And, I'm not just saying that because I agree with my favorite columnist wholeheartedly. Charles Krauthammer is the best of the best because nobody on either side of the ideological spectrum can paint a more perfect and concise picture of reality than he can. Even George Will, who many consider to be the best Conservative columnist in America is not Krauthammer's equal when it comes to taking the pulse of the people on American politics.
Enjoy--
NY DAILY NEWS
Democrats play the bigotry card: The strategy will fail badly in November
Charles Krauthammer
Friday, August 27th 2010, 4:00 AM
Liberalism under siege is an ugly sight indeed. Just yesterday it was all hope and change and returning power to the people. But the people have proved so disappointing. Their recalcitrance has, in only 19 months, turned the predicted 40-year liberal ascendancy (James Carville) into a full retreat. Ah, the people, the little people, the small-town people, the "bitter" people, as Barack Obama in an unguarded moment once memorably called them, clinging "to guns or religion or" - this part is less remembered - "antipathy toward people who aren't like them."
That's a polite way of saying: Clinging to bigotry. And promiscuous charges of bigotry are precisely how our current rulers and their vast media auxiliary react to an obstreperous citizenry that insists on incorrect thinking.
-- Resistance to the vast expansion of government power, intrusiveness and debt, as represented by the Tea Party movement? Why, racist resentment toward a black President.
-- Disgust and alarm with the federal government's unwillingness to curb illegal immigration, as crystallized in the Arizona law? Nativism.
-- Opposition to the most radical redefinition of marriage in human history, as expressed in Proposition 8 in California? Homophobia.
-- Opposition to a 15-story Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero? Islamophobia.
Now we know why the country has become "ungovernable," last year's excuse for the Democrats' failure of governance: Who can possibly govern a nation of racist, nativist, homophobic Islamophobes?
Note what connects these issues. In every one, liberals have lost the argument in the court of public opinion. Majorities - often lopsided majorities - oppose President Obama's social-democratic agenda (e.g., the stimulus, Obamacare), support the Arizona law, oppose gay marriage and reject a Ground Zero mosque.
What's a liberal to do? Pull out the bigotry charge, the trump that preempts debate and gives no credit to the seriousness and substance of the contrary argument. The most venerable of these trumps is, of course, the race card. When the Tea Party arose, a spontaneous, leaderless and perfectly natural (and traditionally American) reaction to the vast expansion of government intrinsic to the President's proudly proclaimed transformational agenda, the liberal commentariat cast it as a mob of angry white yahoos disguising their antipathy to a black President by cleverly speaking in economic terms.
Then came Arizona and SB 1070. It seems impossible for the left to believe that people of good will could hold that: (a) illegal immigration should be illegal, (b) the federal government should not hold border enforcement hostage to comprehensive reform, i.e., amnesty, (c) every country has the right to determine the composition of its immigrant population.
As for Proposition 8, is it so hard to see why people might believe that a single judge overturning the will of 7 million voters is an affront to democracy? And that seeing merit in retaining the structure of the most ancient and fundamental of all social institutions is something other than an alleged hatred of gays - particularly since the opposite-gender requirement has characterized virtually every society in all the millennia until just a few years ago?
And now the Ground Zero mosque. The intelligentsia is near unanimous that the only possible grounds for opposition is bigotry toward Muslims. This smug attribution of bigotry to two-thirds of the population hinges on the insistence on a complete lack of connection between Islam and radical Islam, a proposition that dovetails perfectly with the Obama administration's pretense that we are at war with nothing more than "violent extremists" of inscrutable motive and indiscernible belief. Those who reject this as both ridiculous and politically correct (an admitted redundancy) are declared Islamophobes, the ad hominem du jour.
It is a measure of the corruption of liberal thought and the collapse of its self-confidence that, finding itself so widely repudiated, it resorts reflexively to the cheapest race-baiting (in a colorful variety of forms). Indeed, how can one reason with a nation of pitchfork-wielding mobs brimming with "antipathy toward people who aren't like them" - blacks, Hispanics, gays and Muslims - a nation that is, as Michelle Obama once put it succinctly, "just downright mean"?
The Democrats are going to get beaten badly in November. Not just because the economy is ailing. And not just because Obama overread his mandate in governing too far left. But because a comeuppance is due the arrogant elites whose undisguised contempt for the great unwashed prevents them from conceding a modicum of serious thought to those who dare oppose them.
letters@charleskrauthammer.com
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/columnists/krauthammer/index.html?page=1#ixzz0xuEcu5s7
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Mosque building and the fact track to terrorism
Source: Beach Bum from getbig.com
JUNE 30, 2003 11:20 A.M.
Wahhabism & Islam in The U.S.
Two-faced policy fosters danger.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the text of testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security on Thursday, June 26, 2003.
Chairman Kyl, other distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for your invitation to appear here today.
I come before this body to describe how adherents of Wahhabism, the most extreme, separatist, and violent form of Islam, and the official sect in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, have come to dominate Islam in the U.S.
Islam is a fairly new participant at the “big table” of American religions. The Muslim community only became a significant element in our country’s life in the 1980s. Most “born Muslims,” as opposed to those who “converted” — a term Muslims avoid, preferring “new Muslims” — had historically been immigrants from Pakistan and India who followed traditional, peaceful, mainstream Islam.
With the growth of the Islamic community in America, there was no “Islamic establishment” in the U.S. — in contrast with Britain, France, and Germany, the main Western countries with significant Islamic minorities. Historically, traditional scholars have been a buffer against extremism in Islam, and for various sociological and demographic reasons, American Islam lacked a stratum of such scholars. The Wahhabi ideological structure in Saudi Arabia perceived this as an opportunity to fill a gap — to gain dominance over an Islamic community in the West with immense potential for political and social influence.
But the goals of this operation, which was largely successful, were multiple.
First, to control a significant group of Muslim believers.
Second, to use the Muslim community in the U.S. to pressure U.S. government and media, in the formulation of policy and in perceptions about Islam. This has included liaison meetings, “sensitivity” sessions and other public activities with high-level administration officials, including the FBI director, that we have seen since September 11.
Third, to advance the overall Wahhabi agenda of “jihad against the world” — an extremist campaign to impose the Wahhabi dispensation on the global Islamic community, as well as to confront the other religions. This effort has included the establishment in the U.S. of a base for funding, recruitment, and strategic/tactical support of terror operations in the U.S. and abroad.
Wahhabi-Saudi policy has always been two-faced: that is, at the same time as the Wahhabis preach hostility and violence against non-Wahhabi Muslims, they maintain a policy of alliance with Western military powers — first Britain, then the U.S. and France — to assure their control over the Arabian Peninsula.
At the present time, Shia and other non-Wahhabi Muslim community leaders estimate that 80 percent of American mosques are under Wahhabi control. This does not mean 80 percent of American Muslims support Wahhabism, although the main Wahhabi ideological agency in America, the so-called Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has claimed that some 70 percent of American Muslims want Wahhabi teaching in their mosques.1This is a claim we consider unfounded.
