government is restricted to the condition that the law framed by it should be in accordance with the Sharia, its fundamentals and legal spirit. Now, if any Government considers it lawful to exceed these prescribed limits, then because of this attitude of the Government, unlawful shall not become of this attitude of the Government, unlawful shall not become lawful and it would not be lawful for any Muslim to act upon or enforce laws against the Sharia. Rather in such a situation it becomes obligatory for every Muslim to refuse to accept those laws and abstain from acting upon them, for it is unconditional for the Muslims to obey the orders of men in power." Booklet: Ibid., page 34.
9. "Justice demands that tyranny and oppression should not be allowed to work havoc in the world." The Holy Qur'an clearly beings out the fact that Qital (physical Jihad/Fighting) is not an end in itself in Islam, but a means to a higher and nobler end - the welfare of humanity". "The person who raises arms in order to curb tyranny and oppression and to eradicate evil are the blessed souls who fight in the way of Allah." Pamphlet: Jihad in Islam, page 15. Author: Abdul Hameed Siddiqi (Jemmah Islamiyah). Published in Pakistan.
10. "The Islamic State is that it is an ideological state." The Qur'an and the Sunnah would be the chief sources of of the public law of the land." Pamphlet: "Political Theory of Islam," pages 31 & 33. Author: S. Abul A'la Maududi (Founder of JI terrorist organization).
11. "The Front is Everywhere. You have been well aware now of the categorical injunction of the Islamic Shari'ah that whenever an enemy attacks any part of Darul Islam, Jihad for its defense becomes obligatory (Fard) on every Muslim." "Jihad is obligatory on all the Muslims does not necessarily mean that all of us should take to arms and proceed to the battle-front. Jihad is a very wide term and its connotation is not confined to just the clash of arms only. In fact it denotes the entire war-effort which is made to uphold our cause and win victory over the enemy. Out of the many and varied fronts of war, battlefield is just one of them. Warfare requires total effort and all sections of people-nay, each and every citizen in the rear-must contribute his share, however humble, to strengthen the capability of those fighting on the front line. This duty of doing our best, dedicated to enhance the fighting ability of our soldiers, is too a Jihad. Indeed, every bit of work done, the minutest service rendered, is Jihad. The gallantry and dedication of the armed personnel no doubt is the key to success but next in importance for the successful prosecution of war is the procurement of money, means, and material. Besides, the qur'an warns us that if a person fails to contribute financially, he in face invites his own doom." Pamphlet: "Call to Jihad," pages 9-10. Author: Syed Abul A'la Maududi.
12. "Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it. Islam requires the earth-not just a portion, but the whole planet. Towards this end, Islam wishes to press into service all forces which can bring about a revolution and a composite term for the use of all these forces is 'Jihad.'" Pamphlet: "Jihad in Islam," pages 9-10. Author: Syed Abul A'al Maududi.
13. "Slay the disbelievers whenever you find them. The disbelievers should be killed in whatever month or time they are found." Book: Ma'ariful Qur'an, Vol. 1, page 534.
14. "Islam is a revolutionary ideology and program which seeks to alter the social order of the whole world and rebuild it in conformity with its own tenants and ideals" Pamphlet: "Jihad in Islam," page 8. Author: Syed Abul A'la Maududi.
15. "Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it." Pamphlet: Ibid., page 9.
16. "Islam requires the earth -- not just a portion, but the whole planet." Pamphlet: Ibid., page 10.
17. "The objective of the Islamic ‘Jihad' is to eliminate the rule of an un-
Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of state rule.
Islam does not intend to confine this revolution to a single State or a few
Countries; the aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution." Pamphlet: Ibid., page 24.
Ali Al Timimi
18. Ali Al Timimi (editor):
Convicted in 2005 and serving life plus seventy years for advocating terrorism against America. Timimi is supported by CAIR, was their "man of the year," and is often invited by our congressional leaders to give the opening prayer.
This book is distributed by Saudi Arabia as da'wah material. Public libraries throughout America have this book donated for our children to better understand Islam.
Suddenly, Washington is consumed with a question too long ignored: Can we safely do business with the Muslim Brotherhood?
The reason this question has taken on such urgency is, of course, because the Muslim Brotherhood is poised to emerge as the big winner from the chaos now sweeping North Africa and increasingly likely to bring down the government of the aging Egyptian dictator, Hosni Mubarak.
