# 13 Reason Why We Should Impeach or NOT re-elect Obama

Obama thinks it is right for imam Rauf and Islam to build a mosque and community center in New York City near Ground Zero. He needs to understand what moderate Muslims really think.

"It can’t be done without confronting mainstream Islam and its Sharia agenda. ‘Secularism can never enjoy a general acceptance in an Islamic society.” The writer was not one of those sulfurous Islamophobes decried by CAIR [Council on American-Islamic Relations] and the professional Left. Quite the opposite: It was Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual guide and a favorite of the Saudi royal family. He made this assertion in his book, How the Imported Solutions Disastrously Affected Our Ummah, an excerpt of which was published by the Saudi Gazette just a couple of months ago.
This was Qaradawi the “progressive” Muslim intellectual, much loved by Georgetown University’s burgeoning Islamic-studies programs. Like Harvard, Georgetown has been purchased into submission by tens of millions of Saudi petrodollars. In its resulting ardor to put Americans at ease about Islam, the university somehow manages to look beyond Qaradawi’s fatwas calling for the killing of American troops in Iraq and for suicide bombings in Israel. Qaradawi, they tell us, is a “moderate.” In fact, as Robert Spencer quips, if you were to say Islam and secularism cannot co-exist, John Esposito, Georgetown’s apologist-in-chief, would call you an Islamophobe; but when Qaradawi says it, no problem — according to Esposito, he’s a “reformist.”
And he’s not just any reformist. Another Qaradawi fan, Feisal Rauf, the similarly “moderate” imam behind the Ground Zero mosque project, tells us Qaradawi is also “the most well-known legal authority in the whole Muslim world today.”
Rauf is undoubtedly right about that. So it is worth letting it sink in that this most influential of Islam’s voices, the promoter of the Islamic enclaves the Brotherhood is forging throughout the West, is convinced that Islamic societies can never accept secularism. After all, secularism is nothing less than the framework by which the West defends religious freedom but denies legal and political authority to religious creeds.
It is worth understanding why Qaradawi says Islam and secularism cannot co-exist. The excerpt from his books continues: “As Islam is a comprehensive system of worship (Ibadah) and legislation (Shari’ah), the acceptance of secularism means the abandonment of Shari’ah, a denial of the divine guidance and a rejection of Allah’s injunctions. It is indeed a false claim that Shari’ah is not proper to the requirements of the present age. The acceptance of a legislation formulated by humans means a preference of humans’ limited knowledge and experiences to the divine guidance: Say! Do you know better than Allah? (Qur’an 2:140) For this reason, the call for secularism among Muslims is atheism and a rejection of Islam. Its acceptance as a basis for rule in place of Shar’ah is downright apostasy. Apostasy is an explosive accusation. On another occasion, Sheikh Qaradawi explained that “Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished.” He further acknowledged that the consensus view of these jurists, including the principal schools of both Sunni and Shiite jurisprudence is “that the apostates must be executed.”
Qaradawi’s own view is more nuanced, as he explained to the Egyptian press in 2005. This, I suppose, is where his vaunted reformist streak comes in. For private apostasy, in which a Muslim makes a secret, personal decision to renounce the tenets of Islam and quietly goes his separate way without causing a stir, the sheikh believes ostracism by the Islamic community is a sufficient penalty, with the understanding that Allah will condemn the apostate to eternal damnation at the time of his choosing. For public apostasy, however, Qaradawi stands with the overwhelming weight of Islamic authority: “The punishment …is execution.”
The sad fact, the fact no one wants to deal with but which the Ground Zero mosque debate has forced to the fore, is that Qaradawi is a moderate. So is Feisal Rauf, who endorses the Qaradawi position – the mainstream Islamic position – that Sharia is a nonnegotiable requirement. Rauf wins the coveted “moderate” designation because he strains, at least when speaking for Western consumption, to paper over the incompatibility between Sharia societies and Western societies.
Qaradawi and Rauf are “moderates” because we’ve abandoned reason. Our opinion elites are happy to paper over the gulf between “reformist” Islam and the “reformist” approval of mass-murder attacks. That’s why it matters not a whit to them that Imam Rauf refuses to renounce Hamas: If you’re going to give a pass to Qaradawi, the guy who actively promotes Hamas terrorists, how can you complain about a guy who merely refuses to condemn the terrorists?
When we are rational, we have confidence in our own frame of reference. We judge what is moderate based on a detached, commonsense understanding of what “moderate” means. We’re not rigging the outcome; we just want to know where we stand.
If we were in that objective frame of mind, we would easily see that a freedom culture requires separation of the spiritual from the secular. We would also see that Sharia — with dictates that contradict liberty and equality while sanctioning cruel punishments and holy war — is not moderate. Consequently, no one who advocates Sharia can be a moderate, no matter how well-meaning he may be, no matter how heartfelt may be his conviction that this is God’s will, and no matter how much higher on the food chain he may be than Osama bin Laden.
Instead, abandoning reason, we have deep-sixed our own frame of reference and substituted mainstream Islam’s. If that backward compass is to be our guide, then sure, Qaradawi and Rauf are moderates. But know this: When you capitulate to the authority and influence of Qaradawi and Rauf, you kill meaningful Islamic reform.
There is no moderate Islam in the mainstream of Muslim life, not in the doctrinal sense. There are millions of moderate Muslims who crave reform. Yet the fact that they seek real reform, rather than what Georgetown is content to call reform, means they are trying to invent something that does not currently exist.
Real reform can also be found in some Muslim sects. The Ahmadi, for example, hold some unorthodox views and reject violent jihad. Witness what happens: They are brutally persecuted by Muslims in Pakistan, as well as in Indonesia and other purported hubs of moderation.
Meanwhile, individual Muslim reformers are branded as apostates, meaning not only that they are discredited, but that their lives are threatened as well. The signal to other Muslims is clear: Follow the reformers and experience the same fury. As Qaradawi put it in the 2005 interview, public interview, public apostates are “the gravest danger” to Islamic society; therefore, Muslims must snuff them out, lest their reforms “spread like wildfire in a field of thorns.”
Today, “moderate Islam” is an illusion. There is hardly a spark, much less a wildfire. Making moderation real will take more than wishing upon a star. It calls for a gut check, a willingness to face down not just al-Qaeda but the Qaradawis and their Sharia campaign. It means saying: Not here! Not now! Not ever!
--Andrew C. McCarthy, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, is the author, most recently, of “The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America”