Rather, Wahhabi control over mosques means control of property, buildings, appointment of imams, training of imams, content of preaching — including faxing of Friday sermons from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — and of literature distributed in mosques and mosque bookstores, notices on bulletin boards, and organizational solicitation. Similar influence extends to prison and military chaplaincies, Islamic elementary and secondary schools (academies), college campus activity, endowment of academic chairs and programs in Middle East studies, and most notoriously, charities ostensibly helping Muslims abroad, many of which have been linked to or designated as sponsors of terrorism.
The main organizations that have carried out this campaign are the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which originated in the Muslim Students’ Association of the U.S. and Canada (MSA), and CAIR. Support activities have been provided by the American Muslim Council (AMC), the American Muslim Alliance (AMA), the Muslim American Society (MAS), the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, its sister body the International Institute of Islamic Thought, and a number of related groups that I have called “the Wahhabi lobby.” ISNA operates at least 324 mosques in the U.S. through the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). These groups operate as an interlocking directorate.
Both ISNA and CAIR, in particular, maintain open and close relations with the Saudi government — a unique situation, in that no other foreign government directly uses religion as a cover for its political activities in the U.S. For example, notwithstanding support by the American Jewish community for the state of Israel, the government of Israel does not intervene in synagogue life or the activities of rabbinical or related religious bodies in America.
According to saudiembassy.net, the official website of the Saudi government, CAIR received $250,000 from the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank, an official Saudi financial institution, in 1999, for the purchase of land in Washington, D.C., to construct a headquarters facility.2
In a particularly disturbing case, the Islamic Development Bank also granted US$295,000 to the Masjid Bilal Islamic Center, for the construction of the Bilal Islamic Primary and Secondary School in California, in 1999.3 Hassan Akbar, an American Muslim presently charged with a fatal attack on his fellow soldiers in Kuwait during the Iraq intervention, was affiliated with this institution.
In addition, the previously mentioned official website of the Saudi government reported a donation in 1995 of $4 million for the construction of a mosque complex in Los Angeles, named for Ibn Taymiyyah, a historic Islamic figure considered the forerunner of Wahhabism.4 (It should be noted that Ibn Taymiyyah is viewed as a marginal, extremist, ideological personality by many traditional Muslims. In the wake of the Riyadh bombings of 2003, the figure of Ibn Taymiyyah symbolized, in Saudi public discourse, the inner rot of the regime. An article in the reformist daily al-Watan was headlined, “Who is More Important? The Nation or Ibn Taymiyyah”? Soon after it appeared, Jamal Khashoggi, editor of al-Watan and former deputy editor of Arab News, was dismissed from his post.)
The same official Saudi website reported a donation of $6 million, also in 1995, for a mosque in Cincinnati, Ohio.5 The website further stated, in 2000, “In the United States, the Kingdom has contributed to the establishment of the Islamic Center in Washington DC; the Omer Bin Al-Khattab Mosque in western Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Islamic Center, and the Fresno Mosque in California; the Islamic Center in Denver, Colorado; the Islamic center in Harrison, New York City; and the Islamic Center in Northern Virginia.”6
How much money, in total, is involved in this effort? If we accept a low figure of control, i.e. NAIT ownership of 27 percent of 1,200 mosques, stated by CAIR and cited by Mary Jacoby and Graham Brink in the St. Petersburg Times,7 we have some 324 mosques.
If we assume a relatively low average of expenditures, e.g. $.5 million per mosque, we arrive at $162 million.
But given that Saudi official sources show $6 million in Cincinnati and $4 million in Los Angeles, we should probably raise the average to $1 million per mosque, resulting in $324 million as a minimum.
Our view is that the number of mosques under Wahhabi control actually totals at least 600 out of the official total of 1,200, while, as noted, Shia community leaders endorse the figure of 80 percent Wahhabi control. But we also offer a number of 4-6,000 mosques overall, including small and diverse congregations of many kinds.
A radical critic of Wahhabism stated some years ago that $25m had been spent on Islamic Centers in the U.S. by the Saudi authorities. This now seems a low figure. Another anti-extremist Islamic figure has estimated Saudi expenses in the U.S., over 30 years, and including schools and free books as well as mosques, near a billion dollars.
It should also be noted that Wahhabi mosques in the U.S. work in close coordination with the Muslim World League (MWL) and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), Saudi state entities identified as participants in the funding of al Qaeda.
Wahhabi ideological control within Saudi Arabia is based on the historic compact of intermarriage between the family of the sect’s originator, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and the family of the founding ruler, Ibn Saud. To this day, these families divide governance of the kingdom, with the descendants of Ibn al-Wahhab, known as ahl al-Shaykh, responsible for religious life, and the Saudi royal family, or ahl al-Saud, running the state. The two families also continue to marry their descendants to one another. The supreme religious leader of Saudi Arabia is a member of the family of Ibn al-Wahhab. The state appoints a minister of religious affairs who controls such bodies as MWL and WAMY, and upon leaving his ministerial post he becomes head of MWL.
The official Saudi-embassy website reported exactly one year ago, on June 26, 2002, “The delegation of the Muslim World League (MWL) that is on a world tour promoting goodwill arrived in New York yesterday, and visited the Islamic Center there.” The same website later reported, on July 8, 2002, “During a visit on Friday evening to the headquarters of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) [Secretary-General of the MWL Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulmohsin Al-Turki] advocated coordination among Muslim organizations in the United States. Expressing MWL’s readiness to offer assistance in the promotion and coordination of Islamic works, he announced plans to set up a commission for this purpose. The MWL delegation also visited the Islamic Center in Washington DC and was briefed on its activities by its director Dr. Abdullah bin Mohammad Fowaj.”8
In a related matter, on June 22, 2003, in a letter to the New York Post, James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, a civic lobbying organization, stated that his attendance at a press conference of WAMY in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, had been organized by the U.S. embassy in the kingdom. If this is true, it is extremely alarming. The U.S. embassy should not act as a supporter of WAMY, which, as documented by FDD and the Saudi Institute,9 teaches that Shia Muslims, including even the followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, are Jewish agents.
This is comparable to Nazi claims that Jewish business owners were Communists, or Slobodan Miloševic’s charge, in the media of ex-Yugoslavia, that Tito was an agent of the Vatican. The aim is to derange people, to separate them from reality completely, in preparation for massacres. We fear that official Saudi anxiety their large and restive Shia minority, aggravated by Saudi resentment over the emergence of a protodemocratic regime in Iraq led by Shias, and consolidation of popular sovereignty in Shia Iran, may lead the Saudi regime to treat Shias as a convenient scapegoat, making them victims of a wholesale atrocity. The history of Wahhabism is filled with mass murder of Shia Muslims.
There is clearly a problem of Wahhabi/Saudi extremist influence in American Islam. The time is now to face the problem squarely and find ways to enable and support traditional, mainstream American Muslims in taking their community back from these extremists, while employing law enforcement to interdict the growth of Wahhabism and its financial support by the Saudis. If we fail to do this, Wahhabi extremism continues to endanger the whole world — Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Some American Mosques Carry Extremist Tracts, Study Says
The print edition of the Wall Street Journal today carries on pg. B5 an advance report of a Freedom House study on Saudi mosques in the U.S.