In the wake of growing turmoil in Egypt, a retinue of pundits, professors and former government officials has publicly insisted that we have nothing to fear from the Muslim Brotherhood since it has eschewed violence and embraced democracy.
Bruce Reidel
For example, Bruce Reidel, a controversial former CIA analyst and advisor to President Obama, posted an article entitled “Don’t Fear Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood” at the Daily Beast. In it, he declared: “The Egyptian Brotherhood renounced violence years ago, but its relative moderation has made it the target of extreme vilification by more radical Islamists. Al Qaeda’s leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri, started their political lives affiliated with the Brotherhood but both have denounced it for decades as too soft and a cat’s paw of Mubarak and America.”
Dana Perino
Then, there was President George W. Bush’s former press spokeswoman, Dana Perino, who went so far on January 28th as to tell Fox News “…And don’t be afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. This has nothing to do with religion.”
One reason we might be misperceiving the MB as no threat is because a prime source of information about such matters is the Muslim Brotherhood itself. As the Center for Security Policy’s new, best-selling Team B II report entitled, Shariah: The Threat to America found: “It is now public knowledge that nearly every major Muslim organization in the United States is actually controlled by the MB or a derivative organization. Consequently, most of the Muslim-American groups of any prominence in America are now known to be, as a matter of fact, hostile to the United States and its Constitution.”
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal
In fact, for much of the past two decades, a number of these groups and their backers (including, notably, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal) have cultivated extensive ties with U.S. government officials and agencies under successive administrations of both parties, academic centers, financial institutions, religious communities, partisan organizations and the media. As a result, such American entities have been subjected to intense, disciplined and sustained influence operations for decades.
Unfortunately, the relationships thus developed and the misperceptions thus fostered are today bearing poisonous fruit with respect to shaping U.S. policy towards the unfolding Egyptian drama.
A notable example is the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). A federal judge in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial – which successfully prosecuted the nation’s largest terrorism financing conspiracy – found that CAIR was indeed a front for the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestinian affiliate, Hamas. Nonetheless, Fox News earlier today interviewed the Executive Director of CAIR’s Chicago office, Ahmed Rehab, whom it characterized as a “Democracy Activist.”
Ahmed Rehab
True to form, Rehab called for the removal of Mubarak’s regime and the institution of democratic elections in Egypt. This is hardly surprising since, under present circumstances, such balloting would likely have the same result it did in Gaza a few years back: the triumph of the Muslim Brotherhood and the institution of brutally repressive theocratic rule, in accordance with the totalitarian Islamic politico-military-legal program known as shariah.
An important antidote to the seductive notions being advanced with respect to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt – and, for that matter, in Western nations like ours – by the Muslim Brotherhood’s own operatives, the Team B II report. It should be considered required reading by anyone who hopes to understand, let alone to comment usefully upon, the MB’s real character and agenda.
For example, Shariah: The Threat to America provides several key insights that must be borne in mind in the current circumstances especially:
• “The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928. Its express purpose was two-fold: (1) to implement shariah worldwide, and (2) to re-establish the global Islamic State (caliphate).
• “Therefore, Al Qaeda and the MB have the same objectives. They differ only in the timing and tactics involved in realizing them.
• “The Brotherhood’s creed is: ‘God is our objective; the Koran is our law; the Prophet is our leader; jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.’”
• It is evident from the Creed, and from the Brotherhood’s history (and current activities)…that violence is an inherent part of the MB’s tactics. The MB is the root of the majority of Islamic terrorist groups in the world today.
• The Muslim Brotherhood is the ‘vanguard’ or tip-of-the-spear of the current Islamic Movement in the world. While there are other transnational organizations that share the MB’s goals (and its tactics) – including al Qaeda, which was born out of the Brotherhood – the Ikhwan is by far the strongest and most organized. The Muslim Brotherhood is now active in over 80 countries around the world.
Of particular concern must be the purpose of the Brotherhood in the United States and other nations of the Free World:
• “…The Muslim Brotherhood’s mission in the West is sedition in the furtherance of shariah’s supremacist agenda, not peaceful assimilation and co-existence with non-Muslim populations.”
• “The Muslim Brotherhood believes that its purposes in the West are, for the moment, better advanced by the use of non-violent, stealthy techniques. In that connection, the Muslim Brotherhood seeks to establish relations with, influence and, wherever possible, penetrate: government circles in executive and legislative branches at the federal, state and local levels; the law enforcement community; intelligence agencies; the military; penal institutions; the media; think tanks and policy groups; academic institutions; non-Muslim religious communities; and other elites.