Source: http://obama-ultimablogspotcom.blogspot.com/2010/08/13-reason-why-we-should-impeach-or-not.html

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Your War Is Next

In a world full of perceptions and point of view, there are no clear delineations of good and evil, right and wrong. Lines may be drawn for taking sides but in war, there is no winning side or losing side. We all lose. We all suffer. We all believe in what we're fighting for and we all have reasons for believing the way we do. These are just people. We're all just people. People just trying to make it day by day, the only way we know how. It's too bad the effects of war aren't more tangible in our own waking lives. Maybe we'd think more about the ultimate costs of heavy artillery in countries far, far away in which the majority of our own tax paying (and war funding) populace can't find on a map. Or maybe we'd realize the fragility of life and appreciate the simple details within.

With that said, from my own standpoint, it doesn't mean I support the Taliban or accept their ultra-conservative and often violent traditions. Anything but. Their 12th century approach to religion and culture is mindblowing. Burqas and stoning, music is forbidden, girls cannot go to school, and yet they can assimilate technology enough to fly planes into buildings... Yes, it is backwards, hypocritical, and morally wrong. But how many things in our own culture can that be said about? Disagree? Argue with me. However, regardless of how you view anyone's culture, bombing it to smithereens doesn't teach them anyone about democracy or human rights. Instead, it reinforces their hatred and their misconceptions about the 'good' side of American culture. Without education and a little bit of compassion, there is no breaching the barrier of miscommunication, distrust, and a lot of bad history. There must be a new line drawn. We either continue to play these war games of avenging the cycle of atrocities, (to which our 21st century approach is no different than our own 12th century, now just revamped with titanium and computer chips), or we stop playing these ridiculous games (anyone ever realize the irony of the card game 'War'?) and take to a new level of existence.

Everyone knows the quote about 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind' but how many of us actually believe in it? Pretty soon, we'll all just be stumbling around in the dark together, punching and screaming at each other, not realizing we just added yet another stark similarity between us. I don't know what the answer is. I know we've made promises, and we're breaking them. Seems like it's a losin' either way. We got ourselves in this mess and now we can't get out. Anyone notice the recent mile marker that this is the longest American war yet? I mean, I know the majority of us on Facebook weren't alive during Vietnam, but shit, we're going for the long haul in the Middle East and we aint even protesting anymore. No one cares so long as it doesn't interfere with our own precious pointless lives. Even with this massive federal deficit...

The DOD requires $708 billion dollars to operate in 2011. And I guess a job is a job, even when you're getting shot down and blown up. Does OSHA know about this? The Peace Corps got $400 million in 2010. The federal budget for our failing education system is $ 78 billion. The states are on their own. So how does our world work where America, the land of the free and the brave, spends more money on blowing up the world than it does fixing its own problems? Check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures Make your own conclusions. I find it odd that we can't find more constructive ways of spending tax dollars. You know, like... convincing people we're really not that bad.

I know we have schools and hospitals to rebuild in both Afghanistan and Iraq since we're the ones who tore em down. We have a new government to build (is that odd or is that just me?). We're training the new non-Taliban military. The women and children are taking back their lives. Villages of people enjoying music and dance again. But I also know we're not winning the 'war'. What does war mean anyway? There aint no front-lines anymore. There's drones and ambushes. Faceless no-name bodies, and its just another casualty of what? What are we fighting for again? Opium is at its highest level of production and usage in Afghanistan. New recruits and supplies are steadily flowing over the border from so-called allies. Bodybags with our sons and daughters are still being shipped back to our hometowns. We let the parents mourn while we send freshies back over. We throw tax money at GM to reward them for fucking up and yet we can't get decent armor shields to protect the Hummers from IEDs. We're compromising on the very things we told them we wouldn't, because it's exactly why we went to Afghanistan in the first place.

Time Magazine put out an article in mid August about what happens if we leave Afghanistan, putting the emphasis mostly on what happens to the women if we leave. Interesting article if you get a chance to read. It's one of the reasons I half-heartedly supported our efforts there when we began in 2001. I mean, you know you're going in, you try to make the best of a really bad situation. That was one of the few things. There's plenty of debate about the role of democracy and women's rights. Women and girls have made major strides in gaining freedoms otherwise never granted like girls going to school or women being seen in public. Or is that true? Does it work and how long will it last? Unfortunately, as we get distracted by other wars (Iraq? Iran? Pakistan? North Korea? Libya? Sudan? Who's next?) and (as expected) lose interest in things we started and don't want to finish, details are becoming obscured. The reasons not so clear. Read!! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-chen/emtimeem-pictures-afghan_b_669862.html Even if we stuck around to help the women out, I have to ask, are we actually doing more good than bad by being there? Can we force democracy on a people who are not ready for it yet? Certainly, can we force rather than teach? Can we make them see women as equals? Can we subject a culture to our ideals when we can't uphold them ourselves? Equality? Freedom? Democracy? I'm not sure we can say we truly value those yet either.

So with all that... I don't know what is left to be said. We're in a rut? I mean, as civilized as we'd like to call ourselves, conscious beings of religious basis (God's chosen species right?), we sure have a shit load of problems to deal with. Our egos, to say the least. With all our technological advances, our ability to communicate, all our cultures and moral doctrine, we've got the world falling in on our heads with nowhere to begin. What exactly is the root of our problems? Our very nature? America has been a world power for a couple centuries now, but it can't last unless we can change. We've simply lost focus. Maybe the change needs to come from within. Power in itself... why exactly do we need to dominate and crush? Neo-colonialism has gotten us nowhere but instability with a few wealthy folks in power. The rest of us weep and sow... It's time to stop putting things in little categories, to stop taking these ridiculous sides, to stop looking for enemies within ourselves. It's time to accept that we're all in this together on this tiny speck of nothing floating in space. This is all there is and this is all we have...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot



Source: http://conceptualperception.blogspot.com/2010/08/your-war-is-next.html

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The Rauf Ruse

Others have pointed out the unusual, agenda-pushing ties and connections.