WASHINGTON -- Mosques across the U.S. continue to carry books and pamphlets describing non-Muslims as "infidels" and promoting intolerance against Western society, according to a forthcoming study by Freedom House, a U.S. human-rights group.
Despite vows from American Islamic leaders after Sept. 11, 2001, to proselytize peacefully, New York based Freedom House researchers found 57 documents with incendiary material in more than a dozen mosques and Islamic centers in six states and Washington, D.C., visited over the past year.
The materials "demonstrate the ongoing indoctrination of Muslims in the United States in the hostility and belligerence of Saudi Arabia's hardline Wahhabi sect of Islam," says the report, an advance copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
No one should be surprised by this. The Saudis can't stop teaching such things without compromising their core principles.
And here are findings from the Freedom House press release:
Various Saudi government publications gathered for this study, most of which are in Arabic, assert that it is a religious obligation for Muslims to hate Christians and Jews and warn against imitating, befriending, or helping them in any way, or taking part in their festivities and celebrations;
· The documents promote contempt for the United States because it is ruled by legislated civil law rather than by totalitarian Wahhabi-style Islamic law. They condemn democracy as un-Islamic;
· The documents stress that when Muslims are in the lands of the unbelievers, they must behave as if on a mission behind enemy lines. Either they are there to acquire new knowledge and make money to be later employed in the jihad against the infidels, or they are there to proselytize the infidels until at least some convert to Islam. Any other reason for lingering among the unbelievers in their lands is illegitimate, and unless a Muslim leaves as quickly as possible, he or she is not a true Muslim and so too must be condemned. For example, a document in the collection for the “Immigrant Muslim” bears the words “Greetings from the Cultural Attache in Washington, D.C.” of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia, and is published by the government of Saudi Arabia. In an authoritative religious voice, it gives detailed instructions on how to “hate” the Christian and Jew: Never greet them first. Never congratulate the infidel on his holiday. Never imitate the infidel. Do not become a naturalized citizen of the United States. Do not wear a graduation gown because this imitates the infidel;
· One insidious aspect of the Saudi propaganda examined is its aim to replace traditional and moderate interpretations of Islam with extremist Wahhabism, the officially-established religion of Saudi Arabia. In these documents, other Muslims, especially those who advocate tolerance, are condemned as infidels. The opening fatwa in one Saudi embassy-distributed book, published by the Saudi Air Force, responds to a question about a Muslim preacher in a European mosque who taught that it is not right to condemn Jews and Christians as infidels. The Saudi state cleric’s reply rebukes the Muslim cleric: “He who casts doubts about their infidelity leaves no doubt about his.” Since, under Saudi law, “apostates” from Islam can be sentenced to death, this is an implied death threat against the tolerant Muslim imam, as well as an incitement to vigilante violence;
· Sufi and Shiite Muslims are viciously condemned;
· For a Muslim who fails to uphold the Saudi Wahhabi sect’s sexual mores (i.e. through homosexual activity or heterosexual activity outside of marriage), the edicts published by the Saudi government’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, and found in American mosques advise, “it would be lawful for Muslims to spill his blood and to take his money;”
· Regarding those who convert out of Islam, the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs explicitly asserts, they “should be killed;”
· Saudi textbooks and other publications in the collection, propagate a Nazi-like hatred for Jews, treat the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion as historical fact, and avow that the Muslim’s duty is to eliminate the state of Israel;
· Regarding women, the Saudi publications instruct that they should be veiled, segregated from men and barred from certain employment and roles;
The report states: “While the government of Saudi Arabia claims to be ‘updating’ or reforming its textbooks and study materials within the Kingdom, its publications propagating an ideology of hatred remain plentiful in some prominent American mosques and Islamic centers, and continue to be a principal resource available to students of Islam within the United States.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2005/01/some-american-mosques-carry-extremist-tracts-study-says.html
JUNE 30, 2003 11:20 A.M.
Wahhabism & Islam in The U.S.
Two-faced policy fosters danger.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the text of testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security on Thursday, June 26, 2003.
Chairman Kyl, other distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for your invitation to appear here today.
I come before this body to describe how adherents of Wahhabism, the most extreme, separatist, and violent form of Islam, and the official sect in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, have come to dominate Islam in the U.S.
Islam is a fairly new participant at the “big table” of American religions. The Muslim community only became a significant element in our country’s life in the 1980s. Most “born Muslims,” as opposed to those who “converted” — a term Muslims avoid, preferring “new Muslims” — had historically been immigrants from Pakistan and India who followed traditional, peaceful, mainstream Islam.
With the growth of the Islamic community in America, there was no “Islamic establishment” in the U.S. — in contrast with Britain, France, and Germany, the main Western countries with significant Islamic minorities. Historically, traditional scholars have been a buffer against extremism in Islam, and for various sociological and demographic reasons, American Islam lacked a stratum of such scholars. The Wahhabi ideological structure in Saudi Arabia perceived this as an opportunity to fill a gap — to gain dominance over an Islamic community in the West with immense potential for political and social influence.
But the goals of this operation, which was largely successful, were multiple.
First, to control a significant group of Muslim believers.
Second, to use the Muslim community in the U.S. to pressure U.S. government and media, in the formulation of policy and in perceptions about Islam. This has included liaison meetings, “sensitivity” sessions and other public activities with high-level administration officials, including the FBI director, that we have seen since September 11.
Third, to advance the overall Wahhabi agenda of “jihad against the world” — an extremist campaign to impose the Wahhabi dispensation on the global Islamic community, as well as to confront the other religions. This effort has included the establishment in the U.S. of a base for funding, recruitment, and strategic/tactical support of terror operations in the U.S. and abroad.
Wahhabi-Saudi policy has always been two-faced: that is, at the same time as the Wahhabis preach hostility and violence against non-Wahhabi Muslims, they maintain a policy of alliance with Western military powers — first Britain, then the U.S. and France — to assure their control over the Arabian Peninsula.
At the present time, Shia and other non-Wahhabi Muslim community leaders estimate that 80 percent of American mosques are under Wahhabi control. This does not mean 80 percent of American Muslims support Wahhabism, although the main Wahhabi ideological agency in America, the so-called Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has claimed that some 70 percent of American Muslims want Wahhabi teaching in their mosques.1This is a claim we consider unfounded.
Rather, Wahhabi control over mosques means control of property, buildings, appointment of imams, training of imams, content of preaching — including faxing of Friday sermons from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — and of literature distributed in mosques and mosque bookstores, notices on bulletin boards, and organizational solicitation. Similar influence extends to prison and military chaplaincies, Islamic elementary and secondary schools (academies), college campus activity, endowment of academic chairs and programs in Middle East studies, and most notoriously, charities ostensibly helping Muslims abroad, many of which have been linked to or designated as sponsors of terrorism.
The main organizations that have carried out this campaign are the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which originated in the Muslim Students’ Association of the U.S. and Canada (MSA), and CAIR. Support activities have been provided by the American Muslim Council (AMC), the American Muslim Alliance (AMA), the Muslim American Society (MAS), the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, its sister body the International Institute of Islamic Thought, and a number of related groups that I have called “the Wahhabi lobby.” ISNA operates at least 324 mosques in the U.S. through the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). These groups operate as an interlocking directorate.