• “The Brothers engage in all of these activities and more for one reason: to subvert the targeted communities in furtherance of the MB’s primary objective – the triumph of shariah.”
In short, the Muslim Brotherhood – whether it is operating in Egypt, elsewhere in the world or here – is our enemy. Vital U.S. interests will be at risk if it succeeds in supplanting the present regime in Cairo, taking control in the process not only of the Arab world’s most populous nation but its vast, American-supplied arsenal. It is no less reckless to allow the Brotherhood’s operatives to enjoy continued access to and influence over our perceptions of their true purposes, and the policies adopted pursuant thereto
And the award for turning Islam into one of the fastest growing, most influential, and most intimidating religious movements in the world goes to… the Muslim Brotherhood.
Sheikh Ali al-Hudaify
Lars Hedegaard
The most recent victim of the global Islamic movement’s intimidation of free speech in Denmark is Lars Hedegaard, the President of the Danish Free Press Society and The International Free Press Society.
Denmark has been targeted by the MB after the 2006 publication of ‘Mohammed cartoons’ by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Following Sheikh Ali Al-Hudaify, imam of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina call "upon governments, organizations and scholars in the Islamic world to extend support for campaigns protesting the sacrilegious attacks on the Prophet,” the MB orchestrated mass riots in Denmark and across the world.
Responding to an interviewer question on Muslim “honor killings,” Mr. Hedegaard remarked, “They rape their own children.” He now stands accused by Denmark’s public prosecutor of “racism.”
Although Mr. Hedegaard further explained that he was not speaking about every single Muslim or even the majority, the prosecution is proceeding. His trial begins later this month.
The politically correct sensitivity of the Danish public prosecutor that led to Mr. Hedegaard’s prosecution and persecution seems to follow the cowardly public apology issued by the Danish daily Politiken on February 2010, for reprinting the cartoons in 2008. The newspaper’s mea culpa was obtained as part of the settlement with a Saudi lawyer representing 94,923 of Muhammad's descendants, who sued the paper for offending them.
Hedegaard’s legal troubles and Politiken’s cave-in are the casualties of the global propaganda offensive launched after 9/11, portraying the Muslims as victims of discrimination by Western societies. Led by the Muslim Brotherhood, this offensive drastically intensified after the publications of the Muhammad cartoons in Denmark and Sweden.
Ironically, while Europe is obstinately ignoring or kowtowing the growing power of radical Islam and the MB, State Department communications revealed by Wikileaks in November and December 2010 show that Arab leaders in the Middle East have voiced increasing alarm at the spread of the MB’s radical Islamic worldview is spreading.
President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
A March 3, 2008 cable quoted Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali predicting an MB takeover in Egypt, where, he noted, the environment was “explosive.” This view was confirmed in a February 23, 2010 cable quoting the Qatari Emir, Hamid bin Khalifa al Thani, telling U.S. Senator John Kerry, “Everyone knows that Egypt has a problem with the Muslim Brotherhood.” Another cable revealed an allegedly reluctant association between MB offshoot Hamas and Syrian President Bashar Assad. Calling the terrorist group an “uninvited guest,” Assad insisted that “to be effective and active,” he nonetheless had to “have a relationship with all parties. Hamas is Muslim Brotherhood, but we have to deal with the reality of their presence.”
Hamid bin Khalifa al Thani
The Muslim Brotherhood proudly touts these accomplishments on their official website, Ikhanweb.
The Wikileaks cables show that MB’s long-advertised aspirations of global control are materializing, fueled by Saudi and Gulf petrodollars and influence, with the complicity and tacit approval of the West.
The MB describes itself as a political and social revolutionary movement; it was founded in March 1928 in Egypt by Hassan al-Banna, who objected to Western influence and together with MB’s most influential ideologues Sayyid Qutb , called for return to the earliest days of Islam as a model for society. MB is an expansive and secretive society with followers in more than 70 countries, dedicated to creating a global Islamic order that would discriminate against women and punish nonbelievers. Its members and supporters founded and funded al Qaeda, Hamas, and other radical Muslim terror groups, as well as Muslim student organizations on six continents, including one “of the largest college student groups in the United States.”
Yusuf Qaradawi
The case of the Egyptian exiled Doha based, 85 year-old MB spiritual leader, Yusuf Qaradawi, amply demonstrates how a well-funded Islamist demagogue who openly calls for violence against Americans, Israelis, and Jews, has managed nonetheless to secure a reputation in the West as a moderate thinker.