"The project isn’t much more than an idea.... the project that has inspired outrage hasn’t even begun fund-raising.... more of a publicity strategy than a reality"

And the MSM made it sound like it was opening up tomorrow!

Could it be, could it possibly be that your politics and political issues are ALL FABRICATED, Americans?

"Imam behind mosque plan remains absent from debate; Cleric’s motives are defended and criticized" by Michelle Boorstein, Washington Post | August 29, 2010

WASHINGTON — To pundits skeptical of Feisal Abdul Rauf, the New York imam is a wolf in sheep’s clothing who said he wants to build a monument to tolerance near ground zero but is actually an apologist for radical, anti-American Muslims.

I like to think of it as an agenda-pushing tool in sheep's clothing, but....

To people who have worked with him in the interfaith community, the white-bearded Sufi is a visionary for peace and progressive Islam, an American patriot who has toiled for decades to build bridges between this country and like-minded Muslims around the world.

Unquestionably, the 61-year-old Rauf is the product of some strange circumstances.

Rising to prominence after the Sept. 11, 2001, the former industrial filter salesman won a book contract and jobs representing the State Department in the Muslim world and teaching FBI agents about Islam.

Then why is he taking so much flak?

He was asked to become a member of the World Economic Forum and invited to speak with the likes of Justice Antonin Scalia and Bush adviser Karen Hughes. In just a few years, he went from an ambitious, well-liked leader of a small TriBeCa prayer group to a world player....

Yup, he is ONE of the GLOBALISTS and PART of the DECEPTION, Americans!

And LOOK at the AmeriKan MSM run with it!!

Rauf is absent from the firestorm of debate, sticking to his commitment to lecture for the State Department in Bahrain about, of all things, “how we emphasize religious tolerance in our society,’’ department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters. Rauf’s wife said he would not be available for an interview until next month.

That will keep the "Muslims did 9/11" narrative in the news and as a campaign issue, cui bono?

Now we have Muslim preachers acting as Zionist agents. Great.

Recently, he told a gathering at the US ambassador’s residence in Bahrain that the attention generated was a “sign of success’’ and could bring about greater understanding.

Rauf seems to have become a proxy for Americans’ anxiety about Islam and its legal system, sharia. The intense reaction to Rauf’s proposed project and some of his political views have laid bare America’s fragile acceptance of its Muslim minority.

You mean it's HATRED of Muslims, right?

Yeah, that brainwashing Zionist press has worked extremely well with many AmeriKans.

As for the anxiety over Muslims, there is NONE HERE!

The synagogues and temples worry me more than the mosques. What kind of organ-harvesting, pedophile, or other criminal evil is occurring behind those walls?

So far, debate has been framed around whether a $100 million, 15-story Muslim community center and mosque should be built two blocks from where Islamic radicals brought down the World Trade Center. But interviews with people who know Rauf suggest that the project isn’t much more than an idea and that Rauf’s most controversial trait may be his ambition.

While he portrays himself as someone who runs two influential interfaith nonprofits, neither one has a staff, and the project that has inspired outrage hasn’t even begun fund-raising, said Rauf’s wife and work partner, Daisy Khan.

Rabbi Leonard Schoolman, who hired Rauf in the late 1990s to teach about Islam at the Center for Religious Inquiry at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Manhattan, and who is a strong supporter of the imam, called the project “amateur hour’’ and more of a publicity strategy than a reality, meant to promote the couple’s interfaith work.

Oh, his FRIEND the RABBI, huh?!

SIGH!!!!!!!!!!!

Even with 50 media requests coming in per day, a part-time employee of the developer who owns the property in recent days has been the sole source of information.

See what the MSM is all interested in here?

Pfffft!

Yup, your election is going to be about race, immigration, Muslims, and mosques, AmeriKa -- or so says your MSM!

Enjoy!

“I don’t think either of them has the capacity or resources or anything else to pull this off,’’ said Schoolman, who accompanied Rauf to a meeting with civic officials earlier in the 2000s to support the project at a location farther uptown.

“I don’t think he has a constituency in the Muslim community,’’ said Schoolman, but he calls him an inspiring speaker and “builder of bridges.’’

Yeah, he does: an upper-crust of globalist elites that serve Zionist masters.

--more--"

Related:

"Trees are planted at ground zero

NEW YORK — Life is returning to ground zero in a tangible way. Crews yesterday began planting 16 swamp white oaks at the World Trade Center site. They are the first of nearly 400 trees to be planted around the 8-acre memorial to the nearly 2,800 people killed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The memorial plaza will essentially become a rooftop garden, built atop the deep chasm left by the destroyed twin towers (AP)."

Yeah, how could that possibly have happened?

I'm tired of worshiping the myth.

Also see:

9/11: Mosques and Memories

Morning Prayers at the Mosque

Muslim Obama Celebrates 9/11 Mosque

New York Praying to Make Mosque Go Away

Well, some things will go away:

"Suspect in hate crime taken to psych ward" by Associated Press | August 28, 2010

NEW YORK — A college student accused of slashing a taxi driver because he is a Muslim was moved from jail to a psychiatric ward, corrections officials said yesterday.

Michael Enright, 21, of Brewster, N.Y., was accused of using a folding knife to slash the face and neck of Ahmed H. Sharif, an immigrant from Bangladesh, on Tuesday night after asking whether he is a Muslim. Enright was moved from the Rikers Island jail to Bellevue Hospital on Thursday night, said Correction Department spokesman Stephen Morello.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said it was not clear why he had been moved. Kelly said authorities see the attack as an isolated incident rather than evidence of a trend in anti-Muslim crimes.