Both ISNA and CAIR, in particular, maintain open and close relations with the Saudi government — a unique situation, in that no other foreign government directly uses religion as a cover for its political activities in the U.S. For example, notwithstanding support by the American Jewish community for the state of Israel, the government of Israel does not intervene in synagogue life or the activities of rabbinical or related religious bodies in America.
According to saudiembassy.net, the official website of the Saudi government, CAIR received $250,000 from the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank, an official Saudi financial institution, in 1999, for the purchase of land in Washington, D.C., to construct a headquarters facility.2
In a particularly disturbing case, the Islamic Development Bank also granted US$295,000 to the Masjid Bilal Islamic Center, for the construction of the Bilal Islamic Primary and Secondary School in California, in 1999.3 Hassan Akbar, an American Muslim presently charged with a fatal attack on his fellow soldiers in Kuwait during the Iraq intervention, was affiliated with this institution.
In addition, the previously mentioned official website of the Saudi government reported a donation in 1995 of $4 million for the construction of a mosque complex in Los Angeles, named for Ibn Taymiyyah, a historic Islamic figure considered the forerunner of Wahhabism.4 (It should be noted that Ibn Taymiyyah is viewed as a marginal, extremist, ideological personality by many traditional Muslims. In the wake of the Riyadh bombings of 2003, the figure of Ibn Taymiyyah symbolized, in Saudi public discourse, the inner rot of the regime. An article in the reformist daily al-Watan was headlined, “Who is More Important? The Nation or Ibn Taymiyyah”? Soon after it appeared, Jamal Khashoggi, editor of al-Watan and former deputy editor of Arab News, was dismissed from his post.)
The same official Saudi website reported a donation of $6 million, also in 1995, for a mosque in Cincinnati, Ohio.5 The website further stated, in 2000, “In the United States, the Kingdom has contributed to the establishment of the Islamic Center in Washington DC; the Omer Bin Al-Khattab Mosque in western Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Islamic Center, and the Fresno Mosque in California; the Islamic Center in Denver, Colorado; the Islamic center in Harrison, New York City; and the Islamic Center in Northern Virginia.”6
How much money, in total, is involved in this effort? If we accept a low figure of control, i.e. NAIT ownership of 27 percent of 1,200 mosques, stated by CAIR and cited by Mary Jacoby and Graham Brink in the St. Petersburg Times,7 we have some 324 mosques.
If we assume a relatively low average of expenditures, e.g. $.5 million per mosque, we arrive at $162 million.
But given that Saudi official sources show $6 million in Cincinnati and $4 million in Los Angeles, we should probably raise the average to $1 million per mosque, resulting in $324 million as a minimum.
Our view is that the number of mosques under Wahhabi control actually totals at least 600 out of the official total of 1,200, while, as noted, Shia community leaders endorse the figure of 80 percent Wahhabi control. But we also offer a number of 4-6,000 mosques overall, including small and diverse congregations of many kinds.
A radical critic of Wahhabism stated some years ago that $25m had been spent on Islamic Centers in the U.S. by the Saudi authorities. This now seems a low figure. Another anti-extremist Islamic figure has estimated Saudi expenses in the U.S., over 30 years, and including schools and free books as well as mosques, near a billion dollars.
It should also be noted that Wahhabi mosques in the U.S. work in close coordination with the Muslim World League (MWL) and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), Saudi state entities identified as participants in the funding of al Qaeda.
Wahhabi ideological control within Saudi Arabia is based on the historic compact of intermarriage between the family of the sect’s originator, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and the family of the founding ruler, Ibn Saud. To this day, these families divide governance of the kingdom, with the descendants of Ibn al-Wahhab, known as ahl al-Shaykh, responsible for religious life, and the Saudi royal family, or ahl al-Saud, running the state. The two families also continue to marry their descendants to one another. The supreme religious leader of Saudi Arabia is a member of the family of Ibn al-Wahhab. The state appoints a minister of religious affairs who controls such bodies as MWL and WAMY, and upon leaving his ministerial post he becomes head of MWL.
The official Saudi-embassy website reported exactly one year ago, on June 26, 2002, “The delegation of the Muslim World League (MWL) that is on a world tour promoting goodwill arrived in New York yesterday, and visited the Islamic Center there.” The same website later reported, on July 8, 2002, “During a visit on Friday evening to the headquarters of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) [Secretary-General of the MWL Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulmohsin Al-Turki] advocated coordination among Muslim organizations in the United States. Expressing MWL’s readiness to offer assistance in the promotion and coordination of Islamic works, he announced plans to set up a commission for this purpose. The MWL delegation also visited the Islamic Center in Washington DC and was briefed on its activities by its director Dr. Abdullah bin Mohammad Fowaj.”8
In a related matter, on June 22, 2003, in a letter to the New York Post, James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, a civic lobbying organization, stated that his attendance at a press conference of WAMY in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, had been organized by the U.S. embassy in the kingdom. If this is true, it is extremely alarming. The U.S. embassy should not act as a supporter of WAMY, which, as documented by FDD and the Saudi Institute,9 teaches that Shia Muslims, including even the followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, are Jewish agents.
This is comparable to Nazi claims that Jewish business owners were Communists, or Slobodan Miloševic’s charge, in the media of ex-Yugoslavia, that Tito was an agent of the Vatican. The aim is to derange people, to separate them from reality completely, in preparation for massacres. We fear that official Saudi anxiety their large and restive Shia minority, aggravated by Saudi resentment over the emergence of a protodemocratic regime in Iraq led by Shias, and consolidation of popular sovereignty in Shia Iran, may lead the Saudi regime to treat Shias as a convenient scapegoat, making them victims of a wholesale atrocity. The history of Wahhabism is filled with mass murder of Shia Muslims.
There is clearly a problem of Wahhabi/Saudi extremist influence in American Islam. The time is now to face the problem squarely and find ways to enable and support traditional, mainstream American Muslims in taking their community back from these extremists, while employing law enforcement to interdict the growth of Wahhabism and its financial support by the Saudis. If we fail to do this, Wahhabi extremism continues to endanger the whole world — Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Some American Mosques Carry Extremist Tracts, Study Says
The print edition of the Wall Street Journal today carries on pg. B5 an advance report of a Freedom House study on Saudi mosques in the U.S.
WASHINGTON -- Mosques across the U.S. continue to carry books and pamphlets describing non-Muslims as "infidels" and promoting intolerance against Western society, according to a forthcoming study by Freedom House, a U.S. human-rights group.
Despite vows from American Islamic leaders after Sept. 11, 2001, to proselytize peacefully, New York based Freedom House researchers found 57 documents with incendiary material in more than a dozen mosques and Islamic centers in six states and Washington, D.C., visited over the past year.
The materials "demonstrate the ongoing indoctrination of Muslims in the United States in the hostility and belligerence of Saudi Arabia's hardline Wahhabi sect of Islam," says the report, an advance copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
No one should be surprised by this. The Saudis can't stop teaching such things without compromising their core principles.