A prolific writer, who for decades holds the directorship of Qatar University's Seerah and Sunnah Centre, Qaradawi is hailed as one of the leading modern Islamic scholars. He is the founder of the International Union of Muslim Scholars and the European Council for Fatwa and Research, and was twice offered the leadership of the MB. He rejected the offers, explaining in 2004 that he could not commit to “any movement which might constrain my actions, even if this is the Muslim Brotherhood under whose umbrella I grew and which I so defended.” In 2006 he clarified that although the MB consider him “their Mufti” but that he “prefer[ed] to be devoted to the entire nation.” Qaradawi was banned from entering the U.S. in 1999.
Adhering to the MB ideology, which calls on the Muslims to rid themselves of non-Islamic rule, Qaradawi has advocated suicide bombing as “martyrdom in the name of God,” and the killing of American and coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2004, he issued a fatwa forbidding Muslims from buying or even advertising American or Israeli products. Qaradawi issues many fatwas on his popular website www.qaradawi.net; on another website he helped found in 1997, IslamOnline, as well as on his al Jazeera prime-time television program, ash-Shariah wal-Hayat, “Shariah and Life,” allegedly reaching 40 million viewers. Wikileaks cables confirmed that Qatar uses the Doha-based al Jazeera as “a useful tool” to advance its political agenda.
Another recent example of the Qaradawi-Qatari partnership to increase Islamic influence and expand its reach is found in the Qatar Foundation’s Education City, a multi-billion mega-complex housing a combination of Qatari and prestigious American institutions.
The Qatar Foundation was establishedby Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar in 1995, and is currently headed by his wife, Shikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned. American universities lured to Qatar by massive financial incentives include Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Texas A&M, Georgetown, Virginia Commonwealth, and Cornell. For instance, the Qatar Foundation covers the costs of A&M at Education City, and pledged $750 million to the branch of Cornell’s medical college. Qatar continues its effort to attract additional prominent American and European academic institutions.
Education City is now home to the Qaradawi Center for Islamic Moderation and Renewal, an Islamic Studies think tank whose establishment is aimed to “highlight the middle path propagated by Qaradawi.” In the 2009/2010 academic year the Qatar Foundation awarded five graduate scholarships in Qaradawi’s name for applicants studying Islamic Studies with a specialty in Contemporary Fiqh (Islamic Law). In 2009, Qaradawi was on a roster of prominent Middle Easter figures wholectured to American students participating in “Journalism Boot Camp,” a program affiliated with ColumbiaUniversity, the University of Qatar, and the AmericanUniversity of Cairo.
Clearly, Qaradawi’s ubiquitous presence in Qatar and its rapidly growing EducationCity, is not dissuading American institutions of higher learning from exposing American students to Qaradawi’s poisonous influence.
Qatar’s substantial financial and ideological support for Qaradawi, helps to promote the Muslim Brotherhood’s agenda. In February 2009, Qaradawi thankedQatar “for having accepted me and allowed me to do my work on an international scale. I have never faced any obstacle in expressing freely whatever I wished.”
Qatari money and academic ties provide but one of many means for the spread of Muslim Brotherhood influence, which is becoming pervasive in the Western world, which allows the burgeoning network of Islamic organizations and charities to operate.
In order to understand the scope of MB operations in the West, one must first understand the organization’s long-term planning and methods to secure their growth. MB’s founder Hassan al-Banna, understood that financial strength was critical for the organization’s success, weapon to undermine the infidels — and “work towards establishing an Islamic ruleon earth.”
After the 1973 successful use of Middle East oil as a weapon against the West, rising oil revenues encouraged MB leaders to formalize al-Banna's vision. In 1977 and 1982, they convened in Lugano, Switzerland, to chart a master plan to co-opt Western economic “foundations, capitalism and democracy” in a treatise entitled “Towards a Worldwide Strategy for Islamic Policy,” also known as The Project. MB spiritual leader al-Qaradawi wrote the explicit document, dated 1 December 1982.The 12-point strategy includes diktats to establish the Islamic state and gradual, parallel work to control local power centers . . . using institutional work as means to this end. To achieve all these to spread fundamentalist Islam required “special Islamic economic, social and other institutions,” and “the necessary economic institutions to provide financial support.”