Investigators obtained a warrant to search Enright’s six journals, but did not find anti-Muslim statements. Kelly described the journals as a chronicle of his time in Afghanistan. Enright traveled there in April for a senior video project at the School of Visual Arts. As part of the work, Enright spent time embedded with US troops.

The handwriting was difficult to decipher, and Kelly said officials have not done an in-depth analysis of the journals, but a cursory look did not reveal a motive or a deep-rooted racism.

The journals do, however, detail Enright’s drinking, and there was some indication that he had been in Alcoholics Anonymous, Kelly said. But it has not been determined whether he has a serious drinking problem. Police said he was drunk during the attack.

As if that makes it excusable.

Ever notice AmeriKans always holler alcohol when caught doing evil?

Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, who teaches politics and public administration at Dhaka University in Bangladesh, said the assault was at odds with American values.

Well, not really. AmeriKa invades people over lies and loves war.

Those ARE our values these days!

“We worry more because there are many Bangladeshi taxi drivers,’’ he said. “They behave as patriotic American nationals more than they consider themselves Muslims or Bangladeshis. Such violence against them is not desirable, and we believe all believing in democracy and liberty will condemn it.’’

I worry about all Muslims in AmeriKa.

--more--"

I will give you ONE GUESS what is MISSING from my Boston Globe report!

"[Enright] accused the arresting officers of violating his constitutional rights and falsely claimed to be Jewish....

And now they LOCKED HIM UP in the INSANE WARD so he CAN'T TALK!

The Anti-Defamation League said it had been tracking "an intensified level of anti-Muslim bigotry" in public forums over the past few months....

"The mood in the country, in general, is one of lack of civility and anger and rage," said ADL director Abraham Foxman. "When you raise the rhetoric on hate, there is always potential for violence."

Yeah, thanks to you and yours (the Muslim-hating, war-promoting, agenda-pushing MSM papers), Abe!

And haven't the Muslims EVER DONE ANYTHING GOOD, readers?

"Exhibit seeks to reshape view of Muslim heritage with history of advances" by Christopher Torchia, Associated Press | August 29, 2010

ISTANBUL — For generations, the lore of “One Thousand and One Nights’’ helped shape Western notions about Muslim culture. The collection of tales described an exotic world of harems and flying carpets, Sinbad and monsters, Aladdin and the jinn, Ali Baba and the 40 thieves.

And who controls the means of mass media in the western world?

It's no surprise Muslims have been portrayed in such ways.

Also see: The Pentagon's Million-Dollar Magic Carpet Ride

As for the thieves, try Israel.

Now an exhibition about innovation in Muslim civilization seeks to highlight what organizers say is an overshadowed period of history, a “Golden Age’’ in which advances in engineering, medicine, and architecture laid groundwork for Western progress from the Renaissance until modern times.

BLASPHEMY!

In a play on the old stories, it is titled “1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World.’’

The show seeks to be strictly academic, and shuns political or religious pronouncements. But the robust response of many young Muslims suggests a thirst for cultural pride against a contemporary backdrop of conflict and suspicion between the West and Muslim countries.

Not on this site!

“Originally, it was aimed at the Western public,’’ said Salim Al-Hassani, organizer of the British exhibition and an emeritus professor of mechanical engineering at Manchester University. “But we found that when people from the Muslim world, when they see it, they get fired up, especially the young people who are in search of identity.’’

Yeah, AmeriKans couldn't give a s***; they are more concerned with the programming on the Joob Toob.

When does the football game start?

It is a slick production, with an introductory film featuring a Harry Potter-like fantasy sequence with Sir Ben Kingsley, the Oscar-winning actor, as a mysterious figure who dispels three skeptical students in a library of preconceptions about the past.

I'm sorry, what did he win an OSCAR for, MSM?

Why the OMISSION?

The centerpiece of the show is a replica of an elaborate “elephant’’ clock that symbolized a multicultural spirit and pioneered modern automation and robotics.

It used Greek water-powered technology and features the figures of an Indian elephant, an Egyptian phoenix, a Persian carpet, Chinese dragons, and men in Arabian dress. It was designed 800 years ago by Al-Jazari, a Muslim engineer in what is today southeast Turkey.

Other giants of innovation during the 1,000-year period that began in the seventh century include physician Al-Zahrawi, whose innovations shaped European surgery, and Fatima Al-Fihri, whose multisubject institute of learning, with no gender restrictions, laid foundations for the modern university.

“There is a perception that Islam was always backward and made no contribution to the world of science,’’ said visitor Sule Seda Tezer, who was especially pleased to note the high profile of women in the displays.

And YOU KNOW WHO I BLAME, America!!

“The West has a phobia about Islam,’’ she said. “I think there is an effort to break the phobia and build better ties between the East and West.’’

That's because our societies have been soaked and steeped in Zionist inculcation and indoctrination all these years.

The exhibit has interactive features designed to attract children and showcases research in optics, music, and algebra from Muslim civilizations that once encompassed parts of Europe and ranged as far as China.

Yes, they also had an empire at one time.

One curiosity is a replica of the flying machine of Abbas Ibn Firnas, who constructed a winged framework near Cordoba, Spain, and flew briefly before injuring himself. Centuries later, Leonardo da Vinci worked on his own flying designs.

The MUSLIMS INVENTED the AIRPLANE, not da Vinci?

WHY DID MY HISTORY BOOKS LIE TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In Istanbul, at least 6,000 people a day file into the exhibition tent. The display coincides with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, and the tent stays open until 3 a.m. for a nocturnal crowd. The exhibit is free.

What?

FREE?

The exhibition had a successful run at the Science Museum in London earlier this year and will move to the New York Hall of Science after ending its seven-week Istanbul run Oct. 5.

Which will bring ANOTHER OCCASION to PROTEST MUSLIMS in New York -- JUST BEFORE the ELECTIONS!