And here are findings from the Freedom House press release:
Various Saudi government publications gathered for this study, most of which are in Arabic, assert that it is a religious obligation for Muslims to hate Christians and Jews and warn against imitating, befriending, or helping them in any way, or taking part in their festivities and celebrations;
· The documents promote contempt for the United States because it is ruled by legislated civil law rather than by totalitarian Wahhabi-style Islamic law. They condemn democracy as un-Islamic;
· The documents stress that when Muslims are in the lands of the unbelievers, they must behave as if on a mission behind enemy lines. Either they are there to acquire new knowledge and make money to be later employed in the jihad against the infidels, or they are there to proselytize the infidels until at least some convert to Islam. Any other reason for lingering among the unbelievers in their lands is illegitimate, and unless a Muslim leaves as quickly as possible, he or she is not a true Muslim and so too must be condemned. For example, a document in the collection for the “Immigrant Muslim” bears the words “Greetings from the Cultural Attache in Washington, D.C.” of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia, and is published by the government of Saudi Arabia. In an authoritative religious voice, it gives detailed instructions on how to “hate” the Christian and Jew: Never greet them first. Never congratulate the infidel on his holiday. Never imitate the infidel. Do not become a naturalized citizen of the United States. Do not wear a graduation gown because this imitates the infidel;
· One insidious aspect of the Saudi propaganda examined is its aim to replace traditional and moderate interpretations of Islam with extremist Wahhabism, the officially-established religion of Saudi Arabia. In these documents, other Muslims, especially those who advocate tolerance, are condemned as infidels. The opening fatwa in one Saudi embassy-distributed book, published by the Saudi Air Force, responds to a question about a Muslim preacher in a European mosque who taught that it is not right to condemn Jews and Christians as infidels. The Saudi state cleric’s reply rebukes the Muslim cleric: “He who casts doubts about their infidelity leaves no doubt about his.” Since, under Saudi law, “apostates” from Islam can be sentenced to death, this is an implied death threat against the tolerant Muslim imam, as well as an incitement to vigilante violence;
· Sufi and Shiite Muslims are viciously condemned;
· For a Muslim who fails to uphold the Saudi Wahhabi sect’s sexual mores (i.e. through homosexual activity or heterosexual activity outside of marriage), the edicts published by the Saudi government’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, and found in American mosques advise, “it would be lawful for Muslims to spill his blood and to take his money;”
· Regarding those who convert out of Islam, the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs explicitly asserts, they “should be killed;”
· Saudi textbooks and other publications in the collection, propagate a Nazi-like hatred for Jews, treat the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion as historical fact, and avow that the Muslim’s duty is to eliminate the state of Israel;
· Regarding women, the Saudi publications instruct that they should be veiled, segregated from men and barred from certain employment and roles;
The report states: “While the government of Saudi Arabia claims to be ‘updating’ or reforming its textbooks and study materials within the Kingdom, its publications propagating an ideology of hatred remain plentiful in some prominent American mosques and Islamic centers, and continue to be a principal resource available to students of Islam within the United States.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2005/01/some-american-mosques-carry-extremist-tracts-study-says.html
Friday, August 20, 2010
Charles Krauthammer proves again why he is the best in the business
Moral myopia at Ground Zero: Mosque supporters fail to understand the nature of the war we fight
Charles Krauthammer
It's hard to be an Obama sycophant these days. Your hero delivers a Ramadan speech roundly supporting the building of a mosque and Islamic center at Ground Zero in New York. Your heart swells and you're moved to declare this President Obama's finest hour, his act of greatest courage.Alas, the next day, at a remove of 800 miles, Obama explains that he was only talking about the legality of the thing and not the wisdom - upon which he does not make, and will not make, any judgment.
You're left looking like a fool because now Obama has said exactly nothing: No one disputes the right to build; the whole debate is about the propriety, the decency of doing so.
It takes no courage whatsoever to bask in the applause of a Muslim audience as you promise to stand stoutly for their right to build a mosque, giving the unmistakable impression that you endorse the idea. What takes courage is to then respectfully ask that audience to reflect upon the wisdom of the project, and to consider whether the imam's alleged goal of interfaith understanding might not be better achieved by accepting the New York governor's offer to help find another site.
Where the President flagged, however, the liberal intelligentsia stepped in with gusto, penning dozens of pro-mosque articles characterized by a frenzied unanimity, little resort to argument and a singular difficulty dealing with analogies.
The Atlantic's Michael Kinsley was typical in arguing that the only possible grounds for opposing the Ground Zero mosque are bigotry or demagoguery. Well then, what about Pope John Paul II's ordering the closing of the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz? Surely there can be no one more innocent of that crime than those devout nuns.
How does Kinsley explain this remarkable demonstration of sensitivity, this order to pray - but not there? He doesn't even feign analysis. He simply asserts that the decision is something "I confess that I never did understand."
That's his Q.E.D.? Is he stumped or is he inviting us to choose between his moral authority and that of one of the towering moral figures of the 20th century?
At least Richard Cohen of The Washington Post tries to grapple with the issue of sanctity and sensitivity. The results, however, are not pretty. He concedes that putting up a Japanese cultural center at Pearl Harbor would be offensive, but then dismisses the analogy to Ground Zero because 9/11 was merely "a rogue act, committed by 20 or so crazed samurai."
Obtuseness of this magnitude can only be deliberate. These weren't crazies. They were methodical, focused, steel-nerved operatives.
Nor were they freelance rogues. They were the leading, and most successful, edge of a worldwide movement of radical Islamists with cells in every continent, with worldwide financial and theological support, with a massive media and propaganda arm, and with an archipelago of local sympathizers, as in northwestern Pakistan, who protect and guard them.
Why is America fighting Predator wars in Pakistan and Yemen, surveilling thousands of conversations and financial transactions every day, and engaged in military operations against radical Muslims everywhere from the Philippines to Somalia - because of 19 crazies, all of whom died nine years ago?
Radical Islam is not, by any means, a majority of Islam. But with its financiers, clerics, propagandists, trainers, leaders, operatives and sympathizers - according to a conservative estimate, it commands the allegiance of 7% of Muslims, i.e., more than 80 million souls - it is a very powerful strain within Islam. It has changed the course of nations and affected the lives of millions. It is the reason every airport in the West is an armed camp and every land is on constant alert.
Ground Zero is the site of the most lethal attack of that worldwide movement, which consists entirely of Muslims, acts in the name of Islam and is deeply embedded within the Islamic world. These are regrettable facts, but facts they are. And that is why putting up a monument to Islam in this place is not just insensitive but provocative.
Just as the people of Japan today would not think of planting their flag at Pearl Harbor, despite the fact that no Japanese under the age of 85 has any possible responsibility for that infamy, representatives of contemporary Islam - the overwhelming majority of whose adherents are equally innocent of the infamy committed on 9/11 in their name - should exercise comparable respect for what even Obama calls hallowed ground.
letters@charleskrauthammer.com
- Nuff said.
Charles Krauthammer
It's hard to be an Obama sycophant these days. Your hero delivers a Ramadan speech roundly supporting the building of a mosque and Islamic center at Ground Zero in New York. Your heart swells and you're moved to declare this President Obama's finest hour, his act of greatest courage.Alas, the next day, at a remove of 800 miles, Obama explains that he was only talking about the legality of the thing and not the wisdom - upon which he does not make, and will not make, any judgment.