But Islamic banking was slow to catch on until 1993, when Anwar Ibrahim—then Malaysia’s finance minister, and current opposition leader—helped to introduce the newly invented “Islamic Banking windows” into conventional banks. This measure helped familiarized potential customers with and built confidence in the unknown Islamic banking system. Indeed, it proved central to the development of the global Islamic finance industry. Anwar constant support and advocacy of Islamic rule led Qaradawi, his friend and business partner, to join the list of prominent Western leaders whopublically defend the Malay politician, who is on trial for sodomy and corruption charges, which he denies.
Anwar and Qaradawi share substantial business ties: in 1996, Anwar licensed company headed by Qaradawi and transferred it to Malaysia. The company, Majestic Global Investment is Kuwaiti fund management business. Both Anwar and Qaradawi serve on the board of the MB affiliated, Virginia based International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT), which Anwar helped to found.
The IIIT, which has been under extended federal investigation forties to al Qaeda and Hamas, advertises two of Qaradawi’s books, and has published literature describing the hurdles it faces in its planned takeover of the U.S. and Canada.
Qaradawi and Anwar share ties to OxfordUniversity. Qaradawi is atrustee of the university’s Center for Islamic Studies, while Anwar was a lecturer at Oxford’s St. Anthony’s College.
Another Western media darling, Tariq Ramadan, who is prominent advocate of the MB agenda, found a permanent house at Oxford’s St. Anthony’s College. Ramadan, Hassan al Banna’s grandson, was banned from entering the U.S. until January 19, 2010, when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, issued an executive order allowing his entry to the country. Clinton who pressured the Malaysian government on behalf of Anwar, considers him a reformer and an exemplary moderate Muslim.
One can only wonder why despite the readily available damning information and renewed attention on the MB and its affiliated groups the U.S. as its allies are laying the welcoming carpet to some of the most effective MB actors.
Five years ago when my organization BasicsProject.org partnered in producing the first national symposium series on the threat of radical Islam, the issue was not in the mainstream. In fact, our publication, NewMediaJournal.us was banned from Google News for what they called “hate speech,” simply because several of our writers dared to broach the subject of jihad and the violent tenets of Islamist fundamentalism. To be sure, we have come a very long way from those days. Today, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity both talk regularly about the issue with Mr. O’Reilly calling it “the Muslim problem.” This is a good thing, but it isn’t nearly enough.
As President Obama does everything in his power, using every resource and every propaganda ploy to diminish the “Muslim problem” that exists, not only in the United States, but around the world, the truth remains, fundamentalist Islam is a problem that is growing, not diminishing. Many on the Left and in the Progressive camp insist that the number of people within the Islamic religion who practice fundamentalist Islam – radical Islam; those who, when asked, champion the violent element within their religion, are but a scant ten percent.
But when we put that percentage in realistic terms, realizing that nearly one-fourth of the world’s population is Muslim (1.57 billion adherents) and that the number of those following the Islamic religion grows by 1.84% annually, we can divine that ten percent of the Muslim population; those who subscribe to fundamentalist Islam and violent jihad, that amounts to 157,000,000 (million) people and growing. That number, to equate it to something tangible, is over one-third of the population of the United States of America.
This, regardless of how you feel about the majority of pissed off Muslims in the world, should scare you to know end: a number of people equal to one-third of the population of the United States of America believes that Islam should be the preeminent religion in the world, dominant over all other religions and that the oppressive and brutal Sharia law should reign supreme, even over the Constitution of the United States, on our shores.
Brutal Shariah Law
I have been pointing these facts out for months, warning of a fundamentalist Islamist invasion of the European Continent and of “creeping Sharia” in the United States, only to be called a “hate-monger,” “a bigot” and “a racist”...and those are the printable descriptions. Today, as we watch events around the world with regard to the advance of Islam, we stand vindicated in our assessment, yet we take no solace in being correct.
A recent poll by Le Monde, the dominant newspaper in France, as reported by The London Daily Mail, revealed that “Islam is considered a ‘threat’ by millions of French and Germans to their national identity.” It ran the results under “a headline which brands efforts to get different religious communities to live side by side as a ‘failure.’”
According to the poll, 68 percent of the French and 75 percent of Germans believe Muslims are “not well integrated into society.” German chancellor Angela Merkel went as far as to say that the notion of “multiculturalism” in German society – given the issue of non-assimilation by foreigners – had “utterly failed.” Germany has one of the largest Muslim immigrant populations in Europe at 4.3 million. The Muslim immigrant population in France is 7 million and the British come in at 2.4 million. Experts say that almost 85% of the population growth in Europe, as a whole, was due to Muslim immigration and that the Muslim population alone will double by 2020.