--more--"

Related: Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to 2010 Congressional Candidates

Think of it as a VOTER'S GUIDE! Anyone on the list doesn't get the vote.

Source: http://rockthetruth2.blogspot.com/2010/08/rauf-ruse.html

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Burning Korans = Not A Good Idea

One of my readers recently asked me how Moroccans were reacting to the controversy over the proposed mosque/Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero. Honestly, no one has mentioned it since I've been back in Morocco, and I haven't brought the subject up. But I have been following the ruckus online and have been disappointed with the way the debate (shouting match?) has developed.

Since my audience is generally Western, let me start with something unfamiliar: a video making the rounds in the Francophone Muslim world that a number of my Moroccan Facebook friends have posted on Facebook.

The video begins with footage of Muslims dressed in Western style, cheering Western sports, and playing Western-inspired game shows like "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" while these words appear (in French):

While we sing, dance, eat, and imitate their civilization...

...look what's happening in their civilization.

It then flashes to a CNN interview with Pastor Terry Jones, whose church has decided to burn Korans in commemoration of 9/11 and protest against Islam. As the Facebook posts testify, this is far from helpful to relations between Islam and the West. The American interviewer is obviously hostile to such a stupid idea, and Pastor Jones cannot respond satisfactorily to his line of questioning. More text appears:

While a Muslim scholar does his duty...

The video then cuts to footage of Khalid Arrachid, an Islamic scholar who was apparently jailed for "defending the prophet in the Muhammed cartoon controversy". I can't find anything online to confirm he was jailed, but in this video he describes the Danish cartoons of Muhammed and then cites a Koranic passage about being "severe with the disbelievers" to demand violence against those who mock the prophet. He decries the shame and disgrace Muslims suffer, calls Muslims to show their manhood and defend the prophet, mocks the "effeminacy" of Europeans and their "freedom of expression", and laments the lack of visible leadership of Muslim nations.

After lamenting the imprisonment of this Islamic scholars for "doing his duty", the above video ends with seemingly threatening footage of a man with a gun trained on someone off screen. The last words to appear are:

Islam is a religion of peace but not of humiliation.

It's no viral sensation, but the video does have over 11,000 views now.

A Facebook group entitled "tous contre l'acte de bruler le coran le 11 septembre 2010" ("Everyone Against Burning the Koran on September 11, 2010") was started in opposition to this proposed Koran burning. Currently it has 13, 799 members. The comments on the group's page range from exhortations to defend Islam's honor a la Khalid Arrachid to quotes of Koranic ayas (verses) to prophecies that Pastor Jones and company will burn in hell to pleas for non-violence because violence would only confirm American stereotypes about Islam. It's a mixed bag, but at least some of it is quite troubling.

I draw a few observations from this Facebook activity:

1) Moroccan Teenagers Have a Liberalized, Western Outlook
Moroccan teenagers' desire to defend their religious tradition is only one of their many interests and concerns, and a good number of them actually conflict with the message of the video. The majority of items they post on their Facebook walls represent the Westernizing tendency the video decries: Western sports stars and celebrities, American music videos, and quizzes about love and sexiness. They may strongly and defensively identify as Muslim, but the way their interests and concerns are unconstrained ideologically or legally is not that different from the situation of Westerner teenagers. As time goes on, these tendencies will only strengthen. The Arab world is westernizing faster than many realize.

2) Islam Currently Has Illiberal, Violent Tendencies
The maker of the YouTube video obviously does realize how quickly this westernization is happening, and he is opposed to it. Khalid Arrachid is not alone when he opines on the victimized state of Muslims, the effeminate nature of Western culture, the manly necessity of defending Islam and its prophet, and the possible violence such a defense will require. Now his cries may fall on deaf ears among middle and upper class Moroccan youth because they are financially and politically secure, but they still are deeply angered by insults to Islam and to Mohammed. Moreover, immigrants in Europe (and to a lesser extent the United States), citizens of less developed Muslim countries, and lower class Moroccan citizens often do not share that security, and so their anger is more likely to express itself violently.

3) There Are Legitimate Questions About Islam In Pluralist Societies
These phenomena raise serious questions about how such an Islam can fit into pluralist, secular societies. Those on the right tend to ignore the nuances of these questions as they raise voices and money in crude and xenophobic populism. They gloss over cherished American values like religious freedom, freedom of association, and property rights. But those on the left similarly ignore the illiberal, violent tendencies of Islam as they work themselves into an indignantly righteous rage against the other side's crude, xenophobic populism. They fail to understand how religion works, the historical development of Western political-religious involvement, and, in their intense emotional obsession with this moment in time, the broader sweep of the complicated process of assimilation into the American mainstream.

If Catholics in America are any indication, the prognosis for a future assimilation of Muslims into an American consensus is good. Pre-Vatican II and pre-JFK, there were some very serious questions about whether Catholics, with their illiberal tendencies, could function well in a pluralist democracy. But after theological recognition of pluralist democracy and after a charismatic leader who made necessary concessions to an already existent American consensus on religion and politics, Catholics gradually became a surprisingly normal and uncontroversial part of our nation's political and religious mosaic.

Protesting an Islamic cultural center directed by a Muslim leader who goes on speaking tours for the U.S. government and burning Korans are most definitely not intelligent, serious ways to engage these questions, but even if the overly mediatized, populist right cannot address them as they should, they remain important questions. And until they are resolved as they were with Catholicism half a century ago, they will continue to inspire inarticulate and emotional resistance to Muslims.

4) There Is A Denial About The Islamic Inspiration For Terrorism
Partially as a reaction to the hateful and xenophobic reaction against Muslims as a whole, both secular Westerners and Muslims comfortable in liberal, secular society tend to ignore that attacks such as 9/11 are in fact inspired by a certain interpretation of Islam. Instead, there is a tendency among the secular elite to attribute terrorism's motivation solely to economic and political considerations.