You're left looking like a fool because now Obama has said exactly nothing: No one disputes the right to build; the whole debate is about the propriety, the decency of doing so.
It takes no courage whatsoever to bask in the applause of a Muslim audience as you promise to stand stoutly for their right to build a mosque, giving the unmistakable impression that you endorse the idea. What takes courage is to then respectfully ask that audience to reflect upon the wisdom of the project, and to consider whether the imam's alleged goal of interfaith understanding might not be better achieved by accepting the New York governor's offer to help find another site.
Where the President flagged, however, the liberal intelligentsia stepped in with gusto, penning dozens of pro-mosque articles characterized by a frenzied unanimity, little resort to argument and a singular difficulty dealing with analogies.
The Atlantic's Michael Kinsley was typical in arguing that the only possible grounds for opposing the Ground Zero mosque are bigotry or demagoguery. Well then, what about Pope John Paul II's ordering the closing of the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz? Surely there can be no one more innocent of that crime than those devout nuns.
How does Kinsley explain this remarkable demonstration of sensitivity, this order to pray - but not there? He doesn't even feign analysis. He simply asserts that the decision is something "I confess that I never did understand."
That's his Q.E.D.? Is he stumped or is he inviting us to choose between his moral authority and that of one of the towering moral figures of the 20th century?
At least Richard Cohen of The Washington Post tries to grapple with the issue of sanctity and sensitivity. The results, however, are not pretty. He concedes that putting up a Japanese cultural center at Pearl Harbor would be offensive, but then dismisses the analogy to Ground Zero because 9/11 was merely "a rogue act, committed by 20 or so crazed samurai."
Obtuseness of this magnitude can only be deliberate. These weren't crazies. They were methodical, focused, steel-nerved operatives.
Nor were they freelance rogues. They were the leading, and most successful, edge of a worldwide movement of radical Islamists with cells in every continent, with worldwide financial and theological support, with a massive media and propaganda arm, and with an archipelago of local sympathizers, as in northwestern Pakistan, who protect and guard them.
Why is America fighting Predator wars in Pakistan and Yemen, surveilling thousands of conversations and financial transactions every day, and engaged in military operations against radical Muslims everywhere from the Philippines to Somalia - because of 19 crazies, all of whom died nine years ago?
Radical Islam is not, by any means, a majority of Islam. But with its financiers, clerics, propagandists, trainers, leaders, operatives and sympathizers - according to a conservative estimate, it commands the allegiance of 7% of Muslims, i.e., more than 80 million souls - it is a very powerful strain within Islam. It has changed the course of nations and affected the lives of millions. It is the reason every airport in the West is an armed camp and every land is on constant alert.
Ground Zero is the site of the most lethal attack of that worldwide movement, which consists entirely of Muslims, acts in the name of Islam and is deeply embedded within the Islamic world. These are regrettable facts, but facts they are. And that is why putting up a monument to Islam in this place is not just insensitive but provocative.
Just as the people of Japan today would not think of planting their flag at Pearl Harbor, despite the fact that no Japanese under the age of 85 has any possible responsibility for that infamy, representatives of contemporary Islam - the overwhelming majority of whose adherents are equally innocent of the infamy committed on 9/11 in their name - should exercise comparable respect for what even Obama calls hallowed ground.
letters@charleskrauthammer.com
- Nuff said.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Intolerable Tolerance
When the possibility of the KSM trial unfolding in lower Manhattan seemed like an inevitable reality, I remembered something that I had learned at a very young age when following politics. Ideology usually trumps principle and negative press usually trumps both. Of course, the unalienable truth of this statement was trumped by Obamacare, whose passage was the negative result of negative press, negative opinion polls, negative public sentiment, negative economic ramifications and untold negative consequences that will plague this country for years to come. In that single instance, ideology trumped all. But for the left, Universal Healthcare (or anything like it) is more akin to a true believers homage to a false prophet before drinking the cult Kool Aid in preparation for the alien invasion, rather than a coherent social or fiscal policy. Better to have passed the legislation and die politically, than squander the Congressional majority and lose the opportunity to attempt such a grand feat again.
But issues concerning national defense, terrorism, foreign policy and military matters (which are beyond the comprehension of most Democrats to begin with) are not ideological holy grails that liberal politicians are willing to throw themselves to the wolves over. Sure, they may support this asinine policy or that asinine policy, but if they value their political capital and their jobs, chances are that they will dance to the tune that the public sounds regardless of their own alleged beliefs.
The Ground Zero Mosque is, in my opinion, nothing more than a trophy for the sick, demented Islamic plague that is multiplying like a deadly virus under the Obama administrations watch. I don't want to hear any hogwash about the Constitution of the United States. This isn't a constitutional issue. I also don't want to hear a peep about religious tolerance, because I am sick and tired of being forced to tolerate the continued mockery of my country and everything that it stands for by twisted Muslim fanatics and their apologetic enablers. Finally, I ESPECIALLY do not want to hear a single syllable about the separation between church and state. Up until this point in time, the proponents of this mosque monstrosity have used the separation of church and state (along with the equal monstrosity of political correctness) like a blunt object to beat any traditional notions of God and the Judeo-Christian tradition out of American life with the ferocity that Leukemia uses to attack a White Blood Cell. No more nativity scenes in public places, can't say 'God' in the pledge of allegiance, can't invoke the name of "God" during a high school graduation ceremony, and on and on and on. Now all of a sudden, when a radical imam with ties to Islamic fundamentalist groups, who supports Sharia law, refuses to denounce Islamic terrorism, and blames America for the 911 attacks decides to build a 14 story Mosque at a site within a stone throw of Ground Zero, everyone should just shut up and be supportive in the name of tolerance?
In what grand American tradition should we show our support? Religious freedom-- the separation between church and state?---Ah, I nailed it! How about stupidity? This is outright madness. Not only has this unapologetic piece of Camel dreck thumbed his nose at the 911 victims families and said publicly that he is against interfaith dialogue ( the supposed purpose of building the mosque in the first place) but he has refused to reveal who is funding the Ground Zero project (as required by law). Undoubtedly, the funds will come from some anonymous Islamic charities with ties to Saudi Arabia and Iran. In a way this project makes perfect sense for the direction that America is headed. We can continue to help spread Islamic terrorism throughout the United States by green lighting the construction of more Mosques so radical clerics can continue the advancement of another bedrock American tradition -- suicide. With immigration, the economy, foreign policy and now, the building of domestic houses of worship-- let's stop messing around and really try to kill this country as quickly as possible.
In America today, the public is constantly told to keep a low profile about "sensitive issues" to avoid offending others. That is of course, unless we are talking about offending Judeo-Christian heterosexuals that live in America legally and have minds of their own. Then, tolerance means accepting every indignity and sickening display imaginable. However, I have a solution to this problem and I learned it from the brilliance of Islam. Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and the like should get together and organize interfaith terrorist organizations that exclude Islam and target world governments. Next, the interfaith terror groups should recruit Martyrs for the cause from North and South America and Africa, India, Russia and Israel. Once we have collected the necessary soldiers, we should send them to target any and everyone that doesn't bend to our will and most especially the Muslim community. Suicide bombings, rocket attacks, random shootings and targeted explosions should be used at all Muslim religious institutions, against politicians that take up the Muslim cause, newspapers that print things we find offensive, any and all military installations of countries that refuse to meet our demands, TV stations that broadcast programs we find offensive and writers that produce novels and short stories that we find incendiary.