The poll goes on to say that:
“...55 percent in France and 49 percent in Germany believe the ‘influence and visibility of Islam’ is ‘too large’, while 60 percent in both countries say the reason for the problem is Muslims’ own ‘refusal’ to integrate...Just as crucially, 42 percent of French and 40 percent of Germans consider the presence of Islamic communities ‘a threat’ to their national identities.
“An editorial in Le Monde adds: ‘As Islam becomes a permanent and increasingly conspicuous fixture of European societies, public opinion is clearly tensing up...’”
Again, given that experts have said that the percentage of the world’s Muslim population that follow fundamentalist Islam, which signs-on to the concept of the establishment of Sharia law and violent jihad, is ten percent, it is easy to see why the Germans and the French – and for that matter the whole of Europe – is ill-at-ease with the current situation. In Germany, France and Britain alone, using the experts’ ten percent figure, 1.7 million Muslims subscribe to fundamentalist Islam and the establishment of Sharia law.
To this point we have discussed the threats posed by fundamentalist Islam – violent jihadist Islam – as they pertain to a growing population, the lack of acceptable assimilation into the host country’s cultures and population growth by procreation. But there is another more disturbing trend emerging around the world: the violent extinguishment of other religions where fundamentalist Islam exists.
With each passing day we read a growing number of news items that describe how fundamentalist Islamists are attacking Christians and Jews, burning their houses of worship or otherwise violently attacking not only the places where they worship, but the non-Muslim worshipers themselves.
Osama bin Laden
Ayman al Zawahiri
▪ In Somalia, a location that both Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri directed Islamist jihadists in order to “regroup” after their ouster in Iraq by superior US and Coalition forces, a mother of fourhad her throat slit in front of her children by the radical Islamist group al Shabaab for having converted to Christianity.
▪ Christmas Eve bombings in Jos, Nigeria, perpetuated at the hands of radical Islamists and targeting Christian churches on one of Christianities most holy of days, killed 31 people and injured scores more. The governor's office in Jos had received letters purported to be from some Muslim organizations threatening attacks against Christians. The violence in Nigeria between Islamists and Christians has been in existence for decades.
▪ In Spain, the Hudson Institute reports that an initiative to build more mosques is coming into full swing, with the inclusion of a behemoth mega-mosque in Barcelona. The construction of new mosques comes at a time when municipalities linked to the Socialist Party have closed dozens of Christian churches across the nation.
▪ In Egypt,angry Copt Christians accosted the car carrying Egypt's top Muslim religious leaders in protest of the bombing of the All Saints Coptic Church in Alexandria on New Year’s Day, a bombing executed by radical Islamists. The blast killed 21 Coptic Christians.
▪ In the Philippines, al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyef Islamistsbombed a Christian chapel on Christmas day injuring the priest and ten others.
▪ And United Nations Human Rights official, Navi Pillay, said attacks on religious minorities in places like Egypt,Nigeria and Pakistanshould serve as a wake-up call to authorities everywhere to combat rising fanaticism. Given that these locations are predominantly Muslim, the minority religions would be based in Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism, to name the more popular religions practiced in those regions.
The story is increasingly the same, from Pakistan and Afghanistan to the countries that formed the former Soviet Union, from Europe to Africa and the South Pacific, radical and violent Islamists are waging what can only be described as a “holy war” in a quest to expunge all other religions from their spheres of dominance...and this push is expanding day by day by day.
Religion Of Peace?
The inane Progressive tenet of political correctness has advanced the false notion that Islam is a religion of peace. Even former President George W. Bush made the mistake of allowing his influence to be co-opted by this fallacy. Truth be told, whether by immigration, procreation of violent jihad, fundamentalist Islam is advancing by whatever means works in any given location. If we are foolish enough to look the other way when the evidence to this fact is so incredibly overwhelming, we will soon be watching as the US Constitution gives way to Sharia law.
Free men and women everywhere, we are witnessing the third great Islamist quest for world dominance. We are in the midst of a holy war waged by fundamentalist Islamists against all other religions and their adherents. If we do not dispense with the lunacy of political correctness in an effort to be honest about our “Muslim problem,” it will most certainly be too late.