While European colonialism of the Arab world (including Zionism), cozy relationships between the United States and Arab governments, and continuing difficult economic circumstances play important roles in Islamic terrorism, the religious motivation cannot just be swept aside. This form of terrorism is inspired, justified and praised by Muslims with a certain historical and religious hermeneutic...a hermeneutic that will not just go away with a wave of the magic wand of secular liberalism.

Of course, neither can Islam be treated as a monolithic entity, as too many conservative commentators tend to do. Only a small minority of Muslims share Al-Qaeda's ideology, although a good many may sympathize at least in part. But that doesn't detach Al-Qaeda's hermeneutic and actions from the Islamic tradition. "Islam is a religion of peace but not of humiliation", a mantra shared by most Muslims, necessarily implies violence and resistance towards liberal, pluralist Western governments at some point in time.

Since the Enlightenment, for better or for worse, religion in the Western world has been viewed more or less as an internalized set of personal convictions and beliefs. This necessarily conflicts with a religion like Islam that is less focused around orthodoxy (correct belief) than around orthopraxis (correct action). European Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan has proposed an interesting solution to the conflict. Time will tell if his or some other synthesis will prevail in the Muslim community. In the meantime, non-Muslim Westerners are unlikely to have any positive influence in those debates, but, at the very least, we can recognize that they are happening.

Source: http://moroccandispatches.blogspot.com/2010/08/burning-korans-not-good-idea.html

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A Ramadan where old meets new

DOHA // This is not your grandfather’s Ramadan.

Thousands of visitors strolled through the Doha Summer Fun Park one evening this week, stopping to nibble on cotton candy and ice cream, check out some Islam-themed television serials or watch their children smash into each other on bumper cars.

Organised each year by the Qatar Tourism Authority, the amusement park is larger than ever in 2010, and starting this year, has been extended to include Ramadan and Eid.

It is all part of a new, more festive commemoration of the holy month.

“When I was little we played simple games for Ramadan, or packed up a picnic and went to the beach,” said Hamad Salman, a Doha native and marketing executive for Qatar Petroleum. He had come to the fun park with his teenage son and daughter for the second time, and planned to come again.

“This is much better,” added Salman, looking around the colourful, brightly lit, 12,000 square metre space, children shouting and laughing as they were spun around, up and down. “All these games and rides make a big difference.”

Droves of Qataris and other Doha residents attend similarly lively affairs late into the night across the city, from malls to hotels to cultural centres. Gondolania, the indoor amusement park at Villaggio mall, has extended its opening hours past 2am, so kids can bowl and ride go-karts and roller coasters late into the night.

Qatar’s only water park is set to open its doors in the coming weeks, and host Ramadan events. Fanar, the Qatar Islamic Cultural Centre, has organised an evening to teach expatriates more about Ramadan and its traditions this weekend.

Doha’s four- and five-star hotels are hosting lavish nightly iftar and suhoor events, some with Egyptian dancers, Lebanese bands, henna tattoos, falconry exhibitions and up to 50 dishes for tasting. As part of its Ramadan celebrations, the W Hotel Doha is giving away airline tickets that enable the holder to fly anywhere in the world on Qatar Airways.

The fun park is one of the more popular events, with some 4,000 nightly visitors to the cavernous Doha Exhibition Centre. “Breaking away from past events, which were held in shopping malls, Doha Summer Fun Park takes full advantage of the space,” said Lahdan al Mohannadi, head of internal exhibitions at the Qatar Tourism Auhtority and lead organiser of the fun park. “In addition, this year the event is free for all.”

Buoyant Arab and carnival music fills the space. At one end is a souk, filled with shops offering Yemeni honey, leather purses, perfumes, jewellery and more. At the other a food court offers doughnuts, hot dogs, pizza, fried chicken, and shawarma. In between are a couple of dozen rides, including a choo-choo train and caterpillar coaster for toddlers, and dodgems, video games and a dozen more active rides for the bigger kids.

The al Mannai brothers – Hamad and Ahmed, 10, and Mohammad, 13 – enjoyed the Tilt-a-Whirl so much they got right back on and did it again. “That was a lot of fun,” said Mohammed as the trio walked away dizzily.

These events, most of which aim to entertain the whole family, may be bringing a sense of community back to Ramadan in Qatar. “We’ve lost some of our traditions, of course,” said Moza al Malki.

A family therapist and commentator, she has seen Ramadan change several times in recent decades, from more to less strict and back again. “But nowadays we are going back to some of these old traditions.”

For the first couple weeks after the fun park opened, on-stage performances included clowns, magic shows and games. Starting with Ramadan, the stage has been re-made into a traditional Qatari house with garden, and programming includes a series of plays, a theatre group performing folklore tales and a Syrian band playing traditional music.

“Several new activities were added to instill traditional values during the holy month,” said Mr al Mohannadi. The fun park and Doha’s Heritage Village are both hosting Garangou (also known as Karankou) events for families.

Garangou is a traditional Gulf children’s festival held on the 14th day of Ramadan. Children will play heritage games and sing traditional songs, along with other activities and competitions.

“We are staying together more, families going out together,” said al Malki. “Also generosity, giving food to our neighbours, this is also returning.”

In Al Mansoura, on the edge of Doha, the W Hotel Doha and the Islamic Bank of Qatar have set up an air-conditioned tent to provide iftar to the underprivileged.

More than 150 male labourers turn up daily to break their fast with dates, laban, fruits, rice, bread, chicken and lamb.

“These are the people that really need the full meal,” said a spokesperson for Islamic Bank of Qatar, which has done the charity tent for three years running. “A lot of the staff from the bank also volunteer – everybody pitches in.”

Back at the Doha Exhibition Centre, Mr Salman watched his children on the City Hopper ride. “Ready to come down yet?” he shouted to his son, whizzing past overhead.

The teenager smiled and shook his head.

------
Ran with photos in the 20 August 2010 The National, www.thenational.ae

Source: http://queondaguero.blogspot.com/2010/08/ramadan-where-old-meets-new.html

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Flood money or blood money?

While the US and UK pour money into the human disaster that is Pakistan, its Arab Islamic neighbours have not, on the whole, done so. Neither group comes out of the situation particularly well.