Next, we should build as many interfaith religious buildings as possible to funnel money to our terrorist groups (the militant wing of our cause) and then denounce our opponents as bigoted.
If we can keep this up for a sustained period of time ( 5-10 years) people across the globe will fear us as much as they fear Muslims and we can get television programs pulled, books and music censored, houses of worship built on sites that we destroyed and our own special places to sit at ball games, airports and restaurants.
In short, I don't feel like highlighting my more muted objections to the Cordoba House project because I believe strongly that the 2 or 3 of you that read my blog have more intelligence than something I would step on that was scurrying around my apartment when I turned the lights on. Obviously, it's insensitive, unnecessary, offensive and is strongly opposed by the majority of 911 victims family's, Americans and New Yorkers. There are thousands of other places to put this terrorist house of worship besides next to Ground Zero. No one contests the legality to build the Ground Zero mosque, but that doesn't mean it should be built-- Just like the "Museum of Slavery" shouldn't be put next to NAACP headquarters and the PLO War Hero's Memorial shouldn't be put next to the Israeli Consulate.
For a much more eloquent and well written analysis of the Ground Zero Project-- Check out Jonah Goldberg in today's NY Post-- http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_anti_statesmen_3xiJbRmcOjUSrhJVzM7LmO
But issues concerning national defense, terrorism, foreign policy and military matters (which are beyond the comprehension of most Democrats to begin with) are not ideological holy grails that liberal politicians are willing to throw themselves to the wolves over. Sure, they may support this asinine policy or that asinine policy, but if they value their political capital and their jobs, chances are that they will dance to the tune that the public sounds regardless of their own alleged beliefs.
The Ground Zero Mosque is, in my opinion, nothing more than a trophy for the sick, demented Islamic plague that is multiplying like a deadly virus under the Obama administrations watch. I don't want to hear any hogwash about the Constitution of the United States. This isn't a constitutional issue. I also don't want to hear a peep about religious tolerance, because I am sick and tired of being forced to tolerate the continued mockery of my country and everything that it stands for by twisted Muslim fanatics and their apologetic enablers. Finally, I ESPECIALLY do not want to hear a single syllable about the separation between church and state. Up until this point in time, the proponents of this mosque monstrosity have used the separation of church and state (along with the equal monstrosity of political correctness) like a blunt object to beat any traditional notions of God and the Judeo-Christian tradition out of American life with the ferocity that Leukemia uses to attack a White Blood Cell. No more nativity scenes in public places, can't say 'God' in the pledge of allegiance, can't invoke the name of "God" during a high school graduation ceremony, and on and on and on. Now all of a sudden, when a radical imam with ties to Islamic fundamentalist groups, who supports Sharia law, refuses to denounce Islamic terrorism, and blames America for the 911 attacks decides to build a 14 story Mosque at a site within a stone throw of Ground Zero, everyone should just shut up and be supportive in the name of tolerance?
In what grand American tradition should we show our support? Religious freedom-- the separation between church and state?---Ah, I nailed it! How about stupidity? This is outright madness. Not only has this unapologetic piece of Camel dreck thumbed his nose at the 911 victims families and said publicly that he is against interfaith dialogue ( the supposed purpose of building the mosque in the first place) but he has refused to reveal who is funding the Ground Zero project (as required by law). Undoubtedly, the funds will come from some anonymous Islamic charities with ties to Saudi Arabia and Iran. In a way this project makes perfect sense for the direction that America is headed. We can continue to help spread Islamic terrorism throughout the United States by green lighting the construction of more Mosques so radical clerics can continue the advancement of another bedrock American tradition -- suicide. With immigration, the economy, foreign policy and now, the building of domestic houses of worship-- let's stop messing around and really try to kill this country as quickly as possible.
In America today, the public is constantly told to keep a low profile about "sensitive issues" to avoid offending others. That is of course, unless we are talking about offending Judeo-Christian heterosexuals that live in America legally and have minds of their own. Then, tolerance means accepting every indignity and sickening display imaginable. However, I have a solution to this problem and I learned it from the brilliance of Islam. Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and the like should get together and organize interfaith terrorist organizations that exclude Islam and target world governments. Next, the interfaith terror groups should recruit Martyrs for the cause from North and South America and Africa, India, Russia and Israel. Once we have collected the necessary soldiers, we should send them to target any and everyone that doesn't bend to our will and most especially the Muslim community. Suicide bombings, rocket attacks, random shootings and targeted explosions should be used at all Muslim religious institutions, against politicians that take up the Muslim cause, newspapers that print things we find offensive, any and all military installations of countries that refuse to meet our demands, TV stations that broadcast programs we find offensive and writers that produce novels and short stories that we find incendiary.
Next, we should build as many interfaith religious buildings as possible to funnel money to our terrorist groups (the militant wing of our cause) and then denounce our opponents as bigoted.
If we can keep this up for a sustained period of time ( 5-10 years) people across the globe will fear us as much as they fear Muslims and we can get television programs pulled, books and music censored, houses of worship built on sites that we destroyed and our own special places to sit at ball games, airports and restaurants.
In short, I don't feel like highlighting my more muted objections to the Cordoba House project because I believe strongly that the 2 or 3 of you that read my blog have more intelligence than something I would step on that was scurrying around my apartment when I turned the lights on. Obviously, it's insensitive, unnecessary, offensive and is strongly opposed by the majority of 911 victims family's, Americans and New Yorkers. There are thousands of other places to put this terrorist house of worship besides next to Ground Zero. No one contests the legality to build the Ground Zero mosque, but that doesn't mean it should be built-- Just like the "Museum of Slavery" shouldn't be put next to NAACP headquarters and the PLO War Hero's Memorial shouldn't be put next to the Israeli Consulate.
For a much more eloquent and well written analysis of the Ground Zero Project-- Check out Jonah Goldberg in today's NY Post-- http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_anti_statesmen_3xiJbRmcOjUSrhJVzM7LmO
Thursday, August 5, 2010
A Grim Prediction I made in February 2009
From a thread I started at getbig.com, February 12, 2009
So far, I take absolutely no pleasure in being correct.
Beyond this farce of a stimulus package and the depressing state of the job market, is anyone else starting to feel like our way of life is on the brink of collapse.
The bible says the meek shall inherit the earth. From my vantage point it appears the poor, lazy, stupid and slime masquerading as politicians shall inherit the earth.
This stimulus package is bad for numerous reasons which I'm not going to get into ad nauseum. However, what really scares me is that this Stimulus package is exactly like the AUMF that gave Bush the Congressional blank check to go into Iraq. Why do you ask? 9/11 was a national emergency- this economy is an emergency- Both Presidents used fear to get their mandates passed. Obama's pompous and laughable " just pass it, dont read it" mentality reminds me exactly of the uber patriotic morons that would jump down your throat if you didn't support going into Iraq without properly considering the consequences.