The UK has put in 23 times more than Iran and 15 times more than the Saudis....a belated recognition by the Government that it screwed up the week before last. The Saudis have given nothing because Pakistan's President Zardari is a Shia muslim, which is not quite their colour. And as most of you know already, the Saudi royal family lives in obscene and corrupt luxury while their subjects muddle along on not very much. As for Ahmadinnejhad's Iran, well - Pakistanis are a useful recruiting source for ignorant suicide bombers, but they're not short of those. And anyway, their priority right now is building a nuclear bomb with which to wipe the Israeli stain from the surface of the Earth....that's assuming all those short skirts don't cause a deadly earthquake there before then anyway.

They're not a nice lot on the whole in this region. Good at preaching to the West about its decadence, but not good on the morality/ethics/fairness/21st century dimensions. One chap (featured in several papers and on various sites yesterday) arrived from Iraq as an 'asylum seeker' in 2005. Since then he has married an English woman, sired two kids, committed four criminal offences, and tried on several occasions to pervert the course of his umpteen appeals against deportation. Thanks to smart lawyers (paid for by us) a tribunal last week granted him the right to stay in Britain.

You can only ask why and move on, really - to asking why the hell we went into Iraq in the first place. True to US form, Eye-Rack is now electorally unpopular and so must be ceremoniously dumped. Thus the wet-dream for Iranian insurgents begins, with every day bringing more and more bombs detonated in order to bring the one true God to the people. Sorry, the one true version of the one true God to the people.

The West has been stupid (Bush), vainglorious (Blair), hypocritical (Brown), naive (Cameron) and weak (all of them, especially Obama) in its 'approach' to this hornets' nest. Now it promises to get tough in Afghanistan while clarifying for every opponent the exact date upon which it will do a Pontius Pilate. Our standing in the Muslim world is at rock bottom - which I don't mind because I see that on the whole as a compliment: what I object to is why we're seen as vermin - the perceived total lack of spine and ruthlessness. For these are (as I've written on endless occasions in the past) the only thing that matter to a fundamentalist, misogynist, insanely controlling mindset....and the only things they respect.

We are going to have to deal with these nazis sooner or later. And opening our arms to a Turkey in the EU is not the way to do it.

Source: http://nbyslog.blogspot.com/2010/08/flood-money-or-blood-money.html

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The Future Of Islam In America

By Eboo Patel
POSTED AT 11:04 AM ET, 08/13/2010
Courtesy Of "Newsweek - The Washington Post"

Dear readers: This post is part of a series on Patheos.com - The Future of Religion. You can read other related posts here.


The future of Islam in America will turn on two things: whether Islam becomes a big tent religion, and whether Muslims view their religion as an inspiration to contribute to America. Call this the "Big Tent Citizen Islam" question.

Big tent Islam means that Muslims from a range of geographies, ethnicities, theologies and intensities all consider themselves part of a single community whose similarities outweigh their differences. It means Sunnis and Shias, sufis and salafis, African-American converts and Arab immigrants, five-times-a-day-prayers and once-a-year-mosque-goers have two words for each other: fellow Muslim.

The alternative to big tent Islam is civil war Islam. We see civil war Islam in the news reports of intra-Muslim violence in places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. No American Muslim wants civil war Islam here.

Citizen Islam encourages Muslims to vote, join the PTA, lead volunteer projects, join interfaith coalitions, run for office - do the whole Toquevilian American participatory thing.

The alternative to Citizen Islam is Bubble Islam. Bubble Islam seeks to build a set of institutions around Muslims - mosques, schools, community centers, etc - that separates them from American public life. The most famous community to succeed at this is the Amish.

Maintaining the institutions of the bubble is very very hard. And while the Rated R aspects of American culture are troubling to many religious communities, there isn't a nation on earth that allows its citizens to have a greater impact on its civic, cultural and political life than this nation. Muslims have come to realize that at the core of American greatness is its invitation to citizens to participate. Muslims want to be a part of that rather than apart from it.

Big Tent Citizen Islam has slowly but surely become the dominant trend in American Muslim life over the past twenty years. The controversy over Cordoba House/Park51 will strengthen and accelerate this trend. There's nothing like urgency to focus a community's attention.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Daisy Khan - the visionaries behind Cordoba House - have long advocated for a Big Tent Citizen Islam. You can hear it in Imam Feisals writings and sermons, and you can see it in a range of programs Daisy has organized. Conservative dimensions of the American Muslim community sometimes dismissed these efforts as too liberal. Why do their programs and prayer circles include Muslims from so many different backgrounds, including those who you rarely see at the mosque? Why are they spending so much time giving talks in churches and synagogues, building relationships with interfaith and civic groups?

But now that Imam Feisal and Daisy are being vilified in a way that can only be described as Islamophobic, Muslims from all theological persuasions are coming to their aid. Theological conservatives are pointing to Imam Feisal and saying, "That's my guy," - not because they agree on the interpretation of the faith, but because they consider themselves part of the same community. The big tent around American Islam just grew a bit larger and a lot stronger.

And now that Muslims all over the country have been put on alert that their mosque or community center or prayer circle may face ugly opposition - indeed that anti-Muslim rhetoric may make good electoral politics for some candidates this November and beyond - their commitment to civic and political engagement just grew as well.

So welcome to the American scene, Big Tent Citizen Islam. Please stand alongside your cousins, Big Tent Citizen Christianity and Big Tent Citizen Judaism - both of them know something of what you have been through. Congratulations on becoming an American religion.

By Eboo Patel  |  August 13, 2010; 11:04 AM ET                             

Source: http://freethoughtmanifesto.blogspot.com/2010/08/future-of-islam-in-america.html

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Obama fights for election win – in 2012

President Barack Obama is going about the nation partaking in fundraising events to help come up with cash for would-be Democratic allies seeking election (or re-election) come Nov. 2.