What was the result under Bush? A deeply divided country, resources squandered fighting a war against a country that didn't attack us instead of using it against the Taliban/ AlQueda, thousands of US soldiers dead and a military defense budget bloated to the point of absurdity.
Whats going to happen under Obama? copy and paste the above, except apply it to the economy. Economic protectionism, sky high taxes, shamelessly wasteful pork expenditures and a stranglehold on private capital and banks= Recipe for disaster. Forget about the fact that history has shown us that stimulus packages dont work-- Obama, in a stunning act of incompetence made the moronic assertion that if we dont pass the stimulus package, America will turn into the Japan of 10 years ago. Had he bothered to do any research into what caused Japan's "lost decade" he would realize it was a misguided and failed attempt of the Japanese government to revive the economy by passing legislation with almost equivalent aims to his stimulus package. But I digress-- As the CEO of GE put it a few days ago- This package is like giving someone who is on life support a new suit. I guess he didn't bother to prepare for that part of the press conference in light of those hardball queries he received about Alex Rodriguez using steroids, and about the "alleged" terrorists in Pakistan.
Whats the difference here? The republicans didn't sign on lock stock and barrel like the democrats did for the AUMF. Why? Because they aren't in control of Congress or the white-house anymore. They aren't running for re-election and more than half the American people dont like the stimulus package.
One scary thought someone I saw on TV had about the Obamanomics-- If 40% of the country pays 100% of the countries taxes, the party that is in power will never relinquish it because they'll always have the 60% majority.
So far, I take absolutely no pleasure in being correct.
Beyond this farce of a stimulus package and the depressing state of the job market, is anyone else starting to feel like our way of life is on the brink of collapse.
The bible says the meek shall inherit the earth. From my vantage point it appears the poor, lazy, stupid and slime masquerading as politicians shall inherit the earth.
This stimulus package is bad for numerous reasons which I'm not going to get into ad nauseum. However, what really scares me is that this Stimulus package is exactly like the AUMF that gave Bush the Congressional blank check to go into Iraq. Why do you ask? 9/11 was a national emergency- this economy is an emergency- Both Presidents used fear to get their mandates passed. Obama's pompous and laughable " just pass it, dont read it" mentality reminds me exactly of the uber patriotic morons that would jump down your throat if you didn't support going into Iraq without properly considering the consequences.
What was the result under Bush? A deeply divided country, resources squandered fighting a war against a country that didn't attack us instead of using it against the Taliban/ AlQueda, thousands of US soldiers dead and a military defense budget bloated to the point of absurdity.
Whats going to happen under Obama? copy and paste the above, except apply it to the economy. Economic protectionism, sky high taxes, shamelessly wasteful pork expenditures and a stranglehold on private capital and banks= Recipe for disaster. Forget about the fact that history has shown us that stimulus packages dont work-- Obama, in a stunning act of incompetence made the moronic assertion that if we dont pass the stimulus package, America will turn into the Japan of 10 years ago. Had he bothered to do any research into what caused Japan's "lost decade" he would realize it was a misguided and failed attempt of the Japanese government to revive the economy by passing legislation with almost equivalent aims to his stimulus package. But I digress-- As the CEO of GE put it a few days ago- This package is like giving someone who is on life support a new suit. I guess he didn't bother to prepare for that part of the press conference in light of those hardball queries he received about Alex Rodriguez using steroids, and about the "alleged" terrorists in Pakistan.
Whats the difference here? The republicans didn't sign on lock stock and barrel like the democrats did for the AUMF. Why? Because they aren't in control of Congress or the white-house anymore. They aren't running for re-election and more than half the American people dont like the stimulus package.
One scary thought someone I saw on TV had about the Obamanomics-- If 40% of the country pays 100% of the countries taxes, the party that is in power will never relinquish it because they'll always have the 60% majority.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Long Long Long Layoff-- Quick rant about libs
To the 4 of you that pay attention to my blog, I apologize for the disappearing act.
Things have been unusually busy lately.
Inception: Best Sci Fi movie of all time (Blade Runner, Clockwork Orange and The Matrix series all get honorable mentions)
The Mets: Suck
The Democratic Party: On the verge of irrelevancy unless the GOP screws it up
The Mosque being built next to ground zero: An attrocity that should never be allowed to happen.
Fedor: Will come back stronger than before and dominate once again.
And now my latest rant-- I promise I will be posting again at least once a week for the forseeable future.
Well it's just courage without consequence.
Libs like to bitch and whine about religion becoming too intertwined with our secular society. They also take shots at the church every single opportunity they can. Finally, Libs also speak in outrageously inaccurate generalities and lump all religions into the same lot without regard for the realities of todays world. You see, for libs truth and reality are not readily definable attributes of the Universe, they are only details that should be harped upon when convenient for the talking points of their ideology. Why do they bow to Islam and demonize religions that have figured out (for quite sometime) how to live in harmony with the secular world? Because confronting evil requires the acceptance that there is evil in the world and that the existentialist mindset is nothing more than a diversion perpatrated by ivory tower academics that is used to brainwash impressionable college students into the belief that the world is whatever they imagine it to be.
It is much easier to take shots at the peaceful and complacent than it is to directly challenge the violent and deranged. Think of it as bullying the meek, silent type in the schoolyard while allowing the stupid, crazy kid who carries a switch blade in his book bag to run amok. It's easy to pretend your a champion of "freedom" and "expression" when the only real threat to freedom and expression is glossed over and directly ignored in plain view.
Things have been unusually busy lately.
Inception: Best Sci Fi movie of all time (Blade Runner, Clockwork Orange and The Matrix series all get honorable mentions)
The Mets: Suck
The Democratic Party: On the verge of irrelevancy unless the GOP screws it up
The Mosque being built next to ground zero: An attrocity that should never be allowed to happen.
Fedor: Will come back stronger than before and dominate once again.
And now my latest rant-- I promise I will be posting again at least once a week for the forseeable future.
Well it's just courage without consequence.
Libs like to bitch and whine about religion becoming too intertwined with our secular society. They also take shots at the church every single opportunity they can. Finally, Libs also speak in outrageously inaccurate generalities and lump all religions into the same lot without regard for the realities of todays world. You see, for libs truth and reality are not readily definable attributes of the Universe, they are only details that should be harped upon when convenient for the talking points of their ideology. Why do they bow to Islam and demonize religions that have figured out (for quite sometime) how to live in harmony with the secular world? Because confronting evil requires the acceptance that there is evil in the world and that the existentialist mindset is nothing more than a diversion perpatrated by ivory tower academics that is used to brainwash impressionable college students into the belief that the world is whatever they imagine it to be.
It is much easier to take shots at the peaceful and complacent than it is to directly challenge the violent and deranged. Think of it as bullying the meek, silent type in the schoolyard while allowing the stupid, crazy kid who carries a switch blade in his book bag to run amok. It's easy to pretend your a champion of "freedom" and "expression" when the only real threat to freedom and expression is glossed over and directly ignored in plain view.
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