Yet I can’t help but wonder if Obama’s real concern is the next electoral cycle – the one in which he will have to seek re-election. Presuming, of course, that he intends to run for a second term as president.

OBAMA IS GOING around describing Republicans as the party of “No We Can’t,” claiming they are for nothing but obstructionism of policies that would move the nation forward – solely because he is the person making those suggestions.

Even his rhetoric with regards to a New York local issue-turned-national (a mosque that would be part of an Islamic community center located just a few blocks from the site of the one-time World Trade Center) seems meant to portray the GOP partisans as the ones out of touch with a sense of decency.

Now I know the Republican activists are getting all worked up. Various polls show they are the ones who are eager for Election Day to come so they can cast ballots in ways meant to show their opposition to Obama being president.

Of course, it’s not like most of those people were ever Obama supporters to begin with. In fact, various polls taken by the Gallup Organization during the past year show that Obama’s support among white people and black people remains at about the same level.

IT IS THE Latino segment of the population that has seen a drop, and that has nothing to do with anything the Republican partisans would view as favorable. Latinos are losing faith in Obama because many feel the president isn’t standing up enough to the GOP hardcore that seems eager to demonize everyone who isn’t like them.

Could it be that by defending the right of anyone of any religion to have a facility in Manhattan near the World Trade Center site, Obama is trying to appease the people who fit into that non-Republican group of people?

I know there will be losses in numbers following Nov. 2. It is standard that after a president gets elected, his opposition gets its act together and bolsters its numbers somewhat. When combined with the unique aspects of an Obama presidency that caused some people in our society to have their hangups about him from Day One, the losses may be larger than usual.

I’m sure that on a certain level, Obama and his aides are looking to minimize the losses suffered by nominal Democratic allies as much as possible.

BUT I REALLY believe the focus for the president is more on 2012.

For a part of me feels that he is confident that if the GOP partisans were to get enough control to start pushing through a blatantly partisan political agenda, the end result is going to be a populace that gets so turned off that it views him more favorably when he seeks re-election.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., is trying these days to resuscitate his political reputation by trying to make himself a leader of the political movement against Obama-style politics. Yet Gingrich had the power once, and his place in history is not a positive influence.

If anything, people like Gingrich are the GOP worst enemy whenever they open their mouths. Because they confirm that Obama isn’t off-base when he says the conservative element is not in the mainstream of our society.

HOW ELSE TO explain Gingrich’s comments on a Fox News Channel program this weekend, where he tried trashing the idea of anything affiliated with Islam near the World Trade Center by comparing it to “Nazis…put(ting) up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington.”

Comparing all German people today to Nazis would be about as absurd as saying that all U.S. Christians are sympathetic to the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan, after all, thinks it is a Christian group promoting “American” values, yet sensible people realize that is ridiculous. Just like they ought to realize how ridiculous it is to think that Islam and its supporters worldwide are somehow reflective of the individuals who were involved in the activity of Sept. 11, 2001, and that there's no legitimate reason to restrict Muslims from any part of New York.

If anything, Gingrich is showing he hasn’t changed much. So why think that he wouldn’t blow it again like he did back in 1995 and 1996, if he were given any serious influence next year.

Insofar as the issue of an Islamic community center near the World Trade Center site is concerned, it is one that many people will come to see as no big deal, once we get past the campaign season and the need for conservative ideologues to rant and scream about the issue for partisan political purposes.

WHICH MEANS WE may well come to see that Obama’s rhetoric last week about the issue wasn’t completely off-base, and that the Democratic Party officials who desperately tried to back away from it (particularly Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.) should have relaxed instead.

When the Republican partisans try to continue such rhetoric for the 2012 electoral cycle, I wonder if there’s a very good chance that the majority of us will be so tired of it by then that we may very well decide to vote against it by casting a ballot for a second Obama term as president.

-30-

Source: http://chicagoargus.blogspot.com/2010/08/obama-fights-for-election-win-in-2012.html

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REVOLUTION! THE ONLY GOOD COMMUNIST IS A DEAD COMMUNIST!

FORWARD THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION!

I have worked for a Second American Revolution since 2005 when I finally realized that compromise with the Left was impossible because they had become dominated by the Communists who had taken over the Democrat Party lock, stock and barrel.

This came after a long socialist evolution in American politics going back about 100 years. The election of Barack Obama only sealed the deal. Our federal government has become socialist, and the American Armed Forces in which I served for twenty years have become the defenders of socialism.

I think revolution is the only option for American Patriots. I realize that a majority of American do not favor taking up arms in defense of liberty at this point - They still think elections will rollback the Red Tide. It won't. The Communists (who call themselves "Progressives") also control Academia, Media and Business. The only means of restoration of the republic is by force of arms, since many thousands of hardcore socialists can only be removed from public life by brute force.

American Patriots are already revolutionists, this is in our DNA from the First American Revolution and the U.S. Civil War, but we must become radical republicans and rid our country of its Leftist ruling elite in the same ruthless way the French revolutionists rid their country of their reactionaries in 1789 to 1794.

It is well said that the U.S. Constitution is not a suicide pact.

Therefore, we must make total war on all types of socialists who attempt to hide behind that great document and infest our body politic. When these parasites are terminated with extreme prejudice and our Homeland is secure once again, we must launch a counter attack against all forms of world socialism and ally ourselves with the Freedom Fighters of the planet.

The Communists declared war on Freedom in 1848.

The time has come for Freedom to declare war on Communism.

The only good Communist is a dead Communist.

--Sam Adams

SOURCE

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Consequences of Obama's mosque meddling

Where it has become the dominant faith, it has been intolerant of rivals, especially Christianity, the faith of the Crusaders.
By no means are all or most Muslims fanatics of the Osama bin Laden variety, but many are uncompromising in their belief that, once their faith becomes the majority faith in a community or society, Muslims should write the rules and Muslims should make the laws.
And if Americans believe that Islam is consistent with pluralism, ecumenism and a belief in the equality of all religions and all lifestyles, we are headed for what the Chinese call "interesting times."
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=192133

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